Men think a great deal of anyone who has power with royalty. If it was said, concerning somebody in this place, “That individual has very great power with the Queen,” there are a great many of you who would turn at once to look at that person. He who has great power with an earthly prince is sure to have many flatterers round about him, who will pay him homage for the sake of the advantage which they hope to gain through his mediation. But, dear friends, what a far greater honour it is to have power with the King of kings! Power with men may be an evil thing, but what blessing must come from power with God! How it ennobles the soul of the man who possesses it! This man Jacob, who has power with God, is called Israel, a prince, for so he is; only princes have no such dignity as his, unless they, too, have power with God, for he is “a prince of God.”

What a comprehensive blessing it must be to have power with God; for he who has power with God must have power with men. Creatures must submit where the Creator himself has yielded. If you can have your way with the Master, you may depend upon it that you can have your way with his servants. The man who has power with God must be safe. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” No weapon that is formed against such a man can prosper, and every tongue that rises against him in judgment he can condemn; for, having power with God, he shall be able to plant his foot upon the neck of his adversaries, and to reign over those who rebel against him. Such a man as that cannot be in want. If he has power with God, he will tell him about his needs, and they shall all be supplied. He will confess his sins, and they will be forgiven. God will deal well with the man who has power with him. There is such a wide range of blessing here that I must not stop to enlarge upon it. If you have power with God, you will see that this is a weapon which, like the flaming sword at the gate of the garden of Eden, turneth every way. Or I may say of it what David said of the sword of Goliath, “There is none like that; give it me.” Human language can never tell a thousandth part of the value of power with God.

You scarcely need to be told that it cannot be anything like physical force in opposition to God. It is power with God, not power against God, that is mentioned in our text. No creature, however mighty, can have any power to stand in opposition to Omnipotence. Who are we that we should ever stand up to oppose the Most High? Let the tow contend with the fierce flame, or the wax with the burning heat, but let us not contend with God. If we did so, we should be, like the moth in the candle, utterly consumed. The strongest and the proudest men must be but as stubble in the day of God’s anger. In fact, to think of man having any power against God is sheer madness, for we have not any power at all apart from God. We only exist because he wills it. The breath in our nostrils is his gift moment by moment; we should go back to the nothingness from which we sprang if he withdrew, for a single instant, his sustaining hand. Man has no power against God. O you foolish sinners, who are resisting him, give up the unequal battle! I charge you, before God, to count the cost of a contest with your Maker before you begin it. As well might a potsherd strive with him who moulds it as for you, a creature, to strive with your Creator. He will break you in pieces, like a potter’s vessels, in the day of his anger. Therefore, be wise, and end the fight, and be at peace with him.

Neither can this “power with God” mean mental power. There are persons, who seem to exalt their intellect even above God himself. It is a fine thing to be gifted with powers of argument, and to have a keen reasoning faculty; but, at the same time, to some people, these are very dangerous possessions. I know certain individuals, who say that they will never believe what they cannot understand. If they adhere to that determination, they will never believe in their own existence, for they certainly cannot understand that. They seek to overthrow the Word of God and the doctrines of the gospel with their subtle wit and profound thought; but it is sheer madness for human folly to contend with divine wisdom. It is insanity carried to the very highest point for even the wisest of men to think that their intellects are a match for the omniscience of God, for “the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” Even the simplicity of the gospel,-and it is very simple,-and “the foolishness of preaching,”-which, in some people’s esteem, is utter foolishness, shall win the victory, while those who imagine that they are wise shall be proved to be fools. Brothers and sisters, let us never attempt to argue any case in opposition to God’s will, for we cannot have any power with him in that way. Let us always surrender our judgment to the teaching of his Word, and conform our will to his will. If we ever think that a certain course is best, but it is evident, by the working of God’s providence, that he does not think so, let us not for a single moment hold a debate with him; but let us say, as David did, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.” If God does anything, that is enough for us. If God says anything, that is enough for us. Instead of arguing and reasoning, “It is written,” or “God has said it,” is sufficient to settle any question that concerns a Christian.

It is almost needful, in these days of superstition, to say that neither can any man have any magical power with God; for, albeit that people nowadays would be ashamed to confess that they believed in magical arts, yet something very akin to it seems still to exist among mankind. They suppose that there is some efficacy in the mere repetition of certain words. I am sure they must think so, for they do not put their hearts into the words; but they are quite content if they have galloped through a collect, or some set form of prayer. Another supposition is that the prayer is all the better for being offered by a certain individual who is ordained to that particular work, so those who are sick send for an official to come and “pray to them,”-I have often heard that expression, as though it was thought that this person, by reading a prayer out of a book, could, by a sort of magic, do the sick one good. O sirs, mere words strung together, whether they be in Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or English, are of no avail before God! It is the utterance of the heart that he hears, and you must never imagine that there is any excellence in a certain arrangement of letters and sounds, or that certain men, by the use of these words, can bring down blessings from above. Oh, no; Jacob had no abracadabra, no talisman, no magic, no charm, no enchantment; and God forbid that you and I should ever be such heathens as to believe that there is any power with God in any such things! God is not prevailed upon to grant his blessings by any such fooleries as these; he utterly abhors them.

And, again, when we speak of having power with God, we must not suppose that any man can have any meritorious power with God. It has been thought, by some people, that a man can attain to a certain degree of merit, and that, then, he will receive heaven’s blessings;-if he offers a certain number of prayers, if he does this, or feels that, or suffers the other, then he will stand in high favour with God. Many are living under this delusion; and, in their way, are trying to get power with God by what they are, or do, or suffer. They think they would get power with God if they were to feel sin more, or if they were to weep more, or if they were to repent more. It is always something that they are to do, or something they are to produce in themselves, which they are to bring before God, so that, when he sees it, he will say, “Now I will have mercy upon you, and grant you the blessing you crave.” O dear friends, all this is contrary to the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ! There is far more power with God in the humble acknowledgment of sinfulness than in a boastful claim of cleanliness,-much more power in pleading that grace will forgive than in asking that justice should reward; because, when we plead our emptiness and sin, we plead the truth; but when we talk about our goodness and meritorious doings, we plead a lie; and lies can never have any power in the presence of the God of truth. O brethren and sisters, let us for ever shake off from us, as we would shake a viper from our hand, all idea that, by any goodness of ours, which even the Spirit of God might work in us, we should be able to deserve anything at God’s hands, and to claim as a right anything from the justice of our Maker!

Now, secondly, let us enquire whence this power proceeds. If anyone asks, “How can a man have power with God?” the answer is, “Not because the power is in him, but he can have power with God by reason of something that is in God.”

First, God’s people get power with him from the very character of God’s nature. You will soon see what I mean. Have you ever visited a family in the depths of poverty, and found them with a few rags to sleep upon, with nothing whatever in the cupboard, with a child dying for want of food, mother and father with pinched countenances, who tell you that, for the last forty-eight hours, they have had nothing whatever to eat? And have you not felt that they have had power over you, so that you could not help relieving them? I am certain that it has been so, if you have a tender heart, and are of a gracious, generous spirit. The power that they have over you does not arise from their riches, but quite the reverse, from their poverty. Their power over you does not lie in their being respectable and well-to-do,-quite the opposite; their power over you lies in their being in abject distress. Their misery has power to excite your pity. Because you see them in such a sad state, you, being a man of compassionate spirit, are straightway moved to try to relieve them. There is many a spectacle of suffering and sorrow, in this world, that even a strong man cannot bear to look at, especially if he is unable to relieve those who are in distress. Now, if we, being evil, are so stirred by the sight of human misery, how much more is our Heavenly Father, who is all goodness, and tenderness, and gentleness, and love, moved to pity by the miseries of his children. Whenever you and I come to him, it is wise for us to plead before him our weakness, that he may pity it, and make us strong,-our poverty, that he may pity it, and enrich us,-our dire necessity, that he may pity it, and supply all our need,-our low estate, our sinking heart, our trembling spirit, our utter nothingness. In that way, we shall have power with him.

If you have been accustomed to visit the poor, you know how those, who have got to be “old stagers” at receiving charity, never put their best leg foremost when they want to impress you with a due sense of their need. If they had a little of anything in the house, they would take care that you did not see it. If there has been any improvement in their circumstances since you last called upon them, you will have to fish a long while before you will find it out; but they are very apt at bringing forward the black side of their case, because their power lies there with those who have generous hearts. And so, brethren, our power with God, when we come to him as sinners, lies not in what we are, but in what God is. He is love, he is pity, he is tenderness, he is gentleness. He willeth not the death of a sinner, but delights to display his saving mercy, to manifest the abundance of his grace. The foundation of our power with God must always lie in the love and tenderness of God. He is susceptible of pity; yea, he is tenderness itself. He is a God of compassion; and therefore it is that the poor, feeble sons of Adam have power with him.

But we get a further view of the source whence this power with God proceeds when we reach the next point, namely, God’s promise. God has, in his Word, been pleased to say that he will do this and that, and give this and that. He was quite free, once, to do whatever he pleased; but now that God has given us his promise, he is not free to break it, and it would be inconsistent with his glorious attributes that he should do so. Neither will he ever be false to a single syllable that has gone forth out of his mouth. When God gave his promise, he did, as it were, put himself in the power of those who know how to plead the promise. Every promise is so much strength given to the man who has faith in the promise, for he may with it overcome even the omnipotent God himself. Why, brethren, if your character is what it should be, and a person comes to you, and says, “You promised to give me such-and-such a thing,” has not the person, who can say that, power over you to the full extent of your promise? If you are a true man, he has beaten you at once. If you say to him, “But when did I give you that promise? You may have misunderstood what I said;” and he puts his hand in his pocket, and brings out your promise in black and white, with your name signed to it, there is no getting away from that, is there? Now, that is just the way in which God gives us power with him, for he has given us his promise in black and white, here it is in the Book which we know to be his Book, his own infallible Word. It is a blessed thing to be able to come before God on your knees, and to put your finger on a promise in the Bible, and to say, “Lord, this is what thou hast promised that thou wilt do; I beseech thee to do it, because thou art the God of truth. I know that thou canst not lie, so I remind thee of thy promise, and plead with thee to do as thou hast said.” Do you not see what power you have with God when he has given you faith thus to lay hold upon him, bringing his own gracious promise in your hand? There is a conquering power in faith, because faith pleads the promise of God.

Thus, you see, there are two sources of power,-God’s nature, and God’s promise.

But the true child of God knows of other sources of power with God; so, next, he pleads the relationships of grace. God, in his infinite mercy, has been pleased to choose certain people to be his children. “Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” There was no reason, in themselves, why they should be his sons and daughters; but his sovereign grace adopted them, and his Spirit regenerated them. But the moment that God made any one of us his child, he did again-I speak with all reverence,-give us power with him, and put himself into our hands. Who among us does not know the power of a child over his father? There are some children who have too much power. There is a Greek story of the little boy who ruled all Athens, because he ruled his mother, and his mother ruled his father, and has father ruled the senate, and the senate ruled Athens; and so, in that way, the little boy practically ruled the whole city; and I am afraid that there are some children who have a good deal too much power in that way. But our Heavenly Father, though he is too wise to indulge us in that way, is so good that he will not deny us any privilege that, by right, belongs to the position of a child. When your child appeals to you because there is something that he really needs, but which you have withheld from him, and he says, at last, “But, my dear father, wilt thou not grant me this?” or if you have chastened him, and he says, “Father, stay thy hand; am I not thy child?” you cannot resist his appeal. He has power with you; you know that he has. And what a wonderful power we have when we can truly say, “Abba! Father!” We shall have power with God in our times of greatest weakness if we can cry, “Abba! Father!” I can never forget a certain illness, when I had been racked with pain, and brought very low with heaviness of spirit through the nature of the complaint from which I was suffering, and I felt driven almost to despair, one night, until I laid hold of God, in an agony of prayer, and pleaded with him something like this, “If my child were in such anguish as I am in, I would listen to him, and relieve him if I could. Thou art my Father, and I am thy child, then wilt thou not treat me like a child?” Almost at the very moment when I presented that plea before God, my pain ceased, and I fell into a sweet slumber, from which I woke up with “Abba! Father!” on my lip and in my heart. I believe that this is an invincible plea, because, when God calls himself our Father, he means it. There are some fathers, in this world, who do not act at all as fathers should;-shame upon them; but that will never be said of our Heavenly Father. He is a true Father, and he has bowels of compassion towards his children, and he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men; and when we know how to appeal to his Fatherhood, we shall prevail with him.

Once more, dear friends, the power that we have with God also springs from his past actions. Look at what he has done for his own people. First, he chose them. Well, then, as he chose them, he cannot cast them away, because he is an immutable God; as he has made his choice, he stands to it. Paul asks, “Hath God cast away his people?” And he answers his own question, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.” That is what he has never done. Then, in addition to choosing us, he has also redeemed us; and after he has redeemed us from destruction by the blood of his Son, can he suffer us to be lost? Can he pay for us such a price as that, and yet neglect to keep us to the end? That cannot be. When he gave his Son as a ransom for us, he did indeed put himself into our hands; for “he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Do but know that God gave his Son for you, dear friend,-know that Jesus Christ is yours, and the logic of your prayer is clear enough, and forcible enough, when you say, “What canst thou deny me, O my Father? Thou hast given me thy Son; so, by his blood and wounds, by his life, and death, and resurrection glory, give my spirit the grace it needs, since thou hast given me Jesus Christ.”

Do you not see, dear brethren and sisters in Christ, that every mercy which God has bestowed upon you gives you power over him? Therefore, you sing, with John Newton,-

“His love in time past forbids me to think

He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,

Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through.”

If he has done so much for us, will he not do still more? Does not every blessing, which is bestowed by God, come to us with this message in its mouth, “There is more to follow;” and may we not be quite sure that he, who has blessed us now for forty years, for fixty, sixty, seventy,-and I see some who have numbered eighty years, and you have had God’s blessing all the while,-then, has he not, by all these years of favour and mercy, pledged and bound himself to bless you even to the end? Assuredly it is so.

Now, in the third place, notice how this power with God can be exercised by Christians. What shape does power with God take? Of course, it takes the shape of prayer. Christians put forth the power they have with God when they draw near to him to ask for blessings upon themselves and upon others; but it is not every man who prays who has power with God, or who knows how to use the power which really exists. Who are the people who really have power with God? I will tell you.

First, this power is exercised by those who are deeply sensible of their own weakness. No man has power with God who thinks he is strong, except in the sense in which Paul wrote, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” I have an idea, and I think that Scripture supports it, that Jacob wrestled very hard with the angel, but that he never won the victory till the angel touched the hollow of his thigh, and caused the sinew to shrink. Then, when Jacob could not any longer stand, as he fell, he clutched the angel with all his might as though he would pull him down also if he must himself go down, and the weight of Jacob was all the greater because he could not stand. His very weakness was an element of his strength, and that moment of weakness was the moment of his victory. Now, if you go to God feeling that you are partly full, he will not fill you, but will wait till you are quite empty before he will pour his blessing into you. He will not mix oil with water; and until he has emptied all the water out of the vessel, he will not begin to pour in his oil or his wine. When you feel that you have a little strength for prayer, I think it is very likely that you will not have power with God; but when it comes to this, that you cry out, “O God, I can do nothing; all my power is turned to utter weakness; I am driven to the lowest extremity;” then, in the very desperation of your weakness, you will clutch the promise-making God, and, as it were, drag down the angel, and win the blessing, as Jacob did. It is your weakness that will do it, not your strength.

Have you ever tried to go to God as a fully-sanctified man? I did so once; I had heard some of the “perfect” brethren, who are travelling to heaven by the “high level” railway, and I thought I would try their plan of praying. I went before the Lord as a consecrated and sanctified man. I knocked at the gate; I had been accustomed to gain admittance the first time I knocked; but, this time, I did not. I knocked again, and kept on knocking, though I did not feel quite easy in my conscience about what I was doing. At last, I clamoured loudly to be let in; and when they asked me who I was, I replied that I was a perfectly-consecrated and fully-sanctified man; but they said that they did not know me! The fact was, they had never seen me in that character before. At last, when I felt that I must get in, and must have a blessing, I knocked again; and when the keeper of the gate asked, “Who is there?” I answered, “I am Charles Spurgeon, a poor sinner, who has no sanctification or perfection of his own to talk about, but who is trusting alone to Jesus Christ, the sinners’ Saviour.” The gate-keeper said, “Oh, it is you, is it? Come in; we know you well enough, we have known you these many years,” and then I went in directly. I believe that is the best way of praying, and the way to win the day. It is when you have got on your fine feathers and top-knots that the Lord will not know you; when you have taken them all off, and gone to him as you went at the first, then you can say to him,-

“Once a sinner near despair

Sought thy mercy-seat by prayer;

Mercy heard, and set him free,

Lord, that mercy came to me;”-

“and I am that poor publican, who dared not lift so much as his eyes towards heaven, but smote upon his breast, and cried, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ and he went home to his house justified rather than the brother over there, who talked so proudly about the higher life, but who went home without a blessing.” Yes, my brother, you are strong when you are weak, and you are perfect when you know that you are imperfect, and you are nearest to heaven when you think you are farthest off. The less you esteem yourself, the higher is God’s esteem of you.

Again, in order to have power with God, we must have simple faith. Nobody who doubts can prevail with God. The promise is not to the waverer, for James says, “Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” The man who gets the blessing is the one who fully believes in God’s promise, and who so believes in it that he acts upon it. I shall never forget the faith of a certain member of this church, who is still living. About eighteen or nineteen years ago, I was very ill indeed. Most people thought that I should die; but, one morning, very early, this good brother came down to my house, and asked to see my wife. It was just about daybreak, and when she saw him, he said to her, “I have spent all this night wrestling with God for your husband’s life. We cannot afford to lose our Pastor, and I feel sure that he is going to live, so I thought I would just walk here, and tell you so.” “Thank you, thank you,” said my wife, “I am very grateful for your prayers and for your faith.” It is not everybody who can pray to God like that, and we fail to obtain the blessings that we seek because we do not pray like that. But, dear brothers and sisters, if we were to believe God just as we believe our friends,-if we were to give God as much trust as we give to our husbands and our wives,-how strong in faith we should be! He deserves a thousand times more confidence than we can ever repose in the very best of our relatives or friends, and if we have faith in his promises, we shall certainly overcome him. If you trust him, he cannot fail you. It is possible for even a good man to fail one who trusts him, but it is quite impossible for God to fail the soul that has relied upon him.

I am sure that, if we ministers only believe God more, and preach more in faith, he will honour us more. I fancy that, if God were to give us Pentecostal blessings, it would be seen that many of us are by no means ready to receive them. Suppose there were five thousand persons converted in one day here, most of the churches round about would say, “There is a shocking state of excitement over at the Tabernacle; it is really dreadful!” The very “sound” brethren would feel that we had gone off into Arminianism, or some other error; and I expect that some of you would say, very dolefully, “Oh, dear! dear! dear! dear! We do hope they will all stand.” The first thought that would be excited in many Christian minds would be one of suspicion. I am sure that, if we reported that, anywhere in England, three thousand were brought to know the Lord in one day, there is not one Christian in ten who would believe that such a thing was possible, and there is not one in a hundred who would think that it was true; and we ministers would be very much of the same mind. I was preaching in Bedford, and I prayed that God would bless the sermon, and give me at least some few souls that afternoon. When I had done, there was an old Wesleyan brother there who gave me a good scolding, which I richly deserved. He said to me, “I did not say ‘Amen’ when you were asking for a few souls to be converted, for I thought you were limiting the Holy One of Israel. Why did you not pray with all your heart for all of them to be saved? I did,” he added, “and that was why I did not say ‘Amen’ to your narrow prayer.” It is often the case that we preachers do not honour God by believing that he will give great blessings; and, therefore, he does not honour us by giving those great blessings. But if we maintained a closer adherence to the truth, and had a firmer confidence that God’s Word shall never return unto him void, he would do far greater things by us than he ever yet has done.

To this sense of our own weakness, and our full belief in God, we must add earnest attention to his Word. Brother, you cannot expect God to listen to you if you will not listen to him; and when you ask of God, you must not imagine that he will give to you what you ask of him if you do not give to him what he asks of you. If a man loves to sin, his prayers cannot speed with the God of holiness. When God says to a man “Such-and-such a thing is to be done,” and the man says, “I will not do it,” the next time he goes to God in prayer, it is very likely that the Lord will say to him, “As you did not do as I wished, I shall not do as you wish.” The toleration of any known sin deprives us of power with God, and the neglect of any known duty prevents a man from succeeding when he is on his knees. If you would prevail with God, you must have “a conscience void of offence.” You must go before the Lord confessing your sin, and saying, “O Lord, help me to do thy will in all things! I am perfectly willing to do so, and I wish to be thy loyal, obedient servant in all things.” If you do that, you will find that whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

In addition to all that I have said, the man who is to prevail with God must be a man who is terribly in earnest. What an earnest man Jacob was in that night of wrestling! What a grand utterance that was, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me”! Cold prayers do, as it were, ask God not to listen to them. When you pray for anything, if you do not present your petition with earnestness and fervour, you cannot expect the Lord to hear you. Some people, when they pray, are like the little boys in the street, who give run-away knocks at the door, and off they go; but the man who prays aright gets a hold of the knocker of the door of mercy, and he knocks, and knocks, and if there is no answer, he knocks again and again, and if there is not then an answer, he knocks again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and the longer he is kept waiting, the more loudly he knocks till, at last, you would think that he was going to carry the house by storm, and make the door-posts start out of their sockets, he knocks so hard. That is the kind of man who wins the day with God,-the man who will not let the Lord go until he blesses him. The prayers of John Knox brought down upon Scotland such copious blessings because they were the prayers of a man whose heart was all on fire with sacred earnestness, and who prayed with his whole soul and spirit. Our Lord Jesus himself said, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

To all these qualifications for power with God we must add holy importunity. Wrestling is not merely laying hold of a man, and then letting him go. I wonder how Jacob did hold that man who wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. I warrant you that he had a tight grip of him, and I expect that, sometimes, it was specially leg-work, and then arm-work, and then loin-work; for, when men wrestle in real earnest, all their sinews, and muscles, and bones, and limbs are brought into play. So it must have been with Jacob that night, and he kept on holding the angel fast, and saying in his soul, if not with his lips,-

“With thee all night I mean to stay,

And wrestle till the break of day;”-

and, therefore, the blessing was given to him because he kept on struggling for it. There are some mercies which never will be bestowed except in answer to continued, importunate prayer. O brother or sister, if you know how to keep on pleading, you are the one who has power with God! You will be called Israel if you can spend the whole night in resolute, determined, humble, believing importunity; the blessing must come if you feel that you cannot do without it, because it is for God’s glory that it should be bestowed upon you.

And, dear friends, there is great power with God when, in importunate prayer, we at last come to tearful entreaty. In Hosea 12:4, the prophet tells us that Jacob “had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him.” Moses does not tell us that in the Book of Genesis, but Hosea also had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he gives us this interesting item concerning Jacob’s wrestling, that “he wept.” I think I see the patriarch covered with sweat through his great exertions in wrestling, but, in addition, his heart is breaking within him, and he is sighing and crying all the while, and the hot tears are falling on the angel’s hand; and I think it was the tears that finally won the victory. You remember that, when our Lord Jesus Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane, “he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;” and the man who knows how to weep, if not actually, yet with real spiritual tears, the man whose soul gets stirred up to a passionate agony of desire, is the man who has power with God. If we have any such members in this church,-and I believe that we have many who really do weep over the souls of sinners,-they are the men and women who will bring down the blessing in answer to their prayers and tears. Brothers and sisters, if you are in the habit of weeping over your unconverted children, and, in your pleadings with God for their salvation, are in the habit of weeping unless the blessing comes, you are sure to get the blessing sooner or later. You are the very strength of the church, you are the lifeguards of the church, and God will be sure to give innumerable blessings in answer to those prayers and tears of yours. May we have many such church-members, for these are people who have power with God!

I close by briefly noticing to what use this power may be turned.

Whenever this power with God is given, it will bring down many blessings upon the person who has it, and it will also make him the means of great blessing to others. My time has almost gone, so I will only dwell on that second point.

Abraham was a man who had power with God, but there was poor Lot living over in Sodom, just as a great many professing Christians are doing to-day. I hope they are God’s people, but I cannot make them out. They like worldly amusements, and they like worldly talk; they are like Lot in Sodom. I wonder how they can endure the foul atmosphere in which they live. I have often said that the grace of God can live where I could not. There are some people with whom I should not like to live, yet I trust the grace of God is in them; at least, I hope so, I must not judge them. But, dear brethren, if ever that part of the church which is like Lot in Sodom gets a blessing, it must be through you who are like Abraham, and have power with God. Pray for your poor inconsistent brethren; entreat the Lord to prevent them from going any further into sin. Ask the Lord that they may not be destroyed with Sodom in the day of his vengeance, and the Lord will hear you, and bring Lot safely out of Sodom, though it may be that Lot will have to lose all that he has got, and lose his wife, too, before he will be got out. You will get him out if you know how to pray for him.

Moses was another man who had power with God. You remember that, when the Israelites made the golden calf, the Lord said to Moses, “Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.” Was not that a wonderful opportunity for Moses? He was to be made into a great nation, and all the rest of the people were to be destroyed. But you recollect how Moses pleaded with the Lord, and he did not plead in vain. The Lord said to him, “Let me alone, that I may consume them;” but it seems as though Moses stood up, and grasped God’s hand, in which he held his rod of vengeance, and at last the Lord said that he would pardon the nation, and spare them in answer to the plea of Moses, the man who had power with God.

And there was Aaron, too, when the plague broke out among the people who had murmured against him and Moses, and thousands were being struck dead. At the command of Moses, he took a censer, and filled it with burning coals and incense, and ran into the midst of the congregation just where the death-wave had come; “and he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed,” for Aaron, the high priest with his censer, had power with God. The Lord Jesus Christ, Aaron’s great Antitype, is continually exercising this power on the behalf of his people, and he also helps some of his servants to do the same work,-Martin Luther, to wit. How he seemed to stand with the censer of the gospel between the living and the dead; and, in other dark times and perilous ages, God has raised up many eminent servants to whom he has given that same censer of the gospel, which pours forth a sweet savour of Christ as they also swing it to and fro, standing between the living and the dead. Oh, that God would give power to many of you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in some such way as this! Recollect the power that the early Christians had with God to get Peter out of prison. If you have power with God, it is an engine which you may turn in all manner of ways for the blessing of your fellow-Christians and of poor outcast sinners. Therefore, I charge you to seek it; and when you get it, hold it fast, and walk humbly before God that he may not take this power away from you; but may you be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

OUR BANNER

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, March 15th, 1906, delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

In the year 1863.

“Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.”-Psalm 60:4.

Most writers upon this Psalm, after having referred the banner to the kingdom of David, say that there is here a reference to the Messiah. We believe there is. Nor is that reference an obscure allusion. In the Lord Jesus we find the clue to the history and the solution of the prophecy. He is the banner,-he is the ensign that is lifted up before the people. He is Jehovah-nissi, “the Lord my banner,” whom it is our joy to follow, and around whom it is our delight to rally. We shall not stay to prove,-though we might readily do so,-that the banner here intended is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ in the majesty of his person,-in the efficacy of his merit,-in the completeness of his righteousness,-in the sureness of his triumph,-in the glory of his advent. If you read it with an eye to him, you have the meaning at once: “Thou hast given Christ as a banner to them that fear thee, to be displayed because of the truth.” So let us consider our Lord Jesus Christ, first, as he is compared to a banner; secondly, by whom he is given; thirdly, to whom he is given; and fourthly, for what purpose.

Let us consider our Lord Jesus Christ as he is compared to a banner.

The banner was far more useful, I suppose, in ancient than it is in modern warfare. Times have changed, and we are changed by them. Yet we still speak with reverence of the old flag. There is much meaning in the phrase, “the flag that’s braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze.” The soldier still loves the flag of his country, and the sailor still looks with patriotic pride to the flag that has so long floated at England’s masthead. Our metaphor, however, rather points to ancient than present usage.

We should notice, first of all, that the banner was lifted up and displayed as the point of union. When a leader was about to gather troops for a war, he hoisted his banner, and then every man rallied to the standard. The coming to the standard, the rallying round the banner, was the joining with the prince, the espousing of his cause. In the day of battle, when there was ever a likelihood that the host would be put to flight, the valiant men all fought around the banner. Its defence was of the first and chief consequence. They might leave the baggage for a while; they might forsake the smaller flags of the divisions; but the great blood-red banner that with prayer had been consecrated, they must all gather round it, and there, if need be, shed their heart’s blood.

Christ, my brethren, is the point of union for all the soldiers of the cross. I know of no other place where all Christians can meet. We cannot all meet-I am sorry that we cannot,-at the baptismal stream. There are some who will not be baptized; they persist still in the sin of putting drops of water in the place of the ordained flood, and bringing infants where faith is required. We cannot all meet even around the table of the Eucharist; there are some who thrust aside their brethren, because they do not see eye to eye with them; and even the communion table has sometimes become a field of battle. But all Christians can meet in the person of Christ; all true hearts can meet in the work of Christ. This is a banner that we all love, if we be Christians, and far hence be those who are not. Hither to thy cross, O Jesus, do we come! The Churchman, laden with his many forms and vestments; the Presbyterian, with his stern Covenant, and his love of those who stained the heather with their blood; the Independent, with his passion for liberty, and the separateness of the free churches; the Methodist, with his intricate forms of Church Government, sometimes forms of bondage, but still forms of power; the Baptist, remembering his ancient pedigree, and the days in which his fathers were hounded even by Christians themselves, and counted not worthy of that name; they all come to Christ. Various opinions divide them; they see not eye to eye on many matters; here and there, they will have a skirmish for the old landmarks; and rightly so, for we ought to be jealous, as Josiah was, to do that which is right in the sight of the Lord, and neither decline to the right hand nor to the left. But we rally to the cross of Christ; and there, all weapons of internecine warfare being cast aside, we meet as brethren, fellow-comrades in a blessed Evangelical Alliance, who are prepared to suffer and to die for his dear sake. Forward then, Christians, to the point of union! In the crusade against the powers of darkness, with the salvation of sinners for my one undivided aim, little care I for anything but the lifting up of my Master’s gospel, and the proclamation of the Word of mercy through his flowing blood.

Again, the banner, in time of war, was the great guide-star; it was the direction to the soldier. You remember what special care they took, in the day of battle, that, in case the standard-bearer should fall, there might still be some means of guiding the warriors.

So, to this day, Christ is the great Guide of the Christian in the day of battle. There is no fear that Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, will ever fail. Fix your eye upon him, Christian; and if you would know the best way to fight, fight in his footsteps, imitate his every action, let your life be a copy of his life. You need never stop to ask for directions: the life of Christ is the Christian’s model. You need not turn to your fellow-believer, and say, “Comrade, what are we to do now? The smoke of battle gathers, and the cries are various; which way shall I go?” The apostle Paul has given us our directions: “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Press forward, in Christ’s footsteps, saying, “God hath given thee, my Saviour, to be to me a banner because of the truth.”

In these two respects, as the central point for rallying, and as the direction to the warrior, Christ is our banner.

And the banner, let it be remembered, is always the chief object of attack. The moment the adversary sees it, his object is to strike there. If it be not the most vulnerable point, it will be at least the point where the adversary’s power is most felt. Did they not of old aim their shots at the flagstaff so as to cut down the banner? Whenever the old Knights of the Red Cross fought the Saracens, they always endeavoured to make their steel ring upon the helmet of the man whose hand held the standard of Mohammed; the fight was ever fiercest around the standard. Sometimes, when the battle was over, the field would be strewn with legs, and arms, and mangled bodies; but, in one place, there would be a heap where they were piled one upon another, a great mountain of flesh and armour, broken bones and smashed skulls, and one would ask, “What means this? How came they here? How trampled they so one upon another, and fought in pools of human blood?” The answer would be, “ ’Twas there the standard-bearer stood, and first the adversary made a dash, and stole the banner; and then fifty knights vowed to redeem it, and they dashed against their foes, and took it by storm; and then again hand to hand they fought with the banner between them, first in one hand and then in another, changing ownership each hour.”

So, dear friends, Christ Jesus has always been the object of attack. You remember that, when divine justice came forth against Christ on Calvary, it made five rents in the great banner, and those five rents, all glorious, are in that banner still. Since that day, many a shot has sought to riddle it, but not one has been able to touch it. Borne aloft, first by one hand and then by another, the mighty God of Jacob being the strength of the standard-bearers, that flag has bidden defiance to the leaguered hosts of the world, the flesh, and the devil; but never has it been trailed in the mire, and never once carried in jeering triumph by the adversary. Blessed are the rents in the banner, for they are the symbol of our victory. Those five wounds in the person of the Saviour are the gates of heaven to us. But, thank God, there are no more wounds to be endured; the person of our Lord is safe for ever. “A bone of him shall not be broken.” His gospel, too, is an unwounded gospel, and his mystical body is uninjured. Yes; the gospel is unharmed after all the strife of ages. The infidel threatens to rend the gospel to pieces, but it is as glorious as ever; modern scepticism has sought to pull it thread from thread, but has not been able so much as to rend a fragment of it. Every now and then, fresh adversaries have found out some new methods of induction or declamation, essaying to prove the gospel to be a lie, and Christ an impostor. Have they succeeded? Nay, verily, they have all had to fly from the field. The good old banner of the Lord Omnipotent, even Christ Jesus, still stands erect above them all.

And why should the banner be the object of attack but for this very reason, that it is the symbol of defiance? As soon as ever the banner is lifted up, it is, as it were, flaunted in the face of the foe. It seems to say to him, “Do your worst,-come on! We are not afraid of you,-we defy you!” So, when Christ is preached, there is a defiance given to the enemies of the Lord. Every time a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit, it is as though the shrill clarion woke up the fiends of hell, for such a sermon seems to say to them, “Christ is come forth again to deliver his lawful captives out of your power; the King of kings has come to take away your dominions, to wrest from you your stolen treasures, and to proclaim himself your Master.” There is a stern joy that the minister sometimes feels when he thinks of himself as the antagonist of the powers of hell. Martin Luther seems to have felt it when he said, “Come, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm, and let the devil do his worst!” That was lifting up the standard of the cross. If you want to defy the devil, don’t go about preaching philosophy; don’t sit down, and write out fine sermons, with long sentences, three-quarters of a mile in extent; don’t try and cull fine, smooth phrases that will sound sweetly in people’s ears. The devil doesn’t care a bit for this; but talk about Christ, preach about the sufferings of the Saviour, tell sinners that there is life in a look at him, and straightway the devil taketh great umbrage. Look at many of the ministers in London! They preach in their pulpits from the first of January to the last of December, and nobody finds fault with them, because they prophesy such smooth things. But let a man preach Christ, let him declaim about the power of Jesus to save, and press home gospel truth with simplicity and boldness, straightway the fiends of darkness will be against him; and, if they cannot bite, they will show that they can howl and bark. There is a symbol of defiance in the banner of the cross; it is God’s symbol of defiance, his gauntlet thrown down to the confederated powers of darkness, a gauntlet which they dare not take up, for they know what tremendous power for good there is in the uplifting of the cross of Christ. Wave, then, your banner, O ye soldiers of the cross; each in your place and rank keep watch and ward, but wave your banner still; for though the adversary shall be full of wrath, it is because he knoweth that his time is short when once the cross of Christ is lifted up.

We have not quite exhausted the metaphor yet. The banner was ever a source of consolation to the wounded. There he lies, the good knight; right well has he fought without fear and without reproach; but a chance arrow pierced the joints of his harness, and his life is oozing out from the ghastly wound. There is no one there to unbuckle his helmet, or give him a draught of cooling water; his frame is locked up in that hard case of steel, and though he feels the smart, he cannot gain relief. He hears the mingled cries, the hoarse shouts of men that rush in fury against their fellows; and he opens his eyes,-as yet he has not fainted from his bleeding. Where, think you, does he look? He turns himself round. What is he looking for? For friend? For comrade? No. Should they come to him, he would say, “Just lift me up, and let me sit against that tree, but go you to the fight.” Where is that restless eye searching, and what is the object for which it is looking? Yes, he has it; and the face of the dying man is brightened. He sees the banner still waving, and with his last breath he cries, “On! on! on!” and falls asleep content, because the banner is safe. It has not been cast down. Though he has fallen, yet the banner is secure. Even so, every true soldier of the cross rejoices in its triumph. We fall, but Christ does not. We die, but the cause prospers. As I have told you before, when my heart was most sad,-as it never was before nor since,-that sweet text, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name,” quite cheered my soul, and set me again in peace and comfort. Is Jesus safe? Then it never matters what becomes of me. Is the banner all right? Doth it wave on high? Then the adversary hath not won the day; he hath felled one and another, but he himself shall be broken in pieces, for the banner still glares in the sun.

And, lastly, the banner is the emblem of victory. When the fighting is over, and the soldier cometh home, what does he bring? His blood-stained flag. And what is borne highest in the procession as it winds through the streets? It is the flag. They hang it in the minster; high up there in the roof, and where the incense smoketh, and where the song of praise ascendeth, there hangs the. banner, honoured and esteemed, borne in conflict and in danger. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ shall be our banner in the last day, and when all our foes shall be under our feet. A little while, and he that will come shall come, and will not tarry. A little while, and we shall see-

“Jehovah’s banner furled,

Sheathed his sword; he speaks! ’tis done,

And the kingdoms of this world

Are the kingdoms of his Son.”

And then Jesus, high above us all, shall be exalted, and through the streets of the holy city the acclamations shall ring, “Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Let us turn to our second point for a few moments. It is this: Who gave us this banner? By whom was Christ given to us?

Soldiers often esteem the colours for the sake of the person who first bestowed them. You and I ought greatly to esteem our precious Christ for the sake of God who gave him to us: “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee.” God gave us this banner in old eternity. Christ was given by the eternal Father, from everlasting, or ever the earth was, to his elect people, to be the Messiah of God, the Saviour of the world. He was given in the manger, when “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” He was given upon the cross when the Father bestowed every drop of his Son’s blood, and every nerve of his body, and every power of his soul, to bleed and die, “the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” “Thou hast given a banner.”

That banner was given to each one of us in the day of our conversion. Christ became, from that time forth, our glory and our boast. And he is given to some of us, especially, when we are called to the ministry, or when the Holy Spirit’s guidance puts us upon any extraordinary work for Christ. Then is the banner, in a direct and especial manner, committed to our care. There are some here who have had this banner given to them to carry in the midst of the Sunday-school. A dear sister here has it. A beloved brother has it to bear in the midst of many of this congregation. The young men of our College, of our Evening Classes, and many others of you, workers for Christ, have that banner, that you may bear it in the streets, that you may lift up the name of Jesus in the causeways, and in the places of assembly. And, in a certain measure, all of you, who love the Lord, have that banner given to you, that in your various spheres of service you may talk of Jesus, and lift up his holy name.

Now, inasmuch as God himself gives us this banner, with what reverence should we look upon it, with what ardour should we cluster round it, with what zeal should we defend it, with what enthusiasm should we follow it, with what faith and confidence should we rush even into death itself for its defence!

Thirdly, to whom is this banner given?

The text says, “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee.” Not to all men. God has a chosen people. These chosen people are known, in due time, by their outward character. That outward grace-wrought character is this, they fear God, and they that fear God are the only persons who ought to carry this banner. Shall the banner be put into a drunkard’s hands? Shall the great truth of Christ be left to those who live in sin? Oh, it is a wretched thing when men come into the pulpit to preach who have never known and felt the power of the gospel themselves! Time was-but times are changed somewhat,-when, in multitudes of our parish pulpits, men whose characters were unhallowed preached to others what they never practised themselves. To such, the banner ought not to be given. Men must fear God, or else they are not worthy to bear it.

Moreover, none but these can bear it. What others bear is not the banner; it is but an imitation of it. It is not Christ they preach; it is a diluted thing that is not the gospel of Jesus. They cannot proclaim it to others till they know it themselves. It is given to them that fear God, because they will have courage to bear it. Fear is often the mother of courage. To fear God, makes a man brave. To fear man, is cowardly, I grant; but to fear God, with humble awe and holy reverence, is such a noble passion that I would we were more and more full thereof, blending, as it were, the fear of Isaac with the faith of Abraham. To fear God, will make the weakest of us play the man, and the most craven of us become heroes for the Lord our God.

Now, inasmuch as this banner is given to those that fear God, if you fear God, it is given to you. I do not know in what capacity you are to bear it, but I do know there is somewhere or other where you have to carry it. Mother, let the banner wave in your household. Merchant, let the banner be fixed upon your house of business. Let it be unfurled and fly at your masthead, O sailor! Bear the banner, O soldier, in your regiment! Yours is a stern duty, for, alas! the Christian soldier hath a path of trial that few men have trodden. God make you faithful, and may you be honoured as a good soldier of Jesus Christ! Some of you are poor, and work hard in the midst of many artisans who fear not God. Take your banner with you, and never be ashamed of your colours. You cannot be long in a workshop before your companions will pull their colours out. They will soon begin talking to you about their sinful pleasures, their amusements, perhaps their infidel principles. Take your banner out likewise. Tell them that it is a game two can play at; never allow a man to show his banner without also showing yours. Do not do it ostentatiously; do it humbly, but do it earnestly and sincerely. Remember that your banner is one that you never need be ashamed of; the best of men have fought under it; nay, he who was God as well as man hath his own name written on the escutcheon. Surely, then, you need not be ashamed to wave it anywhere and everywhere. You can think bravely; now be great in act as you have been in thought.

“Presence of mind and courage in distress

Are more than armies to procure success.”

This is our last question, for what purpose was this banner given to us?

Our text is very explicit upon that point; it was given to us to be “displayed because of the truth.” It is to be displayed. In order to display a banner, you must take it out of its case. Members of this congregation, brethren in the church, I pray you study the Scriptures much. I would not have men attempt to preach unless they have some power. To go forth without some study, would be like a man attempting to do execution with a gun that had much powder in it and no shot. Do unfurl the banner; to this end, husband well your time. Young men, save your spare hours to study the Bible. Steal them from your sleep if you cannot get them anyhow else. Sunday-school teachers, be diligent in your preparations for your classes. Get your banner out of the case. It is of little service lifting it up in the midst of the ranks without its being unfurled. See that ye know the holy art of unfurling it. Practise it; study it; be well acquainted with him who is the wisdom of God and the power of God.

And, after the flag is unfurled, it needs to be lifted up. So, in order to display Christ, you must lift him up. Lift him up with a clear voice, as one who has something to say which he would have men hear. Speak of him boldly, as one who is not ashamed of his message. Speak affectionately, speak passionately, speak with your whole soul, let your whole heart be in every word you say, for this is to lift up the banner.

But, besides lifting up the banner, you must carry it, for it is the business of the standard-bearer, not merely to hold it in one place, but to bear it here and there if the plan of battle shall change. So, bear Christ to the poor lodging-houses, to the workhouses, to the prisons, if you can get admittance, to the back streets, to the dark slums, to the cellars, to the solitary attic, to the crowded rooms, to the highways and the byways; and you especially who are private Christians; and not preachers, bear it from house to house. We had a complaint, the other day, that some of you had been going from house to house to try and talk to others about their souls; you had entrenched upon the parochial bounds of the authorized gamekeeper! I pray you to entrench again. What is my parish? The whole world is my parish; let the whole world be your parish likewise. What does it matter to us if the world be parcelled out amongst men who probably do little or nothing? Let us do all we can. No man hath any right to say to me, “Visit in such-and-such a district; not here,-this is my ground.” Who gave it to you? Who gave him lordship of the world, or any portion of it? “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” The earth is your field, and no matter upon whose district, territory, or parish. Let me encourage you who love the Saviour, you who have the pure gospel, to go and spread it. Let nothing confine you, or limit your labours, except your strength and your time.

Still, after all, if we carry the gospel, and lift up the banner, it will never be displayed unless there is wind to blow it. A banner would only hang like a dead flag upon the staff if there were no wind. Now, we cannot produce the wind to expand the banner, but we can invoke heavenly aid. Prayer becomes a prophecy when we say, “Awake, O heavenly wind, and blow, and let this banner be displayed.” The Holy Spirit is that gracious wind who shall make the truth apparent in the hearts of those who hear it. Display the banner, talk of Christ, live Christ, proclaim Christ everywhere. He is given to you for this very purpose. Therefore, let not your light be hid under a bushel. “Ye are the light of the world.” “Let your light so shine before men.” Let the old flag be held up by fresh hands. Go ye forth in new times, with new resolves, and may you have constant renewings as new opportunities open before you!

Oh, but are there not some of you who could not bear this banner? Let me invite such to come and take shelter under it. My Master’s banner, wherever it goes, gives liberty. Under the banner of old England, there never breathes a slave. They tread our country, they breathe our air, and their shackles fall. Beneath the banner of Christ, no slave can live. Do but look up to Jesus, relying upon his suffering in your stead, and bearing your sins in your place and room, and forthwith you shall have acceptance in the Beloved, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. So may God enlist you beneath his banner, to his glory! Amen.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon.

GENESIS 32; and PSALM 119:33-40.

Genesis 32 v. 1. And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

What an encouragement the visit of these angels must have been to Jacob after the strife which he had had with Laban! But, dear friends, angels often come to meet us, though we know it not. As in the old classic story, the poor man said, “This is a plain hut, but God has been here,” so we may say of every Christian’s cottage, “Though it be poor, an angel has come here,” for David says, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” As the angels of God met Jacob, I trust that, if you have come here after some stern battle, and trial, and difficulty, you may find the angels of God meeting you here. They do come into the assemblies of the saints. Paul tells us that the woman ought to have her head covered in the assembly “because of the angel’s,” that is, because they are there to see that all things are done decently and in order.

2. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

He gave it a name to commemorate God’s having sent the angels, and called it “two camps” or “two hosts.”

3. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

He is cut of one trouble with Laban; now he is into another with Esau. Well did John Bunyan say.-

“A Christian man is seldom long at ease;

When one trouble’s gone, another doth him seize.”

4, 5. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now: and I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy right.

This is very respectful language, and rather obsequious, too; but when a man knows that he has done wrong to another, he ought to be prepared to humble himself to the injured individual; and, though it happened long ago, yet Jacob really had injured his brother Esau, and it was but right that, in meeting him again, he should put himself into a humble position before him. There are some proud people who, when they know that they have done wrong, yet will not own it, and it is very hard to end a quarrel when one will not yield, and the other feels that he will not either. But there is good hope of things going right when Jacob, who is the better of the two brothers, is also the humbler of the two.

6, 7. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed:

And well he might be, for an angry brother, with four hundred fierce followers, must mean mischief.

7, 8. And he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.

This is characteristic of Jacob. He was a man of plans and arrangements, a man of considerable craftiness, which some people nowadays call “prudence.” He used means, and he sometimes used them a little too much. Perhaps he did so in this case; but, at the same time, he was a man of faith, and therefore he betook himself to prayer.

9-12. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

A prayer most humble, most direct in its petitions, and also full of faith. That was a grand argument for him to use: “Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good.” This is one of the mightiest pleas that we can urge in praying to God: “Do as thou hast said. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.” O brethren, if you can remind God of his own promise, you must win the day, for promised mercies are sure mercies.

“As well might he his being quit,

As break his promise, or forget.”

“Hath he said, and shall he not do it?” Only for this will he be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; and we must take care that we call his promise to mind, and plead it at the mercy-seat.

13-21. And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find, him. And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.

If Jacob had been true to his faith in God, he would have dispensed with these very prudent preparations; for, after all, the faithfulness of God was Jacob’s best defence; it was from God that his safety came, and not from his own plotting, and planning, and scheming. There are some of you, dear brethren, who have minds that are naturally given to inventions, and devices, and plans, and plots; and I believe that, where this is the case, you have more to battle against than those have who are of a simple mind, and who cast themselves more entirely upon the Lord. It is a blessed thing to be such a fool that you do not know anyone to trust in except your God. It is a sweet thing to be so weaned from your wisdom that you fall into the arms of God.

Yet, if you do feel that it is right to make such plans as Jacob made, take care that you do what Jacob also did. Pray as well as plan; and if your plans be numerous, let your prayers be all the more fervent, lest the natural tendency of your constitution should degenerate into reliance upon the arm of flesh, and dependence upon your own wisdom, instead of absolute reliance upon God.

22-24. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

It was the man Christ Jesus putting on the form of manhood before the time when he would actually be incarnate; and the wrestling seems to have been more on his side than on Jacob’s, for it is not said that Jacob wrestled, but that “there wrestled a man with him.” There was something that needed to be taken out of Jacob;-his strength and his craftiness; and this angel came to get it out of him. But, on the other hand, Jacob spied his opportunity, and, finding the angel wrestling with him, he in his turn began to wrestle with the angel.

25. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.

So that he was made painfully to realize his own weakness while he was putting forth all his strength.

26. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

Bravely said, O Jacob! And ye sons of Jacob, learn to say the same. You may have what you will if you can speak thus to the covenant angel, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”

27, 28. And he said unto him. What is thy name? And he said Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob,-

The supplanter,-

28. But Israel:-

A prince of God;-

28, 29. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.

That has often been the request of God’s people; they have wanted to know God’s wondrous name. The Jews superstitiously believe that we have lost the sound of the name of Jehovah,-that the name is unpronounceable now altogether. We think not so; but, certainly, no man knows the nature of God, and understands him, but he to whom the Son shall reveal him. Perhaps Jacob’s request had somewhat of curiosity in it, so the angel would not grant it.

29. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

He did not give him what he asked for, but he gave him something better; and, in like manner, if the Lord does not open up a dark doctrine to you, but gives you a bright privilege, that will be better for you.

30-32. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew which shrank.

Psalm 119 Verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes;-

The psalmist is constantly talking about “the way.” We have that expression in the 27th verse, then in the 29th, the 30th, and the 32nd; and now again we have it here: Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes;”-

33, 34. And I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

That is not true or right understanding which permits us to go into sin; those who are really wise in heart hate evil and love righteousness.

35. Make me to go in the path-

Or, way-

35. Of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

“Make me to go.” Not only show me the way, but make me to go, like a nurse does with a child when she puts her hands under its arms, and strengthens its tottering footsteps. This is a very beautiful expression: “Make me to go.” Lord, we are very weak; we are like little children; make us to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do we delight.

36. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

The heart must love something; it will either love that which is good, or that which is evil. “O Lord,” the psalmist seems to pray, “incline my heart in the right direction. Make it lean towards that which is good; cause me to count thy grace better than all the riches of the world.”

37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity;

“Do not let me even look at it, for one may look at an ugly thing until the sense of its deformity gradually disappears, and it becomes attractive. Lord, never let me so fix my eyes upon sin that, at last, I come to reckon it a desirable thing.”

37. And quicken thou me in thy way.

“A man who travels quickly has not time to stop and look at the things in the road. Lord, let me go so fast to heaven that, when the devil hangs his baubles in his shop-window, I may not have time even to stop and look at them: ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.’ ”

38. Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

That is, “Make thy word to me real and true. Put away my natural scepticism, my proneness to question, my tendency to doubt.” “Stablish thy word.” “Make me to know how firm, how true, how real it is, for I would love it more and more. I do believe it, for I am devoted to thy fear, but I long to be still further established in the faith.”

39. Turn away my reproach which I fear:

Are any of you fearing reproach? If so, you may well fear it, for you deserve it; yet, even then, you may ask the Lord to turn it away from you.

39, 40. For thy judgments are good. Behold, I have longed after thy precepts:

Some people, whom I know, long after the promises, and others long after the doctrines. I hope that they will all get an equal longing for the precepts, for true believers love the precepts as much as they love the promises or the doctrines: “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts.”

40. Quicken me in thy righteousness.