This prophecy may have some reference to David; but we feel persuaded that the true design of the Holy Spirit is to set forth an emblem of our Lord Jesus Christ. All nature, above as well as around us, is laid under contribution to set forth our Lord. All the flowers of the field, and many of the beasts of the plain, and now the very orbs of heaven, are turned into metaphors and symbols by which the glory of Jesus may be manifested to us. Where God takes such pains to teach, we ought to be at pains to learn. Where he makes heaven and earth to be the pages of the book, we ought to be most ardent in our study. Oh, you who have neglected to learn of Christ, may that neglect come to an end, and may some word be spoken which shall be as the beaming of a star unto the darkness of your soul, that henceforth you may be led to know Christ, and to be found in him.

Our Lord, then, is compared to a star, and we shall have seven reasons to assign for this. He is called a star as:-

You will observe how evidently it is connected with a sceptre and with a conqueror. Jacob was to be blessed with a valiant leader who should become a triumphant sovereign. Very frequently in oriental literature, their great men, and especially their great deliverers, are called stars. The star has been constantly associated with monarchy, and even in our own country we still look upon the star as one of the emblems of lofty rank. Behold, then, our Lord Jesus Christ as the Star of Jacob. He is the Captain of his people, the Leader of the Lord’s hosts, the King in Jeshurun, God over all, glorious and blessed for ever!

We may say of Jesus in this respect that he has an authority which he has inherited by right. He made all things, and by him all things consist. It is but just that he should rule over all things. As there is not a tongue that can move in heaven or earth, except by his permission, it is meet that every tongue should confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Oh, that men were just towards the Son of God! Would that their rebellious souls would give way to the force of rectitude-that they would no longer say, “Let us break his bonds asunder, and cast his cords from us!” Unconverted men, I would that you would yield to Jesus. He has a right to you. It is through his intercession that your forfeited life is still spared. It is by his divine goodness that you are where you are to-night. Through his mediatorial sovereignty it is, that you are suffered to be on praying ground and pleading terms with God. Give him his due then. Rob him not of the allegiance which he so justly claims. Give not your spirit over to that exacting tyrant who seeks to compass your destruction. Bow the knee and kiss the Son, even now, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way. Acknowledge him to be your Lord.

Our Lord as a star has an authority which he has valiantly won. Wherever Christ is king, he has had a great and a stern fight for it. Remember the dread conflict in Gethsemane, in which he says, “I have trodden the wine press alone.” When he came red with his own gore from Calvary, he had in fact, there and then put to flight the hosts of Bozrah and of Edom, and stained his garments with the victor’s crimson. He who, then, travelled in the greatness of his strength is mighty still to save. In every human heart where Jesus reigns, he reigns through having dislodged, by the force of grace, the old tyrant who had fixed his sovereignty there. The maintenance of that sovereignty within the heart is the result of the same powerful sceptre of his love and grace. Oh, that King Jesus would put forth his power and get a throne in more hearts! Believers, do you not long to see him glorious? I know you do if you love him. You would live for this, you would die for this-that Christ might have his own, and drive the milk-white steeds of triumph through the streets of Jerusalem, all his people bowing before him and strewing his pathway with their honours. O sinners! would to God that you would yield to him. I pray that now he may gird his sword upon his thigh, and by the power of grace constrain you to bow your willing necks to his silver sceptre. Brethren and sisters, it is a mournful fact that Christ has so small a part of the world as yet in his royal power. See, the gods of the heathen stand fast upon their pedestals. The old harlot of Rome still flaunts in her scarlet. The crescent of Mahomed wanes, but still its baleful light is cast athwart the nations. Why tarries he? Perhaps his finger is on the latch; it may be that he will come ere long. Come quickly, Lord! our yearning hearts beseech thee to come! Meanwhile, it is for you and for me to be fighting, each soldier in his rank, each man standing in his place, as his master has bidden him, contending with heart and soul and strength for the right and for the true, for faith, for holiness, for the cross, and all that cross indicates amongst the sons of men. Blessed Star of Jacob! Thou shinest with no borrowed rays; thou shinest with a mysterious power which none gave to thee, for it is inherently thine own.

Before we leave this point, I will only say this kingdom of Christ, wherever it is, is most beneficent. Wherever this star of government shines, its rays scatter blessing. Jesus is no tyrant. He rules not by oppression. The force he uses is the force of love. There was never a subject of Christ’s kingdom that complained of him. Those who have served him most have longed to serve him more. Why, even his poor martyrs in the catacombs of Rome, dying of starvation, or dragged up to the Colosseum to be devoured by wild beasts, never said an ill-word of him. Certainly if it was hard to any, it seemed to be hard to them; but the more they were troubled the more they rejoiced, and there never were sweeter songs than those which came from dying lips when men were crackling on the faggot, or being dragged limb from limb at the heels of wild horses, or being sawn asunder. Just in proportion as the bodily pains became acute, the spiritual joy became intense; and while the outward man decayed, the inner man leaped up into newness of life, anticipating the joys of the first-born before the throne. He is a good master. Young people, I would that you would serve him! Oh! that you were enlisted in his service. It is now a good many years since I gave my heart to him, it is fast getting on for twenty years, but I cannot say a word against him. Nay, but I wish I had always served him; I wish I had served him before, and I do pray that he may use me to the fullest extent. If he will make but a doormat for his temple of me, I shall be but too glad. If he will let my name be cast out as evil and give my body to the dogs, I do not care so long as his truth does but prosper, and his name becomes great. But alas! there is so much self in us, pride and I know not what besides, that we who really know the Master, have reason to ask him to bring in his great artillery and blow down the castles of our natural corruption, conquer us yet again, and rule in us by main force of grace, till in every part and corner of our spirits there shall be nothing but the love of Christ and the indwelling of his gracious Spirit. By the star we understand the symbol of government. In the second place, the star is:-

When men wish to speak of brightness they talk of the stars. They who are righteous are as the stars, and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. Our Lord Jesus Christ is brightness itself. The star is but a poor setting forth of his ineffable splendour. Oh! let the thought come home to you. He is the brightness of his Father’s glory-unutterably bright as the Deity. He is brightness himself in his human nature, for in him there was neither spot nor wrinkle. As Mediator, exalted on high, enjoying the reward of his pains, he is bright indeed. Observe, that our Lord as a star is a bright particular star in the matter of holiness. In him was no sin. Look, and look, and look again into his star-like character. Even the lynx-eyes of infidels have not been able to discover a mistake in him; and as for the attentive eyes of critics who have been believers, they have been made to water again and again, and then to glisten and sparkle with delight as they have seen the mingling of all the perfections in his adorable character to make up one perfection.

As a star, he shines also with the light of knowledge Moses was, as it were, but a mist, but Christ is the prophet of light. “The law was given by Moses”-a thing of types and shadows-“but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ.” If any man be taught in the things of God, he must derive his light from the Star of Bethlehem. You may go as you will to the universities, to the tomes of the learned, to the schools of the philosophers, but in spiritual things you receive no light till you look up to Jesus, and then in his light you see light, for there is transcendant brightness in him. He is the wisdom of God as well as the power of God; he is the way, the truth, and the life. Divine light has found its centre in him!

His light, too, is that of comfort. Oh! how many have emerged from the darkness of their souls and found peace by looking up to this Star of Jacob, the Lord Jesus Christ! Well did our hymn put it:-

“He is my soul’s bright Morning Star,

And he my Rising Sun.”

One glimpse of Christ and the midnight of your unbelief is over. But a sight of the five wounds and your sins are covered and your iniquities put away. Happy day, happy day, when first the soul beholds a crucified Redeemer, and gives herself up to him, relying upon him for eternal salvation. Shine, sweet Star-shine into some benighted heart to-night! Give thou holiness, give light, give the knowledge of God, give thou joy and peace in believing, in believing in the precious blood!

When speaking upon Christ as a star, “the Symbol of Government,” I said, submit to him. Now, speaking of him as a star, the Image of Brightness, I say, look to him-look to him. It is the Gospel’s precept. “Look unto me, and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth,” and well do we sing:-

“There is life for a look at the Crucified One.”

Poor sinner, delay no longer. You are not asked to do anything, nor to be anything, nor to feel anything; but you are simply bidden to look away from self to what Christ has done, and you shall live.

“View him prostrate in the garden,

On the ground your Maker lies;

On the bloody tree behold him,

Hear him cry before he dies-

‘It is finished.’

Sinner, will not this suffice?”

Look to him then and live. Thirdly, our Lord is compared to a star to bring out the fact, that:-

Ten thousand changes have been wrought since the world began, but the stars have not changed. There they remain. We dreamed at one time that they moved. Untaught imagination said that all those stars revolved around this little globe of ours. But we know better now. There they are both day and night-always the same, and we may say they have not changed since the world began, nor probably will they till, like a vesture, God shall roll up creation because it is worn out. It is very delightful to recollect that the same star which I looked at last night was viewed by Abraham, perhaps with some of the self-same thoughts. And when we have gone, and other generations shall have followed us, those that come after will look up to the self-same star. So with our Lord Jesus. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. What the prophets and apostles saw in him, we can see in him, and what he was to them, that he is to us, and shall be to generations yet unborn. Hundreds of us may be looking at the same star at the same time without knowing it. There is a meeting-place for many eyes. We may be drifted, some of us, to Australia, or to Canada, or to the United States, or we may be sailing across the great deep, but we shall see the stars there. It is true that on the other side of the world we shall see another set of stars, but the stars themselves are always still the same. As far as we in this hemisphere are concerned, we shall look upon the same star. So, wherever we may be, we look to the same Christ. One brother here has learning, but as he looks to Christ, he sees the same Christ as the poor unlettered woman in the aisles. And you, poor man, who have not, perhaps, a sixpence in the world, you have got the same Christ to trust in as the richest man in all the world. And you who think yourself so obscure that no one knows you but your God, you look to this same star, and it shines with the same beams for you, as for the Christian who leads the van in the Lord’s hosts. Jesus Christ is still the same, the same to all his people, the same in all places, the same for ever and ever. Well, therefore, may he be compared to those bright stars that shine now as they did of old and change not. In the fourth place, we may trace this comparison of our Lord to a star as:-

The old astrologers used to believe very strongly in the influence of the stars upon men’s minds. Without endorsing their exploded theories, we meet in Scripture with expressions like this:-“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?”-alluding, no doubt, to the fact that the Pleiades are in the ascendant in the sweet months of spring, when the warm breath and gentle showers are bringing forth the green sprout and tender blade, the foliage and the flowers of May, with all the loveliness of the season, while Orion is in the ascendant as a wintry sign, when the bands of frost are binding up the outburst of nature. But, whether there be an influence in the stars or not, as touching this world, I know there is great influence in Christ Jesus. He is the fountain of all holy influences among the sons of men. Where this star shines upon the graves of men who are dead in sin, they begin to live. Where the beam of this star shines upon poor imprisoned spirits, their chains drop off, the captive leaps to lose his chains. When this star gleams upon a burdened Christian with its light, he begins to bud and blossom, and precious fruits are brought forth. When this star shines upon the backslider, he begins to mend his ways, and to follow, like the eastern sages, its light till he finds his Saviour once more. This star has an influence upon our nativity. It is through its benign rays that we are born again, and in our horoscope it has an influence upon our death, for it is in its light that we fall asleep, believing that we shall wake up in the image of the Lord Jesus. Oh! sweet star, shine on me always! Never let me miss thy rays; but may I always walk in the light thereof, till I be found sitting in the full noontide heat of the Sun of Righteousness for ever and ever. In the fifth place, the Lord Jesus Christ may be compared to a star:-

There are some of the stars that are extremely useful to sailors. I scarcely know how else the great wide sea would be navigated, especially if it were not for the Polar Star. Jesus is the Polar Star to us. How the poor negro in the olden times, when the curse of slavery had not been taken away, must have blessed God for that pole star-so easy to find out. Any child with but a moment’s teaching will soon know how to discover it in the midst of its fellows at night, and when the negro had once learned to distinguish the star that shone over the land of freedom, how he followed it through the great dismal swamps, or along the plains which were more dreadful still; how he could ford the streams, and climb the mountains, always cheered by the sight of that pole star. Such is Jesus Christ to the seeker. He leads to liberty; he conducts to peace. Oh! I wish you would follow him, some of you who are going about a thousand ways to find peace where you will never find it. There is never a Sunday but I try to speak, sometimes in gentler tones, and at other seasons with thundering notes, the simple truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I do try to make it plain to you that it is not your prayers and tears, your doings, your willings, your anything, that can save you, but that all your help is laid upon one that is mighty, and that you must look alone to him. Yet, sinners, you are still looking to yourselves. You rake the dung hills of your human nature to find the pearl of great price which is not there. You will look beneath the ice of your natural depravity to find the flame of comfort which is not there. You might as well seek in hell itself to find heaven as look to your own works and merits to find some ground of trust. Down with them! Down with them, every one of them! Away with all those confidences of yours, for:-

“None but Jesus, none but Jesus,

Can do helpless sinners good.”

Just reverse that helm, and shift that sail, and tack about! Follow not the wrecker’s beacon on yonder shore luring you to the rocks of self-delusion, but where that pole star guides, thither let your vessel sail, and pray for the favouring gales of the blessed Spirit to guide you rightly to the port of peace. Our Lord is compared to a star, surely:-

One of the first lines which full many of you ever learned to recite was:-

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.”

But that is precisely what Galileo might have said, and exactly what the greatest astronomer that ever lived might say. You have sometimes looked through a telescope and have seen the planets, but after you have looked at them you do not know particularly about them; and those who are busy all day and all night long taking constant observations, I think, will tell you that the result is rather that of astonishment than of intelligence. Still, it is:-

“How I wonder what you are.”

So to those of us who are in Christ Jesus, he is a peerless star; but oh, brethren! we may well wonder what he is. We used to think when we were little ones that the stars were holes pricked in the skies, through which the light of heaven shone, or that they were little pieces of gold-dust that God had strewn about. We do not think so now; we understand that they are much greater than they look to be. So, when we were carnal, and did not know King Jesus, we esteemed him to be very much like anybody else, but now we begin to know him, we find out that he is much greater, infinitely greater than we thought he was. And as we grow in grace, we find him to be more glorious still. A little star to our view at first, he has grown in our estimation into a sun now, a blazing sun, by whose beams our soul is refreshed. Ah! but when we get near to him, what will be be? Imagine yourself borne up on an angel’s wing to take a journey to a star. Travelling at an inconceivable rate, you open your eyes on a sudden and say, “How wonderful! Why, that which was a star just now has become as large to my vision as the sun at noon-day.” “Stop,” says the angel, “you shall see greater things than these,” and, as you speed on, the disc of that orb increases, till it is equal to a hundred suns; and now you say, “But what? Am I not near it now?” “No,” says the angel, “that enormous globe is still far, far away,” and when you come to it, you would find it to be such a wondrous world, that arithmetic could not compute its size; scarcely could imagination belt it with the zone of fancy. Now, such is Jesus Christ. I said he grows upon his people here, but what must it be to see him there, where the veil is lifted, and we behold him face to face? Sometimes we long to find out what that star is, to know him, to comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge; but, meanwhile, we are compelled to sit down and sing:-

“God only knows the love of God:

Oh that it now were shed abroad

In this poor stony heart.”

We have to confess that:-

“The first-born sons of light

Desire in vain its depth to see;

They cannot reach the mystery,

The length, the breadth, the height.”

But, to conclude, the metaphor used in the text may well bear this seventh signification. Our Lord is compared to a star as:-

The bright and morning star foretells that the sun is on its way to gladden the earth with its light. Wherever Jesus comes, he is a great prophet of good. Let him come into a heart, and, as soon as he appears, you may rest assured that there is a life of eternity and joy to come. Let Jesus Christ come into a family, and what changes he makes there. Let him be preached with power in any town or city, and what a herald of good things he is there. To the whole world Christ has proclaimed glad tidings. His coming has been fraught with benedictions to the sons of men. Yea, the coming of Christ in the flesh is the great prophecy of the glory to be revealed in the latter days, when all nations shall bow before him, and the age of peace, the golden age, shall come, not because civilisation has advanced, not because education has increased, or the world grown better, but because Christ has come. This is the first, the fairest of the stars, the prognostic of the dawn.

Ay, and because Christ has come, there will be a heaven for the sons of men who believe in him. Sons of toil, because Christ has come, there shall be rest for the weary. Daughters of sorrow, because Christ has come, there shall be healing for the weak. O you whom chill penury is bowing down! there shall be lifting up and sacred wealth for you, because the star has shone. Hope on! hope ever! Now that Jesus has come, there is no room for despair.

I commend these thoughts to you, and earnestly ask you once again, if you have never looked to Christ, to trust in him now; if you have never submitted to Jesus, to submit to him now; if you have never confided in him, to confide in him now. It is a very simple matter. May God the Holy Spirit teach and guide you to disown yourselves, and to acknowledge him; cease from your own thoughts, and trust his word. This done by you all, there is proof positive that all is done for you by Christ. You are his, and he is yours; where he is, shall your portion be; and you shall be like him, for you shall see him as he is. It will be a day to be had in remembrance if you are led now to give yourselves to him. I well recollect when my heart yielded to his Divine grace; when I could no longer look anywhere else, and was compelled to look to him. Oh, come ye to him! I know not what words to use, or what persuasions to employ. For your own sake, that you may be happy now; for eternity’s sake, that you may be happy hereafter; for terror’s sake, that you may escape from hell; for mercy’s sake, that you may enter into heaven, look to Jesus. You may never be bidden to do so again. This bidding may be the last, the concluding measure which shall fill up the heap of your guilt, because you reject it. Oh! do not despise the exhortation. Let the prayer go up quietly now from your spirit, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Let your soul wrestle vehemently. Let your tongue utter its mighty resolve:-

“I’ll to the gracious King approach,

Whose sceptre pardon gives;

Perhaps he may command my touch,

And then the suppliant lives.

I can but perish if I go,

I am resolved to try;

For, if I stay away, I know

I must for ever die.

But, if I die with mercy sought,

When I the King have tried,

That were to die, delightful thought,

As sinner never died.”

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 15:1-24

Verse 1. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

They were drawing near. It was not an unusual occurrence. It was their habit to draw near to Christ. The Pharisees and Scribes stood in the outer ring. They did not come too near. These poor outcasts and offcasts, publicans and sinners, drew near. They wanted to catch every word. They could not have too much of it. They took a delight in getting near to his blessed person. They drew near to hear him.

2. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

The sinful, known to be so. This man receives them, welcomes them, admits them to an intimacy with him. What is worse, he eats with them. To teach them is bad enough, but to sit at the same table with them, making himself their company, and making them his company, this is worse and worse. And so they murmured. I am very glad that they did. We owe a great deal to the murmurings of the proud Pharisee; for our Lord graciously answered those murmurings and then he gave us some of the choicest jewels of speech that are preserved in the treasury of knowledge.

3. And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

So it is only one parable, yet it is three. Three panels making one picture. The whole three are necessary to make up all his teaching.

4. What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

He is justifying his looking for the lost ones. Their accusation was, that he received the sinful and false, and ate with them. “Well, well,” says Christ, “I do that. But I am a shepherd, and if I have lost one of my sheep, do you blame me if I leave the flock to go after the lost sheep?” “And he goeth after that which is lost until he find it.”

5, 6. And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

A true picture of Christ going after those who are wilful and wayward, and therefore have taken to wandering till they are lost; lost to God, lost to society, lost to usefulness, lost to happiness, perhaps lost to hope. He goes after them. That is, in his life. He throws them on his shoulders in his death. He will bring them home rejoicing by his resurrection life; and then throughout eternity he will make the glorified spirits in heaven glad by showing them the sheep that was lost, the soul that was saved.

7. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

If there be such, if there be some that have never wandered, and who belong to the flock, yet the unbrokenness of the flock does not of itself cause any great exuberance of joy. The overflow of delight is caused by the lost sheep when it is found. A church of godly people will give great content to Christ, but still, if there be any bell ringing, any sound of joy and gladness, it will be over the wandering one that has been restored. Here you have the Son of God himself and his relation to the wandering souls of men. He is their shepherd; he seeks them; he brings them back to the fold, and he is glad.

Now comes the second panel picture.

8, 9, 10. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth.

In this second picture you have the Holy Spirit working through the Church, compared to a woman. She has lost her piece of money. She gets the candle of the gospel, she takes the broom of the law; she sweeps and searches, she raises a dust, she expends her candle till she finds her piece of money. You notice that she blames herself for its being lost, for she says, “I have found the piece which I had lost.” The shepherd did not say that of the sheep; he says, “the sheep that was lost.” That was its own doing. The church of God seems to blame herself that she has lost her hold upon so many who once belonged to her. The Holy Spirit, through the church, seeks after lost souls, who bear the image of the king upon them, like minted pieces of silver. It is a wonderful verse which is repeated here. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God.” It does not say that the angels rejoice. It means that; but there is joy in their presence. Who is in their presence but God himself? the great and blessed God, whose throne they continually surround, in whose face they see joy over saved souls. And notice the joy is about one sinner-a sinner. That is all we know about him. He may have been as poor as a church mouse, and he may have made himself sick unto death by his vice. There was joy over him when he repented. It was only one. It was not a batch of twenty; it was not a large number converted; but there is joy over one sinner. What had he done? Built a church? No. Preached a sermon? No. He had repented. That is all; but that is quite enough to set all the music of the angels’ harps pouring forth the praise of God. “One sinner that repenteth.”

11. And he said,

And here comes the greatest of all the parables, the most instructive perhaps, and the best loved of them all. In these parables we do not find anything about a Saviour, a Mediator. Did you ever read a parable that contained all the truth? If any man were to try and make a parable that contained all truth at once, verily I say unto you he would be a fool. He must fail, and fail in his object of teaching anything.

“One thing at a time, and that done well,

Is a very good rule as many can tell.”

And to teach one truth at a time is quite sufficient. It is true that the parable that we are going to read says nothing about a mediator, but it does not say anything about the father seeking his lost son, not a word. No work of the Holy Spirit. It is meant to teach one thing, and it does teach it, and if it does not teach fifty things, do not imagine that the other forty-nine are not true.

11, 12. A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.

He would have that when his father died. Does he demand to have his heritage in his father’s life-time? Yes, he does. It is an unreasonable demand. Yet-

12. And he divided unto them his living.

He was of gentle mould, of kindly heart. He did not want to have a son stop with him like a slave. He must be served willingly or not at all; so he divided to them his living.

13. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together,

He turned the sheep and the stock and everything into money.

13. And took his journey into a far country,

We do not know where it was. It does not matter, it was a far country. He wanted to get away from his father, from his authority, from his observation. He went into a far country.

13. And there wasted his substance with riotous living.

What he did I do not know. His elder brother had heard some very bad stories about him which we shall see at the end of the chapter. They may not, however, have been all true, for rumour is greatly given to exaggeration. Beware of this exaggeration, especially of the follies of others.

14. And when he had spent all,

Got to his last penny.

14. There arose a mighty famine in that land,

Famines generally do come when one’s money is all gone. He might not have feared a famine if he had still been wealthy. The two things come together, the two sees meet. He had spent all, and now there was a famine.

14. And he began to be in want.

The first time in his life. He had always had everything he wanted, and now he began to be in want. It is an ugly kind of feeling when, for the first time, you cannot buy a loaf of bread; when, for the first time, you cannot get a night’s lodging for love or money; and have not any money, and nobody gives you any love. He began to be in want.

15. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country;

I dare say he was a member of the same company that he belonged to. He went to him and said, “Now help me. You have many a time enjoyed yourself at my house. You have drunk my champagne, now help me. I am in trouble.” Well, he had a berth empty, and that was to keep his pigs; the very worst thing a Jew could do, and what a Jew never would do unless he was at starvation point.

15. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

“There is a situation for you. You want a situation. Go into my fields and feed my swine.” The son has become a swineherd. One who fared sumptuously every day at home, has now come to serve pigs!

16. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat:

So hungry was he, that if he could have eaten the caroba which they fed upon, he would have been glad to kneel at the trough and feed with the swine.

16. And no man gave unto him.

No, they all seemed stony-hearted alike. When you have plenty, everybody will give you some more. When you have nothing, nobody will give you a penny. “No man gave to him.”

17. And when he came to himself,

For he had been away from himself. He was beside himself, and now he came home to himself.

17. He said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I

The son whom he loves. “And I.”

17, 18, 19. Perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee. And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Let me be anything, so that I may have something to do with thee. Let me live at home. Let me eat the bread from thy table. Put me in the lowest place. I cannot be so low as I now am. Put me anywhere. Make a hired servant of me.

20. And he arose, and came to his father. But

Blessed “but.”

20, 21. When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

He was going on with his prayer, “Make me as one of thy hired servants,” when his father kissed him right on his lips and smothered that prayer. He did not mean to let him pray that, and so the father, interrupting him, stopped that legal bit of prayer.

22. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him: and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

Is this the justifying righteousness of Christ? I think not. No servant can put that on. God himself imputes the righteousness of Christ to us. It means just this: Receive this poor forgiven sinner into the church, and treat him like a gentleman. Do not look at him as one that is wearing rags any longer. Put the best robe on him, treat him well, take him into your favour, receive him into your society, put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.

23, 24. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it: and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry

A fine old Saxon word that is “merry.” I have known some good people afraid to say, “I wish you a merry Christmas.” But I always like it, for I like these grand old Bible words. If the word “merry” means anything wrong, it is you that make it wrong; but it is right enough in the Bible. “They began to be merry.” Now, is it not a very curious thing that the father said, “Put the robe on him, put the shoes on him”; but he never said, “Now make him eat.” How is that? He says, “Let us eat and be merry”; he does not say anything about the son eating. No, brethren, because the best way to make another man eat is to go at it yourself. It breeds an appetite in him. If he is standing there looking at what you are doing (“Let us eat and be merry”), his mouth begins to water. Why, you know how hard it is if you are called upon to stand when you are very hungry and see other people eat. How you want to eat! That is the best preaching in the world. If the end of the discourse is to make a man eat, the best preaching is to fall to yourself. “Let us eat and be merry,” and they did that, and then this restored prodigal son found his appetite, and so feasted, too.

UNANSWERED PRAYER

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, March 6th, 1913.

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

On Thursday Evening, Sept. 20th, 1866.

“O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night-season, and am not silent.”-Psalm 22:2.

It is very clear to everyone who reads this Psalm that these are not so much the words of David as they are the words of David’s Son and David’s Lord, our blessed Master. He prayed with strong crying and tears; he came before his Father’s throne with supplications, and for a long time it seemed as if he would have no answer. It did appear as if God had utterly forsaken him, and that his enemies might persecute and take him.

Now, wherefore was the Saviour permitted to pass through so sad an experience? How was it that he, whose lightest word is prevailing with heaven, that he who pleads with Divine authority this day in his continual intercession, was permitted, when here below, to cry, and cry, and cry again, and yet to receive no comforting answer? Was it not mainly for this reason, that he was making an atonement for us, and he was not heard because we as sinners did not deserve to be heard? He was not heard, that we might be heard. The ear of God was closed against him for a season, that it might never be closed against us: that for ever the mourner’s cry might find a way to the heart of God, because the cry of Jesus was for a while shut out from mercy’s gate. He stood the surety for our sins, and was numbered with the transgressors: upon him the Lord laid the iniquity of all his people, and therefore, being the sinner’s representative, he could not for a while be heard.

There was also, no doubt, another reason, namely, that he might be a faithful High-Priest having sympathy with his people in all their woes. As this not being heard in prayer, or being unanswered for a while, is one of the greatest troubles which can fall upon the Christian, and fall it does, the Saviour had to pass through that trouble, too, that so it might be said of him:-

“In every pang that rends the heart,

The Man of Sorrows bore his part.”

When I fear that I have not been heard in prayer, I can now look upon my Saviour and say:-

“He takes me through no darker rooms

Than he went through before.”

He can now have a tender, touching sympathy with us, because he has been tempted in all points like as we are.

Was it not also, once more, in our Saviour’s case, with a view to display the wondrous faith, fidelity, and trustfulness of the obedient Son of God? Having been found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to his Father’s will. Now, obedience is not perceived until it is tried, and faith is not known to be firm and strong until it is put to the test and exercised. Through what an ordeal did this pure gold pass! It was put into the crucible and thrust into the hottest coals; all glowing with a white heat, they were heaped upon him, and yet no dross was found in him. His faith never staggered; his confidence in his God never degenerated into suspicion, and never turned aside into unbelief. It is, “My God! my God!” even when he is forsaken. It is, “My God and my strength” even when he is poured out like water, and all his bones are out of joint. In this thing he not only sympathises with us, you see, but he sets us an example. We must overcome, as he did, through faith. “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even your faith”; and if we can copy this great High-Priest of our profession, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself-if we can copy him so as to be neither faint in our minds, nor turn from our Master’s work-we shall triumph even as he overcame.

But my chief object in considering this theme is not so much to speak of the Saviour’s trial, as to address myself to those of our number who may even now be passing through the same experience as our Lord.

It will already comfort you to know that Christ has been where you are. It will already guide you to know that he has set you an example, and that he bids you follow in his steps. Let us now draw near to his sorrow, and think on it for a while for our instruction and comfort.

In the first place, the text-without any enquiry into the cause of unanswered prayer, seems to give:-

A general guide for our conduct.

Supposing that we have been seeking some blessing from God for many months, and have not obtained it; whether it be a personal blessing, or on behalf of others, what ought to be our conduct under such a trial as that, the trial of a long delay, or an apparent refusal?

In the first place, brethren, the text, it is clear, teaches us that we must not cease to trust God. “O my God.” Oh! that appropriating word! It is not, perhaps, “My Father.” The spirit of adoption is not here so much, as the spirit of reverent trustfulness, but still there is the hold-fast word still-“O my God.” Christian, never be tempted to give up your hold upon your only strength, upon your solitary hope. Under no conceivable circumstances, ever give place for an instant to the dark thought that God is not true and faithful to his promises. Though you should have seven years of unanswered prayer, yet suggest any other reason to your mind than one which would dishonour him. Say, with the Saviour in this Psalm, “But thou art holy.” Settle that in your mind. Oh! never suffer the faintest breath of suspicion to come upon the fair fame of the Most High, for he doth not deserve it. He is true; he is faithful. In this apparently worst of all cases, he did deliver his Son, and come to the rescue in due time. In all other cases he has done the same, and I pray you never to distrust your God until you have some good and valid occasion for it. Never cast a slur upon his integrity till he really does forsake you, till he absolutely gives you up to perish. Then, but not till then, shall you doubt him. Oh! believe him to be good and true! You may not know why it is that he deals so strangely with you, but oh! never think that he is unfaithful for an instant, or that he has broken his word. Continue still to trust him. You shall be rewarded if you do, and the longer your faith is tried, it shall be with you as when the ship is longest out at sea, it goeth to the richest climes, and cometh home with the heaviest and most precious freight. So shall your faith come back to you with joy.

She may lie among the pots for many a day: but the time of her deliverance shall come, and, like a dove, shall she mount, with wings covered with silver, and her feathers tipped with yellow gold. “Trust in the Lord at all times ye people, and pour out your hearts before him.”

Once again, as we are never to cease to trust, so we are never to cease to pray. The text is very express upon this point. “I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not: and in the night-seasons I am not silent.” Never cease your prayers. No time is ill for prayer. The glare of daylight should not tempt you to cease: and the gloom of midnight should not make you stop your cries. I know it is one of Satan’s chief objects to make the Christian cease praying, for if he could but once make us put up the weapon of all-prayer, he would easily vanquish us and take us for his prey. But so long as we continue to cry to the Most High, Satan knows he cannot devour the very weakest lamb of the flock. Prayer, mighty prayer, will yet prevail if it hath but time.

Oh! if this be the dark suggestion of the Evil One, “Forsake the closet; give up private devotion; never draw near to God, for prayer is all a fancy”-I pray you spurn the thought with all your might, and still cry, both in the daytime and at night, for the Lord will still hear your prayer.

And while you never cease from your trust, nor from your prayer, grow more earnest in both. Let your faith be still more resolved to give up all dependence anywhere but upon God, and let your cry grow more and more vehement. It is not every knock at mercy’s gate that will open it; he who would prevail must handle the knocker well, and dash it down again, and again, and again. As the old Puritan says, “Cold prayers ask for a denial, but it is red-hot prayers which prevail.” Bring your prayers as some ancient battering-ram, against the gate of heaven, and force it open with a sacred violence, “for the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm.” He that would prevail with God must take care that all his strength be thrust into his prayers. The Lord will not hear thee, if thou only bringest up a rank or line of the array of thy desires. There must be no reserves; but the whole army of thy soul must come into the conflict, and thou must beleaguer the mercy-seat, determined to win the day, and then shalt thou prevail. If there be delays, take them as good and sound advice to be more firm in your faith, and more fervent in your cry.

And yet again, cease not to hope. The New Zealander has a word for hope which signifies “the swimming-thought”; because when all other thoughts are drowned, hope still swims. She lifts her head out of the foamy waves, with her tresses all trailing, but sees the blue heaven above her, and hopes, as that is there. So if thou hast prayed never so long, yet hope on. “Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the strength of my life, and my portion for ever.” As long as there is a place of prayer, and a promise of an answer, no believer ought to give way to despair. “Go again,” said Elijah to his servant seven times. It must have been weary work to the prophet to have to wait so long. He did not stand up once and pray to God as on Carmel, and then instantly came down the fire to continue the sacrifice; but again and again, and, getting more humble in posture, with his face between his knees, he beseeches the Lord, not for fire, which was an unusual thing, but for water, which is the common boon of the skies. And yet, though he pleads for that which the Lord himself had promised, yet it did not at once come, and when his servant came back, four, five, six times, the answer was still the same; there was no sign of rain, but the brazen heavens looked down on an earth which was parched as if in an oven. “Go again!” said the prophet, and at the seventh time lo! there appeared the cloud like unto a man’s hand, and this cloud was the sure forerunner of the deluge and storm. Christian, go again seven times. Nay, I will venture to say seventy times seven, for God must keep his promise. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of Jehovah’s word can fail. “The grass withereth, the flower thereof fadeth away, but the word of our God endureth for ever.” Do you plead that enduring word? Let no dark thoughts drive you to despair. Continue to trust; continue to pray; increase in your fervency, and in the hope that the blessing will yet come. It did come to the Saviour. The morning broke upon his midnight after all. Never tide ebbed out so far as in the Saviour’s case, when the great stretches of misery and sorrow were visible where once God’s love had rolled in mighty floods; but when the time came it began to turn, and see how it hath turned now in mighty floods of matchless joy. The love of God has come back to our once suffering Saviour, and there upon the eternal throne he sits, the Man, the Crucified, who bowed his head under mountains of almighty wrath, which broke in huge billows, and covered his soul. Be of good courage, Christian! Hope on, poor soul, and hope on for ever.

Thus much by way of general direction; but we now go on to a second point, and shall enquire into:-

The causes of unanswered prayer.

We shall, perhaps, on this theme, get a few special directions which may be available in particular cases. Dear friends, there are some of us who are not often troubled about unanswered prayer: on the contrary, our own experience is such that the existence of a God who hears his people’s cry is reduced to an absolute, mathematical certainty.

I have no more doubt about this than about my own existence, not because I can see it clearly and understand it perfectly, nor because, with a blind credulity, I submit myself to the Bible as being the infallible revelation of God. But because I have had real dealings with God, have tried and proved his promises to be true, and have found out that, according to my faith, it has been done unto me in a thousand instances. This is truth that those who have learned to live in the spirit-world, and to talk with God, understand and know as plainly as they understand and know that when a child speaketh to its father, its father granteth its request. It has become to many believers, not at all a matter to be argued or talked of by way of dispute. They know that they have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ, and their prayers are answered. But occasionally, to all believers, I suppose, there will come staggering moments, when they scarcely know how to reply to their doubts, because certain of their prayers have not been answered.

It may possibly happen that the cause of unanswered prayer may many times lie in something connected with sin. Do you not think that unanswered prayers are often a Fatherly chastisement for our offences. The Saviour, in that wonderful chapter where he tells out his love to us, says, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love,” and then he notes, as a special favour, if a man abide in his love, and keep his commandments, he “shall ask what he will, and it shall be done unto him.” Now, it seems to me to be only reasonable that if I will not do what God wills, God will refuse to do what I will; that if he asks of me a certain duty, and I refuse it, when I ask him for a certain privilege or favour, it is not unkind, but, on the other hand, most wise and kind, that he should say, “Not my child, no: if thou wilt not listen to my tender command, it is kind to refuse thee thy desire until thou dost repent and obey.”

Perhaps this is the way in which, too, are visited upon God’s people, some neglects of ordinances. “He that knoweth his Master’s will and doeth it not, the same shall be beaten with many stripes”; and one of these stripes may surely be our non-success in prayer. It may be also temporal affliction, but probably this is one of the main ways in which the Master inflicts the stripes upon his children. They are negligent of his commands, and he says, “Then thou shalt tarry awhile; I will not yet grant thee what thou seekest; but when thou comest to a better mind, and art more scrupulous and tender in the fulfilling of my commands, then thy longings shall be satisfied.”

It may occur, too, that this delay may be a sort of disclosure to us as to wherein our sin lieth. Sin sometimes lieth in a Christian unrepented of, because he only dimly realises that it is there. Hear what Job declares: “Are the consolations of God small with thee? Is there any secret thing with thee?” That is to say, if thou lovest selfish ease and feeble comforting, if thou dost not prevail with God in prayer, is there some secret sin in thee which keepeth back the blessing? God doth, as it were, say to us, “Search and look.” Unanswered prayer should be to every Christian a search-warrant, and he should begin to examine himself to see whether there be not something harboured within which is contrary to the will of God. Oh! believer, this is not a hard work for thee to do, surely, but it is a very necessary one. Search thyself, and breathe the prayer, “Search me, O God, and try me, and know my ways, and see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” I think this is one great reason for unanswered prayer, namely, that it is a chastisement for sin committed, or an admonition against sin harboured.

Sometimes there may be great sin in the prayer itself. Are not our greatest sins often connected with our holiest things? We must be aware of our prayers. There is such a thing as polluting the mercy-seat. Remember what became of Nadah and Abihu, who offered strange fire before the Lord. Beware, Christian, beware; thou mayest sin against God in the prayer-chamber, as well as thou canst in the market; and thou mayest offend on thy knees, as well as when thou art in thy business. Have a care, for how canst thou hope that a prayer thus stained with sin can ever succeed, unless thou bringest it to the blood to have it purged and cleansed from all defiling before it mounts to the throne of grace?

And I do sometimes fear, too, that our prayers do not speed, because the thing asked for, though as we think good for us, is asked for from a wrong motive.

If, for instance, a Christian minister asks that he may win souls in order that he may gain reputation and fame as a useful and successful evangelist for his Master, he will probably not be heard, for he asks from an unworthy motive. If I seek to be useful merely that I may be known to be a useful man or woman, I am really seeking my own honour, and can I expect God to minister to, and pamper that?

I must take care, then, that even when I ask for a good thing, I ask it, for the purest of reasons, viz., for God’s glory. Oh! what washing even our prayers need! What cleansing, what purging! Can we wonder that they do not succeed when we so often make mistakes, both in the substance of the prayers, and the motives from which we offer them?

Praying seems, to some persons, to be simply a child’s play or a formal habit. They will take a book, read a form of intercession, and perhaps offer a few extemporary words, and that is all. But these are all naught, and naughty prayers, unless God shall touch them, and give them life.

Sometimes, then, non-success in prayer may be caused by sin. In such a case, heart-searching, deep repentance, and especially a speedy going to the Cross to have renewed fellowship with the cleansing blood, and to be brought once more in contact with the holy sufferings of the blessed Substitute, will make us speed.

But we go on to notice that non-success in prayer may sometimes be the result of ignorance.

I think persons often offer very ignorant prayers indeed. I am sure I have good evidence that some do. There is scarcely ever a week passes in which I do not receive intelligence from different persons who are on the verge of bankruptcy, or deeply in debt, that they have prayed to God about it, and that they have been guided to write to me to get them out of their difficulties, and to pay their debts. Now, I am always perfectly willing to do so as soon as ever I am directed expressly by God himself, but I shall not receive the direction at second-hand. As soon as I receive it myself-and I think it is only fair that I should receive it, as well as they-I shall be quite willing to be obedient to his direction, provided, too, the funds are in hand, which does not often happen. But folks must be very foolish to suppose that, because they ask God that such and such a debt may be paid by miraculous means, it will certainly be done. I have a right to ask for anything which God has promised me, but if I go beyond the range of the Divine promises, I also go beyond the range of assured and confident expectation. The promises are very large and very wide, but when one gets a fancy in his head, he must not suppose that God is there, in his fancy. I have known some fanatical persons who thought they could live by faith. They were going to preach the Gospel, having no gifts whatever for preaching. They were going to be missionaries in a district having no more gift to be missionaries than horses in a plough. But they thought they were destined to do it, and therefore they tried to live by faith, and when they had been nearly half-starved, then they complained against the goodness, and abandoned the labour. Had God really inspired and sent them, he would have sustained and kept them, but if they go about it wilfully and stubbornly on their own account, they must be driven back to realise their own ignorance of the Divine will. Now, we must not pray ignorantly; we must pray with the understanding and with the spirit, so that we may clearly know what we are praying about. Get the promise, and then offer the prayer, and the prayer will be answered as sure as God is God; but get thine own fancy into thy head, and thou wilt only have to get it out again, for it will be of no service to thee.

And then often-times we pray in a way in which our prayers could not be heard consistent with the dignity of the Most High. I love a holy familiarity with God, and I believe it to be commendable; but still, man is but man, while God is God, and, however familiar we may be with him in our hearts, still we must recollect the distance there is between the Most High and the most elevated and most beloved of his creatures, and we are not to speak as though it were in our power to do as we will and as we please. No; we are children, but we are to remember that children have a limit as to how they are to speak to their father. Their love may come as near as they please, but their impertinence may not, and we must mind that we do not mistake the familiarity of communion for the impudence of presumption. We must be careful to distinguish between the two, for he who is taught of God, and waiteth upon him according to his own mind, will find, as a general rule, that he will not be long without an answer to his prayer.

Now, if it be ignorance that thus prevents the answering of thy prayers, thou shouldest get better instructed, and search thou specially into such texts as bear upon the matter of prayer, that thou mayest know how to use thy private key of heaven, and open the sacred portals, the gate of the Divine mercy, for ignorance will often make thee to fail.

Again, does it not often happen that there may be reasons for delay lying in our own infirmity?

Sometimes, if a mercy were to come to a believer immediately that he asked for it, it would come too soon, but God timeth it until it appears only at the right and best moment. When a gracious godly soul has been much exercised in his mind concerning a special mercy: has studied it, weighed it, arrived at a proper apprehension of it, and arranged his plans for its proper use and benefit, then-just at the time that the barn was swept, and all the lumber taken out, then God’s harvest of bounty came home, and, the man being quite ready for the blessing, the blessing came.

Perhaps thou art not yet ready for the blessing. Thou hast asked for strong meat, but thou art but as yet a babe, and therefore thou art to be content with milk for a little while longer. Thou hast asked for a man’s trials, and a man’s privileges, and a man’s work, but thou art as yet only a child growing up into manhood, and thy good Father will give thee what thou askest for, but he will give it thee in such a way as to make it not a burden to thee, but a boon. If it came now, it might involve responsibilities which thou couldest not overtake, but, coming by and bye, thou shalt be well prepared for it.

There are reasons, too, I doubt not, which lie in our future, why our prayers are not answered. Delays in prayer may turn out to be a sort of training school for us. Take the Apostle’s instance. The “thorn in the flesh” was very painful, and though he was a chosen apostle, yet he had no answer. Thrice he cried, but still the “thorn in the flesh” was not removed. It was well that it was not, for Paul needed to be taught tenderness, in order that he might write those loving epistles of his, and therefore he received an answer of another sort, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Oh! Christian! if thou couldest get rid of the trouble in which thou now art, thou wouldest not be able to comfort poor mourners, as thou shalt yet do. Thou wouldest not be a full-grown, strong man, if thou hadst not these stern trials to develop thy manly vigour. Men do not learn to be intrepid sailors by staying on dry land. Thou art to put out to sea in the midst of the storm, that thou mayest learn how to manage and guide the vessel of thy soul. Thou art going through a rough drill, that thou mayest be a valiant and stalwart, a good soldier of Jesus Christ, for battles are yet to come, and grim foes yet to face: for thou hast many fightings between now and the blessed active case of heaven.

Thou hast not yet won the crown, but thou wilt have to cut thy way inch by inch and foot by foot, and the Master is making thee an athlete, that wrestling with thine enemies thou mayest overcome. He is strengthening thy muscles and tendons, thews and sinews, by the arduous exercise of unanswered prayer, that thou mayest be finely useful in the future.

Still, yet again, perhaps the reason why prayer is not always quickly answered is this: a reason which no tongue can tell, but which is inscrutable lying in the sovereign purposes and wisdom of God.

Now, see! If I cannot tell why God doth not hear me, what must I say? I had better say naught, but put my finger on my lips and wait. Who am I that I should question him as to what he doeth? Who am I that I should arraign my Maker before my bar, and say unto him, “What doest thou?”? Almighty Potter, thou hast a right to do as thou willest with thine own clay! We have learned to submit to thy will, not because we must, but because we love that will, feeling that thy will is the highest good of thy creatures, and the sublimest wisdom. Why should we be so anxious to know the depth of the sea, which cannot be fathomed by our line? Why must we be toiling to heave the lead so often? Leave these things with God, and go thou on with thy praying and thy believeing, and all shall yet be well with thee.

And now I conclude this point by saying that if the Christian, after looking into the matter, cannot find out a reason why he should not be answered, let him still expect that he shall be, and wait still upon God, remembering, however, that he may never be answered after his own fashion, but that he shall be answered after God’s fashion.

I like that verse of old Erskine’s, for, though rough and quaint, it is true:-

“I’m heard when answered soon or late;

Yea, heard when I no answer get;

Yea, kindly answered when refused,

And treated well when hardly used.”

In heaven every believer will realise how great was this truth, and so here I leave it.

And now, to conclude, I thought I would say a few words upon a very special case which may occur, and which may be here represented this evening. I have no doubt that it is in more than one instance. It was once my case. It is not the case of a Christian asking a boon for himself, but it is the case of a sinner, conscious of his danger as a sinner, asking for mercy.

Brethren and sisters, it was a very unhappy lot to have to seek the Lord, with such earnestness as I could command as a child for four or five years, with sighs, and cries, and entreaties, but to have no comfortable answer whatsoever, to be as one that chooses strangling rather than life, because of a sense of God’s anger, in my soul. to desire reconciliation, to live in the midst of gospel light, and to hear the truth preached every Sabbath day, indeed every day in the week after a fashion, and yet not to discover the way to heaven. Now, sometimes it is not good advice to say to such a person, Go on praying. It is good advice; I must correct myself there, but it is not the best advice in such a case. Soul, if thou hast been seeking mercy, and thou canst not find it, go on praying by all means; never relax that, but it is not by that that thou wilt ever get peace. The business of thy soul is to listen to Christ’s command, and his command is contained in the gospel, which gospel is not, “Go ye into all the world and tell every creature to pray,” but it is, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” Now, thy business is to pray, certainly, but thy first business is to believe. Thy prayers before thou believest have but little weight in them. Unbelieving prayers! Shall I call them prayers? Prayers without faith! They are birds without wings, and ships without sails, and beasts without legs. Prayers that have no faith in Christ in them are prayers without the blood on them: they are deeds without the signature, without the seal, without the stamp-they are impotent, illegal documents. Oh! if thou couldest but come as thou art, and look to Christ on the Cross! It is not thy prayers that can save thee: it is Christ’s prayers and Christ’s tears, and Christ’s sufferings, and Christ’s blood, and Christ’s death. If thou trusteth to thy prayers, thou hast gone back again to the old beggarly elements of the law. Thou mightest as well trust to thy good works as to thy prayers, and to trust either will be to rest in “a refuge of lies.” Thy hope, sinner, lies in the altogether gratuitous mercy of God, and that mercy only comes to those who rest in Jesus Christ alone, waiting patiently for him. Oh! that thou couldest but come just as thou art, and lay thyself at mercy’s door, with such a word as this on thy lips:-

“My hope is fixed on nothing else

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

There are no doings of thine needed to complete the work. Nay! I venture to say, not even any praying of thine. Thy prayings and thy doings shall each occupy their proper place afterwards, and then they shall be essential in their way, but now, as a sinner, thy business is with the sinner’s Saviour. If thou art enabled now to look completely out of self, and see all that thy flesh can do as dead and buried for ever in the grave of Christ, and as being naught and worse than naught, and if thou canst see Jesus, the mighty Saviour, distributing the gifts which he has received for men, even distributing them to the rebellious-if thou canst thus trust him, thou art saved. What sayest thou, sinner? Art thou enabled to do it now? Canst now fall flat before his Cross? Oh! the happy day when I learned that I was no longer to look to self, but found that the gospel was, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth.” Many of you have looked, brethren and sisters! Look again to that sacred head once wounded, and filled with pain and grief, but which now is crowned with glory! Look and renew your vow of dedication, and he will lift you up to be above the angels, and only second to God himself.

Oh! look now!

And as to you who have never looked before, I pray the Master to open your blind eyes, and cause the scales to drop, so that you may look now, and, while you look, may see everything you want laid up for you in Jesus. Everything a sinner needs can be richly supplied by him, and then the sinner can go his way rejoicing and singing, “Christ is all, and happy am I that I have sought and found him.” The Lord bless you all for his name’s sake. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 32

This is a great psalm of grace, a psalm in which a sinner, cleansed by sovereign grace, adores and blesses the mercy of God.

Verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

This is not a blessing for the man who says he has no sin; this is not a benediction for the innocent, who talk about their own good works; but blessed is the man who, having sinned, is pardoned, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; in a word, it is a gospel blessing, it is the blessing of free grace.

2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

He had a thousand iniquities; he transgressed in all sorts of ways. The Lord does not impute these things to him. He has set them down to the account of another, who has ventured to stand in the sinner’s stead, and be made sin in the sinner’s place, but to this man, this blessed man, God doth not impute iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guile-he confesses his sin with honesty, he is pardoned with certainty, and in his spirit there is no cunning concealment.

3, 4. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

This is the experience of those men whom God saves. Till they confess sin, that sin rankles in them like venom; it boils their blood, it eats into their bones, it makes life worse than death, it makes them dread the wrath to come; their days are nights, and their nights are hells; they cannot bear themselves. This was David’s experience, and it has been the way by which God has led thousands of his redeemed ones that he might bring them to himself. As long as we cloak our sin and conceal it, and pretend that we are innocent, the fire burns within us; but when we just confess the sin, then it is that we are dealing with God aright, and God deals with us in grace.

5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

All gone, gone for ever, gone at a stroke. Oh! what a mercy this is, that, when once we will take the place of sinners and plead guilty, then it is that we are absolved at once. We have but to own that we deserve the punishment, and straightway that punishment is remitted. This is the way of grace, the plan of infinite condescending love.

6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

The man that has so prayed as to find complete forgiveness, he is the man that will never leave off praying as long as he lives. The one gain which covers everything, the gain of conscious forgiveness, inspires a man to pray about anything, and about everything, as long as ever he lives. “For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee.” “Thou art my hiding-place.” You see God was his hiding-place when he was in a storm of sin, and now he takes God to be his hiding-place in every time of trouble, from all the afflictions of his life, all the sorrows of the way. “Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble.” Shall he not, since he has blotted out our sins? Oh! if God has preserved us from the wrath to come, what is there to be afraid of? “Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” I shall live in a ring of music. I shall march onward to heaven as in the centre of song. Why, it may well be so, when once God has freely blotted out our sins-“Thou shalt compass me about with sings of deliverance.” Ay, saith God, that I will, and I will do more.

8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

I have not blotted out thy sins to leave thee to wander back into them again-I will be thy teacher, thy folly shalt not be thy ruin, thine ignorance shall not be thy destruction. I will guide thee-look at me!-“I will guide thee with mine eye.” A glance, a look, shall be enough for thee. I will give thee such a heart that thou shalt understand the least motion of my finger. Nay, I will guide thee with mine eye.

9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

A pardoning God may well ask this of us, that we would be tender. Oh! let us be very willing to do the Lord’s will, plastic in his hands like clay in the hand of the potter. It is a great pity, brothers and sisters, when we won’t be guided by the gentle leadings of God, and must be whipped and spurred, and tugged at. For God will govern us if we are his people. If one bit will not do it, he will get a tougher bit that shall cut us and hurt us, but he will rule us, and so he ought to do, blessed be his name.

10, 11. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all yet hat are upright in heart.