It seems to me that the departure of Elijah from the world, though of course he did not “die” at all, may furnish us with a very good type of the decease of those saints who, although taken away on a sudden, are not without some previous intimation that in such a manner they will be removed. There may be some such here. They may know that they have about them a disease which, in all probability, will terminate fatally and suddenly. Others of us may have no idea at present that there is prepared for us a sudden death and sudden glory. We would not shrink from such a death if it were the Lord’s will that it should be ours. Nay, some of us would gladly reach out our hands, and grasp so happy a mode of departure. It has always seemed to us to be the preferable way of leaving this world, not to lie long sick and disabled, a weariness to those who nurse us, and a torment to ourselves, but on a sudden to shut our eyes on earth, and open them on the splendours of heaven. So to die would be, we think, a blessed mode of resting from our labours and entering into the presence of our Lord.

Taking Elijah’s case as a guide, we propose to-night to say a few words-and may God make them to edification!-about preparing for our departure, which really is so near that it is time we began to talk about it.

It is much nearer to us than we think. To those of you who have passed fifty, sixty, or seventy years of age, it must, of necessity, be very near. To others of us who are in the prime of life, it is not far off, for I suppose we are all conscious that time flies more swiftly with us now than ever it did. The years of our youth seem to have been twice as long as the years are now that we are men. It was but yesterday that the buds began to swell and burst, and now the leaves are beginning to fall, and soon we shall be expecting to see old winter taking up his accustomed place. The years whirl along so fast that we cannot see the months which, as it were, make the spokes of the wheel. The whole thing travels so swiftly that the axle thereof grows hot with speed. We are flying, as on some mighty eagle’s wing, swiftly on towards eternity. Let us, then, talk about preparing to die. It is the greatest thing we have to do, and we have soon to do it, so let us talk and think something about it.

And what should we do when we are preparing to die? Well, we may spend some little time in leave-taking. We have some friends who have been very dear to us, and we may almost begin to bid them “good-bye.” When we feel that death is really coming, we may spare a little season to say to a friend, “I beseech thee now to leave me.” There will be some who, like Elisha with Elijah, have been with us during life, and who will not leave us till the very last moment of death. Yet, in the prospect of our departure, we must learn to hold all things with a loose hand. Why should I grip so fast that which death must and will tear from me? Why should I set my affections so ardently upon a dying thing that will melt before my eyes? I cannot carry it with me when I am called to go. There are, it is true, dear ones who will not leave us, but who will live in our hearts and permit us to live in their hearts till the last hour shall come, and longer still. But we must begin even now to prepare for our departure by reminding them, and reminding ourselves likewise, that these friendships must be broken, that these unions must be snapped, at least for a season, hopeful though we may be that we shall enjoy them again on the other side the Jordan.

The next thing we ought to do, and as it seems to me even more important, is to go and see about our work. If we have a feeling at all that we are going home, let us set our house in order. What did Elijah do? He went to the two colleges he had founded at Bethel and at Jericho, and of which he was the principal instructor, and he addressed the young men once more before he was taken from them. I should like to have been a student there to have listened to the Professor’s last lecture. I warrant you that it was not an ordinary one. There was nothing in it dry, dusty, dead, and dreary. O friends, I think I hear the prophet charging them as before God, and before his holy angels, to rebuke the sin of the age in which they lived. “I went to the top of Carmel,” said he, “and the priests of Baal were gathered about me, and I laughed them to scorn; I poured sarcasms upon their heads; I said to them concerning Baal, ‘Cry aloud, for he is a God; and while they cut themselves with knives and with lancets I mockingly said to them, ‘Peradventure he hunteth, or he sleepeth, and needeth to be awaked by louder cries;’ I laughed to scorn their leapings upon the altar; and then, when I bowed my knees, and cried for fire to come from heaven, those same skies, which my faith had shut up so that no rain fell upon the sinful Israelites’ land, now cast forth fire at my word; and then I took the prophets of Baal, I let not one of them escape; I slew them by the brook Kishon, and made the brook run blood-red with their gore, because they had led astray the people of God, and had defied the name of the Most High. Now, young men,” said he, “be ye faithful even unto death; go ye and teach the people, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear; pull down their idols, and exalt Jehovah, and speak ye as men who are sent by him.”

You, dear friends, are not called to teach students as I am, so I speak with earnest sympathy when I say that, next to dying in the pulpit, the thing I would choose would be to die amongst those brethren whom I often seek to stir up to fidelity in the Master’s cause. But you may well desire that, before you depart, all your various works should come under review. Sunday-school teachers, call your children together; let your addresses to them be those of dying men and women. You who can and do conduct our Bible-classes, dear and honoured brothers and sisters, there are many souls committed constantly to your care; clear yourselves of their blood so that you may go to your beds to-night, and every night, as though you were going to your tomb, and feel that you fell asleep on that bed as you would wish to fall asleep when your last sleeping hour must come. Let us each see to the various works we have in hand, so that we leave nothing out of place. Is there one soul we ought to have spoken to that we have not yet pleaded with for the Master? Let us do it now. Is there any field of usefulness which we ought to have ploughed, and does the ploughshare still lie rusting in the furrow? Let us go and begin to plough this very night, or, at least, when to-morrow’s sun has risen. We have so little time to live, let us live like dying men. A certain lady, staying in the parish of that devoted minister, Mr. Cecil, was asked by him to undertake some particular work. She answered him, “My dear sir, I should be very glad to do it, but I am not certain of being in the parish more than three mouths.” “Ah!” said he, “I am not certain of being in the parish three hours, and yet I go on with my duty, and I pray you, madam, to go on with yours.” Let us look at our time, not as having a great deal of it, but as having so little. Beza said to his scribe, as he was translating the Gospel of John, “Write fast; write fast, for I am dying.” Then when he had got to the last verse, he said, “Now shut up the book, and leave me alone a minute,” and he fell back, and entered into glory. Work hard; the candle is nearly burned out, and you have not finished that garment yet! Work hard, for you have not another candle to light when that one is gone!

When Elijah had taken leave of Elisha, and had addressed the students, the next thing was to cross the Jordan. With his mantle he smote the waters, and passed through them, and then, as it were, they shut him out from all the world except Elisha. I think I would like, if I might have notice of the day of my dying, to get away from the world alone. What does a dying man want with business? A man who has to die had need shut up the ledger, and keep open that blessed Book which shall be as God’s rod and staff to comfort him in the valley of the shadow of death. It is a happy circumstance for some of my friend’s, whom. I look upon almost with envy, that they have ended the activities of life before death, and have now a little season in which, as it were, they have got on the verge of Jordan, and are resting, except that they are doing the Lord’s work diligently,-resting from the world, and preparing to enter into glory. John Bunyan very graphically describes this state, when he tells us of what he calls “the country of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant, and the way lying directly through it, the pilgrims solaced themselves there for a season. Yea, here they heard continually the singing of birds, and saw every day the flowers appear in the earth, and heard the voice of the turtle in the land. In this country the sun shineth night and day; wherefore this was beyond the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and also out of the reach of Giant Despair, neither could they from this place so much as see Doubting Castle. Here they were within sight of the city they were going to, also here met them some of the inhabitants thereof; for in this land the Shining Ones commonly walked, because it was upon the borders of heaven.” They heard the melody of the upper spheres while they were still here below. This is a blessed terminus of our earthly life. Did not the prophet indicate it when he said, “At evening time it shall be light”? When you have got home from business lately, how you have enjoyed those splendid evenings that we have been having, so fair, so calm, so bright! You know that the day must die, and that the dew would weep its fall; but, oh! its dying hours were so pleasant! There was no sun-heat to broil you, no dust nor whirl of care to vex you, but the evening seemed a beautiful preparation for your going to your beds. Well, if one might choose, one would like to have just such a season as that; and though there are but few grey hairs on the heads of some of us, I am not quite sure that we might not begin this happy time sooner than most people do. I do not mean by laying aside work, but by laying aside unbelief; not by giving up toil, but by giving up carking care. Why should I fret and worry myself when I am young any more than when I am, old? My father’s God is my God, and he who will make the land as Beulah to me when I come to die, can make it so even now if I have but that childlike confidence which can sing,-

“All my times are in thy hand,

All events at thy command.”

Imitate Luther’s little bird, that used to sit on the tree, and sing to him. Nobody else could interpret its notes, or tell what it said, but to Luther it sang,-

“Mortal, cease from care and sorrow,

God provideth for the morrow.”

Elijah teaches us another thing by which we may prepare for our departure. He said to his friend Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for thee.” Quick, then, brother, quick; if you have anything you can do for your friends, do it now. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” If you do not ask your friends what you shall do, think what you can do for them. Mother, you would like to pray with that dear child of yours; then do it soon, for the hour of your departure is at hand. Friend, you would like to do a kind action to that struggling brother, then do it soon, for you may be gone to-morrow. You have thought of something that you would like to do for Christ’s cause. Perhaps there is a destitute village where you would like to have the gospel preached, and you want to make some provision for it; then do it soon, do it soon, or the resolve may never be able to ripen, into action. How many infants, that might have grown up to be spiritual giants, have been strangled by our procrastination! You nurse the little child of resolve, but seldom does it grow into the man of practical action. Get about it, get about it now! You cannot help your friend when you have once gone up in your chariot of fire, so help him now, and let him tell you what you shall do for him.

Then notice that Elijah and Elisha were talking as they went on, and holding communion with each other. Old Bishop Hall says they must have been talking of some very solemn and heavenly subjects, or else one would have thought that they would have been on their knees praying instead of talking; but he very properly adds, that “sometimes meditation is best, and sometimes conversation.” So was it in their case. Elijah had a great deal to say to Elisha; he was about to leave the State and the Church in very perilous times, so he talked fast to the man who was to bear the burden and heat of the day, and poured the whole case into his ear; and no doubt Elisha asked him many questions, and was informed by him upon many knotty points, and so “they still went on, and talked.” Let our talk always be like their talk, and then it will be well to die talking. “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard.” Brethren, I say, and I am afraid I may well say it with tears, that much of our conversation would not do for God to hear; and though he does hear it, yet it would not do for him; to write a book of remembrance concerning it, for it would be better far that it should be blotted out. Oh! when the last solemn hour shall come, may we be found-

“Wrapt in meditation high,

Hymning our great Creator’s praise;”-

or else conversing with our brethren here below, so that we may go from the communion of the Church militant to that of the Church triumphant, and take away our lip from: the human ear to begin to speak to ears immortal before the starry throne.

These are the different methods by which we may prepare to die. Some people, when they fancy they are going to! die, think the only thing they can do to prepare for death is to send for the parson, “take the sacrament,” as they call it, get upstairs, not see anybody, and draw the curtain. The best way for a Christian to die is in harness. If I were a soldier, methinks I would sooner die in battle in the hour of victory than I would die in the trenches doing nothing, rotting in idleness for want of work to do. Let us just push on, and may it be said of us when we are gone, he did-

“His body with his charge lay down,

And ceased at once to work and live.”

So was it with Elijah; so may it be with us!

This departure of Elijah appears to me in some measure symbolic of the deaths of believers.

It was sudden, though expected. They were talking, and just in the middle of a sentence, perhaps, they were parted. There was no noise, for the wheels of that chariot moved not on earth, but its brightness shone around them. They looked back, and they saw strange steeds, whose eye-balls flashed with flame, and whose necks were clothed with thunder; and behind them, was a chariot, brighter than the golden car in which the Cæsars rode, for it was a car of fire, and Elijah knew it was one of the chariots of God, which are twenty thousand, that he had sent to take his favoured servant up to the ivory palaces, where the King himself dwells. It was sudden, the parting came in a moment; and I suppose that death is usually sudden. Even, though persons may be, as we say, long dying, yet the actual moment of departure comes suddenly. The bowl is broken with a crash, and the silver cord is loosed; the chain is snapped, and the eagle mounts to dwell in the sun.

How terrible!-a chariot of fire, and horses of fire. Even to a Christian, death is not a soft, dainty thing. To die is no child’s-play. We speak of it as a sleep; but it is no such sleep as you youngster’s, when he lies down upon the sunny bank to wake again. There are solemnities about it. There are horses and there are chariots, and so far there is comfort; but they are all of fire, and he that sees them need have Elijah’s eyes, or perhaps his own will blink. Elijah had seen fire before; he had called it from heaven upon his enemies; he had brought it down from heaven upon his sacrifice; he had seen fire flashing on him at Horeb, till the whole sky was bright with sheets of forked flame, but the Lord was not in that fire as he was in this. He who had looked at that former fire, and feared not, could bear to look upon the horses and chariots of fire which God had sent.

Though terrible, how triumphant! Oh, what splendour, to ride to heaven in a chariot! No foot-passenger wading through Jordan’s stream, and going up dripping on the other bank to be met by the shining ones. That is bright and glorious. The good dreamer of Bedford Gaol dreamed well when he dreamed that; but this is more triumphant still,-to mount the car, and stand erect, and ride up to the throne of God, drawn thither by horses of fire! It is given to but few to have this experience; and yet, what am I saying? Have we not all the like experience? Shall we not all have it when, in the image of Christ Jesus, we shall mount with him to our eternal rest? Yes, he will come again, and all his people with him; and if Jesus shall ride on the white horse of victory, his saints shall ride on white horses too, and shall enter through the gates into the city amidst resounding acclamations. Yes, to die is triumph to the Christian. It seems to me that it was an act of faith, on the part of Elijah, to mount that fiery chariot; and we may say of him as it was said of Enoch, “By faith he was translated that he should not see death; and he was not, for God took him.”

Yes, horses of fire and chariots of fire are no bad image of the departure of the blessed when they are called to enter into the joy of their Lord. As for us, we have not got to heaven yet; our turn has not come, though we are ready to say,-

“Oh that we now might grasp our Guide!”

Oh that the word were given!

Come, Lord of hosts, the waves divide,

And land us all in heaven!”

If we have lost wife, or husband, or child, or friend, in this sudden way, what ought we to do? You see what Elisha did. First of all, he rent his clothes, which was the Eastern mode of showing his grief. Well, you may weep, for “Jesus wept.” Do not think there is any sin in sorrowing over departed friends, for the Lord never denies to us those human feelings which are rather kindly than vicious. Had there been death before the Fall, I could imagine even perfect Adam weeping at the loss of Eve; nay, he would have been no perfect man if he could have lost his spouse, and not have wept. “Jesus wept;” we regard him all the more as Jesus because he wept; and you would not be like Jesus unless you wept too. The gospel does not make us Stoics; it makes us Christians. Still, you must remember that there is a moderation in grief. The Quaker was right who, when he saw a lady fretting on the sofa some year or so after her husband was dead, still harbouring grief without a token of resignation, said to her, “Madam, I see you have not forgiven God yet.” Sometimes grief is not a sacred feeling, but only a murmur of rebellion against the Most High.

Yes, you may rend your garments; and if you like, you may do a little more. Elisha not only rent his garments, but he cried, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof,” and in doing this he eulogized his departed friend. He seemed to say, “He has been a father to me; I have lost one who was very tender to me, one who trained me, and watched over me, and fostered me as a father.” Oh, speak well of the departed! You need not ’bate your kind words about your dead friends. We speak little enough that is good of one another while we are living; I wish we sometimes said a little more, not by way of flattery, but by way of commendation, which might cheer depressed and burdened spirits; but you need not be afraid of speaking flatteringly, so as to hurt the dead who have gone to glory, for they will not be injured by what you say. If those who have departed were of value to the Church of God, you may say of them, “The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” You may wonder who will lead the Church now; you may question how things will go on; who will be the horses to drag the car, or where will now be the chariot in which weary spirits may be made to ride.

Yes, you may both grieve and eulogize. Weep well and speak well, but then, what next? Do not stand there, and waste your time; do not stop there, and let your eyes see nothing. See, there is something falling. What is it that is dropping from the sky. It is no meteor. Elisha’s eyes are fixed on it; he finds that it is the old mantle that the prophet used to throw about his shoulders, and he picks it up joyfully; and our friends, who have gone from us, have left their mantles too. What are these mantles? Sometimes good men leave their books and sermons* behind them, but all Christian people leave their good examples. Now, do not stand and weep till you forget the goodness of the departed, but go and take their mantles up. Were they earnest? Be you earnest. Were they humble? Be you humble. Were they prayerful? Be you prayerful; and so, in each case, shall you wear their mantle. They have left their example for you to follow; they are not gone that you may superstitiously reverence them, but they have departed that you may earnestly imitate them. As far as “they followed Christ, do you follow them, and so wear their mantle.

And when you have got their mantle, do not waste precious time in lamentations about them any more; get to your business. There is a river in your way; what then? Well, go to the Jordan as the prophet Elisha did, and try to pass it. Say not, “Where is Elijah?” but “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” Elijah is gone, but his God is not; Elijah has gone away, but Jehovah is present still. Now then, Christians, you have to take up the work of the departed; take it up in the strength of the same God who made them mighty, and strive to do the same works that they did. If they divided Jordan, do you divide Jordan. You have their example to show you how to do it, and their God is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

Ask ye now, “Where did Elisha go after he had divided Jordan?” Did he go to seek out Elijah-

“In some vast wilderness,

Some boundless contiguity of shade;

Where rumour of-”

bereavements and of death might never reach him more? Not he! He went straight away to the place where Elijah used to be the head of the college, and there took up Elijah’s work. Were I a soldier, with courage for the armour of my mind, and valour for the enterprise of my life, a soldier of that class which Baxter describes as carrying their lives in their hands, and the grace of God in their hearts, then surely, when I saw a man just in front of me fall, I should step forward, and take his place. That is what you should do. If there is a good man dead, fill up the gap. If there is a saint departed, be you, as it were, “baptized for the dead.” Seek to have the blessing of God upon you, so that you may have a double portion of his spirit, and may be able to take the place in the ranks, or the council, which he who: is gone has vacated. Your business is not in the closet of mourning, but in the field of service. There is work to be done yet; there is work to be done yet; up, and do it! That was a brave thing in Richard Cobden’s life, at the time when his whole soul was taken up with the subject of free trade, and the breaking of the chains of commerce, the young wife of his friend, John Bright, died, and Cobden went to him, and said, “Now, Bright, you have lost your wife, and we will heal your sorrow by fighting the nation’s battle;” and the thing was indeed well and bravely done. So, if you have lost a dear friend, heal your sorrow by giving yourself more earnestly than ever to God’s cause, and to the propagation of “the truth as it is in Jesus.” There is nothing like activity, nothing like having the hands full, to keep the heart bright, and to keep the soul happy. You are dullards, you who have nought to do; you fret, and fume, and rebel, instead of fighting for your Lord; but if you would only go up “to the help of the Lord against the mighty,” and would bear his burdens, he would help you to bear yours, and the sorrow that now seems as a knife in your bones would be as a spur to your activity. “I vowed,” said one, “that I would be avenged on death for all the damage that he had done to me, and so I smote him, right and left with the fiery sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; I preached the immortality that there is in Christ Jesus, and so I was avenged on death, and felt that I had conquered him.” So do you; go and serve your Master still, and though Elijah may depart, yet you shall fill up his place, and God’s horsemen and chariots shall not be wanting.

And now, dear friends, in parting for the night, it is meet for us, to say, “Farewell for this night, till we meet again in the morning.” But, sometimes, this parting may be very significant, and therefore let us say, “Farewell,” with the thought that some of us may never look each other in the face again. I hope we can truly say, “Farewell!” and then we shall meet in the morning, when the night is over, and the death-dews drop no more, when the chill frost of midnight shall all have been melted away by the rising sun of immortality. Yes, we will meet; we shall meet to part no more. We will make an appointment now, to meet each other then, where our hearts, in faith, have often met before, at the throne of him who has washed us in his blood, and made us white, and so,-Farewell till the Morning!

But what of some of you? You can make no such appointment to meet us there, for your way is not thitherward,-not with horses of fire to heaven, but with chariots of flame down to hell,-down, down, down for ever into the depths of grief! We dare not say that we will meet you there. If you will go there, you must go alone; if you will perish, you must perish by yourself. If you will live and die without a Saviour, you cannot expect your friends to accompany you to that dreary world of woe. But why goest thou, why goest thou, O solitary traveller, where thou wouldst not have thy fellow go? Thou wouldst not see thy child damned,-let me say the word with solemn awe,-thou wouldst not see thy child damned, wouldst thou? Then why shouldst thou be damned thyself? “But must I be?” say you. No, sinner, there is no “must” for that. There hangs my Master, the crucified Redeemer, and if thou lookest to him, there will be another “must” for thee, namely, that thou must be saved. The road to heaven is by the cross of Calvary. Christ Jesus marks the way to glory by the crimson blood-drops which flowed from his pierced hands and feet. Trust Jesus; trust him wholly; trust him now; trust him for ever; and then we will meet, we will meet again in the morning, and so,-Good Night!

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 62

In this Psalm the royal singer casts himself entirely on God. Here we see the foundation of his expectation laid bare. He has no confidence anywhere but in God. The Psalm begins in the original with the word “Only.” I always call it “The ‘only’ Psalm” because it harps upon that word. David had no mixed reliance; he had not built upon a foundation partly of iron and partly of clay; it was all in harmony throughout; his trust was in the Lord alone.

Verse 1. Truly-

Or, as it is in the margin, “Only”-

1. My soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.

It is a blessed thing to wait truly and only upon God. You have proved everything else to be a failure, and now you hang upon the bare arm of God alone. There is certainly enough for you to depend upon there. Most people want something to see, something tangible to the senses, to be the object of their confidence; but David says, “Only my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.” It is already on the road; it is coming now; it is a salvation from present trouble and from present temptation. A complete salvation is on the road for all those whose souls are waiting only upon God.

2. He only is my rock and my salvation;* he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

“Though I have no other shelter, yet,” says he, “God, and God alone, is my rock fortress. Though I have no other deliverer, he is my salvation, and though thousands seek to do me hurt, and none will stand up for me, yet he is my shield and my defence.” Then he adds, “ ‘I shall not be greatly moved.’ I shall be like a well-anchored ship; I may suffer some tossing, but I cannot drift far away, my cable holds me fast.”

3. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.

See how he laughs at his enemies. He tells them they are like a wall that leans over, bulges out, and shakes and totters; with a push, it will go over. “You think that you will destroy me,” says he, “but you will yourselves be destroyed.”

4. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.

It is a sure proof that they delight in lies because they are guilty of telling them. They can speak soft oily words all the while that they are harbouring curses in their hearts. God save us from having a tongue that talks in a different way from that in which our heart feels! But those that delight in lies are never better pleased than when they can find a man of God upon whom they can spit their venom: and of all cruel things slander is the worst, and it deserves the worst punishment. Well did the psalmist ask, “What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.” Such punishment as that a slanderer’s tongue well deserves to feel.

5. My soul, wait thou only upon God;† for my expectation is from him.

First he said that his salvation came from the Lord, and now he says that his expectation comes from him. All that he needs, and all that he wishes for, he gets from his God. “Let my foes slander me,” he seems to say, “but, O my soul, do thou wait upon God! Let their tongues keep on inventing their diabolical falsehoods; but, O my soul, take thou no notice of them! Sit thou down at Jehovah’s feet, and patiently wait till ‘he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.’ ”

6. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Notice how David’s faith grows. In verse 2, he says, “I shall not be greatly moved;” but now he says, “I shall not be moved at all.” What strength faith gives to a man, and what strength prayer gives to a man! We may begin our supplication tremblingly, but as we draw near to God we become confident in him, and filled with holy boldness.

7, 8. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times;-

I cannot tell what “times” you may be passing through just now, yet I can repeat David’s exhortation, “Trust in him at all times.” In your darkest hours, in the most terrible times that you ever have, when all seems lost, when the dearest object of your heart’s love is taken from you, or when you yourself are coming to the swellings of Jordan, still trust in the Lord: “Trust in him at all times;”-

8. Ye people, pour out your heart before him:-

That is the way to get rid of all your troubles; take your heart, and turn it upside down, and pour out all that is in it. Do not save a drop or a dreg: try not to hide one secret sorrow from your God, nor one slight grief that nestles in a corner of your spirit. “Pour out your heart before him.’ It will not be wise for you to pour it out before your fellows, for they will misunderstand you and misrepresent you; but “pour out your heart before him:”-

8, 9. God is a refuge for us. Selah. Surely men of low degree are vanity.

There is nothing in them; they are only the very essence of vanity.

9. And men of high degree-

They must surely be better. No, they are even worse: “Men of high degree”-

9. Are a lie:

Their pretence of being better because they are of high degree is mere pretence. Well but, if we mix them up, and get some poor man and some rich ones, some peasants and some peers, can we not make something solid out of this mixture? Oh, no!

9. To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

The men of low degree alone were vanity, but when the men of high degree were put with them, they became lighter than vanity; so that there seems to be a propensity in the men of high degree to make those that are of low degree even lighter than they are by nature; and whether men are high or low, if we trust in them, we shall be deceived. He who tries to base his happiness upon the good opinion of his neighbours, he whose happiness depends upon human esteem, builds not on sand, but on mere breath, which is no more solid than the bubbles that our children blow.

10. Trust not in oppression,-

An ungodly man says, “Well, if I cannot trust in others, I will trust in myself; my own stout arm shall win me the victory, and I will tread others down beneath my feet.” “I will get money,” says another; “somehow or other, I will get money.” To both of these, David says, “Trust not in oppression,”-

10. And become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

If you do, they will either fly away from your heart, or else they will fly away with your heart, which would be the greater evil of the two; for, when riches carry a man’s heart away from God, his greatest gains are his heaviest losses. He is poor indeed who prizes his gold more than his God.

11. God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

Where ought we to put our confidence? Why, where true power is. If there were any power elsewhere, we might put a measure of confidence elsewhere; but when twice the heavenly message declares that power belongs to God, our wisdom will be shown in putting all our trust in God.

12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy:-

Almighty power would be terrible if it were separated from infinite mercy; but it is not so.

12. For thou renderest to every man according to his work.

Thou givest him enough strength with which to do his work. Thou dost not send him to do a work beyond his power, and leave him to fail; but unto all thy children thy mercy brings thy power to help in every time of need. Thy faithful promise is, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Come, my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be of the same mind as David was when he wrote the first verse of this Psalm, and let each one of us say, “Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.”

EYES OPENED

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, November 5th, 1908,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, November 5th, 1874.

“And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”-2 Kings 6:17.*

The believer in Christ sees much more than any other man sees. There is a proverb which says, “Seeing is believing;” but that is not true, for there are many things that we see, which, if we are sensible persons, we shall not believe, since our eyes are very apt indeed to be deceived, and optical illusions are very common. If you turn the proverb round the other way, and say, “Believing is seeing,” you will often find it come true. The man who has believed has “the evidence of things not seen” as yet; he is like Moses, who is described as “seeing him who is invisible.” Faith is to a man like new eyes,-eyes with a far wider range of vision than natural eyes ever have;-eyes which see the truth, which natural eyes often, do not;-eyes which wax not dim, but which, as age increases, grow yet more bright and far-seeing. Blessed is the man who has the eyesight of faith. Elisha had it, and therefore, when he saw the hosts of Syria, with their horses and chariots, encompassing the city of Dothan, he also saw the angelic hosts, with their horses and chariots of fire, which God had sent to guard him from the Syrians.

The eyesight of faith produces, in the man who possesses it, a calm and quiet frame of mind. Elisha’s servant said, “Alas, my master!” but Elisha did not say, “Alas, my servant!” for there was nothing to cause him to be alarmed. The servant said, “How shall we do?” but his master said nothing of the kind; with those horses and chariots of fire visible to his eyes, he had no need to be dismayed, and no reason for asking the question, “How shall we do?” It is a grand thing to have a calm, serene frame of mind, so as not readily to be put out of temper, and to grow angry, or to become depressed and anxious, but to possess one’s soul in patience and peacefulness. This is to be a king among the sons of men. When others are driven hither and thither, like the thistledown upon the hillside, this man stands like the royal oak in the midst of the tempest, too deeply rooted to be easily swept away. He is the man who is not “afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” He can say, with David, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise;” and he is of the same mind as that psalmist who said, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” Oh, that we all had these eyes of faith, that we might enjoy such calm, quiet patience as Elisha enjoyed! If we could see what Elisha saw, we should be as quiet and serene as Elisha was. But most men have not this calmness of mind because they have not the spiritual eyesight which would bring it to them. The narrative before us, if we use it as a kind of illustration, will help us to realize the blindness of those who as yet have not had their eyes opened; and I trust that it will also lead us to admire the rich grace of God which has been manifested in those of us who have had our eyes opened that we may see the things of God.

My first observation shall be, that the natural eye is blind to heavenly things.

Man boasts that he can see, but he cannot. He sees natural things, and he often sees them very clearly. His penetrating eye has looked into the bowels of the earth and the depths of the sea, and has peered among the stars. Scarcely anything has been able to conceal itself from the wondrous power of research possessed by the human mind. For natural things, the natural eye is sufficient; but, as the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, seeing that they are spiritual, and must be spiritually discerned, so the natural eye discerns not spiritual things. Let me prove this, as I can very readily do.

For instance, God is everywhere, yet sin-blinded eyes see him not. When our eyes are opened, we can see God everywhere; it would be impossible to place a Christian where he would not feel the presence of his Maker in creation. Whatever landscape his eye gazes upon, he says at once, “My Father made all this;” and he can see traces of his Father’s handiwork, not merely when he looks upon the face of the earth, but also when he looks up to the stars. Not only in a calm, clear night, but amidst the hurly-burly of the tempest, the Christian realizes that God is there; he does not need anybody to point out to him the fact that God is present, for he knows it. How often have some of us walked out when the storm has been raging, and delighted to look up to the flashing lightning because we saw in it the glances of our Father’s eye, and to listen to the peals of thunder because we believed them to be our Father’s voice, that voice of the Lord which is full of majesty, and which “breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.”

Yet the natural man can go through the world, and not see God at all. Yea, and he will even have the effrontery to deny that God is there, and he may go further still, and say that there is no God at all. David says that such a man is a fool, but the modern name for him is “philosopher.” In David’s day, no one but fools said that there was no God; but now, those who say that there is no God claim that they are amongst the wise ones of the world. Yet, how can they see if they are blind? We need not think that any strange thing has happened, for Paul wrote, long ago, about those who lived in his day, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” They said, “We can see,” and therefore their sin and their blindness both remained.

So blind is man that, in addition to not seeing his God, he does not see the law of God. Go into a parish church, and you will usually see the ten commandments printed legibly before you; yet I am speaking the truth when I say that men cannot see the law of God with their natural eyes. You can scarcely go into a house in this country without finding a Bible, and in that Bible there are the commandments that God gave to Moses; yet, notwithstanding that, the natural man does not see the law of God; for even if he reads the ten commandments, he concludes that the mere letter of them is all that they mean. He reads, “Thou shalt not kill,” and he says to himself, “I have done no murder, so I am clear;” not knowing that “whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause” has broken that commandment. He reads, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and he says, “I am clear;” forgetting that even a lascivious look is an infringement of that command. The law is spiritual, and has to do with thoughts, imaginations, and secret wishes, as well as with words and actions, so who among us can stand unabashed in its awful presence?

“No strength of nature can suffice

To serve the Lord aright;

And what she has she misapplies,

For want of clearer light.”

Instead of asking that our hearts may be inclined to keep this law, it would be better far for us to look up to him who has kept the law on his people’s behalf, and whose precious blood can cleanse us from the stain of the innumerable infringements of that law of which we have been guilty. Till we see Christ’s face in glory, and are perfect through his perfections, the law will be far above us, and will continue to condemn us for our shortcomings. But the great reason why men do not comprehend the high spirituality of the law, its exceeding breadth and wondrous severity, is because they are blind.

Being thus blind to God, and to his law, they are also blind to their own condition. He who has his eyes opened but for a moment will perceive that his soul is as full of sin as an egg is full of meat, and that sin comes out of him as naturally as water flows from a fountain. He sees that every action he performs is stained with sin, and that he is so guilty before God that condemnation has already passed upon him,-so guilty that he can never make any atonement for the past, and that nothing he can do or suffer can ever save him. He must feel, if once his eyes have been opened, that he is lost, ruined, and undone by nature and by practice too, and that only a supernatural act of divine grace can deliver him from the danger into which he has brought himself, and the guilt into which he has plunged himself. We say this to men, and we have said it hundreds of times, but they cannot see it; and when they do not, we ought by no means to be surprised, but simply to say, “Of course, this proves the truth of what we have already said. The very fact that men cannot see it proves that they are blind; if they saw it, we should have spoken falsely in charging them with not haying sight.”

And inasmuch as men are not able to see their sin, and to see their danger, therefore they do not see the way of salvation. They may attend a purely Evangelical ministry, and hear the way of salvation put as clearly as ever it can be put, yet they will not understand it unless their eyes are opened by a miracle which only the Holy Spirit can work. It is strange that, when people are convinced of sin, though they have attended the plainest possible ministry from their childhood, we have to teach them the very A B C of the gospel, and we have the greatest possible difficulty in making them see that faith in Jesus, faith in the divinely-appointed Substitute for sinners, does in a single moment save the soul. The inward spiritual perception of what justification by faith really means comes to no man except it be given him from above. And because man does not see his sin, he does not see the remedy for that sin. Not understanding his danger, he is not in a position to see the wondrous scheme by which he is delivered from that danger, through the grace of God, by the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the effectual working of the ever-blessed Spirit.

This is the reason why men do not admire and love our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. They cannot see his beauties, or they would be enamoured of him. If you tell me that any eye has been turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet that the possessor of that eye has not trusted, loved, and adored him, I tell you at once that that eye must be a blind eye; for, could it see, it must be charmed with him; could it really behold him, it must be fascinated by him. Well did our hymn-writer say,-

“His worth, if all the nations knew,

Then the whole world would love him too.”

But man is so blind that he cannot see the light of the Sun of righteousness. Jesus shines full in his face in all the splendour of his infinite love, yet the blinded soul cannot behold that supernatural radiance.

This want of spiritual discernment makes man ignoble. Samson with his eyes open is a hero; but Samson blinded is a sorry spectacle: from a judge in Israel he sinks to a slave in Philistia. Men believe in the keenness of their intellect; but it is to them; their greatest shame, though they do not know it, that they cannot see the things of God, but grope like blind men in the dark.

It is their blindness that makes them so contented to be what they are. Could they but see themselves as they really are in God’s sight, they would not rest a moment without crying to him for mercy. Could the ungodly man truly know what he is, and where he is, the cry, “What must I do to be saved?” would constantly go up in every house of prayer; and in every private house men and women and children too would be found praying to God to save them. But the blind soul says that it sees, and it is perfectly satisfied to remain blind even though that blindness, unless it is miraculously cured, must end in eternal death. Oh, that God, in his infinite mercy, would now give spiritual eyesight to any here who are thus blind!

Until he does so, this blindness of theirs will keep them proud of what should be their shame. They are covered with rags, but they think they are decked out in the choicest apparel. They are poor and miserable, but this blindness of their soul makes them boast of being princely in their riches, and, therefore, they will not come to God for the true light, and the true life, and the true wealth, but remain self-deceived and unhumbled.

This blindness of theirs places them in great danger. If God, in his sovereign mercy, does not open their eyes, they will fall into the ditch, and probably drag others down with them; or they will go struggling on in the self-conceit of their fancied knowledge, and will never be led into the light, but they will be only undeceived when, in hell, they open their eyes for the first time to find that they are cast out from God for ever and ever.

This is our first point, that the natural eye is blind to heavenly things.

The next truth is, that God alone can open men’s eyes.

We may lead blind men to Jesus, but we cannot open their eyes. We can, in a measure, indicate to them what spiritual sight is, and we may explain to them what their own sad condition is, but we cannot open their eyes. Neither can anyone but God alone open their eyes. There are some who, in mockery, give them artificial eyes, and try to make them look as if they could see; they teach them to trust in an imitation of Christianity which has a name to live, and yet is dead; but nothing less than vital godliness will avail for them,-nothing but the real work of God the Holy Ghost upon the soul. It is all in vain for you to wash your eyes in baptismal water, whether it be in a few drops or in the deepest river; you must have your eyes miraculously opened by God, or they never will be opened. It is all in vain for you to be orthodox in your creed, and to be a member of what you believe to be the best church under heaven, unless there has been in your soul a divine enlightenment so that you have seen yourself, and seen your Saviour, and seen your God with your inward eye. Unless God shall open your eyes, you must still abide in the darkness of spiritual blindness.

Why is it that God alone can open men’s eyes? It is because to open the eyes of blind souls is an act of creation. The faculty to see is gone from the fallen spirit; the eyeball has perished; the optic nerve has died out through sin. God will not merely clean the dust out of old eyes, or take cataracts away from them; but old things must pass away, and all things must become new. He gives new eyes to those who have totally lost all power of sight. The act of creating a soul anew is as much a work of God’s omnipotence as the making of a world.

Remember also that those who have their eyes opened by God were Born blind. The man who was in that sad condition, and whose eyes Christ had opened, truly said, “Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.” It is so spiritually; this old original sin of ours, this inwrought blindness of our nature, is not superficial, it has not merely to do with eyeballs, and optic nerves, and the like, but it has to do with the heart, and the will, and the conscience, and the understanding and the perception of spiritual things; and divine power is needed to remove such blindness as this.

We must remember, too, that man is wilfully blind. Our old proverb says, “There are none so deaf as those that won’t hear, and none so blind as those that won’t see.” It is not merely that man cannot come to Christ, but he will not come to Christ that he may have life. It is not merely that he cannot see the truth, but that he loves darkness rather than light, and does not want to see. You cannot convince a man who is resolved not to be convinced. If sinners were only willing to see, they would soon see, but their will itself is in bondage, and utterly estranged from God, and therefore it is that only a divine power-the will of God-can overcome the desperately wicked will of man.

It must be a divine work, and therefore it was set down among the covenant blessings that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came, should open the eyes of the blind; but why it should have been put down as his special work if others can do it, I cannot tell. But no others can do it; God alone, God in the person of Jesus Christ our Saviour, by the effectual working of the ever-blessed Spirit, must come and open the eyes of those who are spiritually blind.

“If thou, my God, art passing by,

Oh let me find thee near!

Jesus, in mercy hear my cry,

Thou Son of David, hear!

“Behold me waiting, in the way,

For thee, the heavenly Light;

Command me to be brought, and say,

‘Sinner, receive thy sight.’ ”

Now, thirdly, though we cannot open the eyes of the blind, we can pray for them that their eyes may be opened.

This is what Elisha did for his servant; the young man could not see the horses and chariots of fire, and Elisha could not make him see them; but he offered this prayer for him, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw.” How often we feel our helplessness in dealing with sinners! Godly parents, have you not realized your helplessness in dealing with your own children? If you have had the notion that you could convert them, you have soon had it driven out of you. When you have gathered the little children in the Sunday-school around you, perhaps you have pictured to yourself the power and influence you would have over them to lead them to Christ; but I will warrant that you, who have long been earnestly engaged in such holy service as that, have learned, as the Reformer did, that “old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon,” and you have lifted up your heart to God, finding prayer to be the only resource you had in such an emergency. It is a blessed thing to be driven to despair as to any ability of our own to do any good, for we never rely wholly on God’s power so long as we have any confidence in our own. While the preacher imagines that he can do something, he will do nothing. While teachers or parents entertain the belief that there is some innate power in themselves with which they can do God’s work, they are off the right track, for God will not work through those who believe in their own self-sufficiency. But when you say, “I can no more save a soul than I can open the eyes of a man born blind, I am utterly helpless in this matter,” then it is that you begin to pray; and beginning to pray, you are taught how to act, and God uses you as his instrument, and eyes are opened, ay, opened by you, instrumentally, and God has all the glory.

Now, when should you specially pray for those who are blind? I think this narrative teaches us that we should do so whenever we see them in trouble. This young man said to Elisha, “Alas, my master!” so that was the time for Elisha to pray for him, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.” Carefully watch those about whom you are anxious, and pray most earnestly for them when they are under affliction or difficulty. I am sure that trials are providentially sent to unconverted men in order to help the ministry to guide their mind’s and hearts in the right direction. If they were left without trials, we might scarcely find a joint in their harness where the arrows of truth might enter. If they always continued in prosperity, they would become so proud and presumptuous that they would be unwilling to listen either to a rebuke or to an invitation. It is a grand opportunity for you when you visit a man in the time of sickness, or when you find him depressed in spirit, or hear him saying, “Alas! Alas!” Then is the time to speak to him about God, and to speak to God about him.

It is also a good time to pray for sinners when we hear them enquiring. This young man said to Elisha, “How shall we do?” Be always ready, when you hear them asking, “What shall we do?” or, “How shall we do?” to point them at once to Jesus, and also to take their case to Jesus in prayer.

It is also a good time to pray for them when we ourselves have had a clear sight of the things of God. You ought, by the very clearness of the vision which you have enjoyed, to pity those who still sit in darkness, and to pray that they may be brought into the light. Elisha had himself seen the horses and chariots of fire, and therefore he prayed for his servant, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.” When it is well with you, speak to Christ on behalf of poor sinners. When you have good times yourselves, remember those who are starving away from the banquet, and pray the Master of the feast to give you the grace to “compel them to come in.”

It is well to pray for sinners, too, when their blindness astonishes us. I know that, sometimes, you are quite amazed that people should be so ignorant about divine things. It surprises you that intelligent people should have such mistaken notions concerning the very simplest truths of God’s Word. Even if you are astonished, do not be vexed at them, but pray earnestly for them. I have sometimes heard two Christian men arguing because they did not agree in doctrine. One of them has been quite sure that he held the truth, and equally certain that his friend was in error; and, instead of being thankful that he could see more than his friend could, and praying God to bring his friend to see the same, he has grown angry, and struck out right and left, as if the way to make his brother see was to smite him in the eye. But it is not so; controversy very seldom brings any truth home to the heart. We can secure that result much better by praying for others than by fighting with them. Pray, “O Lord, open their eyes.” That is a far wiser thing than abusing them because they cannot see.

Let us also remember, dear friends, that when we received our spiritual eyesight, it was mainly because others had been praying for us. Most of us can probably trace our conversion to the intercession of a godly father, or mother, or teacher, or friend. Then let us repay those prayers which were offered for us, in years gone by, by pleading for others who still are blind.

“Pray that they who now are blind

Soon the way of truth may find.”

It will glorify God to open the eyes of the blind; therefore let us pray for them with great confidence. When we are asking for anything about which we are somewhat doubtful as to whether it will glorify God or not, we may well speak with hesitation; but as we are sure that it is for God’s glory that men should see Jesus, and rejoice in him, let us crave this boon for them with great importunity and much holy boldness, and we shall certainly have out heart’s desire.

Now father, mother, sister, brother, friend, just at this moment breathe the prayer to heaven, “Lord, open my children’s eyes; open my brother’s eyes; open my husband’s eyes; open my wife’s eyes.” Let such prayers as those go up perseveringly, eagerly, expectantly, for verily there is a God that heareth prayer. Make this the burden of your daily approach to God for anyone in whom you are specially interested, “O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see!”

Fourthly, there is this blessed fact, in the narrative before us, that God does open men’s eyes.

God can do it, and, according to this narrative, he has done it in an instant. A moment before, this young man could see no horses or chariots of fire; but directly Elisha’s prayer was registered in heaven, his servant could see what was before invisible to him. The processes of human surgery are often slow. Man requires time for his operations, but the great operation of the soul’s salvation is instantaneous. The soul is dead, and it is made alive in a single moment. The soul is in total darkness, and it is in bright light the next instant. The moment anyone believes in Jesus, spiritual eyesight is given to him with which he can see his God. How I delight to think that, whenever anyone comes into this house of prayer, and the gospel is being preached, my Lord and Master can, at any moment, apply it with power to the soul, and give, to anyone present, immediate, instantaneous salvation. God’s Word, like a hammer, can smite the rocky heart; and out of it the waters shall gush. The Lord touches the eye, it looks to the brazen serpent, and healing is instantly given. O my brethren and sisters in Christ, pray ye fervently that the blind may have their eyes opened, seeing that God can do it, and can do it at once.

The Lord specially does this for the young. Our text says, “The Lord opened the eyes of the young man.” Certainly he can give sight to the oldest; but here is comfort for those of us who are concerned about our children, he can also do this for the young. Their eyes are often blinded by the glitter and glare of the world. They say that they want to see life, and to see pleasure, but God can so open their eyes that they shall be able to see life, and to see pleasure, in a higher and truer sense, in Jesus Christ. Young people who are here now, I pray the Lord graciously to grant that you may not go any further in the journey of life being blind, but that even now he may open your eyes. If he were to do so, you would see your sin, you would see Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you would see yourselves saved by faith in him, and you would then see before you a happy future and a glorious reward at the last. I pray the Lord to open the young men’s eyes and the young women’s eyes. He can do it, and he will do it in answer to prayer; let us go to him, and ask him to do it now.

Dear friend, he can open your eyes. I know that you are saying, “I wish I could see Christ, and read my title clear.” Well, I do not know what your character may have been, and I cannot tell what scales may have come upon your eyes; but I know that there was a man of whom it is written, “There fell from his eyes as it had been scales,” as though there had been many scales upon his eyes. However many there may be, the Lord Jesus Christ can take them all off at once, and he can do it for all the blind people in this building now. O God, I pray thee, open the eyes of every sinner here to see thyself, thy Son, thy truth, thy law, thy gospel, thy holiness, thy covenant! If thou wilt do this, it will be thy work alone, and thou shalt have all the glory of it. Do you not remember how it is written of Hagar, “God opened her eyes”? I wonder whether there is anyone like Hagar here. She had been sent away by her mistress, and she and her son Ishmael were famishing; she had put him under one of the shrubs, out of her sight, and she thought that all was over with both of them; but “God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.” The well was there before she saw it, but her eyes needed to be opened that she might see it. So, the Lord Jesus Christ is nearer to the sinner than the sinner imagines, as Paul says, “The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Sinners do not understand the simplicity of salvation until their eyes are divinely opened. They are looking about for salvation, and there it is, all the while, close at hand. I remember my dear old grandfather looking about his study to find his spectacles while he had them on; he was looking through the spectacles to find the spectacles, and there are many who act just as inconsistently as that with regard to salvation. There is Jesus Christ himself helping them to find him; and they would not begin to seek him without help from him in the seeking; yet they think he is far away from them. There is water close to you, yet you are dying of thirst. There is bread by your side, yet you are perishing of hunger. May the Lord graciously illuminate your understanding that you may see that you have not to do anything, or to be anything, or to feel anything, but simply to let Jesus Christ be everything to you, and you yourself be nothing at all. To rest in Jesus Christ simply and entirely, that is all that is needed; but until men’s eyes are opened they cannot see that, but our comfort is that God can open their eyes; may he do so this very hour!

My last remark is, that even those persons who can see need more sight.

We all need to see more in the Scriptures. Each of us needs to pray to the Lord, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” There are some brethren who have weighed us all up, and declared that we are not sixteen ounces to the pound, as they say; and they set us down as being unsound; but as they were never appointed by God as inspectors of weights and measures, their judgments upon us cause us no alarm whatever. We do, however, confess that we are not infallible; we do make mistakes about the meaning of Scripture, and mistakes for which we are very sorry. It is well for a minister, when he is preaching, sometimes to say, “Friends, so much as this I think I do know, but there are some things which I do not know.” It might be a comfort to us to hear that the preacher did not know everything, for we should see then that he was like ourselves. Here is this Bible, and if any of us imagine that we perfectly understand everything there is in it, that is a proof that we know very little of it. “Oh, the depths, oh, the depths!” Jerome used to say, “I adore the infinity of Scripture;” and well he might. He who is a superficial student of Scripture picks up a few grains of gold, but he who digs in this mine gets nuggets; and he who digs deeper still finds solid beds of gold; and the further he descends into the very heart of the truth, the more he discovers that the riches of it are incalculable, and he often has to stop in his search, and cry, “Who can fully understand thy Word, O God? We can no more understand that than we can understand thyself to the full.”

We need also to have our eyes opened as to the great doctrines of the gospel. I meet with some who mix up the covenant of works with the covenant of grace in a most remarkable manner, and talk to the children of the free-woman as if they were children of the bond-woman, and make salvation to depend partly upon self and partly upon Christ, which would be a salvation neither worth preaching nor believing. If we have begun in the Spirit, let us not seek to be made perfect in the flesh. If salvation is of grace, then it is not of works; otherwise, grace is no more grace; but if it be of works, let us say so, for then it cannot be of grace; otherwise, work is no more work. A clear line of distinction between merit and mercy, between desert and sovereign grace, must ever be drawn, and he who has cried to the Lord, “Open thou mine eyes,” till he has had his eyes opened concerning that distinction has much reason to bless and thank God. Oh, for a clear testimony, throughout all our churches, to the grand fundamental doctrines of grace! Pray that you may give it yourself, and that you may hear it every day.

We need also to have our eyes opened with regard to providence.* What blind eyes we often have with regard to that! We cry, with poor old Jacob, “All these things are against me,” at the very moment when they are all for us. We cannot see how a certain thing can be right though it would be impossible for us to prove that it was wrong. We are often unable to find any promise to sustain us even though there are thousands of promises stored up for us in God’s Word.

Oftentimes, we need to have our eyes opened to see ourselves. We imagine that we are growing in grace when we are really growing spiritually leaner every day. We need to have our eyes opened with regard to temptation, for we may think that we are not being tempted at the very moment when we are in the greatest danger from temptation. We need to have our eyes opened as to what is most desirable, for we often aspire after the high places when the lowest are the best, and seek wealth when poverty would be the better soil for the growth of grace.

“Gold and the gospel seldom do agree;

Religion always sides with poverty,”-

says John Bunyan, and I think he is very near the truth. We need to have our eyes opened that we may see a great deal more of our Saviour. The strangest thing of all is that, though the Lord has opened our eyes, and we have seen Jesus as our Saviour, we know so little of him after all. Brothers and sisters, are we not all too much like the man who saw men as trees walking? We see things in a muddled and confused manner, and not at all clearly.

I pray the Lord to open your eyes and mine to see what it is to be a lost soul, that we may sigh and cry over souls that are being lost by millions. May he open our eyes to see the true character of sin, and the desperate condition of those who are steeped in it, and to see the terrors of the wrath to come, that final judgment of God which shall overwhelm the wicked! Then may he open our eyes to see the reality of his eternal love, the cleansing power of the precious blood of Jesus, and the almighty efficacy of the ever-blessed Spirit, and may he open our eyes in such a way that, seeing these things, we may be startled into earnestness, amazed into devotion, constrained unto consecration, and may give ourselves up, from this time forth, spirit, soul, and body, to serve the Lord!

O young man over yonder, if your eyes are opened by God, you will see that what you are striving to get is not worth getting, and you will begin to ask how you can live to the glory of God! Young woman, if your eyes are spiritually opened, you will no longer find any joy in that sinful pursuit of yours; but you will find that there is no true joy save in trusting Christ, and living wholly for him. Brother-ministers, if our eyes are opened as they should be, they will more often be full of tears than they now are. Elders of the church, if your eyes are opened as they should be, you will watch for souls as those that must give account to God. Teacher, if your eyes are truly opened, you will look upon your children in a very different light from that in which you now see them, and they will then be very precious in your sight. I pray the Lord that, where the eyes are not opened, they may be opened now; and that, where the eyes are opened, they may be opened still more, till to each one of us that promise shall be fulfilled, “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.” God grant it, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.