C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.”-Psalm 96:1-3.

There are mighty passions of the human soul which seek vent, and can get no relief until they find it in expression. Grief, acute, but silent, has often destroyed the mind, because it has not been able to weep itself away in tears. The glow of passion, fond of enterprise and full of enthusiasm, has often seemed to rend the very fabric of manhood when unable either to attain its end or to utter its strong desires. So it is in true religion. It not only lays hold upon our intellectual nature with appeals to our judgment and our understanding, but, at the same time, it engages our affections, brings our passions into play, and fires them with a holy zeal, producing a mighty furor; so that, when this spell is on a man, and the Spirit of God thoroughly possesses him, he must express his vehement emotions.

Some professors of religion are ingenious enough to conceal whatever grace they possess. Little enough they have, I warrant you, or it would soon be discovered. Have you never seen the brooks, that were wont to come down the hillsides, filled up with stones through the greater part of the summer? You wonder whether there is any streamlet there at all. You may go and search among the rounded stones, and scarcely find a trace of water. How different after the snows have melted, or the mists upon the mountain’s brows have turned to showers! Then the water comes rushing down like a mighty torrent, nor is there any question about its being a genuine stream. It shows itself as it rolls the great stones along, peradventure breaking down the banks, and overflowing the country. So there is a religion-a poor, miserable, ordinary Christianity-which is not worth the name it bears, that can hide itself; but vital godliness must assert itself, it must speak plainly, it must act vigorously, it must appear conspicuously. The cross reveals the hearts of men, it unveils their true character. Till the cross was set up, Joseph of Arimathæa was scarcely known to be a disciple, and Nicodemus continued to do habitually what he once did literally,-resort to Jesus by night. Openly he remained in the Sanhedrim, though secretly he was a profound admirer of the great Redeemer. But when the cross was lifted up, Joseph went boldly in, with senatorial authority, and obtained the body of Jesus for burial, and Nicodemus came out with well-timed liberality to provide his hundred pounds of spices, and his fair white linen. Thus the cross reveals the thoughts of many hearts. If you have real grace and true love to Jesus in your soul, you will want some way of expressing yourselves. Our purpose therefore now is, to suggest to you two modes of expressing your consecration to God, and your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. These two methods are to sing about and to talk about the good things the Lord has done for you, and the great things he has made known to you. Let sacred song take the lead: “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name.” Then let gracious discourse follow; be it in public sermons or in private conversations: “Shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.”

All ye, who love the Lord, give vent to your heart’s emotion by holy song, and take care that it be sung to the Lord alone. What a noble instrument the human voice is! What a compass it has! Its low, soft whispers, how they can hold us spellbound; its full volume, as it peals forth like thunder, how it can startle and produce dismay! What profanity, then, to use such an instrument in the service of sin! Is not our tongue the glory of our frame? Had I no conscientious objection to instrumental music in worship, I should still, I think, be compelled to admit that all the instruments that were ever devised by men, however sweetly attuned, are harsh and grating compared with the unparalleled sweetness of the human voice. When it is naturally melodious and skilfully trained, (and every true worshipper should be zealous to dedicate his richest talent and his highest acquirement to this sacred service,) there can be no music under heaven that can equal the combination of voices which belong to men, women, and children whose hearts really love the Saviour. So sweet, so enchanting is the melody of song, that, surely, its best efforts should not be put forth to celebrate martial victories or national jubilations, much less should it lend its potent charm to aught that is trivial or lascivious. By sacred right, its highest beauties should be consecrated to Jehovah. If thou canst sing, sing the songs of Zion. If God has gifted thee with a sweet, liquid voice, be sure and use it to render homage unto him who cried out for thee upon the cross, “It is finished.” “Sing unto the Lord.”

How much public singing, even in the house of God, is of no account! How little of it is singing unto the Lord! Does not the conscience of full many among you bear witness that you sing a hymn because others are singing it? You go right straight through with it by a kind of mechanical action. You cannot pretend that you are singing unto the Lord. He is not in all your thoughts. Have you not been at places of worship where there is a trained choir evidently singing to the congregation? Tunes and tones are alike arranged for popular effect. There is an artistic appeal to human passions. Harmony is attended to; homage is neglected. That is not what God approves of. I recollect a criticism upon a certain minister’s prayers. It was reported, in the newspaper, that he uttered the finest prayer that had ever been offered to a Boston audience! I am afraid there is a good deal of vocal and instrumental music of the same species. It may be the finest praise ever offered to a congregation; but, surely, that is not what we come together for. If you want the sensual gratification of music’s melting, mystic lay, let me commend to you the concert-room, there you will get the enchanting ravishment; but when ye come to the house of God, let it be to “sing unto the Lord.” As ye stand up to sing, there should be a fixed intent of the soul, a positive volition of the mind, an absolute determination of the heart, that all the flame which kindles in your breast, and all the melody that breaks from your tongue, and all the sacred swell of grateful song shall be unto the Lord, and unto the Lord alone.

And if you would sing unto the Lord, let me recommend you to flavour your mouth with the gospel doctrines which savour most of grace unmerited and free. Any other form of theology would tempt us more or less to chant the praise of men. Gratitude has full play when we come to know that salvation is of the Lord alone, and that mercy is divinely free. He, who hath once heard the echo of that awful thunder, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” will learn to rejoice with trembling, to sing with deep feeling, and to adore, with lowliest reverence, the great Supreme, to whom might and majesty belong, and from whom grace and goodness flow. Human counsels and conceits sink into insignificance, for thoughts of lovingkindness and deeds of renown belong unto the Lord alone.

Kindly glance your eye down the Psalm from which our text is taken, and note how the exhortation to sing is given three times. I draw no absolute inference from this peculiar construction; but, to say the least, it is remarkable that the number three is so continually employed. Further down in the same Psalm it is written, “Give unto the Lord,” “Give unto the Lord,” “Give unto the Lord,”-three times. Is there not here some kind of allusion to the wondrous doctrine of the Trinity? At any rate, I make bold to use the threefold cord to express the homage with which it behoves us to adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As for Unitarianism, it is a religion of units, and I suppose it always will be. There is no danger of its ever spreading very widely. It is cold as a moonlight night, though scarcely as clear. It has not enough of power in it to fire men’s heart to laud and magnify the Lord. It produces now and then a hymn, but it cannot kindle the passions of men to sing it with fervour and devout enthusiasm. Certainly, it cannot gather a crowd of grateful people, who will make a joyful noise unto the Lord, and with all their heart and voice shout the chorus of gratitude. O beloved, I beseech you to let your souls have vent in praise! Sing, often, such a verse as this,-

“Bless’d be the Father, and his love,

To whose celestial source we owe

Rivers of endless joy above,

And rills of comfort here below.”

Praise the God of glory, who loved you before the foundation of the world. Praise the God of grace, who called you when you sought him not. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope,-our Heavenly Father, who provides for us, educates us, instructs us, leads and guides us, and will bring us, by-and-by, to the many mansions in his own house.

Sing ye also unto the Son. Never fail to adore the Son of God, who left the royalties of heaven to bear the indignities of earth. Adore the Lamb slain. Kneel at the cross-foot, and praise each wound, and magnify the Immortal who became mortal for our sakes.

“Glory to thee, great Son of God!

From whose dear wounded body rolls

A precious stream of vital blood,

Pardon and life for dying souls.”

And, then, sing ye to the Holy Spirit. Let us never fail in praising him; I am afraid we often do. We forget him too much in our sermons, our prayers, and our hymns; or we mention him, perhaps, as a matter of course, with formal expressions rather than with feelings of the most intense fervour. Oh, how our hearts are bound reverently to worship the Divine Indweller who, according to his abundant mercy, hath made our bodies to be his temple wherein he deigns to dwell!

“We give thee, sacred Spirit, praise,

Who in our hearts of sin and woe

Makes living springs of grace arise,

And into boundless glory flow.”

Praise ye, with your songs, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,-the Triune God of Israel. Have you understood this? To Jehovah let your song be addressed. Thrice be his holy name repeated.

Then, be careful of the psalmist’s instructions; let the song that you sing be a new song. “O sing unto the Lord a new song!” Not the song of your old legal bondage, which you used to sing so tremblingly, with the dread of a slave; a new and nobler song becomes you who are the Lord’s children, his sons and daughters: “O sing unto the Lord a new song!” To some of you the song of redemption is quite new. Once, you sang the songs of Bacchus or of Venus, or else you hummed over some light air, without meaning or motive, unless to while away your time, and drive away all serious thoughts. O you, who used so readily to sing the songs of Babylon, sing now the songs of Zion quite as freely and earnestly! “Sing unto the Lord a new song.”

By a “new” song, is meant the best song. It is put for that which is most elegant, most exquisite, and best composed. Pindar says, “Give me old wine, but give me a new song.” So may we say, “Give us the old wines of the kingdom of God, but let us sing unto the Lord a new song,” the best that we can find,-no borrowed air, no hackneyed lyric; and let our spirits sing unto the Lord that which wells up fresh out of the quickened heart. A new song,-always new; keep up the freshness of your praise. Do not drivel down into dull routine. The drowsy old clerks in the dreary old churches used always to say, “Let us sing to the praise and glory of God such-and-such a psalm,” till I should think the poor old Tate and Brady version was pretty well used up. We have new mercies to celebrate, therefore we must have new songs.

“Blest be his love who now hath set

New time upon the score.”

With “new time upon the score,” let there be new notes for him who renews the face of nature. And have not we, dear brethren and sisters, new graces? Then let us sing with our new faith, and our new love, and our new hope. Some of you have very lately been made new creatures in Christ Jesus; sing ye unto the Lord a new song. Surely he hath done great things for you, whereof you are glad. Others of you have been converted for years; yet, if your inward man be renewed day by day, your praises shall be always new. Luther used to say that the wounds of Christ seemed to him to bleed to-day as if they had never bled before, for he found such freshness in his Master. You pluck a flower, and it soon loses its scent, and begins to wither; but our sweet Lord Jesus has a savour about his name that never, departs. We take his name to lie like a bundle of camphire all night betwixt our breasts, and in the morning it smells as sweet as when we laid us down to sleep; and when we come to die, that Lily of the valleys will drop with the same profusion as it did when, with our youthful hand, we first plucked it, and came to Jesus, and gave him all our trust. “Sing unto the Lord a new song.” Let the freshness of your joy and the fulness of your thanks be perennial as the days of heaven.

This song, according to our text, is designed to be universal: “Sing unto the Lord all the earth.” Let sires and sons mingle in its strains. Let not the aged among you say, “Our voices are cracked;” but sing to the Lord with all the voice you have, and all the compass you can. And you young people, give the Lord the highest notes you are able to reach. Still sing unto the Lord, ye that are rich; sing unto the Lord who has saved you, for it is not many of your sort that he saves.

“Gold and the gospel seem to ill agree:

Religion always sides with poverty,”-

said John Bunyan, and he spoke the truth. Sing unto the Lord, ye poor ones whom the Lord has favoured, for still does it happen that “the poor have the gospel preached unto them.” Sing unto him, ye who are learned in many matters. Let your talents make your song more full of understanding. And you who are unlearned, if you cannot put so much of understanding into the song, put more of the spirit, and sing with all the more heartiness. All the earth should sing. There is not one of us but has cause for song, and certainly not one saint but ought specially to praise the name of the Lord. You remember that passage in the hundred and seventh Psalm (it is worth noticing), where the psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy,” as if they, above all others, ought to say, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever!”

In addition to its being a new song, and a universal one, it is to be a very inspiration of gratitude: “Sing unto the Lord: bless his name.” How apt you are, in speaking of anyone who has been kind to you, to say, “God bless him!” The expression comes right up from your heart. And although you cannot invoke any blessing on God, you can desire for his name every blessing and every tribute of homage You can desire for his cause that it may be established, and may be triumphant. You may desire for his people that they may be helped, made holy, and guided to their eternal rest. You may desire for mankind that they may hallow God’s holy name, and all because you feel you owe so much to the Lord that you cannot help praising, and cannot help wishing that your praise should be fruitful on earth and acceptable in heaven.

In two ways, methinks, it becomes us to sing God’s praises. We ought to sing with the voice. I do not consider we sing enough to God. The poet speaks of “angel harp and human voice.” If the angel harp be more skilful, surely the human voice is more grateful. For my part, I like to hear sacred songs in all sorts of places. The maidservant can sing at her work, and the carter as he drives his team. The occupations are few which could not be enlivened by repeating the words, and running over the tune of a hymn. If it were only in a faint whisper, the habit might be cultivated. You might expose yourselves, it is true, to a taunt, and be upbraided as “a psalm-singing Methodist,” but that would not do you any hurt; better that than make a ribald jest or utter an impious blasphemy. Those who lend their tongues to such vile uses have something to be ashamed of. Lovers of pleasure sing their songs; and poor trash, for the most part, they are. If the snatches we catch in the streets are the echoes of the saloon and the music-hall, little credit is due to those who cater for public amusement. Lacking alike in sense and sentiment, they betray the degeneracy of the times, and the depravity of popular taste. There is a literature of song in which peasants may rejoice, of which patriots may be proud, and to which poets may turn with envious eyes. Why wed your pretty tunes to paltry words? The higher the art, the more the pity to debase it. If you cull over our hymn-books for samples of bad poetry, loose rhyme, and puerile thoughts, that reviewers like to revile, and libertines like to laugh at, we can only say, “Well, we cannot always vindicate the culture of those whose sincerity we hold in the highest esteem; but we will dare to confront you on equal terms,-the sanctuary versus the saloon-our vocalists against your vocalists, from the sacred oratorios of Handel to the choicest of your operas,-from the cant of our revival hymns to the catch of your last sensational songs. Yes, indeed, the people of God should sing more. Were we to try the exercise, we should find no small degree of pleasure in the practice. It would do us good to praise God more day by day. When we get together, two or three of us, we are in the habit of saying, “Let us pray.” Might we not sometimes say, “Let us sing.” We have our regular prayer-meetings, why do we not have praise-meetings just as often?

“Prayer and praise for sins forgiven

Make up on earth the bliss of heaven.”

We are like a bird that has only one wing. There is much prayer, but there is little praise. “Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord.”

To sing with the heart, is the very essence of song.

“In the heavenly Lamb, thrice happy I am.

And my heart it doth leap at the sound of his name.”

Though the tongue may not be able to express the language of the soul, the heart is glad. Some persons seem never to sing with their heart. Their lips move, but their heart does not beat. In their common daily life, they move about as if they had been born on a dark winter’s night, and carried the cold chill into all their concerns. The lamentation they constantly utter is this, “All these things are against me.” Their experience is comprised in this sentence, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” They never get into the harbour. “In me ye shall have peace,” is a secret they have never realized. They are fond of calling this world a howling wilderness, and they are utterly oblivious of its orchards and vineyards. Were God to put them in the garden of Eden, they would not take any notice of the fruit or the flowers. They would go straight away to the serpent, and begin saying, “Ah, there’s a snake here!” Their harp is hung on the willows; they never can sing, for their heart is unstrung.

Well, dear friends, a Christian man ought to be like a horse that has bells on his head, so that he cannot go anywhere without ringing them, and making music. His whole life should be a psalm; every step should be in harmony; every thought should constitute a note; every word he utters should be a component part of the joyful strain. It is a blessed thing to see a Christian going about his business like the high priest of old who, wherever he went, made music with the golden bells. Oh, to have a cheerful spirit,-not the levity of the thoughtless, nor the gaiety of the foolish, nor even the mirth of the healthy,-there is a cheerful spirit, which is the gift of grace, that can and does rejoice evermore. Then, when troubles come we bear them cheerfully; let fortune smile, we receive it with equanimity; or let losses befall us, we endure them with resignation, being willing, so long as God is glorified, to accept anything at his hands. These are the people to recommend Christianity. Their cheerful conversation attracts others to Christ. As for those people who are morose or morbid, sullen or severe, harsh in their judgment of their fellow-men, or rebellious against the will of God,-people of a covetous disposition, a peevish temper, and a quarrelsome character,-unto them it is of no use to say, “O sing unto the Lord,” for they will never do it. They have not any bells in the tower of their heart; what chimes can they ring? Their harps have lost their strings; how can they magnify the Most High? But genuine piety finds expression in jubilant song; this is the initiative, though it is far from exhausting its resources.

Now, in the second place, let me stir you up, especially you who are members of this church, to such daily conversation and such habitual discourse as shall be fitted to spread the gospel which you love.

Our text admonishes you to “show forth his salvation.” You believe in the salvation of God,-a salvation all of grace from first to last. You have seen it; you have received it; you have experienced it. Well, now, show it forth. Explain it to others, and with the explanation let there be an illustration; exemplify it by your lives. God has shone upon you with the light of his countenance, that you may reflect his brightness, and irradiate others. Every Christian here is like the moon, which shines with borrowed light. But the sun lends not his bright rays to be hoarded up. It is that they may scatter beams of brightness over this world of night. Take care, then, that you are faithful to your trust. Show forth his salvation. God knows that I try to do so from the pulpit; I wish that you would all try and do so from the pews. Are you lacking in opportunities? I trow not. Before and after service, especially to strangers and such as may have been induced to come and hear the gospel, speak a word in season; thoughtfully, prayerfully, softly, talk with them.

Show forth this salvation, too, in your own houses, or on your visits, or wherever your lot may happen in God’s providence to be cast. It is wonderful how God blesses little efforts, very little efforts. I have sometimes,-I am sorry to say not as often as I ought,-scattered seed by the wayside. Only a few nights ago, I had been driven by a cabman, and after I had alighted, and given him the fare, he took a little Testament out of his pocket, and said, “It is about fifteen years ago since you gave me that, and said a word to me about my soul, and it has stuck by me, and I have not let a day pass since without reading it.” I felt glad. I know that, if Christian people would try and show forth God’s salvation, they would often be surprised to find how many hearts would gladly receive it.

Beloved, show forth this salvation from day to day. Let it not be merely on a Sunday. While you hold that day as specially sacred, let no other day be common or unclean. We are thankful for the kindly efforts put forth, in the Sunday-school and elsewhere, on our Sabbaths; but we want Christian activity to be put forth from day to day. Let your zeal for the conversion of your fellow-creatures be continuous. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” The result of the Sabbath work may, perhaps, not be seen by you, when the result of Monday’s work may very speedily appear.

“Show forth his salvation from day to day.” This admonition is enforced in three clauses; so let us notice the second. “Declare his glory among the heathen.” It is the same thing in another form. When you are telling out the gospel, point especially to the glory of it. Show them the justice of the great substitution, and the mercy of it. Show them the wisdom which devised the plan whereby, without a violation of the law, God could yet pardon rebellious sinners. Impress upon those, whom you talk with, that the gospel you have to tell them of is no common-place system of expediency, but really it is a glorious revelation of divinity. You know men are very much attracted by aught of glory and renown. They will even rush to the cannon’s mouth for so-called glory. Now, be sure, when you are talking to others about the salvation you have received at the hands of your dear Lord and Master, that you tell them about the glory thereof,-what a glory it brings to Christ, and to what a glory it will bring every sinner by-and-by. Tell them of the glory of being pardoned, the glory of being accepted, the glory of being justified, the glory of being sanctified. Is it not all “according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”? Methinks you might relate some scenes from the death-beds of the saints you have known, on which rays of glory have fallen; but I am sure you might anticipate the glory, which words cannot picture, or imagination realize, in the second advent of the Lord Jesus, the resurrection of the just, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom. Dwell upon these things. Declare his glory.

And do not be ashamed to do this in the presence of people of a disreputable character, though their ignorance and degradation be never so palpable: “Declare his glory among the heathen.” “I am going on a mission to the heathen,” said a minister once to his people. Mistaking his meaning, they went home deploring the loss of their pastor. On the following Sunday, when they found him in the pulpit, they discovered that he had not been out of the city all the week; and when they wanted to know what parts he had visited, and what people he had seen, he reminded them that he had heathens at home, and they were to be found even in his own congregation. Ah, and there may be some heathens here! At any rate, there are plenty of heathens in this great city of London. I have no doubt there are parts of this metropolis in which hundreds, and even thousands, of people reside who are as ignorant of the plan of salvation as the inhabitants of Coomassie. They know nothing of Jesus, even though the light is so bright around them. “Declare his glory among the heathen,” ye lovers of Christ. Penetrate into these dark places: break up fresh ground, Christian men and women. I am persuaded, and this is a matter I have often spoken of, that many of you, who sit and hear sermons on the Sunday, ought rather to turn out, and preach the gospel. While we are glad to see you occupying pews, it will be a greater joy to miss you from your wonted seats, if we only know that you are declaring God’s glory among the heathen. I am not sure that we are all of us right to be living cooped up in this little island of ours. There are, in England, enough disciples of Jesus to bear the gospel to the uttermost ends of the earth; but perhaps there is not one Christian in five or ten thousand who ever deliberately thinks about going to the heathen to make known to them the way of salvation, and to declare the glory of the Lord among those who have never heard his name. Pray that there may yet come a wonderful wave of God’s Spirit over our churches, which shall bear upon its crest hundreds of ardent spirits resolved to carry the tidings of redemption to the jungle and the fever-swamp, to the high latitudes and the southern islands. Oh, that the love of Christ may constrain them! Know ye not that Christ has determined to save men by the preaching of the gospel? Has he not charged his disciples to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature? How poorly has his Church carried out this commission! If you do love Christ, here is the opportunity for you to show your love; go and declare his glory among the heathen.

A third expression is used here. “Declare his wonders among all people.” Our gospel is a gospel of wonders. It deals with wonderful sin in a wonderful way. It presents to us a wonderful Saviour, and tells us of his wonderful complex person. It points us to his wonderful atonement, and it takes the blackest sinner, and makes him wonderfully clean. It makes him a new creature, and works a wonderful change in him. It conducts him to wonders of happiness, and wonders of strength, and yet onward to greater wonders of light and life; for it opens up to him the wonders of the covenant. It gives him wonderful provisions, wonderful deliverances, and leads him right up, by the power of him who is called Wonderful, to the gates of that Wonderland where we shall for ever-

“Sing, with rapture and surprise,

His lovingkindness in the skies.”

Surely, dear Christian friends, we ought to talk about the wonders of the Lord our God, and especially should we dwell upon those wonders which we have ourselves seen. Of every Christian man, it might be said that he is a wonder. Will you think a minute, Christian, of the wonder that God has made of you, and the wonders that he has done for you? “That ever I should be,” is a wonder;-will you not say that? and then, “That ever I should be saved, is a wonder of wonders.” That you should have been kept till now, that you should not have been suffered to go back, that you should have been preserved under so many troubles, that your prayers should have been heard so continuously, that, notwithstanding your ill manners, the love of Christ should still have remained the same;-oh, but I cannot recite the tale of marvels; it is a long series of wonders! The Christian man’s life, if the worldling could understand it, would seem to him like a romance. The wonders of grace far exceed the wonders of nature; and of all the miracles God himself has ever wrought, there are no miracles so matchless in wonder as the miracles of grace in the heart of man. Beloved, declare these miracles, these wonders; tell them to others. Men like to hear a tale of wonder; they will gather round the fire, at eventide, when the logs are burning, and delightedly listen to a story of wonder. When you go home, young man, for your next holiday, if God has converted you, tell what great things the Lord has done for you. And when you go home, Mary, and see your mother, if the Lord has met with you, tell her what the Lord has done for you. “Declare his wonders among all people.” Do not be afraid of speaking about the gospel to anybody or in any company. Whoever they may be, whether they be rich or poor, high or low, if you get an opportunity of declaring the wonders of God’s grace, do not let the gospel be unknown for want of a tongue to tell it.

So, you see, I have put before you these two outlets for your love,-first, sacred song; and, secondly, gracious discourse. Be sure to use them both; and if any bid you hold your peace, shall I tell you the answer? Use the same answer which your Master did to the Pharisees when they complained of the shouts of the little children: “If these should hold their tongues, the very stones would cry out.” Ordinary Christians may be quiet because God has done nothing very wonderful for them. They go through the world in a very ordinary kind of way. Their religion is skin-deep, and no more. But those, who know that they deserved the deepest hell, and who have been saved by a mighty effort of infinite mercy, must tell what God has done for them. They must come out from the world, and be separate. They must be decided, zealous, and even enthusiastic. Necessity is laid upon them to be earnest and intense in all they do and in all they say. They cannot help it, for the love of Jesus will fire their souls with a passion that cannot be quenched. “We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not live henceforth unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” God help you, beloved, thus to live!

As for those of you who have never found the Saviour, you cannot tell of his excellence or publish his worth; but I do trust that you will not forget that Jesus is to be found by those who seek him, for whosoever believeth on him shall be saved. Take him at his word. Rely on his promise. Trust him. Commit your soul into his keeping. Cast yourself unfeignedly and unreservedly on his mercy. He will not spurn you; but he will receive you graciously, and you shall yet praise him, and he will be the health of your countenance and your God.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-885, 102 (Part II.), 135 (Version II.).

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

DANIEL 9:14-23

Verses 14-21. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary, that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

That is the time when prayer is always heard, when the lamb is offered, and his blood is sprinkled; and blessed be God, the sacrifice in which we trust has been offered once for all. The Christ, who has gone into heaven as a lamb that had been slain, has, by his one offering, made perpetual oblation unto the Most High on our behalf. So pray when we will, we may expect an answer. See how quick it was in Daniel’s case: “Whiles I was speaking in prayer,” the angel Gabriel, in the form of a man, appeared unto him, and brought him the answer to his petition.

22, 23. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

And then he told him of the Messiah who was coming, of all that would happen to him, of the week of respite, and then of the final consummation when God would permit the foreign prince to come and destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and to pour upon them the desolations which he had determined to inflict upon them.

UNSEASONABLE PRAYER

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, October 1st, 1903,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, October 14th, 1877.

“Wherefore criest thou unto me?”-Exodus 14:15.

At first sight, we might suppose that crying unto God was so good a thing, that it would never be necessary for the Lord to ask the question, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” But the question we are now to consider shows that there may be a time when, even to a man like Moses, it is needful for God to ask, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” Think of the circumstances in which the Israelites then were; the Red Sea was before them, and the Egyptians were behind, so that when the Lord said to Moses, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” he might very properly have replied, “What else can I do? There are great multitudes of blood-thirsty foes behind us, and nothing but the roaring sea in front of us; what can we do except cry unto thee?” But the fact was, that the time for praying about the matter was past, and the time for acting had come; so the Lord said to Moses, in effect, “Speak not to me; but ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward;’-forward through the sea that now rolls in front of them. That sea will divide as they march into it, so you need not pray any more about that difficulty. I will prepare a pathway for the people as they advance, and they shall go safely through the very midst of the sea.” There is a time for praying, but there is also a time for holy activity. Prayer is adapted for almost every season, yet not prayer alone, for there comes, every now and then, a time when even prayer must take a secondary place, and faith must come in, and lead us not to cry unto God, but to act as he bids us, even as the Lord said to Moses, “Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward; but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.”

It is perfectly clear, then, that there may come a time when crying unto God becomes unseasonable. Our Lord’s command to his disciples is, “Ask;” but what follows that command? Why, the promise, “ye shall receive.” Then there must be a time for receiving, as well as season for asking. But if, instead of stretching out my hand gratefully to receive what God is waiting to give, I continue still to ask, and forget or neglect to receive, I put prayer out of its proper place. Our Saviour also said, “Seek, and ye shall find.” Well, if I have sought, and at last have found the treasure I have been seeking,-if instead of perceiving that it is there, and taking possession of it, and blessing God that I have found it,-if I still go on seeking for it, then I have forgotten that, while there is a time to seek, there is also a time to find, and my seeking then becomes unseasonable. It is the same also with the command and promise, “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Suppose that I have knocked, and that the door has been opened to me, but that I still stand knocking at it, it is manifest that I am acting foolishly and wrongly,-that I am casting reflections upon the Owner of the house, and also upon the sincerity of my own knocking, for it is doubtful whether I really did knock with the honest purpose of getting the door opened if, when that opening has taken place, I do not avail myself of the opportunity to enter, but continue still to knock. I do not say that we may not pray for something else, but I do say, in respect to the one thing which we have asked of God, that there comes a time for receiving rather than asking; with regard to the thing which we have sought at the Lord’s hands, there comes a time for finding; and concerning the door at which we have knocked, there comes a time for opening; and, in each of these cases, the Lord’s question to Moses comes with appropriateness to each one of us, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?”

When do you think, dear friends, that prayer about anything becomes out of date? I answer,-When we ought to believe that we have the answer to our supplication. I do believe that, many a time, some of you go on asking for a certain blessing after you have really received it, though you are not conscious that you have it. I am glad that you still ask for it as you think that you have not received it; but it would be a better evidence of your spiritual growth if you perceived that, when God has given you a certain thing in answer to your petitions, you certainly do not need still to ask for it. You have it, so rejoice over it, and bless the Lord for giving it to you. I think there are some Christians, who have received many blessings of which they are quite unaware. They have what they asked for, yet they still continue to pray for them. For instance, in some cases, the prayer for assurance is offered long after assurance has been granted. Someone says that he believes the promise of God, but he wants to be more fully assured concerning it. My dear brother, what do you mean? To be more assured that God made the promise? Because, if so, you will have to go into the question of the authenticity of that particular passage, and of the Bible in general. “No,” you say, “I do not mean that, for I am quite sure that God gave that promise.” Then, do you mean that you doubt whether God will fulfil the promise that he has given? Because, if so, I must say, with all solemnity, that you ought to be assured that God cannot lie. This is not a thing for you to pray about, but for you to believe. It is the Lord’s due that you should not allow anything like a question to arise over this matter. “Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” There is his definite promise, and yet I go and ask him to give me an assurance concerning it. If I were to give a promise to any one of you, and you were afterwards to come to me, and say, “Give me further assurance,” I should feel that you did not believe that I could or would do what I had promised. If such treatment as that were meted out to me by any one of you, I should not feel that you had done me any honour by finding it difficult to believe my word; yet why should I expect you to honour me? But I do expect that a son should honour his own father; and I do expect that a child of God should so fully believe his Heavenly Father that he should not talk about needing assurance of the truthfulness and reliability of his promises of grace. Instead of continuing to pray for God to keep his word, it would be far better for you to believe that he has done so, and that he always will do so.

“But it may be presumption,” says someone. No, it can never be presumption to believe God; it is presumption ever to doubt him. However great his promise may be, it must be true; and it is presumptuous for anyone to ask, “Can this be true?” or, “How can it be accomplished?” It should be enough for me that God has said it; how he will fulfil his promise, is his business, not mine. I rest upon his word with a simple, childlike faith; and I am sorry if any of you are not doing the same. I feel that, sometimes, in the matter of assurance, God might say to us, “ ‘Wherefore criest thou unto me?’ Believe my word, and rest assured that I shall certainly fulfil all that I have promised.”

It is the same, also, in plain matters of Christian duty. It is a very shocking thing, but I have known the case of a man,-I hope a Christian man,-knowing such-and-such a thing to be right, yet not attending to it, but saying that he was praying about it. He is quite certain about that particular thing, it could not possibly be plainer than it is, yet he is praying about it! Such-and-such a truth is revealed plainly enough in the Scriptures; the man could see it there, and did not doubt its authenticity, but he wanted it to be “brought home” to his conscience, so he said. Well, all I can say about such conduct as that is that it is a kind of rebellion against God, a shameful piece of hypocrisy, pretending to honour God in one duty while you know that you are neglecting another. My dear brother, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know that it is the will of Christ that all believers should be baptized even as he was, do not go home, and pray about it, but be baptized. If you are not a member of a Christian church, and you know that it was the practice of the early Christians first to give themselves to the Lord, and afterwards to give themselves to his church, do not tell me that you have been praying about that matter for months; cease praying about it, and go and do it! It is idle to talk of praying about things which are clearly according to the will of God. Cease praying about them, and practise them. You feel that you ought to have family prayer, yet you say that you have been praying about it! Praying about it? That is not what you have been doing; you have only been trying to see whether you could not find a loophole by which you could escape from an uncongenial but recognized duty. Go and do it, dear friend; and do not any longer act the hypocrite’s part by pretending to pray about it. Yet this is the way in which some, who say that they love the Lord, try to play fast and loose with known precepts and duties. Do not let any of us fall into this sin; if we do, the Lord may well say to us, as he did to Moses,-only he may say it to us with more anger,-“ ‘Wherefore criest thou unto me’ about such a thing as that? Do what you know to be right.”

Now, leaving that part of our theme altogether, I come to a more general subject, which is this,-It is good for a man often to ask himself the question, “Why do I pray? Wherefore do I cry unto God?”

In some cases, I fear that the answer will be exceedingly unsatisfactory. One replies, “I pray because I was always trained to do so. My dear mother, now in heaven, taught me a form of prayer, and that is why I continue to repeat it.” If your mother had taught you the Mohammedan form of prayer, I suppose you would have kept on repeating it; or if she had taught you to worship a block of wood or stone, you would have done so. I do not wish to speak with contempt concerning the influence of a mother’s teaching, but I must say that this alone is a very unsatisfactory reason for presenting a prayer to God. Let me ask,-Did your mother, when she taught you that form of prayer, merely mean that you should repeat those words, without any particular thought as to what they meant? If she did, your mother knew but little of vital godliness; and, probably, you know even less. You must pray to God from your inmost heart, your soul must have real fellowship with him, or else the prayer your mother taught you may be of no more avail for you than if you repeated the alphabet backwards or forwards. I have heard of a man of seventy, who said that he always prayed night and morning. When he was asked what he said in his prayer, it turned out that he only repeated the form which he had been taught to say as a little child. Now, if you had taught a parrot to say a prayer like that, the parrot would not have been saved, nor will you, if that is all you have to depend upon. There must be something, as a reason for prayer, vastly superior to that, or else your prayer may be nothing but a mockery of supplication, a sepulchre of devotion with no life in it, an external form which cannot please God.

Another says, “I pray because prayer is a part of my religion.” Yes, and it is a part of every true Christian’s religion to pray; it must be an essential part of his religion. But what sort of prayer is this of yours which seeks to justify itself upon the ground of being a part of your religion; and what is the religion of which it is a part? Is it a religion which knows God, and draws near to him? Is it a religion which leads you to seek the Lord in spirit and in truth? If so, God bless your religion, and the prayer that is a part of it! But if your religion consists merely in attendance at church, or at the meeting-house, so many times on the Lord’s-day, and in the repetition of certain words which you have been taught, God deliver you from it! If your religion is to be worth anything, it must have a heart,-there must be heart-work,-the work of the Holy Spirit upon your hearts, and the drawing near of your souls unto God. Otherwise, all your outward performances, however excellent they may appear to be, will land you short of heaven.

Another friend replies, “I pray because it is a right thing to do.” There is something hopeful about that answer; but the question is, What sort of prayer do you pray? I make that enquiry, because, although it is right to pray, it is not right to pray some sorts of prayer. It is the right thing for a clerk in the telegraph office to work the telegraphic apparatus; but suppose that he should merely move a handle backwards and forwards, for a whole day, yet never send a message or receive one, I should not think it was right for him to keep on moving that handle to no purpose. Evidently, a wire is broken, or something is out of order, there is no connection with the electric current, for the machinery does not work. And, in like manner, a prayer that never reaches the heart of God as it should, and never brings an answer to your suppliant soul,-a prayer in which you have no fellowship with the invisible Jehovah,-is not a right kind of prayer to pray; and I cannot say of such prayer that it has any good reason why it should be presented. If you do not mean the petitions that you present, you mock God when you utter them, for they are only words, and nothing but words.

There are some, who would not like to say, just in so many words, exactly what they think, but they really pray because they regard prayer as being more or less meritorious. They do not consider it so meritorious that they expect to be saved by it; but they have some kind of notion that it helps, with a great many other things,-among the rest, faith in Jesus Christ,-to procure salvation for the soul. All these things go into the scale; and, at last, they make up the weight required; that seems to be their idea. In fact, according to some, our Lord Jesus Christ himself is only a make-weight; and our prayers, and tears, and alms, and good works count for a great deal. These people do not quite advocate salvation by works, they do not go the full length of the road that the Romanist takes; but they go a very long way in the same direction through their belief that there is some kind of merit about various things appertaining to themselves; and, especially, that their prayer is meritorious. I will speak about this error very strongly, lest I should not be understood by all; and I state my firm conviction that, if any man thinks that his prayers have any merit in them of themselves, every prayer that he presents is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is set forth as the only propitiation for sin. If you think that your prayers help, in any degree, to put away sin, you make an antichrist of your prayers. Christ’s blood and righteousness form the only ground of your acceptance before God. If you reckon your prayers as a ground, or medium, or help to your acceptance with God, you so far push the cross of Christ into the background, and put your prayers into the place of the only Substitute for sinners; and the more you pile them up, the more you multiply your sin.

Possibly, I have quoted the answers which would be given if I were to ask many of you why you cry unto the Lord in prayer. I would like to listen to the prayer of every man here present; without his knowing that I was doing so, I would like to put my ear to the keyhole of his room, and hear the style of his praying; but, as I cannot do that, I would like to ask whether you would wish anybody to hear it. How does your prayer appear to the eye of God? Has it been humble, earnest, sincere, trustful, relying upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and upon the effectual working of the Holy Spirit? If so, it is well; but if not, it is only vanity of vanities. All is vanity. How would it be with some of us, if we were put into the condition of the Highland soldier of whom I have read? In our war with our American colonists, before they gained their freedom from this country, a certain Highland regiment was engaged. Every evening, one of the men was observed to go away from the camp into an adjacent wood, and it was suspected that he had gone to give information to the enemy. He was, therefore, arrested, and brought before the colonel of the regiment, and the other officers said to him, “Now tell us what you have been doing while you have been absent from the camp.” “Well,” he said, “I have been accustomed, whenever I can, to retire for an hour or two of private prayer.” The colonel happened to be a Scotchman and a Presbyterian, so he said to the soldier, “Well, you never had such reason to pray before as you have to-night. If you do go for an hour together to pray, you can pray; so let us hear you now.” The man knelt down, and poured out his soul before God, seeking deliverance at the Lord’s hands, and resigning his spirit into the keeping of his Heavenly Father; and he prayed with such earnest, simple power that, when he had finished, the colonel said to the other officers, “A man, who can come on parade like that, must have been drilled a good many times. I think we may confidently accept what he has said as being true. There is no doubt about his having been alone in prayer to God, now that he can pray like that before us.” Happy is the man whose prayer would bear to be listened to by his fellow-men in such a critical season as that, so that they should be compelled to say of him, “That man has often prayed before to-night; he has the very brogue of one who communes with heaven.” But he, who gives such answers as I have been quoting, would certainly not be able to pray before others as that soldier did.

But now, secondly, there are some answers to this question which betray a great deal of ignorance.

“Wherefore criest thou unto me?” There are times, dear brethren and sisters, when a sinner’s crying to God in prayer hinders him from immediate repentance. The gospel comes to each man, and says, “Repent, and be converted.” The man says, “I will pray,” so he gets away alone, and he prays; but such prayer as that cannot be acceptable to God. There is a favourite sin, of which he has long been guilty; he does not give it up, but he says that he will pray about it. God says to such a man, “ ‘Where fore criest thou unto me?’ Give up thy sin; this is not a matter for thee to pray about, but to repent of.” The man says, “I was asking for repentance.” Ask, if thou wilt, for repentance, but exercise it as well. Christ does not bid us pray to have our right hand cut off, or our right eye plucked out; but he says, “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.… And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee.” It will never do for any man to hope to be saved by putting prayer into the place of genuine repentance and immediate forsaking of sin.

The same is true of those who put prayer into the place of believing in Christ. “I mean to pray about the salvation of my soul,” says someone. My dear friend, the gospel says to you, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “I have been praying for salvation, sir, and I hope to get it if I keep on praying.” No, you will not; on the contrary, you will be lost for ever if you pray instead of believing in Christ. As surely as you live, if you will not accept God’s way of salvation, which is to believe in Jesus Christ, whether you pray or do not pray, you are a lost man. “There,” says the Lord, “on yonder cross is your only hope; trust my Son, and you shall be saved.” “Lord,” you reply, “I will pray about the matter.” Again the Lord says to you, “You see my well-beloved Son hanging upon that tree. There is life for a look at him.” “Lord, I will pray about the matter.” The Lord says, “I have said to you, ‘Hear, and your soul shall live.’ ‘Look unto me, and be ye saved.’ ” “Lord, I will pray.” To put the matter very strongly, might not the man almost as well say, “Lord, I will swear”? Is there not just as much of the spirit of rebellion in the one answer as in the other? He has chosen his own way instead of accepting God’s way. God’s way is, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned;” and to this the man replies, “Lord, I will pray;” and if that is all he does, he sets his seal to his own condemnation. In such a case, the Lord asks the question in my text, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” What are you crying for? For another atonement beside that of the Lord Jesus Christ? Crying for God to save you in some other way than by believing in Jesus? Crying for somebody else to believe for you? Crying to the Holy Spirit to repent for you? Is that what you want? He will not do it; why should he repent for you? You must repent for yourself, and believe for yourself; for the Holy Spirit cannot repent for you, or believe for you. If a man, instead of believing the truth of God, which is so plain, and which is evidently able to save him,-if, instead of simply resting upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ,-he says, “I will pray about the matter,” he betrays the fatal ignorance of his heart in supposing that God will make a new way of salvation for him instead of the one which he has plainly revealed in his Word.

Perhaps another one says, “I am in hopes that, by praying, I shall be made more fit for believing in Christ.” Fit for believing in Christ! Thou also art upon the wrong tack, like these others of whom I have been speaking. Thine ignorance is misleading thee. Fit for believing in Christ! A man is never so “fit for believing” as when, in himself, he is most unfit. It is unfitness, not fitness, that is really required. What is fitness for being washed? Filth, and filth alone. What is fitness for receiving alms? Poverty, abject need. What is fitness for receiving pardon? Guilt, and only guilt. It cometh not as an act of grace, but as an act of justice, if there be no guilt; but, for the display of God’s pardoning grace, guilt is needed. If thou art guilty, if thou art black, if thou art foul, thou hast all the fitness that is required; so, come, and find in Jesus Christ all that meets thy greatest and most urgent need.

Does someone ask, “But must I not have a sense of my need?” Not as a fitness for coming to Christ; for the man, who says, “I am quite fit to be saved, for I feel my need,” does not really feel his need as he should, and is the farthest off from Christ. O thou who art most empty, most guilty, most lost, most ruined, thou are the most “fit” for the great Saviour to save! May the Holy Spirit enable thee to realize this, and drive out of thee the foolish notion that thy praying is to help Christ to save thee, and to take thee part of the way on the road to heaven! Thy prayer will not help the divine surgery which alone can cure thee; so, just as thou art, in all thy wretchedness and sin, trust Christ to save thee, for he is able to save thee, from first to last, without any help of thine.

Now I am going to close by mentioning other answers which may be given to this question: “Wherefore criest thou unto me?”

I will tell you my own answer to this question. I cry to God, principally, because I cannot help doing so. I cry to God for the same reason that I eat when I feel hungry, and for the same reason that I groan when I am in pain; it is the outward expression of the condition of my inward life. I cannot help praying. I think, if anyone were to say to me, “You must not kneel down to pray,” it would not make any difference to my praying. If I were not allowed to utter a word all day long, that would not affect my praying. If I could not have five minutes that I might spend in prayer by myself, I should pray all the same. Minute by minute, moment by moment, somehow or other, my heart must commune with my God. Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs, and the beating of my pulse. I do ask God to give me power in prayer; and I chide myself if I am lax in prayer. Still, almost unconsciously, one gets praying in the streets, praying while preaching to you; ay, sometimes, one almost prays in his sleep. One gets so into the spirit of prayer that, without always knowing it, there is a prayer leaping from the heart, and the very glance of the eye becomes a means of communion with God. So, that is my answer to the Lord’s question, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?”-I pray because I cannot help doing so.

It is an equally good answer when anyone can say, “I pray because I delight in it. There is no holy exercise which is so sweet, so blessed, so delightful, so inspiriting, so care-removing, as praying to my loving Heavenly Father. Nothing brings me so near to heaven, or opens its gate so wide to me, or gives me such a foretaste of its glory, as prayer mingled with praise.”

It would be also a good answer if you should say, “I pray because I have such great needs that I cannot help praying. I have such a little faith that I must pray for more, I have so many troubles that I must pray to be delivered out of them. I feel that I have so many sins that I must pray to be cleansed from them. I have so many desires after better things that I must pray for those things to be given to me. I feel that, not merely my happiness, but my sorrow also drives me to my knees.” I do not mind how you get to the mercy-seat so long as you do get there in spirit and in truth, and do really pray. But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I do hope that these reasons for prayer are those that you would yourselves give if the Lord were to say to each one of you, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?”

I think I hear another say, “I pray because what little repentance and faith I have can express themselves best in prayer. I tell the Lord how I hate my sin, and I ask him to help me to hate it still more. I go to him when I fall, and ask him to hold me up for the future. I tell him all my faults and follies, and I ask him to teach me, and sanctify me. I find that my little faith is most at home and at ease when I go to God in prayer. I tell the Lord that I do trust him, and I ask him to increase my faith. I tell him that, if he should refuse to listen to me, I will still cling to the skirts of his garment; and if I perish, I will perish at the foot of his cross.” Well, that is the right way to pray,-when prayer is the expression of penitence and faith.

“Ay,” says another, “but I pray because I get more repentance and more faith by praying.” Just so; they grow while they are exercising themselves. He that weeps for sin, will weep more as he prays, and he that believes in Christ will believe more strongly while he expresses that believing in prayer for yet greater faith.

All these are good reasons for praying without ceasing.

Perhaps one of the best is this. “I pray because I am nothing, and I want to get to the great ‘I AM.’ I pray because I have nothing, and I know that all I can have must come from him. I pray because my poverty would fain draw upon his infinite wealth,-because my weakness would drink in his eternal strength,-because my sin would be a partaker of his perfect holiness,-because my nothingness would find itself lost in the all sufficiency of God.” These are blessed reasons for praying, and if these are your reasons, pray on, brothers and sisters. Pray on, if you can thus answer the Lord’s question, “Wherefore criest thou unto me?”

I suppose that there may have come into this place someone who never prays. If so, I do not know where you are, friend; I am glad I do not. I should look upon you with the greatest pity if I knew you. The very thought of such a sad case as yours makes me feel heavy of heart. A man who never speaks to his Maker! A man? Can he be a man? Let me look him up and down. A man, “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God, yet he never speaks to his Creator! O God, to what a terrible depth a man can sink if he can live without prayer! What a strange creature he is! A little chicken drinks, and lifts its head each time it sips; “the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass”-you know how stupid the ass is, yet he knows “his master’s crib;” but here is a man, whom God has made, and kept in being all these years, and given to him a household, and made him well-to-do among his fellow-men, and kept him out of the asylum, and out of the workhouse, and out of the jail, and out of hell, and yet he never prays! O knees that never bend before the Lord; O hearts that never yield yourselves to God, are ye not accursed? Ah, sirs! assuredly a curse rests upon the man who never prays. He who prays not, believes not; and what saith the Word of God concerning the man who does not believe? “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” From my inmost soul, I pity even guilty men who are condemned to die because they have broken the laws of their country, and taken the lives of their fellow-creatures; yet, O ye unbelievers, their condition only differs in degree from yours, for you also are “condemned already” because you have not believed on the only-begotten Son of God! Oh, I beseech you, turn unto him ere it is too late, and you are cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched for ever and ever! If you believe that what I have said is false, you will take no notice of it; but if you believe that this Book is indeed the Word of God,-and most, if not all of you, know that it is,-then, escape for your lives; look not behind you, but lay hold on eternal life, and may God the Holy Ghost enable you to do so this very moment! It is not to prayer that I exhort you; but I urge you to obey that great gospel command, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” and more than that, in the name of God, I command you to believe in him whom he hath sent as the only Saviour of sinners. Believe on him; trust in him; and go your way forgiven. God grant it, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 18:1-27

Verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Especially, not to faint in prayer,-not to become disheartened, or weary, even if their prayers should, for a long time, remain unanswered.

2, 3. Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

He would not have interested himself in her case simply because she was a poor widow, he had no bowels of compassion for her; nor would it have concerned him at all that her adversary had wronged her. He did not trouble to discharge the duties appertaining to his office. No fear of God, and no respect for public opinion, affected him at all.

4. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

He even boasted of the very thing of which he ought to have been ashamed: “ ‘I fear not God, nor regard man;’-I care for nobody, and defy everyone.”

5. Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

He cared for nobody but himself. He was concerned about his own peace of mind. The poor woman could win, through his selfishness, what she could not get from his sense of justice, since that had no weight with him. Her importunity won for her what nothing else could procure.

6-8. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

God will hear the earnest, united, persistent cries of his people. His Church, to-day, is like a widow left forlorn. Her cries go up to God, pleading that he will vindicate her cause; and he will do so. He may wait a while; but the prayers of his people are not lost. By-and-by, he will avenge his own elect.

So is it with regard to all true prayer. Though, for wise reasons, God may delay to reply, yet he files our petitions; they are registered in heaven. Their power is accumulating; it is all adding to the great pile of supplication which is the real strength of the Church of Christ.

What a question that is,-“When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” He can find it if anybody can, for he knows what faith is, and where faith is; but will he find any? Well, he will find so little, even amongst the best of his people, that the question may well be put; and amongst a great many who profess to have faith, he will find none at all. Brethren, we pray so feebly, we expect so little, we ask with such diffidence, we have such slight courage in prayer, that, if the Son of man himself came among us to search us, how little faith he would discover!

9-12. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

He could not even magnify his own excellences without sneering at the poor publican who had said nothing against him, or about him. That is a poor kind of religion which has to look down upon all others before it can look up to itself. What, O Pharisee, if others are not, apparently, so good as thou art in some things? Yet, in other things, they probably excel thee; and if thou thinkest thyself worthy of praise, thou hast never really seen thyself as thou art in God’s sight! A correct knowledge of thine own heart would have led thee to a very different conclusion. It is a good thing that the Pharisee appeared to be thankful for something; but, probably, that was merely a complimentary speech, which meant very little. He did not thank God half as much as he praised himself.

13. And the publican, standing afar off,-

Away in some distant corner,-

13. Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

He makes no reflection upon others; but confesses his own sin, and appeals to the great Propitiation, for the word he used means, “God be propitious to me, a sinner.”

14, 15. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

Were not these children too little, and too unimportant for Christ to notice? Their understanding was not sufficiently developed to know anything that he might say; what was the use of bringing them for his blessing?

16. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God consists of child-like spirits, persons like these children. Instead of needing to grow bigger in order to be fit to be Christians, we need to grow smaller. It is not the supposed wisdom of manhood, but the simplicity of childhood, that will fit us for the reception of divine truth. Alas! we are often too much like men; if we were more like children, we should receive the kingdom of God far more readily.

17-19. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

Yet the ruler was right. He knew not that he was speaking to One who is, assuredly, God, and, in the highest sense, good; but, since he had asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Christ answered his enquiry.

20, 21. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

All which appears to be simple enough, if you only look on the surface; but when you come to recollect that there is an inward, spiritual meaning to all this,-that a licentious look breaks the command about adultery,-that a covetous desire is stealing,-that the utterance of a slander is bearing false witness, and so on,-who is he that shall enter into life upon such terms as these? Yet they cannot be lowered, for they are, spiritually, just and right.

22. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing:

Christ gives him a test. If he is what he thinks he is, he will be ready to obey whatever command God lays upon him. Christ is about to lay one upon him; let us see whether he will obey that.

22. Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

Now, which will he love the more,-the Son of God, or his wealth?

23-27. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Yet some men spend all their lives in the earnest endeavour to make it hard for them to be saved. They are trying, as much as ever they can, to block up the road to eternal life,-hoarding up that which will be a grievous burden to them, even if God shall lead them in the way to heaven. How much better is it to live wholly unto God; and then, be we rich or be we poor, consecrate all to him, and live to his praise and glory!