There are some people in the world, who, the moment we begin to speak of a type, try to disparage that style of speech by calling it “spiritualizing.” They seem to be far too wise to be able to learn anything by that mode of teaching. Yet the Holy Spirit has given us, in the Old and New Testaments, abundant instances of spiritualizing; and, though he could have used new metaphors and fresh phrases, in his infinite wisdom he preferred to use the old historical allusions, and the old historical types, for the instruction of God’s people. It is a pity that we should crave that which is new when it can truly be said, “the old is better.” In the case before us, the Holy Spirit uses Noah’s flood, and the Lord’s covenant that it should no more return to destroy the earth, as symbolical of the covenant of grace which is made with the people of God in Christ Jesus. Surely he did this for our instruction. Oh, that he would shine upon the Word, and make it to be both for our edification and our comfort! His divine treasure-house is full of blessings, but he must give us the key, or we shall not be able to enter. Open it, blessed Spirit, to all thy believing people!

There are two things in our text for us to consider. The first is, that there are, in Noah, and the flood, and the covenant, many points of symbol illustrating the covenant of grace; and the second is, that there is one main point of symbol here, which was certainly intended first and chiefly, whether the rest were intended or not; on that main point I hope to speak at some length.

But, first, in Noah, and the flood, and the covenant, there are many points of symbol illustrating the covenant of grace.

First, Noah’s name signified “rest.” We know where our rest is to be found, and who is our Noah. Of our Lord Jesus Christ we can truly say, “He is our peace.” It is through him that “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” keeps our heart and mind evermore at rest. We rest in him, and nowhere else. Did he not say, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” and has he not fulfilled his promise?

Further, Noah, in a time of general corruption, was the only man who was found righteous before God. If you turn to the Book of Genesis, at your leisure, you will see that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth;” but you will also read that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” It is also written that “Noah found grace (or favour) in the eyes of the Lord.” Noah was, in his day, the one man who was bidden to prepare a hiding-place from the storm, and a covert from the tempest; Noah’s ark was the one place of refuge for our race, in which eight persons were preserved; for, otherwise, the whole race would have been destroyed.

Now, we know that Jesus Christ is pre-eminently the one lone Man of the human race whose perfect righteousness has given God infinite delight. When all the rest of mankind had gone astray like lost sheep, he walked with God. Here upon earth he was found, tempted, but never sinning,-compassed with infirmity, but never transgressing,-the one Man upon whom God could look with complacency as the type of what the race ought to have been. He could not look thus on the first Adam, for, when he looked upon him, he cursed the ground for his sake; but the blessing came through the second Adam, upon whom the Lord always looks with joy, and for whose sake he blesses all those who are in him. If I might call Noah the second father of the human race,-and I might properly do so,-I might with still greater propriety call Jesus the second Father of the ever-living race,-the race that is quickened into newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Again, Noah, thus standing out in solitary grandeur, as a type of the lone Redeemer, was a preacher of righteousness, and therein also he was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, for never did any mere man preach righteousness as he did, for he not only preached it, but he created it. We must not forget that Noah preached righteousness in vain, for no one, except the members of his own family, would believe his testimony. In this respect also he was a type and symbol of him who was to come. The cry of Jesus, and of his faithful servants in all ages, has been, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”

But that wondrous man, Noah, was also a builder. Probably, all that he had of worldly substance and wealth went into that strange ark, in which the survivors from the deluge were to be preserved. And you know how our blessed Master gave all that he had in order that he might build a spiritual Church out of which the new world should be peopled. He laid down his life that he might be the Redeemer of his chosen race, but he still liveth to be the great Master-Builder of his Church.

You know also that, when the right time came, Noah went into the ark, and was shut up in it, away from all the rest of mankind. When the flood came, it spent itself upon the ark as well as upon all people and things outside it. The ark must endure the long pelting of the rain, and go through the terrible deluge as through the waters of death itself, as though it were a coffin, floating over the world’s grave, from a dead world into a new world. “The like figure,” says the apostle Paul, “whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.” That is to say, baptism is a type and symbol of salvation, just as Noah’s ark was, for therein we, being spiritually dead with Christ, are buried with Christ in the outward symbol, and rise from the water, even as Christ rose from the grave, to live henceforth among the twice-born race who fear not the second death.

After the deluge, Noah came out into a new world, and Jesus rose into a new world to which he had brought life and immortality to light. Noah survived a flood that had spent all its force, and Jesus stands among us, and we his people stand with him, to look upon a flood of divine wrath that has spent all its force so far as we are concerned. It is true that it will sweep away the ungodly, who are not of the twice-born race; but it will not injure any who belong to the race that is allied to this second Adam, this more glorious Noah. For them, the flood of wrath has spent itself for ever. Noah came out into a new world which was very different from that which existed before the flood, and he came out of the ark with a sacrifice of thanksgiving, even as Jesus presented himself to his Father as the appointed offering which had made all his people acceptable in him.

And, lastly, it was with Noah that the Lord’s covenant was made, even as the covenant which most concerns us was made with Jesus Christ; and, as the covenant with Noah still stands, so stands the covenant with Christ. The world, preserved to-day from destruction by flood, is a symbol of the Church of Christ preserved for ever from all the wrath of God which was due to it because of its sin, but which was borne by its great Substitute and Surety, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I have just hurriedly mentioned these various points in which Noah was a type of Christ. This is a subject which is worthy of being thought out another time, and it deserves your earnest consideration and constant remembrance.

But, in the second place, I want to deal more fully with the chief point of the text. There is a main point of symbol here: “This is as the waters of Noah unto me; (for this reason, that) as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.”

The text turns on the two hinges of “as” and “so”-two precious diamond hinges upon which it hangs. And these mean, I think, first, “as surely as,” and then, “in the same manner as.”

First, as surely as God has sworn that a devouring flood shall never again cover the earth, so certainly has he sworn that his wrath and rebuke shall never go forth against his redeemed Church, or against one of his redeemed people; and you may rest assured that, as the one is a fact, so is the other, and as the one shall never be altered, so the other never shall be. The first oath is irrevocable, and so is the second: “As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.”

“My God, the covenant of thy love

Abides for ever sure;

And in its matchless grace I feel

My happiness secure.”

But it not only means “as surely as,” it also means “in the same manner as,” and there I notice two points of resemblance. As God has sworn, absolutely, that he will not again destroy the earth with a flood, so hath he sworn absolutely that he will not pour forth his wrath against any believer, or against the Church of Christ as a whole. And the second point is that, as God has promised, with a symbol, that he will not destroy the earth a second time by water, so has he also promised to his people, with a symbol, a token, a sure sign, that he will not be wroth with them, or rebuke them.

First, then, in both cases, God has promised absolutely what he will not do. You observe that there is not a single “if” in either of these covenants. The Lord said absolutely, “I will not again destroy the earth with a flood.” He did not say, “Unless such-and-such contingencies arise, I will not send another flood.” He supposed no contingencies; or else, regardless of all contingencies, he said, “I will never again destroy the earth with a flood;-under no circumstances, at no time, and for no reason whatsoever, will I do so.” In like manner, God has sworn that his wrath shall never be let loose upon you, who believe in Jesus Christ, and are saved, in time or in eternity, or under any supposable circumstances whatsoever: “As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.” There may be dark rain-clouds, there have been many such; there may be partial floods, there have been many such; but these have not invalidated the covenant that the waters shall never again cover the earth as the flood did in the days of Noah. That covenant stands fast for ever. In like manner, the Church of God may be very severely tried; fierce persecutions may break out against her; she may be rent with schisms, and poisoned with heresies; but God will not forget her or forsake her. And you, child of God, may have many trials; and, indeed, you will have them because you are a child of God. You may have to go through deep waters, and sometimes unbelief will say,-

“The Lord hath forsaken thee quite;

Thy God will be gracious no more.”

But that can never be true. You must not judge of God’s love by any outward providences, any more than you would judge of his covenant not to destroy the earth with a flood by the fact that there are heavy showers of rain now and again. God stands true to his covenant with Noah, let it rain as heavily as it may; and God stands true to his still greater covenant of grace, let your trials and troubles be as numerous and severe as they may be. Get a firm grip of this glorious truth, that there is not a drop of divine wrath in all your sufferings. You have an aching head, and a palpitating heart; you have lost your property; you have buried the darlings that nestled in your bosom; you say, “I am the man that hath seen affliction;” but, for all that, not a drop of God’s wrath, nor even a rebuke, in the strong sense in which that word is used here, has fallen upon you. Gentle, tender, paternal rebukes you have had, and expect still to have; but no such rebuke as signifies fierce wrath, no such rebuke as brings a withering curse with it, can ever fall upon you if you hide yourself in the Redeemer’s pierced side, if you trust to the covenant of grace which Christ has made with his Father on your behalf.

There will yet come upon the earth greater convulsions than have yet been experienced; for, in the verse following our text, we read, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed.” Ere the history of the world is complete, there will come dreadful shakings and upheavals. I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet; but, as it has been in the past, so may we expect that it shall be in the future. Dynasties will die, and empires will collapse, and there will be wars, and famines, and pestilences, and we know not what, for the earth is subject to all these things; but the Church of God shall never suffer from famine; her dynasty shall never be dissolved, the gates of hell shall not prevail against her, and her King shall sit upon his throne for ever. And you, dear friend, may have such troubles that it shall seem to you as if the mountains had departed, and the hills had been removed, and you yourself shall seem to have no resting-place for the sole of your foot; but if you are trusting in Jesus, he will not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you, for so God’s promise stands, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” Ah, the most terrible convulsions may come;-the star called Wormwood may fall, and the seven vials be emptied out, and the earth may shake with the tramp of the armies gathered together for the last dread battle;-but, whatever may happen, the people of God must for ever remain-

“Safe in the arms of Jesus.”

Stormy may be the outlook, but all are safe who are within the ark. The huge billows may threaten to overwhelm us; but, “with Christ in the vessel,” we can “smile at the storm.” His kindness shall not depart from us, nor shall the covenant of his peace be removed.

“Firm as the lasting hills,

This covenant shall endure,

Whose potent shalls and wills

Make every blessing sure;

When ruin shakes all nature’s frame,

Its jots and tittles stand the same.”

I should like to sit down, and think over these blessed truths, and enjoy them. May the Lord be pleased to give each of us the grace to feed upon them, and to know, by personal experience, the blessedness of them. Think, dear brethren and sisters, how can there be any wrath treasured up against God’s people when it was all poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ, their Surety and Substitute? For-

“Payment God cannot twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.”

If Jesus suffered in my stead, how can God’s wrath fall upon me? Does infinite justice demand two victims? Can God smite the Substitute, and then smite the sinner for whom he stood as Substitute? I know, in my inmost soul, that this is utterly impossible. If Jesus really did suffer in my stead,-and well do I know that he did,-if, in the place of all his believing people, he has bled and died, and well do we know that it was so,-then, beloved, the wrath of God cannot fall upon us, for there is none, it is all gone, Christ has borne it all so far as all his people are concerned.

Observe, too, that there is such a close union between Christ and all his people that, if God’s wrath did fall upon Christ’s people, it would fall upon Christ also. If you were to scald one part of my body,-the sole of my foot, for instance,-you would scald me. You could not crush my little finger without hurting me. Brethren and sisters in Christ, we are so vitally united to Christ that, if we were lost, Christ would not have a perfect body, for “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” so his inspired apostle assures us. Be comforted, then, you who are one with Jesus. How can wrath fall on any part of the body of Christ? And you are a part of that body, and therefore you are safe from wrath for ever.

“If ever it should come to pass,

That sheep of Christ should fall away,

My feeble, fickle soul, alas!

Would fall a thousand times a day.”

That shall never be, for he will keep his own, and preserve them in righteousness and true holiness, in faith, and love, and hope, until he brings them to his eternal kingdom and glory. When our great Shepherd counts his sheep at the last, they shall each one pass under the rod of him that telleth them, and they will every one of them be there. That little lamb, that was all but devoured by the lion, shall be there. That poor weather-beaten ewe, that was seized by the bear, shall be there;-the one that had the hardest lot of all shall be there, for the Lord will never let it be said that he kept the strong, but could not keep the weak. He will not let it be said that he kept those that were not tried, but that he could not keep those that were tried. That cannot be. The good Shepherd will never have to say of any of his sheep that he has lost them, but he will say to his Father, “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” He will tell the full tale of his flock in the presence of him who gave them to him. Oh, I think I hear the muster-roll being read out at the last; in it are the names of all those who ever put their trust in Christ. Let not any true believer say,-

“What if my name should be left out,

When thou for them shalt call?”

It will not be left out if you are one of his. If the question is put “Is Mrs. Much-afraid here?” she will sweetly answer to her name, and say, “Yes, Lord, I am here, by thy grace, but I am afraid no longer.” “Is Little-faith here?” and Little-faith will sing out, “Yes, Lord, for Little-faith’s grain of mustard seed has grown into a tree.” “And is Mr. Ready-to-halt here?” “Yes, Lord, but without his crutches, for he no longer needs them.” “And Mr. Feeble-mind,-is he here?” “Yes, Lord, but he has left his feeble mind behind him, and now he sings of the eternal love of Christ to such a poor sinner as he was.”

Besides, do you not know that “the Father himself loveth you,” and that he loved you so much that he gave his only-begotten Son to die for you? Will he cast you away after doing that? Never; “for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” If he so loved us, when we were in the horrible pit and in the miry clay, when the filth of sin was all over us, as to lift us up into the bosom of Christ, do you think that he will not love us enough to keep us there? From eternity he has chosen us, and by the precious blood of Jesus he has bought us. His is no child’s love that burns brightly to-day, and goes out into cold ashes on the morrow. His love is no spark of transient passion, it is an eternal flame, and he will never allow it to burn itself out. Let us not be afraid, therefore, that the waves of his wrath will ever go over us, or that the torrent of his stern rebuke will ever sweep us away. Let us rest in the joyful assurance that, if we are indeed in Christ, any question about the wrath of God falling upon us can be laid aside for ever.

What you all need is to have that precious truth brought home to your heart. Possibly, some of you are like a sea captain to whom I was once talking about the precious things of the kingdom. We were going up the river, and he pointed to the great posts to which the barges and ships could be moored. “Ah!” said he, “they would hold me fast if I could only get a rope over them. But, sometimes,” he added, “we can’t fling the rope so that it goes right over the head of the post, and gives us a firm hold.” If any of you, dear friends, are in such a difficulty as that, I pray that the Lord, as he stands on the shore, may throw a rope to you, and that you may lay hold of it, and be moored fast to this sure truth that, as certainly as the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so will the waves of God’s wrath never go over the man who is safely sheltered in the wounds of Jesus.

The other point we were to notice is that, in both covenants there was a sign. As I read about the covenant of Noah, I like to dwell upon that part where God said of the rainbow, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations.” So God has a sign for himself, for us, and for every living soul that is in Christ. The rainbow is a very precious sign of the ancient covenant. We cannot often see it; but now and then God hangs it out,-often enough, I have no doubt. But he has given to us, in the covenant of grace, a sign which we can always see, and I think it is this Our Lord Jesus once said to his disciples, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.” As certainly as the Father loves Christ, so certainly does Christ love his people. If you could look up into heaven, what would you see there? You would see Christ at the right hand of the Father,-Christ the beloved of the Father, Christ whom the Father delighteth to honour, Christ the very apple of the Father’s eye. That is your, token of the everlasting covenant made with Christ on behalf of all his people. Whenever you can see that sign,-and you can always see it, for there is not a single child of God who has any doubt about the love which the Father bears to Christ,-that is the token to you of the covenant made with Christ for you. “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.”

And, in a minor sense, I think that this communion table, around which many of us will presently gather, furnishes us with another symbol of the Father’s love, as instructive as the rainbow itself. Let me speak of it for a minute or two. Child of God, the fact that your Father loves you, and that he will not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you, is certain, for there stands his table furnished and prepared. For what purpose? Why, that you may feast with him. At the institution of the supper, Christ himself sat and presided at the table, and it is no Lord’s supper if he is not there still. “Ye are my friends,” saith he to you who believe in him, and he invites you to come and sit at his board, and feast with him. If he did not love you, he would not have spread the table for you; so, if you have had any doubt about the continuance of his love to you, see the table spread for you. I am sure that the poor prodigal, when he came back from his wanderings, was comforted, among other things, by the killing of the fatted calf, and the loading of the table at which he was a welcome guest. See how your Father loads the table for you.

“Never did angels taste above

Redeeming grace and dying love;”-

yet these viands have been set before you. O believer, rest assured that the Lord will not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you; otherwise he would not have called you to sit with him at his table. “Go to bed, sir, without your supper,” is what an angry father says to his disobedient boy; but “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved,” is what your Father says to you; therefore, be ye greatly comforted.

If you look on the table, what do you see there? You see the bread and the wine, the emblems of the body and the blood of Jesus, and as you see the two emblems separate from one another, they become to you the emblems of the death of Jesus, whose blood streamed out of his body through his many wounds. God bids you come here, and think of Jesus your Saviour. He does not bid you come here, and sit and groan because of your sins; but he would have you think of the death of his dear Son by which all your sins were put away. Our Father in heaven says to us who have believed in Jesus, “Come, my children, to this table, and see how you were cleansed from all your guilty stains. Come and see how all that could provoke me to wrath against you was for ever put away. Come to my table, and take the tokens of the great propitiatory sacrifice offered by my well-beloved Son on your behalf.” When I look into the wine-cup, and think of the precious blood of Jesus, shed for many for the remission of sins, and when I realize that he means this emblem of his shed blood to be a luxury, a source of exhilaration, a means of spiritual strength to us as we drink it, I understand that his mind is not full of thoughts of wrath against us, but rather of thoughts of a sacred hospitality which bids his children to be happy while feasting with him at his table.

I have not time to say more, except just to remind you that all who lived in the days of Noah did not enter the ark of safety. They did not all have a share in that covenant of which the bow in the cloud was the visible sign, for the vast mass of the population was swept away by that terrible flood. As I look upon my present congregation, I bless God that it will not be so with you, for the most of you have, I trust, believed in Jesus. It is a melancholy reflection, however, that there are many here who have not entered the ark of salvation, or, so far as we know, have any share in the covenant of grace. Every time the communion table is spread here, it seems to me that it would be a wonderful sermon even if I did not say anything. To-night, as soon as I have finished preaching, many of us will begin to gather around the communion table, and the congregation will at once begin to break up into its several parts. There are some of you who will be going home, and others of you will be going upstairs to look on while we are gathered at the ordinance. I do not know how you feel about this division, but I do not like it, especially with regard to some of you whom I respect and esteem, and who, I believe, have many admirable points about you. But you are not decided, you have never given your hearts to Christ, so you will be lost for ever if you die as you now are. You know you will; and, years ago, it caused you quite a pang to have to go away when others remained to the communion. You have to leave your wife, do you not?-and your sisters, and some of you have to leave your father and mother; and I grieve to say that there are some parents here who have to leave their children to sit at the table while they themselves go away. There was a time when you could hardly bear to do that, but you are getting used to it, I am afraid,-some of you. I pray God that you may not get used to it; because, if you do, there will come a day when these partings will be final,-when you will not merely be going home or going up into the gallery, but you will be driven from God’s presence, far away from the everlasting halls where his saints will be feasting, and be cast down to the prison of black despair, where weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth must be your portion for ever. What says that old-fashioned hymn that the Revivalists used to sing?

“Oh, there will be weeping!

Oh, there will be weeping!

Oh, there will be weeping-

At the judgment seat of Christ!”

The sharp, two-edged sword will cut many families in twain, and sever the husband from the wife whom he so fondly loved, though he did not love her Saviour; and the son will be cut off from the mother whom he truly loved, but whose God he did not love. Why should we be divided thus? Why should we be divided? Why should we not go hand in hand to Immanuel’s land? Dear Saviour, put thine almighty arm right round this Tabernacle,-it is only like a little box to thee,-and take the whole Tabernacle full of us, and let us all be thine in the day when thou shalt make up thy jewels! Oh, that thou couldst then say, “They are all here, as they were all in the Tabernacle on that first night in August, 1875;-all here, and all mine, and all saved.” Oh, how fervently I pray that it may be so! Will you not yourselves all pray the same prayer? God will hear you if you do, for he waiteth to be gracious. There must be a separation now, but let this be the last time that it shall happen; and, between now and the first Sabbath in September, may God grant that you may all have resolved to cast in your lot with Christ, and with his people too. I can assure you that, if you do so, we, who love the Lord, will greatly rejoice, and you also will rejoice with us. God bless you all, and so grant us our heart’s desire, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

GENESIS 8:20-22; 9:8-17; and ISAIAH 54:1-10

Genesis 8 Verses 20, 21. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour;-

A savour of rest,-

21, 22. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

So that you all live under a covenant,-a gracious covenant; and, by virtue of it, the day succeeds the night, the summer follows the winter, and the harvest in due course rewards the labour of the seedtime. All this ought to make us long to be under the yet fuller and higher covenant of grace, by which spiritual blessings would be secured to us,-an eternal day to follow this earthly night, and a glorious harvest to follow this time of seed-sowing.

Chapter 9 Verses 8-10. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you. And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

Happy fowls, and happy cattle, and happy beasts of the earth to be connected with Noah, and so to come under a covenant of preservation; and we,-though only worthy to be typified by these creatures which God had preserved in the ark,-are thrice happy to be in the same covenant with him who is our Noah, our rest, our sweet savour unto God.

11-17. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token for a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it,-

What a wonderful expression that is! It is similar to that remarkable declaration of Jehovah, recorded in Exodus 12:13. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The blood was not to be sprinkled inside the house where the Israelites might be comforted by a sight of it, but outside the house, where only God could see it. It is for our sake that the rainbow is set in the cloud, and we can see it there; yet infinite mercy represents it as being there as a refreshment to the memory of God: “The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it,”-

16. That I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

So, when my eye of faith is dim, and I cannot see the covenant sign, I will remember that there is an eye which never can be dim, which always sees the covenant token; and so I shall still be secure notwithstanding the dimness of my spiritual vision. For our comfort, we must see it; but for our safety, blessed be God, it is only needful that he should see it.

17. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Now let us read what the Lord says, through the prophet Isaiah, concerning this covenant.

Isaiah 54 Verse 1. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

This promise is made to the long-barren and desolate Gentile Church. She may well sing, for God has visited her in mercy; and, at this day, her children are more numerous than those of the Jewish Church. We have waited, but we have been well repaid for our waiting, for we have a larger and richer blessing than God’s ancient people ever enjoyed.

2-4. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not: for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

O child of God, have you passed through a time of great sorrow, in which the Lord seemed to desert you quite? Have all your hopes been blighted, and have all your joys fallen, like untimely figs from the trees? Yet the days of your rejoicing shall be many, you shall soon put aside your sackcloth and ashes, and dancing and holy gladness shall be your portion.

5. For thy Maker is thine husband;-

Rejoice, O Church of God, that thou hast such a husband! Rejoice, every member of the Church of God, that thou hast such a husband to help thee! “Thy Maker is thine husband;”-

5. The Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Well might Paul write, in the Epistle to the Romans, “Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also;” and Isaiah here says, inspired by the same Spirit who taught Paul what to write, “The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”

6, 7. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee;

A moment is a small period of time, but it is made to appear still smaller by that little word “small.”

7, 8. But with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

Oh, what a blessed mouthful this text is! I might rather say, What a heart full! What a soul full! It fills, and overfills my soul, and gives me sweet content: “With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.”

9. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

See how our faithful and unchanging God lays the foundation for our hopes-

“In oaths, and promises, and blood.”

10. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

Or, as the Hebrew has it, “saith the Lord, the Pitier.” Was there ever a sweeter title to comfort our hearts than this, “the Lord, the Pitier”?

UNMITIGATED PROSPERITY

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, November 23rd, 1905,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

In the year 1863.

“The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”-Isaiah 53:10.

You know that the whole verse says, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: 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.” The last words form our text: “The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

It may be that the devil thought that the death of Christ was the defeat of Christ. If so, how greatly was he mistaken; for when Christ yielded up the ghost, he won an everlasting victory. Nor is he dead. Jesus, who died, hath left the dead, no more to die. He died, but could not long be held a prisoner in the grave. Loosing his cerements, he came forth to life and immortality; and now is the promise fulfilled, “He shall see his seed.” From the heights of heaven he looks upon the multitude of his seed on earth; in eternal glory he takes his solace in the society of his seed above. As many as the stars of heaven, as countless as the dust of the summer, are the seed of our Lord Jesus Christ. He indeed lives to see his seed, while others die, and their children follow them, and they know not of their progeny. Jesus lives to see, one after another, all the souls that he has redeemed, born first to earth, and then born a second time to heaven.

“He shall prolong his days.” More than eighteen hundred years have passed since he rose from the dead to his new life, yet he lives still; and his days, we know, shall be continued while this earth shall stand, yea, and at the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, still he shall prolong his days. “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever;” thou shalt endure, though the mountains perish, and though the skies are rolled up like a vesture that is worn out.

“He shall see his seed; he shall prolong his days.” Nor shall his life be a long one without usefulness. He shall have a work to do; brethren, he still has that work to do; and oh, how well he does it! It is the joy of heaven to know that Christ still stands hard and fast to his covenant engagements. It is a comfort to us on earth that our Lord, for Zion’s sake, will not stay his hand nor hold his peace until he hath perfected the divine will, and brought all the redeemed home to himself.

This evening I propose to speak of our Saviour’s great work, and of the way in which it prospers in his hand. Coming close to our text, we shall first examine this interesting description of Christ’s work, it is “the pleasure of the Lord.” We shall then notice how, and in what respects, that work prospers in Christ’s hand; and, having so done, we shall solicit a little consideration as to our connection with that pleasure of God and that great “hand” and prosperity of which we here read.

From our text it is very clear that the work which Jesus Christ has undertaken is the Father’s good pleasure. It is the work of bringing his elect out of darkness into light, from nature to grace, and from grace to glory. Why is this called “the Father’s good pleasure”?

We answer, for many reasons; first of all, because God’s good pleasure is the source of all saving work. For many centuries and ages, the source of the Nile has been a theme of wonder; many travellers have spent their lives and lost them in endeavouring to track that mysterious stream to its first fount; at last the deed has been accomplished to the honour of our country. But the stream of divine grace, where does it spring? In what mountain does it take its rise? Arminian theology, like all the ancient travellers, has failed to make the discovery. But the gospel, as it is revealed in Scripture, plainly tells us that everything in salvation is according to the good pleasure of the divine will. If you ask some good brother, who is rather muddled in his theology, “What is the cause why a man is saved?” he will say, perhaps, “Well, he is saved because he believes.” You will then ask, “But why does he believe?” He will say, “Because he hears the gospel.” You will say, “Ah, but others hear it too, and yet do not believe; how is it that his hearing produces faith in him?” He will say, “It is because he gives the more earnest heed.” You will say, “Yes, but why does he give the more earnest heed?” And there will come another question, and another, and another, and another, and you will keep on beating round the bush until, if you succeed fairly in getting your brother into a corner, he will say to you, “Well, I do not know, but I think it must be the grace of God.” Happy is the man who begins there, who says, without going all the way round about to try and fight against a most precious and blessed truth, “Yes, the good pleasure of God is that primeval source whence flows that first rill of electing love, which goes widening on, for ever manifesting itself more and more clearly,-

“ ‘Till, like a sea of glory,

It spreads from pole to pole.’ ”

Grace is called, then, God’s pleasure, because there it takes its source.

It is the pleasure of the Lord, in the next place, because it is there it finds its direction given to it. I see the spring welling up; but in which way shall it flow? To what man shall salvation come? There was even an opportunity for election in the choice of the nation to which it should come. What is there in this little island that we should be favoured with the gospel? Why might not New Zealand, at the other end of the world, have had it years gone by, and this nation been without it? Why should it come to the descendants of barbarians, while the inhabitants of Greece, who were cultured and enlightened when our sires were naked savages, have not received the light of the gospel as we have done? Why should it not have glanced on China, or found a congenial home amidst the islands of Japan? Why comes it here? It is the Father’s good pleasure that gave the stream of grace the direction toward this land. And, in this land, why did grace come to me? Why to you? Why to your brother yonder? Was it that we were better than others? In no wise Did we seek it more than they? Nay, verily, for we resisted its influence, and would have none of its blessings when it came to our door. Why, then, came it to us? We know of no answer but this,-the good pleasure of the Lord. I know no other reason why Abraham, an idolater, should be called out of the land of Ur; or why, to take a later case, Saul of Tarsus should be taken out of the college of the Pharisees, while yet a persecutor, to be made an apostle of Christ. If I am asked to solve the question why these men are made heirs of heaven, and distinguished possessors of gospel truth, I must reply, “It is the Father’s good pleasure.” I know no other answer. Hence, I think it is because God gives the direction, and sends the gospel where he wills, that it is called the good pleasure of the Lord.

Further, the good pleasure of the Lord is the gospel’s vital force. Upon what does the gospel depend for its existence and its spread? Upon the zeal of its bishops? Some of them deny it. Upon the fervour of its ministers? Some of them are sound asleep. Upon the consistency and energy of its professors? Some of them are hypocrites, many of them lukewarm. Upon what, I say, does the cause of Christ depend? Upon the influence of kings and princes? The kings of this world know it not. Upon some alliance with the State? It scorns it. “My kingdom is not of this world.” Brethren, the vital force which gives the kingdom to the chosen flock is the Father’s good pleasure. And it is because God wills it that daily his Church stands, and grows, and gathers strength. The world standeth upon God’s good pleasure; he may truly say, “I bear up the pillars thereof.” He hangs the golden lamps of heaven with their silver chains; he binds the Pleiades, or looses the bands of Orion. All things depend upon his will, much more does his Church-his grandest, his most choice and peculiar work,-depend day by day upon his good pleasure, his predestination, his purpose, and his will, for all its vital powers.

Nor is this all. The consummation of the gospel is the Father’s good pleasure. Not simply its origin, its direction, and its sustenance, but its consummation, Never-for we must now speak of God after the manner of men,-never shall the eternal God rejoice more than when he sees all the company complete, the whole of his redeemed standing around his throne. At the very prospect of it, he will break forth into singing; he will rest in his love; he will rejoice over them with singing; and he will never rest until he shall behold this consummation. From North and South, from East and West, he will continue to send his heralds; nor will he pause in sending forth his ambassadors, and in giving them his strength, until he shall say, “Here they all are whom I gave to the Messias, he has lost none; the jewels of my crown all glitter here; the rubies of my breastplate are all here; all those choice things have been gathered by the hand of Jesus.”

And, dear friends, I ought to add that the great object of all saving grace is the Father’s good pleasure. What is God’s object in everything that he does? It must be an object equal to himself; and there is no supposable object equal to God, but God. God’s glory,-that is the end and aim of all that he does. He saves his people. Why? For his great name’s sake. It were unworthy of God to find a motive for his actions in anything lower than himself. But there can be nothing but what is lower than God except God himself; therefore, in his own heart he finds his motive, and in his own glory we perceive the object for which he acts. And you shall find, beloved, in the whole of the great drama of the fall and redemption, which shall have been transacted when the curtain shall fall, that the result shall be, “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!” from all worlds where creatures dwell, “unto that God who has manifested himself to perfection in the wondrous work of grace perfected in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.” When I read these words, and began to think of them for the first time, they ravished my heart with joy. To think that the salvation of sinners was God’s pleasure,-how sublime! I can imagine a physician taking pleasure in the healing of certain diseases, and yet there must be something irksome about his constant toil. If the disease be something hideous, there must be an alloy mingled with the pleasure of his philanthropy. But, in God’s case, it is all pleasure. We read even that “it pleased the Lord to bruise him.” God taketh divine pleasure in everything which ministers to the salvation of his elect. Christian, dost thou not see the drift of this? If it be God’s pleasure to save thee, who shall destroy thee? If it affords the Eternal delight to see thee saved, who can stand in his way? Who shall match himself with Omnipotence? Will not God have his own way? Will he be thwarted in his pleasures? What? The infinite God robbed of his desires, baulked in his intentions, frustrated in his aims, foiled in his designs? It cannot-it must not be. If it be the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, “Fear not, little flock, be of good comfort,” the kingdom you must and shall have.

Thus much, then, upon the first point,-the work which Jesus Christ undertakes is the Lord’s pleasure.

Now, secondly, that work goes on prosperously in the hand of Christ, since God has made his soul an offering for sin. Let me again give some subdivisions.

That work has prospered in Christ’s hand thus far, that all the great difficulties towards its accomplishment have been already surmounted. That work indeed prospers which is complete as to its main point. In order that God’s pleasure might be accomplished, it was necessary that the gulf should be filled between God and man. It is filled, and there is fellowship this day between the almighty Father and his redeemed children. It was needful that there should be a sacrifice made to divine justice; the sacrifice is made; justice has received its full demand, and mercy can now range without a limit. It was needful that the sinner should become clean; the bath is provided for his washing. It was necessary that he should be clothed with righteousness; the garment is woven from the top throughout without seam. In that gigantic enterprise which Jesus undertook, the forming of a great highway through the vast bogs and morasses of human guilt and inability,-the constructing of that highway over the deep gulf of sin, and across the very flames of hell up to the throne of God, all that, with his cross in his hand, Jesus Christ has achieved; and now, from the lowest depths to the loftiest heights, the way to heaven has no break; it has been finished from the one end to the other; the great road that leads from the City of Destruction to the City of Refuge is finished by Jesus Christ. Child of God, see how this work prospers,-thou art ransomed, thou art washed, thou art clothed, thou art adopted, thou art accepted, thou hast been brought safely hitherto; and all this has been accomplished through Jesus Christ, who has made the way so clear that thou needest not miss it, but mayest rest assured that, if thou art trusting in him, he hath made thy heaven secure. In this respect the work prospers.

Further, the work prospers in Jesus Christ’s hand in the calling out of each of the chosen by effectual and sovereign grace. I was thinking, this afternoon, what a book of wonders will be opened at the day of judgment if the conversions of believers shall all be published! In what strange ways have men been brought to Christ! A sailor, whose mother had been dead some fourteen years, happened to have, one day, an idle hour in London, so he stepped into St. Paul’s Cathedral. Well, there was not much there, I should think, except at the special services, that was likely ever to convert a soul. That way of singing out the prayers must always, one would think, rather excite a disgust at such religion than not. I wonder whether they suppose that, when the penitent publican said, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” he intoned it. It seems such a strange, strange thing; but it so happened, that day, a lesson was read in which these words occurred, “Pray without ceasing.” Well, Jack went away, and forgot St. Paul’s, forgot the text, forgot the lessons, and the prayers. Seven years afterwards, it was one bright moonlight night, and he was walking up and down the deck upon his watch, and all of a sudden something seemed to remind him of the words, “Pray without ceasing;” and as he walked up and down, he thought, “Where did I hear those words?-‘Pray without ceasing.’ ” St. Paul’s Cathedral came before his mind. “ ‘Pray without ceasing’?” said the tar, “why, I have never begun to pray; there, I have lived forty years, and I have never prayed in all my life.” It was the thin edge of the wedge. The consciousness that he did not pray led to his remembrance that there were many other things that he had left undone. He thought to himself, “I wish I had a Bible; I fear there is not one on board the ship.” So he walked on his beat up and down the deck still, until he thought, “I wonder whether there is one in my chest? I should not wonder but what my old mother put one in there.” It was over twenty-one years since the chest had been packed up, and at the bottom of it lay a Bible, with a mother’s prayer written in it. He took it out, and as he read it, God spake the word of joy and peace to his soul, and Jack became a believer in Christ. You would little have suspected that there was any connection between his idly strolling into St. Paul’s Cathedral and his gloriously entering into the great Cathedral and Temple of the living God, where they praise him day and night.

Here is another case that shows how the Lord can make his work prosper in his hands. At Horselydown, a young man, in connection with a Religious Tract Society, went on board a vessel to distribute tracts; and he saw nobody on board but one old gentleman, who received his tracts very gladly, and said he liked to see tracts and religious truth everywhere and anywhere. The tract-distributor said he did not like to see the Bible used as it often was at the butter-shops; he did not like to see pages of the Scriptures used to do up butter and cheese, and such like things. “Well,” said the old man, “I am of a different opinion from you upon that point. It is twelve years ago,” said he, “and I was a wonderful smoker: one day, I went into a shop,-I was a godless, careless fellow,-and bought an ounce of tobacco; it was done up in a leaf of the New Testament; and while I smoked my pipe, I looked at the leaf, and that was the means of making me a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; and so,” said he, “I do not care what they do with it so long as they put it where people may read it.” This was a strange instance of one who would never have been caught by any ordinary means; but, just indulging in his own habit, God meets with him, and the Word comes as truly from heaven as though an angel had come into his chamber, and delivered the message. Truly, the Lord’s work does prosper in Christ’s hand; by some means or other, he brings home his banished ones.

You may remember, perhaps, the case of good Mr. Wilberforce, one of the best, most excellent, and noble of all modern Christians. When he was three-and-twenty years of age, Mr. Wilberforce was very far from being religious; he was said to be the crown and glory of Doncaster races; his affable manners and the geniality and humour of his bearing made him many friends among men of the world. He went to Nice on a journey; while travelling there, he had for a companion Dean Milner. They were talking about a certain clergyman in Yorkshire. Mr. Wilberforce said he thought that clergyman carried his religion a great deal too far; for his part, he considered religion a very good thing if it was kept within bounds, but he censured those who made too much of it. The dean said, “Mr. Wilberforce, if you read your Bible a little more, you would not think so; for I am persuaded there is no such thing as carrying religion too far.” Mr. Wilberforce said, “Come, now, you and I are together; I will read the New Testament through if you will.” “I will,” said Milner, and being both of them excellent Greek scholars, during their journey they read the New Testament through in Greek. Happy, happy, happy thought for Wilberforce! He who was to speak with voice of thunder,-

“Thus saith Britannia,

Empress of the sea,

Thy chains are broken,

Africa, be free!”-

must first hear the Scripture speak to him, and say, “Wilberforce, be free; Christ hath borne thy sins, and carried all thy sorrows; thou art saved.”

There are, then, odd ways, strange ways, all sorts of ways, yet appropriate ways, fitting ways by which Jesus Christ brings his people to himself; and as I look about, or read the narratives of their conversion, I can only say, “Truly, the pleasure of the Lord doth prosper in his hand.”

Furthermore, you may see the pleasure of the Lord prosper in the hand of the Saviour in the keeping and preserving of every one that has been called. If to call the saints be a miracle, to keep them is a long string of miracles. To what temptations and trials have not the saints been exposed? In the olden times, they suffered from fire, the rack, hot pincers, gloomy dungeons, the dropping of water,-a most cruel form of punishment,-drowning, death in all its shapes, and yet they stood fast. They were more than conquerors through him that loved them. In this age, the children of God have had to suffer laughter, scoffing, slander, obloquy, all sorts of shame; then the devil has thrown them over to the other side, and tried them with prosperity, honour, esteem, worldly dignity; but still they have not yielded. They have been tried in the furnace of temporal distress, of bereavement, of mental despondency; they have been forsaken by friends, and often subjected to labour too severe for natural strength; but what can we say of the safeguard of all the people of God? Not one of them is lost. Christ has kept them; they have all been in the hollow of his hand. As the eagle covereth her nest, and fluttereth over her young, and will not suffer the spoiler to take away so much as one eaglet from the nest, even so hath Christ ever kept and preserved his people; and he holdeth them fast even to this day. In all this, we see the pleasure of the Lord prospering in his hand.

And, dear friends, no doubt we see this very conspicuously in the constant growth of the Redeemer’s kingdom. I sometimes feel sad to think how very slowly the work of conversion is going on; but, on the whole, this one thing we can say, if we do not make the progress we would like to make, at any rate we are on the progressing side. Idolatry advances not a step; it manifestly crumbles. Mohammedanism makes but few converts. If our religion does not increase as fast as we desire, it does increase; and it seems to be, just now, in that state in which we are laying mines and trains of heavenly gunpowder, so that, when the time comes, and the match shall be struck, the work shall be done on a sudden, and the battlements of evil shall fall with a crash to the ground. But though I say we are not doing what we would, yet here and there we see fertile spots. The Master is causing his kingdom to come. The seed does not rot under the clods. Heaven grants us revivals, seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. We believe that the good pleasure of the Lord is prospering in his hands.

And mark you, brethren, we shall see this, by-and-by, when every one among us shall begin to feel his own individual responsibility; we shall then see God’s good pleasure prospering indeed. Suppose we were the House of Commons, and some speaker should rise and tell us that there was a world of filth in the City of London, that the streets were very dirty, that people threw their rubbish out of the front door every morning, and that the road was covered with all sorts of garbage. One wise member of Parliament would propose that there should be a troop of orderlies; and another would say that there was a capital machine invented that ought to be tried; but what should you think if some common-place member of Parliament should rise and say, “Don’t you think the quickest way to sweep all London is to make every householder sweep in front of his own door?” Why, you would say, “That is the thing; it would take months to do it in any other way, but it will be done at once so.” Now, when we have once got the Church of God to feel that every man is to sweep in front of his own door, that every convert is to try to make more converts, every Christian man and woman to bring others to Jesus, then I believe we shall see such a wonderful growth in the Church as we never anticipated, and then the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in Christ’s hand. Now, there is too much leaving of the work to a few of us. I do not think that is right. I love to see our friends give something to the cause of God every week. I believe that principle of every one giving something, and every one laying by in store every week, will provide the Church with all the money that she needs; and then every Christian doing something, and every one doing it constantly out of zealous love to the Lord Jesus Christ, beyond a doubt we shall see a flood-tide of grace, and a beginning of the tides of glory which are yet to cover the world. Only let us get the Church right, and get the saints stirred up, and we shall see the pleasure of the Lord prospering in Christ’s hand.

Now, mark these words, for they shall surely come true,-the work is so sure to prosper in Christ’s hand that it will not fail in any one point. All along the line of battle there shall be victory, in every point of his work there shall be success. The great Architect shall not bring out beauty here, and leave deformity there; but the plan shall be carried out without a single diminution of the splendour of the first design. You shall see each stone, yes, the very stone that was chosen, dug out of the quarry, and put in its place. You shall see every sheep of Christ’s fold brought safely to the pastures on the hill-tops of heaven. You shall see Christ defeated nowhere, but conqueror everywhere. He shall stand, at the last, in the midst of all the troops that have fought by his side; they shall all wear the laurels of victory; they shall all be conquerors, and more than conquerors, through him that loved him. The cause of God is quite safe in the hand of Jesus; it does prosper, it shall prosper, it must prosper for ever.

Alas! there are some who oppose the pleasure of God in the hands of Christ. What we have to say to them is, “Mind what you are at.” He that falleth upon this stone shall be broken, but upon whomsoever this stone shall fall it shall grind him to powder. You who oppose Christ might as well lay yourselves down before the huge wheels of the car of Juggernaut in order to stop it. Christ’s chariot will go on, and crush you to powder, as surely as you are a living man, if you stand in its way. If you choose to go down to the low-water mark on the shore, and attempt to push back the sea, the sea will come rolling over you; and its great billows, as they swallow you up, shall seem to howl your funeral dirge. Had you not better change your side? Is it wise to oppose the Irresistible? Is it prudent to become an enemy of the Omnipotent? We sometimes hear a person say, “I cannot be on Christ’s side, for how do I know that such-and-such a thing is true?” That excellent servant of God, Mr. John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga, tells us that, on one occasion, when a person of sceptical turn had been questioning about Scripture and so forth, he called together a number of the natives of the South Sea Islands. They stood around him, little knowing what was to be done. Mr. Williams put to them the question, “How do you know that the religion of Jesus comes from God?” They had never been asked that question, they had accepted it as divine without investigating evidences; but they were not long at a non-plus, for one of them very properly answered, “How can that religion be anything but divine which has broken up an idolatry in which our fathers lived from time immemorial, which turned us from being cannibals to be Christians, and which has brought us from the depths of vice of every kind to sit clothed, in our right mind, at the foot of the cross?” And another of them said, “I know that this religion comes from God, because I have hinges in my body; if I want to move my foot, there is a hinge to move it; if I want to move my hand, there is a hinge to move that also;-there is a hinge for everything. Now, the God, who shows so much wisdom in the making of my body, shows just as much wisdom in the making of the Bible to suit my case; I conclude, therefore, it comes from the same place as my body did,-that is, from my God.” This was not bad reasoning for a South Sea Islander.

The best way, I believe, to get men to believe that the Bible is true is to get them to read the Bible. Someone asked me what book he should read in order to put an end to his scepticism. My answer was, “Read the Bible;” but he said, “No, I want to know whether the Bible is true.” I said, “Then, read the Bible; the Bible is its own interpreter, and its own evidence; and, while you are reading it, may God breathe his Divine Spirit upon it, and may the good pleasure of the Lord prosper in Christ’s hand! Though you began by being an opposer, may you end by being a friend!” There was a club of gentlemen, who used to meet together to discuss literary and scientific subjects, and, after a long discussion, they had agreed to burn the Bible, and one of them was about to do it. They had selected about the boldest of them to do it; but, as he was going to take it to the fire, his hand trembled, and, laying it down, he turned round, and said, “I think we had better not burn this Book till we find a better one.” And I think we may say of those who, in these days, are trying to kick against Scripture, they had better let it alone until they find a better one, or else they will be something like Voltaire, who, when two of his disciples came to see him to talk about atheism, said, “Hush, hold your tongue till my servant has gone out of the room. I do not want to have my throat cut.” This was a sure sign that he dared not talk about his own disbelief in the presence of those he thought not well instructed, lest they should by it become hardened to sin, and made capable of any and every crime. Oh, you that oppose Jesus Christ, I wish you would just try him! Take his Book, and read it; search it through and through; and if, after that, you still reject it, it is because you will do so, and on your head be your blood.

But there are some of us, thank God, who are on the side of God’s good pleasure,-on the side that prospers in Christ’s hand. What, then, shall I say to such? Why, dear friends, let every one of us be doing something to make God’s pleasure prosper. Mothers, I have told you one story which should excite you to earnestness to do your children good, let me tell you another. In the old war between England and America, there was a son who received a Bible from his mother. It was brought to him by a comrade, who said to him, “Your mother told me to say that, out of love to her, she hoped you would learn one verse every day.” So he opened the Book, and, with a laugh, he said, “Well, then, here goes.” Strangely enough, the verse that he opened on was the only verse he ever would learn at the Sunday-school, for he had been a bad lad, and could not be made to learn; and he read it, and it fetched the tear into his eye. It was this: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” and the mother’s prayers were heard to a mother’s joy. Go on, mothers, praying for your children, that the pleasure of the Lord may prosper in Christ’s hand. And you, Sunday-school teachers, be more earnest than ever; in teaching your classes, mind you keep to this point,-the conversion of your children as children. Do not be content to sow seed that may spring up when they are fifty, but pray to God that it may spring up while they are as yet perhaps under fifteen. Pray, O ye Sunday-school teachers, that God’s pleasure may prosper in Christ’s hand with you! My dear friends in the catechumen classes, go on labouring with greater earnestness than before. Young men who go forth from us to preach the gospel, we look to you, and we trust that God will be pleased to give the tongues of fire and hearts of flame. You that stand at the corners of the streets, you that labour anywhere, be more and more determined, let others loiter as they will, that you will labour with both your hands for Christ.

I am often afraid lest, with such a church as this, we should not do what the Church at large and the world expect of us. We number two thousand three hundred or more in church-fellowship; but if you are all idle, or if the most of you are idle, it would be better for me to have had a hundred or so of earnest workers. There is nothing one dislikes so much as to be reputed to have what we have not. Why, I read, I should think, in a dozen newspapers, some time back, the information that I received from America £1,000 a-year. I should like to see it. I said, as I read it, “If it had been a thousand pence, I might have been better content than to read it there, and know it is not true.” But just that kind of feeling comes over me when people say, “What a church there is there! What a deal they must do for Christ!” Ah! but if you do not, then what a poor man your minister is to have the reputation of being so rich in the efforts of his people, and then not to have them doing anything! Oh, don’t do that! I know you may say I am not worthy of you; but I pray you, dear friends, let us try to be worthy of one another; let us fight side by side for Christ and for his cause; let us tell upon this neighbourhood; and let us make men know that there is a church in London that does pray, that does wrestle with God, that does work, that does give to his cause, and that will spend and be spent until the members are willing even to lay down their lives upon the altar of God for the promotion of his kingdom. May we all believe in Jesus, and so be his friends! “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” saith he. May we all be led to believe in Jesus, and, believing, may we be enlisted on his side; and, being enlisted, may we fight even to the end, and so be partakers of his great reward! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 17:1-10

Verse 1. Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

Since the Fall, we are so constituted that there are sure to be differences and disputes. It is a great mercy when men dwell together in unity. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is.” It is a work of grace; but nature has its lustings, and lustings lead to strivings; and so, as long as the world is as it now is, “it is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come.” Let us not, therefore, be either offence givers or offence takers. When anyone offends us, let us say, “It is impossible but that offences will come,” and let us make light of it; and let us be very careful that we do not cause others to offend. As for him through whom the offence comes,-

2. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend-

Or cause to offend-

2-4. One of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent: thou shalt forgive him.

Perhaps someone remarks, “It looks as if he would do nothing else but keep on sinning and repenting.” Well, suppose he does so, that is precisely what you are doing, except that you do not so often repent when you sin. So, possibly, the offender is rather better than you are, after all; and if God is gentle in his dealings with you, you may well be gentle in your dealings with your neighbour.

5. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

They seemed so struck with the severity of this command that they asked for more faith that they might be able to obey it. And, dear friends, that is always the best thing to do. Do not refuse obedience to the Lord’s precept, but say, “Lord, increase my faith that I may be able to obey it. It can be done, or else thou wouldst not have given me the command. I cannot do it as I am without an increase of strength, therefore, as faith is the medium by which strength is received, Lord, increase my faith.”

6. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree. Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

Meaning that anything and everything should be possible to our faith; but we need much more of it than the most of us have. Remember how holy Bernard says, “If thou hast a hard task, ask God to give thee a hard resolution.” The diamond is difficult to cut, but it can be cut if you can find something harder. So, if there be a very difficult task set us, if we get faith that is more than equal to it, it will be accomplished. “With God all things are possible,” which means not only that God can do all things, but that we also can do all things when God is with us.

7, 8. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

This world is the place of service; we are not to be expecting to have the festival here. The great supper comes at the end of the day. This is the time for us to serve, even as Jesus did when he was here; and we are to serve right on till the close of the day, even as Jesus did.

9. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.

When the serving-man has done his day’s work, his master does not say, “I am very grateful to you, John, for what you have done for me.” He will have his wages, they will be his master’s thanks.

10. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

“When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you.” Ah! but we have not come anywhere near that yet; even if we had, we should still be “unprofitable servants.” In our mind, we should expect no thanks from our Master; but we should sorrow that we had not served him better.