We live in very singular times just now. The professing church has been, flattering itself that, notwithstanding all our divisions with regard to doctrine, we were all right in the main. A false and spurious liberality has been growing up, which has covered us all, so that we have dreamed that all who bore the name of ministers were indeed God’s servants,-that all who occupied pulpits, of whatever denomination they might be, were entitled to our respect, as being stewards of the mystetry of Christ. But, lately, the weeds upon the surface of the stagnant pool have been a little stirred, and we have been enabled to look down into the depths. This is a day of strife,-a day of division,-a time of war and fighting between professing Christians. God be thanked for it! Far better that it should be so than that the false calm should any longer exert its fatal spell over us. The day is come when we must know who are for the Lord and for his truth, and who are on the side of error. The time is now come when some men, once distinguished among us for the attractiveness of their preaching, must be ranked amongst those who are opponents of the truth. We did once imagine, in the blindness of our charity, that we all preached one gospel; but now the enmity of the carnal mind hath appeared. Carnal churches have chosen to themselves carnal teachers, who have begun to teach strange doctrines, which they mystify by their words, garnish with their eloquence, and try to support by specious logic, apart from simple Scripture.

The time is coming when it shall be openly proved who is on the Lord’s side; at this very hour, separations are everywhere taking place. We weep for the cause,-we do not weep for the effect. We weep that there should have been such heresies growing up in the midst of the church; but we do not weep when we see those heresies brought out to the day, and slaughtered, with what some think remorseless cruelty, but what we believe unflinching justice. We desire that God may spare to us the men who are still faithful, and who will never cease, at the risk of being called bigots, to drag out to the light those who lie against God’s gospel,-to bring them publicly before the world as opponents of the faith which is in Christ Jesus, whereby we hope to be saved. May God give us courage to stand up for the right! It is with this view that I have selected my text,-to urge upon you, at this time, the great duty of standing fast at your post for the truth of God, and the equally great duty of endeavouring, wherever you are, to maintain the right. Be ye not carried about by every wind of doctrine. Give not heed to every schismatic who would lead you aside. Hold fast by the oracles of the Most High. Ye know what ye have been taught, and whereunto ye have been called; and ye know the foundation whereupon ye have been built up. “Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Whatever may happen to denominations, whatever divisions we may live to see, let it be known still that for God and his truth we are prepared to hold our ground, at any expense or at any risk.

Now, first, we have two things mentioned in our text; and then, secondly, we have the relationship which exists between them. The two things are “the church of the living God” and “the truth”; the relationship that exists between them is, that “the church of the living God” is “the pillar and ground of the truth.”

First, then, we have two things mentioned in our text.

The first is “the church of the living God.” Note well its unity. It is not said the churches of the living God, but the church. God has not two churches, he has but one. We may be called by different names; and, according to Scripture, we are to be separated, like sheep, into different folds, yet still there is only one flock and one Shepherd. The independency of Scripture is to be practised still. Each church is to be separate, having its bishop and its elders governing in the fear of the Lord, without respect of persons, and without being disturbed by the opinion of any other church. But though we are separate churches as to our organization, we are really but one Church, under one Head, the Lord and Bishop of our souls. There are not two churches any more than there are two Gods; there are not two Lords, there are not two faiths, there are not two baptisms; there is one Lord, there is one faith, there is one baptism; and there is one Church holding the one Lord, the one faith, and the one baptism. If any hold not the truth, we cannot allow that they belong to “the church of the living God.” It is not for us to adopt the cant phraseology of the present day, and say that men may be of the Church, and yet differ from the truth of God; nay, by no means, they are either initiated by the Holy Spirit into God’s Church, or they are not. If they are not one with Christ, if they are not washed with Jesus’ blood, if they have not received his Spirit, if they have not been humbled to know and believe him to be King in the midst of his own assemblies, if they have not put their trust under the shadow of his wings, whatever they may profess or believe, or however they may stand before men, if they do not so stand before God, they do not belong to the one Church; and not belonging to that, they cannot belong to Christ. Though our Lord Jesus Christ hath only one Church, a part of its members, I believe, may be found in every denomination; but they owe not their standing to the fellowship they hold with denominations. There is one great denomination, “the church of the living God,” to which every true believer must belong. Some persons allege that the children of God may act on different principles, may believe different doctrines, may be the recipients of different kinds of grace, and that their apprehensions of God and of Christ may be thoroughly diverse: we hold no such opinion. If there be not the vital principle in a man’s heart, teaching him the truth as it is in Jesus, he doth not belong to the one “church of the living God.” Thus, then, there is but one Church, however divided it may be.

You will further observe that the Church is called “the house of God”; and why? Because, first, it had God for its Architect,-it is not built after main’s plan. The tabernacle in the wilderness was framed after the pattern which God gave to Moses in the mount; and, verily, Christ’s Church is built after God’s own model; it is not moulded according to man’s idea, it is not shaped according to his opinion; the will of God, and his will alone, has been followed in the construction of his own house, which is the Church. God has ordained every stone, and he has marked where each is to be placed; he planned her walls and her pillars, her foundations and her pinnacles. He has not left anything in the Church to the mere caprice of man, but he hath comprised every tittle in his own statutes and decrees. He hath not given a vague idea for man to develop, but he hath made known his own mind in his own words. There is no designer of the spiritual temple save the Infinite Jehovah; there is no architect of the house of the living God save the living God himself.

And not only is he its Architect, but he is its Builder. He hath not left it for us to dig the stones out of the quarry, or to lay them one upon another. He does the whole work himself. The foundation upon which each living stone is based hath been laid of old, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. In his obedience and his sacrifice no creature rendered help. Nor less, as “the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple,” is every portion of the structure the work of God and not the work of man. To the Sacred Trinity we look for the gradual construction of the edifice. In Christ we “are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” There is never a child of God brought into the Church by man’s contrivance or man’s persuasions; each precious stone is brought there by God, and by God alone. No child of God is sanctified by man; he is sanctified by the living God. No heir of heaven is fitted into the Church by man; God alone puts him into his proper position. Men at times try to build upon the one foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble; but God consumes them all, for he will have no building in his Church but his own.

‘The vast materials all he forms,

Nor power nor love he spares;

He guards the building from all harm;

And all the glory bears.”

I have often remarked that, when men have been adopting a patent process of building up a church, by the revivalist sermons of some crazy-brained preachers, after the first excitement has subsided that church has become sickly, and fallen into a very sad and grievous state. Those revivalists have often been like locusts in our churches, devouring every green thing; and the revivals they have stimulated have well-nigh brought us to destruction. God will not have men usurp his prerogative in the building; and though they may with their own hands speedily pile up a mighty structure, yet, like the baseless fabric of a vision, it soon disappears, and is gone. In his building, he suffers no man to use trowel or hammer; he will use men for trowels and hammers, but he will not allow them to make use of themselves or of others. His own hands shall perform it.

Again, it is God’s house because God resides there. Wherever the Church is, there is God. God is pleased, in his mercy and condescension, to stoop from the highest heavens to dwell in this lower heaven,-the heaven of his Church. It is here, among the household of faith, he deigns-let me say it with sacred reverence,-to unbend himself, and hold familiar intercourse with those round about him whom he hath adopted into his family. He may be a consuming fire abroad, but when he comes into his own house, he is all mercy, mildness, and love. Abroad he does great works of power; but at home, in his own house, he does great works of grace. Into this house we have been brought; we trust we live there; and he has manifested himself unto us as he does not unto the world. A father will reveal himself to his children as he will not to his servants, or to those with whom he mingles in his business. So, in the Church, God is pleased to manifest all the greatness of his love, all the marvellous depth of his compassion, and show himself to his people as he never did to angels, and as he never will do to the unregenerate. It is the house of God because all the inmates have there an access to their Father, and because they can always find him there, a very present help in time of trouble.

Again, the Church is God’s house because he provides for it. The household of the Church would be starved if God did not provide for it. Does the Church need pastors? God gives us pastors after his own heart. Does it need teachers? Then the teachers shall be taught of God. Does it want supplies? He makes for it a feast of fat things, full of marrow. Are comforts and luxuries needed? There are the wines on the lees well refined, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which, he saith, “I have laid up for thee. O my beloved.” God always provides for his Church, because he is the Husband-the houseband of it. Blessed be God, he never leaves the Church to be provided for by man. We tell you that, in dependence upon God, we will seek to bring you a portion of meat in due season, but we never undertake to provide the meal. The Lord will provide; we are but his servants, to bring unto his people food for their spiritual sustenance. Beloved, the Church is God’s own house, and since his Word hath taught us that “if any provide not for his own, and for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel,” we can never believe that God will leave his house destitute of supplies. No; while he is infinite in goodness, while heaven and earth cannot measure the riches of his estates, while he is the Lord of all flesh and the Monarch of all worlds, we may rely upon it that his house will always be abundantly provided for, and his table bountifully spread.

One more remark here: the Church is God’s house because therein God is honoured, and therein he rules. Among men, it is justly said that “without hearts, there is no home.” In the circle of a man’s household, he expects to find those “emulous to please,” and if he hath children, surely the affection of the little prattlers shall call forth his fond paternal love. However he may be belied abroad, it is meet that he should be honoured at home; that is the place where he deserves and commands obedience. There he is master and lord, and every beck of his should be obeyed. So, the Church is God’s house, the abode of his household and his family; therefore, though the world may disobey him, yet his Church ever welcomes his presence, rejoices to do his bidding, and listens to his words. In the Church, God must always be honoured. Let him speak, and our ears shall at once give attention, and our feet shall run with swift obedience. “As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,” to learn his mind, and to do his bidding. May he grant unto you, beloved, this distinguishing sign that you belong to the Church, which is the house of God, because by your profession and your practice he is continually honoured!

The second thing mentioned in the text is “the truth.” What mean these words, “the truth”? Depend upon it, they mean nothing more nor less than is wrapped up within the two covers of this Bible. What is the truth? I might tell you that it is the counsels of heaven revealed on earth, the mind of God made known to men, all the precepts, statutes, and testimonies of the Most High. I might point you to the person of Christ, his obedience to the law, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension, and tell you that the gospel contained in the writings of the four evangelists is the truth. Or, once more, I might tell you of the witness of the Holy Spirit, those convictions he brings home to the believer’s heart, and the teaching by which he trains up the heirs of glory from the moment of conversion, till their final gathering in to the heavenly garner, and say that all the witness of the Holy Spirit is “the truth.” But then you might ask me why we should call these the truth. What difference is there between their being true, and their being “the truth”? I answer, what God says is necessarily true. It is most certainly true, because God has said it. It needs no evidence to establish it, no argument to prove it. Therefore, it is so far above evidence and proof that it is really “the truth.” I have, as your minister, to assert it, and illustrate it, and preach it as dogmatically as possible; for there can be no appeal against “the truth.” You have, as disciples, to believe it, and search it, and explore its depths; but there is no room to doubt or reason how much or how little you ought to receive, seeing it is, primâ facie, “the truth.”

Note its importance. It is called the truth. There are many other truths in the world beside God’s truth. There is natural truth, the truth of science, the truth of history, and the truth man constantly utters on the evidence of his senses, which we unhesitatingly receive. Yet, though these may be important in some degree, they give way to the all-important truth of God. Now the definite article “the” is here put before the word “truth” to teach us that, if everything else we believe to be true should prove true, the whole would sink into insignificance when compared with the importance of the truth of God. See, then, that you do not underrate the importance of God’s truth. I would have you particularly value it, for some think it a matter of comparative indifference, and that, although it is right for us to believe all things which God has revealed, yet it is not important that we should do so. They suppose that it is of little consequence what sentiments we hold,-we may be half right and half wrong, and yet be quite as well off; it signifies little, so long as the heart is right, what the head believes. Alas! sirs, this is a strange infatuation! The saints of old purified their souls “in obeying the truth through the Spirit.” I cannot understand how your hearts can be right while you oppose the truth. Were it only that God hath revealed it, you might know that it is of divine importance. What he speaks, it is surely incumbent upon us to believe; what he has set forth, we ought to accept as essential to our well-being, our comfort, and our happiness. You may turn a deaf ear to the words of our poets, our philosophers, or our historians; you may even be content to live in ignorance of the laws of your country; “but see that ye refuse not him that speaketh” to you from heaven. This must be perilous indeed.

Mark then well the importance of truth, for, in these days, men are apt to set light by it, and for the sake of peace and quietness to lead us to suppose that contrary things can both be true.

The truth is not only important, but substantial in its character. The gospel which God has revealed is so essentially the truth that there is nothing false, as there is nothing trifling, in it. It is truth unalloyed; it is truth which ought to be undoubted. It is a vile sin to imagine that there can be any fallacy in the utterances of an infallible God. Let everything else we credit be a lie; let all that man has asserted and proved be swept away: God’s words are the truth, substantially and really so.

The truth, moreover, is a thing of unity. It is not said “truths,” but “the truth.” God’s truth is only one. Have you ever noticed, in the great summary of doctrines, that, as surely as you believe one, you must believe the rest? One doctrine so leans upon the others that, if you deny one, you must deny the rest. Some think that they can believe four out of the five points, and reject the last. It is impossible; God’s truths are all joined together like links in a chain. There is but one truth, and one system of truth.

“Then,” say some, “tell us how to discern the truth.” You may judge of it by three things; by God, by Christ, and by man; that is, the truth which honours God, the truth which glorifies Christ, and the truth which humbles man. Unless a doctrine exalts God, unless it owns him Monarch of creation, and gives him absolute power over his creatures; he the Potter, and ourselves the clay; he moulding the vessels as seemeth good in his sight, we the vessels that are moulded after his pleasure; God everything, and ourselves nothing,-that doctrine is not the truth. And unless a doctrine magnifies the atonement, if it asserts that the atonement may fail, that it was made for many who do not benefit by it, that God’s purpose in redemption is in anywise frustrated, it is not of God; it is of Satan. If a doctrine teaches that man is possessed of good natural powers, that he is not so fallen as the Bible states, that he can do somewhat to help himself, that his exertions can meet with God’s grace half way, that he can assist a little in the work of salvation, or, at any rate, that he can preserve himself from falling, and hold on his way with steadfastness, it is a man-glorifying, God-dishonouring doctrine. Cast it to the winds, for it never came from above. God never intended it to be preached, otherwise than as the very foil of blackness against the brightness of his own truth.

Now I desire to address you very solemnly on the relationship which exists between the church and the truth: “The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

There is a sense in which the truth is the pillar of the Church, for the Church is built on the truth. It is on the revealed doctrines of divine grace, such as eternal predestination, immutable affection, covenant security, the responsibility of Christ as the Surety of his people,-it is on such doctrines as these that the Church is built, and in this sense the truth is the pillar and ground of the Church. In another sense, the pillar and ground of the truth is God; he himself maintains his own truth; it is not committed to the hands of mortals to maintain it apart from God. One of the best proofs of this is, that the truth is still preserved in its original purity, after so many hypocritical preachings of it, and so much wresting of it to wrong purposes. While God lives, his truth can never die. There remains the sense in which the Church is, as it were, delegated by God to maintain and support the truth. You must understand this then instrumentally; while God is the real pillar and ground of his truth, yet in this world he is pleased to make his children such. Really and effectively it is God who upholds the truth, but instrumentally it is the ministers and elders and members of the Church who maintain the truth and hold it firm.

In reading this verse, I was pleased with two thoughts that occurred to me: the Church is both the pillar and the ground of the truth. Sometimes it is the pillar of the truth, when it preaches the Word, when it administers the ordinances, and publicly shows forth the gospel; but sometimes there have been seasons of persecution, when the disciples have not been able to go forth, and testify to the world, and then the Church becomes a kind of underlying foundation, the ground of the truth. In the days when Paul stood before Nero, he was like the pillar of the truth; at another time, when he was shut up in the dungeon, and could not come forth, he was in his heart like the ground of the truth. When the Church stands boldly out, and preaches the Word, it is the pillar of the truth; when it is hidden in the Roman catacombs, and cannot proclaim the Saviour’s name to the world, still there lives the truth deep in the hearts of believers, and they are then the ground of the truth. We, beloved, who are of the house of God, and of the Church of God, are the maintainers and supporters, instrumentally, of God’s truth on the earth. Come, then, let me stir you up to do your duty; let me beg of you who love God’s truth not to leave it to itself. Perhaps you imagine that God’s truth, being mighty, must prevail without your assistance. It is true, it must and will; but, then, God has said that, if you belong to his Church, you are to be the pillar and ground of the truth. To leave God’s truth to shift for itself, is as bad as to leave your own children to provide for themselves. True, the great decrees of destiny shall be carried out, and our Saviour’s kingdom shall be established; but it shall be by means. God has honoured you by choosing you to be the maintainers, the testifiers, the pillar and ground of the truth. I will endeavour to arouse you, then, by one or two exhortations, to be faithful to this your solemn duty.

In the first place, remember how your fathers, in times gone by, defended God’s truth, and blush, ye cowards, who are afraid to maintain it! Remember that our Bible is a blood-stained book; the blood of martyrs is on the Bible, the blood of translators and confessors. The pool of holy baptism, in which many of you have been baptized, is a blood-stained pool: full many have had to die for the vindication of that baptism which is “the answer of a good conscience toward God.” The doctrines which we preach to you are doctrines that have been baptized in blood,-swords have been drawn to slay the confessors of them; and there is not a truth which his not been sealed by them at the stake, or the block, or far away on the lofty mountains, where they have been slain by hundreds. It is but a little duty we have to discharge compared with theirs. They were called to maintain the truth when they had to die for it; you only have to maintain the truth when taunt and jeer, ignominious names and contemptuous epithets are all you have to endure for it. What! do you expect easy lives? While some have sailed through seas of blood, and have fought to win the prize, are you wearied with a slight skirmish on dry land? What would you do if God should suffer persecuting days to overtake you? O craven spirits, ye would flee away, and disown your profession! Be ye the pillar and ground of the truth. Let the blood of martyrs, let the voices of confessors, speak to you. Remember how they held fast the truth, how they preserved it, and handed it down to us from generation to generation; and by their noble example, I beseech you, be steadfast and faithful, tread valiantly and firmly in their steps, acquit yourselves like men,-like men of God, I implore you! Shall we not have some champions, in these times, who will deal sternly with heresies for the love of the truth,-men who will stand like rocks in the centre of the sea, so that, when all others shake, they stand invulnerable and invincible? Thou who art tossed about by every wind of doctrine, farewell; I own thee not till God shall give thee grace to stand firm for his truth, and not to be ashamed of him nor of his words in this evil generation.

Bethink you again that you have the greatest reason to be the pillar and ground of the truth from the fact that this truth has been of immeasurable service to you. How often has it gladdened your hearts! You were once in darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Once you had no clear view of that great mystery of godliness; but now God hath been pleased to open your eyes, having touched them with spiritual eye-salve, so that in his light you can see light. You are now brought to see that which is revealed, and to believe the doctrines of grace. Have you not found these things comforting? How often have they supported you in the hour of peril! How often have they checked you when you would have sinned, and guarded you from despair when you were trodden under foot by the enemy! How often have they nerved your arm for conflict, or moved your foot for journeying! How well accoutred have you been since you believed these things, who were but poor defenceless creatures before! Will ye not, then, maintain the truth, and spread it abroad? Will ye blush to own the Word which has brought salvation to your souls, which has rescued you from the thraldom of sin, and introduced you into the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free? No! I beseech you, by the glorious panoply wherewith Christ has arrayed you, by his perfect love wherewith he has covered you, by the crown which he has promised you, by the heaven which he has prepared for you, be ye faithful to the Church of Christ, whereof ye are members; be ye still the pillar and ground of the truth.

Reflect once more, as another weighty reason, that you should ever have been led to know the truth at all. Why, you know you did not deserve it. You believe that God has chosen you in his sovereignty, entirely irrespective of your character. You must regard yourself as being the last man in the world that you could ever have thought God would have chosen. Some of you were sinners against his love and against his law,-great, open, and apparent sinners; others of you were secret transgressors,-you sinned against God with a high hand and an outstretched arm, though men knew it not. Many of you were poor sinners involved in the darkness of deceitful doctrine: you had been led astray to believe yourselves saved, whereas you have since found that it was no work of the Spirit, but the mere excitement of your carnal feelings. And now that, by divine grace, rescued from death and hell, you, the chief of sinners, are brought into his Church, will you not, for gratitude’s sake, considering what you owe to your Master, defend and maintain his truth at all hazards, in the midst of a gainsaying generation?

Then, once more, you are bound to maintain this truth, as you consider the manifold blessings which it will confer upon your fellow-creatures when it shall win the day. Truth is ever a blessing. Men may hate it, but it is a blessing; and it brings a blessing to their door, though they welcome it not. They may think it curses them; but the truth is no curse, unless men make it so to themselves. Nothing can benefit your generation, nothing can ameliorate the morals of mankind, nothing can refine the earth, nothing can wash away its blood, nothing can cleanse its stains, nothing can purge its lusts, nothing can stop its wars and heal its feuds,-nothing better, nothing nearly so well, as the maintenance of the truth of God. Therefore, be very bold for it. It is the earth’s one hope; take it away, and the world’s brightest star is quenched, and her central sun is dim. Maintain the truth, then, for the world’s sake, I beseech you.

And if encouragement can stir you up to duty, let me remind you that the time is coming when truth shall be triumphant. Soldier of the cross, the hour is coming when the note of victory shall be proclaimed throughout the world! The battlements of the enemy must soon succumb; the swords of the mighty must soon be given up to the Lord of lords. What, soldier of the cross! in the day of victory, wouldst thou have it said that thou didst turn thy back in the day of battle? Dost thou not wish to have a share in the conflict, that thou mayest have a share in the victory? If thou art even in the hottest part of the battle, wilt thou flinch and fly? Thou shalt have the brightest part of the victory if thou art in the fiercest part of the conflict. Wilt thou turn and lose thy laurels? Wilt thou throw away thy sword? Shall it be with thee as when a standard-bearer fainteth? Nay, man, up to arms again, for the victory is certain. Though the conflict be severe, I beseech you, on to it again! On, on, ye lion-hearted men of God, to the battle once more, for ye shall yet be crowned with immortal glory.

May God, then, grant unto us that we may ever stand fast in the fight, as we would stand foremost among the conquerors! Mark those who have already overcome; they are pillars in the house of their God, and they will “go no more out for ever.” As ye mark their white garments, their crowns, their palms, do ye not pant to join the triumphant host? I know ye do; well, then wrestle hard as they did, and, by divine grace, ye also shall overcome, and then shall ye sit down with Jesus on his throne, even as he did overcome, and is set down for ever with his Father upon his throne.

But some will say, “If we go forth resolved to maintain this truth, we shall be called bigots, and we shall get very much ill feeling from the world.” Well, if you are afraid of that, I have done with you; I call you not kith or kin with me if you are abashed at such trivial rebuffs. If thou blushest at that, sir, thou wilt never do much for thy Master’s honour. If you do not know how to stand fast against the world, you will find the world will stand fast against you. Did they not call Luther a bigot? Did they not say he was a mere declaimer? Did they not charge him with want of logic, and say he was a man that hurled invectives? But did any of these things move him? Nay, he persevered, and still spread abroad the savour of his Master’s name in every place, till he finished his course with joy as a conqueror. What sort of a character had John Knox in his day? Were not all manner of accusations heaped upon his head? But what said he? “If I be God’s servant, and on God’s side, I will not start for any one of you.” And now he hath this for his epitaph, “Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of man.” Such an epitaph, few of you would merit.

“But,” says another, “how am I to know that it is the truth?” That question I answer in this way: if you do not know it is the truth of God, you cannot stand up for it. I am only speaking to men who do know that it is the truth. A true Christian cannot allow that he is in error, for he sees the truth positively written in God’s Word. But you tell me that I may err. Nay, but I cannot err when I have God’s Word in my lips. People will controvert and will go into endless arguments to show that we are wrong. We cannot be wrong, sirs, we cannot allow ourselves to be even supposed to be wrong when we hold fast by the Scriptures only, for that were to suppose that God’s Word could be wrong. Our inferences from Scripture may be wrong; but when we have the genuine Scripture itself, we cannot admit the possibility of our being in error. And unless you are most solemnly convinced that you have the infallible testimony of God in your own consciences, and of the truthfulness of his inspired Word, I do not ask you to be defenders of the truth; such defence would be puerile, and I should be more puerile to ask for it.

But another says, “I don’t think it needful to make a noise about doctrine; it does not concern souls much.” Does it not? I believe souls have been instrumentally damned by thousands by false doctrine. I believe that the universal redemption scheme is doing immense mischief. As Joseph Irons said, “When men once believe that Jesus Christ died for his elect, they begin questioning, ‘Did he die for me?’ and that stirs them up to seek to know the truth of God; but when they hear that there is salvation for all, they say at once, ‘Then I may sit still, and fold my arms’; and so they are deluded into hell.” When men are told that they can do all things, and have power to save themselves, do you not think that is a soul-deluding doctrine? They seek to do what they can, and they do a great deal, resting content with a spurious conversion, instead of the conversion which is of God, and not of the will of the creature. I do not believe in all the conversions we hear of as brought about by false doctrine. God forbid that I should! Men who preach false doctrine may be sometimes useful in conversion because they preach some true doctrine; but a false doctrine never converted a soul yet, unless it converted it into worse dangers, and made it tenfold more the child of hell than before. It is foolish for you to cry out that doctrine does not matter; what would you do if it were not for doctrine? How could your soul be saved? How could you enter heaven but for the doctrine of redemption? Ay, and how could you get to glory but for the doctrine of election,-the doctrine that you were chosen in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world? Say what you like, you will find doctrines far more essential than you ever dreamed of.

Now, how many of my hearers have had any spiritual realization of the preciousness of these things? “Ah!” cries one, “I will defend the truth.” Stop, young man! hast thou felt in thine heart the great doctrine of God’s sovereignty? Hast thou been humbled in the dust to know that God hath a right to do with thee as he pleases? If not, thou canst not defend the doctrine of divine sovereignty. Hast thou been brought to see the blood of Christ shed specially for thee? If not, thou canst not defend the doctrine of particular redemption, for thou dost not understand it. Hast thou ever felt thine own depravity in all its desperate character? If not, thou canst not defend the doctrine of original sin. Hast thou felt that God the Holy Ghost has called thee out of darkness into marvellous light? If not, thou canst not defend the doctrine of effectual calling. Dost thou feel in thy soul that God has enabled thee to persevere up to this moment, and hast thou the solemn conviction that thou shalt hold on thy way? If not, thou canst not defend final perseverance. I beseech you examine yourselves, and see whether you have these doctrines in your heart. If you have, I shall never be much afraid that you will not maintain them, though I think it right sometimes to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance; and as there are too many who would guide your minds into “the non-doctrine scheme,” and feed you with that which is vague and visionary instead of that which is substantial and true, I would the more earnestly exhort you, as for your very lives, to “hold fast the form of sound words which ye have received.” Stand fast, beloved; be not moved in the evil day; and having done all, stand fast in the Lord. May God grant it for Jesus’ sake!

HEART PIERCING

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, May 28th, 1908,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

On Thursday Evening, November 12th, 1874.

“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”-Acts 2:37.*

I daresay you have seen collections of celebrated sermons which have been chosen with more or less discretion. I suppose that the sermon of Peter, on the day of Pentecost, was one of the most celebrated discourses that was ever delivered, for it was the means of bringing three thousand persons to conviction, to conversion, to profession of faith, and to union with the visible church; yet I do not believe that any literary collector would ever have put this sermon by Peter amongst the most famous. It does not seem to me to be very eloquent; there is no climax in it, nothing of that fashionable thing called a “peroration.” It is all plain speaking and hard hitting, very personal, very much to the point, very full of clear Scriptural reasoning; but there is nothing at all oratorical about it, it is just such a simple speech as you might expect from a fisherman as Peter had been. I should think that Peter’s discourse was delivered calmly and deliberately. He was at a white heat of earnestness, and was altogether too earnest to lose his self-possession. His whole being was so thoroughly possessed by what he had to say that he thought little of how he said it.

It was a very powerful sermon, but where did the power lie, do you think? Well, instrumentally, and speaking after the manner of men, I think it lay partly in Peter’s vivid realization of what he was saying. He knew that his Lord and Saviour had with wicked hands been crucified and slain, and that he had risen from the grave, and had gone back again to heaven. You could see, by his whole manner, that he was not talking about myths and fancies, but about verities and things of which he knew for a certainty. There is always a power about a man’s message when his hearers know that he who delivers it himself believes what he is saying, and has no latent doubts, no concealed scepticisms, but speaks what he knows, and testifies what he has seen.

The next secret of the power of Peter’s discourse was, I think, that it was full of Scripture. There is a quotation, first of one Psalm, and then of another, David said this, and David said that; Peter’s superstructure of argument was built upon the solid rock of Holy Scripture. Peter had a great mass before him that day needing to be moved, and I do not wonder that he got such good leverage with such a fulcrum as he had. The more of Scripture, ay, of the very words of Scripture that we can use in preaching, the better, and, certainly, the more of such teaching as can begin with “Thus saith the Lord.” Men will not care about what we say, or “Thus saith Mr. Wesley,” or “Thus saith John Calvin;” it is “Thus saith the Lord” that will have power over them. McCheyne says that you will generally notice that conversions are wrought rather by the preacher’s text, or by some passage of Scripture quoted by him, than by his, sermon, “for,” he adds, “it is God’s Word, not our comment upon God’s Word, which is usually blessed to the salvation of souls.” I think it is so, though the rule is not without many exceptions, and our Lord hints at that when he says, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,” as if the message of God-sent servants was not only God’s Word, but also their word, and men were led to believe on Jesus through hearing it.

But the real strength of Peter’s sermon lay in this, that he had been that very day baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Sitting in that upper room with the rest of the disciples, he had heard “the sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind,” which “filled all the house where they were sitting;” and the “cloven tongues like as of fire” had sat upon Peter as well as upon the rest, and he too had been “filled with the Holy Ghost,” so that through him the Holy Spirit spoke. Therefore it was that, when he delivered that very simple sermon, his hearers were pricked in their heart, and thousands of them cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Oh, that some such power might fall upon this congregation this evening, especially upon the unconverted part of it, that they might be “pricked in their heart” as Peter’s hearers were!

My subject is the pricking in the heart, and my first observation is that a saving impression is always a prick in the heart.

A prick in the heart is very painful. To be pricked anywhere is not a thing to be desired; but a prick in the heart would not merely be painful, but, in a natural and literal sense, it would be fatal. There are a great many different kinds of impressions made by preachers upon their hearers, but blessed is that preacher who makes a wound right in their hearts.

A saving impression must be made in the heart, because all true religion must begin there. A great many attempts have been made to make men religious from the outside. Some have thought that a very long coat, reaching almost to the ground, and a strange kind of hat,-a biretta, I think it is called,-have a great deal of religion in them. It is wonderful how much religion is supposed to depend upon tailors and hatters; but I fail to see how anybody’s heart can be affected by the cut of his coat, or the shape of his hat. Some try to affect a man by the performance of certain ceremonies. They take him in his childhood, and “regenerate” him after their fashion; and, later, they “confirm” him in something or other; and external ceremonies of various kinds are performed upon him. They remind one rather of Babylon than of Jerusalem; but I have never heard of anyone being brought to Jesus Christ in that way, or of any conscience being awakened, or any man finding peace with God in that fashion.

Some have tried what could be done by advising abstinence from meats and drinks. That is a very proper thing in its place, and may lead to useful results; but Christ’s teaching is, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, that defileth a man.” It is the heart which must be affected; and nothing that comes of man, or that can be manipulated by the human hand, seems able to touch that. “Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God,” is the demand even under the old law; and one of the first laws of pure spiritual religion is this, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;” and hence, no impression can be of any saving use to a man unless it reaches his heart.

Many of you, dear friends, have made a profession of religion, and you are moral enough to be reckoned consistent with that profession, and attentive enough to outward religious duties to consider yourselves to be all that you should be; but, oh, I do implore you never to be satisfied with any religion which does not affect your heart, and with no religious exercise which is not true heart-work. You might as well be sitting in your own homes as be here without your hearts. It is no more use to sing a hymn than to sing a song unless you sing it with the heart, and so make melody unto God. The heart, the heart, the heart, the heart,-that is the vital place. Out of it are the issues of life, and unless it be savingly affected, the whole life will still be estranged from God.

If those who hear the gospel are to be blessed by it, they must be impressed and pricked in their heart because other impressions may even be evil. They may be forcible, yet they may be productive of no good results. Another of Peter’s discourses made a very singular impression upon his hearers. If you turn to the fifth chapter of the Acts, and the thirty-third verse, you will find these words, “When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.” That time, you see, the wound went just as far as the heart, but it stopped there: “they were cut to the heart.” It was a deep cut,-to the heart, but not in the heart; and the consequence was, not that they cried out, “Men and brethren, what must we do?” but they “took counsel to slay them.” Oftentimes, if the Word be delivered earnestly, and with power, men cannot help feeling the force of it; but what do they do after feeling it? They gnash their teeth for very rage; or they try to besmear and bespatter the preacher, and to ridicule or misrepresent what he has said. If anything has pointedly come home to them, they twist it into quite another form, and say, “The preacher said so-and-so,” when he really said nothing of the kind. That is a way of taking counsel to slay him; they dare not kill his body, but they kill his reputation as far as they can. You may be deeply impressed by a sermon so as to feel under it in a way which you will never forget, and yet, for all that, you may only be cut to the heart.

Yet I would rather that people were cut to the heart than not wounded at all, because I hope that the sword of the Spirit will penetrate a little further, and really enter the heart. I have often been told this sort of story:-“I came to hear you preach, sir, on such an occasion, and I went away very angry. I could not bear the doctrine that was proclaimed, and I went out hating the man who had talked in that fashion. Yet I could not forget it; it rankled in my mind until, at last, I began to think there was something in it; by-and-by, I saw that it was true, and then I said, ‘What a fool I am to struggle against it!’ ” I do not mind my hearers being angry with me because of my preaching, for it is a good deal like fishing. If you have a good large salmon at the end of the line, he will struggle and pull with all his might, and thus he will swallow the book all the more deeply, and there will be the less likelihood of his getting away; and an obstinate resistance to the gospel is sometimes an indication that the gospel is piercing and pricking the hearer, and making him snap at it as a wounded beast tries to bite the spear which has been thrust into him, and which he cannot pull out. So, when a man is cut to the heart, I hope that he will soon be cut in the heart; but if the sword of the Spirit does not prick him in the heart, no permanent good will be effected.

And further, supposing the impression made should be good in itself, yet, if the hearer is not pricked in the heart, the impression will be only transient, and we shall have to say to the man, as the Lord said to Judah, “Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.” Or if the impression lasts a little longer, it will only need enough of the fervent heat of the rising sun upon the blade which has begun to spring up, but under which there is no depth of earth, and in due season its verdure will vanish, and it will perish. If it is not real heart-work, it will not last. The reason why so many backslide is that they built on the sand; there was no deep foundation-work. The soul-saving work, the work which lasts, is that where God ploughs deeply into the conscience, and sows the good seed of the kingdom in the heart. It is principle, not passion, full conviction, not merely a profession of faith, that will endure unto the end. If the impression made does not prick the heart, it will be only transient; and when it disappears, evil will come of it, for perhaps the people who are most difficult to be moved are those who have been impressed a great many tames, yet not saved. The first time you heard God’s faithful servant preach, you felt ready to weep yourself away under the power of the truth which he proclaimed; but now his voice has grown so familiar that, even when it is most pathetically earnest, you go to sleep under it. I have been in a mill when there has been such a clatter of wheels that I could not hear myself speak, yet the miller has told me that he was so used to the noise that he could go to sleep in it; and there are persons, who have sat so long under a faithful minister, that they have got used to his message, and do not feel its force as they did when first they heard it. To use a common expression, they have become gospel-hardened; and this is a very serious state for any man to reach. May God save us from that perilous condition by causing us to be pricked in the heart.

When the truth pricks the hearers of it in the heart, the impression becomes operative. In the case before us, if you read the narrative, you will find that these men became earnest enquirers; they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what must we do?” Being told what to do, namely, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you,” they did repent; there was a change of mind which was followed by a corresponding change of life; and they were baptized, they obeyed the command of Christ, and made an open avowal of their faith in him in his own appointed way. Thus they were added to the church, “and they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

All this followed because they had been “pricked in their heart.” It was a sorrowful beginning, yet it was a good beginning, for it was God’s way of beginning the work of grace in their souls. I wish that all converts began in that way. Some seem to me to jump into religion as if they were going into a bath, and then jump out of it again just as quickly. I do not believe in the faith that is unaccompanied by repentance. Some have spoken in disparagement of repentance by saying “that the original word means nothing more than a change of mind;” and you might imagine that it was a very unimportant change of mind. But their knowledge of Greek is not very deep, and their experimental knowledge of true religion would seem to be still more shallow. This change of mind, I believe, was never better pictured than in that verse of the children’s hymn:-

“Repentance is to leave

The sin we loved before,

And show that we in earnest grieve,

By doing so no more.”

A faith that has no tears in its eyes is a blind faith, for where there is sight there will be weeping. Never did a soul look to Christ, whom it had pierced, without weeping and mourning because of its sin. Faith and repentance are twins; they are born together, and they will live together, and as long as a Christian is in this world both will be needed. Rowland Hill used to say that the only thing that he should be sorry to leave when he went to heaven was that sweet, lovely, sorrowful grace of repentance; he supposed he could not repent in heaven, but it was such a sweet experience to keep on repenting that he would wish to repent for ever if such a thing might be.

Now, in the second place, let us notice what truths God uses as daggers to prick sinners in the heart.

I have known some pricked in the heart merely by discovering that the gospel, the Bible, was really true. They have been sceptical, they have perhaps been blasphemers; but, on a sudden, being honestly convinced that the Bible was true, they have been broken down at once, just as Saul of Tarsus was. He would not have persecuted Christ if he had believed him to be the Messiah, but he thought he was an impostor, and therefore honestly determined to put down his followers. He says concerning himself, “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” The moment the Lord Jesus called to him out of heaven, and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?… I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,” he was pricked in the heart, and soon he became, as many others have become, just as earnest in defence of the truth as he had before, in his ignorance, been in opposition to it.

I have known others pierced in the heart by shame through some particular sin. I will give you an instance in which that was the case. A young man has been moral from his youth up, he has had much to thank God for with regard to what he has been; he has never mixed with the wanton or wicked world; yet there is always a danger as well as a benefit in this state of things. This young man becomes self-righteous; he thinks himself a great deal better than others. Perhaps he says that he is a sinner, because everybody says that out of a sort of compliment to God, but he does not feel that he has ever done much that was wrong, and he wishes that other people were half as good as he thinks that he is. But, one day, he commits a certain definite sin. I do not know whether the young brother is here, but he told me of a case of just this kind. He said that, when he was in the workshop one day, he upset the oil can, and an enquiry was made as to who had been so careless. He was asked, and he said that he had not done it, and from his usual character everybody believed his denial. “But,” he said, “as I went home that night, it came to my mind, ‘You are a liar. You are a liar.’ I felt so mean,” he said to me, “I never felt like that before. I had always acted like a man, and like a good man, I thought, but now I felt that I had been a liar. When I got up in the morning, I did not like to go among the other men in the workshop. I thought they would all look at me, and say, ‘You are a liar.’ I could not bear to think of it, and a sense that I had lied brought me down on my knees before God.” Now I do not say that I was glad that young man had told a lie; but I did feel thankful that he had discovered what a liar his heart had been all his life long, for his heart had always been saying to him, “You are a good fellow,” yet he had not been so in reality. If there had not been lies in his heart, that lie would not have come out of his mouth. If there were rats under that floor, you might not know it was so until one happens to pop his head up through a hole in the boards; yet he only shows you what was there all the while; and so, sometimes, some one sin has crept up into the light to let a man see what always was secretly in his soul, and that one sin has proved to be, in the hand of God, a sharp sword which has cut right into his heart, and convinced him that he is a sinner in the sight of God.

In a great many other cases, God has used teaching concerning his law as the means of pricking sinners in the heart. A man reads the ten commandments, and he says, “All these have I kept from my youth up;” but he is told, upon Christ’s authority, that every commandment contains within itself a great deal more than appears on the surface; as, for instance, “Thou shalt not kill,” is a commandment which is broken by anger. “He that hateth his brother” so that he wishes that there were no such person, is, in heart, the perpetrator of the crime of murder. Then take the command, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” “Oh!” says one, “I never sinned in that way,” and some excellent woman says, “I could not bear even to think of such a thing.” Yet there have been unchaste desires, glances, thoughts, imaginations; and the commandment covers all those. I do not need to go into the details of each command, it will suffice to sum all up as that “certain lawyer” did, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Did you ever do that? Has any one among us come anywhere near to doing that? When the law of the Lord, in its wide sweep and wondrous compass of all our thoughts and imaginations and devices, comes to be thoroughly understood by us, then it is that God causes us to be pricked by its sharp point.

I have known some also pricked in the heart when they have discovered that there is to be a judgment about everything that we have done,-nay, more than that, about everything that we have said, and everything that we have thought,-and that that judgment will be most solemn, and its sentence most severe. There will be pronounced, from the lips of God, a sentence of condemnation upon the ungodly which will rest upon them for ever and ever, so that they shall abide in a living death in which there shall be no gleam of light or joy, but all shall be a desolation and a ruin, where misery shall lift up its doleful notes for ever proclaiming the infinite justice of God. Many have been “pricked in their heart” when they have found that, though some preachers make out sin to be only a trifle, God’s Word does not. Man may try to make the penalty of sin seem small, but God’s Word does not. God’s scale of sin and man’s scale of sin differ very widely. God regards sin as a vast evil requiring an infinite atonement, whilst some, who profess to be his servants, treat it as quite an insignificant thing. I pray that the truth, as revealed in God’s Word, may be applied with power to every unwounded heart here, and that many may be “pricked in their heart,” and caused to cry out, as they did after Peter’s discourse on the day of Pentecost, “Men and brethren, what must we do?”

On the other hand, a great many have been “pricked in their heart” by a sense of the great goodness of God. They have said, “Has God been so good, so kind, so tender to us, and have we never loved him or sought his glory?” And they have felt ashamed as they have thought of their base ingratitude. There is one thing I often feel;-I do not know whether you feel as I do, and I do not know whether I can quite make you see what I mean;-I often feel a great pity for God, I feel as if I could weep tears of blood because God is so shamefully treated by his own creatures. God himself feels their ingratitude, for he says, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” He feels that it is a hard case that he should be treated thus, and when men feel that it is a hard case, it is a proof that they have been “pricked in their heart.”

But the chief instrument, I think, that God uses for pricking sinners in the heart is the dying love of Jesus Christ. Nothing wounds like the cross of Christ, just as nothing heals like the cross. When we discover that, out of infinite love and pity, Jesus came to this earth, and took upon him our sins, our sorrows, and our sicknesses, and died in our stead upon Calvary’s cross, we say, “How can we stand out against One who is so disinterested, so condescending, and so kind?” Looking to him whom we have pierced by our sin, we are made to weep on account of it. Are not your hearts, my fellow-Christians, always most tender when you get nearest the cross? I am sure you agree with the poet who wrote:-

“My sins, my sins, my Saviour,

How sad on thee they fall!

Seen through thy gentle patience,

I tenfold feel them all.

“I know they are forgiven,

But still their pain to me

Is all the grief and anguish

They laid, my Lord, on thee.”

Yes, a bleeding Saviour makes men’s hearts bleed; when he is pierced, they also are pierced. Of one thing I am sure, that nothing ever pierced my heart like the discovery of God’s boundless love in giving his well-beloved Son to die for me. I will put it to any man here, even if he is living this day an ungodly life, even if he has plunged into the very worst and most infamous of sins, if to-night he could know that God had loved him from before the foundation of the world,-that, long before the stars began to shine, electing love had pitched on him to be its peculiar object,-that Christ died specially for him,-that for him there was appointed pardon and acceptance, and for him a crown already made in heaven, and a white robe which would fit no one but himself, and a harp which no hand but his could ever play,-oh, methinks he would loathe himself, and say, “I did not know this, or else I should not have lived as I have lived. I did not know that I was the favourite of heaven, I did not know that I was bought with the precious blood of Jesus, I did not know that God had ordained me unto eternal life, else had I long ago fled into my Father’s arms, and cried, ‘I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.’ ” O Spirit of the living God, make such a revelation to some of God’s elect here now! Wound thus their hearts, and then lead them to the wounded Saviour, and let them know that whosoever believeth in him was loved of God ere time began, and shall be loved of God when time shall be no more!

Now I want to notice very briefly, in the third place, whose hand uses these sharp daggers so that sinners get “pricked in their heart.”

Not Peter’s, my brethren, nor mine, nor the hand of any gospel minister; it must be a more powerful hand than any of these, even the hand of the Holy Spirit. The fact is, that he who wrote these truths in the Bible must himself write them on men’s hearts, or else they will for ever remain inoperative except to condemn. There is One who knows all about the human heart; the Holy Ghost searches the heart and tries the reins of the children of men, and he knows how to apply the truth so as to make it quick and powerful, and to drive home to the heart that sword which, because he uses it, is called “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” I pray that he may take the truth this very moment, and use it thus. A sword hanging on the wall does not wound anybody. Our daily prayer ought to be, “O thou almighty Spirit, gird thy sword upon thy thigh, and wield it in thine omnipotent might, that sinners may be ‘pricked in their heart,’ and so be brought to repentance and salvation!”

One very comforting thought is that he, who alone can pierce sinners’ hearts, is named “The Comforter.” Catch at that, sinner; catch at that. He who wounds the heart is also the Comforter. He who kills is the Quickener who makes alive. The Spirit who convicts is also the Spirit who consoles. He has come to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, but it is also his office to take of the things of Christ, and reveal them unto us. Though one of his hands holds a sharp dagger, the other hand bears the remedy with which to heal the wound, for still is that saying true, “I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal.” Only he who kills can make alive; but blessed be God that the same Divine Spirit is both Wounder and Healer.

Therefore let us, who are the children of God, cry mightily unto the Spirit, and entreat him to make the preaching of the gospel, here and everywhere else, to be like a sharp sword piercing the hearts of sinners. How many preachers, nowadays, are using a sword without either edge or point! I recollect hearing a sermon, and before it was preached there was a prayer offered that souls might be saved by it; yet I could not see how any soul could have been saved by that sermon unless the hearer had misunderstood what the preacher said, and then perhaps he might have been converted. Yet many people called it “a very fine sermon.” The man had put the sword of the Spirit into a splendid scabbard, decorated all the way up with gold and diamonds, and then he waved it about, and prayed the Lord to kill somebody with it; but the Lord could not do it unless he acted directly contrary to his usual method of working. He often uses our weakness and our infirmity to glorify himself, but he cannot do many mighty works with some instrumentality. Brethren, pray to God to send us the Holy Spirit, that is what we want above everything. Pray day and night for this, and believe and expect that God will grant your request. If the preacher does not happen to be the man you like best to hear, say to yourself, “God can use that man;” and then pray, “O Lord, give him thy Holy Spirit!” I remember that Mr. Matthew Wilkes once preached from the text, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, … written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” He compared the preacher to a pen, and said that some pens needed mending now and then, and that all pens, however good they were, must be dipped in the ink if they were to do any writing at all; and he added, “You ought to pray all the more for your preacher when he does not write well, ‘Lord, dip him in the ink; give him more of the unction of the Holy Spirit, and then his word will have power over the hearts of men!’ ”

You had the answer in the first hymn we sang to-night:-

“When wounded sore the stricken soul,

Lies bleeding and unbound,

One only hand, a pierced hand,

Can salve the sinner’s wound.

“When sorrow swells the laden breast,

And tears of anguish flow,

One only heart, a broken heart,

Can feel the sinner’s woe.”

Is your heart bleeding? Then bring it to the bleeding heart of Jesus, for that will stanch its wound. Does your brow ache? Then put it near that brow which was crowned with thorns, and its aching will soon be gone. Are you sorely wounded? Then lay your wounds close to the wounds of Jesus, and they shall be healed.

This is the whole story. You are guilty, and God must punish sin. He cannot be a just God, and yet not exact the penalty for sin. But Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and he has stood as the Substitute for his people, bearing their sins in his own body up to the tree, and on the tree; and there he endured the wrath of God against sin, “being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” You ask, “Did Christ bear my sins?” Let me ask you, do you believe in him? Do you trust him as your Saviour? Will you confide your everlasting destiny into his dear hands? Will you abandon your self-righteousness, and will you rest in Jesus only? Will you take Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to be your soul’s only confidence? If you can truly say, “Ah, that I will, and glad will I be to have such a Christ to trust in,” then I can assure you that he did die for you, and that your sins are pardoned, and shall never be mentioned against you any more for ever. Go in peace, for you are justified by faith, and you are dear to the heart of God. Remember that glorious declaration, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Go away singing of substitution,-the richest word in all our language,-Christ standing in my place that I may stand in Christ’s place; Christ on the cross for me, Christ in the grave for me, and now I in heaven where Christ is, for God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;” I at the right hand of God, beloved and honoured, because Christ has gone there to prepare a place for me that where he is there I may be also.

Yet, before you go, let me urge you, if you are trusting in Christ, to confess your faith as the converts did on the day of Pentecost.

“Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!

The trumpet call obey;

Forth to the mighty conflict,

In this his glorious day;

Ye that are men, now serve him,

Against unnumbered foes;

Your courage rise with danger;

And strength to strength oppose.”

You, who really love the Lord, ought to be ashamed to make any difficulty of confessing your faith in him. I recollect, when I was a lad of fifteen, resolving that, as a believer in Christ, I ought to join the church in the place where I was then living. I asked the deacon about it, and he said that I must see the pastor. I remember well going to see him on a Monday, and receiving a reply that he could not see me; calling again on Tuesday, and getting an answer that he was busy, and could not see me; calling again on Wednesday, and then being told that he really was so busy that he could not see me. But when I made up my mind to do a thing, even in those days, I meant to do it; so I managed to get to the door of his study, and I said to him, “As I have come three times to see you, sir, and the church-meeting is to be held to-morrow evening, I will go to the church-meeting, and propose myself as a member. I mean to be united to the visible Church of Christ; so, if you cannot see me, I will go to the members, and ask them to receive me.” When he saw how determined I was, he found time to see me directly, and I was very soon admitted into the church. Now, you will not have so much trouble as I had, for you will find many Christians ready to welcome you into our fellowship. It is no trouble at all compared with what Christians found it in the olden time. I think I see, in the early days of Christianity, a good old saint, at one of the meetings down in the catacombs, talking with a young man, who says to him, “I wish to be a follower of Christ.” The old saint says, “I rejoice, brother, to give you the right hand; but do you know what it means to be a follower of Christ?” “Well,” he says, “I think I do.” “Come with me,” says he, “and we will take a walk to the Colosseum;” and in the dead of night, while the moon is shining upon that vast amphitheatre, the old man says to him, “Do you see these tens of thousands of seats?” “Yes.” “Well, if you do become a follower of Christ, it is very likely that every one of those seats will be filled with a cruel spectator who will gaze upon you one of these days.” “But, father, what would happen to me then?” “Come with me,” says he, “across this great arena. Do you see those bones? They are the bones of some of the soldiers belonging to the army that you wish to join. Now step across to this low arch. Can you hear those growls?” “Yes, father, what animals are those?” “Lions, tigers, and other savage beasts from Africa and Gaul.” “Why are they there, father?” “To tear the Christians limb from limb when they shall be placed in the middle of that amphitheatre. If you are with them, there will be tens of thousands looking down upon you, eager for your death, and not one of them will pity you. Are you prepared to follow Christ here?” I think I can hear the young Christian hero, when he thoroughly appreciates the risk, saying, “It will be hard for flesh and blood to die like that, yet, by the grace of God, I will never bow before an idol. My hope is fixed on Jesus Christ, who bled and died for me. Father, put my name down, introduce me to the pastor of the church, and let me be immersed into Christ, for his I am; and if I am called to die here, by his Spirit’s help I will not draw back. I will face the lions, and die the martyr’s death, that I may wear the martyr’s crown.” You young men and young women, who have lately been converted here, are not called to such a death as that. Will you shrink from the little trials and petty persecutions of the present time? Are you afraid of someone who will point the finger of scorn at you, and say, “There goes a Christian”? Then, what poor stuff you must be made of, and how little of the Spirit of God can be in you! You have grave need to question whether you have been born again; for, if you are indeed the Lord’s own, if he has bought you with his blood, you will come forward, and say, “His I am, and I am not ashamed to own it; nay, but I even glory in it.”

The Lord bless you, dear friends! If you have been wounded in heart, may he heal you; and if you never have been thus wounded, may there be such a wound produced in your heart right speedily that only the pierced hand of Christ shall be able to salve, and to him shall be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-537, 584.