A very beautiful spectacle it is to see the Lord Jesus marching in front, and his followers eagerly following on behind. They were going up to Jerusalem, where it is true he would receive some honour, but where also he would be betrayed into the hands of cruel men, and put to a shameful death; but he went before them. As the shepherd goes before the sheep, not driving, but leading; as the captain goes before his soldiers as taking the post of danger, so our Lord went before them. It was far better that he should go first than that they should, for the disciple is never more out of place than when he outruns his Master. If he will follow his Master’s commands, he shall do well; but if he shall follow his own devices and invent his own way, he shall do ill. The pilgrimage behind the cloud is a safe one, but a rush before the cloud will end in a disaster. The Master must go first, not the disciple. But then, when the Master advances, it is right to see the disciple follow, ready of foot, quick at his Master’s heel, delighted with his Master’s company. One likes to think of that journey up to Jerusalem, with Jesus Christ just a little ahead in the front, and his disciples closely following with him. I thought it was a picture that might serve us as a model throughout the whole year. I am not going to talk to you long at this time, but wish just to sketch that picture before your mind’s eye, and say, “So be it unto each one of us.” May Jesus be with us, may Jesus lead the way, and may his own divine Spirit give us grace to follow him, not like Peter, afar off, but as loving disciples who keep closely under their Master’s guidance! From the beginning of the year to the end of the year may we rejoice to feel that he goes before; but may we also with great alacrity follow close behind. I present it to you, I say, as the picture for this new year of grace, and may it be verified in your experience.

Very simply, then, I shall try to call attention to the blessed fact that Jesus goes before us, and, having done so, I shall ask you, in the second place, to seek after a sweet realisation of this truth. And the first truth, then, to consider is:

We have already said that he was going the way of suffering. He was going up to Jerusalem to suffer. When you are in the way of suffering, he will go before you. He was always in the way of service. There was more to be done at Jerusalem before he had finished his course. May we, in the way of service, always find him going before us. And he was also, in the third place, on the way to death, and if we have any fears about our passage through the river, may this console us-he went before us.

To begin, then, at the beginning, here is the blessed fact that Christ has gone before in the way of suffering. He has done so by his own actual experience while he was here in the flesh. “He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” “In all our afflictions he was afflicted.” “He himself took our sicknesses and carried our sorrows.” Rest assured that, in whatever way of suffering you have to go in consequence of your being a child of man, and especially in consequence of your being a child of God, you will find that Christ has gone that way before you. Are you full of bodily pain, stretched upon the bed? Are you apt to think that none ever suffered as you do? He suffered more than you; he went before you along that flinty pathway. The pangs of his death must have been extreme. And remember his passion in the garden, his agony in Gethsemane. You have not in this matter yet come to having drops of blood oozing in sweat from your countenance. No; he has gone before you there. In all the pangs of your bodily frame Jesus has preceded you. Read the 22nd Psalm, with all its wonderful expressions-“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” He knew the fever and its thirst upon the cross when he was dying there. He said, “Thou hast brought me to the dust of death.” You have not one suffering that may be imagined to be more exquisite than what he had endured. Your griefs are mole-hills compared with the Alps of his sufferings.

But you will say that it is not exactly the pathway of personal bodily pain you are traversing, but you have endured much in the sufferings of others you have lost. You have had half your heart, perhaps, taken away at one time; friend after friend has been carried to the tomb; but he went before in this pathway also. Did you never read where it is written, “Jesus wept”? “Behold how he loved him,” said the Jews, as they beheld him at the sepulchre of the well-beloved Lazarus. He knows what bereavements means as well as you-he has gone before. “Ah!” say you, “but in consequence of the bereavement I have suffered I am left a widow. How shall I be provided for? In addition to the woe of the loss, I have to look forward to the future. Will these hands be able to find me daily bread? My garments may become by degrees more and more thin and time-worn. I fear cold, nakedness, and hunger.” And suppose it should come to that, as it will not, I trust, yet he went before. Thou art not so poor as he. Hear thou his voice to-night, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the son of man have not where to lay my head.” To pay the common tax, he must borrow money from the fish of the sea. His garment was the common seamless robe of peasants; he was but poorly clad; he was in all respects the child of poverty. First cradled in a manger, and then laid for his last sleep in a borrowed grave, for still he had not even where to lay his head. In the sleep of death, Jesus went before you. O son of poverty, O daughter of need, you may see the print of his footsteps all along that thorny way. “Ay,” says one, “but still there is added to poverty in my case the fact that I have been forsaken by friends, and I am very fearful that even those who stood somewhat faithful to me will soon grow weary, and I shall be left alone.” And didst thou never hear him say, “And I shall be left alone, and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me”? And have you never read how they all forsook him and fled, and Peter denied him with oaths and curses, and, worst of all, Judas, who had been trusted with his little stock, sold him at the price of a slave? “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.” Ingratitude most cruel, treachery most base! Your Lord has suffered it. You may see the prints of his pierced feet along that pathway if you will but look for them. Jesus went before you in actual suffering. And what if you have been serving your Lord with zeal and fervour, and you have been reproached, even by those who love him. You have met with the cold shoulder where you expected to find encouragement. If your motives have been misrepresented by the very persons who ought to have supported you in your ardour, ah! what then? Was not he also a reproach among his mother’s brethren? When his zeal had eaten him up, they said that he was mad, and even his mother and his brethren stood without desiring that they might see him, because they thought him bereaved of his wits; and if the wicked world has reproached and reviled you, did they not call the Master of the house “Beelzebub”? Shall they have soft names and honourable titles for the men of his household? If they said of him, “He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” do you think they will say great and flattering things of you? O ye that are made ashamed for his sake, and made a spectacle unto men and unto angels, be not afraid; no strange thing has happened to you; thousands of saints have passed along this road, and, chief of all, your Master, Christ, has gone before you. In the path of suffering, then, Jesus has gone before us, from the fact of having actually and literally experienced what we suffer.

He has gone before in another sense, namely, that now, though he reigns exalted high in the highest heavens, he goes before us still in the intense sympathy of his sacred heart. Jesus is not separated from his people by the mere fact of distance. “Lo,” he hath said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the world,” and you know what mysterious, yet real union exists between Christ the head and all his members. It came out clearly in the case of Paul, when he said to him, “Why persecutest thou me?” He was persecuting only a few poor people in Jerusalem, or in Damascus, whom he despised, but Christ said, “Why persecutest thou me?” because persecuting the saints was persecuting Christ-Christ suffering in his members. Christ suffering on the cross was the head suffering, but when his people were rent to pieces in the amphitheatre, when they were burned at Smithfield, and when to-day they are hooted and made a jest of, it is Christ suffering, still suffering in his members, and when any child of God suffers in any righteous cause, whenever affliction comes upon a saint in any form, Christ sympathises with him. Rest assured:-

“In every pang that rends the heart,

The Man of sorrows bears his part.”

In all their affliction he was afflicted. A finger never suffers without the brain participating, and no humble member of the true Church of Christ ever suffers without Christ, the glorious head, suffering in sympathy therewith.

Now this is very cheering to those who have faith to receive it, because very much of the heart-breaking that comes into the world is from a sense of loneliness. When men feel that somebody sympathises with them; when those that are being beaten feel that others smart as they do, then they take courage. Oh! there is one who loves thee more than thou canst love thyself, who sympathises with thee, thou suffering saint, from the throne of his glory. Be thou, therefore, glad; be of good courage, and let this comfort thy heart.

There is a third way in which Christ goes before us in the path of suffering; that is, in the matter of providence. While he has himself suffered, and himself sympathises, in a third respect he goes before us ever in our sufferings, in preparing them for us, and preparing us for them. Our Lord has gone to heaven to prepare a place for us, and I believe he has prepared all the road as well as a place at the end of it. Thou shalt find, O child of God, when thou comest into the deep waters, that Christ is there-there by his grace and spirit, and there also by his providence, to take care of thee. It was appointed that Jacob and his tribes should all go down to Egypt. To Egypt they must go, but Joseph went down there before them, and became lord over all Egypt, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his brethren; for all the wealth of Egypt shall be used, if necessary, in order that Jacob and all his household shall be preserved during the time of famine. Now if there is an Egypt to which thou art to go, Jesus, thy Joseph, has gone before thee to make it ready for thee, to find thee a Goshen there, and to nourish thee there till such day as thou shalt come from it. God, even thy Saviour Jesus, leads the van. As the cloud, like a mighty fire-banner, went through all the mazes of the winding way of Israel over the desert, so Jesus marches before us, the leader, the standard bearer among ten thousand, ever in the van, and with his eternal power and Godhead making straight the pathway for his people’s feet. Let us be of good courage, then, in this respect. In the matter of suffering, he went before you.

But now realise here the retrospect. If he goes before, then follow him. Thou lovest not suffering. It were not suffering if thou didst love it, but still if Jesus leads, look not to the way. It were better that that way should be full of thorns and briars which should tear thy flesh, and Christ be with thee, than that it should be a long green pathway, and thy shepherd lead thee not. Go on. He went to his sufferings without a murmur. Moreover, even his flesh shrank, and at last he said, “Not my will, but thine be done.” Say, thou, the same. Dost thou fear as thou enterest into the cloud? Within that cloud shall be the secret tabernacle of the Most High, wherein he will reveal himself to thee as he never did before. Some of us owe much to the anvil, and the hammer, and the fire, much to suffering, much to trials, and we thank God we had them, and you will yet have to do the same; but, oh! stay not back. Remember, after all, a want of resignation will not assist you in your suffering, but, on the contrary, nothing makes suffering so light as resignation to it, and a perfect acquiescence in the divine will does much to take away the gall from the cup. You must go where Jesus leads; go thou, therefore, willingly, cheerfully, trustingly, and even joyfully, for it is a triumph to a Christian to bear the cross after Jesus, and to be crucified and buried with him were a high honour to any child of God. Go on, then, for Christ leads the way.

But now I must not tarry so long on that part, but I observe it is said Christ leads the way in service as well as in suffering. He was going up to Jerusalem to accomplish the rest of his life-work before he surrendered his Spirit to his Father. Now you and I, and each of us, have a service to perform. We were redeemed and bought with a price that we might serve the Lord. We are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. We have a priesthood to fulfil. All God’s children, all God’s servants are priest and kings, and they have a rule to discharge, and a priesthood to fulfil. Now we are beginning a new year of service. It will be a very sweet thing to us if we can know that Jesus Christ has gone before us in the path of service. Beloved, I might take the same truth, and say that he has gone before us actually, in having fulfilled the same service. If there is any good thing for you to do, Christ has done it before you. Are we called to preach the gospel? You know how he was anointed to preach glad tidings to the poor. Are you called to teach the little ones? Did not he say, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven”? Have you to feed the hungry? On what a large scale did he do it! Have you to visit the sick, and to minister to their needs? Oh! how many thousands owed their opened eyes or restored limbs to him! Christ’s life anticipates all the service of the Church. One might very easily, in taking the life of Christ, find all the operations of a truly active Church prefigured there-all of them. There is nothing new under the sun, and when a man has found out something, and thought “Here is something that is fresh,” you shall find Christ has looked after the halt, and the blind, and the lame before you, and if you seek to raise the fallen woman, you will be made to remember him who said, “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.” I should be afraid to undertake any service in which I could not see that he has gone before. But what Christ has done, it is right for us to do, save only in that work of expiation where we cannot help him. There he treads the winepress alone, and of the people there is none with him; but in all in which he is our exemplar, it is always a safe thing for us to follow very closely, and we shall find that he has gone before us. And truly he goes before us in all our works by his Holy Spirit, actively proving his divine sympathy with us still. I do not look upon the Church of God as so many pious men and women at work by themselves, but I see God working by them, working in them, working through them. They are the workers to the eye, but no further. It is God that worketh in them to will and to do of his own good pleasure. If Satan saw in the work only the man, he would laugh at him, but he perceives “the hand of Joab” is there-a mightier hand than the hand of man, and, therefore, it is that he is often put to the rout. O ye that speak for Jesus, that pray for Jesus, that give to his cause and work for his name, let this be your joy and your comfort-that Jesus Christ is with you and goes before you in all this service.

And so he does in his providence. If we had but eyes to see it, and could know all things, we should perceive that when we come to preach the gospel God has been preparing men’s hearts to receive it. Many a time a man will come up to the house of prayer, and it has been a trouble that has been ploughing up and down, and the minister has got a handful of seed to sow, which the birds would have devoured if they had fallen on hard soil, only God has ploughed the man, and made him like soil, ready to receive it. He has gone before us. If ever I see these benches full, I feel a little distressed, and yet elated, because I always reckon that I have got a picked congregation, and each man is sent with a design. Though there may not be salvation in every case, yet there are some to whom God will bless the Word, to which the Word will be fitted to the very letter, for God will guide the preacher, and oftentimes as much reveals himself from the pulpit as ever a Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was revealed again by Daniel when it was gone altogether from his mind. You shall be sure that God is in the Word if it comes home to you in that way; and if you are a Christian worker, you may expect that the providence of God will prepare men’s hearts for that work which you are trying to do.

I would that the Church of God would now recollect that assuredly God is going before her in all her service at this moment. The world is prepared for the gospel if we were but willing to present the gospel to the world. When our Lord Christ came into this world there was a universal peace, and the peace of the public mind and the state of the public pulse was just suitable for the preaching of the gospel by the Lord and by his apostles, and there is some such suitability as that now. Chains that long have galled unhappy nations have been filed through. The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light; they have demanded liberty, and won it with a good right hand, and mean to hold it; and now is the time when the darkness flies and light comes for those who have the still brighter light of the everlasting gospel of the ever blessed God to spring into the gap and proclaim salvation by a crucified Redeemer to all the sons of men. Up, churches of London, and to your work! E’en now the very demand for education among you, and the stir that there is among the people, the breaking up of hoary systems of abomination, the motion and commotion-all this means good to you. You have been embedded in the ice and frozen up these long wintry days, but, lo, the sun has risen, and the long summer days shall soon come, and your barque shall be freighted and put out to sea, and bring a blessed cargo of souls home to God their Father. Let us be up and doing, for Jesus goes before us in the matter of providence. May he help us to keep ever near him. What he would have us do, oh! may we do it, word for word what he would have us speak, thought for thought what he would have us to think, act for act what he would have us to do. Let us never have a glorious leader and be a laggard people. Oh! for the grace that is in him to bedew plenteously ourselves, that as he goes before us we may follow him in the path of service.

Now very briefly upon one other point, which was the path of death. Our Lord was going to Golgotha, and there was to be, as far as this world was concerned, the end of his journey. To the cross he must be nailed, and in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea the Lord Jesus must sleep. Death is not a pleasant thing. It matters not how you gild the pill, it is a pill. If the Lord come not, however, before that time we shall have to pass through death, and we shall find it, if we are his people, to be infinitely less painful than the fear of death. We feel a thousand deaths in fearing one, and if our faith were greater, we should have no fear of death. “Ah!” says one, “what I dread is parting, leaving my friends.” He went before them; he parted from them all, and from his mother; and he said to John, “Behold, thy mother,” and to his mother, “Woman, behold thy son,” as the light faded from his eyes. He went before in the path of death. “Ah! but I cannot bear to think of the pain of dying,” saith one. You will never have such pain as his in death. He went before you; he had a sense of sin in dying; he was made a curse for us, as it is written, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,” but no curse can ever light on you, believer. The blessing is yours because the curse was his. Oh! he has gone before you; he has gone where you never shall go, for he suffered the wrath of God, which you never shall suffer, for that wrath is gone and passed away for ever. There are none of the surroundings of a dying bed which can suggest such horror as that which surrounded the death of our Lord; so that he has gone before you in everything that might alarm you in the prospect of your departure. He has gone before you. Be content to follow him to the grave. It is no more:-

“A charnel-house of sense,

Relics of lost innocence,

The place of ruin and decay;

The imprisoning stone is rolled away.”

It is now a nest of sweetness since Jesus laid in it. The grave is no longer unfurnished; there are his grave clothes left for you; and, moreover, the stone being rolled away, you have the promise that you shall come out of it again. When the trump of the archangel soundeth, those poor bones shall arise, and the body that was sown in weakness shall be raised in power. What joy it is then to think that he went before you, and how obediently, nay, triumphantly, may we follow him, even to death itself. Here, then, is the blessed fact, in suffering, or service, or departure, Christ goes before us. Now the point we close with is this:-

May we, all of us, have a sweet realisation of this truth during this year.

We believe a good deal of doctrine which we have never yet realised. We know much to be food which we have never fed upon. Many Christians are like those who have sacks of flour in the house, but no bread. They have nothing available for present food. Some are like rich men that may happen to be abroad with thousands of gold, but no small silver, no spending money. May you be able to coin the bullion of precious promise so as to use it in the journey of life. May you make practical application of precious truths, tasting the honey, drinking the wine, and being satisfied with it. Now, then, to realise that Christ goes before us is to realise that we are never alone. If I am in my study, and a problem staggers me, I am not alone-my Lord will teach me. You are in your little chamber with the needle, working hard for very scanty pay. You have to suffer-you have not got to suffer that alone. “I am with thee when thou passest through the fire; thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” But you have got to go into the workroom, and there are those that point at you, and they have a jest for you, whom they know to be a follower of Christ. You have not to bear that alone. He has the heaviest end of that cross, and he is persecuted in his persecuted members. But you are busy in business, and your cares afflict you. Blessed be God you have not got to bear those cares alone; no, nor yet at all, for concerning them he has said, “Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” I have got to come here and preach. Who is sufficient for these things? But I am not to preach alone-“My grace is sufficient for thee.” His strength shall be made perfect in thy weakness. You have to go to that Sunday School class. Oh! how incorrigible those boys are, and how careless those girls, but you have not got to win those souls alone. Jesus will go, and his Spirit will be there, and you shall be helped in your work. Do try and realise all through this year that you are never alone. Not only is it “Thou God seest me,” but it is this, “Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, I am thy God.” And Christ is not with you behind, or pushing you into the danger, but he is with you before you; he goeth before you; he is the shield catching the fiery darts upon himself. You shall come behind the screen, and be sheltered by his precious promise. I do not know where you may be this year, but let this thought abide with you-he will be with you. Perhaps you will cross the sea. Your lot may be to help to colonise some distant land. Over the sea, and on the billows, and on the shore, so strange to you, he will be your near companion. Perhaps this year there is a trial awaiting you, very heavy, or perhaps a temptation arising out of some new joy or fresh prosperity. Do not fear it; you shall be safe on the hill-tops of joy and in the Valley of Humiliation. Anywhere, he is with you. A child is told, perhaps at nightfall, that he has to go a considerable distance; it is to a lonely farmhouse, and the little one trembles to go across the moor in the dark. “Oh!” the mother says, “but father is going with you.” Oh! then that changes the aspect of everything. The boy is pleased to go; even the dangers that seemed so great, only attract him now; he will be glad to be with his father. Through the moorland of another year you have to go, and it may be dark and cold, but your heavenly Father and your blessed Elder Brother will be with you. Therefore, be not afraid. You will have to contend this year for “the faith delivered once for all to the saints,” and to do much service, too. If you are to render a good account at the year’s end, you are to try and live this year, not at a slow rate, like the cold-blooded frog, but to have hot blood in you. Regulated by prudence, and yet boiling over with a burning zeal, you are to serve the Lord. And it may be you think you cannot do it. Is anything impossible when he helps you? Is any sacrifice impossible when it is for him? Is any difficulty insurmountable when he himself gives the all-sufficient strength? Oh! this is a very choice thought, though a very simple one-that Jesus will be with you all the year through.

The only other thought is, take care that you abide with him. He is a quick walker. Idle souls will be left behind. He is a holy liver. Unclean spirits will find him part company with them. Be ye watchful, vigilant, sober, careful, zealous, and seek to have perpetual fellowship with Jesus Christ. I am sure those are the happiest that live nearest to God; I am certain of it. I do know it is not the wealthiest that are the happiest. It is not those that have the most health that are always happiest, and those that are most esteemed amongst their fellow-men. There is one rule without any exception-he that lives nearest to God has the most of that profound peace of God which passeth all understanding. He saith to you, “Abide in me.” May his words abide in you. May you abide in him, and may this be to each one of you, and to this Church, the very happiest year we have ever had. Oh! that some poor sinner would seek the Saviour! May the Lord’s lovely attractions entice him! And I shall close by saying this-that if any soul longs for Christ, Christ is already longing for him, and if you have a half of a desire towards him, he has a heart full of desire towards you. There never was a soul that had the start of Christ in the matter of desire for salvation. God grant you grace to touch Jesus, and then to follow after him, and to make his blessing abide with you, both now and for ever. Amen and amen.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 35; HEBREWS 12:1-6

ISAIAH 35.

Verse 1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.

They shall be so glad that they shall inspire gladness where all was desolation, and brooding, melancholy batswing, and dragon’s howl. “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.”

1. And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

God’s people are a happy-making people. They are a blessing in themselves, and they shall be a blessing to others, till all shall say, “These are the seed that the Lord hath blessed.” “The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

2. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

A wonderful sight to see, for there is one of the most lovely sights in the world when the glory and excellency of God are to be seen in the works of his grace in his own people. It is such a sight that it makes men first rejoice in their hearts, and then rejoice with their tongues. They shall “rejoice with joy and singing,” which is the double rejoicing of the heart and of the lip. Well, those must be a favoured people who, wherever they go, can make others glad after this fashion. Brethren, they must be full or they could not overflow! They must be themselves alive, or else they could not quicken the desert places. They must themselves be in flower, blooming like the rose, or they could not make the wilderness so full of verdure. The Lord grant that we may be in that state that we may be able to go into the wilderness. There are some of God’s people that cannot trust themselves to go where they are wanted, because they have not grace enough. They are so weak that they are like the weak man standing on the river’s brink, who cannot leap in to pull out a drowning man for fear they should be pulled in themselves. But, oh! they are blest indeed who dare go into wildernesses and into the solitary places, and carry the transforming benediction of heaven with them till the wilderness changes its dress, and the brown of the arid sand gives place to the ruddiness of the rose, because God has come there with his people.

3. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Are there such here to-night? No doubt there are-weak at work, and weak at praying. The two things go together-weak hands and feeble knees. May they both be strengthened.

4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

It is very singular how salvation and vengeance are so often associated together in Scripture. It is the day of salvation,” and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn.” Vengeance upon the false is the best consolation to the true. When God smites the sham, even to the heart, then does he bless that in which the truth is found. “He will come and save you.”

5, 6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

See what the presence of Christ does. See what the presence of Christ’s people will do when he comes in them and with them. They make the wilderness rejoice. But, besides that, the dwellers that are found in the wilderness-these lame and deaf people-get the blessing. Oh! may God make us to be a desert to others of this sort.

7. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

The greenest spots your eye ever rested upon are just there where the grass is so rooted in the morass that it is always green with a delicate tinge, and the reeds and rushes spring up abundantly. O God, make poor parched hearts to become like this! You barren ones, you desolate ones, he can give you the best verdure that is possible. Your hearts shall be as green and fresh as the spots where there is grass with reeds and rushes.

8. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it: but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

Oh! what a blessing that is to us poor fools! We should err anywhere. To err is human, and we seem to have come in for a double share of it. The more we look at our lives the more we see the folly of our hearts. What a mercy it is that when we walk in the way of faith, in the way of Christ, fools as we are, we shall not err!

9, 10. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighnig shall flee away.

Like frightened things. They kept us company part of our road, but, when the Lord appeared they took to themselves wings and fled away. We could not tell where they were gone to. We were surprised to find that they had quite vanished. Oh! for the appearing of the Lord to-night to his mourning people who may be here.

HERBREWS 12:1-8.

Verse 1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.

Or “entangle us.”

1-3. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds

The Lord does not wish his people’s hands to hang down, and their knees to become weak, so in this passage, as in many others, he administers gracious remedies. Among the rest, he bids us consider his own dear Son. Shall we faint under our small afflictions when he endured so well under his heavy burdens? Come, be strengthened, my weak heart.

“His way was much rougher and darker than thine;

Did Christ thy Lord suffer, and wilt thou repine?”

4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

It has hardly come to blows and bruises yet-certainly not to bloody strokes. Ye have not lost blood yet for Christ.

5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

Neither think too little of it, nor too much of it-too little of it by despising it and not listening to the voice of the rod, nor too much of it by fainting when thou art rebuked of him.

6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Oh! what comfort there is here! Whenever we are under the scourging hand of God, how we ought to be cheered with the thought that this is a part of the heritage of the children. There are Elis who spoil their children. God is not one of them. He spares not the rod, and the more he loves, often the more he corrects. A tree of common fruit may be let alone so long as there is some little fruit on it, but the very best fruit gets the sharpest pruning; and I have noticed that in those countries where the best wine is made, the vine-dressers cut the shoots right close in, and in the winter you cannot tell that there is a vine there at all unless you watch very carefully. They must cut them back sharp to get sweet clusters. The Lord does thus with his beloved. It is not anger. Afflictions are not always anger. There are often tokens of great love.

ASSURANCE SOUGHT

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, January 11th, 1917.

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.”-Psalm 35:3.

David knew where to run to for shelter in his hour of difficulty. Many were there that opposed him; he had been much slandered; his course was rough. So, after spreading his case before the Lord, as Hezekiah did Rabshakeh’s blasphemous letter, he turns to the Most High, and he cries to him for succour with one request, as if this would suffice to relieve him from all his troubles, “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” He thus invokes God to give him a word from his own mouth, to take the buckler and the sword in his defence, and to be his Champion. “Oh! my God, speak to my soul some assuring word, and it shall be enough for me.” It is a sign of adoption, a mark of the residence of the Spirit of God within us, if in our times of trouble we fly to our God. Soul, dost thou find any difficulty in doing so? Is this not one of thy spiritual instincts? Then, be afraid lest thou be an alien, and no true-born child, for the true-born child seeks its Father’s face, cries out for its Father’s notice, and creeps into its Father’s bosom.

This short prayer I commend to every one present-to saint and sinner, to the young and the old, to those who are assured and to those who are doubtful-“Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” It appears to me to imply certain doctrines, to express certain desires, and to suggest certain practical lessons upon which we may profitably meditate.

“Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.”

Is it not very clear on the surface of the text that we need salvation? Salvation is the great necessity of the human race. We need to be saved from the consequences of the fall, from the results of our own transgressions, from the penalties due to our guilt and the indwelling power of sin, and the domination of our corrupt nature. You all know this by the witness of your conscience; therefore, I need not argue or attempt to prove it; but the main question is, whether we know it experimentally, for it is one thing to know the letter, but quite another thing to know the spirit; one thing to know a matter with the head, and another thing to be affected by it in a lively manner in the soul. Answer me, then, hast thou learned experimentally that thou needest to be saved? Didst thou ever see thy past sins in their true colour? Didst thou ever behold what a future sin opens up before thee, till thou didst start back alarmed and terror-stricken? Hast thou perceived that thou needest just such a salvation as Christ came to bring? Truly we never seek it till we see we need it. We are usually driven into the port of grace by a storm. It is not often that we fly to Christ if there is any other door open. In the sore straits of poverty we have to cry to him for sustenance; when we are sick we resort to him for health and cure. Moreover, beloved, we continue to require a continuous salvation. It is well for the Christian to remember that in a certain sense he, too, needs to be saved-not from hell, for we are saved from that; nor from the guilt of our sins, for, thank God! that is purged by the blood once shed for our remission-but we need to be saved every day from the temptations that assail our souls, from the trials that beset our path, from the corruptions of our nature. Mr. Whitefield said he hoped he was converted, but conversion was a thing to take place every day-not regeneration, mark you! that is once for all, but conversion. “Why,” said he, “I need to be converted from lying too late in bed in the morning, and converted from idleness all the day long.” So do we. There is something or other we need to be converted from; some wrong thing that we need to be saved from; and until we get within the gates of pearl we shall still have need to cry for salvation from some evil that harasses us. Salvation by blood we have got; salvation by the might and power of the Holy Ghost, who is to conquer and to destroy all our dire iniquity and innate depravity, we still need. Do we feel that we need it? Believer, dost thou feel that thou needest it? Beware of getting spiritually rich in thyself. Nothing is so near akin to soul-poverty as this. Beware of thinking that thou art increased in goods. Thou art nigh to bankruptcy when thou thus makest account of thy possessions. I counsel thee, therefore, still to bow thy knee and cry unto the great Saviour, “Lord, save me, or I perish!” That prayer should never be in advance of the most advanced Christian.

Another doctrine lies on the surface of the text. His own personal salvation should be the matter of a man’s highest thoughts and greatest earnestness. “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation,” should be the uppermost and the uttermost cry of thy heart. Ask not the Lord to make thee rich; thou mayest well reckon that this would involve too high a position, and too heavy a responsibility, for thee to bear with equanimity. Seek not a pinnacle from which thou mightest be in peril of falling. Didst thou ask to be learned in all the knowledge and languages of the ancients, thou mightest miss the road to heaven; for oftentimes the shepherds are guided to the place where the Holy Child is, while the wise men miss their way, going to Jerusalem, instead of Bethlehem. I will not crave the Lord to give me food for my vanity, or good fortune for my wishes, or aught beside for which my passions yearn, but, Lord, give me salvation. This is a boon I must have. It is essential to my instant and my endless welfare. Let not thy servant be put off with any inferior blessing. If thou pleasest to keep me poor on a scanty pittance, or bid me toil hard for slender wages, so let it be. Yet deny me not a draught from the upper springs. Give me the heritage of thy chosen. Grant me thy salvation. Salvation! Oh! salvation. This should be the chief, the insatiable longing of each man’s spirit! Alas! for the ignorance and callousness that can trifle with salvation as though it were a matter of no immediate concern. Are ye mad enough to imagine that, whether ye have an interest in Christ or not, is a question that may be solved in a few minutes in a fearful emergency upon a dying bed? Ah! it is not so. Wisdom should urge us, or peril should drive us, to seek shelter from a calamity that would leave us a total wreck. Nothing lies so near to our interest and our happiness-nothing therefore, should press so closely on our hearts as to be in Christ, and be made, through him, partakers of everlasting life. Dear hearer, this question, then, I press upon thee. Be pleased to answer it. Hast thou been led by the Spirit of God to see to this thy first concern? Art thou saved? Or art thou anxious to be saved with an anxiety that will not rest or abate? Art thou striving and struggling in thy heart to find the Saviour, without whom thou art utterly lost, ruined, and undone? Unless God’s Holy Spirit clothe it with power, preaching reaches no farther than the ear. Oh! that he would speak to your souls! With what energy ye would then be filled!

A third doctrine is couched in these words. Salvation, if it be worth the having, must come entirely from the Lord Himself. “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” The eye of the suppliant here is evidently turned to God alone, and rightly so, for salvation cometh not from the hills, nor from the multitude of the people, not yet from the prowess of individuals. Surely in the Lord alone is the salvation of Israel. Never did salvation spring from the devices of this poor heart. In vain do ye seek to obtain it by any religious ceremonies, or by any bodily exercises. The source and fountain of salvation are only to be found in the eternal purpose of God. In the covenant of God it was resolved, in the wisdom of God it was planned, in the great redemption of God it was effected, and by the Spirit of God it is applied. Jonah went to a strange college to learn this masterpiece of sound theology, that salvation is of the Lord. As for Israel, he could destroy himself, but he could never save himself. In his God he found help, in his God alone. Happy the man that knows this! Thrice happy he who knows it experimentally! He will turn his eyes alone to the Lord. My hearer, art thou seeking salvation by works-by aught that is meritorious or meretricious? Thou art spending thy money for that which is not bread. Art thou seeking a knowledge of salvation by thine own feeling? Dost thou consult thy frames of mind, hopeful or desponding, as one marketh the rise or fall of a barometer? Dost thou dream of being prepared for Christ, and fitting thyself to receive mercy? This is to impose on thyself, and to insult the Saviour. Christ wants nothing of thee; he comes to bring everything to thee. Even thy sense of need he gives thee. All thy fitness is to be unfit; all thy preparation for washing is to be foul; all thy prerequisite for enriching is to be poor as poverty can make thee. Come thou as thou art to thy God through Christ the Mediator, and in him thou shalt find salvation. Do notice particularly that the words are not, “Say unto my soul, I am thy Saviour,” but more than that-“I am thy salvation.” As if God were not only the giver of salvation, but absolutely salvation itself. To get a hold of Christ is to get salvation. To get God on our side is to be saved. Salvation does not merely come from God as a gift; it absolutely involves the appropriation of God himself as the portion of one’s own soul. How wonderful this is! Who can find out God? Who can imagine, much less describe, his infinite perfections? Salvation proceeding from the Lord, from Jehovah, from the great I Am, communicates the wealth of his adorable attributes. “Say unto my soul, I”-our translation reads-“I am.” Ask, what art thou, Lord? the answer comes, “I am thy salvation.” No title, however noble, could enhance the description. He is the “I Am.” His existence is original and pure. “He sits on no precarious thone, or borrows leave to be.” From everlasting to everlasting he is God the Most High. To him there is neither past nor future, but one eternal Now.” The God who can save us must be the only true and living God. So great a salvation you cannot realise without a clear apprehension of Jehovah in all his attributes; and if any speak of Christ as delegated Deity, discredit his eternal power and Godhead, or deny that he made the heavens and the earth, and beareth them on his shoulders, they bring to us a Christ who cannot save. We must have a Redeemer as mighty as the Creator and the Preserver. We must have the strong Son of God, immortal and eternal, to rescue our souls from going down into the pit. If thou art leaning on any arm but an eternal one, it will fail thee. Poor silly heart, if thou art depending on anything for salvation but the self-same God who bears the earth’s huge pillars up, thy dependence will fail thee when most thou needest its help. The strongest sinew of an arm of flesh will crack; even an angel’s wing will flag; the earth itself will grow dim with years; this globe, with all her granite rocks, shall melt with a fervent heat. The eternal God must be thy refuge, and underneath thee must be the everlasting arms, or else the salvation thou pretendest to have is worse than useless. “Say unto my soul, I, the glorious Jehovah, I am thy salvation.”

These doctrines may seem to some of you so commonplace that you will say, “We have heard them ten thousand times.” But I refer to them now to press the question-Do you know the vital force of these great truths in your own hearts? Beloved, let each man, let each woman, enquire, “Do I know my need of salvation? Do I know that it must come from God? Have I got it from him? Have I applied directly to him for it? Have I received it at his hand in such a way that I have seen the glory of God therein, so that my salvation shall be to me for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off?” If thou hast had no dealings with God, thy soul is in bad plight. Let us turn now to observe:-

The desire expressed in the text.

It was David’s wish not only to have God for his salvation, but to know it for a fact, and that on the most conclusive evidence, with the best possible assurance, by a positive communication from God himself-“Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” There are some who doubt whether full assurance of faith can be obtained. They need not discredit an attainment which multitudes possess and daily enjoy. Others suppose that if they could experience a full assurance, it would be dangerous; and yet there are thousands of the saints who, so far from finding the privilege perilous, constantly prove its sanctifying, elevating power while they walk by faith and live near to God. Some have conjectured that any man who knew himself to be saved would inevitably grow listless in character and negligent of his conduct, but it is not so. A man who knows that an estate is really his own, does not become indifferent about its culture. He tills and farms it all the more sedulously. The fact is this-he who knows himself to be saved, being rid of that curse and burden of fear which often renders him incapable of serving God, passes beyond the sphere of a servile bondage. No more does he selfishly seek his own interest. His labour is free, cheered by love, and lightened by song:-

“Now for the love I bear his name,

What was my gain, I count my loss.”

Out of sheer gratitude he devotes himself to the service of the good God, by whom so great a blessing has been bestowed. If thy confidence in thine own salvation make thee walk without tenderness of conscience, then rely upon it you have mistaken vain boasting for pure faith, and haughty presumption for true assurance. They who are really possessed of this grace are always very tender of the Lord’s will. It constrains them to walk humbly with God. A king’s courtier knows that conduct is expected of him far beyond that of ordinary subjects. He would not encroach upon the freedom he enjoys in approaching his sovereign, lest by any negligence or impropriety he should forfeit the good esteem and grateful smile of his royal master. He is not afraid that the king would kill him, nor is he in terror as if his majesty were a tyrant. But he is jealous of himself, lest he should provoke the king to take away the light of his countenance from him. And to any child of God who has once enjoyed the favour of heaven’s eternal King, and basked in the light of that countenance which beams with grace and glory, there is no attraction in all the world that can compare with the peace and pleasure in which he abides. True assurance of faith is a humble thing, a comforting thing, a sanctifying thing, and it should, therefore, be the desire of all faithful hearts.

This assurance of which the Psalmist speaks is a personal matter, “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” Oh! beloved, we must have personal dealings with our God. No proxy will avail. Churches may invent what ordinances they please to gratify their notions of expediency, but there can be no sponsors in godliness; the thing is irrational, it is impossible. Every vow and every offering to be acceptable must have its own proper individuality. No eyes but thine own can acceptably weep for thy sin. No heart but thine own can acceptably be broken and contrite for thy transgressions. Thou thyself must repent. Even the Holy Ghost cannot repent for thee, as some seem to imagine. He works repentance in thee, but thou must thyself repent. And as to faith, that must be the looking with the spiritual eye to Christ, and resting on him with thy whole heart. Another cannot do it for thee. National religion-if it be depended upon for personal acceptance-is the most deceitful of all delusions. What availeth it that we call ourselves a Christian nation if God does not call us so? Might we not be pronounced a heathen nation if we were polled? Take a survey of this great city, and see how many there are who never enter the house of prayer, who spend the entire Sabbath in idleness, or seek their own pleasure in sensual pursuits. What multitudes there are who scarcely know the name of Jesus! Are these Christians? It is a pity we should lend the slightest sanction to such an empty profession. While men live as heathens, we ought to deal with them as such, and seek to convert them from darkness unto God’s marvellous light. And as to the religion which descends in families, this will not suffice, though it be perpetuated from generation to generation. Not a drop of true religion comes in the blood. You are all born of a corrupt stock, and you naturally bear the image of the earthly. If, however, you are born of God, it is not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God. “Ye must be born again” is as true of the child of a long generation of godly ancestors as it is of the young Hottentot in the kraal, who never heard the Saviour’s name. “Ye must be born again” is of universal application. A personal work of the Spirit of God in each individual soul there must be, and the assurance we ought to pant after is our own personal assurance, our own individual interest in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Hast thou thought of this, dear hearer, or, thinking of it, hast thou trifled with it? Let me urge thee, since thou wilt have to die alone, since through the iron gates thou must pass as solemnly as others, since in the awful balances thou must be weighed alone, and before the last tribunal thou must come as a separate spirit-I beseech thee seek Christ, seek union with him, that so thou mayest have a blessed companion in thy death, and in thy everlasting destiny. These vast congregations are made up of units. Oh! that I knew how to reach your conscience one by one. O man! awake to righteousness. Thy brother’s conversion, thy sister’s salvation, thy mother’s piety, thy father’s grace-how will these avail thee? Thank God if so be thou hast such relatives, for therein God has been so kind to thee. But how will they comfort thee, if thou be cast out? What drops of water can they administer to thy burning tongue, if thou be cast away into the place of torment thyself? Oh! I beseech thee, be eager, be earnest, be anxious with a sacred covetousness, to make thine own calling and election sure. It is a personal assurance that we must seek after; so shall our souls be joyful in the Lord, and in his salvation we shall exceedingly rejoice.

But, remember, lest any should be mistaken, that the assurance David sought was purely spiritual. When he says “Say,” it is “Say unto my soul.” We do not expect that God will make fresh revelations to us. We are far from believing that voices heard, or visions seen, or supposed to be seen, or dreams, can give any satisfactory evidence of the divine love to any man. I am ashamed of such ministers as would encourage their hearers in the conviction that their fancies are to be taken as assurances from God. Why, were you to dream to-night that you were in hell, thank God it would not send you there. Or were you to dream that you were in heaven, it would not carry you there. If you think that you see angels, or that you hear voices-well, there is much pretence in your tales, but little profit you will ever derive from them. Think as you like about your own experiences, but attempt to build any inference upon them, and your construction will prove a baseless fabric. Such things furnish no grounds of dependence. Whether there may ever be supernatural manifestations of this kind to some men, or whether they can have a good effect upon their minds, are questions which I will not discuss, but that these visionary things can afford any evidence of the favour of God, I utterly deny. The voice which alone can confirm you is the voice of God to your soul, to your mind, to your spirit; not to your ears, not to your eyes. Salvation is a spiritual thing. It belongs not to external sounds, nor to external impressions upon the eye. There is an eye inside the eye, an ear far quicker than this organ of sense. It is with that inner eye that thou must see God, and with this inner ear that thou must hear the voice of God saying unto thy soul, “I am thy salvation.” Be sure that you cultivate always a spiritual religion. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” The assurance that comes from God is addressed to the heart, to the mind, to the conscience, to the soul-it is purely spiritual. Seek not, therefore, after visions, fancies, miracles, signs, and wonders, but believe when God speaks to your heart, according to all the statutes and testimonies, the precepts and promises, which are contained in the sure word of revelation.

And now mark this well, the assurance craved is divine. “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” Do you ask in what manner does God himself tell a man that he is his salvation? He does it simply enough through his Word. If I read in God’s Word, I shall not find my name enrolled there among the saved; if I did I should be suspicious that perhaps I was not the person intended. I should be rather dubious as to the spelling of the name, or I might be apprehensive that there was another individual of that same name. But when I find myself properly and fully described, then I cannot doubt my own identity. For instance, it is written, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” Very well, I have believed-I know I have-I know I trust Christ with all my heart. I have also, in obedience to his Word, been baptised. Therefore, if the testimony of God’s Word be true-plain and designed to make mistakes impossible-that “he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved,” the conclusion is reached, the problem is solved, the evidence is transparent. When you find a description answering to yourself, you have only to accept the distinct statement of God’s Word. And, mark you, God’s Word in that old Book-this blessed Bible-is as good as if he rent the heavens and spoke right out from the excellent glory. It is just as sure and as steadfast to the souls who believe it to be his Word as if he did speak with a trumpet, or as if he sent a message through an angel. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” Thou hast but to make sure that thou believest on the Son, and thou hast God’s assurance that thou hast everlasting life. But, over and above the testimony or Word, which is as clear as a mathematical demonstration-though Euclid is not more reliable than Moses and the prophets-there comes a vital force to God’s people with the Word, constraining them to perceive the meaning and to accept it. This mysterious energy comes from the Holy Ghost himself. Of this we cannot speak to those who have not proved it, for we only know it and understand it by its effect-quickening us, enlightening our understanding, speaking to us, and saying of God to our soul that he is our salvation.

Moreover, it is an immediate assurance. “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” That is a pressing cry for prompt succour. It meant in David’s case that present moment. We, reading it, take it for this very hour. Beware of postponing the expectation of assurance until when you are about to die. You have no more reason to expect it then than to expect it now. If you are content to live in doubt and slur over the disquietude of your soul in the vigour of your days, you will probably be haunted with gloomy misgivings when the time of your departure arrives. It is your duty and your privilege as a believer not to stand wavering over God’s promise, but, knowing it is truthful, to accept it with unstaggering faith. I can understand a man doubting whether he is truly converted or not, but I cannot countenance his apathy in resting quiet till he has solved the riddle. You may say:-

“’Tis a point I long to know.”

But, oh! beloved, how can you trifle, how can you give sleep to your eyes till you have known it? Not know whether you are in Christ or not; perhaps unreconciled, perhaps condemned already, perhaps upon the brink of hell, perhaps with nothing more to keep you out of Tophet than the breath that is in your nostrils, or the circulating drop of blood which any one of ten thousand haps or mishaps may stop, and then your career is closed-your life-story ended. What, sit on such a volcano, take it easy on the brink of such a precipice, and content yourself with merely saying, “I am but a doubting one”? I entreat thee, I beseech thee, shake off this sluggishness. Ask the Lord to say unto thy soul to-night, “I am thy salvation.” He is able, and he is willing; you know that, beloved. He will do it for you when you eagerly seek it from him. How often does he suddenly disperse the doubts that overshadow us like clouds? An autumnal day like yesterday. What a strange, fitful atmosphere we breathed! How fiercely the wind blew; how heavily the rain fell! and then, how quickly afterwards the soft sunshine made the earth look cheerful, and the heart of man feel glad! Perhaps you may be dull and heavy, or the rain-drops of your weeping and the winds of your fears howling about you. Of a sudden the rain may stay, the clouds disperse, the clear shining come about you. God, by his dear Son, through his Spirit, may shine unto your soul at once. You may come in very heavy-burdened, and go out very light-hearted. You may be exceedingly depressed, and on a sudden, your soul may be like the chariots of Amminadab. Your attire may be changed from mourning to dancing, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. You may rejoice in tribulation, if the light gleam from his chambers. Pray, then. Let your soul now breathe out the prayer, “Oh! my God, if indeed I have relied upon thy dear Son to be all in all to me, whisper to my heart the full assurance of my everlasting safety and my present acceptance in the Beloved.”

The Lord answer such a petition to every troubled spirit. And now:-

Surely it teaches us this: if we want boons from God, let us pray for them. David wanted assurance, he wanted comfort, and he prayed for both one and the other. The quickest road to spiritual wealth is prayer. Every prayer is like a ship sent to the Tarshish of spiritual riches to bring us back treasures better than gold or silver, or precious stones. Let us not be lax in the commerce, lest our wealth decline. Every cry to God from the true heart brings a result. You see the men in the belfry sometimes down below with the ropes. They pull them, and if you have no ears that is all you know about it. But the bells are ringing up there; they are talking and discoursing sweet music up aloft in the tower. And our prayers do, as it were, ring the bells of heaven. They are sweet music in God’s ear, and as surely as God hears, he answers; for indeed, in Scripture, to hear and to answer are precisely the same things. Praying breath is not spent in vain. They that truly cry shall find that passage true, “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth them, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” If a man may have anything for the asking, and he will not ask, he deserves to go without. Why, if thou mayest have assurance of every precious thing merely for the asking-and assuredly thou mayest-if thou wilt not knock and intercede at mercy’s door, if thou be such a fool, who is to be blamed but thyself? Be much in prayer, beloved. What I say unto you I say especially unto myself. Yet I would press this home upon believers with the more earnestness, because these times are so full of labour and anxiety that they rob Christians of the opportunity for much prayer. Oftentimes, too, we get so fatigued and weary that we have not the inclination to pray as we should. I like to think of Welch, who used to cast a Scotch plaid over the bed where he rested at night, and would always rise in the night and cast this plaid about him, and pray for one or two hours; and he says in his biography, “I cannot understand how a man can sleep through the night without prayer.” That is a point to which few of us have ever thought of coming. David Brainerd, too, speaks of rising one morning by four of the clock, and the sun had not risen at six, and he says that in those two hours of prayer he had so wrestled with God that he was wet with perspiration. Such was the earnestness of his spirit as he pleaded before the Lord. I am afraid we do not practise much of this sacred importunity. We are sad hands at this devout exercise, whereby saints became famous in the days gone by. God restore to us the spirit of prayer, and all other blessings will come as the result.

Another lesson is this. Let every one of us be satisfied when we get a word from God. This was all David wanted. Would God only say, though not do anything. He did not ask him to interfere practically, or put out his hand to help, but only to say. If you go into the city you may find plenty of merchants who, by simply writing their names, can enable you to get from the bank shovelfuls of gold. Think ye not, then, that God’s promises always stand to us as good as their fulfilment? Will ye blow upon his credit? Will ye refuse to take him at his word? I think I heard a brother ask the other day-I know I did-at family prayer, that we might trust God where we could not trace him. I have heard that prayer many times before. I have prayed it myself, I am sorry to say. But is it not rather a wicked prayer, if you scan it narrowly? Should anyone say at our Monday night prayer-meeting, “Grant, O Lord, that we may be able to trust our minister when we cannot see him!” I think I should want to know a little about what that brother thought of me. I am sure if I prayed like that for any of you, I should be likely to see you in the vestry before long to learn my cause for suspecting your character. How dare we, then, pray such a thing about our God? Yet I suppose this never struck us in that light. It seemed very proper. That is just because we have not learned yet to believe in God. If the Son of Man were to come into this world, would he find pure faith among his disciples? Talk of Diogenes with his lantern looking for an honest man! Were God to look with the sun, he could hardly discover a believing man. Mr. Muller, of Bristol, believes in God for the support of his benevolent institution, and God supplies him with all his needs; but whenever you speak about him you say, “What a wonderful thing!” Has it come to this, that in the Christian Church it is accounted a marvel for Christians to believe in the promises of God, and something like a miracle for God to fulfil them? Does not this wonderment indicate more clearly than anything else how fallen we are from the level of faith at which we ought constantly to live? If the Lord wants to surprise his people, he has only at once to give an answer to their prayers. No sooner had they obtained their answer than they would say, “Who would have thought it!” Is it really surprising that God should keep his own promise? Oh! what unbelief! Oh! what wretched unbelief on our part! We ask and we receive not, because we do not believe in God. We waver; we must not expect to receive anything at his hand except what he chooses to give as a gratuity; an act of sovereign mercy, not a covenanted blessing. We do not get what we might have as the reward of faith because we have not got the faith that he honours. I like that story of a godly old woman, who, when told of God’s answering prayer, supplemented with a reflection, “Is not that wonderful?” replied, “No; it is just like him. Of course, he answers prayer; of course, he keeps his promise.” We ought to consider it a right, natural, and blessed thing that believing prayer should be answered, and that faith should have its reward. Christian, rest content with a word from God, and be satisfied therewith. And as for those of us who have been living in the enjoyment of the full assurance of our own salvation (and, God be praised! there are some of us who do not often have doubts and fears), how thankful we should be! God likes to give to those who are grateful. Men like to put their jewels into a good setting, and a grateful heart is a fit setting for so gracious a mercy. God loveth to pour the river of his bounty along the channel of grace in the soul. Be thankful, and you will keep your assurance-perhaps, keep it untouched till you die. It is a rare thing, I suppose, though I have known one or two holy men of God who have told me that they did not remember, for the space of thirty years, having been left to question their interest in Christ; they had enjoyed unbroken communion with him. Wherefore, then, should they doubt it? May we even come to that assurance, if so it please the Master!

In what way, however, can we better show our gratitude than by comforting and assisting such as have not this blessing?

“Thousands in the fold of Jesus

This attainment ne’er could boast;

To his Name eternal praises,

None of these shall e’er be lost,