The Offices, Titles and Names of Christ in the Bible: A compilation of 20 Sermons by C. H. Spurgeon, Full Text.

"Offices, Titles and Names of Jesus Christ in the Bible": A compilation of 20 Sermons by C. H. Spurgeon on the Meaning and Significance of some of the Offices, Titles and Names of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible.

These Sermons are included in the complete C. H. Spurgeon 63 volume series so they are available as individual PDFs on that page, however here on this page they are available in text form.

Offices, Titles and Names of Christ in the Bible: 20 Sermons by C. H. Spurgeon
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CHAPTER 1. IMMANUEL - THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the Good."
Isaiah 7:14-15.

The kingdom of Judah was in a condition of imminent peril. Two monarchs had leagued themselves against her, two nations had risen up for her destruction. Syria and Israel had come up against the walls of Jerusalem with full intent to raze them to the ground and utterly destroy the monarchy of Judah. Ahaz the king, in great trouble, exerted all his ingenuity to defend the city and, among the other contrivances which his wisdom taught him, he thought it fit to cut off the waters of the upper pool, so that the besiegers might be in distress for lack of water. He goes out in the morning, no doubt attended by his courtiers, makes his way to the conduit of the upper pool, intending to see after the stopping of the stream of water, but lo, he meets with something which sets aside his plans and renders them needless! Isaiah steps forward and tells him not to be afraid for the smoke of those two firebrands, for God should utterly destroy both the nations that had risen up against Judah. Ahaz need not fear the present invasion, for both he and his kingdom would be saved. The king looked at Isaiah with an eye of incredulity, as much as to say, "If the Lord were to send chariots from Heaven, could such a thing as this be? Should He animate the dust and quicken every stone in Jerusalem to resist my foes, could this be done?"

The Lord, seeing the littleness of the king's faith, tells him to ask for a sign. "Ask it," He says, "either in the depth, or in the height above. Let the sun go backward ten degrees, or let the moon stop in her midnight marches. Let the stars move from one side to the other in the sky in grand procession! Ask any sign you please in the Heaven above, or, if you wish, choose the earth beneath, let the depths give forth the sign, let some mighty waterspout lose its way across the pathless ocean and travel through the air to Jerusalem's very gates! Let the heavens shower a golden rain instead of the watery fluid which usually they distil. Ask that the fleece may be wet upon the dry floor, or dry in the midst of dew. Whatever you please to request, the Lord will grant it to you for the confirmation of your faith." Instead of accepting this offer with all gratitude, as Ahaz should have done, he, with a pretended humility, declares that he will not ask, neither will he tempt the Lord his God! Whereupon Isaiah, waxing indignant, tells him that since he will not, in obedience to God's command, ask for a sign, behold, the Lord, Himself, will give him one - not simply a sign, but this sign, the sign and wonder of the world, the mark of God's mightiest mystery and of His most consummate wisdom, for, "a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

It has been said that the passage I have taken for my text is one of the most difficult in all the Word of God. It may be so - I certainly did not think it was until I saw what the commentators had to say about it and I rose up from reading them perfectly confused! One said one thing and another denied what the other had said. And if there was anything that I liked, it was so self-evident that it had been copied from one to the other and handed through the whole of them!

One set of commentators tells us that this passage refers entirely to some person who was to be born within a few months after this prophecy, "for," they say, "it says here, 'Before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings.'" "Now," say they, "this was an immediate delivery which Ahaz required and there was a promise of a speedy rescue, that, before a few years had elapsed, before the child should be able to know right from wrong, Syria and Israel should both lose their kings." Well, that seems a strange frittering away of a wonderful passage, full of meaning, and I cannot see how they can substantiate their view when we find the Evangelist Matthew quoting this very passage in reference to the birth of Christ, and saying, "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel."

It strikes me that this Immanuel, who was to be born, could not be a mere simple man and nothing else, for if you turn to the next chapter of Isaiah, at the 8th verse, you will find it said, "He [king of Assyria] shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel." Here is a government ascribed to Immanuel which could not be His if we were to suppose that the Immanuel here spoken of was either Shear-Jashub, or Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, or any other of the sons of Isaiah! I therefore reject that view of the matter. It is, to my mind, far below the height of this great argument - it does not speak or allow us to speak one half of the wondrous depth which couches beneath this mighty passage!

I find, moreover, that many of the commentators divide the 16th verse from the 14th and 15th verses, and they read the 14th and 15th verses exclusively of Christ, and the 16th verse of Shear-Jashub, the son of Isaiah. They say that there were two signs, one was the conception by the virgin of a Son, who was to be called Immanuel, who is none other than Christ, but the second sign was Shear-Jashub, the Prophet's son, of whom Isaiah said, "Before this child, whom I now lead before you-before this son of mine shall be able to know good and evil, so soon shall both nations that have now risen against you lose their kings." But I do not like that explanation because it seems to me to be pretty plain that the same child is spoken of in the one verse as in the others. "Before the Child" - the same Child-it does not say that Child in one verse and then this child in another verse, but before the Child, this one of whom I have spoken, the Immanuel, before He "shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings."

Then another view, which is the most popular of all, is to refer the passage, first of all, to some child that was then to be born, and afterwards, in the highest sense, to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps that is the true sense of it - perhaps that is the best way of smoothing difficulties-but I think that if I had never read those books at all, but had simply come to the Bible, without knowing what any man had written upon it, I would have said, "There is Christ here as plainly as possible! Never could His name have been written more legibly than I see it here. 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son.' It is an unheard of thing, it is a miraculous thing and, therefore, it must be a God-like thing! She 'shall call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.' And before that Child, the Prince Immanuel, shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings, and Judah shall smile upon their ruined palaces."

This morning, then, I shall take my text as relating to our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have three things, here, about Him. First, the birth. Secondly, the food. And, thirdly, the name of Christ.

I. Let us commence with THE BIRTH OF CHRIST - "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son."

"Let us even now go unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass," said the shepherds. "Let us follow the star in the sky," said the Eastern Magi, and so say we this morning. Hard by the day when we, as a nation, celebrate the birthday of Christ, let us go and stand by the manger to behold the commencement of the Incarnation of Jesus! Let us recall the time when God first enveloped Himself in mortal form and tabernacled among the sons of men! Let us not blush to go to so humble a spot - let us stand by that village inn and let us see Jesus Christ, the God-Man, become an Infant of a span long!

And, first, we see here, in speaking of this birth of Christ, a miraculous conception. The text says expressly, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." This expression is un-paralleled even in Sacred Writ! Of no other woman could it be said beside the Virgin Mary, and of no other man could it be written that his mother was a virgin. The Greek word and the Hebrew are both very expressive of the true and real virginity of the mother, to show us that Jesus Christ was born of woman and not of man. We shall not enlarge upon the thought, but still, it is an important one, and ought not to be passed over without mentioning. Just as the woman, by her venturous spirit, stepped first into transgression-lest she should be despised and trampled on, God, in His wisdom devised that the woman, and the woman, alone, should be the author of the Body of the God-Man who should redeem mankind! Albeit that she, herself, first tasted the accursed fruit, and tempted her husband (it may be that Adam, out of love to her, tasted that fruit lest she should be degraded, lest she should not stand on an equality with him), God has ordained that so it should be, that His Son should be sent forth "born of a woman," and the first promise was that the Seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, should bruise the serpent's head.

Moreover, there was a peculiar wisdom ordaining that Jesus Christ should be the Son of the woman, and not of the man, because, had He been born of the flesh, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and merely flesh - and He would, naturally, by carnal generation, have inherited all the frailties and the sins and the infirmities which man has from his birth. He would have been conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity, even as the rest of us. Therefore He was not born of man, but the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary and Christ stands as the one Man, save one other, who came forth pure from his Maker's hands, who could ever say, "I am pure." Yes, and He could say far more than that other Adam could say concerning his purity, for He maintained His integrity and never let it go! And from His birth down to His death He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Oh, marvellous sight! Let us stand and look at it. A Child of a virgin, what a mixture!

There is the finite and the Infinite, there is the mortal and the Immortal, corruption and Incorruption, the manhood and the Godhead, time married to eternity! There is God linked with a creature, the Infinity of the august Maker come to tabernacle on this speck of earth - the vast unbounded One whom earth could not hold and the heavens cannot contain - lying in His mother's arms! He who fastened the pillars of the universe and riveted the nails of creation, hanging on a mortal breast, depending on a creature for nourishment! Oh, marvellous birth! Oh, miraculous conception! We stand and gaze and admire. Verily, angels may wish to look into a subject too dark for us to speak of! There we leave it, a virgin has conceived and borne a Son.

In this birth, moreover, having noticed the miraculous conception, we must notice, next, the humble parentage. It does not say, "A princess shall conceive and bear a Son," but a virgin. Her virginity was her highest honour - she had no other. True, she was of royal lineage - she could reckon David among her forefathers - and Solomon among those who stood in the tree of her genealogy. She was a woman not to be despised, albeit that I speak of humble parentage, for she was of the blood-royal of Judah. O Babe, in Your veins there runs the blood of kings! The blood of an ancient monarchy found its way from Your heart all through the courses of Your body! You were born, not of mean parents, if we look at their ancient ancestry, for You are the Son of him who ruled the mightiest monarchy in his day, even Solomon, and You are the descendant of one who devised in his heart to build a Temple for the mighty God of Jacob!

Nor was Christ's mother, in point of intellect, an inferior woman. I take it that she had great strength of mind, otherwise she could not have composed so sweet a piece of poetry as that which is called the Virgin's Song, beginning, "My soul does magnify the Lord." She is not a person to be despised. I would, this morning, especially utter my thoughts on one thing which I consider to be a fault among us Protestants. Because Roman Catholics pay too much respect to the Virgin Mary, and offer prayer to her, we are too apt to speak of her in a slighting manner. She ought not to be placed under the ban of contempt, for she could truly sing, "From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." I suppose Protestant generations are among the "all generations" who ought to call her blessed. Her name is Mary, and quaint George Herbert wrote an anagram upon it - "How well her name an ARMY does present, In whom the Lord of Hosts did pitch His tent."

Though she was not a princess, yet her name, Mary, by interpretation, signifies a princess, and though she is not the queen of Heaven, yet she has a right to be reckoned among the queens of earth. And though she is not the lady of our Lord, she does walk among the renowned and mighty women of Scripture.

Yet Jesus Christ's birth was a humble one. Strange that the Lord of Glory was not born in a palace! Princes, Christ owes you nothing! Princes, Christ is not your debtor! You did not swaddle Him, He was not wrapped in purple, you had not prepared a golden cradle for Him to be rocked in! Queens, you did not dandle Him on your knees, He hung not at your breasts! And you mighty cities, which then were great and famous, your marble halls were not blessed with His little footsteps! He came out of a village, poor and despised, even Bethlehem! When there, He was not born in the governor's house, or in the mansion of the chief man, but in a manger! Tradition tells us that His manger was cut in solid rock - there was He laid and the oxen likely enough came to feed from the same manger, the hay and the fodder of which was His only bed. Oh, wondrous stoop of condescension, that our blessed Jesus should be girded with humility and stoop so low!

Ah, if He stooped, why should He bend to such a lowly birth? And if He bowed, why should He submit, not simply to become the Son of poor parents, but to be born in so miserable a place?

Let us take courage here. If Jesus Christ was born in a manger in a rock, why should He not come and live in our rocky hearts? If He was born in a stable, why should not the stable of our souls be made into a house for Him? If He was born in poverty, may not the poor in spirit expect that He will be their Friend? If He thus endured degradation at the first, will He count it any dishonor to come to the very poorest and humblest of His creatures and tabernacle in the souls of His children? Oh, no! We can gather a lesson of comfort from His humble parentage and we can rejoice that not a queen, or an empress, but that a humble woman became the mother of the Lord of Glory!

We must make one more remark upon this birth of Christ before we pass on, and that remark shall be concerning a glorious birthday. With all the humility that surrounded the birth of Christ, there was yet very much that was glorious, very much that was honourable. No other man ever had such a birthday as Jesus Christ had! Of whom had Prophets and seers ever written as they wrote of Him? Whose name is engraved on so many tablets as His? Who had such a scroll of prophecy, all pointing to Him as Jesus Christ, the God-Man? Then remember, concerning His birth, when did God ever hang a fresh lamp in the sky to announce the birth of a Caesar? Caesars may come and they may die, but stars shall never prophesy their birth! When did angels ever stoop from Heaven and sing choral symphonies on the birth of a mighty man? No, all others are passed by, but look-in Heaven there is a great light shining and a song is heard-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Christ's birth is not despicable, even if we consider the visitors who came around His cradle. Shepherds came first and, as it has been quaintly remarked by an old Divine, the shepherds did not lose their way, but the wise men did! Shepherds came first, unguided and unfed, to Bethlehem. The wise men, directed by the star, came next. The representative men of the two bodies of mankind-the rich and the poor-knelt around the manger-and gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, and all manner of precious gifts were offered to the Child who was the Prince of the kings of the earth, who, in ancient times was ordained to sit upon the Throne of His father, David, and in the wondrous future to rule all nations with His rod of iron!

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." Thus have we spoken of the birth of Christ.

II. The second thing that we have to speak of is THE FOOD OF CHRIST-"Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."

Our translators were certainly very good scholars and God gave them much wisdom so that they craned up our language to the majesty of the original, but here they were guilty of very great inconsistency. I do not see how butter and honey can make a child choose good and refuse evil. If it is so, I am sure butter and honey ought to go up greatly in price, for good men are very much required! But it does not say, in the original, "Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good," but, "Butter and honey shall He eat, till He shall know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good," or, better still, "Butter and honey shall He eat, when He shall know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good."

We shall take that translation and just try to make clear the meaning couched in the words. They should teach us, first of all, Christ's proper Humanity. When He would convince His disciples that He was flesh, and not spirit, He took a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and ate as others did. "Handle Me," He said, "and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see I have." Some heretics taught, even a little after the death of Christ, that His body was a mere shadow, that He was not an actual, real Man-but here we are told He ate butter and honey just as other men did. While other men were nourished with food, so was Jesus! He was very Man as certainly as He was verily and eternally God. "In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Therefore we are told that He ate butter and honey to teach us that it was actually a real Man who, afterwards, died on Calvary.

The butter and honey teach us, again, that Christ was to be born in times of peace. Such products are not to be found in Judea in times of strife-the ravages of war sweep away all the fair fruits of industry-the unwatered pastures yield no grass and, therefore, there could be no butter. The bees may make their hive in the lion's carcass and there may be honey there, but when the land is disturbed, who shall go to gather the sweetness? How shall the babe eat butter when its mother flees away, even in the winter time, with the child clinging to her breast? In times of war, we have no choice of food - then men eat whatever they can procure and the supply is often very scanty. Let us thank God that we live in the land of peace and let us see a mystery in this text, that Christ was born in times of peace.

The temple of Janus was shut before the Temple of Heaven was opened! Before the King of Peace came to the Temple of Jerusalem, the horrid mouth of war was stopped! Mars had sheathed his sword and all was still. Augustus Caesar was emperor of the world, none other ruled it and, therefore, wars had ceased-the earth was still, the leaves quivered not upon the trees of the field, the ocean of strife was undisturbed by a ripple, the hot winds of war blew not upon man to trouble him-all was peaceful and quiet! And then came the Prince of Peace, who, in later days, shall break the bow, cut the spear in sunder and burn the chariot in the fire.

There is another thought here. "Butter and honey shall He eat when He shall know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good." This is to teach us the precocity of Christ, by which I mean that even when He was a child, even when He lived upon butter and honey, which is the food of children, He knew the evil from the good. It is, usually, not until children leave off the food of their infancy that they can discern good from evil in the fullest sense. It re-quires years to ripen the faculties, to develop the judgment, to give full play to the man-in fact, to make him a man. But Christ, even while He was a Baby, even while He lived upon butter and honey, knew the evil from the good, refused the one, and chose the other. Oh, what a mighty intellect there was in that brain! While He was an Infant, surely there must have been spar-klings of genius from His eyes! The fire of intellect must have often lit up that brow! He was not an ordinary child-how would His mother talk about the wonderful things the little Prattler said! He played not as others did. He cared not to spend His time in idle amusements. His thoughts were lofty and wondrous. He understood mysteries and when He went up to the Temple in His early days, He was not found, like the other children, playing about the courts or the markets, but sitting among the doctors, both hearing and asking them questions! His was a master-mind - "Never man spoke like this Man." So, never child thought like this Child - He was an astonishing One, the wonder and the marvel of all children, the Prince of children-the God-Man even when He was a Child! I think this is taught us in the words, "Butter and honey shall He eat when He shall know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good."

Perhaps it may seem somewhat playful, but, before I close speaking upon this part of the subject, I must say how sweet it is to my soul to believe that as Christ lived upon butter and honey, surely butter and honey drop from His lips. Sweet are His Words unto our souls, more to be desired than honey or the honeycomb! Well might He eat butter whose Words are smooth to the tried, whose utterances are like oil upon the waters of our sorrows! Well might He eat butter, who came to bind up the broken-hearted, and well did He live upon the fat of the land, who came to restore the earth to its old fertility and make all flesh soft with milk and honey, ah, honey in the heart - "Where can such sweetness be As I have tasted in Your love, As I have found in Thee?" Your Words, O Christ, are like honey! I, like a bee, have flown from flower to flower to gather sweets and concoct some precious essence that shall be fragrant to me, but I have found honey drop from Your lips, I have touched Your mouth with my finger and put the honey to my lips, and my eyes have been enlightened, sweet Jesus! Every Word of Yours is precious to my soul - no honey can compare with You - well did You eat butter and honey!

And perhaps I ought not to have forgotten to say that the effect of Christ's eating butter and honey was to show us that He would not, in His lifetime, differ from other men in His outward guise. Other Prophets, when they came, were dressed in rough garments and were austere and solemn in manner. Christ came not so - He came to be a Man among men, a feaster with those that feast, an eater of honey with eaters of honey. He differed from none and, therefore, He was called a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. Why did Christ do so? Why did He so commit Himself, as men said, though it was verily a slander? It was because He would have His disciples not regard meats and drinks, but despise these things, and live as others do. It was because He would teach them that it is not that which goes into a man, but that which comes out, that defiles him! It is not what a man eats, with temperance, that does him injury-it is what a man says and thinks. It is not abstaining from meat, it is not the carnal ordinance of, "Touch not, taste not, handle not," that makes the fundamentals of our religion, albeit it may be good addenda thereunto. Butter and honey Christ ate, and butter and honey may His people eat! No, whatever God, in His Providence gives unto them, that is to be the food of the Child Christ.

III. Now we come to close with THE NAME OF CHRIST - "And shall call His name Immanuel."

I hoped, dear Friends, that I would have my voice this morning, that I might talk about my Master's name. I hoped to be allowed to drive along in my swift chariot, but, as the wheels are taken off, I must be content to go as I can. We sometimes creep when we cannot go and go when we cannot run, but oh, here is a sweet name to close up with-"She shall call His name Immanuel." Others in the olden time called their children by names which had meaning in them. They did not give them the names of eminent persons whom they would very likely grow up to hate, and wish they had never heard of! They had names full of meaning which recorded some circumstance of their birth. There was Cain-"I have gotten a man from the Lord," said his mother, and she called him Cain, that is, "Gotten," or, "Acquired." There was Seth-that is, "Appointed," for his mother said, "God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel." Noah means "Rest," or, "Comfort." Ishmael was so called by his mother because God had heard her. Isaac was called, "Laughter," because he brought laughter to Abraham's home. Jacob was called the supplanter, or the crafty one, because he would supplant his brother. We might point out many similar instances-perhaps this custom was a good one among the Hebrews, though the peculiar formation of our language might not allow us to do the same, except in a certain measure.

We see, therefore, that the Virgin Mary called her son, Immanuel, that there might be a meaning in His name, "God with us." My soul, ring these words again, "God with us." Oh, it is one of the bells of Heaven! Let us strike it yet again-"God with us." Oh, it is a stray note from the sonnets of Paradise! "God with us." Oh, it is the lisping of a seraph! "God with us." Oh, it is one of the notes of the singing of Jehovah when He rejoices over His Church with singing! "God with us." Tell it, tell it, tell it - this is the name of Him who is born today - "Hark, the herald angels sing!"

This is His name, "God with us" - God with us, by His Incarnation, for the august Creator of the world did walk upon this globe! He who made ten thousand orbs, each of them more mighty and more vast than this earth, became the Inhabitant of this tiny atom! He who was from everlasting to everlasting, came to this world of time and stood upon the narrow neck of land betwixt the two unbounded seas! "God with us." He has not lost that name-Jesus had that name on earth and He has it, now, in Heaven! He is now, "God with us."

Believer, He is God with you to protect you! You are not alone, because the Saviour is with you! Put me in the desert, where vegetation grows not-I can still say, "God with us." Put me on the wild ocean and let my ship dance madly on the waves-I would still say, "Immanuel, God with us." Mount me on the sunbeam and let me fly beyond the western sea-still I would say, "God with us." Let my body dive down into the depths of the ocean and let me hide in its caverns-still I could, as a child of God say, "God with us." Yes, and in the grave, sleeping there in corruption - still I can see the footmarks of Jesus! He trod the path of all His people and His name is still, "God with us."

But if you would know this name most sweetly, you must know it by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Has God been with us this morning? What is the use of coming to Chapel if God is not there? We might as well be at home if we have no visits of Jesus Christ and, certainly, we may come, and come, and come as regularly as that door turns on its hinges unless it is, "God with us," by the influence of the Holy Spirit! Unless the Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and applies them to our heart, it is not, "God with us." Otherwise, God is a consuming fire. It is "God with us" that I love - "Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find."

Now ask yourselves, do you know what "God with us" means? Has it been God with you in your tribulations, by the Holy Spirit's comforting influence? Has it been God with you in searching the Scriptures? Has the Holy Spirit shone upon the Word? Has it been God with you in conviction, bringing you to Sinai? Has it been God with you in comforting you, by bringing you, again, to Calvary? Do you know the full meaning of that name, Immanuel, "God with us"? No- he who knows it best knows little of it! Alas, he who knows it not at all is ignorant, indeed-so ignorant that his ignorance is not bliss, but will be his damnation! Oh, may God teach you the meaning of that name, Immanuel, "God with us"!

Now let us close. "Immanuel." It is wisdom's mystery, "God with us." Sages look at it and wonder. Angels desire to see it. The plumb-line of reason cannot reach half-way into its depths. The eagle wings of science cannot fly so high and the piercing eye of the vulture of research cannot see it! "God with us." It is Hell's terror! Satan trembles at the sound of it. His legions fly apace, the black-winged dragon of the Pit quails before it! Let Satan come to you suddenly and do you but whisper that word, "God with us"-back he falls - confounded and confused! Satan trembles when he hears that name, "God with us." It is the labourer's strength - how could he preach the Gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor acknowledge his Master, how could men labour if that one word were taken away? "God with us," is the sufferer's comfort, is the balm of his woe, is the alleviation of his misery, is the sleep which God gives to His beloved, is their rest after exertion and toil.

Ah, and to finish, "God with us" is eternity's sonnet, is Heaven's hallelujah, is the shout of the glorified, is the song of the redeemed, is the chorus of angels, is the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky! "God with us"-

Now, a happy Christmas to you all and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God with you! I shall say nothing, today, against festivities on this great birthday of Christ. I hold that, perhaps, it is not right to have the birthday celebrated, but we will never be among those who think it as much a duty to celebrate it the wrong way as others the right! But we will, tomorrow, think of Christ's birthday. We shall be obliged to do it, I am sure, however sturdily we may hold to our rough Puritanism. And so, "let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Do not feast as if you wished to keep the festival of Bacchus! Do not live, tomorrow, as if you adored some heathen divinity. Feast, Christians, feast! You have a right to feast. Go to the house of feasting tomorrow! Celebrate your Saviour's birth. Do not be ashamed to be glad - you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, "Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts your works. Let your garments be always white and let your head lack no ointment." - "Religion never was designed To make our pleasures less."

Remember that your Master ate butter and honey. Go your way, rejoice tomorrow, but, in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem-let Him have a place in your hearts, give Him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived Him-but think, most of all, of the Man born, the Child given! I finish by again saying - "A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!"

CHAPTER 2. THE SON OF MAN - CHRIST'S GREAT MISSION

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His Life a ransom for many."
Matthew 20:28.

The mission of Christ to our world was distinct and definite. The ministry of the Gospel should be alike clear and transparent. It was but the other day I read a letter from the deacon of a church in which, speaking of his minister, he said, "We ought to understand geology thoroughly, for we usually hear something of it, at least once every Sunday. There is one thing, however, we shall never be likely to understand under our present friend's ministry- he seems utterly to ignore the Doctrine of the Atonement. I have not heard him allude to it for the past three months, nor do I know, for certain, whether he believes it or not. Though he sometimes alludes to Jesus Christ as an example, I have neither heard of Christ dying, nor Christ buried, of Christ risen, or Christ pleading in Heaven at all! In fact, it seems to me I might as well attend a Socinian chapel." Well, God forbid that such a reflection should ever be cast on me! Is it not my constant endeavour to bring you back, Sabbath after Sabbath, to the same old, old story of the Cross and of the Redemption by blood which was then and there worked? This bell has but one note! It may be repeated, I sometimes fear, with too much monotony. Still, the tone is clear. I know that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. There is salvation in none other name under Heaven. The Propitiation which God has set forth for human sin is alone efficacious. There is no remission without blood. Full salvation is to be procured only through the wounds of Jesus slain. There is no salvation in Heaven or earth beside. We are coming to that same story again. It never wearies the Believer's ears, nor does it ever fail to be the Power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes! I want my text to speak this evening! Let me, then, begin by expounding it, word by word-and after that let me explain the Doctrine to which it gives most distinct prominence.

I. THE PLAIN DECLARATION.

"The Son of Man!" So does our Lord Jesus Christ speak of Himself. In relation to our fallen humanity, it sounds humble, but in the light of Prophecy, it is full of dignity. " The Son of Man." This is none other than the true Messiah- the Son of God, Infinite, Eternal, Co-Equal with the Father-and yet He chooses to call Himself, full often, "the Son of Man." Perhaps because as it was man who committed sin, it is man who must make an Atonement for sin to the injured Law of God! Man was the offender, man must suffer the penalty. As in one man the whole family died, in another man they must be made alive, if made alive at all. Jesus tells us that He is a Man-thoroughly a Man-one like ourselves. The Son of Man, a Man among men, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh-not wearing a fictitious manhood, but a real Humanity like our own! This we must always bear in mind, for without it there could be no Atonement at all. Jesus is not merely a Son of Man, but He is pre-eminently the Son of Man foretold in the prophecy of Daniel and predicted on the threshold of Paradise in the language of the first promise, "The Seed of the women shall bruise the serpent's head." He is the Man, the Second Adam in whom men are made alive. Being thus found in fashion as a Man and having taken upon Himself the Federal Headship of man, He was qualified to become man's Substitute and to make an Atonement for human guilt. Dwell on this blessed Truth of God, my dear Hearers! Dwell upon it, those of you who are not saved - look wistfully at it for the encouragement it offers you! The Person in whom you are admonished to trust is not only God-or His unclouded Glory might strike you with awe and His terrors might justly make you afraid - but He is also Man - and this ought to attract you to Him, for He is akin to yourselves in nature and sympathy. Sin excepted, He is in no wise different from you! Oh, may you not well draw near to Him without appalling dread, and with inspiring confidence, since He calls Himself the Son of Man and bids the sons of men come and put their trust under the shadow of His wings?

He "came" - that is the next word in our text. "The Son of Man came." Strange the errand and unique as the blessed Person who undertook it. Thus to come He stooped from the highest Throne in Glory down to the manger of Bethlehem - and on His part it was voluntary. We are, as it were, thrust upon the stage of action-it is not of our will that we have come to live on this earth. Jesus had no need to have been born of the virgin! It was His own consent, His choice, His strong desire that made Him take upon Himself our nature, of the seed of Abraham. He came voluntarily on an errand of mercy to the sons of men! Dwell upon this thought for a moment. Let it sink into your mind. He who was King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, voluntarily, cheerfully descended that He might dwell among the sons of men, share their sorrows, bear their sins and yield Himself up a Sacrifice for them, the innocent Victim of their intolerable guilt! If the angels burst out in song on that first Christmas night. If they made Heaven and earth ring with their sweet harmonies, much more may we who have a share in the redemptive work of the Incarnate God burst out into song as the news greets us that Heaven descends to earth, that God comes down to man, that the Infinite becomes an Infant, that the Eternal, who has life in Himself, deigns to dwell among the dying sons of men! Surely a way from earth to Heaven will now be opened up, since there is a way from Heaven to earth, so sacred, yet so simple! The same golden ladder that brings the blessed Visitant down to our humanity will also take us up to the Divinity of God, to see Him as our reconciled Father. "The Son of Man came."

The next words are startling, for they reveal a singular intention, far different from the usual aim and end of messages and errands. "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to minister." Let me give you the exact translation, "Not to be served, but to serve." That is the nearest approach to a literal rendering I can supply. He came not to be served, but to serve! He had not a selfish thought in His Soul! Though He had set His heart upon being the Incarnate God, He had nothing whatever to gain by it. Gain? What could the Infinite God gain? Splendour? Behold the stars-far away they glitter beyond all mortal count! Servants? Does He need servants? Behold angels in their squadrons - twenty thousand, even thousands of angels are the chariots of the Almighty! Honour? No, the trumpet of fame forever proclaims Him King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Who can add to the splendour of that diadem that makes sun and moon grow pale by comparison? Who can add to the riches or the wealth of Him who has all things at His disposal? He comes, then, not to be served, but to serve! And you see Him in the workshop serving His reputed parent. You see Him in His home honouring His blessed mother with all filial obedience. You see Him at the noontide of His wonderful career in the midst of His disciples, much more their servant than their Master, though He always maintained precedence by His own Sovereign counsel, and by their weak apprehensions. As He takes the basin, and the pitcher, and the towel-and washes His disciples' feet-you can see the meekness of His disposition. And soon after this, you see Him giving Himself up-His body, His Soul, and His Spirit - in order that He might serve us! And what if I say that even at this very moment, as the Son of Man in Heaven, He continues a kind of service for His people? For Zion's sake He does not hold His peace and for Jerusalem's sake He does not rest, but still continues to intercede for those whose names He bears upon His heart! Hear it, then, all you people, and let everyone that hears hail the gracious fact-be you saints or sinners, be you saved already, or thirsty for the knowledge of salvation-the thought that Christ's errand was not to aggrandize Himself, but to benefit us, must be welcome! He does not come to be served, but to serve. Does not this suit you, poor Sinner - you who never did serve Him, you who could not, as you are, minister to Him? Well, He did not come to get your service! He came to give you His services, not that you might first do Him honour, but that He might show you mercy! Oh, you need Him so very much! And since He has come not to look for treasures, but to bestow unsearchable riches-not to find specimens of health, but instances of sickness upon which the healing art of His Grace may operate-surely there is hope for you! I think were I just now seeking Christ, and sorely cast down in spirit, it would make my heart beat for joy to think that Jesus came to serve, and not to be served. Perhaps I would say, He knows my case and He has come to serve me, poor me! Do I not need washing? Why should He not wash me? The dying thief rejoiced to see in his day the fountain which Jesus had opened! Why should not I see it, too, and have a washing from that precious One who came to serve the vilest and the meanest of the sons of men? Behold! Behold and wonder! Behold and love! Behold and trust! Jesus came from the right hand of God to the manger, to the Cross, to the sepulchre, not to be served, but that He might serve the sons of men!

Pass on to the next words, "And to give His Life," or, more correctly, "and to give His Soul." We have no lives to give. Our lives are forfeited - they are due to Divine Justice. Christ had a Life of His own which was, by no means, due to God on account of any obligations. He had not sinned, but He gave His Life. The death of Christ was perfectly voluntary. As He was free to come, or not, so He was not under any constraint to give His Life, but He did so, and that of His own free will! The grand objective of His coming to this earth was to give His Life. Read the text again. "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His Life." Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come into this world merely to be an Example, or merely to reveal the Godhead to the sons of men. He came to make a Substitutionary Sacrifice. He came to give His Soul as a ransom! If you do not believe this Doctrine, you do not believe Christianity. The very pith and marrow, the very sum and substance of the mission of Jesus Christ is His coming to give His Life that He might stand in the place of those for whom He died. He came on purpose to give His Life. Now to give the soul is something more than to give the life. He died, 'tis true, yet He did more than die - He died by an outpouring of all His Life-floods, by the endurance of an anguish such as no ordinary mortal could ever have borne. Of old 'twas the blood that made Atonement. The animal was presented in sacrifice, but the animal was no sacrifice till it was slain - and then when the purple stream smoked down the altar's side, and the bowels of it were cast upon the altar, then it was that the sacrifice was truly presented. Jesus Christ gave up the very essence of His Humanity to be a Substitutionary Sacrifice for us! His spirit was tortured with pangs that are past conception, much more past description! He said, "My Soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." He was like a splendid cluster put into the wine-press, and the feet of eternal vengeance trod upon Him till the sacred wine of His atoning blood streamed forth to save the sons of men! He gave His very Self, His entire Self, His soul, His Life, His essential Being, to be a ransom for the sons of Adam! Oh, that I could turn your eyes to that great sight! Behold how He gave His Life! Would to God that for a moment your thoughts were fixed on those five streaming wounds, those sacred fountains of life, and health, of pardon and peace to dying souls! Oh, that your eyes could but gaze within the wounds, into that heart boiling like a cauldron with the wrath of God, tossed to and fro, heaving within itself, oppressed, burdened, tormented and filled with terrible anguish! Oh, that you could see it! Oh, that you could understand that He came from Heaven to suffer all this, to give Himself up thus, that He might be, instead of us, the Victim of a vengeance we deserved-that His griefs might avert our ruin, that His pangs might rescue us from destruction! He drank the cup of condemnation dry! Not a drop was left and, in so doing, He poured out His Soul unto death!

Moreover, His death is our ransom. So it is written, He came to give His Life "a ransom." No one here, I suppose, needs to have explained to him what a ransom means. It may be fairly illustrated by the old Jewish ceremony of the redemption money. Every male person among the Jews belonged to God and he must be redeemed. There was a settled price. The rich were not to give more-the poor should not give less. The same amount was fixed for all. The tithe drachma was paid by every Jew. Then he was enrolled as one of the Lord's re-deemed, of whom you so often read. Failing that, he would have been cut off from the congregation of Israel. That piece of money stood instead of the man-it was his ransom. He was not to die-he was to live as a redeemed person! That is just what Jesus has done for His people! He has put Himself, His Soul, His devoted Life, His accomplished death before God in the place of our soul, of our death, of us! And every man who has Christ to be his Substitute is a redeemed man! He is one of the Lord's ransomed people and shall go to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon his head. But every man who has not accepted Christ remains an unredeemed man, under the curse and subject to the Divine Wrath-under the slavery of Satan and awaiting the sentence of an utter destruction! Jesus Christ came to give His Life as a ransom. As a slave is redeemed by the payment of a price, so Jesus redeems us from the curse of the Law under which we were by nature, having Himself come under the Law. He redeems us from the death which was due to us by Himself enduring a death which was a full equivalent in the estimation of God. He gave His Life as a ransom. Our text says "for many." We might with greater force and stricter accuracy translate it, "He gave His Life as a ransom in the place of many." The word, "for," there, has a substitutionary meaning, "He gave His Life instead of many." Indeed, this is the point of the sen-tence-One stood for many! Jesus suffered for many! He put Himself into the place of many! Mark the word, "many." With this we finish the exposition. It does not say "all." There are passages which speak of all. They have their meaning. None of them, however, refer to the substitutionary work of Christ. Jesus Christ did not give His Life as a ransom in the place of all mankind, but a ransom in the place of many men. Who are those many men? Bless God, they are many, for they are not a few! But who are they? God knows. "The Lord knows them who are His." You may ascertain as much as you need to know by answering a plain question. Do you trust Jesus Christ with your eternal destinies? Do you come, all guilty as you are, and rely upon His blood to take that guilt away? Do you confide in Jesus, and in Him, alone? If so, He died for you, and in your place-and you shall never die! This is your comfort, that you cannot die! How can you perish if Jesus was put into your place? If your debt was paid of old by Christ, can it ever be demanded of you again? Once paid, it is fully discharged-the receipt we have gladly accepted-and now we can cry, with the Apostle, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died; yes, rather that has risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." See here the mainstay of every Believer's confidence! He knows that Christ died for him because he has put his trust in His blessed mediation. If Jesus died for me, then I cannot be condemned for the sins which He expiated. God cannot punish twice for the one offence. He cannot demand two payments for one debt. The Believer, therefore, finds sweet solace in the song which Toplady composed:-

Thus did the Son of Man give His Life a ransom in the place of many. And such do I believe to be a fair and honest exposition of the words.

II. SOME POSITIVE IMPLICATIONS.

The main drift of the text is the Doctrine of a vicarious or substitutionary Atonement whereby Christ's ransom suffices in the place of many. On this let me give to each thought but a sentence or two. It would seem that man is not delivered from the bondage of his sins without a price. No one goes free by the naked mercy of God. Every captive exposed to God's vengeance must be redeemed before he is delivered, otherwise he must continue a captive. Broad as the statement may appear, I venture to assert by Divine Warrant that there never was beneath the cape of Heaven a sin forgiven without satisfaction being rendered. No sin against God is pardoned without a propitiation! It is only forgiven through the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ! It never can be remitted without the penalty having been exacted. The Divine Law knows of no exception or exemption. The statute is absolute, "The soul that sins, it shall die." Every soul that ever sinned, or ever shall sin, must die, die eternally, too, either in itself or in its Substitute. The justice of the Law of God must be vindicated. God waives none of the rights of justice in order to give liberty to mercy. Oh, my Hearers, if you are trusting in the unconditional mercy of God, you are trusting in a myth! Has someone buoyed you up with the thought of the infinite goodness of God? I would remind you of His infinite holiness! Has He not declared that He will by no means spare the guilty? No debt due to God is remitted unless it is paid. It must either be paid by the transgressor in the infinite miseries of Hell, or else it must be paid for him by a Substitute! There must be a price for the ransom and evidently, according to the text, that price must be a soul, a life! Christ did not merely give His body, nor His stainless Character, nor merely His labours and sufferings, but He gave His Soul, His Life, as a ransom! Oh, Sinner, Almighty God will never be satisfied with anything less than your soul! Can you bear the piercing thought that your soul shall be cast from His Presence forever? Would you escape the dire penalty, you must find another soul to stand in your soul's place! Your life is forfeited. The sentence is passed. You shall die. Death is your doom! Die you must, forever die, unless you can find another life for a sacrifice in lieu of your life! And know that this is just what Christ has found. He has put a Soul, a Life, into the place of our souls, our lives. How memorable that text, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Why? Because "the blood is the life thereof." Until the blood flows, the soul is not divided from the body. The shedding of the blood indicated that the soul-the essence of the being-had been offered! Oh, blessed, forever blessed be the crowned head of Him who once did bear the Cross! He has offered for His people a Soul, a Life, a matchless Soul, a Life unparalleled! No more can Justice re-quire! Vengeance is satisfied! The price is paid, the redeemed of the Lord are completely free!

The question has been asked, "If we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, who receives the ransom?" Some have talked as if Christ paid a price to the devil! A more absurd imagination could never have crossed human mind! We never belonged to the devil. Satan has no rights in us. Christ never acknowledged that he had any and would never pay him anything! What then? Surely the ransom price was paid to the Great Judge of All. This is, of course, but a mystical way of speaking. A metaphor is employed to bring out the meaning. The fact is that God had sworn and would not repent, that sin must be punished! In the very essence of things, it was right that transgression should meet with its just recompense. There could be no moral government kept up, there could be no unimpeachable governor unless conviction followed crime and retribution was exacted from the guilty. It was not right, nor could it have been righteous, on any ground, for sin to have been passed over without its having been punished, or for iniquity to have escaped without any infliction! But when Jesus Christ comes and puts His own sufferings into the place of our sufferings, the Law is fully vindicated, while mercy is fitly displayed! A man dies-a Soul is given, a Life is offered-the Just for the unjust! What if I say that instead of Justice being less satisfied with the death of Christ than with the deaths of the ten thousand thousands of sinners for whom He died, it is more satisfied and it is most highly honoured? Had all the sinners that ever lived in the world been consigned to Hell, they could not have discharged the claims of Justice! They must still continue to endure the scourge of crime they could never expiate. But the Son of God, blending the Infinite Majesty of His Deity with the perfect capacity to suffer as a Man, offered an Atonement of such inestimable value that He has absolutely paid the entire debt for His people! Well may Justice be content since it has received more from the Surety than it could have ever exacted from the sinner. Thus the debt was paid to the Eternal Father.

Once more. What is the result of this. The result is that the man is redeemed. He is no longer a slave. Some preachers and professors affect to believe in a redemption which I must candidly confess I do not understand - it is so indistinct and indefinite-a redemption which does not redeem anybody in particular, though it is alleged to redeem everybody in general! A redemption insufficient to exempt thousands of unhappy souls from Hell after they have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus! A redemption, indeed, which does not actually save anybody, because it is dependent for its efficacy upon the will of the creature! A redemption that lacks intrinsic virtue and inherent power to redeem anybody, but is entirely dependent upon an extraneous contingency to render it effectual! With such fickle theories I have no fellowship! That every soul for whom Christ shed His blood as a Substitute, He will claim as His own and have as His right, I firmly hold! I love to hold and I delight to proclaim this precious Truth of God! Not all the powers of earth or Hell, not the obstinacy of the human will, nor the deep depravity of the human mind can ever prevent Christ seeing of the travail of His Soul and being satisfied! The last jot and tittle of His reward shall He receive at the Father's hand. A Redemption that does redeem! A Redemption that redeems many, seems to me infinitely better than a redemption that does not actually redeem anybody, but is supposed to have some imaginary influence upon all the sons of men!

Our last question I must leave with you to answer. Did Jesus Christ redeem you? Ah, dear Hearer, this is a serious matter. Are you a redeemed soul or not? It is not possible for you to turn over the books of destiny and read between the folded leaves. Neither need you wish to do so. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is to be preached to every creature under Heaven-"He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." Therefore, everyone that believes and is baptized, being saved, must have been redeemed, for He could not have been saved otherwise! If you believe and are baptized, you are redeemed, you are saved! Now for your answer to the question - Do you believe? "I believe," says one, and he begins to repeat what they call the "Apostle's Creed." Hold your tongue, Sir! That matters not-the devil believes that, perhaps more intelligently than you do - he believes and trembles! That kind of believing saves no man! You may believe the most orthodox creed in Christendom and perish! Do you trust-for that is the cream of the word, "believe"-do you trust in Jesus? Do you lean your whole weight on Him? Have you that faith which the Puritans used to call "recumbency," or, "leaning"? That is the faith that saves-faith that falls back into the arms of Jesus, a faith that drops from its own hanging place into those mighty arms and rests upon the tender breast of the Lord Jesus the Crucified! Oh, my Soul, make sure that you trust Him, for you have made sure of everything else when you have made sure of that! Has God the Holy Spirit taught you, my dear Hearer, that you cannot safely rely on your own good works? Has He weaned you from resting upon mere ceremonies? Has He brought you to look to the Cross-to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, alone? If so, Christ redeemed you-you can never be a slave again! Has He redeemed you? The liberty of the Believer is yours, now, and after death the Glory of Christ shall be your portion, too! Remember the words of the dying monk when putting aside the "extreme unction" and all the paraphernalia of his apostate church - he lifted up his eyes and said, "Tua vulnara, Jesu! Tua vulnara Jesu!" "Your wounds, oh, Jesus! Your wounds, oh, Jesus!" This must be your refuge, poor broken-winged dove! Fly there into the clefts of the rock, into the spear-thrust in the Saviour's heart! Fly there. Rest on Him! Rest on Him! Rest with all your weight of sin, with all your blackness and your foulness, with all your doubts and your despairs - rest on Him! Jesus wants to receive you! Fly to Him - fly away to Him now:-

CHAPTER 3. A MAN OF SORROWS

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."
Isaiah 53:3.

Possibly a murmur will pass round the congregation, "This is a dreary subject and a mournful theme." But, O Beloved, it is not so, for great as were the woes of our Redeemer, they are all over now and are to be looked back upon with sacred triumph! However severe the struggle, the victory has been won! The labouring vessel was severely tossed by the waves, but she has now entered into the desired haven. Our Saviour is no longer in Gethsemane agonizing, or upon the Cross dying-the crown of thorns has been replaced by many crowns of sovereignty! The nails and the spear have given way to the sceptre!

Nor is this all, for though the suffering is ended, the blessed results never end. We may remember the travail, for the Man Child is born into the world. The sowing in tears is fol-lowed by a reaping in joy. The bruising of the heel of the woman's Seed is well recompensed by the breaking of the serpent's head. It is pleasant to hear of battles fought when a decisive victory has ended war and established peace. So that the double refection that all the work of suffering is finished by the Redeemer and that, from now on He beholds the success of all His labours, we shall rejoice even while we enter into fellowship with His sufferings! Let it never be forgotten that the subject of the sorrows of the Saviour has proven to be more efficacious for comfort to mourners than any other theme in the compass of Revelation, or out of it.

Even the glories of Christ afford no such consolation to afflicted spirits as the sufferings of Christ. Christ is in all attitudes the consolation of Israel, but He is most so as the Man of Sorrows. Troubled spirits turn not so much to Bethlehem as to Calvary-they prefer Gethsemane to Nazareth. The afflicted do not so much look for comfort in Christ as He will come a second time in splendour of state, as to Christ as He came the first time, a weary Man and full of woes. The passion flower yields us the best perfume. The tree of the Cross bleeds the most healing balm. Like in this case cures like, for there is no remedy for sorrow beneath the sun like the sorrows of Immanuel. As Aaron's rod swallowed up all the other rods, so the griefs of Jesus make our griefs disappear. Thus you see that in the black soil of our subject, light is sown for the righteous - light which springs up for those who sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death. Let us go, then, without reluctance to the house of mourning and commune with "The Chief Mourner," who above all others could say, "I am the Man that has seen affliction." We will not stray from our text this morning, but keep to it so closely as even to dwell upon each one of its words. The words shall give us our divisions-"A Man." "A Man of sorrows." "Acquainted with grief."

I. "A Man." There is no novelty to anyone here present in the doctrine of the real and actual Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, although there is nothing novel in it, there is everything important in it. Therefore, let us hear it again. This is one of those Gospel Church bells which must be rung every Sunday-this is one of those provisions of the Lord's household, which, like bread and salt, should be put upon the table at every spiritual meal. This is the manna which must fall every day round about the camp.

We can never meditate too much upon Christ's blessed Person as God and as Man. Let us reflect that He who is here called a Man was certainly "very God of very God." "A Man," and, "a Man of sorrows," and yet at the same time, "God over all, blessed forever." He who was "despised and rejected of men" was beloved and adored by angels! And He, from whom men hid their faces in contempt, was worshipped by cherubim and seraphim! This is the great mystery of godliness. God was "manifest in the flesh." He who was God and was in the beginning with God, was made flesh and dwelt among us.

The Highest stooped to become the Lowest. The Greatest took His place among the least. Strange, and needing all our faith to grasp it, yet it is true that He who sat upon the well of Sychar and said, "Give Me to drink," was none other than He who dug the channels of the ocean and poured into them the floods! Son of Mary, You are also Son of Jehovah! Man of the substance of Your mother, You are also essential Deity! We worship You this day in spirit and in truth! Remembering that Jesus Christ is God, it now behooves us to remember that His Manhood was none the less real and substantial. It differed from our own humanity in the absence of sin, but it differed in no other respect.

It is idle to speculate upon a heavenly Manhood, as some have done, who have, by their very attempt at accuracy, been borne down by whirlpools of error. It is enough for us to know that the Lord was born of a woman, wrapped in swaddling bands, laid in a manger and needed to be nursed by His mother as any other little child. He grew in stature like any other human being and as a Man we know that He ate and drank, that He hungered and thirsted, rejoiced and sorrowed. His body could be touched and handled, wounded and made to bleed. He was no phantom, but a Man of flesh and blood even as ourselves. He was a Man needing sleep, requiring food, and subject to pain-and a Man who, in the end - yielded up His life to death.

There may have been some distinction between His body and ours, for inasmuch as it was never defiled by sin, it was not capable of corruption. Otherwise in body and in soul, the Lord Jesus was perfect Man after the order of our manhood, "made in the likeness of sinful flesh," and we must think of Him under that aspect. Our temptation is to regard the Lord's humanity as something quite different from our own. We are apt to spiritualize it away and not to think of Him as really bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. All this is akin to grievous error-we may fancy that we are honouring Christ by such conceptions-but Christ is never honoured by that which is not true. He was a Man, a real Man, a Man of our race, the Son of Man.

Indeed, He was a representative Man, the second Adam-"As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same." "He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of Man." Now this condescending participation in our Nature brings the Lord Jesus very near to us in relationship. Inasmuch as He was Man, though also God, He was, according to Hebrew Law, our goel - our kinsman, next of kin. Now it was according to the Law that if an inheritance had been lost, it was the right of the next of kin to redeem it. Our Lord Jesus exercised His legal right-seeing us sold into bondage and our inheritance taken from us - He came forward to redeem both us and all our lost estate.

A blessed thing it was for us that we had such a Kinsman! When Ruth went to glean in the fields of Boaz, it was the most gracious circumstance in her life that Boaz turned out to be her next of kin. And we who have gleaned in the fields of Mercy praise the Lord that His Only - Begotten Son is the next of kin to us. He is our Brother, born for adversity. It would not have been consistent with Divine Justice for any other substitution to have been accepted for us, except that of a Man. Man sinned, and man must make reparation for the injury done to the Divine Honour. The breach of the Law was caused by man and by man must it be repaired-man had transgressed-man must be punished. It was not in the power of an angel to have said, "I will suffer for man"-for angelic sufferings would have made no amends for human sins. But the Man, the matchless Man, being the representative Man and of right by kinship allowed to redeem, stepped in, suffered what was due, made amends to injured Justice and thereby set us free! Glory be unto His blessed name! And now, Beloved, since the Lord thus saw in Christ's Manhood a suitableness to become our Redeemer, I trust that many here who have been under bondage to Satan will see in that same human Nature an attraction leading them to approach Him.

Sinner, you have not to come to an absolute God. You are not bid to draw near to the consuming fire. You might well tremble to approach Him whom you have so grievously offended. But, there is a Man ordained to mediate between you and God, and if you would come to God, you must come through Him-the Man Christ Jesus. God out of Christ is terrible out of His holy places. He will by no means spare the guilty-but look at yonder Son of Man!:-

He is a Man with hands full of blessing, eyes wet with tears of pity, lips overflowing with love and a heart melting with tenderness! See you not the gash in His side? Through that wound there is a highway to His heart and he who needs His compassion may soon excite it.

O Sinners! The way to the Saviour's heart is open and penitent seekers shall never be denied! Why should the most despairing be afraid to approach the Saviour? He has deigned to assume the Character of the Lamb of God-I have never known even a little child that was afraid of a lamb! The most timorous will approach a lamb and Jesus used this argument when He said to every labouring and heavy-laden one, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." I know you feel yourselves sad and trembling, but need you tremble in His Presence? If you are weak, your weakness will touch His sympathy, and your mournful inability will be an argument with His boundless mercy!

If I were sick and might have my choice where I would lie, with a view to healing, I would say, place me where the best and kindest physician upon earth can see me! Put me where a man with great skill and equal tenderness will have me always beneath his eyes-I shall not long groan there in vain-if he can heal me he will. Sinner, place yourself, by an act of faith, beneath the Cross of Jesus! Look up to Him and say, "Blessed Physician, You whose wounds for me can heal me. Whose death for me can make me live. Look down upon me! You are Man. You know what man suffers. You are Man, will You let a man sink down to Hell who cries to You for help? You are a Man and You can save, and will You let a poor unworthy one who longs for mercy be driven into hopeless misery while he cries to You to let Your merits save him?"

Oh, you guilty ones, have faith that you can reach the heart of Jesus! Sinner, fly to Jesus without fear! He waits to save! It is His office to receive sinners and reconcile them to God. Be thankful that you have not to go to God at the first, and as you are, but you are invited to come to Jesus Christ and through Him to the Father! May the Holy Spirit lead you to devout meditation upon the humility of our Lord and so may you find the door of life, the portal of peace, the gate of Heaven!

Then let me add, before I leave this point, that every child of God ought, also, to be comforted by the fact that our Redeemer is one of our own race, seeing that He was made like unto His brethren that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest. And He was tempted in all points, like as we are, that He might be able to succour them that are tempted. The sympathy of Jesus is the next most precious thing to His Sacrifice. I stood by the bedside of a Christian Brother the other day and he remarked, "I feel thankful to God that our Lord took our sicknesses." "Of course," said he, "the grand thing was, that He took our sins, but next to that, I, as a sufferer, feel grateful that He also took our sicknesses."

Personally, I also bear witness that it has been to me, in seasons of great pain, superlatively comfortable to know that in every pang which racks His people, the Lord Jesus has a fellow feeling. We are not alone, for one like unto the Son of Man walks the furnace with us! The clouds which float over our sky have afore-time darkened the heavens for Him, also - "He knows what temptations mean, For He has felt the same."

How completely it takes the bitterness out of grief to know that it once was suffered by Jesus! The Macedonian soldiers, it is said, made long forced marches which seemed to be beyond the power of mortal endurance-but the reason for their untiring energy lay in Alexander's presence. He was accustomed to walk with them and bear the same fatigue. If the king himself had been calcified like a Persian monarch in a palanquin in the midst of easy, luxurious state, the soldiers would soon have grown tired. But, when they looked upon the king of men himself, hungering when they hungered, thirsting when they thirsted, often putting aside the cup of water offered to him and passing it to a fellow soldier who looked more faint than himself, they could not dream of repining. Why, every Macedonian felt that he could endure any fatigue if Alexander could!

This day, assuredly, we can bear poverty, slander, contempt, or bodily pain-death it-self-because Jesus Christ our Lord has borne it! By His humiliation it shall become pleasure to be abased for His sake! By the spit that ran down His cheeks it shall become a fair thing to be made a mockery for Him! By the buffeting and the blindfolding it shall become an honour to be disgraced, and by the Cross it shall become life, itself, to surrender life for the sake of such a cause and so precious a Master! May the Man of Sorrows now appear to us and enable us to bear our sorrows cheerfully! If there is consolation anywhere, surely it is to be found in the delightful Presence of the Crucified - "A Man shall be a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest."

II. We must pass on to dwell awhile upon the next words, "A MAN OF SORROWS." The expression is intended to be very emphatic. It is not "a sorrowful Man," but, "a Man of sorrows," as if He were made up of sorrows and they were constituent elements of His Being. Some are men of pleasure, others men of wealth, but He was "a Man of sorrows." He and sorrow might have changed names. He who saw Him, saw sorrow, and he who would see sorrow, must look on Him. "Behold, and see," He says, "if there was ever sorrow like unto My sorrow which was done unto Me." Our Lord is called the Man of Sorrows for peculiarity, for this was His peculiar token and special mark.

We might well call Him, "a Man of holiness," for there was no fault in Him. Or a Man of labours, for He did His Father's business earnestly. Or, "a Man of eloquence," for never man spoke like this Man. We might right fittingly call Him in the language of our hymn, "The Man of Love," for never was there greater love than glowed in His heart. Still, conspicuous as all these and many other excellencies were, yet had we gazed upon Christ and been asked afterwards what was the most striking peculiarity in Him, we should have said His sorrows.

The various parts of His Character were so singularly harmonious that no one quality predominated so as to become a leading feature. In His moral portrait, the eyes are perfect, but so, also, is the mouth. The cheeks are as beds of spices, but the lips, also are as lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. In Peter you see enthusiasm exaggerated at times into presumption. And in John, love for his Lord would call fire from Heaven on his foes. Deficiencies and exaggerations exist everywhere but in Jesus! He is the perfect Man, a whole Man, the Holy One of Israel. But there was a peculiarity, and it lay in the fact that "His visage was so marked more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men," through the excessive griefs which continually passed over His spirit.

Tears were His insignia and the Cross His escutcheon. He was the warrior in black armour and not as now, the rider upon the white horse. He was the Lord of Grief, the Prince of Pain, the Emperor of Anguish, a "Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief." - "Oh! King of Grief! (A title strange, yet true, To You of all kings only due) Oh! King of Wounds! How shall I grieve for You, Who in all grief prevent me?"

Is not the title, "Man of Sorrows," given to our Lord by way of eminence? He was not only sorrowful, but pre-eminent among the sorrowful! All men have a burden to bear, but His was heaviest of all! Who is there of our race that is quite free from sorrows? Search the whole earth through and everywhere the thorn and thistle will be found-and these have wounded everyone born of woman.

High in the lofty places of the earth there is sorrow, for the royal widow weeps her lord. Down in the cottage where we fancy that nothing but content can reign, a thousand bitter tears are shed over dire penury and cruel oppression. In the sunniest climates the serpent creeps among the flowers. In the most fertile regions poisons flourish as well as wholesome herbs. Everywhere, "men must work and women must weep." There is sorrow on the sea and sadness on the land. But in this common lot, the "First-Born among many brethren" has more than a double portion! His cup is more bitter, His Baptism is more deep than the rest of the family! Common sufferers must give place, for none can match with Him in woe. Ordinary mourners may be content to tear their garments, but He, Himself, is torn in His affliction-they sip at Sorrow's bowl, but He drains it dry. He who was the most obedient Son smarted most under the rod when He was stricken of God and afflicted! No other of the smitten ones have sweat great drops of blood, or in the same bitterness of anguish, cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The reasons for this superior sorrow may be found in the fact that with His sorrow there was no mixture of sin. Sin deserves sorrow, but it also blunts the edge of grief by rendering the soul un-tender and unsympathetic. We do not start at sin as Jesus did. We do not tremble at the sinner's doom as Jesus would. His was a perfect Nature which, because it knew no sin, was not in its element amid sorrow, but was like a land bird driven out to sea by the gale.

To the robber, jail is his home and the prison fare is the meat to which he is accustomed. But to an innocent man a prison is misery and everything about it is strange and foreign. Our Lord's pure Nature was peculiarly sensitive of any contact with sin. We, alas, by the Fall, have lost much of that feeling! In proportion as we are sanctified, sin becomes the source of wretchedness to us. Jesus, being perfect, every sin pained Him much more than it would any of us. I have no doubt there are many persons in the world who could live merrily in the haunts of vice-could hear blasphemy without horror, view lust without disgust-and look on robbery or murder without abhorrence. But to many of us, an hour's familiarity with such abominations would be the severest punishment.

A sentence in which the name of Jesus is blasphemed is torture to us of the most exquisite kind. The very mention of the shameful deeds of vice seizes us with horror. To live with the wicked would be a sufficient Hell to the righteous. David's prayer is full of agony where he cries, "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men." But the perfect Jesus! What a grief the sight of sin must have caused Him! Our hands grow rough with toiling and our hearts with sinning-but our Lord was, as it were, like a man whose flesh was all one quivering wound - He was delicately sensitive of every touch of sin.

We go through thorn brakes and briars of sin because we are clothed with indifference, but imagine a naked man, compelled to traverse a forest of briars-such was the Saviour as to His moral sensitiveness. He could see sin where we cannot see it-and feel its heinousness as we cannot feel it. There was, therefore, more to grieve Him and He was more capable of being grieved. Side by side with His painful sensitiveness of the evil of sin was His gracious tenderness towards the sorrows of others. If we could know and enter into all the griefs of this congregation, it is probable that we would be of all men, most miserable. There are heartbreaks in this house this morning, which, could they find a tongue, would fill our heart with agony.

We hear of poverty here, we see disease there, we observe bereavement and we mark distress. We note the fact that men are passing into the grave and, (ah, far more bitter grief), descending into Hell! But, somehow or other, either these become such common things that they do not stir us, or else we gradually harden to them. The Saviour was always moved to sympathy with another's griefs, for His love was ever at flood-tide. All men's sorrows were His sorrows. His heart was so large that it was inevitable that He should become "a Man of sorrows." We remember that besides this, our Saviour had a peculiar relationship to sin. He was not merely afflicted with the sight of it and saddened by perceiving its effects on others, but sin was actually laid upon Him and He was, Himself, numbered with the transgressors.

And therefore He was called to bear the terrible blows of Divine Justice and suffered unknown, immeasurable agonies! His Godhead strengthened Him to suffer, else mere Manhood had failed. The wrath whose power no man knows spent itself on Him - "It pleased the Father to bruise Him, He has put Him to grief." Behold the Man, and marvel how vain it would be to seek His equal sorrow!

The title of "Man of Sorrows," was also given to our Lord to indicate the constancy of His afflictions. He changed His place of abode, but He always lodged with Sorrow. Sorrow wove His swaddling bands and Sorrow His winding sheet. Born in a stable, Sorrow received Him and only on the Cross at His last breath did Sorrow part with Him. His disciples might forsake Him, but His sorrows would not leave Him. He was often alone without a man, but never alone without a grief. From the hour of His Baptism in Jordan, to the time of His Baptism in the pains of death, He always wore the sable robe and was "a Man of sorrows."

He was also "a Man of sorrows," for the variety of His woes. He was a Man not of sorrow, only, but of "sorrows." All the sufferings of the body and of the soul were known to Him. The sorrows of the man who actively struggles to obey. The sorrows of the man who sits still and passively endures. The sorrows of the lofty He knew, for He was the King of Israel. The sorrows of the poor He knew, for He "had not where to lay His head." Sorrows relative and sorrows personal. Sorrows mental and sorrows spiritual. Sorrows of all kinds and degrees assailed Him. Affliction emptied his quiver upon Him, making His heart the target for all conceivable woes.

Let us think a minute or two of some of those sufferings. Our Lord was a Man of sorrows as to His poverty. Oh, you who are in need, your need is not so abject as His-He had not where to lay His head, but you have at least some humble roof to shelter you. No one denies you a cup of water, but He sat upon the well at Samaria, and said, "I thirst." We read more than once that He hungered. His toil was so great that He was constantly weary and we read of one occasion where they took Him, "even as He was," into the boat - too faint was He to reach the boat Himself - but they carried Him as He was and laid Him down near the helm to sleep. But He had not much time for slumber, for they woke Him, saying, "Master, do You not care that we perish?"

A hard life was His, with nothing of earthly comfort to make that life endurable. Remember, you who lament around the open grave, or weep in memory of graves newly filled-our Saviour knew the heart-rending of bereavement. Jesus wept as He stood at the tomb of Lazarus. Perhaps the bitterest of His sorrows were those which were connected with His gracious work. He came as the Messiah sent of God on a mission of love and men rejected His claims. When He went to His own city where He had been brought up, and announced Himself, they would have cast Him headlong from the brow of the hill! It is a hard thing to come on an errand of disinterested love and then to meet with such ingratitude as that.

Nor did they stay at cold rejection-they then proceeded to derision and to ridicule. There was no name of contempt which they did not pour upon Him. No, it was not merely contempt, but they preceded to falsehood, slander, and blasphemy. He was a drunk, they said-hear this, you angels, and be astonished! Yes, a wine-bibber did they call the blessed Prince of Life! They said He was in league with Beelzebub and had a devil, and was mad-whereas He had come to destroy the works of the devil!! They charged Him with every crime which their malice could suggest. There was not a word He spoke but they would wrest it. Not a doctrine but what they would misrepresent it. He could not speak but what they would find in His words some occasion against Him.

And all the while He was doing nothing but seeking their advantage in all ways. When He was earnest against their vices it was out of pity for their souls. If He condemned their sins it was because their sins would destroy them. But His zeal against sin was always tempered with love for the souls of men. Was there ever Man so full of good - will to others who received such disgraceful treatment from those He longed to serve? As He proceeded in His life His sorrows multiplied. He preached and when men's hearts were hard, and they would not believe what He said, "He was grieved for the hardness of their hearts."

He went about doing good and for His good works they took up stones to stone Him! Alas, they stoned His heart when they could not injure His body. He pleaded with them and plaintively declared His love and received, instead thereof, a remorseless and fiendish hatred. Slighted love has griefs of peculiar poignancy-many have died of hearts broken by ingratitude. Such love as the love of Jesus could not, for the sake of those it loved, bear to be slighted. It pined within itself because men did not know their own mercies and rejected their own salvation! His sorrow was not that men injured Him, but that they destroyed themselves! This it was that pulled up the sluices of His Soul and made His eyes overflow with tears-"O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not."

The lament is not for His own humiliation, but for their suicidal rejection of His Divine Grace! These were among the sorrows that He bore. But surely He found some solace with the few companions whom He had gathered around Him. He did, but for all that He must have found as much sorrow as solace in their company. They were dull scholars, they learned slowly. What they did learn they forgot. What they remembered they did not practice and what they practised at one time they belied at another. They were miserable comforters for the Man of Sorrows. His was a lonely life, I mean that even when He was with His followers He was alone.

He said to them once, "Could you not watch with Me one hour," but, indeed, He might have said the same to them all the hours of their lives, for even if they sympathized with Him to the utmost of their capacity, they could not enter into such griefs as His. A father in a house with many little children about him cannot tell his babes his griefs. If he did they would not comprehend him. What do they know of his anxious business transactions, or his crushing losses? Poor little things, their father does not wish they should be able to sympathize with him-he looks down upon them and rejoices that their toys will comfort them and that their little prattle will not be broken in upon by his great griefs.

The Saviour, from the very dignity of His Nature, must suffer alone. The mountainside with Christ upon it seems to me to be a suggestive symbol of His earthly life. His great soul lived in vast solitudes, sublime and terrible, and there, amid a midnight of trouble, His Spirit communed with the Father, no one being able to accompany Him into the dark glens and gloomy ravines of His unique experience. Of all His life's warfare He might have said in some senses, "of the people there was none with Me" and at the last it became literally true, for they all forsook Him-one denied Him and another betrayed Him, so that He trod the wine-press alone.

In the last crowning sorrows of His life, there came upon Him the penal inflictions from God - the punishment of our sin which was upon Him. He was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane by God's officers before the officers of the Jews had come near to Him. There on the ground He knelt and wrestled till the bloody sweat poured from every pore, and His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." You have read the story of your Master's woes and know how He was hurried from bar to bar and treated with mingled scorn and cruelty before each judgment seat. When they had taken Him to Herod and to Pilate, and almost murdered Him with scourging, they brought Him forth and said, "Ecce Homo" - "Behold the Man."

Their malice was not satisfied. They must go further, yet, and nail Him to His Cross and mock Him while fever parched His mouth and made Him feel as if His body were dis-solved to dust. He cries out, "I thirst," and is mocked with vinegar. You know the rest, but I would have you best remember that the sharpest scourging and severest griefs were all within-while the hand of God bruised Him and the iron rod of Justice broke Him, as it were, upon the wheel. He was fitly named a "Man of sorrows!"

I feel as if I have no utterance, as if my tongue were tied, while trying to speak upon this subject. I cannot find goodly words worthy of my theme, yet I know that embellishments of language would degrade rather than adorn the agonies of my Lord. There let the Cross stand sublime in its simplicity! It needs no decoration. If I had wreaths of choicest flowers to hang about it, I would gladly place them there, and if instead of garlands of flowers, each flower could be a priceless gem, I would consider that the Cross deserved the whole. But as I have none of these I rejoice that the Cross, alone, in its naked simplicity, needs nothing from mortal speech. Turn to your bleeding Saviour, O my Hearers. Continue gazing upon Him, and find in the "Man of Sorrows" your Lord and your God!

III. And now the last word is, He was "ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF." With griefHe had an intimate acquaintance. He did not know merely what it was in others, but it came home to Himself. We have read of grief. We have sympathized with grief. We have sometimes felt grief-but the Lord felt it more intensely than other men in His innermost soul - He, beyond us all, was conversant with this black letter lore. He knew the secret of the heart which refuses to be comforted. He had sat at Griefs table, eaten of Griefs black bread and dipped His morsel in her vinegar.

By the waters of Sarah He dwelt and knew right well the bitter well. He and Grief were bosom friends. It was a continuous acquaintance. He did not call at Griefs house, sometimes, to take a tonic by the way. Neither did He sip, now and then, of the wormwood and the gall, but the quassia cup was always in His hand and ashes were always mingled with His bread. Not only 40 days in the wilderness did Jesus fast - the world was always a wilderness to Him and His life was one long Lent. I do not say that He was not, after all, a happy Man, for down deep in His soul, benevolence always supplied a living spring of joy to Him.

There was a joy into which we are one day to enter - the "joy of our Lord" - the "joy set before Him" for which "He endured the Cross, despising the shame." But that does not at all take away from the fact that His acquaintance with Grief was continuous and intimate beyond that of any man who ever lived. It was, indeed, a growing acquaintance with Grief, for each step took Him deeper down into the grim shades of sorrow. As there is a progress in the teaching of Christ and in the life of Christ, so is there, also, in the griefs of Christ. The tempest lowered darker and darker, and darker. His sun rose in a cloud, but it set in congregated horrors of heaped up night, till, in a moment, the clouds were suddenly torn in sunder and, as a loud Voice proclaimed, "It is finished," a glorious morning dawned where all expected an eternal night!

Remember, once more, that this acquaintance of Christ with Grief was a voluntary acquaintance for our sakes. He need never have known Grief at all, and at any moment He might have said to Grief, Farewell. He could have returned in an instant to the royalties of Heaven and to the bliss of the upper world, or even tarrying here He might have lived sublimely indifferent to the woes of mankind. But He would not-He remained to the end, out of love to us - Grief's acquaintance. Now, then, what shall I say in conclusion, but just this - let us admire the superlative love of Jesus. O Love, Love, what have You done! What have You not done!

You are Omnipotent in suffering! Few of us can bear pain. Perhaps, fewer still of us can bear misrepresentation, slander and ingratitude. These are horrible hornets which sting as with fire-men have been driven to madness by cruel scandals which have distilled from venomous tongues. Christ, throughout life, bore these and other sufferings! Let us love Him, as we think of how much He must have loved us! Will you try, this afternoon, before you come to the Communion Table, to get your souls saturated with the love of Christ? Soak them in His love all the afternoon, till, like a sponge, you drink into your own selves the love of Jesus! And then come up tonight, as it were, to let that love flow out to Him again while you sit at His Table and partake of the emblems of His death and of His love. Admire the power of His love and then pray that you may have a love somewhat akin to it in power. We sometimes wonder why the Church of God grows so slowly, but I do not wonder when I remember what scant consecration to Christ there is in the Church of God. Jesus was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," but many of His disciples who profess to be altogether His are living for themselves. There are rich men who call themselves saints and are thought to be so, whose treasures are hoarded for themselves and families! There are men of ability who believe that they are bought with Christ's blood, yet their ability is all spent on other things and none upon their Lord! And let us come nearer home-here are we, what are we doing? Teaching in the school, are you? Are you doing it with all your heart for Jesus? Preaching in the street? Yes, but do you throw your soul into it for Him? Maybe you have to confess you are doing nothing - do not let this day conclude till you have begun to do something for your Lord! We are always talking about the Church doing this and that-what is the Church? I believe there is a great deal too much said, both of bad and good, about that abstraction. The fact is, we are individuals. The Church is only the aggregation of individuals and if any good is to be done it must be performed by individuals. And if all individuals are idle there is no Church work done! There may be the semblance of it, but there is no real work done!

Brothers and Sisters, what are you doing for Jesus? I charge you by the nail-prints of His hands, unless you are a liar unto Him, LABOR for Him! I charge you by His wounded feet-run to His help! I charge you by the scar on His side - give Him your heart! I charge you by that sacred head, once pierced with thorns-yield Him your thoughts! I charge you by the shoulders which bore the scourges - bend your whole strength to His service! I charge you by Himself, give Him yourself! I charge you by that left hand which has been under your head and that right hand which has embraced you, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, by the beds of spices and the banquets of love, render yourself, your heart, your soul and strength to Him!

Live in His service, and die in His service! Lay not down your harness, but work on as long as you shall live. While you live let this be your motto-"All for Jesus, all for Jesus! All for the Man of Sorrows, all for the Man of Sorrows!" O you that love Him and fight for Him, you are summoned to the front! Hasten to the conflict, I pray you, and charge home for the "Man of Sorrows!" Make this your battle cry today! Slink not back like cowards! Flee not to your homes as lovers of ease, but press to the front for the "Man of Sorrows," like good men and true. By the Cross which bore Him, and by the heavy Cross He bore. By His deadly agony and by the agony of His life, I cry, "Forward, for the Man of Sorrows!"

Write this word, "for the Man of Sorrows," on your own bodies, wherein you bear the marks of the Lord Jesus! Brand, if not in your flesh, yet in your souls, for from now on you are servants of the Man of Sorrows! Write this on your wealth! Bind this inscription on all your possessions - "This belongs to the Man of Sorrows." Give your children to the "Man of Sorrows," as men of old consecrated their sons to patriotism and to battle with their country's foes! Give up each hour to the "Man of Sorrows!" Learn, even, to eat and drink and sleep for the "Man of Sorrows," doing all in His name. Live for Him and be ready to die for Him and the Lord accept you for the "Man of Sorrows'" sake. Amen.

CHAPTER 4. THE LAMB OF GOD

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
John 1:29.

John the Baptist's one business was to bear witness to Christ. He was the morning star which heralds the rising sun. When the Sun appeared, he had no more reason for shining. You cannot account for John except by Jesus-the one reason for John's existence is Jesus. I wish it might be so with us. May we be able to say, "For me to live is Christ." May our life be such that it cannot be understood apart from Jesus - take Him away and our whole character would become an inexplicable mystery! I am afraid that some professors could be easily interpreted apart from Christ-perhaps could be better accounted for if there were no Christ. But if we are like John, true witnesses to Jesus, we shall find in Jesus the conscious purpose of our being and His Glory will be the clue to all the windings of our lives. For this purpose were we born and for this end have we come into the world, that we may bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ! Search and look, my Brothers and Sisters, whether it has been so with you.

When our Lord was thus set forth by John, it is well to note the special character under which He was declared. John knew much of the Lord Jesus and could have pictured Him in many lights and characters. He might especially have pointed Him out as the great moral example, the Founder of a higher form of life, the great Teacher of holiness and love. Yet this did not strike the Baptist as the head and front of our Lord's Character, but he proclaimed Him as One who had come into the world to be the great Sacrifice for sin. Lifting up his hand and pointing to Jesus, he cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." He did not say, "Behold the great Exemplar" - no doubt he would have said that in due season. He did not even say, "Behold the King and Leader of a new dispensation" - that fact he, by no means, would have denied, but would have gloried in it. Still, the first point that he dwells upon, and that which wins his enthusiasm is, "Behold the Lamb of God." John the Baptist views Him as the Propitiation for sin and so he cries, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

My Brothers and Sisters, we may depend upon it that this must be a very practical Truth of God, for John was pre-eminently practical. What is the sum and substance of his teaching but, "Repent. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance. The axe is laid unto the root of the trees"? He has a word for everybody that comes-even the Roman soldiers are told to be content with their rations. John is no theorist or quibbler about dogma. He deals with life and character and demands works meet for repentance. Yet he makes a great point of our Lord's being the Sacrifice for sin. This, indeed, is the text of his life-sermon! Rest assured that there is something wonderfully practical about that Truth of God! And those who be-cloud it under the notion of being practical are laying aside the best instrument of doing good to men. For the reformation of manners and the overthrow of evil, and the setting up of the Kingdom of Righteousness throughout the world, there is no Truth of God like that which reveals Jesus as the Sacrifice provided by God for removing the sin of men!

The stern Baptist, the true Elijah who grappled hard with sin and laid the sword of repentance to its throat, saw that nothing could be done unless he pointed out the Lamb of God, by whom the world's sin is taken away. When repentance is the sermon, Jesus must be the text and the substance of the discourse! He puts life, power, energy into what otherwise would be a dead moral essay. O you who would save men from sin, take care that you preach the great Sacrifice for sin! It is clear that this doctrine has to do with repentance, for the Apostle of repentance introduced it-he whose first word was, "Repent," brought forward Jesus as the great Sin-Bearer, for he saw what I wish all would see, that there is a very intimate connection between the creation, growth and purity of repentance and the sin-bearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers, the fact is, the more we have to do with penitent sinners, the more we feel the need of a sin-bearer. O you that have never sinned and are wrapped up in your own self-righteousness, you imagine that you can enter Heaven by your own works! The bearing of sin by the Lamb of God does not seem to you at all necessary, but if you once dwelt, as John did, in the midst of a burdened people who came lamenting and confessing their sins, you would feel that nothing could bring them into reconciliation with God but faith in the ap-pointed Atonement. "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," is the text which evangelists love because without it they cannot face the troubled ones who throng around them!

My Brothers, in proportion as you wisely love your fellow men you will prize the Sacrifice for sin. Your practical dealing with a perishing people will make you prize the Saviour. Oh, what would I do if I were sent to preach to this vast throng and had no sin-offering to declare to you! Might I not break my heart before a task so useless, so cruel, as to have to denounce sin and yet to have no pardon to declare and, consequently, no hope? Now that I can tell of One who bore in His own body on the tree the transgression, iniquity and sin of men, I find my task a solemn one, but certainly not hopeless, nor even dreary! Happy, indeed, am I to be permitted to set forth so blessed a salvation! Blessed are the lips which are allowed to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." You see, then, that the practical character of John's mission made him all the more at home in setting forth the sacrificial Character of our Lord.

If John the Baptist had not felt that the Character of our Lord, as a Sin-Offering, was the chief matter, he might have fitly pointed Him out as an example at the time when he delivered the words of our text. The Saviour had not yet revealed to anyone the fact and meaning of His future death. His Passion was as yet a thing in the dim future, while His life was just blossoming out into public observation. He had newly left the holy quiet of the parental roof at Nazareth and the charm of early holiness was on Him. Should not the world now mark Him, that His example might be known throughout its entire length? In His retirement, His conduct had been such that the austere and devout Baptist had noticed it-and had felt bound to acknowledge that his younger relative was a worthier Person than himself, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You." But John does not seem, when he beholds the Lord after His baptism, to think of His godly life already commenced, nor of that holy life which he could foresee in Him. Rather he fastens his eyes upon the sacrificial Character of that wondrous Personage and dwells on that, alone, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God." Brothers, that age needed an example as badly as ours does, but it needed a Saviour still more-and John sees first that which is first!

Let me add that the time was doubly opportune for dwelling upon our Lord's example, since He had just returned from His famous temptation in the wilderness, wherein He had rehearsed His life-struggles. You cannot, in reading the narrative, piece in the 40 days' temptation in the wilderness anywhere else but just here. We read that our Saviour, after His Baptism, was led up immediately into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. Tempted He was, but He yielded in no point. In the threefold battle He vanquished the power of darkness at every point, and now, armed for the fray, in mail which He had tried and proven, the Champion stood before John! And it would not have been singular had the man of God cried out, "Behold the Perfect One, in whom the prince of this world has no place. Copy His supreme example!" But no, the great Baptist's eyes rest not on that-the blood and wounds of the Passion are before his mind's eye and beyond all else he sees the sacrificial Character of the wondrous Being who now stands in the midst of the throng. The fact that He is the appointed Victim for human sin enwraps the whole soul of the preacher and he cries, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

Brothers and Sisters, I desire to be in the same case with John the Baptist. I would have my thoughts of Christ concentrated upon His atoning death henceforth and evermore! During the little time in which I may be spared to lift up my voice in this wilderness, I would bear witness to the Lamb of God! The years may be short in which I may guide this flock, but around the Cross shall be to me, forevermore, the place of green pastures-and from the Sacrifice of our Lord shall flow the still waters. Many others are dealing with other aspects of our Lord's work. Some, I doubt not, faithfully, and others with evil intent. I may very well leave them to do their best or their worst, for at least one may be allowed to be baptized for the Crucified, separated unto the Cross, dedicated to the Atonement by blood. I know no Atonement but Substitution, no Substitute but Christ. "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." To the declaration of that fact I set myself apart to life's end.

I. To come still closer to our text, I would have you notice, in the first place, that JOHN SET FORTH CHRIST AS A SACRIFICE WITH EVIDENT PERSONAL PERCEPTION OF THE FACT. When a man says, "Behold!" he sees something himself. He sees that something with clearness and he desires you to see it and, therefore, he cries, "Behold! Behold!" John had, from his birth, been ordained to be the herald of the Christ. But he evidently did not know who the Lamb of God might be. As a babe, he leaped in the womb when he came near to the mother of our Lord. But yet he did not know Jesus as the Lamb of God. He says, "I knew Him not."

Some suppose that John and Jesus had never met during their early years, but I find it hard to believe. I see quite another meaning here. John knew Jesus, but did not know Him as the Sin-Bearer. I think he must have known the life of the Holy Child, his near relative, while He grew in favour both with God and man, but he had not yet seen upon Him the attesting seal which marked Him as the Son of God. John admired the Lord's Character very much, insomuch that when He came to be baptized by him, John said, "I have need to be baptized by You." Yet John says, "I knew Him not." He knew Him as one of high and holy character, but as yet he saw not the token which the Lord God had secretly given to his servant-for he saw not the Spirit of God descending and resting upon Him. John shrewdly suspected that Jesus was the Son of the Highest, of whom he was the forerunner, but a witness must not follow his own surmises, however correct they may be! John, as the Lord's servant, did not dare to know anything of his own unguided judgement-he waited for the secret sign. Certain preachers tell their people anything they invent out of their wonderful brains, but the true servant of God has no business to put forth his own thoughts or opinions-he must wait for a word from God. The message should come straight from the Master - "Thus says the Lord." John, though he saw about this wondrous Jesus such marvellous traits of Character that he was sure He was much greater than himself, yet says, "I knew Him not." He would know nothing but as it was revealed to him by the Lord God who sent him.

But when, at last, he received that personal token when he plunged our blessed Master into the waters of the Jordan - and saw the heavens opened and the Dove descend-and heard the Voice saying, "This is My beloved Son," then he knew Him and was, therefore, sure. When he afterwards spoke, he did not say, "I think this is the Lamb of God," or, "I am under the impression that this is the Son of God." No, he boldly cried, "Behold Him! See for yourselves. This is the Lamb of God! I speak with the accent of conviction! Nothing can shake me. The Master has given the sign and, therefore, I bear confident witness. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

From then on, to John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ was more than He appeared to be to any others. To those who looked at the Saviour, He would have seemed to be a plain, humble Jew, with nothing particular to mark Him out, except it were the gentleness of His demeanour and a certain heavenliness of carriage. But to the Baptist, He was now before all and above all! When a person was to be baptized, he confessed his sins to John. But when Jesus came with no sins of His own to confess, did He whisper in John's ear, "I bear the sin of the world"? I think He did, but in any case, this was true to the Baptist's mind-and to him, Jesus was the matchless Sacrifice, the one Atonement for human sin. This was an extraordinary Truth of God to John. It took a miracle of Grace to make a Jew see, "The Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world." The Jew thought that the Sacrifice of God must be only for His chosen people-but John saw beyond all bounds of nationality and restrictions of race-and clearly perceived in Jesus "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Remember that John was of a priestly race-he was familiar with lambs for sacrifice. But as a priest, he never saw a lamb for sacrifice in a place far off from the consecrated shrine. There was only one altar and that was at Jerusalem-and there the lamb of sacrifice must be-not by Jordan's lonely stream. Yet John saw, in a place never dedicated in any peculiar manner to the service of God, the one great Sacrifice standing in the midst of the people. "Behold," he says, "this is the Lamb of God." See how well the Lord had taught him and how fully he had broken away from natural prejudices!

Beloved, I pray that each one of us may know, for himself, Jesus as the Sacrifice for sin. You were brought up as children to believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God, but all Revelation in the Book must again be revealed to the heart, or it will not be really known and perceived. For the life of the Truth of God to enter into our life it must become a matter, not of head-creed only, but of heart-belief. That Jesus is the Substitutionary Sacrifice, the Propitiation for our sins, the Expiation for our iniquity, must be taught us by the Holy Spirit. I can truly declare among you that I do not preach this doctrine of vicarious Sacrifice as one among many theories, but as the saving fact of my experience! I must preach this or nothing! I know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, because I have neither hope nor comfort outside of the great atoning Sacrifice. He was made sin for us, even He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. "He was made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree."

Pray that each one of God's people may have a clear knowledge of Christ as the sin-bearing Lamb and have it written on his individual consciousness, for then nothing will shake him out of it. When men find their own deliverance from sin and their own peace with God flowing out of the atoning Sacrifice, this great Truth of God becomes a part of their inward experience and it can never be torn from them. O my Brothers and Sisters, when the great Sacrifice has saved you, you will never be able to doubt it! You will sooner doubt your own existence than doubt this blessed fact, that He bore our sin in His own body on the tree, and that through Him we are reconciled unto God! It was a matter with John of personal perception.

II. Let us advance a little. JOHN SET FORTH OUR LORD AS EMPHATICALLY THE SACRIFICE-"Behold the Lamb of God." This is more than John would have said of all the lambs that he had ever heard or read of since the first appointment of sacrifice. He re-membered the firstling of the flock which Abel offered and the sacrifice of a sweet savour which Noah presented. He knew the sacrifices of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was familiar with the lamb of the Paschal Supper and those of Israel's high festivals. He remembered the thousands of offerings that had been presented by David and by Solomon, and by other kings in the great national acts of worship. But passing them all by as if they were all mere shadows, he points his finger to the Man, Christ Jesus, and he says of Him, "This is THE Lamb of God."

In this I think the Baptist comprehended everything that went before. There was the daily lamb of which I read to you in the commencement of the service, from Exodus 29. There had been slain before the Lord a lamb every morning, and a lamb every evening, all the year round throughout the centuries of Israel's history. Always and ever the continual sacrifice of the lamb was the symbol of Jehovah's dwelling with His people. But John puts his finger down upon a single Sacrifice and says, "This is the Lamb." All the other daily lambs had been but prefigurations of this! "Behold the Lamb."

Let me also call your attention to another wonderful lamb, the Paschal lamb, slain on the night when Israel went up out of Egypt, when each Hebrew smeared the lintel and side-posts of his door with blood-and the sight of that blood sufficed for the deliverance of the family, according to the Word of Jehovah, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." These Passover lambs were many and sacred to every Jewish mind! But John passes them all over and says, "Behold the Lamb of God."

Do you not think he also had in his mind the lamb spoken of by Isaiah, the great evangelical Prophet? Had he not in his memory that famous passage, "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter"? John the Baptist cries, "This is He of whom the Prophet spoke, Behold the Lamb of God."

Yes, and if John's eyes had been turned to the future as well as to the past, so that he could have looked down the centuries and shared the visions of the Seer of Patmos, he would have seen the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, and have heard the song unto Him that was slain! But after seeing all the visions of the coming Glory of the Lamb, he would still have kept his finger pointed towards the blessed Christ of God, standing among the people, and would have said, "Behold the Lamb." All that you read of sacrifice and sin-bearing in the Old or the New Testament. All that you have ever heard, or ever shall hear, of the putting away of sin, if it is true, is all centered in this line, "Behold the Lamb." It is a great thing when we can focus our testimony upon a single point! Let every servant of God do so and bear his witness that there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved! There is no other purgation for sin in the whole universe save that great Sacrifice which takes away the sin of the world!

III. We will go a step further again-JOHN, IN DESCRIBING OUR LORD JESUS IN HIS SACRIFICIAL CHARACTER, WAS VERY EXPLICIT IN DECLARING HIM TO BE THE SACRIFICE OF GOD. He says: "Behold the Lamb of God." These words contain a great depth of meaning. "The Lamb of God." Did not the Baptist thus recall the day when Abraham walked with Isaac towards the mount that God had told him of? "And Isaac said to his father, My Father, behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham answered, My Son, God will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt offering." John, standing centuries after, seems to say, "Now is the saying of the Father of the faithful fulfilled! Behold how God provides! Behold the Lamb of God."

Under the old Jewish dispensation, if a man sinned, he said to himself, "I must go and find a lamb." And he went out to his own flock, or else to his neighbour's and he bought a lamb. That was his lamb which he brought for his own trespass. But you and I have not to go and find a lamb-God has already provided a Lamb-and we have only to accept the Lamb of God. And is it not a wonderful thing, that He, Himself, against whom all sin was levelled, provided the Sacrifice for sin? Behold the sin of man an d the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Father's best Beloved, His choice One, His only One and yet He delivered Him up for us all-and God's Son became God's Lamb! O my Father, my Father, do I sin and do You find the Sacrifice? But if a Sacrifice must be found by the Father, why was it found so near His heart? He could find the Sacrifice for sin nowhere but in His own bosom. He had but one Son, His Only-Begotten-and "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." Jehovah gave His only Son to be a Sacrifice! Let Heaven and earth be filled with astonishment!

Beloved, if you think of it, who else could have provided a Sacrifice for the sin of the world? None will pretend to such ability. And when God, Himself, provided a Sacrifice, what other could He have found but His co-equal Son? Who else could render the honour which was due to the broken Law? Who else could offer to Divine Justice the vindication which it demanded? Justice must be violated, or else man must perish forever-there remained no way of escape from this dilemma until the Son of the Highest condescended to become a Sacrifice and put away sin by His own death. So, you see, the Lord must, Himself, provide the Sacrifice-and that Sacrifice must be His only-begotten Son.

I do not think I can preach more, for a faintness has come over me, nor is there need for more if you will but chew the cud of this one precious Truth of God- Jesus is the Lamb which God provided and He is the Lamb which God Himself presented at the altar. Yet I must rouse myself to say a little more. Who was it that sacrificed the Lamb of God? Who was the priest on that dread day? Who was it that bruised Him? Who put Him to grief? Who caused Him the direst pang of all when He cried, "Why have You forsaken Me?"

Was it not the Father, Himself? This was one point in the hardness of Abraham's test - "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him for a sacrifice."

He must, himself, officiate at the sacrifice! This, the great Father did! He is the Lamb, the Lamb of God. And now, today, the bright side of this Truth remains. He is the Lamb that God always accepts, must accept, glories to accept! Bring you but Jesus with you and you have brought God an acceptable Sacrifice! You cannot fail to be forgiven when you come pleading the name of Jesus. If you should bring the fattest of your flock and the choicest of your herd, you might hear God say, "I will not accept your sacrifice"! But when you bring God's own Sacrifice, He cannot reject you! You are accepted in the Beloved! There is such acceptance of Christ with God that it overlaps your unacceptableness. It covers your sin. It covers you-it makes you to be dear to the heart of God!

Thus far have we come with this blessed text, even unto "waters to swim in." "Behold the Lamb of God."

IV. Lend me your ears a little longer while, in the fourth place, I show you that JOHN SET FORTH THIS BLESSED SAVIOUR AS BEARING AND BEARING AWAY OUR SIN. You that have the Revised Version will please notice that the Revisers follow the Authorized Version in the body of the translation and say, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," but they have done wisely by putting in the margin, "bears the sin." Both meanings are here. In order to the bearing away of sin, there must first be the bearing of it. The Lord Jesus both took sin and took it away.

Dwell for a minute on the first fact, that sin was actually laid on Christ. I saw the other day, among the abominations of the Stygian Bog, across which I have been compelled to gaze of late, such a foul teaching as this - that the transference of sin is immoral. Yet is not Scripture full of it? "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Sin was borne by Christ - yes, actually borne by Him. "He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree." They may make what they like of it. I am not going to explain or apologize, but I say without hesitation that the sin of the world was laid upon Christ - and He bore it - and bore it away! The heaviest thing in the universe is sin! The earth has been known to open beneath the unbearable load of it. Neither angels nor men can stand under the load of sin - it sinks them lower than the lowest Hell! When sin was laid upon the Lamb of God, He bore it - but He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, and He was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. To have borne up the weight of the world would have been nothing compared with bearing the sin of the world.

The best of all is, however, that our Lord did not only bear the load, but He took it away. "He takes away the sin of the world." The sin which was laid upon Christ did not remain there! He took it away-it remains no more. We read in Scripture many things about sin, as that God forgives it, blots it out, forgets it, casts it into the sea, puts it behind His back and a great many other expressive figures-but this is, in some respects, the best of them - He takes it away! Blessed be His name! My Hearer, if you believe in Jesus, you need not ask, "Where is my sin?" Jesus took it away! By bearing it, He bore it away. It is gone, gone forever - it is utterly abolished. "The day comes when the sins of Jacob shall be sought for, and they shall not be found; yes they shall not be, says the Lord." Our glory is that by the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross, sin was made an end of. He finished transgressions, made an end of sin and brought in everlasting righteousness! This is a Gospel worth believing, worth living for, worth dying for! Let all teaching be accursed that comes in opposition to it! This is Heaven to a soul whose sins are dragging it down to Hell-sin can be forgiven, for Jesus is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." What a sight is this to see! Those eyes can never again be sore that have once seen sin put away by Jesus!

V. I must, however, call your attention to another point which is that JOHN REPRESENTS OUR LORD AS REMOVING SIN CONTINUALLY. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Behold the sin of the world as one huge mass and Jesus deals with it as a whole and takes it away. John does not speak in the past tense nor in the future, but He speaks in the present - "He takes away the sin of the world." Our Saviour's atoning Sacrifice, though it was but once offered, is perpetual in its effect. He must die at a certain point of time and there were reasons why His death should have taken place at the particular moment when it did. Yet time does not enter into the essence of it. The Sacrifice might have been offered a million years ago and, as the Lamb of God, He would still take away sin. Or the actual Sacrifice might further have been postponed, if Infinite Wisdom had so chosen, and yet the Lamb of God would now have taken away sin.

The date of His death is not the question-His Sacrifice is effectual before and after the event. Our Saviour was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, in the purpose, Covenant and thought of God. His Sacrifice saved Adam, Noah, Moses, David and all the elect before the name of Calvary had become illustrious. Before He died, He stood before John the Baptist as taking away the sin of the world! And now, today, though His death is a matter of 1800 years ago, He still "takes away the sin of the world." In His Person He was always the Sin-Bearer and through His death He puts sin away forever. By one Sacrifice He has forever put away sin! His eternal merits forever remain a sweet savour unto the Lord God and forever remove the foul offence of human transgression. As the Great Purifier, He continually takes away and will continue to take away the sin of the world!

Blessed be God, I have, today, a Saviour as fresh and full of power as if He had been crucified this very morning for my sin! He is now as able to save me as if He were at this hour on the Cross! Those dear wounds of His, in effect, perpetually bleed-in His case, the print of the nails is the token of an inexhaustible fountain of merit which is always flowing forth for the removal of my guilt, eternally efficacious, ceaselessly sin-cleansing. This is where we rest! It is the most grand fact in the history of all ages that Jesus takes away the sin of the world. We do not know what happened before this solar system was created and we do not need to know. We cannot prophesy what is going to happen when yon sun and moon and stars shall disappear like transient sparks from the anvil of power. But there never will be any new fact which can equal this first of the Truths of God-that the Son of God assumed human nature and, in that Nature, bore sin and bore it away. This is the Truth to be looked at beyond all others-"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

Although I am too weak to preach to you as I desire, I feel great joy for myself in looking to the Sin-Bearer who has taken away my sin. How I wish that all of you felt the same! This is the pith and the marrow of my theology. But you must take the Lamb of God for yourselves-you must know Him for yourselves-you must believe in Him for yourselves and He will surely take away that sin which now burdens you. He will take it right away, so that it shall never burden you again. He will blot it out-it shall cease to be! You shall be no more under condemnation, but shall be free from it forever! God help you to know Jesus, of whom I speak to you!

VI. The last point is this - JOHN WITNESSED TO THE ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF THE DIVINE SACRIFICE - "Who takes away the sin of the world." No other in all the world can take away sin but the Lamb of God. There is no sin which He cannot take away. There is no limit to the value of His great Sacrifice-He takes away the sin of the world. There is no other sin-bearer, no other atonement, no other satisfaction. No "purgatory" in the present nor in the future can take away sin! No supposed remedial pains in Hell are possible-neither lapse of years, nor bitterness of regret can take away sin! Jesus takes away the sin of the world and beside Him there is no other!

Mark you, "He takes away the sin of the world' - all manner of sin that was ever done in the world, by all sorts of men, of all races, in all places! He removes sins of long duration, of aggravated criminality, of crying heinousness - any sin that can be compassed within the bounds of the world - Christ takes away! O repenting sinner, though your sins should be as many as the hairs of your head and each one as black as the midnight of Tophet, yet Christ takes away each sin! Though you should have cursed God and slain your fellow men, yet such sin as this comes within the range of "the sin of the world." Even as another text puts it, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," so is this text to be understood! Jesus so takes away the sin of the world that whoever believes in Him shall no longer be guilty of sin, but shall be forgiven and be justified before God!

Do you hear this? There is nothing in this text to shut any man out of mercy! Behold, I set before you an open door. There is everything in my text to induce every one of you who is conscious of guilt to come to the Lord Jesus and accept Him as your Substitute and Sacrifice. Christ shall take away no man's sin that does not believe in Him. Christ has so taken away sin that whoever believes in Him shall live. If you will come, now, and lay your hand on this Divine Sacrifice, you shall find it All-Sufficient, whatever the nature of your guilt may be. O delightful Gospel! How sweet to preach it!

I have done when I have said this. John the Baptist appears to me to have relieved his mind by the utterance of my text. He was full of weariness because of the scribes and Pharisees, doctors and doubters who had been warring around him. He had been put on the defensive and had been harried with innumerable questions. First one and then another - this question and that question. And now John ends the wordy duel by pointing to One whose Presence was joy to his heart! There stands the Saviour and John stops his argument and cries, "There He is! Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

It is to me a supreme joy to turn aside from those who becloud the everlasting Gospel-to leap out of the midst of controversy and to cry to you with exultation-Jesus is the Son of God! He is the Sacrifice for sin! He takes it away! Believe on Him and live! There is more joy in one sermon than in years of disputation. Oh, that everyone in this congregation might believe in Jesus and live! What a refreshment it is to the preacher's mind to get to his message at last, to get away from the bamboozlement of those who confound plain Truth, and to come to matter-of-fact dealing with eternal salvation. There, let them question and quibble-the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin!

With what certainty the Baptist speaks! He does not, for a moment, hesitate, or speak with cautious reserve. No debate disturbs the foundation of his confidence. Before his eyes he evidently sees the Sin-Bearer and he bids others see Him as he sees Him. To him no doubt remains, for he had seen the heavens opened above the head of Jesus - and he had heard the voice of God, Himself, saying, "This is My beloved Son." Dear Friends, the marks which prove our Lord Jesus to be the vicarious Sacrifice for sin are as clear to me as ever they were to John the Baptist! I dogmatize because I feel more than sure as to my Lord's being the great Sacrifice for sin! I could not doubt this doctrine if I were to try to do so. My hope, my joy, my very being hinge on my Lord's Substitution. This truth is woven into the warp and woof of my being. Jesus suffered in my place!

A leader in the religious world tells us that we have not yet obtained a satisfactory theory of the Atonement. Let him speak for himself! Thousands of us know what we believe and know what Jesus did for us! Where has the man lived? What comfort in life and death is there for one who cannot see clearly this first of Truths? I thank God I have a definition of the Atonement which is to me most clear, sure and full of comfort! Here it is-"He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree." I can live by that and I can die by that. I am sick to death of the ever-repeated cant about, "theory of the Atonement." I have no theory, for I believe in the Atonement, itself! God keep us steadfast in the faith once delivered to the saints and our consolation will abound.

And yet, once more, there seems to be a deep anxiety on John's part in the words of my text. He says, "Behold the Lamb of God." And he does so for the sake of those around him. We do not desire others to believe with us because we need them to keep us in countenance. John was not a man cut out of brown paper, in the same shape as thousands of others - he was an original, self-contained individual. He knew how to see the Lamb of God for himself, whether other people did or did not see Him. When I preach to you the doctrine of the vi-carious Sacrifice, it is not because I am unable to believe this Truth, alone. Long ago I ceased to count heads. Truth is usually in the minority in this evil world. I have faith in the Lord Jesus for myself, a faith burned into me as with a hot iron. I thank God what I believe I shall believe, even if I believe it alone! If I am the last man to glory in the Substitution of the Lord Jesus, I shall count myself honoured to bear His Cross alone.

But there is great love to his fellows in the heart of every man who has seen the Lord Jesus Christ as bearing sin. That great deed of love makes the beholder feel that he would have all men look and live. Were you ever half-starved and did you find bread? Then I know you pitied your famishing brother. Our very instincts lead us to spread the blessing which we have received. Even dogs would do that. A poor dog had his broken leg healed at the hospital and not many weeks after, he brought another lame dog to the same house of mercy. We also long to see men come to Christ because we have had our broken hearts healed by His tender hands. We love because He first loved us! Brothers and Sisters, I was ready to perish under a sense of sin! I was all but damned! I felt the wrath of God surging in my soul like a sea of fire! I found no relief or comfort. Even the Word of God did not cheer me. They told me of believing in Jesus, but till I learned that this Jesus was God's great appointed Sacrifice for sin, I saw nothing in Him to cheer me. When I learned that He had borne the penalty and satisfied Justice, then I found out the glorious secret and my conscience was at rest! Conscience within us reflects, as in a mirror, the facts of the case as God sees them.

God causes an awakened conscience to require that which His justice requires. The demand of the conscience is the echo of the demand of the Divine Government. Conscience requires Atonement because the necessity of the case and the nature of God require it. When I learned that there was such an Atonement provided, oh, then I rested most sweetly! I wish you all did! You that have no atoning sacrifice to plead, how can you bear the weight of your sins? What will you do with them when the death-damp is on your brows? You for whom, according to your own creed, no debt was paid, no penalty endured - how will you answer Justice in her great and terrible day? Believers look to Jesus as discharging all their debt and they are not afraid of the day of account! But where will you look? Oh, what will you do?

Do not remain without faith in Him who stood in the sinner's place! His work is exactly what your mind needs, to give it peace. The satisfaction of Jesus will give your mind satis-faction, but nothing else will. Conscience, like the horseleech, cries, "Give, give," and it will never cease its cravings till it meets with Christ, whose one full satisfaction will content it forever. "Behold the Lamb of God." I shall meet you all in the Day of Judgment and I tremble not to do so, for I have told you all the Truth of God so far as I know it. If you reject the Sacrifice for sin, I cannot help it! But, I beseech you, receive it and find that the Lamb of God has taken away your sin! Go in peace. The Lord go with you. Amen.

CHAPTER 5. "I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
John 8:12.

Our Lord did not speak in this way at the beginning of His ministry. He did not thus bear witness to Himself, saying, "I am the light of the world." But it was befitting on this occasion, when the people before Him had already received sufficient evidence from other quarters. John the Baptist, whom all men counted for a Prophet, had testified that Christ was the true Light of God which lights every man that comes into the world. The witness of John they rejected - startling, if not conclusive, as it must have been-considering the esteem in which his oracular voice was held. Moreover, Jesus, Himself, had worked conviction in their hearts by His teaching. Had they not listened to His famous Sermon on the Mount? Could they not feel the authority with which He spoke? Did they not confess to the impressions He produced on them? The weight and the wisdom of His discourse manifested a power that could melt their thoughts into the very mould of His ministry. Nor was it merely His teaching, transparent though that was, but the signs He showed and the miracles He worked with the majesty of His voice and the virtue of His touch proclaimed that He was the Light of the world! Thus the infirmities of the creature called forth His Divine compassion. With radiant eyes of pity He looked on the wretched and gave them quick relief-He shone on their sadness like the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His beams. They hailed His visit in every town and village as the Healer of all who were diseased. Might not the quick sense of every unprejudiced spectator detect in Him the Messiah and welcome His advent to the worlds? At length, as though aggrieved by their unbelief, He speaks loudly and pro-claims plainly, "I am the light of the world." Such high ground does He take before His adversaries. Well might He say it to their teeth. Hardly an hour before He had flashed that Light into their eyes and blinded them with its brilliance! They had stood before Him, with the unhappy woman whom they sought to make the instrument of entangling Him, and soon they had sneaked out of His Presence conscience-stricken, when He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her." One ray of His Omniscience had lighted up the secret chambers of their memory and exposed, at least to themselves, the righteous Law they had broken, and the crimes they had to answer for. He who could thus convince them, is able to convince the world of sin! He who lit up the deepest recesses of the heart is the Light of the world! So Jesus here boldly and openly avowed the truth con-cerning Himself when He said, "I am the light of the world."

Let our meditation now be directed to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Light of the world-the true Light-the guiding Light - and the universal Light!

I. JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

That Jesus is the Light-the Light of the world-is to be seen in all parts of His blessed history. Look at Him in His cradle. Shines there a star above the house wherein the young Child sleeps? Brighter far than yonder star is He, who lies cradled in the manger! He has come, the predictions of whose Advent had illumined centuries of darkness! As a Baby, devout men hail Him, "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel." To the eye of faith, what radiance emanates from the new-born Baby! Look, for the like was never looked on before! There God is veiled in human flesh. Behold the mystery of the In-carnation! God is manifest in our nature! He dwells among us. The Light is clear and dazzling. Well might the angels have, sung, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, goodwill towards men." Sweet Baby! You have pierced the thick darkness of earth's sorrow! You have enlightened her scenes of sadness, infusing joy into her gloom! Your coming revealed the love of God, His sweet compassion and His tender pity towards the guilty sons of men. With growing years, while His increasing wisdom kept pace with His increasing stature, He shone, exhibiting a Child's delight in the two tables of the Law. His first concern being to do His heavenly Father's business and His constant habit being to submit Himself and to honour His earthly parent. Not rashly or recklessly did He begin to teach. His Baptism throws a wonderful light upon consecration to God - and the dire temptations that quickly followed, in all of which He foiled the tempter-have thrown a brilliant light on the pathway of Christian ministers! As a Preacher, He was luminous. He expounded the spirituality of the Law of God. Light penetrated the precept through and through as He made the very essence of purity apparent! His Light cleared the Law of the mists and fogs that the Rabbinical writers had gathered around it. He shed Light, too, upon the Covenant of Grace. He promulgated the Gospel of peace among the sons of men. He told of God the Father, willing to receive His prodigal children back again into His bosom. His parables threw wondrous Light upon the dispensation of the Kingdom of Heaven. His counsels and His cautions brought the final destinies of the righteous and the wicked into full view. Eternity dawned on His hearers while He spoke. His own life exhibited the power of love, the value of sympathy and the virtue of forgiving injuries. His death gave yet more palpable evidence of unfaltering submission to the will of God-and unflinching self-sacrifice for the welfare of men!

Oh, Beloved, the Light of Christ comes out brightest upon the Cross! Someone called it the Lighthouse of this world's sea. So it is. This is the Lighthouse that throws its beams across the dark waters of human guilt and misery, warns men of the rocks, and guides them to the haven. A Saviour! God in human flesh! He whom the Seers predicted - "A king shall reign in righteousness," appears as the Divine symbol represented Him-"a Lamb slain."

Behold Him shedding His precious blood to atone for the sins of men! Never did such Light shine on the Law and the Prophets! Never did such Light gleam on the faith and hope of pure hearts! Never did such Light irradiate the repentance and conversion by which sinners are retrieved! Behold the Sun as He comes forth from His chamber and rejoices to finish His course! He before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified, has seen a Light which outshines all earthly splendour! The sin and the sorrow, the shame and the sentence, all vanish when we see the Redeemer die for us! And if from the gloom of His death so much comfort can be extracted, what shall we say when He rose again from the dead? His dark sepulchre reflects Glory now that He has arisen from the dead! The shroud, the mattock, and the grave are shorn of their terrors - "No more a morgue, to fence The relics of lost innocence, A vault of ruin and decay - The imprisoning stone is rolled away."

Into the sepulchre you can peer now that Christ has broken down the door and torn away the veil. Through it you can look. For those that follow Christ, it is a passage into everlasting life! He has brought life and immortality to light. Since He has risen from the tomb and left the dead, the Light of God, clear and transparent, shines on the exodus of the soul from earth! On, onward still, track His path as in His ascension He goes flaming up the skies! There, there is a road of Light that shows us the way to God! He enters Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. There, as our Representative, He sheds the Light of comfort down upon us. There He waits-and while He waits - He wills that where He is, there should His people be! Oh, happy thought, today, my Brothers and Sisters! Among the sons of men, Christ is still the Light. He has sent the Holy Spirit to be His Representative here on earth. He testifies of Christ. The Divine Paraclete occupies the place of our departed Teacher. The Church, inspired by the blessed Spirit, with ten thousand tongues, proclaims the Gospel of salvation. "You are the light of the world," said Jesus. In His people, Christ still shines forth with even a brighter light than in the days of His earthly sojourn! He has ten thousand reflectors, instead of twelve. Ten thousand times ten thousand tongues proclaim His Gospel and ten thousand times ten thousand hearts burn and blaze with the Light of the Divine Word! Christ is the Light of the world! From His cradle to His Throne, and on-ward till He comes in full splendour at the Second Advent, the Lamb is the Light of God that illuminates this dark earth! "Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world."

II. JESUS IS THE TRUE LIGHT.

There are other lights. Before His Coming there had been some typical light. Do you not remember that a golden lamp stood in the Holy Place, with its seven branches? It was an admirable piece of sacred furniture, and highly instructive - but Jesus seems to put it away. In fact, it had been already put away. He had come to put an end to its meaning by fulfilling its intent. "This was not the Light of God-it was only the type of the Light. "I am the true light," He says. Even that light which flamed across the desert way when Moses led the host of God through the wilderness was but a typical light. The veritable Pillar of Cloud and Fire is Jesus, who leads the whole host of God's elect through this weary wilderness to the Canaan of the blessed!

Jesus Christ was the true Light in opposition to the smoking flax of tradition. Listen to those Rabbis! They think themselves the light of the world! Their sophism is an endless strife of words-their research is not worth your study - their knowledge is not worth the knowing! They can tell you exactly which is the middle verse of the Bible and which is the middle letter of the middle word! They discussed their paradoxes till they became addle-headed! They refined on their subtleties till doctrine dwindled down into doubt, simple Truth was degraded into silly twaddle, their translations of Scripture were a travesty and their commentaries an outrage upon common sense! But Christ, the true, the heavenly Light of God, extinguishes all your earthly luminaries! The Jewish Rabbi, the Greek philosopher, the ecclesiastical father, and the modern theological thinker are meteors that dissolve into mist! They make void the Word of God through their traditions or their conjectures. Flee away from the nebulous forms and noxious fumes of their old traditions and new discoveries! Believe what Jesus said, His Apostles taught, and what you have had revealed to you in His own pure Word! Christ is the true Light of God!

In opposition to the glare of priestcraft, with which so many in all ages have been enamoured, Christ is the Light of the world! There is some reason to suppose that this declaration of our Lord bore allusion to a custom observed among the Jews at that time in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. Maimonides says that on the previous evening two enormous candelabra-golden lamps-of a vast size were set up in the court of the women in the open air, and that these flamed with such a brilliant light that they appeared to illuminate the whole city of Jerusalem. And the women came with a torchlight procession and stood around these flaming candelabra, and there executed a sort of sacred dance and solemn pageant. This was done, not on the authority of Moses, but on the authority of tradition-to keep the people in mind of the cloudy and fiery pillar of the wilderness! The Feast of Tabernacles, you know, was designed as a memorial of the 40 years that the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, dwelling in tents. But this particular rite was of their own invention-a supplementary observance intended to remind the people of the fiery pillar that illumined the camp in those days of yore. Now it is supposed, not, I think, without good reason, that it was on the morning after this celebration that Jesus stood in the court. The lamps were gone out, but the golden columns that the night before had flamed, still remained in their places-the remnant of a spectacle-the lamps minus the light. Just then the sun was rising in its own peerless splendour. The scene they beheld gave force to the sentence He uttered. The contrast between the lamps which the priests had lit-a fit emblem of superstition-were all going out, perhaps with a noxious smell, while the mighty orb of day was rising when Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness." Whether the scene and the circumstances were as has been so well imagined, or not, the truth is fitly illustrated by the similitude. When every lamp that ever man has kindled, and fed with the oil of superstition, shall have died out, as they must expire, our Lord Jesus Christ shall, like the morning sun, make glad the sons of men! Away you go, you bright meteors of the night, around which the children of superstition execute their maddened dance of implicit belief! Away you go! Already you begin to go out! I see how you all flicker, even now. The day comes on apace in which the blast of God's eternal Spirit shall blow you out in everlasting night. But Jesus shines! He is the true Light of God and will shine on forever! "I live in the twilight of Christianity," said Voltaire, and he unwittingly spoke a truth. He thought that it was the twilight of the evening, but it was the twilight of the morning, for Jesus still shines brighter and brighter-the true Light of God before which the lamps of superstition and priestcraft must pale their ineffectual fires! This is what the Saviour meant - He was the true Light.

Very different, too, is the Light of Christ from the sparks which are to be seen all the world over. Every now and then a scientific gentleman picks up a flint arrowhead and he strikes a wonderful light with it. And he that has his tinder-box ready and a brimstone match may soon think he has got the true light-till another philosopher comes and, with the lid of the aforesaid tinderbox, puts out that light! This is the cardinal virtue of philosophers-they extinguish one another! Their fine spun theories do not often survive the fleeting generation that admires them! A fresh race starts fresh theories of unbelief, which live their day, like ephemera, and then expire. Not so the Light of Christ! It burns on and beams forever! We have friends who have been dazed by the light of "public opinion" - a very bright light is that. And we have known some decent scholars who have been enraptured with "the light of the 19th Century" - a wonderful luminary, indeed, but slightly darkened by the follies, frauds and crimes which every day's newspaper reveals! We have had the light of knowledge which lauded Aristotle, and made the heathen author supply a textbook for Christian colleges! We have heard more than enough of the light of the Church in which we can discern nothing but colors and conceits, borrowed from the medieval darkness of Christendom. But we have the trustworthy and the true when we hear Him exclaim, "I am the light." Where else shall light be found? Where shall the bewildered sons of men find a reliable guide? In the teaching of the Person, the Life, the Death, the Sacrifice of the Christ of Nazareth, we have the Light of God self-evidential, palpable by its own brilliance! Guiding Light is here, alike, clearly visible. This to follow is not fallacious. "I am the light of the world; He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness." Thus, then, is He a Light that is to be followed! Do any of you want to enjoy the light that streams from Christ? Be assured you cannot realize it by reading about it-you must follow it! If a man could travel so fast as always to follow the sun, of course he would always be in the light. If the day should ever come when the speed of the railway shall be equal to the speed of the world's motion, then a man may so live as to never lose the light. Now he that follows Christ shall never walk in darkness! To follow Him means to commit yourselves to Him, to believe Him and yield yourselves up-obediently doing what He bids-and implicitly accepting what He says. You must have no other Master. Say not, "I will be taught by Calvin," or, "by Luther," or, "by Wesley," or, "by someone else." Jesus Christ, only, must be your Light! His Word, by the testimony of His Spirit, must be your sole authority!

III. JESUS IS THE GUIDING LIGHT FOR THE SOUL. For the soul that pants after God. Do you say, with Philip, "show us the Father, and it suffices us"? Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes unto the Father but by Me." Christ is the guiding light through the multitude of authors. If you want to thread your way among them, let the early Fathers, the sturdy Reformers, the rigid Puritans and the modern Evangelists be your companions, if it so please you. But let Him be your Guide and His counsel your stay till you reach the gates of Glory. Amidst the conflict of opinions, His sure Word will prove your safe chart! He is the guiding Light through sickness and suffering-trust Him, and He will make your bed in your sickness-He will bring lasting benefits out of your most lamentable afflictions. He is the guiding Light through death's dark vale. In those gloomy shades you need fear no ill if you keep close to Him - "Sun of my Soul, You Saviour dear, It is not night if You are near." Christ has said, "He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness"-so the terror of night flies at His Presence! The atoning blood shall speak peace to you. Ignorance shall vanish before the brightness He manifests. Christ shall teach you. Despair shall dissolve before the sweet beams of hope. Even doubt, with all the indecision that comes of it, melts at the sound of His animating voice, "This is the way; walk you in it." Thrice happy the man who commits himself to Jesus! He shall always have the Light of God and shall never walk in darkness!

IV. JESUS IS THE UNIVERSAL LIGHT.

He says, "I am the light of the world." He does not merely say, "I am the light of the Jews," or, "I am the light of the Gentiles." He is both. He is the Light of all mankind! There is no clear light in which any man can discern God, or rightly understand himself, perceive the bitterness of sin, or apprehend the destiny and the doom of Heaven and Hell, but what flows through Jesus Christ! I do not doubt that among the various religious professions spread over the world-in many of which Christianity is much debased-there are devout persons who enjoy a share of communion with God and a sense of pardoned sin, though the tone of their thoughts, like the tongue of their utterances, widely differs from our own - but it is all through one common Lord, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, they find acceptance! When I get hold of a book that teaches erroneous things, yet if there is a savour of Jesus Christ in it, I censure the faults without condemning the author. Never let my strong criticisms be mistaken for anathemas. I sometimes perceive that the man who wrote it has evidently found salvation because he has laid hold of our Lord Jesus Christ. He that follows Him is on the right tack. Though he may err in a thousand minor considerations, by following Christ in the main thing, he is safe. Learn of Him and obey Him in all things-then shall you be blessed, yourself, and useful to others! Happy the man who has seen this Light and walks in this Light of Christ, for "this is the light that lights every man that comes into the world!" There is a little Light in Mohammedanism. Indeed, considering the age in which Mohammed lived, he had a great deal of Light- the religion of the Koran is immeasurably superior to the religions of the age in which the prophet flourished. He even taught the Unity of the Godhead most clearly. Yet the light in the Koran is borrowed from the Old and New Testament. It is borrowed light. The intelligence is pilfered. The light of the Parsee, the light of Zoroaster, the light of Confucius came originally from the sacred books of the Jews. From one source they must have all come, for all light comes from the great Father of Lights. Wherever you alight upon any truth in strange places about man's state and condition, or about God and the way to safety, you may rest assured that the light, if tracked to its dawn, would lead you up to Jesus Christ-for all the true Light comes from Him.

Christ is the Light of the world, destined to shed His beams over the whole earth. The day comes when all mankind will see this Light. How often I have been told of late that the world is all going to rack and ruin, and that all that we ought to do is to try and man a lifeboat and save a few strugglers, hastening ourselves to leave the wreck before she breaks up! Well now, I am not so desponding as that. I am of opinion that, by God's good Grace, we shall tug the old vessel off the rocks, and that the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, for the Lord has sworn that all flesh shall see the salvation of God! I cannot believe that this dispensation will be wound up as a tremendous failure, that the Gospel zealously preached everywhere shall result in only a few being saved, and that the whole economy shall go out in darkness as the snuff of a candle is extinguished. No, I look for better things! They who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. The isles shall bring Him tribute. Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts, yes, all kings shall fall down before Him. I cannot help believing that the Gospel is yet to be triumphant. I look for the coming of Christ. Let Him come when He may, our hearts will leap for joy to greet Him! But for this dispensation to end without success would almost seem to me like thwarting the purposes of God. It is not His way in the world. He has deliberately entered into battle with Satan, choosing poor feeble instruments like ourselves to confound the forces confronted against Him! And if He should withdraw His troops from the field, or come, Himself, to the front and take up the fight single-handed which His chosen legions could not conduct, it would look as if He had not wisely foreseen the engagement, or had needed to alter His plans to compass His ends! His Spirit can inspire inveterate feebleness with irresistible force. He can use means without miracles, or He can work wonders without wantonness. His first act foretold auspiciously. The twelve Apostles, like a little compact square of grenadiers to fight against the foe, is no ill omen! It surely does not mean that the battle shall not end till the enemy has turned his back and fled! Moreover, He keeps on sending fresh battalions. He raises up new traps and, every now and then, when the battle seems to waver, He recruits the ranks and sends out new enlistments, strengthening the ranks that are thinned and harassing the enemy with His reserves. Courage, my Brothers and Sisters! There shall be revival after revival! There shall be reformation after reformation, shock of battle after shock of battle, and the dread artillery of God's great Gospel shall be fired off against the hosts of Hell! The gods of the heathen shall fall. Antichrist shall be overthrown! Babylon shall sink, like a millstone, in the flood. The crescent of Mohamed must wane into eternal darkness! Israel shall behold her King, and the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered at His feet. So let our faith excite our courage, our courage stimulate our patience and our patience give zest to the full assurance of hope while we worship our Lord Jesus Christ as the Light of the world!

Thus have I carried out my design of amplifying on the four points that I propounded to you at the outset. Let me wind up with a personal question-Since Christ is the Light of the world, I would ask;

V. HOW ARE WE ACTING TOWARDS HIM?

Do any of us shun the Light? I know some men slight the privileges they ought to prize. They do not want to know Him whose going forth is as the light of the morning when the sun rises. They never read the Bible, or search into the history, the prophecy and the promises. They do not like an earnest ministry. They have a sort of happy-go-lucky style of religion-they take in whatever anybody else tells them-they attend their place of worship as a matter of habit, and observe all the proprieties of fashion. But as to doing right or seeking the Light of God, they seldom or never give it a thought! They do not count it desirable. Too much of the Light of God could expose much that would not bear inspection. Dear Friend, if you are afraid of the Light of God, be suspicious of yourself, for it is deceit that dreads detection! Who are the people who like darkness rather than light? If it were put to a meeting of the inhabitants of London, who would vote for putting out the gas at night? Well, I guarantee you, every burglar would! Every murderer would-and there are certain libertines who would rather like it. Every man that does evil hates the light! I do not mean to compare you with those gentlemen. Still, the saying is very comprehensive, "He that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be reproved." Of course, when some men sneer, we can appreciate their sensitiveness. The Doctrine of Christ does not suit the dissolute. Lax living never does lead up to an admiration of pure piety. What a price the profligate have to pay for their pleasures! Are you, my Friend, conscious of anything you need to conceal? Look closely at it. Recollect that you will have to look at it in that Great Day when the secrets of all hearts will be exposed. When Jesus comes "to judge the world with righteousness and His people with equity," from the light of justice, from the heat of judgment, nothing whatever shall be hid! Be wise, therefore, to repent now of the evil, lest calamity reach you when there is none to commiserate.

Do I see a curl of the lip, a shrug of the shoulder, a cynical expression of the countenance, as someone asks, "Are we really, then, to regard the Christ you speak of, the Atonement you preach, the resurrection you are so confident about, as the Light of the present age, the Light of other ages-in fact, the Light of the world?" You put it well, my Friend, and you look well as you ask the question. It occurs to me that I might meet you in altered circumstances, when your tone would be altered likewise. Flesh is frail. Your eyes will not be always full of luster. Your spirits will not be always blithe and gay. Your health will not be always strong and vigorous. Not yet have you felt your need of the Light of God which has irradiated past ages, can enlighten this age and will shine with undiminished Glory in the everlasting age! Proud man, are you a philosopher or a politician? Are you a man of science, or a mere pretender? Know this, that in darkness you did enter this world-years passed before you dreamed that life had a purpose and in darkness, still denser-you must make your exit, if, pleased with a fancy or enamoured of a fallacy, you fail to see the Light that makes time and eternity resplendent! When we preach the Gospel purely and simply, we seem to be challenging the question on the part of some of you. To what purpose? The Light of God we pro-pound, you do not need! How can I answer you? No arguments of mine will avail while you are blind to the perils you must meet with in traversing those unknown paths and untried experiences that lie before you! And as to the objections that any of you raise, let the man that takes objection to God's counsel and spurns His kindness, answer for the rashness he will have to rue! Petty scruples! Paltry excuses! They betray your insincerity! It is absurd to trifle when the outlook might well make you tremble to plead for yourselves. You will not put your cause in the hands of the Counsellor. Hence the gloom that comes of your doubts! Hence the wretchedness of a sinner's reflections on the Grace of his Redeemer! Do you quibble at the Light of God? Do you know the reason why? Well, I think it is for very much the same reason that made the Brahmin break the microscope. He thought it wicked to destroy life of any kind. He would not eat meat, or feed upon flesh, fish, or fowl, for anybody who destroyed life would destroy his own soul. "Well," said a missionary, "but you must do violence to your own conscience every time you drink, for the water you swallow teems with animalcule living, moving creatures." Then he showed him a drop of water magnified by a micro-scope. The evidence was clear, but instead of yielding to conviction, the Brahmin was enraged at the instrument which worked the discovery, so he broke the microscope! In like manner, men despise and attempt to disprove the Gospel because it reveals Truths of God that are unwelcome. It explodes their traditions! It disparages their opinions, it debases their cherished tastes and so it destroys their peace of mind! It will not let them live comfortably in sin. The love of sin and superstition, a zeal for your clan and your craft, animate your opposition to malevolence and madness! I think I hear somebody say, "I wish I could see it." Well, dear Friend, I wish I could credit your candour. The Light of God that streams from Christ is visible, but not to eyes that are shut! Not to hearts that are hardened! Not to consciences that are seared! "Open your eyes-it is all you have to do." Look, Sinner-look and live! All around you is the Light of everlasting Love. Do but open those poor eyes of yours that unbelief has kept closed so long! O Lord, open the sinner's eyes that he may now see! The Light of God is all around you, Brother! The Light is all around you, Sister! Others see it and rejoice. Only let your eyes be opened, and you shall hail the glorious orb which makes manifest all that is obscure and awful to your present apprehension!

Have you seen the Light? Is there one who says? "Well, thank God, I have seen that Light"? Then, dear Brother, dear Sister, be grateful and give thanks! We are, none of us, as thankful as we ought to be for the Light that shines in the face of Jesus Christ. There was a custom on the Alps in the olden time, which, I fear, has dropped into disuse. Someone was appointed to stand upon the topmost Alp with a great cow horn, and as soon as he beheld the rising of the sun, with a loud blast he gave notice. From peak to peak of the Alps might then be heard, in those good old days, a Psalm of praise! Oh, you happy souls that have beheld the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, tell it forth with trumpet tongue! Well may a thousand voices take up His praise! Blessed be the name of Jesus! Forever be His name adored! Magnify His Grace for the Light that shines, for the goodness it diffuses-for the joy, the abounding joy, it awakens on every side!

And now, Brothers and Sisters, let gratitude and benevolence prompt your zeal to spread the Light, to reflect it all around, near and far! I am very anxious that all the members of this Church should endeavour to disseminate the Light of the knowledge of Christ which has shone in their own hearts. I pray you, Brothers and Sisters, do not get cold, formal, or indifferent. The Truth of God you have believed through Grace is a precious trust committed to your charge. You have been a praying people, and you are still so-blessed be God's name. Do not forsake the Prayer Meetings - frequent them regularly and conspire together to make them still more full of life and energy. I have been known to say with honest gratitude that most, if not all, the members in fellowship with us were actually engaged in some work for Jesus. Is it so now? Are you all interested and occupied in telling and teaching the good news and the great lessons of the Gospel? We have no notion of leaving to pastors the whole work of the Christian ministry in which every faithful disciple should take earnest part. One man, alone, perhaps, may preach to such a throng as this, but if we are to have preaching everywhere, you must all preach by word and deed to circulate the heavenly wisdom in every sphere of earthly resort!

Oh, my Sisters and my Brothers, the best of all preaching, because the most simple and unostentatious, is to be found in the ordinary communion you hold with your fellow creatures when, with a good conversation, you avail yourselves of all the occurrences and opportunities of daily life! In your families the sweetness of your temper, the gentleness of your manners and the purity of your actions should bear witness that you have been with Jesus and learned of Him. The integrity of your business habits should speak for the sanctity of your morals and commend the school in which you have been trained. Your character must be clear, or the utterance of your lips will be despised. Then an outspoken testimony will take hold of men's hearts. Tell your children, your brothers, your sisters, and your intimate friends the way to Jesus! Tell the strangers who sit by your side, if you can, something of your own sweet experience of the Light of God that there is in Jesus! God has recently taken away some of our best workers, as you know. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, make up for the loss of one of the best of men, long known as a deacon and Elder in our midst, who is now laid aside-his health departed, his strength prostrate. Oh, Sisters, try to make up by double energy for the loss of that good Sister who was a mother among you all! Oh, let us all see to it that there are no gaps in the ranks of Christ's army which are not quickly filled up with fresh recruits! If there should happen to be a vacancy, and the man has fallen who stood next to me, I will try, by God's strength, to fight with both hands at this time till some other shall step up to take his place. Since Christ is our Light and He has ordained us to be lights in the world, let us shine to the utmost of our capacity until the Master shall take us to dwell with Him in the Light of God forever! Amen.

CHAPTER 6. THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
1 John 4:14.

There are two things joined together in the text which must never be parted - "We have seen and testify." In the first place, never let any man testify what he has not seen. If you are not personally aware of it, do not tell it - it is the personality of the testimony that is the power of the testimony. That Truth of God which you have never experienced, you had better leave to somebody else to preach. This is the cause of the failure of a great many ministers-there is no personal conversion at the back of their ministry and, consequently, no Christian life within them. Their preaching is the testimony of a man who says that he heard such and such a thing and you know how a judge will stop a witness when he begins to say what others have told him. "No, no," he says, "what did you see, yourself, my good man? What do you know about this business on your own account? I do not want to know what others said to you about it." So is it with the message delivered from the pulpit-what is needed is that the preacher should bear testimony of what he has seen, tasted, felt and handled. When you try to bring others to Christ, you must do it by bearing witness of what Christ has done for you. If He has never done anything for you-personally for you-you cannot testify for Him and must not pretend to do so.

In the next place, what you have seen you should testify. If you have seen those things for yourself, do what Mary did when she had seen the risen Christ-she ran to bring His disciples the news! What right have you to see for yourself, alone? No, no, tell the glad tidings! The Light of God is not put to your candle for the candle's sake, alone-it is that men may be enlightened by its beams. If you have received Light from God, let your Light so shine before men that they may see it and glorify God for it! I am afraid that this observation ought to trouble a great many professing Christians. They say that they have seen the Lord. I have no reason to doubt the truth of what they say, but, having seen, why do they not testify? In our text, it is written, "We have seen and testify," but in many cases, nowadays, it might be written, "We have seen and do not testify," for some who profess to have seen Christ by faith do not even come forward to confess Him in Baptism, according to His Word-and many do not unite with the visible Church and do not occupy themselves in the Sunday school, or in any form of Christian usefulness! What will become of you who, having a talent, never put it out to interest? O slothful ones, who have wrapped your talent in a napkin, how will you answer for it in the day when the Master calls your servants to give in their reckoning? If we are what we ought to be, we shall first make sure of the seeing and then we shall make equally sure of the testifying! What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. "We have seen and testify." There can be no divorce in this case, no breaking of the marriage bond-"We have seen and testify."

I am going to dwell upon these two topics, seeing and testifying, and first, I shall speak to you about Apostolic seeing, for doubtless John may be understood as referring to himself and his brother-Apostles when he says, "We have seen and testify." That will be our first theme-Apostolic seeing. And then, secondly, our seeing, or, how far Christian men and women can say, "We have seen." And then, thirdly, Apostolic testifying and our testifying, for they ought to be alike in a great many particulars.

I. First, then, dear Friends, let me speak a little about APOSTLIC SEEING. John and his fellow-Apostles say, "We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

Note that this saying was, in their case, eminently clear. Let me read to you the beginning of this Epistle - "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." These men, who were chosen to dwell with Christ, to see His miracles, and to hear His teaching, come forward with a very clear witness. They tell us that which they had seen, that which they had heard, that which they had looked upon and that which their hands had handled.

In the first place, they had heard Christ. This was a high privilege, for, "Never man spoke like this Man." Never was there such hearing as when Christ preached! The Apostles had heard their Master's voice in private as well as in public, when He expounded to them Truths of God which He did not fully explain to the multitude. What marvellous sweetness there must have been in the voice of Jesus! I have no doubt that the melody of it would ring out in the Apostles' ears as long as they lived. They knew, from what they heard from His lips, that the Son of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, was really before them, for they heard Him say things which no mere man could have uttered. They heard Him declare wonderful Truths such as never fell from the lips of anyone but the long-promised Messiah, the Divine Messenger, who was sent of God. They had heard from Him that which made them know that He was sent by the Father to save men!

John also says that the Apostles had seen Christ. For more than three years, they had seen Him daily, constantly. They had also looked upon Him, the Apostle adds, apparently meaning that sometimes they had gazed upon Him with fixed attention. You know what it is to merely see a person, but it is a different thing to look earnestly at him, to feel so struck by his appearance that you cannot help looking him up and down from head to foot. You are fascinated by him, your eyes are held captive by him, they seem to drink him in and to photograph him on your soul! Now, John says that the Apostles did that with their Lord. They saw Him and their eyes looked upon Him. They could not be mistaken about their Lord. John had seen Him on the Mount of Transfiguration and He had also seen Him on the Cross. He says, in his Gospel, when writing of the soldier piercing Christ's side, "He that saw it bares record, and his record is true: and he knows that he says true."

The Apostles, therefore, were hearers of Christ and seers of Christ. Besides that, they had handled Him. One of them had laid his head on his Lord's bosom. After He had risen from the dead, Jesus said to them, "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I, Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see I have." They were not in any doubt that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among them! They could not doubt it-all their senses testified to the real Incarnation of the Son of God. They knew that He was a real Person, clothed in real flesh and blood. Thus, they had heard, seen and handled the Christ of God!

Well now, perhaps some of you will say, "We wish we had their evidence. If we had been alive, then, we could speak, now, with much greater confidence." Listen to me - the mere hearing of Christ would not convince anybody! There were thousands and tens of thousands who heard Him, yet they heard nothing remarkable in His teaching and even turned away loathing and hating Him because of the Truth of God which they could not bear! There was not much advantage in merely seeing Him. Did not myriads see Him? Yet they saw not His Glory and did not understand that He was the Redeemer of men! Even when He hung on the Cross, many who saw Him only jeered, sneered, turned their backs and went their way. As to handling Him, did not the soldiers handle Him when they scourged Him? Did they not handle Him when they laid the Cross upon Him and when they laid Him upon the Cross? Oh, yes, there was more than enough of handling, and rough handling, too, but they were convinced of nothing even by touching the precious body of Jesus.

The fact is, Brothers and Sisters, genuine faith comes not merely by the ear, or the eye, or the hand, but it is flashed into the soul-perhaps, through the ear - but always directly by the Spirit of God operating upon the heart - and if these Apostles had not had another sense, a spiritual sense, they would have remained unbelievers! So, after all, they had no great advantage over you. And you, Beloved, who know the Lord spiritually, may also be able to truly say, "We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

But mark you, next, granting that the Apostles were spiritually enlightened, their seeing was eminently conclusive as to the mission of Christ. What they saw was not only Christ, but, "that the Father sent the Son." Now, Beloved, this was seen in Christ's miracles. It is specially recorded of our Lord's first miracle, when He turned the water into wine, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His Glory; and His disciples believed on Him." It was rather a simple miracle, the turning of water into wine, but Jesus did it in such a marvellous manner that the thought flashed upon the Apostles as He did it, "This is the Son of God! This is the Messiah!" A greater miracle which followed further on, is said to have had the same effect upon those who witnessed it. When our Lord Jesus came to the grave of Lazarus, before He raised him, you remember that He said to Martha, "Said I not unto you that if you would believe, you should see the Glory of God?" And when He had called Lazarus back from the dead, those who were round about saw the Glory of God beaming out in that miracle, and we read, "Many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him." If any of you had been with Christ during His earthly life and had been spiritually enlightened, you would have seen, in His walking the waves, or in His opening the eyes of the blind, or in His healing all manner of sick folk who were brought to Him, something of His Glory, and you would have felt that the evidence as to His mission was very conclusive. But, Beloved, the Apostles, also, had conclusive evidence as to the Saviour's mission in His life. What a life that was! I can admire the life of Elijah without wishing to imitate it. I can admire all the lives of the saints of the Old Testament and of the New, as I find them recorded, and I can even forget their failings. But there is not one, even of the purest and best lives that we have ever read in the sacred page, that leaves upon us the impression that the life of Jesus does! It is not only perfect-it is Divine! Singularly enough, it is more worthy of imitation than any other life and yet it cannot be imitated! It is the most human of all lives, but it is superhuman to a very high degree-and yet in no one respect superhuman in the sense that it cannot be copied by our humanity. It was, indeed, an extraordinary life! One who could have seen it in its different phases and learned, by the Spirit's teaching, what it all meant, must have been convinced that none but the Son of God could have lived like this. What the Centurion said about His death, the enlightened observer would have said about His life, "Truly this was the Son of God."

I cannot stay to go into all the other proofs of this point, but I am sure of this, that those gracious men, with the Spirit of God instructing them, must have felt that Jesus Christ was sent of God when they saw His miracles and when they saw His life, which was a greater marvel than all His miracles!

Still, I have not quite hit the nail on the head until I say that what they saw was eminently conclusive as to His being sent to save men-"We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." There was nothing about Christ's life that was contrary to that declaration. He cursed no man. He called no fire from Heaven upon any man. Even when wicked men had nailed Him to the tree, He breathed a prayer for them! In every way, He was not a destroyer, but a Saviour. These men were, themselves, saved-saved from known sin, saved from grovelling occupations, saved from themselves - and they knew it. They knew that the Father must have sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, for He had saved them!

They had also seen Him heal the sick. What a sight it must have been to see Him going through the crowd, as He often did, when the people were laid on their beds in the streets and others came thronging about Him! When they saw Him laying a hand on one, here, and healing another, there, and another, there, and yet others, yonder, as though He marched through a regiment of devils and cleared a pathway for Himself, not with sword and spear, but with His own gentle glance and with a touch of His loving, yet mighty hands, what a wonder! He came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them-and those innumerable cures, which He so freely dispensed, were clear proofs to the Apostles that the Father had sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world!

But they knew it still better after they had seen Him die, after they had beheld His empty sepulchre, after they had felt the descending Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Then, when the tongues of fire were given them and they went out to speak in His name and 3,000 felt the mighty touch of Grace, they knew that the Father had sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world! And when the bonds were broken which held them in as preachers to the Jews and they went throughout all Asia and boldly crossed to Europe, going everywhere preaching the Word-and Parthians, Medes and Elamites heard the Gospel, and Greeks and Romans bowed in penitence, and Philippians and Colossians flocked to Christ - then the Apostles understood that the Father had sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world! All along their lives there was this clear line of evidence of which they were quite certain-and they came forth to testify that it was so!

Thus I have brought before you the first point, that is, Apostolic seeing.

II. The second thing is OUR SEEING. Let me put a few matters very plainly and person-ally, and let each person ascertain how far he can follow me.

Brothers and Sisters, some of us have seen that Jesus is sent of God to be the Saviour of the world. HOW have we seen it? Well, first, by the power of His Word. You have noticed, I daresay, that singular incident concerning the woman of Samaria. The woman told the men of Sychar that she had met a Man who had told her all that she ever did, and she believed that He was the Messiah. They listened to her words and then they went out to hear the Saviour, Himself. He preached to them and what was the result? The Samaritans said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your saying, for we have heard Him, ourselves, and know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Saviour of the world." Do you not think that when John was writing this Epistle, the record of what the woman of Samaria said was in his mind and that he unconsciously repeated the words, "The Saviour of the world," using the very same phrase as the men of Sychar had done? They were convinced of Christ's Messiahship simply by the power of His Word!

Brothers and Sisters, there are many of us who have the same evidence as these Samaritans had! We have experienced the power of Christ's Word! I do not mean that we have felt the force of human eloquence, or that we have known the weight of human argument, but we have proved the might of the Word of the Lord. There is a certain something which goes with the Word of God which is altogether independent of the mannerisms of the preacher. It is the Truth of God, itself, which thrills us, conquers us, holds us in chains, leads us captive, sets us free, puts a new song into our mouths and makes us dance with holy joy! You know that experience, do you not? I believe that often, in this House of Prayer, my Brothers and Sisters, you have felt a power far beyond any force that human lips can possess - you know it has been so! You have gone home saying, "God has spoken to my soul, today, and I know that the Gospel is true, and that the Christ is Divine. The Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, for I have felt the matchless power of His Holy Word."

Then there are three evidences, mentioned by John in the latter part of this Epistle, each of which is a present power to us. He says, in the 8th verse of the last chapter, "There are three that bear witness in earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." Have you not felt the influence of the Holy Spirit as well as the power of the Word? Did not the Spirit come and wither your righteousness, as the Sirocco of the desert destroys the flowers of the field? Did not the Spirit of God come and put life into you when you lay like the dead? Did He not come and point you to the Saviour-even giving you eyes with which to look to Him? Has not the Spirit of God often illuminated you, quickened you, comforted you, guided you? Has He not been to you as the fire, the dew and the wind? Then, if you know the operations of the Spirit of God and, you do, unless your profession is a lie, you, also, have seen that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world!

The next witness is concerning the purging by the water. Now, has not the water, which flowed from Christ's riven side, operated upon you? If you are what you profess to be, my dear Brother, you are a clean man. Once you were foul enough, but you have been washed and now you are a different man. The things you then loved are now horrible to you, and you hate them, for a great change has come over you. You have been washed from your love of filthiness and your delight in sin! Yes, and the washing process goes on every day-you are daily helped to leave off one sin and another - you are made not only to see the evil within you, but to conquer it. Is it not so, dear Brothers and Sisters? You know that if the Grace of God has not sanctified you, you are without one great evidence of its power-but if it has changed your character, then depend upon it, you have an evidence that it came from God. Thus, we also, "have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," because He has cleansed us and made us to love holy things, and to hate everything which God hates.

The third witness tells of the cleansing by the blood. Do you know anything about cleansing by the blood of Jesus, the blood that speaks to a conscience all in a tempest through sin? The blood that gives access to God to sinners far off from Him by wicked works? The blood which we plead in prayer? The blood which has become the foundation of all our hope? I can truly say that when I first learned the Doctrine of the Substitution of Christ, His dying in my place, and understood that I had nothing to do but to look to Him and live, it was with me as when the sun shines in Lapland after months of midnight! Oh, what a blessed dawning was that to my soul! Now, if you know the power of the blood of Jesus upon your conscience and your heart, then you, also, can say, "We have seen." And I hope you may truly be able to add, "and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world!" Besides all this - the power of the Word, the influence of the Holy Spirit, the purging by the water and the cleansing by the blood of Jesus - we have other evidence, namely, the aspirations of our souls. Are there not, within you, longings and desires for which you never can account if there were not a Saviour for men? When God gave to humanity the appetite of hunger, you might have inferred from it that He meant to provide food to satisfy it. When He gave to us the capacity for thirst, we might be sure that, somewhere, there would be rippling rills from which that thirst might be slaked. When the Lord gave to us, as He has given, a sighing after holiness, a longing after nearness to Himself, a devout hope that we shall be caught up to be with Him where He is, these Heaven-given longings are proofs that they will be gratified-but they cannot be unless there is a Saviour of men! Thank God there is such a Saviour who will give us all that for which we are sighing! "It does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is."

But I need not talk of mere aspirations. As far as I am concerned, I can speak about matters of fact which prove to me the power of my Lord and Master, for I have seen the triumphs of Christ. I saw some of them last Tuesday. I am always seeing them and, God willing, I shall see some more of them next Tuesday! I have seen men who used to live in sin and drunkenness, made honest and sober! And I have seen fallen women brought to Jesus' feet as penitents! All along what is growing to be a long ministry, the chariot of the Gospel, in which I have ridden, has had captives to grace Christ's triumphs! All along, multitudes have decided to quit the ways of sin and have turned to the living God! And I must believe in the power of Divine Grace, I cannot doubt it! The proof of what the tree is, surely, is found in the fruit, and the fruit is most abundant. Ask the missionaries what Christ has done in the Southern Seas and they will tell you of islands, once inhabited by naked cannibals, where now men are clothed and in their right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus! The whole world teems with trophies of Christ and shall yet more fully teem with them. "We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," and we preach with the full conviction that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

III. So now I come to my last point and that is a practical one. Thirdly, let me speak about APOSTOLIC TESTIFYING AND OURS.

I trust that many of you can join in what the Apostle John said, "We have seen that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." Now let us bear our testimony concerning it as the Apostles did and, first, we should do it in the same manner. What was the Apostolic manner of testifying? Well, I would say that it was very fervent and ardent. Those first preachers of the Gospel never preached cold sermons. Why, some sermons hang like icicles upon the lips of the speaker, but the Apostles preached as if they were all on fire! Their lips were like the mouth of Mount Aetna when it vomits lava - every word burnt its way into the hearts and consciences of men! Never talk coldly of Christ who was on fire with love to you - preach the Gospel ardently!

The Apostles also proclaimed their message very simply. I do not believe there ever was an Apostolic sermon in which the preacher tried to show himself off. There is no record of any display of oratorical fireworks, no grand closing peroration. I always tell my students that this is the 12th Commandment, "You shall not perorate." [Speak at great length, in a grand manner.] Yet many preachers will do it-there must be something very splendid at the end of the discourse to impress people with the idea of how wondrously they can do it! Do not do it, Brothers, do not do it! Tell the people the way to Heaven and point it out to them as plainly as you can-and if there are two or three little words of plain Saxon that will do it, use them, and fling the long Latin words on the dunghill where they ought to rot! They are no good, whatever, in the pulpit, for we need speech that can be easily understood by the people-the plain speech of the common folk of our day. So the Apostles spoke and so should we.

But they also spoke very boldly. You never meet with any timidity in them. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Do not some preachers appear to apologize for what they are about to say? They trust that they will be excused for venturing to intrude their opinion. I would ask your pardon if I intruded my opinion, but in proclaiming the Gospel of Christ I have not any opinion of my own! I preach God's Word to you, and at your peril do you reject it! You are bound to receive it as it comes from Him and no apology is to be made by the man whom God sends. So the Apostles spoke boldly in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth backed up their words. If God has not sent you, my Brother, go home! But if He has, in God's name, do not apologize for His message! There is an honour put upon you by your Lord who sent you, and you must put honour upon your Master by being faithful to Him.

Thus, like the Apostles, we have to bear testimony for Christ, and we should do it in the same power. What was the power with which the Apostles testified? Was it the power of their superior education? They had not any, with, perhaps, the exception of Paul. They could manage a boat better than most of us can, but that was their principal attainment. Did they speak in the power of being ( - what is the word, now?) "en rapport with the spirit of the age"? I may as well use a fine expression sometimes! Did they speak as men "keeping themselves abreast of the times"? Not a bit of it! They hated "the spirit of the age" in which they lived and struggled against it with all their might! What was the source of their power? Their only power was the Holy Spirit and, Brothers, we, also, must come to see that there can be no power in us to win a soul for Christ but the supernatural energy of God the Holy Spirit! If we have that, the work will be done. If we are without it, we shall be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.

Then, again, if we are to testify as the Apostles did, we should do it with the same message. What was that message? "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." Then, the world is lost. We must not stammer in saying that! And every man in the world is lost by nature and by practice, lost, with a great loss, a loss from which he cannot recover himself, a loss from which only God can save him! We must bear our testimony to that Truth of God. Then we must dwell upon the Sender of the Saviour-"The Father sent the Son." That great Father against whom we have rebelled, who will bring His wandering children home, again, "The Father sent the Son." We must also testify much about the Sent One. "the Father sent the Son," not an angel, not a man prepared by education or training, but He sent the Son out of His own bosom, the Son out of the glories of Heaven! The Eternal Son of God, commissioned by the Father, came to earth! And with what design did Jesus come? He came to save, to save by making such a propitiation for sin that God could be justified, and also the Justifier of him that believes. He came to save by delivering us from the dominion of sin, that henceforth we should not serve sin, but should be lifted above it, right away from the power of everything that held us as slaves to Satan. And what was the scope of Christ's work? "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." He did not come to condemn the world, but to save it, that the world, through Him, might be saved. His one mission here was to be the Saviour. He will come a second time to be the Judge of all-but in His first coming, He came to be a Saviour, and only a Saviour. He has gone up into Heaven, but He is still the Saviour, able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him-and He is the only Saviour.

In a certain district there may be many who pretend to cure the sick, but only one who is qualified to act as surgeon. And there are many who pretend to save, but there is only one qualified Saviour beneath the cope of Heaven, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is here styled, "the Saviour of the world," because He is the only Saviour in the world. As a man may be said to be the doctor of a district because he is the only doctor in the district, so is Christ the Saviour of the world because He is the only Saviour who ever was or ever will be in this world!

He is "the Saviour of the world," that is to say, of all ranks, classes and conditions of man. No difference of colour, no difference of race, no difference of wealth, no difference of talent, no difference of standing and rank, no difference of education and attainment makes any difference to Him. Jesus Christ has come to be the Saviour, not of the rich, nor of the poor. He has come to be the Saviour, not of the learned, nor of the ignorant, but, "of the world." He comes to save men as sinners. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," not merely great sinners or little sinners, open sinners or secret sinners, but plain "sinners." This is the sort of people for whom He laid down His life. He has come to seek and to save that which was lost, not that which was lost in one particular way or in another special way, but that which was lost any way-lost to itself, lost to God, lost to goodness, lost to hope, lost to Heaven-yes, if lost to morality, Jesus Christ has come to seek and to save that which was lost!

He was sent to be the Saviour of the world because no man, believing in Him, is excluded from the merit of His death. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He will ultimately, as a matter of fact, save none but His elect. This will be the end of all His coming, and living, and dying-but that does not conflict, for a single moment, with the universal invitation that is to be given to you and to every creature under Heaven- "Whoever will, let Him take the water of life freely." Whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life. "Come unto Me," says Christ, "all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

What I am saying is the result of what I have seen and of what many here have seen. "We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." Will you, dear Hearers-I speak to some who have never heard me before-will you accept our testimony? If you judge us to be false, you will not receive it, but if you have judged us to be honest and true men, accept what we declare to you!

I pray you, receive our message, for to what end do we bear our testimony? I should like John to say a final word to you and then I will have done. This is why we bear our testimony, we do it with the same design that led John to write concerning the life of Christ, "and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this Book: but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name." There is salvation! There is Christ ready to save! Look to Him, blind eyes! Look to Him, dead souls! Look to Him! Say not that you cannot-He in whose power I speak will work a miracle while yet you hear the command and blind eyes shall look, and dead hearts shall spring into eternal life by His Spirit's effectual working! God grant that it may be so, for His dear name's sake! Amen.

CHAPTER 7. THE ROYAL PRINCE AND SAVIOUR

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."
Acts 5:31.

This was part of the answer of Peter and the other Apostles to the question and declaration of the high priest - "Did not we command you that you should not teach in this name? And, behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your Doctrine and intend to bring this Man's blood upon us." Then Peter and the other Apostles replied, "We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree." And, in the verse following our text, they claimed to be witness-bearers for the risen and reigning Prince and Saviour. And, more than that, they declared that they were co-witnesses with "the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to them that obey Him." These Apostles were the representatives of Messiah, the Prince, acting under His authority and, as far as they could, filling up the gap caused by His absence. They asserted that their preaching and teaching had been done by Divine Command which could not be set aside by any human authority-imperial or ecclesiastical-and that the true Prince of Israel, the Son of David, alone, had the power and the right to issue commissions to those who owned allegiance to Jehovah. They declared that Jesus, whom the chief priests had crucified, was still alive reigning in Glory, enthroned at the right hand of God and that they were only fulfilling His royal commands when they were "standing in the Temple and teaching the people."

Moreover, when the Apostles stated that in addition to being a Prince, Jesus was also a Saviour, and that He had been exalted with His Father's right hand in order that He might "give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins," they gave the very best reason in the world for their preaching-for they were all engaged in preaching that sinners should repent - and in assuring those who did repent that their sins were forgiven for Christ's sake! I cannot conceive of any better argument than this which the Apostles used when answering the high priest-"You command us not to teach in Christ's name, but the command of the Son of God, our Prince and Saviour, is 'that repentance and remission of sins beginning at Jerusalem.' So, as we 'ought to obey God rather than men,' we have filled Jerusalem with His Doctrine. And we mean to go on preaching repentance and remission until, as far as we are able, we have filled the whole world with this Doctrine." That purpose of Christ was, at least in part, fulfilled by the Apostles in their day. God did give repentance and remission of sins to a chosen remnant of Israel. And when the rest of the Jews rejected the testimony of Christ's servants, they said, as Paul and Barnabas did to the Jews at Antioch, "It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." We must never forget, Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that we owe the first preaching of the Gospel to the Jews. They were, in all lands that were then known, the heralds of Christ, publishing the royal proclamation far and wide. Under the old dispensation, "unto them were committed the oracles of God" and the Gospel of the New Covenant was, in the first instance, entrusted to them-and it was through the Jews that it was made known unto us Gentiles! Let us remember this fact as we contemplate the glorious future, both of Jews and Gentiles. Israel as a nation will yet acknowledge her blessed Prince and Saviour. During many centuries the chosen people who were of old so highly favoured above all other nations on the face of the earth, have been scattered and peeled, oppressed and persecuted, until sometimes it seemed as if they must be utterly destroyed-yet they shall be restored to their own land which again shall be a land flowing with milk and honey. Then, when their hearts are turned to Messiah the Prince and they look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn over their sin in so long rejecting Him, the fullness of the Gentiles shall also come and Jew and Gentile, alike, shall rejoice in Christ their Saviour!

In taking such a text as this, I think it is always right to first give the actual meaning of the passage before using it in any other way. This I have already done by showing you what I suppose the Apostles meant in replying as they did to the high priest. Now let us try to gather other Truths of God from this passage.

I. First, let us learn that ALL WHO RIGHTLY RECEIVE CHRIST RECEIVE HIM BOTH AS PRINCE AND Saviour. He is exalted this day for many purposes-as a reward for all the pangs He endured upon the Cross, as our Covenant Head and Representative - and that He may rule over all things for the good of His Church, as Joseph ruled over Egypt for the good of his brethren. Christ is exalted as a pledge of our exaltation, for, "we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is."

But our text declares that God has exalted Jesus that He may be to His own chosen people a Prince and a Saviour - not that He may be a Prince only, or a Saviour only, but that He may be both a Prince and a Saviour! He is a Prince to receive royal honours. A Prince to be the Leader and Commander of His people. A Prince whose every word is to be instantly and implicitly obeyed. A Prince before whom we who love Him will gladly bow, even as in Joseph's dream, his brothers' sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf and as they, themselves, afterwards "bowed themselves to him to the earth" when he became a great lord in Egypt. The Lord Jesus Christ is a Prince among men, a Prince in His Church and a Prince in the highest heavens! Indeed, He is more than a Prince as we understand that word, for He is "King of kings and Lord of lords." But He is also a Saviour to be trusted. A Saviour to be accepted with our whole heart. A Saviour who exactly meets our needs, for we feel that we need to be saved, we recognize our inability to save ourselves and we perceive in Him the ability, the Grace, the power and everything else that is required in order to save us! So He is a Saviour to be trusted and accepted as well as a Prince to be obeyed and honoured!

Let us never imitate those who talk of Christ as a Prince, but will not accept Him as a Saviour. There are some who speak respectfully of Christ as a great Leader among men, a most enlightened Teacher and a holy Man whose life was perfectly consistent with His teaching so that He can be safely followed as an Example. He is their Prince, but that is all. We cannot occupy such a position as that! If we were to say that Christ is our Prince but not our Saviour, we would have robbed Him of that honour which is, perhaps, dearer to Him than any other! It was not simply to reign over the sons of men that He came from Heaven to earth-He had legions of nobler spirits than those that dwell in bodies of clay, everyone of whom would gladly fly at His command to obey His behests! Besides, if He had pleased to do so, He had the power to create unnumbered myriads of holy beings who would have counted it their highest honour to be subservient to His will! Mere dominion is not what Christ craved-from of old His delights were with the sons of men because He had covenanted with His Father that He would save them. Therefore was He called Jesus, because He came to save His people from their sins! In order to accomplish that great purpose, it was necessary for Him to take upon Himself our nature and to live a life of perfect obedience to His Father's will and, at last, to die a shameful death upon the Cross that He might offer the one Sacrifice for sins, forever, that alone could bring salvation to all who believe in Him! We never read that Jesus said to His disciples, "I am longing for the hour when I shall take the reins of government into My hand and wear upon My head the crown of Universal Sovereignty." But we do read that He said to them, "I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it is accomplished." We never read that He said to the Jews, "I am come to rein over you." On the contrary, when men would have taken Him by force and made Him a king, He hid Himself from them. He was a King, but not a man-made king, and His rule was to be a contrast to that of every other monarch! Christ's own description of His mission was, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." I think that our royal Saviour puts the saving before the ruling-and if I call Him, Prince, and deny Him the title of Saviour, He will not thank me for such maimed and mutilated honours! No, God exalted Him to be a Prince and a Saviour-and we must receive Him in both offices, or not at all.

For, mark you, we cannot really receive Christ as Prince unless we also receive Him as Saviour If we say that we accept Him as our Prince, but reject Him as our Saviour, is there not merely disloyalty, but treason of the deepest dye in that rejection? This gracious Prince tells me that I am lost and undone and bids me trust Him to save me. If I practically tell Him that I do not need Him to save me-and I do that by rejecting Him-I virtually say that He came from Heaven to earth on an unnecessary errand, at least as far as I am concerned. If I do not put my trust in His expiatory Sacrifice, I say, in effect that His death upon Calvary was a superfluity by which He foolishly threw away His valuable Life in needless Self-sacrifice! But that would be rank blasphemy! If I reject Christ as Saviour, I do by that very act reject Him as Prince. It is sheer mockery for me to say, "I honour Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, but I refuse to be washed from my sin and uncleanness in the fountain filled with His blood! I am willing to accept the Man Christ Jesus as my Exemplar and I will try, as far as I can, to follow His steps, but I will not accept pardon at His hands." If I talk like that, Christ is neither my Prince nor my Saviour, and I am His enemy! And unless I repent and bow before Him in real homage, and accept Him both as Prince and Saviour, He will at the last condemn me with the rest of His enemies who said, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." You may extol Him with your tongue, but the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart would be far more prized by Him than all your empty praises! It is a higher praise to Christ to stoop to kiss His pierced feet and find in His wounds perfect healing for all the wounds that sin has made, than to pronounce the most fulsome compliment upon His spotless Character! He needs not the meaningless flatteries of men, but He thirsts for the trustfulness of souls that are willing to be saved by Him! This is the best refreshment He can ever have, as He told His disciples when He had won to Himself the soul of that poor fallen woman at Sychar, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me and to finish His work."

There are some who seem willing to accept Christ as Saviour who will not receive Him as Lord. They will not often state the case quite as plainly as that, but as actions speak more plainly than words, that is what their conduct practically says. How sad it is that some talk about their faith in Christ, yet their faith is not proved by their works! Some even speak as if they understood what we mean by the Covenant of Grace, yet alas, there is no good evidence of Grace in their lives, but very clear proof of sin (not Grace) abounding. I cannot conceive it possible for anyone to truly receive Christ as Saviour and yet not to receive Him as Lord. One of the first instincts of a redeemed soul is to fall at the feet of the Saviour and gratefully and adoringly to cry, "Blessed Master, bought with Your precious blood, I acknowledge that I am Yours- Yours only, Yours wholly, Yours forever! Lord, what will You have me to do?" A man who is really saved by Grace does not need to be told that He is under solemn obligations to serve Christ-the new life within him tells him that. Instead of regarding it as a burden, he gladly surrenders himself-body, soul and spirit, to the Lord who has redeemed him, reckoning this to be his reasonable service. Speaking for myself, I can truthfully say that the moment I knew that Christ was my Saviour, I was ready to say to Him - "I am Yours and Yours alone, This I gladly, fully own! And in all my works and ways, Only now would seek Your praise. Help me to confess Your name, Bear with joy Your Cross and shame, Only seek to follow Thee, Though reproach my portion be." It is not possible for us to accept Christ as our Saviour unless He also becomes our King, for a very large part of salvation consists in our being saved from sin's dominion over us-and the only way in which we can be delivered from the mastery of Satan is by becoming subject to the mastery of Christ! The "strong man armed" cannot keep us under his cruel sway when the stronger One overcomes him and sets us at liberty! In order that we may be rescued from this power of the Prince of Darkness, the Prince of Light and Life and Peace must come into our soul-and He must expel the intruder and take His rightful place as our Lord and Master, guarding by His own power what He has saved by His own right hand and His holy arm! If it were possible for sin to be forgiven and yet for the sinner to live just as he lived before, he would not really be saved. He might be saved from some part of the punishment due to sin, but he would still be a most wretched man, for if there were other punishment for sin than the slavery and tyranny of sin's own self, that would be punishment enough to make a man's life utterly miserable, like the poor wretch chained to a corpse and compelled to drag it about with him wherever he went. Let a man once know what sin really is and he needs nothing else to make him thoroughly unhappy. I was talking, only today, with a Christian Brother about our crosses and I said that I thanked God we were not left without a cross to carry. "Ah," my Friend replied, "but, there is one cross we would gladly throw away if we could, and that is the heaviest cross of all-the body of sin and death that is such a burden to us." Yes, that is, indeed, a grievous burden to true Christians! That is the iron that enters into our very soul. That is the gall of bitterness, the deadly venom of the old dragon's teeth and, therefore, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we do not really receive Christ as our Saviour unless we also receive Him as Prince. But when He comes to reign and rule in our mortal bodies, the tyranny of the usurper is broken and we know Jesus as the complete Saviour of our body, soul and spirit. He would not be our Prince if He were not our Saviour - and He would not be our Saviour if He were not our Prince-but what a blessed combination these two offices make!

The man who is taught of God to understand this great Truth of God will be a wise teacher of others. I believe that many errors in Doctrine arise through lack of a clear apprehension of Christ's various relationships towards His spiritual Israel. To some, Christ is only a Prince, so they have a sort of lifeless legality. Others live in Antinomian licentiousness because Christ is not the Prince and Lord of their lives. Beloved, he who receives Christ both as Prince and Saviour has the blessed and happy experience of resigning his own will and subjecting all the passions of his soul to the sacred control of his glorious Prince and, at the same time he daily realizes in his soul the cleansing power of the precious blood of Jesus and so, as Mary sang, his spirit rejoices in God his Saviour! This, also, is the true Christian practice as well as the Christian Doctrine and experience-to be always "looking unto Jesus" as my Saviour, feeling that I always need Him in that capacity and that I shall need Him to save me even to my last moment on earth - yet also looking up to Him as my Prince, seeking to be obedient to Him in all things as far as I can learn His will from His Word and by the teaching of His Holy Spirit. And to conform my whole life to the royal and Divine commands that He has issued for my guidance. I have not the time to enlarge upon this Truth, but it seems to me that there is a practical lesson to be learned from the fact that all who rightly receive Christ receive Him both as Prince and Saviour.

There are preachers who preach mere morality. I trust their number is smaller than it used to be, but there are still too many professedly Christian ministers who are like that notable man who said that he preached morality till there was no morality left in the place. Yet afterwards, when he imitated Paul and preached Christ crucified, he soon found that vice hid her dishonoured head and that all the Graces and virtues flourished under the shadow of the Cross! So have we found it and, therefore, whoever may preach anything else, we shall still stick to the old-fashioned theme that Paul preached-that old, old story which the seeker after novelties condemns as stale, but which, to the man who needs eternal life and longs for something that will satisfy his conscience and satiate his heart-has a freshness and charm which the lapse of years only intensifies, but does not remove!

II. The second lesson we learn from our text is that REPENTANCE AND REMISSION OF SINS ARE BOTH NEEDED BY THOSE WHO DESIRE TO BE SAVED. Those needs are clearly indicated by Christ's offices as Prince and Saviour. Inasmuch as He is a Prince, we must repent of our rebellion against Him. And inasmuch as He is a Saviour, He is exalted with His Father's right hand to give us remission of sins as well as repentance-and we must have both these blessings if we are to be saved!

First, we cannot be saved without repentance. No remission of sin can be given without repentance. The two things are so joined together by God, as they are in our text, that they cannot be separated. Many mistakes are made as to what true evangelical repentance really is. Just now some professedly Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that "repentance is only a change of mind." It is true that the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind, but the whole teaching of Scripture concerning the repentance which is not to be repented of is that it is a much more radical and complete change than is implied by our common phrase about changing one's mind. The repentance that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving Grace that is worked by the Holy Spirit! God-given repentance makes men grieve in their inmost souls over the sin they have committed - and works in them a gracious hatred of evil in every shape and form! We cannot find a better definition of repentance than the one many of us learned at our mother's knee:-

I am always afraid of a dry-eyed repentance and, mark you, if forgiveness should be granted to those who were not sorry for their sin, such forgiveness would tend to aid and abet sin-and would be no better than the Romish heresy that when you have sinned, all you have to do is to confess it to a priest, pay a certain sum of money according to the regular Roman tariff and start over again on your career of evil. God forbid that we should ever fall into that snare of the devil! If I could keep on living in sin and loving it as much as I ever did, and yet have remission of it, the accusation of the blasphemer that Christ is the minister of sin would be a just one! But it is not so! On the contrary, we must loathe sin, leave sin and have an agonizing desire to be clean delivered from it-otherwise we can never expect the righteous God to say to us, "Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven."

Besides, if remission of sins could be obtained without repentance, the sinner would be left very much as he was before. Indeed, he would be in a worse condition than he was in before. If God could say to him, "I forgive you," and yet he remained unrepentant, unregenerated, unconverted-he would still be an enemy of God, for "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither, indeed, can be." Forgiveness would only make such a man a more impudent, hardened, self-righteous enemy of God than he was before! If there is not such a thorough Spirit-worked change in him that he flings away his weapons of rebellion and casts himself penitently at the feet of his offended Sovereign, I fail to see in what sense we can call him a saved man. No-repentance is the absolutely necessary prelude to remission!

On the other hand, we cannot be saved without the remission of our sins following upon our redemption. God exalted Jesus "with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Note that, "repentance," and, "forgiveness of sins," are separate and distinct Gifts of the exalted Christ. Our repentance does not entitle us to claim from God the pardon of our sin apart from His gracious promise to give it to us! If I get into a man's debt and then feel sorry that I owe him so much money, that regret will not pay my debt. If I transgress the law of the land and when I stand in the dock, say how grieved I am that I have broken the law, my sorrow will not pay the penalty that I have incurred! The magistrate or judge, in passing sentence upon me, may remit a portion of it because of my contrition, but I have no right to claim even that clemency on his part! And before God my sorrow for my sins gives me no claim upon Him for the remission of them. No, I must say to Him, as Toplady so truly sings:-

Suppose I do now hate some sin that I once loved or that I hate all sin? No credit is due to me, for that abhorrence of sin is what I ought always to have had! God had the right to claim from me the hatred of sin of every sort, but that hatred does not discharge the debt which I owe to God. I will go further than that and say that no one ever repents of sin so thoroughly as he does when he knows that it is forgiven. Hence when Christians begin their new life, they do not repent once and then leave off repenting-but repentance and faith go hand in hand with them all the way to Heaven! Indeed, dear old Rowland Hill used almost to regret that in Heaven he might not still have the tear of penitence glistening in his eyes, but of course, that is not possible, for of the redeemed in Glory it is expressly declared that, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

III. Thirdly, and very briefly, BOTH REPENTANCE AND REMISSION ARE GIFTS FROM CHRIST. God has exalted Him "to give repentance ... and forgiveness of sins."

The same Lord who gives the remission also gives the repentance. This is worked in the Holy Spirit, yet it is not HE who repents, He cannot do so-and, besides, He has nothing of which He needs to repent! But we repent, and though it must always be our own act, yet it is Jesus' gift to us and the Spirit's work in us. Jesus bestows this gift upon us in His capacity as Saviour-and we never truly repent until we recognize Jesus as our Saviour and put our whole trust in His atoning Sacrifice. Smitten by the Cross, our rocky heart is broken and the streams of penitential tears gush forth even as the water leaped from the Rock smitten by the rod of Moses in the wilderness! When Jesus grants the Divine Grace of forgiveness, at the same moment He gives the tender heart that mourns that it should have needed forgiveness. I believe that if this Truth of God were thoroughly understood, it would help many more to receive the Calvinistic system of theology which now puzzles them. I know that when I first realized that my repentance was the gift of God, the whole Doctrine of Salvation by Grace fell into my soul as by a lightning flash!

The other side of the Truth is that the same Lord who gives the repentance also gives the remission. No one will dispute the fact that the forgiveness of sins is the free gift of the exalted Saviour. This priceless blessing could never be purchased by us, or deserved by us on account of our feelings, promises, works, or anything else. It is a gift-freely, wholly, absolutely a gift of God's Grace! It is given with repentance, but not given for or because of repentance! And wherever remission of sin is given, it works in the soul more and more repentance of sin, but it is, in itself, a gift independent of repentance, yet given with it-a royal gift from the royal Saviour exalted with His Father's right hand. So what you have to do, dear Friends, is to look to Christ, and to Christ alone to give you penitence while you are impenitent, and to give you pardon when you are penitent. So, as Hart sings:-

CHAPTER 8. "I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst."
John 6:35.

Our Saviour used expressions concerning Himself which might be turned to another meaning than He intended. He did not guard His words by saying, "I am like bread, and faith is like eating and drinking," but He said, "I am the bread of life," and, "except a man eat My flesh and drink My blood there is no life in him." He did this not only because from His own sincerity of heart it was not in Him to be forever fencing around all His speeches, but also with a set purpose, because His speech was so plain that if any man misunderstood Him it would be the result of his own perversity of mind and not the effect of any obscurity in the Lord's language. Thus by fixing a low and sensual meaning upon elevated spiritual language the men of His time would be discovered to be none of the Lord's chosen - and the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed.

While He was preaching, His words were like a refiner's fire, bringing out the pure metal, but separating it from the dross and making that dross to appear the worthless thing which it really was. It would clearly appear that men hated the light when they perverted the clearest expressions of the Lord of Light into foolishness or mystery. Our Lord's mission was not so much to save all whom He addressed as to save out of them as many as His Father gave Him. And He used His mode of speaking as a test - those who were His under-stood Him. Those who were not His and were not taught of the Father, viciously put a literal meaning upon His spiritual words and so missed His Divine teaching. To this day the memorable expressions of our Lord in this chapter remain a stumbling block to some, while they are full of glorious instruction to others!

We see the world every day parting more and more definitely into two camps-the camp of the chosen of God, to whom is made known the mystery of the kingdom, the babes in Grace who read the simple teaching of the Gospel and rejoice in it - and on the other side the carnal host who hear the Word, but look no deeper than its outward letter, to whom it becomes a "savour of death unto death," because they pervert the Lord's spiritual Word to a carnal meaning and straight-way heap unto themselves abounding ceremonies and pierce themselves through with deadly errors. I scarcely think that the prominence of Sacrament-arianism nowadays is to be altogether regretted-it is only a more clear and manifest severing of the precious from the vile.

There is a division as marked as between death and life, and as deep as Hell, between the spiritual Church which believes in Jesus and the carnal Church which believes in sacraments - between the regenerate who look to Christ upon the Cross - and the twice dead who believe in a piece of bread and pay reverence to a wine cup. The Saviour spoke in symbols, that the proud might hear in vain - that hearing they might not hear and seeing they might not perceive - executing upon that self-conceited generation which rejected Him the judicial sentence of the Lord, for their hearts were waxen gross, their ears were dull of hearing and their eyes had they closed.

But now, speaking to those to whom the Lord has given to understand His meaning, let me say our Saviour uses very simple figures. Think of His calling Himself bread! How condescending, that the most common article upon the table should be the fullest type of Christ! Think of His calling our faith an eating and a drinking of Himself! Nothing could be more instructive! At the same time nothing could better set forth His gentleness and humility of spirit that He does not object to speak thus of our receiving Him. God be thanked for the simplicity of the Gospel! The longer I live the more I bless God that we have not received a classical Gospel, or a mathematical Gospel, or a metaphysical Gospel! It is not a Gospel confined to scholars and men of genius, but a poor man's Gospel, a plowman's Gospel - and that is the kind of Gospel which we can live upon and die upon.

It is to us not the luxury of refinement, but the staple food of life. We need no fine words when the heart is heavy, neither do we need deep problems when we are lying upon the verge of eternity, weak in body and tempted in mind. At such times we magnify the blessed simplicity of the Gospel! Jesus in the flesh made manifest becomes our soul's bread. Jesus bleeding on the Cross, a Substitute for sinners, is our soul's drink. This is the Gospel for babes-and strong men need no more.

Again, it strikes me as being very noteworthy, and especially very worthy of thanks, that our Saviour has taken metaphors of a very common character so that if our hearts are but right we cannot go anywhere but what we are reminded of Him. At our tables we are very apt to forget the best things. The indulgence of the appetite is not very promotive of spirituality, yet we cannot sit down to table but what the piece of bread speaks to us and says, "Poor Soul, you need even bread to be given you. You are so needy that your bread must be the gift of heavenly charity. Jesus has come down from Heaven to keep you from absolute star-vation. He has come down to be bread and water to you." As you take up that loaf and think of the processes through which it has passed before it has become bread, it preaches a thousand sermons to you!

The sowing of Jesus as a grain of wheat in the earth. His grinding between the millstones of Divine wrath. His passing through the fiery oven. We see the sufferings of Jesus in every crumb we put into our mouths. Why, the Lord has hung the heavens with His name and made them tell of His love! Yon sun proclaims the Sun of Righteousness and every star speaks of the Star of Bethlehem. You cannot walk your garden, or go into the streets, or open a door, or put on your clothes without being reminded of the Lord Jesus!

I remember once visiting a poor Christian in the hospital who had often attended my ministry, and he said, "Why, Sir, you have given us so many illustrations, that as I lie in bed everything I see, or hear, or read of, brings to mind something in your sermons." How much more true is this of our Great Teacher! We are glad that He has hung up the Gospel everywhere till every dewdrop reflects Him and every wind whispers His name. Day and Night talk to each other of Him and the hours commune concerning things to come.

With this as a preface, let us come to our subject. Our text in a very simple way tells us, first, that Jesus Christ is to be received. That reception is here described-"I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst." The second doctrine of the text is that when Jesus Christ is received, he is superlatively satisfying to the soul - "Shall never hunger" - "Shall never thirst."

I. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS TO BE RECEIVED BY EACH ONE OF US PERSONALLY FOR HIMSELF. An unappropriated Christ is no Christ to any man. Bread which is not eaten will not stop our hunger. The water in the cup may sparkle like purest crystal, but it cannot slake thirst unless we drink it. To get a personal hold of the Saviour is the main thing and the question is how is this to be done. How is Jesus Christ to become a Saviour to me? You will observe that in this chapter and, indeed, everywhere else, the mode of obtaining an interest in Christ is never mixed up with the idea of fitness, merit, preparation, or worth. The text says, "He that comes to Me." It says nothing of preparation before coming, nor of any meritorious actions. It is a simple coming, as a beggar for alms, or a child for its father's help. The other description is, "He that believes on Me." There is nothing there of merit. In fact, faith stands in direct opposition to meritorious working. And if we read of eating Christ and drinking Christ, the act is entirely a receptive one, nothing given forth, but everything received, reminding us of that memorable passage, "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name." It is all a matter of receiving, not of bringing to Christ! We come to Him empty-handed. We believe in Him without any deserving of our own and in that way, and in that way only, Jesus Christ becomes our Saviour.

Let us dwell on these expressions for a few minutes. The first is, that we come to Him. "He that comes unto Me shall never hunger." I suppose this represents the first act of faith by which men enter into spiritual life-we are alienated from Christ, but after hearing the Gospel we are, by the Holy Spirit, led to think of Him, to consider Him, to study Him and to judge that He is the Saviour whom we need. Our alienation from Him is turned into desire for Him and we come to Him beseeching Him to be our Saviour. We come to Him. It is a motion of the heart towards Him, not a motion of the feet, for many came to Jesus in body and yet never came to Him in truth. They were close to Him in the crowd, but they never touched Him so that virtue came out of Him. The coming here meant is performed by desire, prayer, assent, consent, trust, obedience. It means that I hear what Christ is and learn what God says He is-that He is God and that He is Man - that He came into the world to take the sins of men upon Himself and to be punished in their place.

I hear all this and assent to it. I believe in Jesus and I say, "If He died for all those who trust Him, I will trust Him. If He has offered so great a Sacrifice upon the tree for guilty men, I will rely upon that Sacrifice and make it the basis of my hope." That is coming to Jesus Christ! The term is very simple, yet it is not so very easily explained to others because of its being so simple. If you are taught of the Father you will know full well what it is, but if not I fear that the most plain words will not make you understand. Perhaps I may illustrate coming to Jesus by an incident connected with the hymn which we sang just now.

I think I have read somewhere that Mr. Wesley was one morning dressing. His window looked out towards the sea and there was a heavy wind blowing. The waves were very bois-terous and the rain was falling heavily. Just then a little bird, overtaken by the tempest, flew in at the open window and nestled in his bosom. Of course he cherished it there, and then bade it go on its way when the storm was over. Impressed by the interesting occurrence, he sat down and wrote the verse:-

Imitate that poor little bird if you would have Christ-fly away from the wrath of God, fly away from your own convictions of sin, fly away from your dark forebodings of judgment to come-right into the bosom of Jesus which is warm with love to sinners:-

The second description given us of the way in which Christ becomes ours is by believing on Him. Here, again, I have to explain a word which needs no explanation except one flash of light from the Holy Spirit. And I question whether any other light was ever sufficient to make it clear. And that not because of any real obscurity, but because of the wilful blindness of unrenewed nature. To believe on Christ means to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of men. But it includes far more than that. You may be very orthodox in your notions about Christ. In fact, you may believe what the Bible states about Him and yet you may not have saving faith in Him. "He that believes on Me." What if I put the word "trusts" instead? "He that trusts in Me." Or he who leans all his weight on Me, who, knowing such and such things to be true, acts as if they were true and shows the reality of his belief by the simplicity of his reliance. Knowing that Christ came to save sinners, the Believer says, "Then I depend upon Him to save me." Knowing that Jesus was the Substitute for human guilt, he says, "He is the Substitute for my guilt. If He came and took sin upon Himself, then I trust Him and therefore know that He took my sin, that He bore, that I might never bear, His Father's righteous ire." And is Christ really a man's Saviour the moment he believes? Yes, the moment he believes! But suppose his former life has been scandalous? It is forgiven him for Christ's name sake. But suppose that the moment before he so trusted Christ there was no good thing in him whatever?

Jesus Christ died for the ungodly and He is "able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him." But suppose he should be imperfect afterwards? It is no supposition, he will be! But, "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin." A very blessed text assures us that, "There is a fountain opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." It is not a fountain merely for common sinners, but for those who are God's people and yet sin. They still find cleansing where they found it at the first. "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous." Faith is an act of reliance upon Christ's great Sacrifice and wherever the Holy Spirit works it in men it makes Christ to be theirs-so that they shall never hunger and shall never thirst.

But I pass on to the third way in which we are said to receive Christ. It is not in the text in so many words, but we must consider it, because, though not there literally, it is there spiritually. It is eating and drinking. We are to eat Christ and to drink Christ. Oh, it is monstrous, it is monstrous that out of bedlam there should live men who should dream that Jesus taught us literally to eat His flesh and to drink His blood! I am more and more astounded at this 19th century. I have heard it praised for its enlightenment and progress till I am sick to death of the 19th century and am right glad that it is nearing its close. I hope the 20th century will be something better. Surely no period of time has been more given to superstition!

Even the age of witchcraft bids fair to be outdone by the age of Ritualists. Here you have idiots in high places - absolute, stark, staring idiots-who preach to men that they are to turn cannibals in order to be saved. Surely such an act, if it could be perpetrated, must rather be the nearest way to be damned! What greater crime could there be than for men literally to eat the flesh of their own Saviour? I cannot speak too strongly against so extraordinary, so monstrous a perversion of the teaching of our Lord. What He meant by our eating His flesh and blood is just this - we believingly receive Him into our hearts and our minds feed upon Him. We hear of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as the Substitute for sinners-we believe it and so receive the Truth of God as men receive bread into the mouth.

Now, in eating we first put the food into our mouths. As a whole it goes into the mouth and even thus, as a whole, Christ Jesus is received into our belief and trust. The food being in the mouth, we proceed to chew it. It is broken up, it is dissolved. Our taste finds out its secret essence and flavour - and even in this way the believing mind thinks of Jesus, contemplates Him, meditates upon Him and discovers His preciousness. We see far more of our Lord after conversion than we did at first. We have believed in Him knowing but little of Him. But by-and-by we comprehend with all the saints what are the heights and depths and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Jesus becomes more comforting, and more delightful as we comprehend more clearly who and what He is. Our faith, which we placed implicitly upon Him, now sees a thousand reasons for a yet fuller confidence and so is strengthened.

For instance, the ordinary Believer believes in Jesus Christ because He is a Divine Saviour. But the instructed Believer sees in Jesus Christ fitness, fullness, variety of offices, glory of Character, completeness of work, Immutability and a thousand other things which endear Him. In this way the Truth concerning the Lord is, as it were, masticated and enjoyed. But the process of eating goes further-the food descends into the inward parts to be digested - and there is a further breaking up and dissolving of it. So the great Truths of Incarnation and Sacrifice are made to dwell in the memory, to lie upon the heart, to rest in the affections till their essence, comfort and force are fully drawn forth. Oh, it is unbelievably refreshing to let these grand Truths of God dwell in us richly, to be inwardly digested! Have you ever chewed the cud with the Truths of the Gospel, turning them over, and over, and over again as delicious morsels for your spiritual taste? Can you say with David, "How precious, also, are Your thoughts unto me, O God"? If so you know what spiritual eating is. When that is done the food is next assimilated and taken into the substance of the body. It passes from the digesting organs to those which assimilate it. Each portion of the body draws forth, in its turn, proper nutriment from the food and so the whole man is built up. It is just so with the great Truths, that Christ became Man and died in man's place-these are inwardly received by us till our whole nature draws from them a satisfying and strengthening influence. By a sort of mystic sympathy the Truth of God is being fitted to the mind and the mind requiring just such Truth, our whole nature drinks in Christ, and His Person and work become our mind's joy, delight, strength, and life. As a man thinks in his heart so he is, and therefore our thoughts of Jesus, and faith in Him, build us up into Him in all things.

Now, as a man who has feasted well and is no more hungry, rises from the table satisfied, so we feel that in Jesus our entire nature has all that it needs. Christ is All and we are filled in Him, complete in Him. This is to receive Christ. Beloved, if you want to have Christ alto-gether your own, you must receive Him by this process. Merely to trust Him gives you Christ as food in your mouth. To contemplate, to meditate, to commune with Him is to understand Him, even as food is digested and is ours. Further prayer and fellowship and meditation assimilate Christ so that He becomes part and parcel of our very selves. Christ lives in us and we in Him! We ought not to forget, as we are dwelling upon this, that the two points about Jesus Christ which He says are to us meat and drink, are His flesh and his blood.

We understand by His flesh, His Humanity-our soul feeds upon the literal, real, historical fact that "God was in Christ." That, "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us"-and men beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth. My soul's main comfort today is not a doctrine. I get a great deal of comfort out of many doctrines, but the bottom comfort of my soul is not a doctrine but a fact. And it is this fact-that He who made the heavens and the earth, and without whom was not anything made that was made, was born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem and for 30 years and more did actually, not in fiction or romance, but in very deed, dwell as a Man among men! That fact is my soul's food!

The historical fact that Christ Jesus was flesh and blood, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, a Man like ourselves - this, I say, is nourishment to our spirits, and believing it we feel a joy unutterable, for we know that He who sits upon the Throne of God is a Man. Jesus was made "a little lower than the angels," but now, in the Person of Christ, He is crowned with glory and honour! We now know that God cannot hate manhood, because Christ is a Man. Christ has reconciled God to manhood because He represented manhood and the thoughts of God towards man are, for Christ's sake, thoughts of love and not of evil!

The other point in which Jesus is food to our mind is His blood. This most clearly refers to His sufferings and to His vicarious death. Bread and wine are put upon the communion table as separate symbols-not bread and wine mixed together - that would destroy the teaching. The wine is distinct from the bread, because when the blood is separated from the flesh there is before you the sure evidence of death. Now the true drink of a thirsty sinner is the fact that Christ died in his place. I will repeat what I said-my great hope as a sinner does not lie in a doctrine and my consolation as a trembling criminal before the bar of God is not founded in any opinion or doctrinal statement - but in a FACT.

He who is very God of very God did hang upon a Cross of wood, upon the little mount of Calvary just outside the gates of Jerusalem, and there in unutterable agonies beneath the wrath of God made expiation for the sins of all who believe in Him! There is my hope! There is yours, my Brothers and Sisters. Yes, there is all our hope. Very well, then, do you not see that the way to obtain the benefits of the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe in His being God and Man, to believe in His dying as the God-Man, and to rest upon this, and to contemplate this, and to turn to it again and again and again, so that, having marked and learned, you may also inwardly digest those unspeakably glorious mysteries of Incarnation and of Sacrifice?

I have set the Gospel before you now, for if any man among you will do this, Christ is yours! Here is Christ to be had for nothing! Christ to be had simply by trusting Him, by coming to Him! As the vessel obtains its fullness by its emptiness being placed under the flowing stream. As the beggar's needs are relieved by putting out his empty hand to accept an alms, so you are to obtain Christ by coming to Him as empty sinners. He is given to you for nothing - freely given to you of God - and whoever will, may have Him! And if you have Him not, it is not because He has rejected you, for He has never rejected one that has come to Him, but because you have rejected Him. Dear fellow Sinners, may God the Holy Spirit grant you Grace to receive Jesus and to be saved by Him!

II. The second part of our subject is this. WHERE JESUS IS RECEIVED HE IS SUPREMELY SATISFYING. He is supremely satisfying, mark you, to our highest and deepest needs, not to mere fancies and whims. Christ compares the needs of men to hungering and thirsting. Now hungering is no sham. Those who have ever felt it know what a real need it indicates and what bitter pangs it brings. Thirst, also, is not a sentimental matter, it is a trial, indeed. What pain can be worse beneath the skies than thirst?

Now Jesus has come to meet the deep, real, pressing, vital needs and pains of your nature. Your fear of Hell, your terror of death, your sense of sin-all these Jesus has come to meet and all these He does meet in the case of all who come to Him-as everyone who has tried Him will bear witness. Jesus Christ meets the hungering of conscience. Every man with an awakened conscience feels that God must punish him for sin, but as soon as he perceives that the Son of God was punished instead of him, his conscience is perfectly appeased and will never hunger again. Until men know the Truth of the Substitution of Jesus you may preach to them what you will and they may go through all the sacraments, and they may suffer many bodily mortifications-but their conscience will still hunger.

My God, whom I offended, became a Man and for my sake He suffered what I ought to have suffered. Therefore my conscience rests gratefully contented with so divinely gracious a way of satisfying justice. Men, when once awakened, have a hunger of fear. They look forward to the future and they scarcely know why, but they feel a dread of something indefinable and full of terror. And especially if they are near to die, horror takes hold upon them, for they know not what is yet to come-but when they find that Jesus Christ, who is God, became Man and died for men, that whoever trusts Him might be saved-then fear expires and love takes its place. The dove in the cleft of the rock feels no more rude alarms. Terror cannot live beneath the Cross, for there hope reigns supreme. Nor shall fear ever return, for the work of Jesus is finished and, therefore, no hiding place for fear is left.

The heart, also, has its hunger, for almost unknown to itself it cries, "O that someone loved me and that I could love someone whose love would fill my nature to the brim." Men's hearts are gluttons after love. Yes, like death and the grave they are insatiable. They hunt here and there, but are bitterly disappointed, for earth holds not an object worthy of all the love of a human heart. But when they hear that Jesus Christ loved them before the world was, and died for them, their roving affections find rest. Like as Ruth found rest in the house of a husband, do we come to peace in Jesus. The love of Jesus casts out all hankering for other loves and fills the soul! He becomes the Bridegroom of our heart, our best Beloved, and we bid the meaner things depart.

In the love of the Father and the Son we dwell in sweet content, hungering and thirsting no more. If the ocean of Divine Love cannot fill us, what can? What more can a man need or wish for? - "My God, I am Yours. What a comfort Divine, What a blessing to know That my Saviour is mine! In the Heavenly Lamb Thrice happy I am, And my heart it does dance At the sound of His name."

The heart's hunger is removed eternally by Jesus. Then there are vast desires in us all and when we are quickened those desires expand and enlarge. Man feels that he is not in his element and is not what he was intended to be. He is like a bird in the shell, he feels a life within him too great to be forever confined within such narrow bounds. Do you not, dear Friends, feel great longings? Does not your soul seethe with high ambitions? Our immortal nature frets beneath the burden of mortality! Its spiritual nature is weary of the chains of materialism.

That hungering will never be hushed into content till we receive Christ, but when we have Him we learn that we are the sons of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ and that it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear we shall be like He is, for we shall see Him as He is. This opens up before us a splendid future of unfading glory and unbounded bliss-and we feel that we need no more. Since we are Christ's and Christ is God's, all things are ours and our hunger is forever over. The only contented man in the whole world is he who has believed in Jesus and he is contented just because he has obtained all that his nature needs:-

Because I could not desire more than all and Christ is All in All. My Beloved, this perfect satisfying of our nature is to be found nowhere else but in Christ. Some have tried to be satisfied with themselves and their own doings. They have despised the bread of Heaven, for they dreamed that they could live without bread-they would be self-contained men - they would make themselves happy with themselves. But it is a wretched failure. The poor Bushmen, when they have nothing to eat, tie a girdle around them and call it the hunger belt. And when they have gone a few days they pull it tighter and tighter still, in order to enable them to bear hunger-so any man who has to live upon himself will have to draw the hunger belt very tight, indeed. A soul cannot be persuaded by philosophy to content itself without its necessary food. Eloquence may try all its charms to that end, but it will be in vain.

Who can convince a hungry man that he needs not eat? Some have gone to Moses for bread and, mark you, the two greatest bread-givers in the world are Moses and Christ. Moses fed the tribes in the wilderness for 40 years and Jesus feeds His people always. But Moses' bread never satisfies. Those who eat it, before long call it light bread. And if they have been satisfied with it for a time, yet there is the mournful reflection that their fathers did eat it and are dead. There is no life in the bread of the Law. But he who gets Christ has a bread of which he shall eat forever and ever, and shall never die.

I am told that there is country-I think it is Patagonia-where men in times of need eat clay in great lumps. They fill themselves with it, so as to deaden their hunger. I know that many people in England do the same.

There is a kind of yellow clay which is much cried up for staying spiritual hunger-heavy stuff it is, but many have a vast appetite for it. They prefer it to the choicest dainties. When a man fills his heart with it, it presses him down to the very earth and prevents his rising into life. Some have tried to stay their hunger by the narcotics of scepticism and have dosed themselves into lethargy. Others have endeavoured to get ease through the drugs of fatalism. Many stave off hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter which are not hungry because they are asleep. Such persons come to the House of God asleep. They would not like to be aroused, for if they were to do so they would wake up to an awful hunger. I wish they could be awakened, for that hunger which they dread would drive them to a soul-satisfying Saviour. But, depend upon it, the only way to meet hunger is to eat bread, and the only way to meet your soul's need is to get Christ in whom there is enough and to spare, but nowhere else.

I shall close by saying that all Believers bear witness that Jesus Christ is satisfying bread to them. When do you get most satisfied on a Sunday, Beloved? I do not know whom you may happen to hear, but what Sundays are the best to you? When your minister rides the high horse and gives you a splendid oration, and you say, "Dear me, it is wonderful" - have you ever felt satisfied to think it over on Monday? Have you ever felt satisfied with sermons composed of politics and morality, or very nice essays which would suit the Saturday Review if they were a little more caustic? Do you enjoy such meat? I will tell you when I enjoy a Sunday most-when I preach Christ most-or when I can sit and hear a humble village preacher exalt the Lord Jesus.

It does not matter if the grammar is poor, so long as Jesus is there! What some call platitudes are dainties to me if they glorify my Lord Jesus Christ. Anything about Him is satisfying to a renewed spirit-cannot you bear witness to that? When I have preached up Jesus Christ-and I think I generally do so, for the fact is, I do not know anything but Him, and I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Then, I say, I know you go away and say, "After all, that is what we need - Christ Crucified, Christ the sinner's substitutionary Sacrifice, no sham Christ, no mere talk about Christ as an example, but His flesh and blood, a dying, bleeding, suffering Christ - that is what we need." Now I have the witness of every Christian here to that! You are never satisfied with anything but that-are you? No matter how cleverly the doctrine might be analysed, or however orthodox it might be, you cannot be content with it-you must have the Person of Christ, the flesh and the blood of Christ-or else you are not content. And, Beloved, those who have once eaten and drunk Christ never seek additional ground of trust beyond Christ. They never say, "I am resting upon Christ, but still I should like to be able to depend a little on my Baptism." I never heard a Christian talk in that fashion in my life! I never heard a man say, "I rest in the blood of Jesus, but still, I wish that I could have a bishop's hands put upon my head so as to give me a confirmation of my faith." I never heard that in my life and I do not expect I ever shall! We are perfectly satisfied without priests, and without sacraments! Jesus Christ is the one sole Foundation upon which we build!

Again, I have never found those who rest in Christ needing to shift their confidence. Those who need something new every Sunday are those who know not the Saviour. Truly, if you have not the bread from Heaven, you may well cry out for all manner of dishes, for each one will soon spoil. But if you have the bread of Heaven, you need Christ on the first of January and every day till the last of December. I have never heard a Christian assert that Christ did not satisfy them in the days of sickness or in the hour of death. I came to you this morning fresh from the sick bed of a venerable Christian man, close upon his 80th year, and I said to him, "Now, dear Sir, here are three or four young people around your bed. We are going forth on our pilgrimage relying on Christ, believing that He is faithful and true. You have gone a great deal further than we have. Will you, therefore, kindly correct us if we are under a mistake? Have you found that the Lord has not fulfilled His Word? Have you found that He has not been true?"

It was a blessed sight to see the man of God and hear him say, "Not one good thing has failed of all that the Lord God has promised." And then he added, "I will sing of mercy, for it has been mercy, all mercy, all the way through." "Do you feel any fear about departure?" I said to him. "Oh! dear, no," he said. "I am willing to wait, or willing to go. But I am full of the expectation of beholding Him who loved me and gave Himself for me." Ah, the bridge of Grace will bear your weight, Brothers and Sisters! Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yes, tens of thousands have gone over it! I can hear their tramping, now, as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of Salvation. They come by the thousands, by the myriads! Ever since the day when Christ first entered into His Glory, they come, and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days, but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight! I will go with them trusting to the same support! It will bear me over as it has borne them! They who have eaten Christ and drunk Christ shall not hunger or thirst in their last hour, trying as it will be.

Saints have died saying, "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over." God grant us Grace to live upon Christ evermore. Amen.

CHAPTER 9. "I AM THE DOOR"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture."
John 10:9.

How very condescendingly the Lord Jesus Christ sets Himself forth! The noblest figures of speech are not too lofty to describe His merits. If we could speak with the tongues of poets and of angels, we could not adequately represent His loveliness and though the writers of the Scriptures, Inspired by the Holy Spirit, have used language which exceeds all other in majesty and beauty, even they are not able to tell all the excellence of the Glory of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yet, beloved Friends, when He speaks of Himself, He is pleased to use no lofty imagery, no far-fetched metaphors - He talks of Himself one day as water, and another day as bread-and here He deigns to call Himself a door. The illustration is exceedingly simple! Who is there that will not understand it? He means that as by passing through a door we enter into a house, so by passing through Christ Jesus, by faith, we enter into eternal life, enter into the true Church and ultimately shall enter into Heaven!

"I am the door." This metaphor is not only simple, but it is wonderfully commonplace. The dealers in profundities will not like this expression. The gentlemen who must have something new-something very striking-will hardly admire this kind of talk but then, our Lord does not court their admiration. His objective is not to win the applause of the wise and the poetical, but to win the souls of the poor and the needy, to bring them to eternal life-so He uses what many call a child's figure, a commonplace figure, "I am the door."

He has selected this emblem, I should think, partly that it may often come before our notice. You will not go out of this place without seeing a door! You will not get into your own house without seeing a door and when you are inside, you will not get into your parlor without seeing a door. And when you go up to bed, you must pass through a door. When you rise, tomorrow morning, and start to go out to work, you will have to open a door- probably two doors- and when you reach your work, there is pretty sure to be another door to be entered. Doors meet your gaze almost everywhere, so our Lord Jesus Christ seems to say to you, "I will meet you wherever you are. Anywhere and everywhere, I will speak with you and plead with you. I will make the door of every room in your house and the door of every cupboard, too, preach a little sermon to you, as you shall be reminded by it that 'I am the door.'" I am sure our Lord Jesus Christ does not want His ministers to deliver mag-nificent orations, spread-eagle sermons, with long and elaborate sentences in them. He wants them to just come and talk as He talked, in all simplicity, so that the very poorest and most illiterate of their hearers may understand their meaning, embrace the Truths of God they proclaim and find everlasting life in Him of whom they speak. So I shall try to do at this time, keeping the style of my discourse congruous with the text.

We will begin by noticing first, the door Secondly, the users of it "By Me if any man enters in." And, thirdly, the privileges of each of these users. ' 'He shall be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture."

I. First, then, concerning THE DOOR.

"I am the door," says Jesus, and the first thought that strikes us is, the necessity of it Here is the house of mercy and, inside, there is washing for the filthy, healing for the sick, food for the hungry, clothing for the naked. But suppose there had been no door to the house-what use would it have been to us? Suppose there had been only windows, through which we could look in and see the provision prepared there? And suppose that we could hear the songs of those who were permitted to partake of it, but there was no door by which we could enter in? All the mercy of God would have only been a tantalizing of our hunger in such a case as that. The house of mercy, without a door, would have been a house of misery to us! Look at this picture, if your eyes can perceive it-the city that lies foursquare, that mighty city, whose pinnacles tower on high so loftily that the height is as great as the breadth, and the breadth is the same as the length. Her very foundations are of precious stones and her twelve 12 gates are priceless pearls! Can your eyes gaze, even for a moment, on that brilliance that outshines the sun? And can you hear the sound of harpers harping with their harps within that city whose streets are of pure gold?

But suppose there was no door there and that our spirits had to go flying with awful beating of weary wing, round, and round, and round that solid wall, but never finding a gate where we could enter? What hope would there be for a soul shut out from the city of the perfect, the home of the blessed, because there was no door of entrance? Yet there would not have been any door if it had not been for Christ! Our sins had, as it were, walled up God and shut Him in-and walled us up and shut us out! There would have been for us no going in to God, nor any coming out from God to us, had it not been for Christ, the Mediator through whom we draw near to God because, in Him, God has drawn near to us! See, then, the necessity for this door and, blessed be His holy name, see how Christ meets this necessity. We needed a door by which we can get to God-and Jesus says, "I am the door."

Next, observe the singularity of it. "I am the door." Is there no other entrance, then, into the Divine Mercy? Is there no other entrance into the true Church? Is there no other entrance into the eternal blessedness of Heaven except by Him? No, there is no other, for He says, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he shall be saved." But suppose a man will not enter by this door-may he not climb up some other way? If he should attempt to do so, he would be a thief and a robber - and God would know how to deal with him! He may think himself a bold and cunning man, and a man to be praised, for he has tried to enter into eternal life and glory by a way of his own, but God calls him a thief and a robber, and out he must go to the prison where such evildoers abound!

No, there is only one door. You may search the whole realm of Nature and you shall never discover another. Not by self-sufficiency, nor self-righteousness, nor priests, nor rites and ceremonies-not by anything of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, can you obtain admission there:-

Believe in Jesus! Put your trust in Him and you are saved! But, unless you come to Him in that way, there is only one sentence for you-"He that believes not shall be damned." There is no hope of salvation by any other means. Our Lord Jesus Christ has Himself said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be damned." So that there is singularity in the way by which God has supplied our necessity and, therefore, Christ said, "I am the door."

But, to my mind, the chief point in my text is personality. If we come to the Lord Jesus and say to Him, "O Lord, You can teach us how to get to Heaven; will You be pleased to tell us how we can enter the house of mercy, and the Church of God, and the Kingdom of Glory at the last?" He answers, "I am the way. I am the door." What do You mean, great Master? Tell us, what is the door? "I am the door." But, surely, Lord, You mean that by copying and imitating You, we shall enter in, right? He shakes His head and says, "Not so. I am the door." But surely, You mean that by attending to certain rites which You have ordained, we shall enter, right? My Brothers and Sisters, He did not say that! He simply said, "I am the door." "But does not Christ mean that by being orthodox and believing certain doctrines which He has taught us, and which are identified with Himself, we shall thereby enter into life and be saved?" He does not say that! He says, "I am the door." "But is not Baptism the door?" No, for He says, "I am the door." "But is not the Lord's Supper the door?" No, for He says, "I am the door." "But, surely, holy living must be the way into the Kingdom of Heaven!" No, it is not, for Jesus says, "I am the door." Jesus Himself, personally, is the way into His Kingdom. There is no door into His sheepfold except Himself-His own Person. So we must just come and believe in Him, and trust in Him, for He is the door!

Would not some of the so-called "priests" lock us out of the fold if they had the keys? Thank God they have neither the key nor the charge of the door, for whoever believes in Jesus, to whatever church he belongs outwardly, or if he belongs to no visible church at all, if he does but come to God by Christ, he is saved, for Christ is the door-and nothing else is the way of entrance - neither this opinion, nor that external doing, nor such-and-such works, nor such-and-such feelings, but Christ Himself, and Christ alone. The incarnate God - our substitutionary Sacrifice who rose again from the dead for our justification, who ascended up to the Majesty on high, whose, prevalent plea is always being presented on His people's behalf and who is coming back again, by-and-by-He it is who is the door - and only by Him can we enter the true Church on earth, and the "Church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven."

Notice, dear Friends, in the fourth place, over this door the word suitability. Jesus says, "I am the door." You know that every door has two sides to it and so has Christ. Our side of this door is His Humanity. Oh, how freely and how gladly we may come to Christ! I think that if any of us had seen Christ when He was here on earth, we would have felt no desire to get away from Him, but we would have been delighted to draw near to Him. If, in this place, just now, a little child could see Jesus Christ as He was in the days of His flesh, I am sure that the boy or girl would soon have his or her hand in Jesus Christ's hand, for He was so sweet and loving, and tender, that the children gladly ran to Him. So that is our side of the door-Christ's gentle Manhood. But what is God's side of the door? It is the full splendour of Christ's Godhead, "for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." So, our side of the door is Christ's gentle loving Manhood, but what is God's side of the door? It is the full splendour of Christ's Godhead and we can only come to the Father through Him whose name is Emmanuel, "God With Us."

And what do I see over that door but His own sprinkled blood, so that we may be quite sure of being accepted with God, for has not the Lord said to us, as He did to Israel in Egypt, "when I see the blood, I will pass over you"? Therefore, the door is Christ Jesus, so let me put the Truth very plainly and say that if any of you wish to be saved, it must be by coming to God through Christ Jesus! You cannot be saved in any other fashion or way. But you will certainly be saved if you come to God by Christ Jesus. He is the door and He is an open door and a door available for you if you will but enter in by Him! May His blessed Spirit sweetly incline you to do so! Then all the rich promises of this text shall be yours-you shall be saved, and you shall go in and out and find pasture.

II. Now, in the second place, I am to speak of THE USERS OF THIS DOOR.

"By Me if any man enters in." What is the main purpose of a door? It is to give admission to the house. There are some persons who stand and look at the door or perhaps praise it, saying, "What a fine door that is!" Yet they do not go in through it. And I have known people who liked to hear Christ ex-tolled, yet they did not yield themselves to Him. They said, "That was a rich Gospel sermon," but they did not trust the Christ who was preached! They looked at the door - that was all. There are others who occasionally knock at the door. They tell me that they have often prayed to God, but that they have never been heard. Well, it is wise to knock at this door, but is not enough to knock, for the text does not say, "By Me if any man knocks, he will be saved," but, "by Me if any man enters in, he will be saved." I have known some persons who have sat down on the step of this door - some of you have been sitting there a long time. You have been hearing the Gospel and you have listened to it with some degree of attention. So far, so good. But if you do nothing more, you are simply sitting down on the doorstep. Doors were not made for us to sit on the doorstep. Little children frequently do that at your houses, do they not? You often wish they did not, yet there they will sit and play. But that is not the purpose for which the door was intended. A door is made for us to pass through it, not for us to sit down in front of it. If a man stands and admires your door, or if he knocks at your door and yet still sits on your doorstep, he is not making the right use of the door. According to our text, the proper way to use a door is to enter in by it- and that is the right way to use Christ-to enter in by Him!

There are some who do not do that, but they very jealously guard the door. They stand like sentinels outside the door. They are true Protestants and their blood is on fire at the very thought of the Pope. They like to read books that bully everybody who does not agree with them. Only let a heretic come near-they are orthodox enough to knock him down, directly. They are protecting the door, but they do not go through it. I have marvelled to find some men downright bigots in defence of the Gospel which they have never received themselves! They would not allow anybody to say a word against it on any account whatever. They are righteously indignant at error, yet they have never been saved by the Truth! I would not like to be a hungry man set to guard a loaf of bread, to have to walk up and down like a soldier with bayonet fixed, and all the while to be dying of starvation, my bones sticking out through my skin, yet never eating a crumb. Taking care that no Zulu ever came near the bread, shooting anybody who approached it, but never getting a morsel to eat myself! There are numbers of people who are doing just that-they are simply sentinels at the door, remaining outside all the while. But the proper use of the door of salvation is to enter in by it, so our Lord Jesus says in our text.

Note, particularly, the description given of those who use the door "By Me if any man enters in." Christ does not say, "By Me if any king or prince should enter in." No, thank God, He says, "If any man enters in" - any man from the slums, any man from the abode of poverty or vice-"He will be saved." Christ does not say, "If any highly intelligent person is able to understand the plan of salvation, He will be saved." It is not difficult to understand, for it is only like going through a door-and everybody knows how to do that. You coal-heavers, who have strayed in here, and you squires from the country who have your pockets well lined, and you poor people who have your pockets empty. You who have good characters and you who would do better if you were to lose your present characters, for they are no good to you, my text is so broad in its comprehension that it shuts none of you out! "By Me if any man enters in he will be saved."

I want to call your special attention to this point, for, evidently, this entering in is irrespective of character because a man can go through a door whether he is the biggest thief that lives, or the most honest man in the world! He does not need to be a good fellow to go through a door. And when Christ says, "any man," He means the sinner who deserves the deepest Hell. It means me. It means you, my Friends, who are in the same condition as I was in when I came to Jesus! "By Me if any man enters in, he will be saved." Perhaps someone says, "Do you mean to tell me that men are to go to Heaven without being holy?" I tell you no such thing! But I say that they are to come to Christ without being holy. They trust in Christ and then He makes them fit to go to Heaven, but, at their first coming to Him, there is no fitness required. You are to come just as you are-downright bad, through and through-just pass through this door!

Going through a door is a very simple action. It may be performed by an idiot, or by a baby who can but just toddle. That is faith-passing from this side of Christ to the other side-passing from where I am, in myself, to be reconciled with God by trusting in Jesus Christ. Passing through a door is not a long operation. It can be done in the twinkling of an eye, and so can a man be saved in the twinkling of an eye. Passing through a door is not a difficult operation if the door is open-and coming to Christ is not a difficult operation. I will tell you when it is difficult-when a man has an enormous load of what he calls, "good works," upon his back! I have seen people in that condition. They could not get through the door at all! They had such a mountain of good works that they could not get through the doorway! A wagon load of hay was nothing to the load they carried - they could not pass through the strait gate. The man who gets to Christ most quickly is the one who is utterly stripped of everything of his own.

Some people cannot get through this door because they carry their heads too high. I believe that he who is bowed down to the dust, on his hands and kneels, is the man who gets in most easily. He who is nothing, he who is nobody, he who is undeserving, ill-deserving, Hell-deserving, he who has no hope apart from Christ is the man who most quickly finds hope in Christ! Righteous self is very hard to get rid of, and that is the great difficulty of passing through this door.

You see, then, that character is not set down as a fitness for Christ. Neither is feeling to be set down as a preparation for coming to Christ. Christ needs nothing to prepare a sinner for Him. That poor man who was wounded and left half-dead on the road to Jericho would have been in a still worse plight if the Samaritan had said to him, "Now, my good man, I am willing to help you, but you are hardly fit to be helped. I am afraid you do not feel your wounds sufficiently. I am afraid you are not sensible enough of the bruises you have received. I am afraid that at the present moment you are scarcely awakened to your danger. You seem to me to be half stupefied by that crack you had on your head, so I must leave you, I am afraid, until you are able to feel a little more and to be better prepared for me to help you." He did nothing of the sort, but he just brought out his oil and wine and he tore his coat, took a piece of rag to bind up the wounds and lifted the poor fellow up and set him on his own beast and took him to the inn.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ is far better than that good Samaritan, but He acts on the same principle. He comes to the sinner just where he is and He does not need him to feel this or feel that, or be this or be that, or do this or do that - just to trust Him, to rest in Him and in Him alone, and He will pour in the oil and the wine, and heal the sin-sick soul! Feeling or no feeling, if you will pass through that door, you shall be saved! If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not condemned and, therefore, you are saved!

So now I leave that point, only praying the Lord to make it very plain to all who have heard it. It may seem, to some of you, to be the plainest thing in the world, for you have heard it so often, but I tell you, Beloved, that the poor trembling sinner needs to hear this over and over and over again, for although it is put in the plainest Saxon that can be discovered, he will not understand it till the Holy Spirit opens his understanding. They still think there is something to do, like that old German Lutheran woman who said, "I do not understand this. My minister asked me a hundred questions before he thought I was converted and, as for me. I was groaning and crying for many years before I dared believe in Jesus Christ." That is just the way with many-they will do anything except trust Jesus then and there! Yet the Gospel-the true simple Gospel is, "Christ is all. Trust Him and be saved." He is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all," therefore, trust Him, trust Him, trust Him, trust Him and, then and there, salvation is yours! "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me"-that is all he has to do - "he will be saved."

III. Now, very briefly, I want to speak of THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO USE THIS DOOR ARIGHT.

The first privilege of the right users of it is salvation. Those who have entered in by Christ, the Door, are saved. He says, "By Me if any man enters in, he shall be saved"-saved from the guilt of sin, saved also from the power of sin. He shall be saved from being what he has been in the past. He shall be so saved as to enter into holiness, and so saved as to enter into Heaven. What a grand salvation that is!

"Oh," says one, "I could believe in Christ if I felt that I was saved." Never put the cart before the horse! That is reversing the proper order of things! Trust in Christ and then you are saved. Go through the door of which I have been speaking to you. "Oh, but I wish I felt that I was saved." Go through the door, Man, for our Lord Jesus says, "By Me if any man enters in, he will be saved." There is no text that says, "If any man shall wait outside the door, he will be saved." There is no encouragement given to people to say, "We will sit and wait till the angel troubles the pool." The command of Christ is, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." The message of the Gospel is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." A Gospel that tells sinners to wait is not the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ blesses. His word is, "Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." "By Me if any man enters in, he will be saved."

And what follows this salvation? The next privilege is liberty-"He shall go in and out." We do not come to Christ to be shut up in a prison-we shall go in and out. There is no such liberty as you who believe in Jesus have-liberty to go to your bed at night and to feel that it does not matter whether you wake up here or not! Liberty to go out into the world and feel that losses and crosses cannot happen to you without your Father's permission and that you will have Grace to bear them! Liberty to go wherever you please on the errands of God, always protected by His almighty power! Do not imagine that walking with God, as Enoch did, means a narrow and confined life. He only has true largeness of heart who has God dwelling in his heart.

Then notice the further privilege that is included in this liberty-that is, liberty of access. "He shall go in." He who goes through the door - that is, believes in Christ - shall go in to God in prayer to pour out his heart before the Lord. He shall go in to the Church to have fellowship with all the saints. He shall go in to that secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him and, one day, he shall go into the innermost Heaven, into that blessed circle where God reveals His love in the highest degree. "He shall go in." And he shall have liberty of egress, as well as liberty of access, for, after he has been with God in private, he shall go out and - "Tell to sinners round What a dear Saviour he has found." He shall go out to bear his cross with joy and to lift up his Captain's banner with confidence. He shall go out farther and farther afield, learning more of the things of Christ, discov-ering more and more how great are the estates of God which cannot be enclosed within a fence, but which exceed all space and can only be compared with eternity and infinity!

Then there is added the privilege of nourishment - "and shall find pasture." Whatever his heart needs to live upon, to fill it, to sustain it, to comfort it, to make it grow, to develop it, to perfect it, he shall find it all in Christ Jesus his Lord and Saviour! When a soul comes to Christ and receives life, it does not receive a life that will ever die, for Jesus, who is our Life, is also the Bread of Life and we live upon Him, and feed upon Him, and so our life endures until, in its full expansion, we enter into our eternal inheritance before the Throne of God!

These, then, are the privileges of those who enter in by Christ the Door-salvation, liberty, access, egress and nourishment for the soul. Who will have all these things by entering the door? Sometimes, when I have preached the Gospel with all my might, I go home and think to myself, "Oh, I am grieved for those people who will not lay hold upon Christ! I could cry my heart out over them." But, at other times, I feel that I must take God's side of the matter and say, "Well, if they will not have salvation - if His Son has been torn from His own bosom and put to death to save men, and yet they despise Him-if God writes His message of love in letters of blood, the blood of His own well-beloved Son, and still men refuse to accept it-then their blood be upon their own head!" If Jehovah stoops right down from Heaven and says, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool"-if He goes out of His way, as it were, to plead with sinners, by His mighty love and by the precious blood of Christ, His Son, I sometimes think that if they will not come to Him then, I am more inclined to blame them than to pity them! If they will not see what God sets before them and they are then struck blind, who can blame the justice of God? Surely, they deserve the deepest Hell who refuse and reject the Christ of God!

Suppose that a man was standing at your door and that he said he was starving-and that you pointed to the door and bade him enter? But he says, "Yes, I see the door." "Well, then, enter it and you shall have food." "No," he says, "I am very hungry, but I am afraid I do not feel my hunger enough to entitle me to go in." You say, "My dear Fellow, enter in." "But-but-but-I-I-I-" he keeps on saying and you reply, "My dear Fellow, do you see the door?" "Yes," he says. "Well, then, enter in!" He says that he is ready to faint, that he feels so sick, he needs medicine. You answer, "Everything is inside that door and the only condition is, 'Enter in.'" "Oh, dear," he cries, "I am worse than I thought I was! I am covered all over with a foul disease. I dare not go in." Still you say to him, "Enter in. Everything is ready, come along with you-do not wait outside any longer." "But I cannot climb over the top of the roof." "I did not ask you to do so! I said, 'Come in by the door.'" "But I cannot dig through the cellar and come up that way." "I did not ask you to do anything of the kind! Come in by the door."

Is not that what the Apostle meant in the chapter we read? "Say not in yours heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down from above) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what does it say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the Word of faith which we preach, that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in yours heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."

"But I thought - I thought" - the man still says, "that to get such great mercy as to be fed, and to be clothed, and to be healed-I thought that there would be something for me, to do, some performance for me to go through." You say to him, "My dear Man, I have told you over and over and over again that everything depends upon your just entering in by that door. Will you do it?" He comes right up to the door. He looks through the doorway, it is wide enough for him to pass through, and there is all that he needs just on the other side of the door. He says, "I am almost persuaded to enter, I am very near the Kingdom." "But," you exclaim, "my dear Fellow, you will perish, near as you are, if you do not take one step more, over the threshold, into the house! Receive what is provided and all will be well with you! But if you will not enter, you must perish."

I think I hear somebody say, "Then, I will do it! I will trust Christ, whether I may or may not." You are a saved man if you only did it while I was speaking the word, for there was never a soul that said, "Christ shall be All-in-All to me," but Christ really was All-in-All to that soul! May the Holy Spirit bring many of you to that blessed decision! And God shall be glorified, and you shall share His joy forever and ever! Amen.

CHAPTER 10. "I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD" - WHOSE GOODNESS NEVER FAILS

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep."
John 10:11.

These words were spoken when our Lord was among His own people. Perhaps as you hear them there comes a whisper in your soul, "I wonder whether that is true now? If the Lord Jesus in His flesh were here at this moment, in the midst of us, and if He said, 'I am the Good Shepherd,' we might find it easy to believe it. But He has gone. What assurance have we that it is the same now, when He is no longer among us?" I answer, "Dear Brothers and Sisters, we know it is true because Jesus Christ is 'the same yesterday, today and forever.' That in itself were enough, but we have the added assurance that in this place He meant to say it was so, for, if you notice, He was evidently looking to the future when He said, 'I am,' seeing that He added, 'The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep,' when as yet He had not done it. There was an interval between the time when He said these words and the laying down of His life upon the Cross. As He went on further in His discourse and said, 'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also, I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.'

He was looking to the future you see. He spoke of Himself - I was almost going to say in momentary unconsciousness of His Deity without meaning, perhaps, to speak as God. He says, 'I Am,'using the very name of Jehovah and speaking of the future as though it were present. It was as if He had said, 'I am the Good Shepherd and I am going to gather in the wandering people that, as yet, are not of My flock.' So that, the meaning and force of the 'I am,' evidently runs right on till He has gathered in all the other sheep that were not, when He spoke the words, included in His fold. Yes, He means you to understand that He is speaking the same words as much to you, Brothers and Sisters, as to Peter and James and John. To you He is saying, 'I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.'" First, let us look at our great Master's claim, "I am the Good Shepherd." Then we shall observe the proof of it. That, though it had not been completed when He uttered these words at the first, is now complete-"He gives His life for the sheep." When we have talked rapidly on these two points, let us try and chew the cud and see if there is not something to be found here of very practical use to us. On these Communion nights the time is very short - therefore I must try to speak without many words upon any one point.

I. First, then, I say, let us look at CHRIST'S CLAIM, "I am the Good Shepherd."

He means us to understand three things. It is as if He said, "I am a Shepherd," and then, "I am a Good Shepherd," and, last of all, "I am the Good Shepherd" - that Good Shepherd who is spoken of in the Old Testament.

"I am a Shepherd," He says first. That is to say, He stands in the same relationship to His people as a shepherd does to his flock. He owns His people - every one of them belong to Him. He prizes them because they are His - sets a value upon each of them. He takes care of them, remembering them both night and day. His heart is never off them and because of His inward love there is an outward goodness which He constantly extends to them. He protects them from the wolf. He guards them from a thousand dangers. He sees to the supply of all their needs. He guides them in the right way. He brings them back when they wander. He strengthens them when they are weak. He carries them when they are too feeble to go. He sees that they are a weak flock, a silly flock and a wandering flock-therefore is He their strength, their wisdom, their righteousness, their all. No creature, perhaps, has more diseases than a sheep-except a man. No creature is more dependent upon another and higher creature than a sheep is, for it seems only half itself till it is under the care of man. And none of us, Brothers and Sisters, can be said to be less dependent than the sheep are, for we are not true men till we get near to Christ. We are without life and without strength till we find life and strength in Him. As a sheep would be sure to wander and, wandering, would be very likely to wander into a desert - would be sure not to better itself - would be certain in the end to come to nothing - so is it with us. Without Him who is our Shepherd we would wander farther and farther into misery and sin-and our ruin would be certain. We are more dependent upon Christ than sheep are upon the shepherd. You see, then, why Christ says, "I am a Shepherd." Towards His own people whom He has redeemed with precious blood He stands in the position of a Proprietor, a Leader and Guide, a Father, a King-all of which may be condensed into this one word-a Shepherd.

But He is not only a Shepherd, He is a Good Shepherd, for what He does He does well Never does He neglect His flock. Not one ever perished because He forgot it. Since He never forgets, not one ever perished at all. He is a Good Shepherd because all that ought to be done-all that can be done-all that may be wished to be done towards His sheep-He does. Never shepherd so intensely threw His heart into His calling as Christ throws His heart and soul into the sacred calling of the Shepherd of Israel. He gives for His people all that He has, yes, He gives Himself! His power is their defence. He lifts up His hand and says, "I give to My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." His Wisdom is their guidance. His Love is their perpetual shield. His Infinity is their storehouse. His Omniscience is their protection. Human and Divine are You, O Christ, in Your Person, but the Human and the Divine are both alike for Your people. You have a thousand of offices, and You exercise them all on the behalf of Your own flock. Oh, Christ is a Good Shepherd, indeed! He is skilled as well as zealous in the art of shepherd-hood. He knows all the diseases of the flock, for He, Himself, has felt all their griefs and woes. He has studied human nature oh, how long! He knows it by a personal experience and therefore knows it in such a way as it can be known only by Himself. He is a Good Shepherd. Was there ever imagined one that could be compared to Him?

But then He says, "I am the Good Shepherd." Emphasis is to be laid upon the fact that He is supreme and sufficient for all the needs of His people. There have been other shepherds appointed by Him that have, in their measure, been good, but He is the Shepherd-the Great Shepherd of the sheep. He it is of whom we read that when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in Glory. None of us are the shepherd. We have to take our little share of the work beneath His eyes and do it for His sake, though never to our own satisfaction. It will be a joy to us, indeed, if He shall be satisfied with us and say, "Well done." But all the under shepherds in the world put together are poor things compared with the Head Shepherd of the sheep! He is the Good Shepherd of the sheep - pre-eminently good - good beyond all that are good! The Shepherd of the shepherds, as well as the Shepherd of the sheep. Good because the whole company of the faithful, if they have any good in themselves, received it from Him. "I am the Good Shepherd."

Now that being the meaning of the words, let us see Christ's claim in this chapter. Observe how He works it out. He says, if you notice the verse that comes before the text, "The thief comes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." See, then, He is our Good Shepherd because He gives life to His sheep. No shepherd can say about his flock what Christ says about His. "I have given all these sheep of Mine the life that they have." What a Good Shepherd must He be!" They were dead-dead as the dry bones of Ezekiel's vision," He says, "but I have given them life." Listen to this, you that are the sheep of His pasture - you have spiritual life, but He gave it to you! Lift up your eyes and bless Him that your heart ever came to know what repentance is, what faith is, what prayer is and what praise is, for now that you live unto God, you see that it was He that quickened you. To your Shepherd you owe everything! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. It is He that made us, He that new-made us-not we ourselves.

Do you notice how He adds, "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly"? So, Beloved, if you now feel cold and dead, I ask you not to look to yourself, or to the pasture in which you are at the moment, or to the under shepherd who seeks to care for you, but to Him, the Chief and Choice Shepherd! He gave you life at first and He will give you more of it, that you may have it abundantly. If there is any one of you whose heart is leaping for joy because the love of God is shed abroad within you by the Holy Spirit-Brother, Sister, you have got all that from Him! Bless Him for it! If, on the other hand, another one is mourning because he feels the life within him to be so feeble - dear Friend, you may have it strengthened by Him who gave it at the first! All the praise and glory must be to your Good Shepherd who is, indeed, good because the very life of His flock is His gift-and their increase in life is worked by His Sovereign Power. Oh, how good You are, dear Lord, Author and Source of our very being!

Our Lord shows us His Good Shepherd-hood further on when He says, "He that is a hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flock; and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep." So see, secondly, the Good Shepherd is good because He cares for the life which He has, Himself, bestowed. First He gives it and then He protects it. The wolf is always around about the fold. When we do not hear him howling, yet we know that he is seeking to find an entrance somewhere. When he gets in, it is said that he comes to kill and to destroy-and what can poor sheep do against a wolf if the shepherd is away? And what would you and I do against Satan in the world and in the temptations of the flesh if Christ were away? We would soon fall a prey to the wicked adversary. But our good Master cares for us.

You know that precious promise, "I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment. Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day"? Though the simile is changed, the meaning is the same. Our Saviour-our blessed Shepherd-by night, though the frost is upon Him, watches His flock. And by day, though the sun lights on Him with its fervent heat, He still watches. His very life seems to be nothing to Him in comparison with the protection of His people. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, what battles our Shepherd has had with the wolf for us! I need not go into the story of our glorious David's prowess, even for the little lambs of His flock. But He may say truly to His Father, "Your servant slew both the lion and the bear" because they came and "took the lamb out of the flock." Jesus takes even the feeblest from between the teeth of the foe and will not suffer one to perish because He cares for us! You know the meaning of caring for us, do you not? Well, I do not think that I can explain it except by asking you to think of what it is to care for your children. That is how the Lord Jesus cares for you. As for the children, poor little dears, they cannot take care of themselves - nor can you, though you try hard to do it. And as your little children leave their cares with you and you care for them, you may leave your cares with your Shepherd. It is a very comprehensive thought. Your care springs out of your love and that love makes you think of the welfare of your family. But your care is not all thinking-you are actively engaged for them, too, and before they even know their needs, you supply them. In fact, they hardly know they have any needs because you never leave them un-supplied long enough to let them discover that they need anything. You meet all their needs by caring for them. Even so does Jesus, the Good Shepherd, care for His people. He gives them life, increases that life, cares for that life and protects it from all harm!

But just read on and you will see still further what a Good Shepherd He is. "I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep and am known of Mine. As the Father knows Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep." That is to say, "As much as I and My Father know each other, so do I and My people know each other." He is the Good Shepherd because He lives among His sheep, He treats them as His children and so cares for them that He actually has communion with them. Sheep understand a good deal of what the shepherd says. There is a shepherd's language which you and I do not understand, but the sheep do. They know his whistle. They know his frown. They know the motion of his hands. He has a language which he speaks to them. When Jesus Christ says, "I know My sheep," it means not only that He knows who are His and who are not, but that He knows all about each one. He knows your trouble at this instant, dear Friend - your infirmity, your sin, your sorrow. He knows you a great deal better than you know yourself and He sums you up and understands you much better than the dearest friend you have. He never misunderstands you - He knows you so thoroughly. Oh, it is a wonderful word, that-one of those great deeps into which I drop my plumb line but cannot find the bottom - "I know My sheep." It means that He owns them. He knows them so that in the Presence of God and of the holy angels, He will say, "Yes, those are My sheep." What? That one with the torn wool? That one with the lame foot? That one with a split ear? There is not much beauty in any of them. Yet the Shepherd will not be ashamed of even the least. "It is Mine," He says, "and though it is not beautiful to any besides, it is beautiful to Me, for I bought it with My blood and I have fought the lion on its behalf and, therefore, it is very dear to My soul." He knows His sheep. A man can scarcely enter into the feeling of a sheep, can he? And yet Jesus Christ, though He is God, makes a stoop of condescension and enters into the feeling of the poorest and the most ignorant - yes, and the most sinful of all His children! Bone of their bone does He become, so intimate is His union with them.

But then He says, "I am known of Mine." Now we might think that a sheep cannot know much about the shepherd, but they do. They get to love him. Among the eastern flocks there are often sheep that are peculiarly attached to the shepherd. They always follow at his heels-they never seem to care so much for the pasture as they do for him. They are always first and, I may add, generally fattest, for they that keep nearest to him are pretty sure to get the sweetest bits of grass. And so, in the Church of God there are some that keep near the Shepherd and that know Him well. And all His people know something of Him. What a condescension this is-that the Good Shepherd so comes and lives among His people that He not merely knows them, but teaches them to know Him. Blessed be His name for this! Try whether you cannot drink in the glorious meaning of this deep mystery!

But yet farther - and to close this point - our Lord is a Good Shepherd because He gathers all His sheep. Read the 16th verse. "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice: and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." While His eyes were on the Jews, His heart was on the Gentiles, too. He is a Shepherd who is not content with the ninety-nine, but when He counts the flock over and knows there ought to be a hundred, His heart begins to care for the lost one-and He folds the 99 and lets them rest. But, as for Himself, He gets away upon the mountain's bleak side so that He may find the lost one. Ah, my Lord, You are a Good Shepherd, indeed - a much better Shepherd than any among Your Church - Your workers - are! We often forget the wandering one. We get a church together. Perhaps the building is full and we have too little missionary enterprise to look after the masses that are in ignorance. We see England bathed in the Light of the Gospel, but feel little zeal for sending the Word to the distant heathen lands. It ought not to be! It is not so with Christ, for if He has an elect one, be he where he may, He knows him and His eyes are on him-and He must bring him in!

I wonder whether there is someone here tonight that He must bring in? You did not think when you came in to the Tabernacle that Christ was seeking you, but, perhaps My Lord Jesus has bought you with His precious blood and His Father gave you to Him from before the foundations of the world! And perhaps He brought you here that you may know this and come to Him tonight. Thus says the Lord, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you." Come, poor Wanderer-come to the Good Shepherd's feet and lay yourself down all helpless and forlorn! He will put you on His shoulders and carry you back rejoicing! Is He not a Good Shepherd, giving life, sustaining life, defending life, knowing life, teaching life to know Him and going after poor wanderers to bring them to Himself? That is Christ's claim.

II. Now I can say but very little, in the second place, about CHRIST'S PROOF OF HIS CLAIM, for I have already proved it. "I am the Good Shepherd," He says. "The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep." Christ has given His life for us many times over. If I read the text without referring it to the one act of His death, it seems to me to be very full of meaning. In Heaven He gave His life for them. He had a life in Heaven, such as we may guess at from a distance, but can never fully understand. He dwelt as God inhabiting the praises of eternity but you know He gave up that life for us.

To leave the harps and hymns of Heaven for the sorrows and sins of earth was giving up His life for His sheep.

When He was here, you know while He lived on earth He gave His life for the sheep, for every moment of that life was spent for them. There was a connection between His private life in the carpenter's shop and their salvation-an intimate connection. In His public life what did He strain all His powers for, but this-that He might seek and save that which was lost! For His people were those prayers on the cold mountain side at night! For His people those earnest pleas in the midst of the crowd by day! For them the weary journeys! For them the hunger and the thirst! For them the homelessness which forbade Him to have a place where to lay His head! He gave His life up to them as long as He was here.

Then one dark night did He give His life for His sheep in the sense, I doubt not, intended here. On that dread night - you know it-that night to be remembered, for it was the night of God's Passover, the Shepherd went round His flock and the sheep were sleeping, but there came the wolf and the Shepherd knew his snarl. The sheep, all startled at the howls, were scattered-they forsook the Shepherd and fled. That night He had enough to do to meet the wolf. But He stood at the fold to watch the sheep and let them all go in safety. And then He confronted the grim monster who leaped into the fold thirsty for the blood of the sheep, but the Shepherd caught him and then came a desperate struggle between the two. The shepherd did bleed and sweat, did bleed and sweat and bleed again. Great drops of blood fell to the ground, but He held the monster fast and firm. Our Great Shepherd was wounded on His head, on His shoulders, on His hands and feet-and one awful fang tore open His side, but He held the wolf-held Him till He had slain him! Then, dashing down his body to the ground and putting His foot upon him, He shouted, "It is finished!" But in the same moment, the Great Shepherd fell. In slaying our foe He had, Himself, been slain! But scarcely had the Shepherd touched the earth than, as if reanimated, up He sprang again and said, "I lay down My life that I might take it again; therefore does My Father love Me because I lay down My life for the sheep." You know that story and need not that I tell it again at any length. But, oh, love Him! Love Him! Kiss His wounds! Worship this blessed Shepherd who has conquered your foe and delivered you from the jaw of the lion and from the paw of the bear-and set you forever safely in His fold! "The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

He is still giving His life. The life that is in the Man, Christ Jesus, He is always giving for us. It is for us He lives and because He lives, we also live. He lives to plead for us. He lives to represent us in Heaven. He lives to rule Providence for us. He lives to prepare our mansions for us, where we are going. He lives that He may come again and receive us to Himself, that where He is, there we may also be. Truly the Good Shepherd has proved His claim - "He gives His life for the sheep."

III. Now let us finish by trying to GET SOME JUICE OUT OF THESE THINGS, as I hope that we have done as we have gone along.

First, dear Friends, if the Good Shepherd gives life, let us try and get life abundantly. Sometimes I wish I could leave off preaching any sermons and do as I have seen the sergeant do when he is drilling a lot of men. He only says a word, "First position," and they take up the position! "Second position," and they take up that position. He has not a lot of eloquent talk, but he just tells them what to do. Now then, try if you can, to take up your position. More life is to be had. Breathe the prayer, "Good Shepherd, You have given me life - give it to me more abundantly! May I know You more, love You more, trust You more, serve You more and be more like You. Quicken me, O Lord, according to Your word." That will do. Go on. Take another position. If He is the Good Shepherd, let us feel like sheep who have a Good Shepherd. How do they feel? I do not think I know a sight that is more peaceable and happy than that of flocks at eventide when they have been gathered into a good pasture, or are folded among some prolific root crop. They have eaten as much as they can and they lie down on the grass to rest. No care enters their woolly heads. They have nothing to fret about. They might have if they could worry about the future as some of us do. Will there be turnips enough tomorrow? When there is dry weather, will there be grass enough? There is that butcher - when will he come? If they could understand me, I could suggest no end of cares and doubts and fears to sheep! But it does not enter into their constitution. I wish it did not enter into yours and mine! The shepherd cares for the sheep. Dear Brother, dear Sister, will Jesus Christ care for you? I have heard of men that have kept sheep and cattle who have let them starve. You do not often hear of such things, for self-interest leads men to cherish their sheep. But I never heard of Christ neglecting any part of His flock. Come, then, let us feel quite quiet in His care. May the Lord help us to be so! Away with your doubts and fears and cares. There, begone, begone, all of it! What is the use of it? It never gave me any pasture. O care and anxiety and fretfulness, you did never feed me, nor strengthen me, nor help me! You have worried me and weakened me, but you have done nothing else. Begone! As for us, Brothers and Sisters, if Christ is our Shepherd, let us begin to say, "I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still water. He restores my soul: He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yes, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me: Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." That is a happy religion, is it not? And it is a very important thing that all Christians should be happy. The enjoyments of Believers lie very near their holiness. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Now, Brothers and Sisters, do not begin behaving like dogs, but try and be such sheep as you ought to be with such a Shepherd!

Next, let us be His own. Jesus Christ says of the hireling, "whose own the sheep are not, for he leaves the sheep," and in that He implies that when He tends the sheep, they are His own. Come, then, let us be His own! Brother, Sister, have you ever given yourself up wholly to Christ-altogether to Christ? I am afraid we sing a great many things that are not true. I have heard you say - "Yet if I might make some reserve, And duty did not call, I love My God with zeal so great, That I would give Him all."

I leave it to your own conscience whether you get anywhere near that-anywhere near it at all. We say that we belong to Christ and we are not our own, but bought with a price. Do we live as if it were true? Come, let us take up the position of being altogether Christ's own sheep. If the sheep could speak it would say, "There is not a fragment of wool on my back that belongs to me: there is no part of me that is my own. I belong to my shepherd, and I am glad to have it so." You belong to Christ as absolutely as that.

The next thought to take up is, let us try to know more of Him. He says, "I know My sheep and am known of Mine." Let us then know Him better. You know how you come to know a man by getting into his company, by hearing his words, by marking his actions, by telling him your secrets and letting him tell you his secrets. Come and know Christ in this fashion. Let your head be on His bosom and your whole self come into communion with His blessed Self. Ask for that Grace tonight while you are around the table. Say, "Good Master, You know me. Let me know You. Oh, let my communion with You be as nearly as possible equal to that which You have with Your Father and Your Father with You, that we may be one together."

The next and last is, let us love Him more. Did you notice how He says in the 17th verse, "Therefore does My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it again." Let us make another verse and say, "Therefore do My people love Me because I lay down My life." Jesus did not say that, but let us make it true. Oh, how we ought to love our dear and ever-blessed Lord! Do you feel love stirring in your bosom? Perhaps you say, "I wish I did feel it more." I am glad you say that. I think that is often as far as we can get. I do not, I cannot love You, O Lord, as I ought - "Yet I love You and adore - Oh for Grace to love You more.1" I am persuaded that the man who loves Christ best is just the man who is most discontented with his own love. When a man lives wholly for Christ, he is the very man who still looks for something yet beyond and desires to serve Christ still more. Now, indulge your love tonight! Sit still and meditate on His love-enjoy His love! Say to yourself - "I am so glad that Jesus loves me! Even me!"

And then add, "I am so glad that I can say that I love Him. He knows all things and He knows that I love Him." Just let those two seas meet. "Seas," did I say? I must not say that. Let the little brook of your love to Him flow into the mighty ocean of His love to you-and so let them blend and join! I have seen the Thames flowing on in its majestic course toward the sea and every here and there a little hill drops into view for a while, but the meadows stretch between. The mighty river and the brook go side by side, but as they flow on, at last they melt into one. So let my poor soul's love tonight flow in the same course with the great love of Jesus till at last it melts into His and life becomes, "Not I," but "Christ in me" and my soul be forever content!

Now I have done, but I hope the Lord Jesus has not done. We are going to hold the Communion service and there are many of you that are going away, and going away rightly, too, because you could not come to the Table of the Lord without being hypocrites. You know that you do not love Jesus and have not trusted in Him. As you go away I pray the Good Shepherd to go after you-and before you reach your houses tonight I pray that He may get such a grip of you with those strong but tender hands of His, that He may never let you go till He brings you, also, into His fold! If not here, yet somewhere else, for I am sure that in this house He has other sheep which are not yet of His fold, whom He must bring that there may be one flock and one Shepherd! May He bring you in tonight, for His mercy's sake. Amen.

CHAPTER 11. "I AM THE WAY"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Jesus said unto him, I am the way."
John 14:6.

It is coming on dark and we are lost among the mountains. There is an awful precipice there, a quarter of a mile straight down. There is a bog over yonder and if a man once gets into it, he will never get out again. There is a forest yonder and if one should be lost in its tangled paths, he will certainly not find his way out till the rising of the sun. What do we need just now? Why, we need someone who will tell us the way! Our friend the philosopher, with whom we talked half-an-hour ago, was very valuable to us, then, and gave us a great deal of information. But, as he does not happen to know the way, we would sooner have the poorest peasant lad that feeds the sheep upon the hills for a companion than that man. The classic scholar, who has been repeating to us some admirable lines from Horace and delighting us with an admirable quotation from Virgil, did very well, indeed, for us while we could see our path and had hope of reaching our home by nightfall. But now the poorest lass with uncombed hair who can just point the way to the cottage where we may rest tonight will be of more value to us. What we need is to know the way!

This is just the case, dear Friends, with poor fallen humanity. The need of mankind is not the refined lecture of the learned, nor the acute discussion of the debater-we simply need someone, be it a lad or be it a lass, to show us the way! And the most precious person you and I have seen, or ever shall see, will be the person who shall be blessed and honoured of God to us to say, "Behold the way to God, to life, to salvation and to Heaven." I shall not need, then, to offer any apology for coming out again to show the way. There are many here who are lost and there are some upon whom the shades of night are falling. Their hair is gray, they pant as they walk and rest upon their staff for the support of their tottering legs. Their case is dangerous and when they cannot, of themselves, discover the pathway, surely they will heed any voice, however hoarse, from any person, however rough he may be, if they may but discover what is the way to eternal life!

Travelling some time ago, the coachman, when it was getting nearly dark, informed us that he had never been on that road before-and one can hardly tell how pleased we were to see a signpost. Now, a signpost is not a very interesting thing - there is nothing very poetical about it. It may be questionable whether it decorates the road as it sticks out an arm with only a word or two written on it, but, toward night, when neither the driver nor you know the way, it is about the most pleasant thing you can greet! I shall stand here tonight as a simple signpost. The words may be dry, but it shall be enough for you if they do but show you the way! Mr. Jay tells us that on one occasion, when riding on the mail-coach to Bath, he asked a great many questions of the coachman. He asked, "Whose seat is that? What squire owns that fine lawn? And what gentleman is the squire of yonder parish?" To all which questions the driver only answered. "I don't know. I don't know." At last, Mr. Jay said to him, "Well, what do you know?" "Why," he said, "I know how to drive you to Bath." Well, now, I pretend to no greater knowledge than this - I do know the way to Heaven and I do hope I shall be able to tell it to you so plainly and so simply that some here who are lost as in a wild forest may see the path and, by the Grace of God, be enabled to run in it!

I. First of all, then, let us notice THE EXCLUSIVENESS OF OUR TEXT - "I am the way."

Christ declares that He, and only He, is the way to peace with God, to pardon, to righteousness and to Heaven! Falsehood may tolerate falsehood, but truth never can. Two lies can live in the same house and never quarrel. But truth cannot bear a lie even though it should be in the highest part of the attic! Truth has sworn war to the knife against falsehood and hence it never knows what it is to admit that its contrary can shake hands with itself. The Hindu meets the Muslim and he says, "No doubt you are sincere as well as we are, and you and we shall at last meet in the right place." They would salute the Christian, too, and say the same to him, but it is a necessity, if our religion is true, that it should denounce every other and that it should say unto those who know not Christ, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Yes, it goes still further and pronounces its anathema upon those who pretend to any other way! "Though we or an angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that which you have received, let him be accursed." I simply mention certain other ways to assure you, in God's name, that there are roads which lead to Hell and that none of them can bring you to Heaven-for there is only one way by which the soul can came to God and find eternal life-and that way is Christ!

I think I see mankind lost as in a great wilderness. There are no paths and there comes suddenly before the sad eyes of the lost wayfarers, a hag whose hand is blood-red and with her eyes flashing fire she points and says, "Lost men, this is the way." And what is that before our eyes? I see the car of Juggernaut rolling through the streets and crushing, at every revolution of its wheels, a poor man's flesh and bones which, when the spirit has departed with a groan, lie there a monument of superstition! And having pointed there, this hag will tell the mother to take her child and throw her dear one into the river Ganges. "This is the way," says the foul hag of Superstition, "by which you are to came to God." But we denounce her! In God's name, we denounce her as a demon escaped from Hell! "Shall I give my first-born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Ah, no, God abhors such a sacrifice! You cannot, in your reason, think that what is abhorrent to you can be acceptable to God! That what you yourselves would loathe to look upon can be delightful to Him! No, Brothers and Sisters, God asks no laceration of the flesh, no starving, no hair shirts, no cord about the loins-for all these He cares nothing-they are a weariness to Him. If you would please God, speaking after the manner of men, you are more likely to do it by being happy than by being miserable! Do you think that a man would please other men by groans and sighs? I think not. And how, then, should he please God by putting himself to torture if God is such a God as we find revealed to us in Holy Writ? Turn, then, all you nations of the East and oh, that all lands would turn from this cruel lie, for this is not the way to Heaven!

In our own country we have much more lovely deceivers than this old hag-false prophets who are more likely to mislead you. Let me glance at some of the popular ways of going to Heaven which will surely lead to Hell. There is the way of good works. I had thought that we had scattered so many millions of tracts, preached so much is the streets and talked so long about men being saved by the blood of Christ and not by themselves, that really, the old-fashioned heresy of self-righteousness would have been driven out of the field! But it still holds a firm position. When I get into conversation with people, I find, in all grades of society, there is still the same belief that men will go to Heaven by what they did.

"Ah," said one to me yesterday, "I suppose you sometimes feel cast down." "Yes," I said, "I do." "Why," said he, "I should think the best men at times can hardly look back upon their lives with pleasure and, therefore, they must feel a little afraid for the future." "Oh," I said, "if I had to look on my past life as the ground of my expectations for the future, I would be cast down, indeed! But do you not know that all my good works will not save me and that all the sins I have ever committed in the past will never damn me?" "No," he said, and he looked astonished at such strange doctrine as that! The Gospel teaches, indeed, that when a man believes in Christ, the sin of the past is all blotted out and Christ's righteousness is given to him so the man is not saved by what he is, nor damned for who he was, but he is "saved through Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ alone."

I sat in a boat not a great while ago, and while the man was rowing me, I thought I would talk with him. He began to talk to me about sundry "new lights" that had sprung up in the village. People always take more notice of will-o-the-wisps than they do of the sun, itself. The question at length arose how he hoped to go to Heaven. Well, he had brought up eight children, he had never had any help from the parish, he was an honest man and always did his neighbours a good turn. When the cholera was rife, he was about the only man in the village that would get up at night and run for the doctor - and he felt that if he did not go to Heaven it would fare very badly with most people. So, indeed, I am afraid it will, and with him, too, if that is all he rests on!

I tell these two stories, culled from two classes of society, because I know we have need to keep on repudiating this old lie of Satan's that men are to be saved by their works. Those fig leaves that Adam wove together to cover his nakedness are still in favour with his descendants. They will not take the robe of Christ's righteousness, but will rather go about to save themselves. A word or two with you, my Friend. Do you say you will go to Heaven by keeping the Law of God? Ah, you have heard the old proverb about locking the stable when the horse is gone? I am afraid it is very applicable to you! So you are going to keep the stable shut, now, and you are sure the horse shall never get out? If you will kindly go and look, you will find it is already out! Why, how can you keep to Law which you have already broken? If you would be saved, the Law of God is like a chaste alabaster vase which must be presented to God without crack or spot - but do you not see that you have broken the vase? Why, there is a crack there! "Ah," you say, "that was a long time ago." Yes, I know it was, but it is still a crack. And there is the black mark of your thumb just underneath there. Why, man, the vase is already broken-and you cannot go to Heaven by your good works when you have none! No, you have broken all God's Commandments. Read the 20th Chapter of Exodus-read it through and see if there is a single Commandment which you have not violated! And I think you will soon find that from the first to the very last, you will be obliged to cry, "I have sinned, O Lord, and am condemned in this thing!" You have already broken the Law of God.

But then you will tell me that you have not broken it in public and that you cultivate an outward respect for it. Yes, but what does it matter if inwardly the heart is wrong? Even if a man could keep the outward letter of the Law without flaw or mistake, yet, inasmuch as by reason of the spirituality of the Law it is utterly impossible that any of the fallen race of Adam can keep it. No man can be saved by it!

I heard a story the other day which illustrates the way in which people make a distinction between inward and outward sin. A certain Sunday school superintendent happened to hear a girl at the end of the school crying very bitterly after the other scholars had gone. He went to her and asked her what she was crying about and she said, "The lady superintendent has kept me and has been talking to me about my dress. She says I ought not to dress so fine. I pay for it, Sir, and I have a right to wear it." The lady was called and after some little conversation with the superintendent, who was wise and prudent, the girl was sent home. Now the lady herself was noted for the fineness of her dress. She was most elaborately dressed at all times so, after the girl was gone, our friend put this question to her, "Miss So-and-So, you will excuse me, but did it never suggest itself to you that your own dress is rather fine?" "Yes," she said, "but then, that girl has flowers in her bonnet." "Well," he said, "excuse me"-and he looked at her-"I think you have flowers in yours." "Ah, yes," she replied," but do you not see, mine are inside my bonnet and hers are outside?" Now, this is just how some people speak about sin. You condemn a man because he is such a sinner-you would not associate with such a great sinner! If you would but look at yourselves, you would see that you are as great a sinner as he is, only here is the difference-you have the blotches of character inside and he has them outside! In truth, sometimes, the outside sinner is the less discreditable of the two. Do you really think that God makes such vain and empty distinctions as this? No, verily. If sin is in you or on you, whether it is inward or outward sin, it destroys you! And since you cannot keep the Law in your inward parts, why go about to strain and break yourselves with impossibilities?

This is not the way to Heaven. Since Adam fell, no man has ever passed through this gate into everlasting life. Besides, even supposing that the past were blotted out, you cannot keep the Law of God in the future, for what is your nature? It is such a base one that it is sure to violate the Law. You have heard of the women who were ordered to fill a large vessel with water and were told to bring the water in buckets that were full of holes. This is just your toil-you have to fill the tremendous ocean of the Law and your buckets are full of holes! Your nature, mend it all you may, and repair it as you will, is still full of holes and your pretended goodness will ooze out drop by drop and, more than that, your labours shall be like water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up. O Sirs! I pray you, do not seek to enter Heaven by the works of the Law, for thus says the Spirit, "By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

There is another guide, however, that is quite as popular, or rather more so. He calls himself Sincere Obedience. This is how he puts it-"Well, if I cannot keep the whole of the Law, yet I will trust to the mercy of God to make up for the rest! I have no doubt that what I do may go some considerable way and then the Lord Jesus Christ will make up the weight. I may be a little deficient, perhaps an ounce or two, but them the Atonement will come in and so the scale will be turned in my favour." Ah, and do you think that Jesus Christ will ever yoke Himself with you to work out your salvation? "I have trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with Me." This is the triumphant shout of the Warrior as He comes back from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah and do you think that after that peerless speech, your puny voice will be heard saying, "But I was there! I did my part and my portion"? No, verily, you sin in indulging the thought-and you do but doubly curse yourself in imagining that Christ will ever do part of the work and will allow you to be His helper! Like the work of Creation, so is that of Salvation-of the Lord alone-from the beginning to the end it is not of man, neither by man.

There is another error, too, which is popular in certain quarters, and that is, salvation by ceremonies. We have it in the Catholic Church this very day. Certain hocus-pocuses pronounced by the priest and the thing is done. We have a similar sleight of hand, too, in that which is next door to the Church of Rome-the Puseyite community in our own land. We are nothing! We are not regularly ordained! We are laymen. We have no right to preach and so forth. But they - the immediate descendants of the Apostles - they are the men - one touch of their finger, one mark of the cross and an heir of wrath becomes instantaneously "a member of Christ, a child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven." Tis true, the child may afterwards come to be hanged, but we are told that we ought unfeignedly and devoutly to believe that it was, in holy sprinkling, then and there, made a part of the body of Christ! Do you believe it? Englishmen, do you believe it? Has the echo of Wycliffe's voice so died out that these base-born hirelings of Rome are to come back and usurp dominion over your consciences? Sons of the Covenanters, descendants of the glorious Puritans, will you ever tolerate this-worse than Romanism-this disguised Popery which endeavours to enter by stealth into your church? No, verily, let it be accursed! As said the Apostle, so say we! And from Gerizim to Ebal let all Israel say, "Amen!"

Oliver Cromwell once walked into the House of Commons while he was yet Mr. Cromwell, the member for Huntington and, putting down his hat, he said, "I have just come from St. Paul's Cross, and I have heard a man there preach flat Popery." Indeed, if Mr. Cromwell were here now, he might go into many of our churches and say, "I heard a man there preach flat Popery." But I do trust, dear Friends, that the honest protest of God's ministers and the earnest zeal of those blessed men of God who are in the Established Church-I mean the Evangelical clergy-will still be able to keep down this very popular delusion! You might as well hope to be saved by the mumblings of a witch as by the doings of a priest! You might as well hope to enter Heaven by blasphemies as by a priest mumbling over certain words which he thinks to have virtue in them! God, even our God, has denounced again and again those who delight in these errors and who keep back the blood of Jesus and the power and merit of His righteousness! Do not, I pray you, any of you think that this is the way to Heaven, for it is not! "Jesus said unto him, I am the way."

I scarcely need to mention any more of these old roads, for each man seems to have one for himself. One man is subscribing so many pounds to charity, so it is well with him. An-other intends to build a row of almshouses, so it is well with him. Another was always of a very respectable family and hopes he shall not be sent with common folks down to Hell and so, with one thing and another, all men have some sort of refuge! But I say to you again, if you have any refuge but that which is set forth in the text, it is a refuge of lies and the hail shall sweep it away! May God sweep it away tonight and leave you bare and without any shelter, that you may be led to accept Christ as the way, the only way to Heaven!

Understand us, then. We may seem intolerant. We may seem to speak very harshly, but it is as much as our soul is worth to have any mistake here. There is no way to Heaven but one! That one way is Christ and if you walk in it, you must simply, wholly and onlytrust in what Jesus Christ did on the Cross and what He does today in His intercession in Heaven. And he that comes not in by this door shall never come in at all! He that will not bend his back to this yoke shall not be accepted of God. Heaven has but this one gate and if you will not enter this, there remains nothing for you but "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation."

II. We have now to notice THE PERSONALITY OF THE TEXT - "I am the way."

We will suppose again that we have lost our way and we meet a man and ask him which is the way. He says, "I am the way." What does he mean? If he had said, "I am the guide," I could understand that, but he says he is the way! Suppose he has a horse and carriage and I ask him the way and he says, "I am the way"? No, you are the conveyance along the way, not the way. I cannot comprehend how you can be the way. But I will suppose that I am in a tract of country, something like that which is left bare by the receding tide at the mouth of the Solway Firth. Young men and children sometimes go far out on those sands and the tide may suddenly return before they are well aware of it - and so they may be left to drown. We are two children playing on the sands and suddenly we perceive that the sea has shut us in all round and there is no possibility for us to get to land. But here comes a man on a noble horse and as we cry to him, "Sir, which is the way of escape?" he stoops down from his horse, steadily lifts us up, and then says, "My children, I am the way." Now here we can perfectly understand it because he does the work so fully, so wholly, and so entirely himself that it becomes common sense for him to say, "I am the way of escape for you." Or put it in another way. There is a fire yonder. There is a child up at the window and he enquires the way of escape. A strong man lifts up his arms-all he wants the child to do is just drop down and let him catch him, so he answers, "I am the way, my child! If you would be delivered from the burning house, I am the way of deliverance." You see, if He only showed us the way in which we should go, Christ could not say, "I am the way." But when He does it all from first to last, when He takes it altogether out of our hands and makes it His own business, from the Alpha to the Omega, then it becomes no straining of human speech for the Master to say, "I am the way." Let us put it plainly. You are in debt to God, Sinner. You say, "How can I pay Him? Can I lie in the flames of Hell? If I do, even if I should abide with eternal burnings, I cannot pay the debt-I must lie there forever." Christ replies, "I am the way," and He speaks the truth because He is the Payer and the Payment. He, in your place, Sinner-if you now believe on Christ-He, in your place, took all your guilt and paid all your debts, even to the utmost farthing! If you are a Believer, your discharge is signed and sealed, for there is nothing due from you to God but faithfulness and love.

But you tell me that you owe to God perfect obedience. You do-and Christ has perfectly obeyed and He tells you, therefore, "I am the way." He has kept the Law, magnified it and made it honourable. And what you have to do is to take the work that He has finished and you shall find Him to be the way. Do you want to be a child of God tonight? Christ says, "I am the way." Be one with Christ and then, as Christ is God's Son, you will be God's child, too! Would you have peace with God? Trust Christ tonight. Put your soul in Christ's hands-He is our Peace and so will He be the way to peace for you. Would you, in fine, be saved tonight? O my dear Hearers, are there not some among you who would tonight be saved? Then Jesus says, "I am the way," not merely the Saviour, but the Salvation! Trust Christ and you have salvation, for Christ says, "I am your salvation." Take Him and in taking Him, you have the blood that washes, the robe that clothes, the medicine that heals, the jewels that decorate-you have the life that shall persevere and the crown that shall adorn! Christ is All-in-All! All you have to do is trust Christ and, trusting Him, you shall find Him to be the way from the beginning, even to the end!

III. But I must close by urging you to accept the counsel here implied. "I am the way." Not merely, "I was the way for the thief on the cross," but, "I am the way for you tonight." Not, "I will be the way when you feel your need more, and when you have worked yourself into a better state," but, "I am, Sinner, the way right now. I am the way for you just as you are-to all that you need, I am the way." We sometimes see railways approaching towns, but they do not bring them right into the heart of the place. And then you must take a cab or an omnibus to finish the journey. But this "way" runs right from the heart of manhood's depravity into the very centre of Glory and there is no need to take anything to complete the road. You recollect what good Richard Weaver said on that platform when he was illustrating the fact of Christ saving sinners and saving them now? He told us a story of his friend in Dublin who took him a first class ticket for Liverpool, as he said, "All the way through," and you will remember how he illustrated this by saying that when he came to Christ, he put his trust in Him and had a first-class ticket to Heaven all the way through. "I did not get out to get a new ticket," he said, "there was no fear that my ticket would be exhausted half-way, for it was a ticket all the way through. I paid nothing," said Richard, "but that didn't matter-my ticket was enough. The guards came and looked in and said, 'Show your tickets, Gentlemen.' They didn't say, 'Show yourselves,' but, 'Show your tickets,' and they didn't come to the door and say, 'Now, Mr. Weaver, you have no business in that class carriage. You are only a poor man. You must come out. You are not dressed smartly enough.' No, as soon as they saw my ticket, the ticket all the way through, that was enough! And so"-well said that man of God-"when the devil comes to me and says, 'Richard Weaver, how do you hope to get to Heaven?' I show him the ticket. He says, 'Look at yourself.' No, I say, that is just what I am not going to do! I look at my ticket. My doubts and fears say, Look at what you are. Ah, never mind what I am-I look to what Christ gave me and which He bought and paid for Himself-that ticket of faith which will surely carry me all the way through."

That is about the end of the journey, you see. The ticket will take you to the end. Christ is the way to the end, too, but I want, tonight, to show you that He is the way to your end as well as to God's end! Christ has run the railroad right into Heaven, but does it run from where I am? Because, if not, if there is a space between me and the place where that railway stops, how am I to get there? I cannot have the cab of Morality, for the axle is broken. I shall not get up into the great omnibus of Ceremonies, for the driver has lost his badge and I am sure there will be mischief come of that. How, then, am I to get there? I cannot get there at all unless the road comes right here to where I am. Well, glory be to God, it does come to just where you are tonight, Sinner! There needs no addition of yours-no preparing for Christ - no meeting Jesus Christ half-way-no cleaning yourselves to let Him give you the finishing touch - no mending your garments, that He may afterwards make them superfine-no, but, just as you are, Christ says, "I am the way."

But you say, "Lord, what would You have me to do?" "Do?" He says. "Do? Nothing but believe on Me - trust Me - trust Me now." Did I hear one up in those boxes in the top gallery say, "When I get home tonight, I'll pray"? I hope you will, but that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is, trust Jesus Christ now! Christ is the way NOW-not only from your chamber to Heaven, but from this place, from the very spot where you now are, to Heaven! I say again, dear Brothers and Sisters, that I abhor from my very heart that new kind of legality which is preached by some ministers who will have it that we must not tell the sinner to believe on Christ now, but that he must undergo a preparatory process of conviction and the like. This is Popery back again, for it has the very essence of Popery within it. Instead of that, I lift up my Master's Cross before the dying and the dead-before the blind, the ruined and the filthy, and say - TRUST JESUS CHRIST AND YOU ARE SAVED!

"But I have many sins." He had many drops of blood! "But I am a great sinner." He is a great Saviour! "But I am so black." His blood is so efficacious that it can make you as white as snow! "But I am so old." Yes, but He can make you to be born-again! "But I have rejected Him so often." He will not reject you! "But I am the last person in the world to be saved." Then that is where Christ begins-he always begins at the last man! "But, I cannot believe that." Cannot believe what? What did I ask you to believe? "I cannot believe." Cannot believe what? I say again! My Master is the Lord from Heaven that cannot lie and you tell me you cannot believe Him? My Master never lied to angel or to men and He cannot, for He is Truth itself! And this is what He says, that whoever among you will trust Him tonight, He will save you! And if you say you cannot believe Him, you make God a liar because you believe not on His Son Jesus Christ!

I charge you, by the Day of Judgment and by the flaming world, say not that the God who made you will lie to you! Sinner, there shall never be found in Hell a spirit that can say, "I trusted Christ and was deceived. I rested on the Cross and its rotten timbers creaked and failed me. I looked to the blood of Jesus and it could not cleanse me. I cried to Heaven, but Heaven would not hear. I took Jesus in my arms to be my Mediator and yet I was driven from the gate of mercy. There was no pity for me." Never, never shall there be such a case! I would to God - I was about to say that I were not preaching to depraved men and yet to whom else should we go? - because this is the sorrowful reflection, that so many of you will turn on your heels and say, "There is nothing in it."

But who are those who will look to Christ? Why, those whom God has chosen! In whom the Spirit, as the result of Divine Election, will effectually work and who shall be the real trophies of the Redeemer's passion! But, mark you, you have all heard the Gospel to-night-and when you and I meet face to face while the trumpet of judgment is ringing in every human ear - when this solid earth shall shake, when the Heavens shall bow and the stars shall pale their feeble light - I will bear this witness, that I told you plainly the way of salvation! And in that great day I shall be able to say to each one of you, "If you perish, your blood lies not at my door." Is there one who has not understood me? Is there one who still thinks that he is shut out and that he cannot be saved? To you, Sir, yes, to you, I add this extra word, "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him!" And though you are black with robbery, or red with blood, or stained with lust up to your elbows, He is able still to save! And trusting Him-with all your heart trusting Him-you shall find that He will surely bring you to the place where He shall see you with delight, having washed you in His blood!

CHAPTER 12. AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
1 John 2:1.

The Apostle John presents us with a very clear and emphatic testimony to the doctrine of full and free forgiveness of sin. He declares that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleans us from all sin, and that if any man sins, we have an Advocate. It is most evident that he is not afraid of doing mischief by stating this Truth of God too broadly. On the contrary, he makes this statement with the view of promoting the sanctity of his "little children." The object of this bold declaration of the love of the Father to His sinning children is, "that you sin not." This is a triumphant answer to that grossly untruthful objection which is so often urged by the adversaries of the Gospel against the doctrines of Free Grace-that they lead men to licentiousness.

It does not appear that the Apostle John thought so, for in order that these "little children" should not sin, he actually declares unto them the very doctrine which our opponents call licentious. Those men who think that God's Grace, when fully, fairly, and plainly preached, will lead men into sin, know not what they say, nor what they affirm. It is neither according to nature nor to Grace for men to find an argument for sin in the goodness of God. Human nature is bad enough - and far be it from me to flatter that leprous criminal, that reeking mass of corruption-even a natural conscience revolts at the baseness of sinning because Divine Grace abounds!

Shall I hate God because He is kind to me? Shall I curse Him because He blesses me? I venture to affirm that very few men reason thus. Man has found out many inventions, but such arguments are so transparently abominable that few consciences are so dead as to tolerate them. Bad as human nature is, it seldom turns the goodness of God into an argument for rebelling against Him. As for souls renewed by Divine Grace, they never can be guilty of such infamy. The Believer in Jesus reasons in quite another fashion. Is God so good?-then I will not grieve Him. Is He so ready to forgive my transgressions? - then I will love Him, by His Grace, and offend no more. Gratitude has bands which are stronger than iron, al-though softer than silk.

Think not, Sirs, that the Christian needs to be flogged to virtue by the whip of the Law! Dream not that we hate sin merely because of the Hell which follows it! If there were no Heaven for the righteous, the sons of God would follow after goodness because their regenerated spirit pants for it. And if there were no Hell for the wicked, from the necessity of his new-born nature, the true Christian would strive to escape from all iniquity. Loved of God, we feel we must love Him in return. Richly, yes, Divinely forgiven, we feel that we cannot live any longer in sin. Since Jesus died to rid us from all uncleanness, we feel that we cannot crucify our Lord afresh, and put Him to an open shame.

We need no nobler or more cogent arguments to lead a man to thorough consecration to God's cause and detestation of all evil than those fetched from the Free Grace of God. And what if some men do pervert the doctrine? Do not wicked minds corrupt everything? What Truth is there in Scripture with which a man may not ruin himself if he wills? Did not the prophetic eye of our Lord anticipate this when it was written that to some the Word of God is, "a savour of death unto death?" Have there not been in all ages men who hold the Truth of God in licentiousness? When were there not evil men to wrest Scripture to their own destruction? Shall we keep back the children's bread least the dogs should steal the crumbs?

Shall we destroy health-restoring drugs because fools may poison themselves with them? Shall all the trees be cut down for fear the owls should build their nests in them? Shall the sea be dried up because sharks swim in it? Shall the pure virgin Truth be condemned because gross villains have forged her name and abused her character? God forbid! Let us never blush to preach the whole Gospel and to preach its full forgiveness of sin in the boldest and baldest manner, believing that the naked breasts of Truth are her best armour, and that she is least protected when she is encumbered with a coat of mail of human reasoning and prudence.

As God shall help me, then, believing that the doctrine of Free Grace and of God's infinite love to His people is a doctrine which will lead the "little children of God" to avoid all sin, I intend this morning to preach that doctrine. May God grant that the result may be according to His mind and will.

I. We commence our exposition of the text with the remark that THE SAINT IS STILL A SINNER. Our Apostle says - "If any man sins." The "if may be written in as small letters as you will, for the supposition is a matter of certainty. "If any man sins"? Although the gentle hand of the beloved disciple uses such mild and tender terms, putting it as a supposition - as though it were an astonishing thing after so much love and mercy and kindness, that we should sin - yet John very well knew that all the saints do sin, for he has himself declared that if any man says that he does not sin he is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.

Saints are, without exception, still sinners. Far be it from us to deny that Divine Grace has worked a wondrous change - it were not Grace at all if it had not. It will be well to note this change. The Christian no longer loves sin. It is the object of his sternest horror. He no longer regards it as a mere trifle, plays with it, or talks of it with unconcern. He looks upon it as a deadly serpent whose very shadow is to be avoided. He would no more venture voluntarily to put its cup to his lip than a man would drink poison who had once almost lost his life through it. Sin is dejected in the Christian's heart, though it is not ejected. Sin may enter the heart and fight for dominion, but it cannot sit upon the throne. It haunts the town of Mansoul and lurks in dens and corners to do mischief, but it is no longer honoured in the streets, nor pampered in the palace. The head and the hands of Dagon are broken, although the stump remains.

The Christian never sins with that enormity of boasting of which the unregenerate are guilty. Others wallow in transgressions and make their shame their glory, but if the Believer falls he is very quiet, mournful and vexed. Sinners go to their sins as children to their own father's orchard, but Believers slink away like thieves when they have been stealing forbidden fruit. Shame and sin are always in close company in a Christian. If he is drunken with evil he will be ashamed of himself and go to his bed like a whipped cur. He cannot proclaim his transgressions as some do in the midst of a ribald crowd, boasting of their exploits of evil. His heart is broken within him, and when he has sinned he goes with sore bones for many and many a day.

Nor does he sin with the fullness of deliberation that belongs to other men. The sinner can sit down by the months together and think over the iniquity that he means to perpetrate, till he gets his plans well organized and has matured his project. But the Christian cannot do this. He may put the sin into his mouth and swallow it in a moment, but he cannot continue to roll it under his tongue. He who can carefully arrange and plot a transgression is still a true child of the old serpent.

And again, the Believer never chews the cud of his sin. For after he has sinned, however sweet it may have been in his mouth, it becomes bitterness in his heart-and glad enough is he to be rid of it altogether. The retrospect of sin to a converted man is nothing but blackness and darkness in his heart. The Christian, unlike other men, never finds enjoyment in his sin. He is out of his element in it. Conscience pricks him. He cannot, even if he would, sin like others. There is a refined taste within him which all the while revolts at the apparently dainty morsel of sin. The finger of Divine Grace, with its secret and mysterious touch, turns all the honey into gall, and all the sweetness into wormwood.

If the Christian shall sin, and sin, I grant he will, yet it shall always be with half-heartedness - still he clings to the right. The evil that he would not, he does, while the good that he would do, he fails to perform. You will notice, too, how different the Christian is as to the habit of sin. The ungodly man is frequent in overt deeds of rebellion, but the Christian, at least in open acts of crime and folly, rather falls into them rather than abides in them. The swallow dips with his wing the brook and then he is up again into the skies, soaring toward the sun. But the duck can swim in the pool or dive under the water-it is in its element. So the Christian just touches sometimes with his wing - alas, for him - the streams of earth, but then he is up again where he should be. It is only the sinner that can swim in sin and delight therein. You may drive the swine and the sheep together side by side. They come to some mire and they both fall into it, and both stain themselves. But you soon detect the difference in nature between them-for while the swine lies and wallows with intense gusto-the sheep is up again, escaping as soon as possible from the filth. So with the Christian. He falls, God knows how many times, but by His Grace, he rises up again-it is not his nature to lie in sin. He abhors himself that ever he should fall to the ground at all-while the ungodly goes on in his wicked way till sin becomes a habit and habit like an iron net has entangled him in its meshes.

There are all these degrees of difference between the Christian and the ungodly man and far more, for the Believer is a new creature-he belongs to a holy generation and a peculiar people. The Spirit of God is in him and in all respects he is far removed from the natural man. But for all that we must come back to that with which we started-that the Christian is still a sinner. He is so from the imperfection of his nature. His nature is such that he cannot but sin until the old Adam shall die in him-and that will not be till the funeral knell is tolled for himself.

Sin, by reason of his imperfection, pollutes the best thing the Believer does. Sin mars his repentance. There is filth in our tears and unbelief in our faith. The best thing we ever did apart from the merit of Jesus only swelled the number of our sins, for when we have been most pure in our own sight, yet, like the heavens, we are not pure in God's sight. And as He charged His angels with folly, much more must He charge us with it, even in our most angelic frame of mind. The song that thrills to Heaven and seeks to emulate seraphic strains has still mortal infirmity in it. The prayer which moves the arm of God is still a sinful prayer, and only moves that arm because the Sinless One, the great Mediator, has stepped in to take away the sin of our supplication.

I dare to say it - the best faith or the highest degree of sanctification to which a Christian ever attained on earth, has still so much of the creature's infirmity in it as to be worthy of God's eternal wrath. In itself considered, there is so much sin about the highest and loftiest thing to which the creature can attain, that we mournfully confess - "We are altogether as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are but as filthy rags."

As the Christian thus sins in his devout performances, so he constantly errs in the everyday tenor of his life. Sins of omission to wit-how many of these may be compressed into a single hour? Oh, what multitudes of things we have left undone! Remember that these make up a very great part of the sins which brings the curse. "I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, sick and in prison and you visited Me not." Have we no sins of commission? Our thoughts, our imaginations, our words, and must I not say our deeds-have these been what they should be? If any man dare to tell me that he lives for a single day without a sinful deed, I will dare to tell him that he never knew himself.

Do but look at your own chamber. If you disturb it I see but little dust floating about in it, but if a stray sunbeam shall enter through the window I see millions upon millions of little motes dancing up and down! And I discover that the whole of what I supposed to be clear, pure air, is filled with innumerable atoms of all sorts of things, and that I am breathing these even in the purest atmosphere. So is it with our heart and life. When the Spirit shines into us, we see that the atmosphere of life is as full of sin as it can hold. A man may sooner count the hairs of his head, or the sands upon the seashore, or the drops of the dew of the morning upon the grass, than count the sins of a single day.

O Lord, You know us, but we know not ourselves. Yet this much we know, that we are a people full of sin and laden with iniquity. You will tell me these are little sins, but I remind you that a multitude of grains of sand may overload a vessel quite as surely as bars of iron-and therefore these daily iniquities should be confessed with care and repented of with sincerity. The Christian, then, from the imperfection of his nature, sins. The old unchanged fountain of Harah must send forth bitter water. The old Adam can do nothing else but sin.

Fire can do nothing but burn. Water can do nothing but quench fire. Everything acts according to its nature. The new nature that is in us cannot sin, because it is born of God. It is so heavenly and Divine that it never stoops to anything like sin. There is a spark of the celestial and of the perfect within every Believer which never can be quenched. But the old Adam, that which made Paul cry out-"O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" - must sin and as certainly as sparks fly upward, so certainly the old nature will commit iniquity.

Moreover, many Christian people sin from certain peculiar infirmities. You know, each of you, what your own infirmity may be, at least I hope you have been watchful enough to discover it. Some sin through shortness of temper. They are not long-winded in patience with their fellow creatures. They are vexed. They grow hot-perhaps they imagine some cause for anger where there is none-and they wax warm and speak unadvisedly with their tongue. This gives much trouble to many of the most gracious of men. A hasty temper is a perpetual temptation.

There are others who have a high and proud spirit and if they fancy they are a little snubbed or put into the back ground, at once they feel inclined to resent it. There-listen to him-I am not to be thus trod upon! Who dares to treat me thus?" Many who have done good service for Christ have had to carry that thorn in their flesh even down to their graves. Sensitiveness, a high spirit, a suspicious temperament-these are like blisters to the feet of a pilgrim-he will always walk painfully, if not slowly. Some of us have to contend with sloth. Perhaps we are afflicted with a torpid liver, and the physician has never been able to touch the complaint.

God help the man thus afflicted, for he will need to whip himself every day to his duty. And often he will feel so dull and sleepy, that he will wish for Cowper's "lodge in a vast wilderness, some boundless contiguity of shade," that he might hide himself in quiet from the toil of the spiritual harvest. How many we know, dear Friends, who have to contend with constant unbelief brought on through depression of spirits. Their nerves, perhaps, have experienced a great shock at some period in life and, constitutionally, they look always at the black side of affairs. If they see a grassy knoll they suspect it to be an extinct volcano. And if they happen to be in a green valley where the mountains frown like the battlements of Heaven, they are dreadfully afraid that an avalanche must certainly come down and destroy them. They cannot help it. It is a peculiarity of their constitution, but it leads them into much sin, and should cause them much repentance before the face of the living God. So I might go on to mention the peculiarity of some who are suffering from bashfulness. They will often be tempted to hold back where they ought to go forward-and if not to disavow their Master - yet not to proclaim their love for Him as boldly as they should do. The Christian, when he reads this verse, "If any man sins," may well say-"Ah, indeed I do. Through these infirmities I constantly commit iniquity."

And then, dear Friends, we all sin from the assaults of evil. There are times when we are not watchful, and as Satan is always on his watchtower he is sure to attack us just then. We wear our visor up, and then in flies the stone from the infernal sling. We have forgotten a piece of our armour and the enemy spies our nakedness and cuts us deep, leaving a scar for years. The temptations of the world, when we are thrust into ungodly company, and the trials of business, and even of the household - all these in unguarded moments may take the Christian off his feet.

Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, Paul, who was not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles, yet called himself the chief of sinners. And we with far inferior graces must take the lowest place, acknowledging that in us, that is in our flesh, there dwells no good thing. Sinner is my name, sinner my nature, but thanks be to Him who came to save sinners, I am a sinner saved by Free Grace.

II. I now leave that point for a second one full of comfort. OUR SINS DO NOT DEPRIVE US OF OUR INTEREST IN CHRIST. Note the text. "If any man sins we have an Advocate." Yes, we have Him though we sin. We have Him still. It does not say, "If any man sins he has forfeited his Advocate," but, "we have an Advocate." Sinners though we are, all the sin that a Believer ever did or can be allowed to commit, cannot destroy his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Into whatever he may be suffered to fall, yet none of these things can by any possibility touch his title deeds. Indeed, in some characters Jesus is only mine when I can claim the name of sinner.

I cannot have an Advocate unless I do sin, otherwise I do not need one. Who wants an advocate to plead his cause in a court of law if there is no suit against him? Sin is a charge against me. I am a sinner. I have an Advocate. I have today a Brother in Christ. "Go, tell my Brothers and Sisters," said He. And yet they had all forsaken Him, and therefore were all sinners-but He was their Brother still. I have a Husband in Christ too, though I sin. "Israel has forsaken Me," says God, "and played the harlot. She has gone whoring from Me, but return, return, for I am married unto you." She is His wife still, you see, though she had gone into adultery.

The Christian, even when he has stained and fouled himself, is the spouse of Christ still for all that. We are members of His Body, and if so, the members cannot be removed or taken off and on-limbs are not so easily removed. Did not Christ wash Peter? Peter was a member of Christ's own Body, and yet Peter wanted washing. O blessed picture, the Head washing the feet. So at this day, stained though we are, we are claimants of Christ as Head of our body. And, Beloved, we know that notwithstanding all our sin we are perfectly justified in Christ, for He justifies the ungodly. We know, too, that we are perfectly accepted, for we are accepted in the Beloved, and not in ourselves.

Notwithstanding all our iniquities we are pardoned, for the fountain is opened for sin and for all uncleanness-not for righteousness and purity-but for sin and for uncleanness. Therefore we conclude that all our sins do not deprive us of that which Christ is to us, namely, the Fountain of Life and light and purity and safety. Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, if our first title to Christ had depended on our good works, then it would fall when our works grew bad, but He loved us when we were as bad as we could be - "He saw us ruined in the Fall, Yet loved us notwithstanding all." He chose us when we were sinners. He bought us when we were sinners. He loved us when we were dead in trespasses and sins. And if we are as bad as that today, He loves us still.

If our right to Heaven rested on the Covenant of Works, that unstable tenure, it would soon fail us. But seeing it rests on the Covenant of Grace, which has no conditions in it, but which is of pure Immutable Grace from first to last, therefore be it known unto you, O sons of God, that notwithstanding all your faults and failings, wanderings and back-slidings, He is your God and you are His children. He will be your God to all eternity and you shall be His children world without end. "What a bold thing to say!" says one. Yes, and did I not tell you that I meant to say it to the little children, that they sin not?

I believe that the bold open statement of the fact that all the sin that a Believer can commit cannot mar his interest in Christ, though it may mar his enjoyment of that interest for the present. Believing, I say, that this doctrine, instead of driving men to sin, will draw them to love that gracious and immutable God, who notwithstanding all our sins and cares and woe, will never suffer us to perish.

III. Now let us change the note a little. Our third point is THAT THE ADVOCATE IS PROVIDED ON PURPOSE TO MEET THE FACT THAT WE ARE STILL SINNERS.

If I am a sinner, then there is a court. And there is one who sits as Judge-the Father. There is a charge against me, otherwise I should not want an Advocate to meet it-and this implies that I have sinned. There is an adversary to press his suit against me, and he would hardly venture to do this if there were no sin. There must be a right of reply on my part. I must have the right to put in a disclaimer in court, and to stand up and plead before the bar of justice. He who has a right to plead in court is the man who is accused-the man who has some offence. If I were neither accused nor had been a sinner, then I should have no right to occupy the time of the court. But being a sinner, and being brought up upon that charge and having one who presses the charge against me, I have a right to reply and that reply, through God's good Grace, I have a right to make through my Advocate.

Let us say, concerning our Advocate, that He is ordained with a special view to sinners. All His names and attributes prove Him to be a suitable Advocate for such. You and I, who though saved, are still sinners, may safely put our case into His hands, for look who He is-"Jesus Christ the righteous." "Jesus." Ah, then He is an Advocate such as I want, for He loves me and takes an interest in me. Jesus is the name of one who became Man for my sake. He knows what sore temptations mean, He understands what trials mean, what afflictions mean. I am glad I have One who will be interested in my welfare, and will plead for me as a Friend for a friend, and as a Brother for a brother.

I thank God, that though I sin, I still have Jesus who is my, "Brother born for adversity," the Friend of sinners, and will, therefore, plead the sinner's part. Is His name Jesus? Then He is sure to succeed, because, "they shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." His very name implies His success. Is His name Jesus? Then if He does not succeed in my case, His honour is compromised. He is called Jesus because He does save sinners - if He does not save me-He is not Jesus. If I, a sinner, trusting in Him, give Him my cause to plead as my Advocate, and I am tried, and the verdict is against me, He is not Jesus. He may lay down His claim to be Jesus, for He does not, and cannot save His people from their sins.

Beloved Friends, do you not see how the saint is regarded as a sinner because He who is his Advocate is the appointed Saviour of sinners? He is put down as their Advocate, I say, because He is the sinner's Friend. I never heard of His pleading for the righteous. I never dreamed of His being the Friend of the sinless. I find Him always on the side of publicans and sinners-offenders, and those who have gone out of the way. And therefore I conclude, that sinner though I am, continually sinning as I am, I may leave my case with Jesus, for He is just the advocate the sinner wants.

Notice, next, it is "Jesus Christ" - Christos - the Anointed. This shows His authority to plead. There are only certain gentlemen who can plead in the Court of Chancery. And only certain others that can enter the Common Pleas, or the King's Bench. Jesus Christ has a right to plead, for He is the Father's own Appointed, the Father's own Anointed. My Soul, you have a good Pleader, One whom God Himself has chosen to plead the sinner's cause. If he were of your choosing, he might fail. But if God has laid help upon One that is mighty, feel safe to put your trouble where God has laid His help. He is Christ, and therefore authorized.

But I add, He is Christ and therefore qualified, for the anointing has also qualified Him for His work. He can plead better than Jacob pleaded when he spoke for Benjamin. He can plead so as to move the heart of God and prevail. What words of tenderness, what sentences of persuasion will He use when He stands up to plead for me! But more, He is Christ - that is, He is God's Messiah. Therefore God would not send Him unless He guaranteed Him. If God should send into this world a Saviour who could not save, then God would have no mercy. God's appointing and sending Christ is a guarantee of Christ's success. Oh, my Soul, you have One well fitted to be your Advocate and One that cannot but succeed! Leave yourself entirely in His hands.

Notice next, it is "Jesus Christ the righteous." This is not only His Character, but it is His plea. It is His Character, and if my Advocate is righteous, then I am sure He would not take up a bad cause. I do not know, it may be right for a lawyer to plead for a villain when he knows him to be a villain. But this I think, the greater villain the lawyer is the better qualified would he be to do it. But my Lord and Master, the great Advocate, would not plead a bad cause, for He is Jesus Christ the righteous. Therefore if I sin, if I am put down among the many men that sin - if He pleads for me, my case must be good-for He would not take up a bad one.

But how can He do this? Why, because He meets the charge of unrighteousness against me by this plea on His part - that He is righteous. He seems to say to the great Father in the day when the sinner stands arraigned-"Yes, my Father, that sinner was unrighteous, but remember that I was accepted as His Substitute. I stood to keep the Law for him, and gave My active obedience. I went up to the Cross and bled, and so gave My passive obedience. I have covered him from head to foot with My doing and My dying. I have so arrayed him that not even the angels are adorned as he is, for though they may be clothed with the perfect righteousness of a creature, I have given him the righteousness of God Himself. I am become unto My people the Lord their righteousness.

"Look, I have taken the jewels out of My crown to bedeck them. I have taken the garments from My own back to cover them, and the blood from My own veins to make the dye in which I have dipped their garments, till they are purpled with imperial glory." What can there be asked more for the sinner than this? Jesus Christ the righteous stands up to plead for me, and pleads His righteousness. And mark, He does this not if I do not sin, but if I do sin. There is the beauty of my text. It does not say, "If any man does not sin we have an Advocate." But, "if any man sins we have an Advocate." So that when I have sinned and come creeping up to my closet with a guilty conscience and an aching heart, and feel that I am not worthy to be called God's son, I still have an Advocate, because I am one of the many men that sin. I sin and I have an Advocate.

Oh, I know not how to express the joy I feel in my soul to be able to put it so! It is not, "If any man is righteous, we have an Advocate." It is not, "If any man is prayerful, and careful, and godly, and walks rightly and in the light," and so on, but, "If any man SINS we have an Advocate." Oh, my Soul, there is the music of God's heart in those words! Music such as the prodigal heard at the festival which welcomed his return. "If any man sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

IV. And now we turn to our fourth point which is that THIS TRUTH, SO EVANGELICAL AND SO DIVINE, SHOULD BE PRACTICALLY REMEMBERED. It should be practically remembered, dear Friends, at all times. Every day I find it most healthy to my own soul to try and walk as a saint, but in order to do so, I must continually come to Christ as a sinner. I would seek to be perfect. I would strain after every virtue, and forsake every false way. But still, as to my standing before God, I find it happiest to sit where I sat when first I looked to Jesus, on the rock of His works, having nothing to do with my own righteousness, but only with His. Depend on it, dear Friends, the happiest way of living is to live as a poor sinner, and as nothing at all-having Jesus Christ as All in All. You may have all your growths in sanctification, all your progress in graces, all the development of your virtues that you will. But still I do earnestly pray you never to put any of these where Christ should be. If you have begun in Christ, then finish in Christ. If you have begun in the flesh, and then go on in the flesh, we know what the sure result will be. But if you have begun with Jesus Christ as your Alpha, let Him be your Omega. I pray you never think you are rising when you get above this, for it is not rising, but slipping downwards to your ruin. Stand still to this- "Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Your Cross I cling. Still a sinner. But still having an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous - let this be the spirit of your everyday life.

Make this essentially the rule of your life on particular occasions. Here let me say a word that may at once comfort and enlighten some here who are in darkness. When the Spirit of God gives you a clearer view of your own depravity, mind that you hold to this-"If any man sins we have an Advocate with the Father." Perhaps when you were first converted you did not suspect the depth of wickedness that lay in your heart. Perhaps you did not believe that you could be so unutterably bad as you really were. But lately the fountains of the great deep have been broken up and you have been horrified. You are almost driven mad, or else into despondency and despair by this discovery of your innate corruption, until you fly to this-"Sinner as I am and never more consciously so than I am now that God's Spirit has enlightened me, I yet know that if any man sins we have an Advocate with the Father and I, black, foul and filthy-more foul and filthy than I ever thought myself to be- put my case into the hands of my Advocate and leave it there forever."

When after this you have fallen into sin, and oh, I may address some member of this Church who has done this though the pastor knows it not - you have fallen into some sin that pricks your conscience. You carry about with you a something that will not let you sleep at night. There is a sin that disturbs you, and you wish you could forget that you had committed it. You have gone before God as David did. You have used the language of the fifty-first Psalm, but you cannot get rid of that sin. You believe you are a child of God sometimes, but that sin has got into your conscience and, like a cancer, is eating into your comfort.

My Brother, now is your time - "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father." Jesus Christ is of no use to you if He will only save you when you have no sin. Let me repeat it-now you are a sinner. Now you are condemned by the verdict of your own conscience. Now you have sinned, sinned wilfully and foully-and God forbid that I should extenuate your sin. Yet, let your sin be as gross, and black, and hellish as it may be, if you believe in Jesus Christ you have an Advocate with the Father. And through that Advocate your cause shall rest and your sin shall be put away.

Perhaps you will tell me that your sin has had some gross aggravation about it. If you are a Christian it has, for a Christian always sins worse than other men. If the sin is not in itself so bad as other men's, it is worse in you. For a king's favourite to play the traitor is villainy, indeed. For one that has been highly favoured, as you have been, with visits of love from Jesus - to be false to Him - oh, this is shame, double shame to Him! For you who have been washed in His blood to crucify Him afresh, what shall I say to that? You deserve the hottest wrath of God and the deepest Hell. But thus says the Lord unto you-I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities. Return unto Me." "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father."

It does not say, "If some men sin we have no advocate." Or, "If some men sin in an aggravated way." No, it is not put so. It says, "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father." So that though you have heaped aggravations one upon another, and your crime has been as foul as any that could have been committed, still you can say, "we have an Advocate." Fly with a humble, contrite heart, and throw yourself at the feet of that Advocate, and by His blood, and by His wounds He will plead for you, and you shall prevail.

What if I add to all this that you have so sinned as to bring a scandal upon the name of God, upon His Church, and upon His cause? Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, you may well weep in secret. You may weep tears of blood for having done this. But still, for all that, I cannot shut the gate where God sets it wide open. I have not a thunderbolt for you. If you are a child of God, mercy is still free, and still it is preached to you-"If any man sins," publicly, like David, so as to make God's enemies to blaspheme, yet still, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Oh, what splendid mercy is this! Archangel never dreamed of such mercy as this to sinners, to real sinners, to hugely vile sinners, to black, hellish sinners, to devilish sinners, to such as no adjective can be found to describe them! Yet, if they believe in Jesus, sin as they may, they still have, "an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

I wish I could meet the case of that Brother yonder, who has long given up all hope of ever being restored. He has been excommunicated. He has been driven away from the society of the godly. He thinks, though he is in this house this morning, he has no business here. And sometimes the devil has tempted him to make away with himself, and he has said, if I must be lost I may as well be lost at once. Ah, but, my Brother, you dare not do it with such a text of Scripture as this before your eyes! The Lord loves you still, and if He ever loved you, all your sin cannot wean His heart from you. You may have gone to the utmost length of your tether, but He has so tied you that you can never go beyond it! You may have gotten to the very extremity and edge of the precipice, but over that edge you must not, and you shall not go!

This day He sends me to stop you. Return! Return! Return! A Father bids you return! You are feeding swine today, and all foul and filthy as you are, you would desire fill your belly with their husks. But you cannot-you have a hunger that husks can never satisfy. Your Father waits to receive you. Come, He will meet you. He will fall upon your neck and kiss you. He will set you at His own table and there shall be music and dancing for you. The best robe awaits you, Prodigal! The fatted calf is killed for you! Come! O believe it! Believe that God is able to do this great thing for you. "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts above your thoughts, and His ways above your ways."-

yet still the red sea of Jesus' blood shall cover the tops of the mountains of your sins, till, like Noah's ark, that floated twenty cubits upwards, the tops of the mountains shall be covered. "If any man sins"-here, you see, there is nothing said about goodness, nothing about virtue, or tenderness of heart-it is only put, "If any man sins, we have an Advocate."

O you that believe in Jesus, pray for those who believe not, that they, too, may have an Advocate. If you and I have come and put our trust in Him, and found a shelter in His wounds, let us never be satisfied till we see our children, our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our kinsfolk brought to this Advocate. Go and tell it wherever your voices can be heard, that Jesus Christ receives SINNERS, and that He eats with them. Go and say that He is the sinner's Friend, and that He is willing to take them as they are and wash them and make them whiter than snow.

Since you have proved it yourself, and need to prove it every day, try and bring others to the conviction of it, that they, with you, may sing to the praise of that Divine love which has given the Advocate to every Believer, whatever his guilt and condemnation may have been. The Lord bless you now, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

CHAPTER 13. A PROPHET LIKE UNTO MOSES

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"The Lord your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; unto Him you shall hearken; according to all that you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him."
Deuteronomy 18:15-19.

Man, the creature, may well desire communion with his Creator. When we are right-minded we cannot bear to be like fatherless children, born into the world by a parent of whom we know nothing whatever. We long to hear our father's voice. Of old time, before sin had entered into the world, the Lord God was on the most intimate terms with His creature, man. He communed with Adam in the garden. In the cool of the day He made the evening to be seven-fold refreshing by the shadow of His own Presence. There was no cloud between un-fallen man and the Ever-Blessed One - they could commune together, for no sin had set up a middle wall of partition.

Alas, man, being in honour, continued not, but broke the Law of his God and not only forfeited his own inheritance, but entailed upon his descendants a character with which the holy God can hold no converse. By nature we love that which is evil and within us there is an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God-consequently, communion between God and man has had to be upon quite another footing from that which commenced and ended in the glades of Eden. It was condescension at the first, which made the Lord speak with man, the creature. It is mercy, unutterable mercy, now, if God deigns to speak with man the sinner!

Through His Divine Grace, the Lord did not leave our fathers altogether without a word from Himself even after the Fall, for between the days of Adam and Moses there were occasional voices heard as of God speaking with man. "Enoch walked with God," which implies that God walked with him and had communion with him. And we may rest assured it was no silent walk which Enoch had with the Most High. The Lord also spoke to Noah, once and again, and made a Covenant with him. And then He, at still greater length and with greater frequency, spoke with Abraham, whom He graciously called His friend.

Voices also came to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. And celestial beings flitted to and fro between earth and Heaven. Then there was a long pause and a dreary silence. No Prophet spoke in Jehovah's name; no voice of God in priestly oracle was heard, but all was silent while Israel dwelt in Egypt and sojourned in the land of Ham. So completely hushed was the spiritual voice among men that it seemed as if God had utterly forsaken His people and left the world without a witness to His name.

But there was a prophecy of His return and the Lord had great designs which only waited till the full time was come. He purposed to try man in a very special manner, to see whether he could bear the Presence of the Lord or not. He resolved to take a family, multiply it into a nation and set it apart for Himself. And to that nation He would make a revelation of Himself of the most extraordinary character. So He took the people who had slaved among the brick kilns of Egypt and made them His elect-the nation of His choice-ordained to be a nation of priests, a people near unto Him if they had but Grace to bear the honour.

Though they had lain among the pots, with a high hand and an outstretched arm He delivered them and with gracious love He favoured them so that they became for beauty and excellence as the wings of a dove that are covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold. He divided the Red Sea and made them a way of escape and afterwards set that sea as a barrier between them and their former masters. He took them into the wilderness and there fed them with manna which dropped from Heaven and with water out of the rock did He sustain them. After a while He began to speak to them as He had never spoken to any nation before.

He spoke with them from the top of Sinai, so that they heard His Voice out of the midst of the fire and in astonishment they cried, "We have seen this day that God does talk with man and he lives." But the experiment failed. Man was not in a condition to hear the direct Voice of God. On the very first day the people were in such terror and alarm that they cried out, "This great fire will consume us! If we hear the Voice of the Lord our God any more we shall die." As they stood still at a distance to hear the words of God's perfect Law they were filled with great fear. So terrible was the sight that even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake."

The people could not endure that which was commanded and entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. They felt the need of someone to interpose - a daysman, an interpreter - someone was needed to come between them and God. Even those among them that were the most spiritual and understood and loved God better than the rest confessed that they could not endure the thunder of His dreadful Voice. And so their elders and the heads of their tribes came to Moses and said, "Go you near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak you unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto you; and we will hear it, and do it."

The Lord knew that man would always be unable to hear his Maker's voice and He, therefore, determined not only to speak by Moses, but to speak by His servants, the Prophets, raising up here, one, and there, another. And then He determined, as the consummation of His condescending mercy, that at the last He would put all the words He had to say to man into one heart and that word should be spoken by one mouth to men, furnishing a full, complete and unchangeable revelation of Himself to the human race! This He resolved to give by One of whom Moses had learned something when the Lord said to Him in the words of our text, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My words in His month; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him."

We know assuredly that our Lord Jesus Christ is that Prophets like unto Moses by whom, in these last days, He has spoken unto us! See Peter's testimony in the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and Stephen's in the seventh chapter of the same book. "This Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who has built the house has more honour than the house," yet did He bear a gracious likeness to Moses and therein His Apostles found a sure argument of His being, indeed, the Messiah, sent of God.

The subject of this morning's discourse is the Lord's speaking to us by Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man - and our earnest aim is that all of us may reverently hear the Voice of God by this greatest of all Prophets. Brothers and Sisters, this is the Word of God unto you this morning, that very Word which He spoke on the holy Mount, when the Lord was transfigured and there appeared with Him Moses and Elijah speaking to Him. And out of the excellent Glory there came the words, "This is My beloved Son, hear you Him." This is my message at this hour-"Hear you Him."

He says to you all this day, "Incline your ear and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live. Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." "See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven." Our meditation will run in this line-first, we will think for a moment upon the necessity for a Mediator. Secondly, upon the Person of the Prophet-Mediator whom God has chosen. And, thirdly, upon the authority with which this Mediator is invested, by which authority He calls upon us this day to listen to God's Voice which is heard in Him.

I. We begin by considering how urgently there existed THE NECESSITY for a Mediator. I need but very short time to set this forth. There was a necessity for a Mediator in the case of the Israelites, first, because of the unutterable Glory of God and their own inability to endure that Glory, either with their eyes, their ears, or their minds. We cannot suppose that the revelation of God upon Sinai was the display of all His greatness. No, we know that it could not be such, for it would have been impossible for man to have lived at all in the Presence of the Infinite Glory.

Habakkuk, speaking of this manifestation, says, "God came from Teman and the Holy One from mount Paran. His Glory covered the heavens and the earth was fall of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His hands." But he adds, "There was the hiding of His power." Despite its exceeding Glory, the manifestation upon the mount of God at Horeb was a subdued manifestation and yet, though it was thus toned down to human weakness, it could not be borne!

The unveiling of Jehovah's face, no mortal eye could bear! The voice with which God spoke at Sinai is by Moses compared to the voice of a trumpet waxing exceedingly loud and long-and also to the roll of thunder-and we all know the awe-inspiring sound of thunder when it is heard near at hand, its volleys rolling overhead. How the crash of peal on peal makes the bravest heart, if not to quail, yet still to bow in reverent awe before God! Yet this is not the full Voice of God - it is but His whisper. Jehovah has hushed His Voice in the thunder, for were that voice heard in its fullness, it would shake not only earth, but also Heaven.

If He were for once to unveil His face, the lightning's flame would pale to darkness in comparison. The Voice of the Lord God is inconceivably majestic and it is not possible that we, poor creatures, worms of the dust, insects of a day, should ever be able to hear it and live! We could not bear the full revelation of God apart from mediatorial interposition. Perhaps when He has made us to be pure spirits, or when our bodies shall have been "raised in power"-made like unto the body of our Lord Jesus-we may then be able to behold the glorious Jehovah, but as yet we must accept the kindly warning of the Lord in answer to the request of Moses, "you cannot see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live."

The strings of life are too weak for the strain of the unveiled Presence. It is not possible for such a airy, spider-like thread as our existence to survive the breath of Deity if He should actually and in very deed draw near to us. It appeared clearly at Sinai that even when the Lord did accommodate Himself, as much as was consistent with His honour, to the infirmity of human nature, man was so alarmed and afraid at His Presence that he could not bear it-and it was absolutely necessary that instead of speaking with His own Voice, even though He whispered what He had to say, He should speak to another apart and afterwards that other should come down from the mount and repeat the Lord's words to the people.

This sufficient reason is supported by another most weighty fact, namely, that God cannot commune with men because of their sin. God was pleased to regard His people Israel at the foot of Sinai as pure. "Moses went down from the mount unto the people and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes." They had abstained, for awhile, from defiling actions and as they stood outside the bounds they were ceremonially clean-but it was only a ceremonial purity. Before long they were really unclean before the Lord and in heart defiled and polluted. The Lord said of them, "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!"

He knew that their heart was not right even when they spoke obediently. Not many days after the people had trembled at Sinai they made a golden calf and set it up and bowed before it, provoking the Lord to jealousy so that He sent plagues among them. It is quite clear that after such a rebellion, after a deliberate breach of His Covenant and daring violation of His commands, it would have been quite impossible for God to speak to them, or for them to listen to the Voice of God in a direct manner. They would have fled before Him because of His holiness which shamed their unholiness! And because of their sin, which provoked His indignation. Because of their wandering, instability and treachery of their hearts, the Lord could not have endured them in His Presence.

The holy angels forever adore with that threefold cry, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth," and He could not permit men of unclean lips to profane His Throne with their unholy utterances. Oh no, my Brothers and Sisters, with such a sense of sin as some of us have and as all of us ought to have, we should have to cover our faces and cower down in terror if Jehovah, Himself, were to appear! He cannot look upon iniquity, neither can evil dwell with Him, for He is a consuming fire. While we are compassed with infirmity we cannot behold Him, for our eyes are dimmed with the smoke of our iniquities. If we would see even the skirts of His garments, we must first be pure in heart and He must put us in the cleft of the rock and cover us with His hands.

If we were to behold His stern justice, His awful holiness and His boundless power apart from our ever-blessed Mediator, we should dissolve at the sight and utterly melt away, for we have sinned. This double reason of the weakness of our nature and the sinfulness of our character is a forcible one, for I close this part of the discourse by observing that the argument was so forcible that the Lord Himself allowed it. He said, "They have well spoken, that which they have spoken." It was no morbid apprehension which made them afraid. It was no foolish dread which made them start, for Wisdom, in the person of Moses, said, "I do exceedingly fear and quake."

The calmest and meekest of men had real cause for fear. God's face is not to be seen. An occasional glimpse may come to spirits raised above their own natural level, so that they can, for a while, behold the King, the Lord of Hosts - but even to them it is a terrible strain upon all their powers-the wine is too strong for the bottles. What said John, when he saw, not so much absolute Deity, but the Divine side of the Mediator? "When I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead." Daniel, the man greatly beloved, confesses that there remained no strength in him and his comeliness was turned into corruption when he heard the Voice of God!

And Job said, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You; therefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes." No, God knows it is not silly fright nor unbelieving fear-it is a most seemly awe and a most natural dread which takes hold of finite and fallible creatures in the Presence of the Infinite and Perfect One! These frail tabernacles, like the tents of Cushan, are in affliction when the Lord marches by in the greatness of His power. We need a Mediator. The Lord knows right well that our sinfulness provokes Him and that there is, in us-in the best here present-that which would make Him to break out against us to destroy us if we were to come to Him without a covering and propitiation. We must approach the Lord through a Mediator - it is absolutely necessary.

God Himself witnesses it is and, therefore, in His mercy He ordains a Mediator, that by Him we may be able to approach His Throne of Grace. May the Holy Spirit make this Truth of God very plain to the consciousness of all of us and cause us to sing with the poet:-

II. This brings us to consider THE PERSON of the appointed Mediator and in my text we obtain a liberal measure of information upon this point. Read these blessed words, "The Lord your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren." Dwell with sweetness upon this fact that our Lord Jesus was raised up from the midst of us, from among our brethren! In Him is fulfilled that glorious prophecy, "I have exalted One chosen out of the people." He is one of ourselves, a Brother born for adversity. He was born at Bethlehem, not in fiction, but in fact-He lay in the manger where the horned oxen fed. He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and dependent on a woman's loving care as any other baby might be. He was like ourselves in His growth from Infancy to Manhood, increasing in stature as we do from our childhood to our riper age. Though the holy Child Jesus, He was yet a Child and, therefore, He was subject to His parents.

And when He came forth as a Man, His was no phantom manhood, but true flesh and blood! He was tempted and He was betrayed. He hungered and He thirsted. He was weary and He was sorely amazed. He took our sicknesses and He carried our sorrows. He was made in all points like unto His brethren. He did not set Himself apart as though He were of an exclusive caste or of a superior rank, but He dwelt among us-the Brother of the race, eating with publicans and sinners - always mingling with the common people. He was not One who boasted His descent, or gloried in the so-called blue blood, or placed Himself among the Porphyro-geniti who must not see the light except in marble halls. He was born in a common house of entertainment where all might come to Him and He died with His arms extended as a pledge that He continued to receive all who came to Him!

He never spoke of men as the common multitude, the vulgar herd, but He made Himself at home among them. He was dressed like a peasant, in the ordinary smock of the country-a garment without seam, woven from the top throughout. And He mixed with the multitude, went to their marriage feasts, attended their funerals and was so much among them, a Man among men, that slander called Him a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. In all respects our Lord was raised up from the midst of us, One of our own kith and kin. "For this cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren." He was our Brother in living, our Bother in death and our Brother in resurrection, for after His Resurrection He said, "Go, tell My Brethren." And He also said, "My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God." Though now exalted in the highest heavens, He pleads for us and acts as a High Priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. God has graciously raised up such a Mediator and now He speaks to us through Him. O sons of men, will you not listen when such an One as Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, is ordained to speak of the eternal God? You might be unable to hear if He should speak again in thunder, but now He speaks by those dear lips of love! Now He speaks by that gracious tongue which has worked such miracles of Grace by its words! Now He speaks out of that great heart of His which never beats except with love to the sons of men-will you not hear Him? Surely we ought to give the most earnest heed and obey His every word.

Moses was truly one of the people, for he loved them intensely and all his sympathies were with them. They provoked him terribly, but he still loved them. We can never admire that man of God too much when we think of his disinterested love to that guilty nation. See him on the mountain as Israel's advocate! The Lord said, "Let Me alone that I may destroy them, and I will make of you a great nation." That proposal opened up before Moses' eyes a glittering destiny! It was within his grasp that he should become the founder of a race in whom the promises made to Abraham should be fulfilled! Would not the most of men have greedily snatched at it?

But Moses will not have it! He loves Israel too well to see the people die if he can save them. He has not an atom of selfish ambition about him. And so with cries and tears he exclaims," Why should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath and repent of this evil against Your people." He prevailed with God by his pleading, for he identified himself with Israel. Moses did, as it were, gather up all their grief and sorrow into himself, even as did our Lord. True Israelite was he, for he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter! He cast his lot with the people of God.

This is just what our blessed Lord has done. He will not have honour apart from His people, nor even life unless they also live. He saved others, Himself He could not save. He would not be in Heaven and leave His saints behind! He loved the people and so proved Himself to be One chosen out of their midst, a Brother among brethren. Mark well that while thus our Lord is our Brother, the great God has, in His Person, sent us One who is lifted up above us all in the knowledge of His mind. Thus says the Lord (v. 18), "I will put My words in His mouth." Our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us inspired by God. Not alone He comes, nor of His own mind, but He says, "The Father is with Me: I do always the things which please Him: the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works." Both in word and work He acted for His Father and under His Father's inspiration.

Brothers and Sisters, I beseech you not to reject the message which Jesus brings, seeing it is not His own, but the sure message of God! Trifle not with a single word which Jesus speaks, for it is the Word of the Eternal One! Despise not one single deed which He did, or precept which He commanded, or blessing which He brought, for upon all these there is the stamp of Deity! God chose One who is our Brother that He might come near to us and He put His own royal imprimatur upon Him that we might not have an Ambassador of second rank, but One who counts it not robbery to be equal with God, who, nevertheless, for our sake has taken upon Himself the form of a Servant that He might speak home to our hearts. For all these reasons, I beseech you despise not Him that speaks, seeing He speaks from Heaven!

The main point, however, upon which I want to dwell is that Jesus is like Moses. There had been no better mediator found than Moses up to Moses' day. The Lord God, therefore, determined to work upon that model with the great Prophet of His race and He has done so in sending forth the Lord Jesus. It would be a very interesting task for the young people to work out all the points in which Moses is a personal type of the Lord Jesus. The points of resemblance are very many, for there is hardly a single incident in the life of the great Lawgiver which is not symbolic of the promised Saviour. You may begin from the beginning at the waters of the Nile and go to the close upon the brow of Pisgah and you will see Christ in Moses as a man sees his face in a glass. I can only mention in what respects, as a Mediator, Jesus is like Moses, and surely one is found in the fact that Moses, beyond all that went before him, was peculiarly the depository of the mind of God. Once and again we find him closeted with God for 40 days at a time. He went right away from men to the lone mountaintop and there he was, 40 days and 40 nights, and did neither eat nor drink, but lived in high communion with his God! In those times of seclusion he received the pattern of the tabernacle, the Laws of the priesthood, of the sacrifices of the holy days and of the civil estate of Israel - and perhaps the early records which compose the Book of Genesis. To whom else had God ever spoken for that length of time as a man speaks with his friend?

Moses was the peculiar favourite of God. From the first day of his call, when he was keeping his father's flock at the back of the desert, right to the day when God kissed away his soul on the top of Nebo, he was a man greatly beloved to whom God manifested Himself as to no other. Hear the Lord's own words to Aaron and Miriam. "And He said, Hear now My words: If there is a Prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto Him in a vision, and will speak unto Him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all My house. With Him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches: and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Why, then, were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?"

In this our Lord Jesus is like Moses, only He far surpasses him, for the communion between Christ and the Father was very much more intimate, seeing that Jesus is, Himself, essential Deity, and, "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Cold mountains and the midnight air continually witnessed to His communion with the Father. Nor these, alone, for He abode with the Father! His language was always spoken out as God was speaking within Him. He lived in God and with God. "I know," He said, "that You hear Me always." Instead of having to point out when Christ was in communion with the Father, we have rather, with astonishment, to point out the one moment when He was not in communion with the Father, even that dread hour when He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Only that one time did the Father leave Him and even then it was inexplicable and He asked the reason for it- though He knew that He was suffering as the Substitute for man-yet did His desertion by God come upon Him as a novelty which utterly overwhelmed Him so that He asked in agony why He was forsaken. Moses, to take another point, is the first of the Prophets with whom God kept up continuous Revelation. To other men He spoke in dreams and visions, but to Moses by plain and perpetual testimony. His Spirit rested on him and he took of it to give thereof to Joshua and to the 70 elders, even as Jesus gave of His Spirit to the Apostles.

Sometimes God spoke to Noah, or to Abraham and others-but it was only upon certain occasions and, even then, as in the case of Abraham and Jacob, they must fall asleep to see and hear Him best. But with Moses, the Lord abode perpetually! Whenever he willed, he consulted the Most High and at once God spoke with him and directed his way. So was it with Christ Jesus. He needed not to behold a vision-the spirit of prophecy did not occasionally come upon Him and bear Him out of Himself - for the Spirit was given Him without measure and He perpetually knew the very mind and heart of God. He was always a Prophet, not sometimes a prophet, like he of old, of whom we read, "The Spirit of God came upon him in the camp of Dan." Or like others of whom it is written, "The Word of the Lord came to them."

At all times the Spirit rested upon Jesus-He spoke in the abiding power of the Holy Spirit more so than did Moses. Moses is described as a Prophet mighty in word and deed and it is amazing that there never was another Prophet mighty in word and deed till Jesus came. Moses not only spoke with matchless power, but worked miracles. You shall find no other Prophet who did both. Other Prophets who spoke well worked no miracles, or only here and there-while those who worked miracles, such as Elijah and Elisha, have left us but few words that they spoke-indeed, their prophecies were but lightning flashes and not as the bright shining of the sun.

When you come to our Lord Jesus you find lips and heart working together with equal perfectness of witness. You cannot tell in which He is the more marvellous-in His speech or in His acts. "Never man spoke like this Man," but certainly never man worked such marvels of mercy as Jesus did! He far exceeds Moses and all the Prophets put together in the variety and the multitude and the wonderful character of the miracles which He did. If men bow before Prophets who can cast down their rods and they become serpents-if they yield homage to Prophets who call fire from Heaven-how much more should they accept Him whose Words are matchless music and whose miracles of love were felt even beyond the boundaries of this visible world?

The angels of God flew from Heaven to minister to Him. The devils of the Pit fled before His voice and the caverns of death heard His call and yielded up their prey! Who would not accept this Prophet like Moses, to whom the Holy Spirit bore witness by mighty signs and wonders? Moses, again, was the founder of a great system of religious law and this was not the case with any other but the Lord Jesus. He founded the whole system of the Aaronic Priesthood and the Law that went with it. Moses was a Lawgiver-he gave the Ten Commandments in the name of God-and all the other statutes of the Jewish polity were ordained through him. Now, till you come to Christ you find no such Lawgiver-but Jesus institutes the New Covenant as Moses introduced the old! The Sermon on the Mount was an utterance from a happier Sinai and, whereas Moses gives this and that command, Jesus gives the same in sweeter form and in a more Divine fashion and embodies it in His own sacred Person. He is the great Legislator of our dispensation He is the King in the midst of Jeshurun giving forth His commands which run very swiftly and they that fear the Lord are obedient to them. Time will fail us, or we would mention to you that Moses was faithful before God as a servant over all his house and so was Jesus as a Son over His own house! Jesus was never unfaithful to His charge in any re-spect, but in all things ruled and served to perfection as the Anointed of the Father. He is the faithful and true Witness, the Prince of the kings of the earth.

Moses, too, was zealous for God and for His honour. Remember how the zeal of God's house did eat him up? When he saw grievous sin among the people, he said, "Who is on the Lord's side?" and there came to him the tribe of Levi and he said, "Go in and out, and slay you, everyone, his men that were joined to Baalpeor." Herein he was the stern type of Jesus who took the scourge of small cords and drove out the buyers and sellers and said, "Take these things away: it is written, My Father's house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves," for the zeal of God's house had eaten Him up.

Moses, by Divine Grace, was very meek and, perhaps, this is the chief parallel between him and Jesus. I have said, "by Divine Grace," for I suppose by nature he was strongly pas-sionate. There are many indications that Moses was not meek, but very far from it until the Spirit of God rested upon him. He slew the Egyptian hastily and in later years he went out from the presence of Pharaoh "in great anger." Once and again you find him very angry-he took the tablets of stone and dashed them in pieces in his indignation, for "Moses' anger waxed hot," and that unhappy action which occasioned his being shut out of Canaan was caused by his "being provoked in spirit so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips" and said, "Hear now, you rebels! Must I fetch you water out of this rock?" Divine Grace had so cooled and calmed him that in general he was the gentlest of men and when his brother and sister thrust themselves into his place and questioned his authority, it is written, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."

In his own defence he has never anything to say-it is only for the people and for God that his anger waxed hot. Even about his last act of hastiness he says, "God was angry with me for your sake," not for his own sake. He was so meek and gentle that for 40 years he bore with the most rebellious and provoking nation that ever existed! But what shall I say of my Master? Let Him speak for Himself. "Come unto Me, all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest: take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls." Our children call Him, "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." The Man Jesus is very meek above all men that are upon the face of the earth. He has His indignation - "Like glowing often is His wrath, As flame by furious blast up blown," for He can be angry and the wrath of the Lamb is the most awful wrath beneath the sun! But still, to us, in this Gospel day, He is all love and tenderness. And when He bids us come to Him, can we refuse to hear?

So meek is the Mediator that He is Love itself, Incarnate Love! He is so loving that when He died, His only crime was that He was "found guilty of excess of love." Can we be so cruel as to reject Him? O Brothers and Sisters, do not refuse to listen to the voice of this Tender One by whom God speaks to you! Our Lord was like Moses in meekness and then, to sum it all up -Moses was the Mediator for God with the people and so is our blessed Lord. Moses came in God's name and set Israel free from Pharaoh's bondage. Jesus came to set us free from a worse bondage and He has achieved our freedom. Moses led the people through the Red Sea and Jesus has led us where all the hosts of Hell were overthrown and sin was drowned in His most precious blood!

Moses led the tribes through the wilderness and Jesus leads us through the weary ways of this life to the rest which remains for the people of God. Moses spoke to the people for God and Jesus has done the same. Moses spoke to God for the people and Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. Moses proposed himself as a sacrifice when he said, "If not, blot my name out of the Book of Life." But Jesus was an actual Sacrifice and was taken away from the land of the living for our sakes, being made a curse for us! Moses, in a certain sense, died for the people, for he could not enter into the land, but had to close his eyes on Nebo.

Those are touching words, "The Lord was angry with me for your sakes" - words which, in a more Divine sense, may be fitly applied to Jesus-for God was angry with Him for our sakes. Right through to the very end our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is a Prophet like Moses, raised up from the midst of His brethren. O my Hearers, listen to Him! Turn not your ear away from this Prophet of Prophets, but hear and live!

III. I close with that point and if my words are very few let them be weighty. Let us think of THE AUTHORITY of our great Mediator and let this be the practical lesson-Hear you Him. Brothers and Sisters, if our hearts were right, the moment it was announced that God would speak to us through Jesus Christ, there would be a rush to hear Him! If sin had not maddened men, they would listen eagerly to every Word of God through such a Mediator as Jesus! They would write each golden sentence on their tablets! They would hoard His Words in their memories! They would wear them between their eyes! They would yield their hearts to them!

Alas, it is not so, and the saddest thing of all is that some talk of Jesus for gain and others hear of Him as if His story were a mere tale or an old Jewish ballad of 1,800 years ago. Yet, remember, God still speaks by Jesus and every Word of His that is left on record is as solemnly alive, today, as when it first leaped from His blessed lips! I beseech you remember Christ comes not as an amateur, but He has authority with Him-this Ambassador to men wears the authority of the King of kings! If you despise Him, you despise Him that sent Him-if you turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven, you turn away from the eternal God and you do despite to His love! Oh, don't do it!

Note how my text puts it. It says here, "Whoever shall not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him." My heart trembles while I repeat to you the words, "I will require it of him." Today God graciously requires it of some of you and asks why you have not listened to Christ's voice. Why is this? You have not accepted His salvation. Why is this? You know all about Jesus and you say it is true, but you have never believed in Him! Why is this? God requires it of you! Many years has He waited patiently and He has sent His servant again and again to invite you. The men of Nineveh sought mercy in their day and yet you have not repented! God requires it of you!

Why is this? Give your Maker a reason for your rejection of His mercy if you can - fashion some sort of excuse, O you rebellious ones! Do you despise your God? Do you dare His wrath? Do you defy His anger? Are you so mad as this? The day will come when He will require it of you in a much more violent sense than He does today! The day comes when you shall have passed beyond the region of mercy and He will say, "I called you and you refused, why is this? I did not speak to you in thunder. I spoke to you with the gentle voice of the Only Begotten who bled and died for men-why did you not listen to Him? Every Sabbath My servant tried to repeat the language of His Master to you - why did you refuse it? You are cast into Hell-why did you not accept the pardon which would have delivered you from it?"

You were too busy! Too busy to remember your God? What could you have been busy about that was worth a thought as compared with Him? You were too fond of pleasure. And do you dare insult your God by saying that trifling amusements which are not worth the mentioning could stand in comparison with His love and His good pleasure? Oh, how you deserve His wrath! I pray you consider what this means, "I will require it of him." You who still harden your hearts and refuse my Master, go away with this ringing in your ears, "I will require it of him! I will require it of him. When he lies dying alone in that sick chamber I will require it of Him! When he has taken the last plunge and left this world and finds himself in eternity, I will require it of him! And when the thunder wakes the dead and the great Prophet like Moses shall sit on the Great White Throne to judge the quick and the dead, I will require it of Him! I will require it of Him."

My Master will require of me how I have preached to you and I sincerely wish it were in my power to put these things in better form and plead with you more earnestly. But, after all, what can I do? If you have no care for your own souls, how can I help it? If you will rush upon eternal woe. If you will despise the altogether Lovely One through whom God speaks to you. If you will live day after day carelessly and wantonly, throwing away your souls, oh, then, my eyes shall weep in secret places for you, but what more can I do but leave you to God? At the last I shall be compelled to say, "Amen," to the verdict which condemns you forever!

God grant that such a reluctant task may not fall to my lot in reference to any of you, but may you now hear and obey the Lord Jesus and find eternal salvation at once, for His dear name's sake. Amen.

CHAPTER 14. "WE HAVE A HIGH PRIEST"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
Hebrews 4:15.

Beloved, we have a High Priest. All that Israel had under the Law we still retain, only we have the substance of which they had only the shadow. "We have an Altar, of which they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." We have a Sacrifice, which, being once offered, forever avails. We have "One greater than the temple," and He is to us the Mercy Seat and the High Priest. Take it for granted that all the blessings of the Law remain under the Gospel. Christ has restored that which He took not away, but He has not taken away one single possible blessing of the Law-on the contrary, He has secured all to His people.

I look to the Old Testament and I see certain blessings appended to the Covenant of Works and I say to myself by faith, "Those blessings are mine, for I have kept the Covenant of Works in the Person of my Covenant Head and Surety. Every blessing which is promised to perfect obedience belongs to me, since I present to God a perfect obedience in the Person of my great Representative, the Lord Jesus Christ." Every real spiritual blessing which Israel had, you have as a Christian.

Note, next, not only do we read that there is a High Priest, but in the 14th verse we read, "We have a High Priest." It would be a small matter to us to know that such-and-such blessings existed - the great point is to know by faith that we personally possess them! What is the great High Priest to me unless He is mine? What is a Saviour but a word to tantalize my despairing spirit, until I can say that this Saviour is mine? Every blessing of the Covenant is prized in proportion as it is had - "We have a High Priest." I pray you, never talk of the blessings and Doctrines of Grace as matters apart from personal possession, but seek habitually to enjoy and experience them! That was a grand exclamation of Thomas, "My Lord, and my God," and this is a sweet word for the saints - "We have a High Priest."

Beloved, come boldly to the Throne of God for you have a High Priest. Grasp firmly by faith the choice favours which your interest in the Lord Jesus secures to you. It is precious to reflect that Jesus, as High Priest, is still ours, though, according to the text, He "is passed into the heavens." He does not forget us now that He has passed through the lower heavens into the Heaven of heavens where He reigns supreme in His Father's Glory. He is still touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Though He has left behind Him all pain, suffering and infirmity, He retains to the fullest the fellow feelings which His life of humiliation has developed in Him.

"The Man is near of kin unto us" and no difference of situation or condition has changed His kinship or the boundless love which goes with it. Our Joseph, though Lord of all Egypt, is our Brother, still, and beneath the vestments of a king there beats the heart of love. Think of our High Priest as not having laid aside that breastplate of His on which our names are engraved, nor the "two onyx stones, set in pouches of gold," which He wore upon His shoulders, inscribed in the same manner. On His heart and on His shoulders our exalted High Priest bears all His people - His heart and His arms are both engaged for them-His love and His power are engrossed by them. Our Lord carries in His pierced hands, feet and side, the memorials of His redeemed, as it is written, "I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." We have in Him who has passed into the heavens as truly merciful a High Priest as if He were still on this side of the veil ministering as in the day of His humiliation. Put those things together and read them experimentally, each Believer for himself. We have a High Priest-we have Him now-and while He is beyond the heavens, in the Glory of glories, He is still ours, in all tenderness exercising His Grace and power towards us.

Observe here that the Apostle delights to dwell upon the majesty and glory of our High Priest. What does he say? "Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest," as if Aaron and all his sons were little personages compared with Him! In Jesus, the Son of God, we have "a great High Priest." The long succeeding line of priests called of God to stand before Him in the holy place on earth have all passed away-but we have "a great High Priest," seeing He never dies. These men were all faulty-but we have a "great High Priest," who is absolutely perfect. These men did but humbly represent Him, as in a dewdrop the sun may be reflected. But He is the true High Priest between God and man and therefore the epithet "great" is put before His name as it could not be before any other.

He is "the great High Priest," for He has passed, not within a material veil into some inner sanctuary encompassed with curtains, but into the heavens where God dwells! His name is Jesus. There is His Manhood-He was born of a woman to save His people from their sins. But we read further, "Jesus, the Son of God." There is His Deity. He is the Only-Begotten of the Father-as glorious in His Godhead as He is gracious in His Manhood. Paul delights to dwell upon these points of glory.

But when he has done so, it seems to occur to him that when we consider the greatness of our High Priest, some poor trembling sinners may be afraid to draw near to Him-and the Apostle ever has a longing eye towards drawing souls to Jesus. Therefore he falls back upon our Lord's tenderness. Great as He is, our High Priest is not One who "cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." He puts a negative on that fear which might naturally arise in trembling bosoms. This morning, being myself more than usually compassed with infirmities, I desire to speak, as a weak and suffering preacher, of that High Priest who is full of compassion-and my longing is that any who are low in spirit, faint, despondent, or even at the point of total despair, may take heart to approach the Lord Jesus! Let no man be afraid of Him who is the embodiment of gentleness and compassion! Though conscious of your own infirmities, you may feel free to come to Him who will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax! I want to speak so tenderly that even the despairing may look up and may feel a drawing towards our Beloved Master who is so graciously touched with a feeling of our infirmities.

I. So I am going to begin my sermon by saying of our blessed Lord, HE HAS ASSUMED A VERY TENDER OFFICE. If the office of high priest had been fully carried out, as it ought to have been, it would have been one of the most tenderly helpful that could have been devised. A king may render great aid to the unhappy, but, on the other hand, he is a terror to evil-doers - a high priest is in the highest sense "ordained for men," and he is the friend and benefactor of the most wretched.

It was intended, first, that by the high priest God should commune with men. That needs a person of great tenderness. A mind that is capable of listening to God and under-standing, in a measure, what He teaches, had need be very tender so as to interpret the lofty sense into the lowly language of humanity. If the man is to come from among the Infinite down to the ignorance and narrow capacities of mortal men, he had need be tender as a nurse to her children. Great philosophers have not always been great teachers-their very profundity has prevented their translating their great thoughts into the speech of common minds. There is a possibility of knowing so much that the knowledge becomes crowded up and there remains no possible gate for the orderly going out of such a multitude of thoughts. Great knowledge needs great patience if it would instruct the ignorant. The great loaves of wisdom must be broken and crumbed into a basin of milk for the children. How few re-member the words, "Let the children first be filled"! Now, the high priest had to be a man who could commune with God and listen to the sacred Oracle-and then he was bound to come out to common men of the wilderness, or men of the farm, and tell them what he had heard in secret from the Infinite God! He must mediate and allow his mouth to be God's mouth to the people-for "the priest's lips should keep knowledge." What he had grasped from the Lord he must so put that the people could grasp it and act upon it. This is what our Lord has done in the most tender manner.

He reveals the Father. The things of God which He knows, He makes known unto us by His Holy Spirit, as we are able to bear them. We are to learn of Him. Some say that they will go from Nature up to Nature's God-they will do no such thing - the steps are much too steep for their feeble climbing! They fall into some such abyss of absurdity as evolution and come not near to God. You have not to go from Jesus Christ to God, for He Himself is God! "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him." Come, then, and learn of the great High Priest! His office, itself, is a compassionate one and you may learn all of God from Him the more readily because He is meek and lowly of heart and will count it no drudgery to teach you the very A B Cs of Divine Truth.

But a high priest took the other side also - he was to communicate with God from men. Here, also, he needed the most tender spirit to rule his faculties and to move his affections. He must sit down and hear all the trembling petitions of troubled mothers who had come from the utmost end of Israel laden with their domestic burdens. He must listen to all the complaints of the oppressed, the woes of the afflicted, the trials of the poor, the perplexities of the distracted. And then, as a man of God, he was ordained to take all these things in prayer before the Host High and in fitter language to present the requests of the broken in heart. What a tender office! How few could carry it out! Even some well-meaning ministers do not seem able to enter into the struggles of a seeking sinner, or into the conflicts of a tempted soul. Those who go to them, that they may enjoy their intercessions, are disappointed. Our High Priest is quite at home with mourners and enters into their case as a good physician understands the symptoms of his patients. When we tell our Lord the story of our inward grief, He understands it better than we do. He rightly reads our case and then wisely presents it before the Majesty on high, pleading His Sacrifice, that the Lord may deal graciously with us.

Beloved, this is what Jesus Christ will do for all who desire to speak with God. He is the "Interpreter, one of a thousand," by whom our sighs will be reported to Heaven! If you wish to communicate your needs to the great Father who is able to help in time of need-here is the Ambassador between earth and Heaven who can plead the cause of your soul at that Throne from which succour always comes! Is it not gracious on our Lord's part to undertake so tender an office for those who need it so greatly and have no other way of access to the God of Grace?

But if I understand the high priest's office aright, he had many things to do which come under this general description, but which might not suggest themselves if you did not have the items set before you. The high priest was one who had to deal with sin and judgment for the people. We read in Exodus 28:29, "Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually." In consequence, he was called upon to hear confessions of sin and pleas for pardon. Many came to him and acknowledged known transgressions, or wished for aid in discovering sins of ignorance.

As God's representative, he judged the errors of those who came to offer sacrifice for their sins and helped them to deal rightly in the things of God. This is a very tender post to occupy. No mere man is fitted to hear, as a rule, the confessions of all sorts of people and certainly he should not seek to do so. Yet the man whom God calls to feed His flock is forced, at times, to enter into the soul-conflicts of his fellow men and to hear the mournful story of their wanderings. And he needs great tenderness in so doing. We have a High Priest into whose ears we may pour all the confessions of our penitence without fear. Go and do so! It is a wonderful easement to the mind to tell Jesus all. Men who have consciences that tear them to pieces will find perfect repose follows upon a full pouring out of their soul before the Lord Jesus. Our merciful High Priest will never make a harsh observation, nor ask a rasping question, nor pronounce a crushing sentence. Go to Him, only, for there is none like He. He will come so near to you that you shall unburden your soul at His feet.

No doubt the high priest was resorted to that he might console the sorrowful. It must have been a great relief for those who were of a sorrowful spirit, to go unto the sanctuary of the Lord and sit at the feet of a man of God who could remind the stricken one of the promises made to meet such sorrow. Only to tell the story was helpful. Mourners often get more comfort from telling their griefs than they do from the remarks of those to whom they unburden themselves. Go to Jesus, dear Friend, if a sharp grief is now gnawing at your heart. If it is a trouble which you could not tell to your father or your husband, go to Jesus with it! That holy woman, Hannah, when she sat in the court of the Lord's house, got but little at first from Eli-she was telling her Lord her secret - but the aged priest thought that she was drunk because her lips were moving and she spoke not aloud!

He rebuked her roughly. But when she explained herself, then he bade her go in peace, for her prayer would be granted her - and she went away no more sad. Jesus will make no mistake as to your meaning, dear Friend, even though you should be as one drunk with sorrow. Go to your chamber all alone. Tell Jesus your troubles and He will meet it in the fullness of His compassion and wisdom. Through Him the Comforter shall come to you and your sorrow shall be turned into joy! Try it. I cannot preach to you this morning with any power of words, but words are not needed if you will put everything to the test which I tell you concerning the tender-hearted Saviour. Hasten to lay Rabshakeh's letter before your Lord! Pour out the wormwood and the gall before Him-He knows their bitterness and He will surely make them to be swallowed up in victory. This is the purpose of His office and He will not fail in it.

The high priest would hear, also, the desire and wishes of the people. When men in Israel had some great longing, some overwhelming desire, they not only prayed in private but they would make a journey up to the Temple to ask the high priest to present their petitions before the Lord. Hannah only told Eli her heart's longing after it had been gratified, for she could not have summoned courage to mention so special a desire to a man who had so harshly judged her. She had evidently gone to Shiloh to make petition for a child, since her husband's other wife had been cruel to her because of her barrenness. She told Eli that the Lord had heard her and then she consulted him as to the dedication of her son to the Lord. My Friend, you may have some very peculiar, delicate desire as to spiritual things that only God and your own soul may know, but fear not to mention it to your tender High Priest who will know your meaning and deal graciously with you! It was the high priest's business to instruct and to reprove the people. To instruct is delightful, but to reprove is difficult. Only a tender spirit can wisely utter rebuke. Israel's high priest needed to be meek as Moses in his rebukes of the erring. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us our faults in tones of love. His rebukes never break our heart. He never upbraids in bitterness, though He does so in faithfulness. Oh, the tenderness of Christ! I feel my subject deeply, but I cannot speak it as I would. He has been most gracious in correcting me. I know His Word is true: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." We can take anything from Jesus - His hands make the bitter sweet.

There are men whom you would shun in the hour of your wounding even though you believe that they would do their best to help you, for you do not feel that you could reveal your heart to them, nor feel happy to be under obligation to them. Their kindness is hard and cold. Their counsel is without the sweetening of compassion. They are as keen as a sword and as cutting. It may be they are so much above us that we cannot reach up to them, nor expect them to reach down to us. But there are other men, blessed among their fellows, who seem to be like havens for ships-you rejoice to cast anchor under their shelter. You feel, "I could tell that man anything. I know that he would have patience with me and pity for me, and that his heart would go out towards me."

Now, Beloved, you will often be disappointed if you select a man or woman to be your confidante. But if you will resort to the Lord Jesus, whom God has commissioned to be High Priest for this very end and purpose, you will find Him just the Friend you need. He loves the troubled, for "in all their affliction He was afflicted." He is very careful of the feeble minded and of the little ones, for is it not written-"He shall gather the lambs with His arms and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young"? When circumstances are peculiarly trying, Jesus is peculiarly tender. When we are grieved, He is gentle. Did you ever hear any of His people say of their Lord, that He is overbearing? Did His spouse, in the song, ever say that her Beloved had a rough side to His hand, or a cold place in His heart?

He can and does chide, for His love is wise, but he has much pity and His love knows no limit. His heart is made of tenderness and His soul melts for love of His chosen. We adore our High Priest, not only for the greatness of His merit, but for the sweetness of His mercy. I wish I could fitly speak of Him. But this much I must and will say-Come to Him and rest in Him, for He calls you. He is near at all times and in all places, and you can come to Him while you sit in the pew, or when you walk by the way. Come, you that labour and are heavy laden, and lay your burdens at His feet! Come, you whose souls sink down within you under a sense of sin, come to Him who, as your great High Priest, has offered a guilt-removing Sacrifice! He sits at the door of the house of mercy-He waits to be gracious. This is my first head.

II. Now, secondly, as our Lord Jesus has a tender office, so, next, HE HAS TENDER FEELINGS. "We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Note that it is not said, "touched by," but touched with. Many a man can be touched by the sorrow of another, but he is not touched with that sorrow. He has feeling, but not fellow feeling. He pities the sorrowing, but he does not sorrow with them.

How many of the rich are sorry for the poor, but they were never poor themselves, so they may be touched by the woe of poverty, but they are not touched with a feeling for it. Our Lord is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. You are touched and He is touched at the same time. A pang shoots through my heart-that pang has been felt by my Lord, also. A grief has stirred the waters of my spirit and the spirit of the great High Priest has moved in harmony with me. They say, but I know not that it is true, that when the strings of one harp are touched, if there is another harp in the room, it gently responds in unison, though not touched by any hand.

Assuredly it is so with the Believer and his Lord. Touch any one of His members and you touch the Head of the spiritual body. Your present trouble is upon the heart of our Well-Beloved:-

It is not merely true that He is apprised of our infirmities, since the Lord has said, "I know their sorrows," but He "is touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Hold that thought! It is a great matter that our God should note the trials of His people, that His condescending Omniscience should concern itself with their everyday distresses! But this word goes further - He feels with His people - He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." The sense of feeling is more intense, vivid and acute than the sense of sight. It is one thing to see pain, but another thing to be touched with the feeling of it. Treasure up this view of your Lord's sympathy, for it may be a great support in the hour of agony and a grand restorative in the day of weakness.

Note again, "The feeling of our infirmities." Whose infirmities? Does not "our" mean yours and mine? Jesus is touched with the feeling of your infirmities and mine. You, my venerable Brother, and you, my younger Sister - you who have come here from a fresh grave and you that will return to a bed shortly to be emptied of your dearest one - you that are slandered and you that are sick. You that can scarcely hold up your head for sadness-and you that are distracted with fear - He is "touched with a feeling of our infirmities." I do not know how you feel about it, but the text draws me very near to all of you who are under infirmities even as I am. We nestle together in that little word, "our." We meet in the hospital ward of that other word, "infirmities." The best of all is that Jesus meets us all there and is touched with the feeling of the infirmities, not only of renowned divines in their pulpits and of great saints in their closets, but with "our" infirmities-even ours, who are "less than the least of all saints."

Note well that word, "infirmities" - "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." If it had only said sorrows, there would have been a sound of the sublime about it. But our Master stoops to "infirmities." He is not only touched with the feeling of the heroic endurance of the martyrs, but He sympathizes with those of us who are not heroes but can only plead - "the spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak." While you are entreating the Lord, thrice, to take away the thorn in the flesh He is sympathizing with you! Is it not well that it does not say, touched with the feeling of our patience? Our self-denial, our valour? But "with a feeling of our infirmities" - that is, our weakness, our littleness - the points in which we are not strong nor happy. Our pain, our depression, our trembling, our sensitiveness - He is touched with these though He falls not into the sin which so often comes of them. Hold fast this Truth of God, for it may greatly tend to your consolation some day.

Jesus is touched, not with a feeling of your strength, but of your infirmity. Down here, poor, feeble nothings affect the heart of their great High Priest on high who is crowned with glory and honour! As the mother feels the weakness of her babe, so does Jesus feel with the poorest, saddest and weakest of His chosen! Why is this, Brothers and Sisters? Let us think of it a while! Our Lord has a tender Nature. Some people are not sympathetic and never will be. Their spirit is not generous. We are all made of clay, but some clay is stiffer and more gritty than another-and in some cases very hard grit is in it. Some men have no more feeling than granite. They will say about the collection today, "I shall not give anything to the hospitals. Let the people take care of themselves. If they were more thrifty they would have a little laid by for a rainy day and would not need to have hospitals provided for them." This gentleman can supply wagon-loads of the same sort of hard material. I know you, my Friend. I have known you, too, a long time. I was going to say, "I would be happy to attend your funeral," but I will not say so, lest it seem that I am hardening myself under your influence. And besides, there are so many of your order, that one more or less is of no great consequence. You know the people who are always griping against charity and finding a shilling's worth of reasons why they should not give a penny. Such people will not willingly put anything into the box - but as it will come round to them, anyway-possibly they will do so for fear of being known!

Jesus, our Lord, is tender by Nature. Amid the bliss of Heaven He foresaw the miseries of earth and resolved to leave His Glory that He might come here to rescue man. His innate tenderness brought Him from the Throne to the manger, from the manger to the Cross. Our Lord is not only tender of Nature but quick of understanding as to the infirmities of men. Lack of sense often prevents men being sensitive and sympathetic. If you have never suffered a disease, you need a little imagination to realize it so as to be touched with the feeling of it. I noticed a very able address delivered by Mr. Hutchinson before the Lord Mayor, last Friday, in which he advises a person who mourns his lack of sympathy to go for a week to his usual city vocation with a black patch over one eye, or wearing a wooden leg. "If this does not effect the business," he says, "let him choose some leisure day in the country in bright spring and resolutely, for 24 hours, keep a bandage firmly placed over both eyes. His organization is, I fear, in this direction, well-near hopeless if next morning he does not feel inclined to send a liberal donation to some hospital that has for its mission the prevention of blindness." I have no doubt that improvable persons might be all the better for some such attempt to gain feeling for their fellows. The same doctor thinks that the wearing of a truss, or a spinal apparatus for one day might be a help to tenderness.

I will not urge these modes of cure, but the thought is good and it might be tried in other directions. Suppose the squire of the parish who thinks 10 or 12 shillings abundant wages for a week, should say to his lady, "We have always said that our agricultural labourers have quite enough money to live upon - let us try their fare. We will leave this house for a week and take one of the old cottages in the village and live, all of us, on the wages we pay our men." What a capital school for social economy! How well would some people know the value of our silver currency and of the copper coinage, also! Only we would like members of Parliament to have a longer experience than one week, lest it might be a pleasant change from feasting to fasting! Say six months for the honourable member! This might foster sympathy.

Our blessed Lord had real experience and, beside that, the faculty of being able to put Himself into the place of sufferers and so to be "acquainted with grief." His quick understanding made Him realize, as High Priest, the sorrows of His people. Too many people are so wrapped up in their own grief that they have no room in their souls for sympathy. Do you not know them? The first thing when they rise in the morning is the dreadful story of the night they have passed. Ah, dear, and they have not quite eaten a hearty breakfast before their usual pain is somewhere or other coming over them! They must have the special care and pity of the whole household.

All the day long the one great business is to keep everybody aware of how much the great sufferer is enduring. It is this person's patent right to monopolize all the sympathy which the market can supply and then there will be none to spare for the rest of the afflicted! If you are greatly taken up with self, there is not enough of you to run over to anybody else. How different this from our Lord, who never cried, "Have pity upon Me! Have pity upon Me, O My friends!" He is described as "enduring the Cross, despising the shame." So strong was He in love that, though He saved others, Himself He could not save! Though He succoured the afflicted, none succoured Him!

Men who are wrapped up in their own glories are not sympathetic. Is it not a fine thing to spend life in contemplating one's own magnificence? Those who are amazed at their own greatness have no thought to spare for the suffering. "No," says the man, "the masses must obey the laws of supply and demand and get on as well as they can. Let them do as I have done. I might have been as poor as they are if I had shown as little push and enterprise as they do." The gentleman talks on a great scale and he has no sympathy for the small woes of common life. His sympathy is needed at home and his charity begins there-and is so satisfied with its beginning that it never goes any further.

Our Lord is at the opposite pole from all this. He never glorified Himself. He "made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant," thus displaying the tenderness of His heart. Let me say, once more, our Lord is tender to us without any effort-not only because of the reasons I have mentioned, but because He has made our cause His own. We are His friends and does not a friend act tenderly to a friend? We are more than that-we are married to Him and shall not a husband be tender to his spouse? More than that, "we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones"-and shall not the Head feel every pain of the members? It must be so! Jesus has so identified Himself with His own redeemed that He must forevermore be in living, loving, lasting sympathy with them!

III. I must now notice very briefly, in the third place, that our LORD HAD TENDER TRAINING. Hear what Paul says of it. He "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Beloved, our Lord was tried as we are - that is one meaning of the passage. As to all manner of bodily ills, He was subject to them all. Hungry, weary, faint, without a place to lay His head, He was tried in all the points to which poverty exposes its victims. "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." Even to the death - sweat and the cry, "I thirst!" Jesus has gone along our pathway of pain and grief. No step of it has been spared Him.

Our Lord has been tried mentally. There is never an exceeding heaviness, nor a sore amazement, nor a wound of treachery, nor a stab of ingratitude of which He did not feel. The sharpest arrows in the quiver of anguish have been shot at His dear heart. "Oh," says one, "I do not think anybody has been tried as I have been by cruel unkindness." Say not so, for Jesus was forsaken of all and betrayed by the friend in whom He trusted. As to spiritual distress, our Lord has been there, also. Where any sinless foot could go, He has gone. The abyss has heard Him cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Tried in all points from above and from below, from without and from within, He can sympathize with every form of tribulation.

"Like as we are." Who are meant by the "we"? That again is like the "our"-it means you and I. Jesus Christ passed through a training similar to ours. The discipline of life for all the children is much the same. The first-born is tried as the rest of the household are tried. But the text says, "tempted" and that bears a darker meaning than "tried." Our Lord could never have fallen the victim of temptation, but through life He was the object of it. He could never have been so tempted as that the sin of a temptation could spot His soul. Far from it! Yet remember that in the wilderness He was tempted to unbelief The Evil One said, "If you are the Son of God." Most of us know how he can hiss that "if into our ears. "If you are the Son of God."

Upon our Lord that "if" fell painfully but harmlessly. Then came the temptation to help Himself and anticipate the Providence of God by selfish action-"Command that these stones be made bread." We, too, have had this rash act suggested to us. The tempter has said, "You could get out of your difficulties by doing a wrong thing-do it! It is not a very wrong thing, either-indeed, it is questionable whether it might not be justifiable under the circumstances! In vain will you wait for the Lord-put out your own hand and provide for yourself! The way of faith in God is slow and you are in pressing need." Our Lord was tempted just like that. When no bread in the house is made the background of a great temptation, remember that our Lord has undergone the counterpart of that temptation.

Next, the Lord Jesus was tempted to presumption. Set on the pinnacle of the temple, He heard a voice saying, "If You are the Son of God cast Yourself down from here, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You." Are you haunted by a similar suggestion to presume? Is it suggested that you quit your old standing and try the new notions, or that you speculate in business, or that you profess to understand what God has never taught you? Resist earnestly! Ah, dear Friends, your Lord knows all about this and as He escaped that temptation, you shall do the same. Then Satan-how often I have wondered at him-dared to say to Christ, "All these things will I give You if You will fall down and worship me."

Picture the Lord of angels, with all the royalty of Heaven shining on His brow, and the black fiend daring to say, "Fall down and worship me." It may be that a like temptation is coming home to you-live for gold, live for fame, live for pleasure-in some form or other worship the devil and renounce faith in God. "Worship me," says the Prince of Darkness - "take to the new doctrines. Practice the current worldliness. Leave the Word of God for the wisdom of the philosophers." In some such form will the temptation come, but even though Satan could fulfil his promise and all the world should be ours, we are bound to resist unto the death and we are encouraged to do so by the fact that we are upon the old ground where our Redeemer fought and conquered!

He can enter into the distress which this temptation is causing you, for He has felt the same. How the Lord Jesus must have started back with horror from the suggestions of the devil! He never entertained them for an instant, but the mere passing of those temptations over the drum of His ear and the apprehension of His mind must have caused Him the sharpest wounding-for He hated sin with immeasurable hate. Beloved, our Lord has endured so much of temptation that He will be tender towards you this morning, "touched with the feeling of your infirmities," because He was tempted at all points as you are. Even though temptation follows you as the serpent which bites at the horses' heels, your Lord knows it and will deliver you.

IV. I am happy to come to my last point, through Divine aid. OUR LORD HAS A PERFECT TENDERNESS. As I read the verse-"In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," I thought I heard you say, "But that is just the pinch of the matter. He cannot sympathize with me in sin and that is my great trouble!" Brother, do you wish that your Lord had become a sinner like yourself? Abhor the idea! It would be blasphemy if understood and indulged. You see at once that you could not wish anything of the kind! But listen to me-do not imagine that if the Lord Jesus had sinned He would have been any more tender toward you-for sin is always of a hardening nature.

If the Christ of God could have sinned, He would have lost the perfection of His sympathetic Nature. It needs perfection of heart to lay self all aside and to be touched with a feeling of the infirmities of others. Listen again - do you not think that sympathy in sin would be a poisonous sweet? A child, for instance, has done wrong and he has been wisely chastened by his father. I have known cases in which a foolish mother has sympathized with the child. This may seem affectionate, but it is wickedly injurious to the child. Such conduct would lead the child to love the evil which it is necessary he should hate. Have you not felt, yourself, that in unbelieving moments it would have been a great evil for a Christian Brother to have petted you in your unbelief? Have you not felt it was far better for you to have heard a bracing word of upbraiding?

We ought not to wish for sympathy in wrong. Sympathy in sin is conspiracy in crime. We must show sympathy with sinners but not with their sins. If, then, you dream that our Lord Jesus would have derived any gracious power to sympathize with us from Himself sinning, you greatly err! Such sympathy, had it been possible, would have been to the last degree injurious to us. Inasmuch as He had no sin we can drink in His words of comfort without fear. His oil and wine will bring no evil to our wounds. His holy experience comforts us and puts us in no risk. It is a blessed thing for a sinner to have the sympathies of one who never sinned! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice in this, that the Sinless One has perfect sympathy with you in your infirmities! He sympathizes all the more graciously because He is without sin.

I have done when I have said this-if our Lord was thus sympathetic, let us be tender to our fellow men. Let us not restrain our tender feelings, but encourage them. Love is the brightest of the Graces of God and most sweetly adorns the Gospel. Love to the sorrowing, the suffering, the needy, is a charming flower which grows in the garden of a renewed heart. Cultivate it! Make your love practical! Love the poor not in word only, but in actual gifts to them! Love the sick and help them to a cure! Today I cannot conceive of you as thinking of the sick poor of London without wishing that you could house them all, relieve them all with medical skill and then send them for a little respite into the country, or by the seaside, to gather strength!

It is a painful fact that our great hospitals have so many beds unoccupied while patients are in need of them! As a governor of St. Thomas's Hospital, I have seen, from time to time, how the endowments have decreased in value through the agricultural depression and the lowering of rents. Surely London is rich enough to make up the deficit of 100,000 pounds! To do this the collections must be at least doubled. Will you allow the poor to pine in their narrow rooms? Shall they perish for lack of surgical care and medical help? Do you call yourselves followers of the tender Jesus? Do you hope to be saved through his compassion?

On this Hospital Sunday I charge rich Christians to delay no longer but to be touched with the feeling of the sufferings of those who are made of one flesh with them. Let all of us do our best. I will not insult you by pleading with you as though you were unwilling. You are eager to give for His dear sake who sympathizes with you so tenderly and helps you so graciously. Let the collection be made at once!

CHAPTER 15. JESUS, THE KING OF TRUTH

A Sermon delivered on by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."
John 18:37.

The season is almost arrived when by the custom of our fellow-citizens we are led to remember the birth of the holy child Jesus, who was born "king of the Jews." I shall not, however, conduct you to Bethlehem, but to the foot of Calvary; there we shall learn, from the Lord's own lips, something concerning the kingdom over which he rules, and thus we shall be led to prize more highly the joyous event of his nativity.

We are told, by the apostle Paul, that our Lord Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. It was a good confession as to the manner of it, for our Lord was truthful, gentle, prudent, patient, meek, and yet, withal, uncompromising, and courageous. His spirit was not cowed by Pilate's power, nor exasperated by his sneers. In his patience he possessed his soul, and remained the model witness for the truth - both in his silence and in his speech. He witnessed a good confession also, as to the matter of it; for, though he said but little, that little was all that was needful. He claimed his crown rights, and, at the same time, declared that his kingdom was not of this world, nor to be sustained by force. He vindicated both the spirituality and the essential truthfulness of his sovereignty. If ever we should be placed in like circumstances, may we be able to witness a good confession too! We may never, like Paul, be made to plead before Nero; but, if we should, may the Lord stand by us, and help us to play the man before the lion! In our families, or among our business acquaintances, we may have to meet some little Nero, and answer to some petty Pilate; may we then also be true witnesses. O that we may have grace to be prudently silent or meekly outspoken, as the matter may require, in either case being faithful to our conscience and our God! May the sorrowful visage of Jesus, the faithful and true witness, the Prince of the kings of the earth, be often before our eye, to check the first sign of flinching, and to inspire us with dauntless courage!

We have before us, in the words of the text, a part of our Saviour's good confession touching this kingdom.

I. Note, first of all, that our LORD CLAIMED TO BE A KING. Pilate said, "Art thou a king, then?" asking the question with a sneering surprise that so poor a being should put forth a claim to royalty. Do you wonder that he should have marvelled greatly to find kingly claims associated with such a sorrowful condition? The Saviour answered, in effect, "It is even as thou sayest, I am a king." The question was but half earnest; the answer was altogether solemn: "I am a king." Nothing was ever uttered by our Lord with greater certainty and earnestness.

Now, notice, that our Lord's claim to be a king was made without the slightest ostentation or desire to be be advantaged thereby. There were other times when, if he had said "I am a king," he might have been carried upon the shoulders of the people, and crowned amid general acclamations. His fanatical fellow countrymen would gladly have made him their leader at one time; and we read that they would have "taken him by force and made him a king." At such times he said but little about his kingdom, and what he did say was uttered in parables, and explained only to his disciples when they were alone. Little enough did he say in his preaching concerning his birthright as the Son of David and a scion of the royal house of Judah; for he shrank from worldly honours, and disdained the vain glories of a temporal diadem. He who came in love to redeem men, had no ambition for the gewgaws of human sovereignty. But now, when he is betrayed by his disciple, accused by his countrymen, and in the hands of an unjust ruler; when no good can come of it to himself; when it will bring him derision rather than honour; he speaks out plainly and replies to his interrogator, "Thou sayest that I am a king."

Note well the clearness of our Lord's avowal; there was no mistaking his words: "I am a king." When the time has come for the truth to be spoken, our Lord is not backward in declaring it. Truth has her times most meet for speech, and her seasons for silence. We are not to cast our pearls before swine, but when the hour has come for speech we must not hesitate, but speak as with the voice of a trumpet, giving forth a certain sound, that no man may mistake us. So, though a prisoner given up to die, the Lord boldly declares his royalty, though Pilate would pour derision upon him in consequence thereof. O, for the Master's prudence to speak the truth at the right time, and for the Master's courage to speak it when the right time has come. Soldiers of the cross, learn of your Captain.

Our Lord's claim to royalty must have sounded very singularly in Pilate's ear, Jesus was, doubtless, very much careworn, sad, and emaciated in appearance. He had spent the first part of the night in the garden in an agony; in the midnight hours he had been dragged from Annas to Caiaphas, and from Caiaphas to Herod; neither at day-break had he been permitted to rest, so that, from sheer weariness, he must have looked very unlike a king. If you had taken some poor ragged creature in the street, and said to him, "Art thou a king, then?" the question could scarcely have been more sarcastic. Pilate, in his heart, despised the Jews as such, but here was a poor Jew, persecuted by his own people, helpless and friendless; it sounded like mockery to talk of a kingdom in connection with him. Yet never earth saw truer king! None of the line of Pharaoh, the family of Nimrod, or the race of the Caesars, was so intrinsically imperial in himself as he, or so deservedly reckoned a king among men by virtue of his descent, his achievements, or his superior character. The carnal eye could not see this, but to the spiritual eye it is clear as noonday. To this day, pure Christianity, in its outward appearance, is an equally unattractive object, and wears upon its surface few royal tokens. It is without form or comeliness, and when men see it, there is no beauty that they should desire it. True, there is a nominal Christianity which is accepted and approved of men, but the pure gospel is still despised and rejected. The real Christ of to-day, among men, is unknown and unrecognised as much as he was among his own nation eighteen hundred years ago. Evangelical doctrine is at a discount, holy living is censured, and spiritual-mindedness is derided. "What," say they, "This evangelical doctrine, call you it the royal truth? Who believes it now-a-days? Science has exploded it. There is nothing great about it; it may afford comfort to old women, and to those who have not capacity enough for free thought, but its reign is over, never to return." As to living in separation from the world, it is called Puritanism, or worse. Christ in doctrine, Christ in spirit, Christ in life - the world cannot endure as king. Christ chanted in cathedrals, Christ personified in lordly prelates, Christ surrounded by such as are in king's houses, he is well enough; but Christ honestly obeyed, followed, and worshipped in simplicity, without pomp or form, they will not allow to reign over them. Few now-a-days will side with the truth their fathers bled for. The day for covenanting to follow Jesus through evil report and shame appears to have gone by. Yet, though men turn round upon us, and say, "Do you call your gospel divine? Are you so preposterous as to believe that your religion comes from God and is to subdue the world?" - we boldly answer; "Yes!" Even as beneath the peasant's garb and the wan visage of the Son of Mary we can discern the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father! so beneath the simple form of a despised gospel we perceive the royal lineaments of truth divine. We care nothing about the outward apparel or the external housing of truth; we love it for its own sake. To us, the marble halls and the alabaster columns are nothing, we see more in the manger and the cross. We are satisfied that Christ is the king still where he was wont to be king, and that is not among the great ones of the earth, nor among the mighty and the learned, but amongst the base things of the world and the things which are not, which shall bring to nought the things that are, for these hath God from the beginning chosen to be his own.

Let us add, that our Lord's claim to be a king shall be acknowledged one day by all mankind. When Christ said to Pilate, according to our version, "Thou sayest, that I am a king," he virtually prophesied the future confession of all men. Some, taught by his grace, shall in this life rejoice in him as their altogether lovely King. Blessed be God, the Lord Jesus might look into the eyes of many of us, and say, "Thou sayest that I am a king," and we would reply, "We do say it joyfully." But the day shall come when he shall sit upon his great white throne, and then, when the multitudes shall tremble in the presence of his awful majesty, even such as Pontius Pilate, and Herod, and the chief priests, shall own that he is a king! Then to each of his astounded and overwhelmingly convinced enemies he might say, "Now, O despiser, thou sayest that I am a king," for to him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord!

Let us remember, here, that when our Lord said to Pilate, "Thou sayest that I am king," he was not referring to his divine dominion. Pilate was not thinking of that at all, nor did our Lord, I think, refer to it: yet, forget not that, as divine, he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. We must never forget that, though he died in weakness as man, yet he ever lives and rules as God. Nor do I think he referred to his mediatorial sovereignty, which he possesses over the earth for his people's sake; for the Lord has all power committed unto him in heaven and in earth, and the Father has given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to as many as are given him. Pilate was not alluding to that, nor our Lord either, in the first place; but he was speaking of that rule which he personally exercises over the minds of the faithful, by means of the truth. You remember Napoleon's saying, "I have founded an empire by force, and it has melted away; Jesus Christ established his kingdom by love, and it stands to this day, and will stand." That is the kingdom to which our Lord's word refers, the kingdom of spiritual truth in which Jesus reigns as Lord over those who are of the truth. He claimed to be a king, and the truth which he revealed, and of which he was the personification, is, therefore, the sceptre of his empire. He rules by the force of truth over those hearts which feel the power of right and truth, and therefore willingly yield themselves to his guidance, believe his word, and are governed by his will, It is as a spiritual Lord that Christ claims sovereignty among men; he is king over minds that love him, trust him, and obey him, because they see in him the truth which their souls pine for. Other. kings rule our bodies, but Christ our souls, they govern by force, but he by the attractions of righteousness; theirs is, to a great extent, a fictitious royalty, but his is true, and finds its force in truth.

So much, then, upon Christ's claims to be a king.

II. Now, observe, secondly, that OUR LORD DECLARED THIS KINGDOM TO BE HIS MAIN OBJECT IN LIFE. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." To set up his kingdom was the reason why he was born of the virgin. To be King of men, it was necessary for him to be born. He was always the Lord of all; he needed not to be born to be a king in that sense, but to be king through the power of truth, it was essential that he should be born in our nature. Why so? I answer, first, because it seems unnatural that a ruler should be alien in nature to the people over whom he rules. An angelic king of men would be unsuitable; there could not exist the sympathy which is the cement of a spiritual empire. Jesus, that he might govern by force of love and truth alone, became of one nature with mankind; he was a man among men, a real man - but a right noble and kingly man, and so a King of men.

But, again, the Lord was born that he might be able to save his people. Subjects are essential to a kingdom; a king cannot be a king if there be none to govern. But all men must have perished through sin, had not Christ come into the world and been born to save. His birth was a necessary step to his redeeming death; his incarnation was necessary to the atonement.

Moreover, truth never exerts such power as when it is embodied. Truth spoken may be defeated, but truth acted out in the life of a man is omnipotent, through the Spirit of God. Now, Christ did not merely speak the truth, but he was truth. Had he been truth embodied in an angelic form, he had possessed small power over our hearts and lives; but perfect truth in a human form has royal power over renewed humanity. Truth embodied in flesh and blood has power over flesh and blood. Hence, for this purpose was he born. So when ye hear the bells ringing out at Christmas, think of the reason why Jesus was born; dream not that he came to load your tables and fill your cups; but in your mirth look higher than all earth-born things. When you hear that in certain churches there are pompous celebrations and ecclesiastical displays, think not for this purpose was Jesus born. No; but look within your hearts, and say, for this purpose was he born: that he might be a King, that he might rule through the truth in the people who are by grace made to love the truth of God.

And then he added, "For this cause came I into the world;" that is, he came out of the bosom of the Father that he might set up his kingdom, by unveiling the mysteries which were hid from the foundation of the world. No man can reveal the counsel of God, but one who has been with God; and the Son who has come forth of the ivory palaces of gladness, announces to us tidings of great joy! For this cause also came he into the world, from the obscure retirement of Joseph's workshop, where, for many years he was hidden like a pearl in its shell. It was needful that he should be made known, and that the truth to which he witnessed should be sounded in the ears of the crowd. Since he was to be a King, he must leave seclusion, and come forth to do battle for his throne; he must address the multitudes on the hill-side; he must speak by the sea-shore; he must gather his disciples and send them forth two by two to publish on the housetops the secrets of mighty truth! He came not forth because he loved to be seen of men, or courted popularity; but for this purpose - that, the truth being published, he might set up his kingdom. It was needful that he should come into world and teach, or truth would not be known, and consequently could not operate. The sun must come forth, like a bridegroom out of his chamber, or the kingdom of light will never be established; the breath must come forth from the hiding-place of the winds, or life will never reign in the valley of dry bones. During these years, our Lord lived conspicuously, and emphatically "came into the world." He was seen of men so closely as to be beheld, looked upon, touched and handled. He was intended to be a pattern, and therefore, it was needful that he should be seen. The life of a man who lives in absolute retirement may be admirable for himself and acceptable with God, but it cannot be exemplary to men; for this cause the Lord came forth into the world, that all he did might influence mankind. His enemies were permitted to watch his every action, and to endeavour to entrap him in his speech, by way of test; his friends saw him in privacy, and knew what he did in solitude; thus his whole life was reported - he was observed on the cold mountain-side at midnight, as well as in the midst of the great congregation. This was permitted to make the truth known, for every action of his life was truth, and tended to set up the kingdom of truth in the world.

Let us pause here. Christ is a king, a king by force of truth in a spiritual kingdom; for this purpose was he born; for this cause came he into the world. My soul, ask thyself this question: - Has this purpose of Christ's birth and life been answered in thee? If not, what avails Christmas to thee? The choristers will sing, "Unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is given." Is that true to thee? How can it be unless Jesus reigns in thee, and is thy Saviour and thy Lord? Those who can in truth rejoice in his birth are those who know him as their bosom's Lord, ruling their understanding by the truth of his doctrine; their admiration by the truth of his life; their affections by the truth of his person. To such he is not a personage to be portrayed with a crown of gold and a robe of purple, like the common theatrical kings of men; but one brighter and more heavenly, whose crown is real, whose dominion is unquestionable, who rules by truth and love! Do we know this King?

This question may well come home to us, for, beloved, there are many who say, "Christ is my King," who know not what they say, for they do not obey him. He is the servant of Christ who trusts in Christ, who walks according to Christ's mind, and loves the truth which Jesus has revealed: all others are mere pretenders.

III. But now I must pass on.reOur Lord, in the third place, REVEALED THE NATURE OF HIS ROYAL POWER. I have already spoken on that, but I must do so again. We should have thought the text would have run thus: "Thou sayest that I am a king; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should establish my kingdom." It is not so in words, but so it must mean, for Jesus was not incoherent in his speech. We conclude that the words employed have the same meaning as that which the context suggests, only it is differently expressed. If our Lord had said, "That I might establish a kingdom," he might have misled Pilate; but when he availed himself of the spiritual explanation, and said that his kingdom was truth, and that the establishment of his kingdom was by bearing witness to the truth, then, though Pilate did not understand him - for it was above his comprehension - yet, at any rate, he was not misled.

Out Lord, in effect, tells us that truth is the pre-eminent characteristic of his kingdom, and that his royal power over men's hearts is through the truth. Now, the witness of our Lord among men was emphatically upon real and vital matters. He dealt not with fiction, but with facts; not with trifles, but with infinite realities. He speaks not of opinions, views, or speculations, but of infallible verities. How many preachers waste time over what may be or may not be! Our Lord's testimony was pre-eminently practical and matter-of-fact, full of verities and certainties. I have sometimes, when hearing sermons, wished the preacher would come to the point, and would deal with something that really concerned our soul's welfare. What concern have dying men with the thousand trivial questions which are flitting around us? We have heaven or hell before us, and death within a stone's-throw; for God's sake do not trifle with us, but tell us the truth at once! Jesus is king in his people's souls, because his preaching has blessed us in the grandest and most real manner, and set us at rest upon points of boundless importance. He has not given us well-chiselled stones, but real bread. There are a thousand things which you may not know, and you shall be very little the worse for not knowing them; but O, if you do not know that which Jesus has taught, it shall go ill with you. If you are taught of the Lord Jesus, you shall have rest for your cares, balm for your sorrows, and satisfaction for your desires. Jesus gives sinners who believe in him the truth which they need to know; the assurance of sin forgiven through his blood, favour ensured by his righteousness, and heaven secured by his eternal life.

Moreover, Jesus has power over his people because he testifies not to symbols, but to the very substance of truth. The Scribes and Pharisees were very fluent upon sacrifices, offerings, oblations, tithes, fastings, and the like but what influence could all that exert over aching hearts? Jesus has imperial power over contrite spirits, because he tells them of his one real sacrifice and of the perfection which he has secured to all believers. The priests lost their power over the people because they went no further than the shadow, and sooner or later all will do so who rest in the symbol. The Lord Jesus retains his power over his saints because he reveals the substance, for grace and truth are by Jesus Christ. What a loss of time it is to debate upon the fashion of a cope, or the manner of celebrating communion, or the colour the clergyman's robes in Advent, or the precise date of Easter. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! Such trifles will never aid in setting up an everlasting kingdom in men's hearts. Let us take care lest we also set great store by externals, and miss the essential, spiritual life of our holy faith. Christ's kingdom is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!

The power of King Jesus in the hearts of his people lies much in the fact that he brings forth unalloyed truth, without mixture of error. He has delivered to us pure light and no darkness; his teaching is no combination of God's word and man's inventions; no mixture of inspiration and philosophy; silver without dross is the wealth which he gives his servants. Men taught of his Holy Spirit to love the truth, recognise this fact and surrender their souls to the royal sway of the Lord's truth, and it makes them free, and sanctifies them; nor can anything make them disown such a sovereign, for as the truth lives and abides in their hearts, so Jesus, who is the truth, abides also. If you know what truth is, you will as naturally submit yourselves to the teachings of Christ as ever children yield to a father's rule.

The Lord Jesus taught that worship must be true, spiritual, and of the heart, or else it would be nothing worth. He would not take sides with the temple at Gerizim or that on Zion, but he declared that the time was come when those who worshipped God would worship him in spirit and truth. Now, regenerate hearts feel the power of this, and rejoice t that it emancipates them from the beggarly elements of carnal ritualism. They accept gladly the truth that pious words of prayer or praise are vanity, unless the heart has living worship within it. In the great truth of spiritual worship, believers possess a Magna Charta, dear as life itself. We refuse to be again subject to the yoke of bondage, and cleave to our emancipating king.

Our Lord taught, also, that all false living was base and loathsome He poured contempt on the phylacteries of hypocrites and the broad borders of the garments of oppressors of the poor. With him, ostentatious alms, long prayers, frequent fasts, and the tithe of mint and cummin, were all nothing when practised by those who devoured widows' houses. He cared nothing for white-washed sepulchres and platters with outsides made clean, he judged the thoughts and intents of the heart. What woes were those which he denounced upon the formalists of his day! It must have been a grand sight to have seen the lowly Jesus roused to indignation, thundering forth peal on peal his denunciations of hypocrisy. Elias never called fire from heaven one half so grandly. "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," is the loudest roll of heaven's artillery! See how, like another Samson, Jesus slays the shams of his age, and piles them heaps upon heaps to rot for ever. Shall not he who teaches us true living be king of all the sons of truth? Let us even now salute him as Lord and King.

Besides, beloved, our Lord came not only to teach us the truth, but a mysterious power goes forth from him, through that Spirit which rests on him without measure - which subdues chosen hearts to truthfulness, and then guides truthful hearts into fulness of peace and joy. Have you never felt when you have been with Jesus, that a sense of his purity has made you yearn to be purged of all hypocrisy and every false way? Have you not been ashamed of yourself when you have come forth from hearing his word, from watching his life, and, above all, from enjoying his fellowship - quite ashamed that you have not been more real, more sincere, more true, more upright, and so a more loyal subject of the truthful King? I know you have. Nothing about Jesus is false or even dubious; he is transparent - from head to foot he is truth in public, truth in private, truth in word, and truth in deed, Hence it is that he has a kingdom over the pure in heart, and is vehemently extolled by all those whose hearts are set upon righteousness.

IV. And now, in the fourth place, our Lord DISCLOSED THE METHOD OF HIS CONQUEST. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness for the truth." Christ never yet set up his kingdom by force of arms. Mahomet drew the sword, and converted men by giving them the choice of death or conversion; but Christ said to Peter, "Put up thy sword into its sheath." No compulsion ought to be used with any man to lead him to receive any opinion, much less to induce him to espouse the truth. Falsehood requires the rack of the Inquisition, but truth needs not such unworthy aid; her own beauty, and the Spirit of God, are her strength. Moreover, Jesus used no arts of priestcraft, or tricks of superstition. The foolish are persuaded of a dogma, by the fact that it is promulgated by a learned doctor of high degree, but our Rabboni wears no sounding titles of honour; the vulgar imagine that a statement must be correct if it emanates from a person who wears lawn sleeves, or from a place where the banners are of costly workmanship, and the music of the sweetest kind: these things are arguments with those who are amenable to no other; but Jesus owes nothing to his apparel, and influences none by artistic arrangements. None can say that he reigns over men by the glitter of pomp, or the fascination of sensuous ceremonies. His battle-axe is the truth; truth is both his arrow and his bow, his sword and his buckler. Believe me, no kingdom is worthy of the Lord Jesus but that which has its foundations laid in indisputable verities; Jesus would scorn to reign by the help of a lie.

True Christianity was never promoted by policy or guile, by doing a wrong thing, or saying a false thing. Even to exaggerate truth is to beget error, and so to pull down the truth we would set up. There are some who gay, "Bring out one line of teaching, and nothing else, lest you should seem inconsistent." What have I to do with that? If it be God's truth, I am bound to deliver it all, and to keep back none of it. Policy, like a sailing vessel, dependant on the wind, tacks about hither and thither; but the true man, like a vessel having its motive power within, goes straight onward in the very teeth of the hurricane. When God puts truth into men's souls, he teaches them never to tack or trim, but to hold to truth at all hazards. This is what Jesus always did. He bore witness to the truth, and there left the matter; being guileless as a lamb.

Here it will be fit to answer the question, "What truth did he witness to?" Ah, my brethren, what truth did he not witness to? Did he not mirror all truth in his life? See how clearly he set forth the truth that God is love. How melodious, how like a peal of Christmas bells, was his witness to the truth that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life." He also bore witness that God is just. How solemnly he proclaimed that fact! His flowing wounds, his dying agonies rang out that solemn truth, as with a knell which even the dead might hear. He bore witness to God's demand for truth in the inward parts; for he often dissected men and laid them bare, and opened up their secret thoughts and discovered them to themselves, and made them see that only sincerity could bear the eye of God. Did he not bear witness to the truth that God had resolved to make for himself a new people and a true people? Was he not always telling of his sheep who heard his voice, of the wheat which would be gathered into the garner, and of the precious things which would be treasured up when the bad would be thrown away? Therein he was bearing witness that the false must die, that the unreal must be consumed, that the lie must rust and rot; but that the true, the sincere, the gracious, the vital, shall stand every test, and outlast the sun. In an age of shams, he was always sweeping away pretences and establishing truth and right by his witness. And now, beloved, this is the way in which Christ's kingdom is to be set up in the world. For this cause was the church born, and for this end came she into the world, that she might set up Christ's kingdom by bearing witness to the truth. I long, my beloved, to see you all witness-bearers. If you love the Lord, bear witness to the truth. You must do it personally you must also do it collectively. Never join any church whose creed you do not entirely and unfeignedly believe, for if you do you act a lie, and are, moreover, a partaker in the error of other men's testimonies. I would not for a moment say anything to retard Christian unity, but there is something before unity, and that is, "truth in the inward parts" and honesty before God. I dare not be a member of a church whose teaching I knew to be false in vital points. I would sooner go to heaven alone than belie my conscience for the sake of company. You may say, "But I protest against the error of my church." Dear friends, how can you consistently protest against it when you profess to agree with it, by being a member of the church which avows it? If you are a minister of a church, you do in effect say before the world, "I believe and teach the doctrines of this church;" and if you go into the pulpit and say you do not believe them, what will people conclude? I leave you to judge that. I saw a church tower the other day, with a clock upon it, which startled me by pointing to half-past ten when I thought it was only nine; I was, however, quite relieved when I saw that another face of the clock indicated a quarter past eight. "Well," thought I, "whatever time it may be, that clock is wrong, for it contradicts itself." So if I hear a man say one thing by his church membership and another by his private protest, why, whatever may be right, he certainly is not consistent with himself.

Let us bear witness to the truth, since there is great need of doing so just now, for witnessing is in ill repute. The age extols no virtue so much as "liberality," and condemns no vice so fiercely as bigotry, alias honesty. If you believe anything and hold it firmly, all the dogs will bark at you. Let them bark: they will have done when they are tired! You are responsible to God, and not to mortal men. Christ came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and he has sent you to do the same; take care that you do it, offend or please; for it is only by this process that the kingdom of Christ is to be set up in the world.

Now, the last thing is this. Our Saviour, having spoken of his kingdom and the way of establishing it, DESCRIBED HIS SUBJECTS: "Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice." That is to say, wherever the Holy Spirit has made a man a lover of truth, he always recognises Christ's voice and yields himself to it. Where are the people who love the truth? Well, we need not enquire long. We need not Diogenes' lantern to find them, they will come to the light and where is light but in Jesus? Where are those that would not seem to be what they are not? Where are the men who desire to be true in secret and before the Lord? They may be discovered where Christ's people are discovered; they will be found listening to those who bear witness to the truth. Those who love pure truth, and know what Christ is, will be sure to fall in love with him and hear his voice. Judge ye, then, this day, brethren and sisters, whether ye are of the truth or not; for if you love the truth, you know and obey the voice which calls you away from your old sins, from false refuges, from evil habits, from everything which is not after the Lord's mind. You have heard him in your conscience rebuking you for that of the false which remains in you; encouraging in you that of the true which is struggling there. I have done, when I have urged on you one or two reflections.

The first is, beloved, Dare we avow ourselves on the side of truth at this hour of its humiliation? Do we own the royalty of Christ's truth when we see it every day dishonoured. If gospel truth were honoured everywhere, it would be an easy thing to say "I believe it;" but now, in these days, when it has no honour among men, dare we cleave to it at all costs? Are you willing to walk with the truth through the mire and through the slough? Have you the courage to profess unfashionable truth? Are you willing to believe the truth against which science, falsely so-called, has vented her spleen? Are you willing to accept the truth although it is said that only the poor and uneducated will receive it? Are you willing to be the disciple of the Galilean, whose apostles were fishermen? Verily, verily, I say unto you, in that day in which the truth in the person of Christ shall come forth in all its glory, it shall go ill with those who were ashamed to own it and its Master.

In the next place, if we have heard Christ's voice, do we recognise our life-object? Do we feel, "For this end were we born, and for this cause came we into the world, that we might bear witness to the truth?" I do not believe that you, my dear brother, came into the world to be a linen-draper, or an auctioneer, and nothing else. I do not believe that God created you, my sister, to be merely and only a sempstress, a nurse, or a housekeeper. Immortal souls were not created for merely mortal ends. For this purpose was I born, that, with my voice in this place, and everywhere else, I might bear witness to the truth. You acknowledge that: then I beg you, each one, to acknowledge that you have a similar mission. "I could not occupy the pulpit," says one. Never mind that: bear witness for the truth where you are, and in your own sphere. O waste no time or energy, but at once testify for Jesus.

And now, last of all, do you own Christ's superlative dignity, beloved? Do you see what a King, Christ is? Is he such a King to you as none other could be? It was but yesterday a prince entered one of our great towns, and they crowded all their streets to welcome him - yet he was but a mortal man. And then at night they illuminated their city, and made the heavens glow as though the sun had risen before his appointed hour. Yet what had this prince done for them? Loyal subjects were they, and that was the reason of their joy. But O, beloved, we need not ask, "What has Christ done for us?" - we will ask, "What has he not done for us?" Emmanuel, we owe all to thee! Thou art our new creator, our Redeemer from the lowest pit of hell! In thyself resplendent and altogether lovely, thy beauties command our adoration! Thou hast lived for us, thou hast bled for us, thou hast died for us; and thou art preparing a kingdom for us, and thou art coming again to take us to be with thee where thou art! All this commands our love. All hail! all hail! Thou art our King, and we worship thee with all our soul!

Beloved, I beseech you love Christ, and live for him while you can. Work while opportunity serves. While I have been laid aside, and able to do nothing, the great sorrow of my heart has been my inability to do him service. I heard my brethren shouting in the battle-field, and I saw my comrades marching to the fight, and I lay like a wounded soldier in the ditch, and could not stir, save that I breathed a prayer that you might all be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. This was my thought: "Oh, that I had preached better while I could preach, and lived more for the Master while I could serve him!" Don't incur such regrets in the future by present sluggishness, but live now for him who died for you!

If any present in this assembly have never obeyed our King, may they come to trust in him to-night; for he is a tender Saviour, and is willing to receive the biggest and blackest sinner who will come to him. Whosoever trusts in him, will never find him fail; for he will save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. May he bring you to his feet, and reign over you in love. Amen.

CHAPTER 16. "THE KING OF THE JEWS"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"And Pilate wrote a title, and put in on the Cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."
John 19:19.

It was the usual custom of the Romans, when a man was put to death by crucifixion to affix to the cross, somewhere where it might be read, an account of his crime. His name and title would be given and the accusation that had been brought against him so that all who passed by might read the reason why he had been put to such an ignominious death. Our Saviour, therefore, being numbered with the transgressors, must be treated in all respects as they were. If their accusations were published, so must He have His accusation published among the sons of men. How wondrous was the condescension that He, whom all Heaven adored as the ever-blessed Son of the Highest, should be hanged upon a tree and that He should have His accusation written up over His head just as if He had been a common malefactor!

I wish we could realize both the dignity of His Person and the shame to which He was exposed. If we could realize this we would be filled with grief for Him and with thankfulness to Him that He condescended to die the death of the Cross. I wish it were possible for us to now stand at the foot of the Cross with Mary and John and the other disciples, and to hear the ribaldry and scorn for a moment-and then to look up and see that sorrowful face and that tortured body- and to read in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." It was a very remarkable thing that Pilate should have written, as Matthew and Luke say that he did, "This is the King of the Jews," and we do not at all wonder that the chief priests said to Pilate, "Write not, the King of the Jews, but that He said, I am King of the Jews." But Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." Divine Providence al-ways has its way! It matters not who may be the persons concerned, God knows how to work His own will with them. It was His purpose that His Son should not die upon the Cross without a public proclamation of His innocence and an official recognition that He was what He had said He was, namely, the King of the Jews! Who was to put up such a notice over His head as He hung there? Peter might have been bold enough to attempt to do it, but he would certainly not have succeeded, for the Roman legionaries jealously guarded every place of execution. Even John, daring as he might have been in such a crisis, could not have achieved the task! It was best that it should be done by authority, done by the Roman governor, done with an official pen and so secured that no envious chief priest dared to pluck it down and no hand of a scoffer could be lifted up to blot out its testimony. It was privileged writing because it was written by the pen of a Roman official-and there it must stay, under the authority of the Roman Law as long as the body of Jesus hung upon the Cross. See what God can do! He can make the vacillating Pilate to become stubborn and He can make him resolve to do what one would have thought would have been the last thing he would have done! Though his motive probably was to ridicule the Saviour, yet the thing was done as God would have it-and Jesus on the Cross hung there proclaimed by Roman authority as "the King of the Jews."

It may appear to you, at first sight, that there is not much importance in this fact, but I think I shall be able to show you that there is if you will sit down now, at the foot of the Cross, and look up to your Crucified Lord and read this writing again. I shall ask you to read it in two lights. First, in reference to man. And, secondly, in reference to Jesus Christ Himself.

I. First, read Pilate's proclamation IN REFERENCE TO MAN.

This is a picture of how the world rejects the Saviour. The Saviour had truly come into the world. That He might be known to be a Saviour, He had taken the name of Jesus, that is, Saviour. That He might be known as One who was very humble and lowly, He had condescended to dwell among men of the very humblest kind and, therefore, He had chosen to dwell at Nazareth and to be called the Nazarene. Thus He was known as Jesus, the Saviour - and as Jesus of Nazareth, an approachable and lowly Saviour. Jesus had come into the world to save men and He had commenced His mission by saving many from diseases which had been regarded as incurable. He had opened blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, given speech to the dumb, cleansing to lepers and He had even raised the dead to life! There were also many whom He had healed of spiritual infirmities, for He had given faith to the faithless and holiness and excellence of character to those who, until then, had lived in sin.

He was indeed Jesus the Saviour, but how did men receive Him? Did they come and fall at His feet and kiss the very dust He trod upon? One might not have been surprised if they had done so, but they did not. Did they gather around Him with joyful clamour, all sick ones eager to touch the hem of His garment that they might be made whole? There were a few who did so-"a remnant according to the election of Grace" who received Him - and to them, "He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name." But it was not so with the mass of mankind! Discerning in Him something strange and singular, seeing in Him no enmity, no sinful anger, no pride, no bitterness- seeing in Him only superlative love, yet they must treat Him most foully, for His life was spent in poverty and reproach-and at last He was condemned to die on the accursed tree! The world hung Him up upon the felon's gallows and, in doing so, men said, "This is the Saviour, the Nazarene, and this is how we treat Him. We do not want to be saved from sin, for we love it. We do not want to be saved from rebellion and to be brought into peace with God through Jesus Christ, so this is what we do with God's Ambassador! This is how we serve Him who comes with words of reconciliation and Grace upon His lips - we hang Him up to die, for we do not want Him." This is only a specimen of what all sinful hearts do till they are changed by Grace-they will not have the Saviour to rule over them!

"Oh," says someone, "you bring too harsh a charge against me!" Is it so? Have you received Jesus? Do you believe in Him? Has He become your Saviour? If not, why not? Can you give any justifiable reason for your unbelief and rejection of Him? It seems to me, and I leave your conscience to decide whether it is so, that by remaining in unbelief, you do practically say, "I prefer to be damned forever rather than believe in Jesus Christ!" At any rate, that is your choice at this present moment. And if a man will show his objection to Christ to so great an extent that he would be cast into Hell sooner than let Jesus save him, you may depend upon it that there dwells in his heart sufficient enmity to Christ to hang Him up again upon the Cross if He were here once more! Christ would be hanged tomorrow if He came here among unregenerate hearts-yes, by the very people that hang their ivory crosses about their necks and put them on their prayer books and fix them on their walls! They would cry, as their predecessor did of old, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" To this day, when Substitution is preached, and the blood of Atonement, and salvation by simple faith in Jesus-not by "sacraments" and priests and good works - men foam at the mouth with rage, for they still hate the Christ, the only Saviour of the sons of men!

Next I see here that man slays the Incarnate God-"Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." Whether Pilate intended to indicate that He was the Messiah, at any rate the Jews saw that this would be the meaning attached to His inscription over Christ's head. It would be said that their Messiah was crucified, consequently they desired that the writing might be altered, but Pilate would not alter it. Now, the Messiah of the Jews was none other than God in human flesh. Did not Isaiah speak of Him as Immanuel, God with us? He was that promised "Seed of the woman" who was to bruise the old serpent's head. This was He of whom David said, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit You at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool." He was David's Son, yet He was also David's Lord, and there He is-He has come among men and as God, He came to tabernacle in human flesh and dwell among men! It is a wonderful story that tells us how He was found as a Babe in Bethlehem's manger, where the shepherds came to adore Him and how He grew up among men as a Man like other men, working at the carpenter's bench in the shop of His reputed father, yet all the while He was God veiled beneath the humble form of the Son of Mary! Even when the time came for His manifestation unto Israel, He was still veiled, though His Godhead every now and then flashed through the veil of His Humanity. He bade the sea be still when its wild uproar threatened to engulf the vessel in which He and His disciples were. He worked such wonders that it was clear that all things obeyed Him. The fish came in swarms from the deep to the net which He had bidden His disciples cast into the sea. And the loaves and fishes were multiplied in His hands and theirs, through His miraculous power. Men could not help seeing that He was more than man and that He was, indeed, the Son of God, as He claimed to be. Yet the husbandmen, to whom He was sent by His Father, to ask for the rent of the vineyard that had been let to them, said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill Him and let us seize on His inheritance." In other words, they said, "This is the God-Man; let us do with Him what we would do with God if we could." So they hanged Him up like a felon, and put a label above His head, as much as to say to God, Himself, "This is what we have done to One who was more like You than any man we have ever heard of before, and One who says that He and You are One." O Sirs, this wicked world never went so far in wickedness as it displayed on that occasion! The essence of every sin is enmity against God and when any sin is analysed, it is always found that its essence is this, "No God." Sin is a stab at the heart of God. Every time we sin, we practically say, "We do not want God's government. We do not want God's Laws-we do not want God." I once heard an eloquent divine who had been accusing men of great sin, finish his indictment by using this remarkable expression, "this deicidal world." There he reached the climax of the Truth of God, for this is a deicidal world! It cannot actually put God to death, but it would do so if it could! And in putting Christ to death it showed the enmity towards God that was really in its heart. The world would not put its own god to death, the god that men imagine, the god that their own intellects fabricate, the god like themselves, of whom I spoke this morning, but as for the God of the Bible, there are millions of men who would be glad to put that God out of His own universe if they could! Yet He is Jehovah, the one living and true God.

Thirdly, I see here that man's chief objection to Christ is His authority, for the pith of that inscription was, "Jesus the King. "Pilate did not write, "This is Jesus the Teacher," or many might have said, "Let Him teach what He pleases, it is no concern of ours. We do not care what the Seers see, or what they say." Pilate did not put up, "This is Jesus the Priest." Many would be quite content to let Him be the great High Priest if they also might be priests. But Pilate wrote, "This is Jesus the King," and that is the target at which they shoot all their arrows! You remember that the writer of the Second Psalm says, "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." The resolve of human nature until it is renewed is always this, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." Men might be willing for Christ to save them, but not for Him to reign over them. Such laws as these - "You shall love your neighbour as yourself," "You shall forgive till seventy times seven," the law of love, the law of gentleness, the law of kindness - man says that he admires them, but when these laws come home to him, and lay hold of the reins of his ambition, cramp his covetousness and condemn his self-righteousness, straight-way he is offended! And when Christ says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." When He begins so teach the necessity of absolute purity and to say that even a lascivious glance of the eye is a sin, then men reply, "His rule will never do for us!" And they hang Him up to die because they will not submit to His authority.

Once more, we learn from this narrative that man ridicules Christ's Kingdom. Pilate did not hate Christ. He probably did not think enough of Him to expend any of His hatred upon Him. I have no doubt that he thought that Jesus was a poor enthusiast who had been living alone so long that He had addled His brains. He was well meaning and perhaps clever, but at the same time, not the sort of man for a Roman governor to dispute with. He was very sorry to have to put Him to death, for there were so many good points about the poor Creature that he did not wish to let His enemies destroy Him. When the question of Christ's Kingdom came up, I can imagine how scornfully Pilate asked Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" How contemptuously he must have looked down upon such a poor emaciated Creature who seemed to be despised by everybody, as Christ said, "My Kingdom is not of this world," and Pilate asked, "Are You a king, then?" half laughing as he spoke. He must have felt as if he could fairly laugh Him to scorn and I have no doubt that it was in that spirit that he wrote, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews," doing it in a vein of grim sardonic humour, first, towards the Jews and secondly, towards Christ Himself, as much as to say, "This is the great King that the Jews have been looking for. They are going to fight Caesar and get free-and this is the ringleader who is to help them to defeat all the legions of haughty Rome." Among the ungodly, at the present day, the idea of a spiritual kingdom is quite beyond their comprehension-they cannot make out what it is. The relation between Church and State will not be settled by the statesmen of any political party. There is a very singular relation between the two, though they are as dissimilar as materialism is from spirit. The realms of the two often overlap one another-you cannot draw a line and say, "So far is the State, and so far is the Church." The fact is the true Church of God is never subordinate to the State- it moves in another sphere altogether and rules after another fashion! A spiritual kingdom, according to some people, means certain laws and regulations that are drawn up by the bishops and synods and councils, but that kind of kingdom is no more spiritual than an Act passed by the House of Commons and the House of Lords! It is only another kingdom of the flesh, an ecclesiastical State of a similar kind to the secular State, but as for the spiritual Kingdom of Jesus Christ, it is not a thing that you can see with your eyes or understand after the manner of men. "You must be born-again" in order to get into it, or even to see it! It is too ethereal to be checked by human legislation. It is a mighty power which Christ has set up in this world - a power mightier than all secular states combined - a Kingdom like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands which will break in pieces every other power and fill the whole earth in God's appointed time! Oh, that we saw its power more manifest nowadays in the hearts of men-the power of that Kingdom of which Christ is the King, this blessed Book is the Law, the Holy Spirit is the great Executive and each of us is a servant in the courts of the great King living and acting according to His will!

"Oh," you say, "this is ridiculous!" Yes, I thought you would say that. That is what the world always says of the Kingdom of Christ-that it is ridiculous. They can understand a kingdom in which there is a head like the Pope, and in which there are cardinals, bishops and priests. They can understand the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of York, and all that appertains to Episcopalians, but to know that we are one with Christ, that He has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, that His saints are to reign with Him forever and that the weapons of our warfare, though not eternal, are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds"-they do not understand it, nor do they want to understand it! This is why they still hang up Christ the King and say, "If this is His Kingdom, we do not want to belong to it and we do not believe in it. Away with it! It is not worthy of our consideration, it is only a few low-minded fellows who will always be the subjects of such a Kingdom as that." This is "as it was in the beginning" and "is now"-but not as it "ever shall be, world without end," for the King is coming, a second time, in all the splendour of His Glory and He will let the world know that although His Kingdom is not like others, and is not to be kept up by gold, pomp, rank, dignity and physical force, yet it is a Kingdom which shall last when earthly princes and thrones shall all have passed away! And everyone who belongs to that Kingdom shall possess a crown and a glory before which all the pomp of this world shall pale forever!

II. Now, secondly, I have to ask your attention to the subject in quite another way, IN REFERENCE TO CHRIST. What did that inscription over His head mean?

It meant, first, that Christ's honour was clear Look at the inscription over the head of that thief who is hanging on the next cross. "Put to death for robbery in the mountains where he was taken red-handed, having stabbed one of the guards who attempted to arrest him." You quite understand that inscription and you pass on to Jesus. You want to know about the crime of which He has been guilty-you are quite sure that they will put over His head an account of the worst thing He has ever done. There are the chief priests and scribes and a multitude of the Jews watching to see what is written-and there is Pilate wanting to excuse his own conscience. If he can write anything that will exonerate him from the guilt of putting Christ to death, he will be sure to write it. So he takes his pen in his hand and he writes, "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." "Well," you say, "is that all that can be brought against Him, that He is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews?" Yes, that is His only offence - they cannot sum up His guilt in any other words. His crime is that He is what He is, that He was a Saviour, that He dwelt at Nazareth and that He was the King of the Jews. Now, no exoneration of His Character could be better than that of this official accusation against Him! And if this accusation brings nothing against Him, think how much may be said in His favour by His friends. When a man is brought before the judge, his accuser is quite sure to say all he can against him. And when Christ was about to be put to death, those who were responsible for that colossal crime had to make out as grave a charge against Him as they could. But this was all they could do-they could not bring anything else against Him except that He was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. See, then, how absolutely without blemish and without spot was the Lamb of our Passover! See how He "knew no sin," though He was made a Sin-Offering for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Exult, Christians, in this public and official testimony to the spotless purity of His whole life and Character!

Next, as far as Christ is concerned, we may view this inscription as the explanation of His death as well as the clearing of His Character. Keep that superscription clearly in your mind's eye, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." That is the reason why He died. Jesus died first because He was Jesus, because He was the Saviour. That is the meaning of it-not that He might merely be made an example - not only that He might bear witness to the Truth. But that cruel death means Atonement and salvation by Atonement. Let us all look up to Him upon the Cross. If we have done so before, let us look up to Him, again, and say, "Yes, blessed Lord, we see that You did die and that You did die to save us. And we magnify You because this was the cause of Your death, that You were the Saviour." The whole title that Pilate wrote signified that Christ was the Messiah-and He died because He was the Messiah. "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself." This was the wonderful language of the Prophet Daniel, "cut off, but not for Himself." Cut off because He was the Sent One of God, the Anointed of the Most High! The Prophet Zachariah had also recorded the Words of Jehovah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says the Lord of Hosts." There, Beloved, you have the whole reason for Christ's death condensed into a sentence! Jesus dies because He is the Saviour, the anointed and prophesied Messiah, sent of God to be the King of the Jews and of the Gentles, too!

But, thirdly, as far as Christ was concerned, this inscription over His head was a claim which was there and then announced. He is hanging on the Cross and there is no trumpeter to make a proclamation of His kingship, but He does not need any such herald, for the same soldiers who fasten His hands to the wood, fasten up an inscription which is the best proclamation possible, for it is in three different languages that all mankind may read it, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." He claims to be King, so stand at the foot of the Cross, I pray you, and acknowledge His claim! If you would have Jesus to be your Saviour, you must have Him as your King-you must submit to His government, for He claims the right to rule over all who acknowledge Him to be Jesus! More than that, He claims to rule all mankind, for all power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth, and we are bidden to proclaim His Kingdom throughout the whole world and to say to all men, "Jesus of Nazareth is your King, bow down before Him. You kings, bow before Him, for He is King of kings! You lords and nobles, bow before Him, for He is Lord of lords! And all you sons and daughters of men, bow at His feet, for He must reign! And even if you are His enemies, He must reign over you! In spite of all your enmity and opposition, you must be brought to lie at His feet. The claims of Christ, therefore, were published even from the tree on which He died, so do not resist them, but willingly yield yourselves up to Jesus, now, and let Him be King to you henceforth and forever!

And then, not only was a claim of His Sovereignty made by the affixing of this title, but His reign was then and there proclaimed. In an earthly monarchy, as soon as one king is gone, it is usual to proclaim His successor. And by that accusation written up over the head of Christ, a proclamation was made throughout all the earth that Jesus had assumed the Throne and He has never ceased to reign! He went back to His Father and returned again to the earth and dwelt here for forty days. And then His feet left Mount Olive and He ascended to His Throne, and there He sits "expecting till His enemies are made His footstool." His Kingdom is established-do you all belong to it? It is a Kingdom that, in a certain sense, was recognized on the Cross by Pilate's proclamation, though it had existed long before, for His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom! Do you belong to it, or are you outside of it, opposed to it, or indifferent to it? Remember that he that is not with Christ is against Him! Those who are not on His side, He reckons to be on the other side! Are you, my Brothers and Sisters, in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, I know that you look with delight upon that inscription and as you trust to the blood of Christ to cleanse you, you cast your eyes up to that dear head that was crowned with thorns and rejoice to think that Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, is also your King and Lord and Saviour!

I want to make just this other remark about this inscription. Inasmuch as Pilate would not alter it, it seems to me that God set forth to mankind that He would never have it altered. Pilate could have sent for that inscription and, with a few strokes of his pen, could have inserted the words that the chief priests wanted, "He said, I am King of the Jews."But Pilate would not do it and the High Priest could not do it - and the devil could not do it and all the devils in Hell and all the wicked men upon earth, with all their rage-cannot do it now! God has said it as well as Pilate "What I have written, I have written." "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." He must reign and no power can ever take away His Kingdom from Him! His Church still prays, "Your Kingdom come," and that Kingdom is yet to come in all its fullness when the whole of Israel shall be gathered together and shall accept Him as their Lord and King! Yes, more than that, for "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilder-ness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him."

Dearly beloved Friends, this is the conclusion of the whole matter, let us cheerfully accept Him as our King. Have we done so? Then let us try to push His conquests on yet further and seek to extend the boundaries of His Kingdom. Are you doing this? Then, do it yet mare earnestly and do it with the right instrument, for the great weapon of conquest is the Cross. It was on the Cross that the proclamation was first lifted up and it is by the Cross that it must be carried to the ends of the earth-not by human learning or eloquence, not by bribery, or the help of the State and I know not what besides, but by the setting forth of Christ evidently crucified among the sons of men. The Cross is its own battle-axe and weapon of war. "In this sign shall you conquer." Let the whole Church preach Christ more, live Christ more and then the proclamation of His Kingdom, which was first fastened up on that Cross, shall be emblazoned throughout the whole world and the power of His Kingdom shall be felt to the very ends of the earth!

I looked into the darkness and I thought I saw a Cross before me. And I saw Him who did once hang upon it. But, as I looked at it, that Cross seemed to grow. It seemed to become a tree and I saw it strike its roots down deep until the lowest depths of human misery had been touched and blessed by them. Then I saw that tree tower on high, piercing the clouds, passing through the very firmament up above the stars, lifting Believers up upon it and bearing them to the very Throne of God by its majestic power! Then I saw that tree stretch forth its mighty branches on every side. Their shadow fell across this highly-favoured land of ours and also fell across the land on the other side of the sea. As I watched, the blessed branches stretched out to Europe, to Asia, to Africa, to America and to Australia, also. I watched it grow till it became so vast a tree that its shadow seemed to cover the whole earth! And I blessed and adored the God of Heaven that He had instituted so mighty a power for the blessing of the sons of men! O Jesus, once crucified but now exalted, so let it be! And let us be Your humble instruments in promoting the extension of Your blessed reign! And we will always adore You, as we do now, not only as "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," but as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."

CHAPTER 17. THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"He is the head of the body, the church."
Colossians 1:18.

As if to show us that this title of "Head of the Church" is to be held in highest esteem, it is here placed in connection with the loftiest honours of our Lord Jesus. In the same breath the Son of God is styled "the image of the invisible God," "the first-born of every creature," the Creator of all existence, and then, "the head of the body, the church." We dare not, therefore, think slightly of this title, nor do we hesitate to assert that any levity with regard to it would be as disgraceful as the profane use of any other name of our Divine Lord. For any mortal to assume it to himself, we conceive would be equal in blasphemy to the assumption of the mediatorial office-and we should be no more shocked to hear a man claim to be "the Creator of all things," than we are now when a mortal is designated, "Head of the Church."

What is the Church? The word signifies an assembly. The Church of Jesus Christ is an assembly of faithful men, the whole company of God's chosen, His called out ones, the entire community of true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever true Believers are, there is a part of the Church. Wherever such men are not, whatever organization may be in existence, there is no Church of Jesus Christ. The Church is no corporation of priests, or confederacy of unconverted men-it is the assembly of those whose names are written in Heaven. Any assembly of faithful men is a Church.

The aggregate of all these assemblies of faithful men make up the one Church which Jesus Christ has redeemed with His most precious blood, and of which HE is the sole and only Head. Part of that Church is in Heaven, triumphant! Part on earth, militant-but these differences of place make no division as to real unity. There is but one Church above, beneath. Time creates no separation-the Church is always one-one Church of the Apostles, one Church of the Reformers, one Church of the first century, one church of the latter days, and of this one, only Church, and Jesus Christ is the one only Head.

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY OUR LORD'S HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH? That shall be very briefly our first subject of thought. We understand this headship to be the representation of the Church as a body. We speak of counting heads, meaning thereby persons-the head represents the whole body. God has been pleased to deal with mankind as a community and His great Covenant transactions have been with men in a body-not with separate individuals. That is to say, at the first creation God did not so much deal with each particular person of the human race as with the whole race represented in one man, namely, the first Adam

It was so ordained that the race should be bound up in his loins, to stand if he stood, to fall if he fell. Therefore, my Brethren, the Fall, hence original sin, hence the sorrows of this life. In order to salvation, which, perhaps, was only possible because we did not fall singly (for the devils falling singly and separately are reserved without hope of mercy unto everlasting fire), God instituted a second federation, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. The Apostle calls Him the second Adam. He is the Head of that company of mankind who are His chosen-His redeemed who are known in this world by being led to believe in Him, and are ultimately gathered into His rest.

Now, Jesus Christ stands to His Church in the same position as Adam stood to his posterity. They are chosen in Him, accepted in Him and preserved in Him-"Saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." As His own words declare it, "Because I live, you shall live also." In the following chapters of the Epistle before us, the Apostle shows that the saints are buried with Jesus, risen with Him and quickened with Him. Even more explicit is he in the fifth of Romans, where the headship of Adam and of Jesus are compared and contrasted. Our Lord is Head in a mystical sense, explained in Colossians 2:19: "The Head, from which all the body by joints and hands having nourishment ministered, and knit together increases with the increase of God." The head is to the body indispensable to life-it is the seat of mental life, the temple of the soul. Even so Jesus Christ is the vitalizing Head of all His people. "He is our life." "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." The life of every member of the mystical body depends upon the life of the mystical Head. Through Jesus Christ every living child of God derives his spiritual life. Not one true member of the Church lives by a life of his own. "For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Separation from Christ is spiritual death, "If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered."

The head mystically is not merely the source of life and the seat of sensation, but it is the throne of supreme government. It is from the brain that the mandate is issued which uplifts the hand or bids it fall by the side. Man walks or speaks, or sleeps, or rises from his couch according to the dictate of that mysterious royal something which finds a place for itself within the head. Thus in the true Church of God, Jesus Christ is the great directing Head. From Him the only binding commands go forth. To Him all the really spiritual yield a cheerful homage. His members delight to do the will of their Head.

The whole fabric of the Church, actuated by His life and being filled with His Spirit, most readily concedes to Him that in all things He shall have the pre-eminence. In proportion as Christians are truly united to Jesus they are perfectly governed by Him, and it is only because of the old nature which abides in separation from Christ that Believers offend and transgress. In so far as they are spiritual men, so far does Jesus rule them as the Head governs all the members of the body. The Head is also the glory of the body. There the chief beauty of manhood dwells. The Divine image is best seen in the countenance-the face is the distinguishing glory of man.

Man holds his head erect-his countenance is not turned towards the earth like the beast-it glows with intelligence. It is the index of an immortal mind. Beauty chooses as her favoured seat the features of the countenance. Majesty and tenderness, wisdom and love, courage and compassion here hang out their ensigns - all the Graces choose the head as their favoured dwelling place. In this sense, right well is our Lord saluted as the "Head." He is fairer than the children of men-Divine Grace is poured into His lips. In Jesus Christ all the beauty of the Church is summed up. What were His Church without Him? A carcass - a ghastly corpse bereft of all its glory - because divided from its Head. What were all the good, and great, and excellent men who have ever lived without Christ? So many ciphers upon a writing table - they count for nothing until their Lord, as the great Unit-is put before them to give them power and value! Then, indeed, they swell to a mighty sum-but without Him they are less than nothing and vanity! An uncomely thing would be the Church of God if she were not comely with the comeliness which Jesus imparts to her! His head is as the most fine gold! His Countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars! He is the chief among 10,000, and the altogether lovely-glorious is that body of which He is the crown and excellence! Well may the Church be called the fairest among women when her Head thus excels all the beauties of earth and Heaven!

Another figure which is used to describe the Headship of Christ to the Church is the conjugal. As the Lord made Eve out of the flesh of Adam, so has He taken the Church out of the side of Christ Jesus, and she is of Him as Eve was of Adam-she is of His flesh and of His bones. A mysterious union has been established between Christ and His Church which is constantly compared to that of marriage: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church: and He is the Saviour of the body." Jesus is the Bridegroom-His Church is His Bride. They are espoused, one to another. In bonds of love they are bound forever to each other and they are alike with sacred expectation waiting for the marriage day when shall be accomplished the eternal purpose of God and the desire of the Redeemer. As the husband exercises a headship in the house-not at all (when the relationship is rightly carried out) tyrannical or magisterial, but a government founded upon the rule of nature and endorsed by the consent of love - even so Jesus Christ rules in His Church. Not as a despotic lord, compelling and constraining His subject bride against her will, but as a husband well-beloved, obtaining obedience voluntarily from the heart of the beloved one, being in all things so admired and had in esteem as to win an undisputed pre-eminence!

Such conjugal headship is illustrated by the Word of God in the old prophecy, "You shall call Me Ishi, and shall call Me no more Baali." Baali and Ishi both mean lord, but the sense differs. The one is a mere ruler, the other a beloved husband.

Jesus Christ's kingdom is no tyranny! His sceptre is not made of iron. He rules not with blows and curses and threats, but His sceptre is of silver and His rule is love. The only chains He uses are the chains of His constraining Grace. His dominion is spiritual and extends over willing hearts who delight to bow before Him and to give Him the honour due unto His name. These, I think, are the senses in which this word, "headship," is used. But there remains one other, these former all qualifying this last, upon which I intend to dwell at some length this morning. Christ is the Head of His Church as King in Zion. In the midst of the Church of God the supreme government is vested in the Person of Christ. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all you are brethren."

The Church is the kingdom of God among men. It is purely spiritual-comprehending only spiritual men - and existing only for spiritual objects. And who is its King? None but Jesus! We can truly say, as they did of old who proclaimed the Kingship of the Crucified, "We have another King, one Jesus." To Him the assemblies of the saints pay all regal honour and at His Throne the entire Church bows itself, saluting Him as Master and Lord. To no other do we render spiritual obeisance. Christ only and solely is King upon Zion's hill, set there by eternal decree, maintained in that position by infinite power and appointed to remain upon the Throne till every enemy shall be made His footstool.

I wish I had eloquence, this morning, that I might bear worthy witness to the crown-rights of King Jesus in His Church! I know no subject which is more necessary to insist upon in these eventful times. Let Jesus be acknowledged as the only Head of the Church and the way out of the present political debate which agitates our nation is clear enough. Ignorance of this Truth of God blinds many! It makes them labour with all their heart for a bad cause, under the notion that they are doing God service. To know this Truth is to hold a most weighty trust with which we must not trifle.

Martyrs have bled for this Truth! Scotland's heather has been stained in 10,000 places, and her waters have been dyed crimson for the defence of this weighty doctrine. Let us not be slow with unshaken courage to declare, yet again, that kings and princes and parliaments have no lawful jurisdiction over the Church of Jesus Christ! That it beseems not the best of monarchs to claim those royal prerogatives which God has given to His only begotten Son. Jesus alone is the Head of His spiritual kingdom, the Church!

And all others who come within her pale to exercise power are but usurpers and Anti-Christ - and not for one moment to be respected in their usurped authority by the true Church of the living God! Some Churches have not learned this lesson, but are held in leash like dogs by their masters. They crouch down at the feet of the State to eat the crumbs which fall from Mammon's table! And if they are cuffed and beaten by the powers that be, well do they deserve it - and I would almost pray that the whip may fall upon them yet more heavily till they learn to appreciate liberty and are willing to take off the dog collar of the State and be free from human domination! If they lose a little wealth they will win the solid gold of God's own favour, and the abiding power of His Spirit, which they cannot expect to have while they are traitors to King Jesus and own not the sole and only Headship of Immanuel in the Church.

II. We shall now, therefore, in the second place, come to look a little into this Headship of Jesus Christ in a regal sense, as to WHAT IT IMPLIES. Since Christ is the Head of His body, the Church, He alone can determine doctrines for her. Nothing is to be received as Divinely warranted except it comes with His stamp upon it. It is nothing, my Brethren, to the faithful servant of Jesus Christ that a certain dogma comes down to him with the gray antiquity of the ages to make it venerable. Like a sensible man, the Christian respects antiquity, but like a loyal subject of his King, he does not so bow before antiquity as to let it become ruler in Zion instead of the living Christ!

A multitude of good men may meet together, and they may, in their judgment, propound a dogma and assert it to be essential and undoubted. And they may even threaten perils most abundant to those who receive not their verdict! But if the dogma was not authorized long before they decided it-if it were not written in the Bible - the decision of the learned council amounts to nothing! All the fathers, and doctors, and divines, and confessors put together cannot add a word to the faith once delivered unto the saints! Yes, I venture to say that the unanimous assent of all the saints in Heaven and earth would not suffice to make a single doctrine binding upon conscience unless Jesus had so determined!

In vain do men say, "So did the early Church"-the early Church has no supremacy over us! It is to no purpose to quote Origen or Augustine! Quote the Inspired Apostles and the doctrine is established, but not otherwise! In the Church of God it is never sufficient to say, "So thinks Martin Luther." Who was Martin Luther? A servant of Jesus Christ and nothing more! It is not sufficient to say, "So teaches John Calvin," for who is John Calvin? Has he shed his blood for you, or is he your master? His opinion is to be respected as the opinion of your fellow servant, but in no respect as a doctor or authoritative teacher in the Church-for Christ alone is Rabbi, and we are to call no man Master upon earth!

Suppose I have received a Truth of God from the very man who was the means of my conversion? I am bound, in candour and affection, to give all respect to him because of the relationship which exists between us. But I must take heed lest this declines into idolatry, and I, myself, become nothing more than a receiver of the Truth of God as the word of man, instead of accepting it as the Word of God. I am, therefore, in the most candid manner, but none the less solicitously, to bring to the test every Truth of God which I have received-whether from my father or mother, or my minister, or from some great man of olden times whose name I have learned to respect - seeking all the while light from above to direct me aright.

Nothing is doctrine to the Church of God-nothing which has not been taught in the Scriptures. To Christians it is nothing to say that certain doctrines are taught in books of common prayer, or of conference discipline, or of systematic theology. To us it is of small account that either Presbytery, or the Episcopacy, or Independency have put their stamp upon a certain form of teaching. Authority is no more to us than the snap of a man's finger unless the Truth thus commended derives certainty from the testimony of Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Head of His body the Church!

So next, since He is the Head, He only can legislate as to the Church. In a State, if any knot of persons should profess to make laws for the kingdom, they would be laughed at! And if they should for a moment attempt to enforce their own rules and regulations in de-fiance of the laws of the country, they would be amenable to punishment. Now the Church of God has no power whatever to make laws for herself, since she is not her own Head-and no one has any right to make laws for her, for no one is her Head but Christ. Christ alone is the Law-maker of the Church and no rule or regulation in the Christian Church stands for anything unless in its spirit, at least, it has the mind of Christ to support and back it up. Such-and-such a thing has been thought to be right in the Church, and therefore it has been laid down and made prescriptive-the tradition of the fathers has established a certain custom. What then? Why this-that if we can distinctly see that the custom and prescription are not according to the tenor of Holy Scripture and the Spirit of Christ, neither of them are anything to us! But what if the custom is supported by all the good men of every age? I say that matters nothing if the Lord has not taught it! Our conscience is not to be bound! If a law were backed up by 50,000 times as many as all the saints it would have no authority upon the conscience even of the weakest Christian if not laid down by our King Himself! And the violation of such a commandment of men would be no sin but might, indeed, be-come a Christian duty in order to let men see that we are not the servants of men, but the servants of Jesus Christ the Lord!

In spiritual things it is of the utmost importance to keep this fact clear - that non conformity is only sinful when it refuses to conform to the will of Christ-and conformity itself is a great sin when it obeys a rule which is not of the Lord's ordaining! When we meet together in Church Meetings we cannot make laws for the Lord's kingdom! We dare not attempt it! Such necessary regulations as may be made for carrying out our Lord's commands-to meet for worship and to proclaim the Gospel-are commendable because they are acts necessary to obedience to His highest laws. But even these minor details are not tolerable if they clearly violate the spirit and mind of Jesus Christ. He has given us spiritual guides rather than legal rubrics and fettering liturgies! And He has left us at liberty to follow the directions of His own free Spirit. But if we make a regulation, thinking it to be very wise-if it is contrary to the Spirit of our Lord-the rule is itself evil and is not to be borne with! In such a case the Church has trenched upon the rights of her Head, and has done what she ought not to have done. She has, in effect, snatched from His hand the sceptre and set up a schism. Law-making in the Church was finished in that day when the curse was pronounced on him who should take from or add to the Word of God! Christ alone is the legislator of His Church-none but He!

But I go further and venture to say that Christ is not only the Legislator of the Church, and has left to us His Statute-book, sufficient to guide us in every dilemma, but He is also the living Administrator in the Church. He is not here, it is true, but as monarchs often administrate through lieutenants, so the Lord Jesus administers through His ever-living Spirit who dwells in the hearts of His people. You are not to think of Christ as of One who is dead and buried. If He were here on earth I suppose nobody would claim to be the Head of the Church but Himself. His Presence would at once overawe every pretender-and now, though He is not here in Person-yet He is not dead! He lives! He sits on the Throne prepared for Him at the right hand of the Father! In Spirit He is here. "Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." And what must the true Head of the Church think when He sees another put up into His Throne and impiously called by His title? What must the living Head moving in the midst of the Church feel in regard to such a blasphemous intrusion as that? He, the Holy Spirit, is the Vicegerent of Christ, the Representative of the absent Son of Man!

And how does this Spirit administer the Laws of God? I answer, through His people, for the Holy Spirit dwells in true Believers! And when they meet together as the Lord's servants and humbly ask His guidance, they may expect to have it - and opening the Statute-Book and seeing plain directions as to their course of action, they may be quite sure that what they do has their Master's sanction! If they look, first of all, for the direction in their Lord's Law-Book and next seek to be instructed as to its meaning by the Holy Spirit-though they are many minds-they shall be led as one man to choose that course of action which shall be after the mind of Christ.

Acting humbly and obediently - not on their own authority but in the authority of Jesus Christ, who, by His Spirit still rules in His Church-Believers practically show Christ, still, to be the only Head of His Church as to actual administration as well as to legislation. The sole authority of Jesus Christ in all respects must be maintained rigorously, but Churches are very apt to be guided by something else. Some would have us guided by results. We have heard a discussion upon the question whether or not we should continue missionary operations, since there are so few converted! How can the question ever be raised while the Master's orders run thus - "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature"?

Spoken by the mouth of Jesus, our Ruler, that command stands good, and the results of missions can have no effect upon loyal minds either one way or the other as to their prosecution! If from this day for the next 10,000 years not a single soul should be converted to God by foreign missions-if there still remained a Church of Christ, it would be her duty with increasing vigour to thrust her sons forward into the mission field because her duty is not measured by the result, but by the imperial authority of Christ!

Equally so the Church is not to be regulated by the times. We are told by some that this age requires a different kind of preaching from that of a hundred years ago-and that 200 years ago, in Puritan times, doctrines were suitable which are exploded now. We are told the minister must keep abreast of the age-this is a thoughtful and philosophic period and the preacher must therefore philosophize and bring forth his own thinking rather than "mere declamation" - which is the learned name for a plain declaration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! But, Sirs, it is not so! Our King is the same and the doctrines He has given us have not been changed by His authority, nor the rules He has laid down reversed by His proclamation!

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Let the times be polished or uncouth. Let them become philosophical or sink into barbarism-our duty is still the same, in solemn loyalty to Jesus Christ, to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him Crucified! But the discoveries of science, we are told, have materially affected belief and therefore we should change our ways accordingly as philosophy changes. No, it must not be so! This is a stumbling stone and a rock of offence against which he who stumbles shall be broken. We still have the same King, still the same laws, still the same teaching of the Word-and we are to deliver this teaching after the same sort and in the same spirit!

Semper idem must be our motto-always the same, always keeping close to Jesus Christ and glorifying Him - for He and not the times, not the philosophy and not the wit of man must rule and govern the Church of God! If we shall do this, if any Church shall do this-namely, take its Truth from Jesus' lips, live according to Jesus' Word, and go forward in His name-such a Church cannot, by any possibility, fail, for the failure of such a Church would be the failure of the Master's own authority! Brothers and Sisters, He has told us if we keep His commandments we shall abide in His love!

He will be with us always, even to the end of the world! And He has given to His Church His Holy Spirit according to the fullness of those words which He uttered when He breathed on His Apostles, "Whoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whoever sins you retain, they are retained." So then, a Church acting for Christ, with His authority denouncing the judgments of God upon sin, shall find those judgments follow. And opening the treasure house of God's mercy to those who seek Jesus Christ by faith, those treasures shall be freely given according to the Church's declaration, which she made in her Master's name.

Go in her own name, and she fails! Go in her Lord's name, and she succeeds! Take with her His sign manual. Walk in obedience to His Statute-Book, and deliver herself from the lordship of men-and the Church's history shall be written in some such lines as these, "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." I have in these words, I am afraid, rather confusedly stated what I believe Scripture teaches with regard to the Headship of Christ, namely, that He is the only teacher of doctrine, the only maker of spiritual laws. That He is the living Administrator of the laws of His own spiritual kingdom and therefore no authority is to be yielded unto the Church but that of Christ- and when we have that authority, and are obedient to it-we need entertain no fear as to the result.

III. Thirdly, ON WHAT DOES THIS HEADSHIP REST? Very briefly, it rests on the natural supremacy of Christ's Nature. Who could be Head but Jesus? He is a perfect Man, which we are not. He is the first-born among many Brethren, and we are but the younger and weaker. He is God over all, blessed forever and ever. Surely, none but He should be King in Zion since there is no part of the Church which is Divine except its glorious Head! The headship of Christ is the inevitable and necessary result of His work. Hear how His members sing:-

Who could be head but He to whom such praise can be awarded? He has washed us in His blood-He must be Head! He has loved us from before the foundation of the world-He must be Chief. His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory-let Him be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords! That wine-press in which He trod His enemies, till His garments were dyed with blood, was the guarantee to Him that He should sit on His Father's Throne and reign forever and ever!

Moreover, the decree of God has decided this beyond dispute. Read the second Psalm and learn that when the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, the Lord sitting in the heavens laughed at their conspiracy and scorned the gathering of His foes! "Yet," says He, "have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." I will declare the decree-"The Lord has said unto Me, You are My Son; this day have I begotten You." How gloriously the promise reads: "Ask of Me, and I shall give You the heathen for Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." It is part of the eternal purpose which constituted the Church that Christ should be made its Head. And if there is a Church of the living God, it is also inevitable that of that Church Christ should be the sole Head.

Moreover, Brethren, and but once more-is not our Lord the Head of the Church by universal acclamation and consent of all the members of that Church? We have never set up a rival candidate! No heart renewed by His Grace can desire any other king!:-

Rivals in His blood-bought dominion? Rivals against the Son of David?! Let them be swept away as the smoke! Let them be as driven stubble to His bow! King Jesus! All hail! Long live the King! Bring forth the royal diadem! See you not how the angels crown Him? Hark you not to the songs of cherubim and seraphim, "For You are worthy, You are worthy to take the book, and loose the seven seals thereof? Hear you not the everlasting chant of those who have overcome through His blood, "You are worthy, You are worthy, for You were slain and have redeemed us unto God by Your blood"? While the Church on earth joins in the same solemn canticle, "Crown Him, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all, for worthy is the Lamb that was slain."

By the supremacy of His Nature. By the necessity of His accomplished work. By the decree of the Father. By the universal assent of all the blood-washed, He is the only Head of His own Church!

IV. What then, Brethren, WHAT THEN, DOES THIS CONDEMN? What does it condemn? It condemns the villainous pretence of a Papal headship! A priest at Rome is the head of the Church of Jesus Christ, indeed! Well, if the Pope is head of the Church - if he is so - then see what, according to Scripture, he is. This Pio Nono is this - he is the head of the body, the Church "who is the beginning." There was nothing, then, before this aforesaid Pius IX? "The first-born from the dead"? Does he claim to have risen from the dead? "That in all things He might have the pre-eminence" - is this also the old Italian's right? "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell"- blasphemy dares not apply this to the tottering prince whose treasury needs replenishing with Peter's pence. Yet this is the description of the Person who is the Head of the Church, and, if Pius IX is not all that, he is no head of the Church! But perhaps he is the second head? Then Christ's Church is a monstrous being with two heads!

They may make it out to be three one day, perhaps, and then we will call the thing Cerberus, and Hell Dog, and we shall not be far off from the true idea of Popery. No, but he is the delegated head. What for? Why should Christ delegate authority which He can wield Himself? But we need a delegation, for Christ is absent. But the Holy Spirit is that delegation, and is here. Of all the dreams that ever deluded men, and probably of all blasphemies that ever were uttered, there has never been one which is more absurd and which is more fruitful in all manner of mischief than the idea that the Bishop of Rome can be the head of the Church of Jesus Christ!

No, these popes die, and are not! And how could the Church live if its head were dead? The true Head ever lives and the Church ever lives in Him! But it is affirmed that there must needs be a visible headship, and just now we are told every day that we must choose in church matters between the headship of the monarch of England and the headship of the pope at Rome. I beg the gentlemen's pardon-we have no such choice, for when we are asked which we will have to rule us in spiritual things, we say, "Neither - neither for a single moment!" We make no bones about the matter, kings and queens are no heads of the Church to us.

We will no more brook spiritual domination from an English premier than from a Romish pope! We are equally opposed to both-all human headship must go down! To our well-beloved queen all honour and reverence as to one of the best of rulers in civil affairs. But in spiritual affairs in the Church of Christ she has no ruling power-what she may have in the Church of England is another question. To us it makes no matter whether it is man or woman-whether it is prince or priest-we will have neither czar, emperor, queen, pope, seraph or angel to reign in the Church of Jesus Christ!

The Church has no lawful governor or supreme Lord but Jesus Christ Himself. Our Lord, as it seems to me, puts this so plainly in the Word of God that I marvel men who believe in the Bible should think the State could be at the head of the Church! The State-Church party has placed a Bible with a crown and a sceptre upon their posters! It is suggestive that the Bible is closed-for if Englishmen were once to read it, it would be fatal to the cause which now claims it-since one of the Truths of God they would read would be this-"My kingdom is not of this world." And they would hear Christ say, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's"-that is, yield all civil obedience to the civil authority, "but unto God the things that are God's."

Leave the Lord to rule in the kingdom of mind and spirit, and let Caesar keep his kingdom of civil government! Let the State do its work and never interfere with the Church! And let the Church do her work and never interfere with, or be interfered with, by the State! The two kingdoms are separate and distinct. Broad lines of demarcation are always drawn, throughout the whole of the New Testament, between the spiritual and the temporal power-and the mischief is when men cannot see this. Christ is the Head of the Church, not anyone who represents the State. Brethren, just think for a minute what mischief this doctrine of the headship of the State has done. Time was when men could hardly be parish ushers without coming to take the Sacrament at the established Church. Oh, the multiplied hypocrisies which were perpetrated every day by graceless men who came to qualify themselves for office by taking the emblems of our holy faith when they knew not Christ! Such things are more or less inevitable to the system. Think, again, what persecutions have risen out of this error. You cannot put any sect into a position of ascendancy but it falls into persecution - all sects have persecuted, in turn, when so tempted. There is not a pin to choose between one and the other, except, as I sometimes say, the Baptists have never persecuted because they have never had an opportunity. But I will not insist even upon that. It is in human nature to do ill when the civil arm is ready to crush conscience, and therefore Christ has taken the temptation out of the way and put it out of the possibility of His people, if they keep close to His rule, so much as to touch the carnal weapon. The weapons of their warfare, He tells them, are not carnal but spiritual and therefore mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What a degradation to the Church of Christ to think of having any other Head but Christ!

Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if the monarch were the most holy and godly person that ever lived, I should tremble for him exceedingly that such a person should in any sense be styled the Head of the Church! How could such a person pray? How could a poor sinner-and such the best man still is - come before Christ and pray to Him and say, "Lord, You know I am the head of Your Church"? It seems to me to be such an atrocious claim, such a horrible profanity! I would not, for twice 10,000 worlds, touch that title with so much as the tip of my finger if I hoped to be saved! I dare not expose my friend, or even my enemy, to the awful risk he must make assuming such a title!

I judge no one, God forbid I should! But if I saw in this world a man absolutely perfect, full of Divine knowledge and light, and I were asked by him, "Shall I assume that title?" I should go down on my knees and say, "For God's sake, and for your own soul's sake, touch it not, for how can you, with your light, and knowledge and love to Christ, take from Him one of His grandest names?" But what shall I say when the monarch is the opposite? And such cases have occurred. I need not take you far back in history. The name of George IV has no remarkable odour of sanctity about it - and the same may be said of Charles II - I never heard historians say that he was eminent in godliness. But yet these men were heads of the Church! I shudder at being compelled to remember such an infamous fact. Men, whose character is not to be thought of without a blush on the cheek of modesty, were heads of the Church of Jesus Christ! God have mercy on this land for having fallen so low as this, for I know not that heathen countries have ever blasphemed God more than we have done in allowing heartless debauchers to take upon themselves the name of "Head of the Church of Christ"! No, my Brethren, this cannot be endured by us in any Church with which we commune! We repudiate it! We shake off the abomination as Paul shook off the viper from his hand into the fire!

The same rebuke is due to that which has been tolerated in many Churches, namely, the headship of great religious teachers. Sometimes great teachers, while yet alive, have been practically regarded as the supreme arbiters of the Church. Their will was law, apart from the Book. Their decree stood fast, apart from the Scripture. All this was evil! There are certain Churches at this day which reverence extremely the names of dead men. "The Fathers"-are they not by some thought to be as great as the Apostles? The names of John Wesley, and John Calvin and others, I fear, very often occupy the place which belongs to Jesus Christ. Let every Church of Jesus Christ now declare that she follows not men but obeys her Master alone.

Mark you, Brothers and Sisters, the truth which I have brought out somewhat strongly equally applies to the Church itself, for the Church is not her own head-she has no right to act upon her own judgment apart from the statutes of her King! She must come to the Bible-everything is there for her. She has no right to use her own judgment apart from the Master. She must go to the Master. She is a servant and the Master is supreme. The Church's power is twofold. It is a power to testify to the world what Christ has revealed. She is set as a witness and she must act as such. She has, next, a ministerial power by which she carries out the will of Christ, and does His bidding as Christ's servant and minister.

A certain number of servants meet in the servants' hall-they have an order given to do such work - and they have also orders given them how to do it. They then consult with each other as to the minor details - how they can best observe the Master's rule and do His bidding. They are perfectly right in so doing. But suppose they began to consult about whether the objects proposed by the Master were good, or whether the rules which He had laid down might not be altered! They would at once become rebellious and be in danger of discharge. So a Church met together to consult how to carry out the Master's will and how to enforce His laws does rightly. But a Church meeting to make new laws, or a Church meeting to rule according to its own judgment and opinion - imagining that its decision will have weight-has made a mistake and placed itself in a false position. The one doctrine which I have sought to bring forward is this-that He, alone, who bought the Church, and saved the Church is to rule the Church.

V. But if so, WHAT IS THE LESSON WHICH IT TEACHES TO EACH ONE HERE? Does not it make each of you enquire, "If the entire Church is thus to yield obedience to Christ, and to no one else, am I yielding such obedience? I claim to be Christian, but am I a Christian of that prejudiced sort who follows that which they are brought up to, and so acknowledge the rules of mothers and fathers instead of the rule of Christ? Have I brought what I avow to be the Truth of God to the touchstone of Scripture? Did I ever spend a quarter of an hour in weighing my cherished opinions?" I am afraid the great mass of Christians have never done this - but have sucked in their religion with their mother's milk and nothing further.

Again, if I am a Christian, am I in the habit of judging what I ought to do by my own whims and wishes, or do I judge by the Statute-Book of the King? Many say they do not like this and do not like that-as if that had anything to do with it! What are your likes and dis-likes? You are a servant and bound to give up your will to the Master! If Christ gives a command which you imagine to be hard because it does not chime in with your love of ease-my Brothers and Sisters, will you not, as servants of the Master, put your whims aside and endeavour to follow Him? Oh, it is a blessed life to live-to be no longer the servant of men and of self - but to go to Christ daily in prayer, and say, "What I know not, teach me, Lord."

Then you may laugh at Satan's rage and face a frowning world, for the Master will never leave those who cleave to Him! If a man loves the testimonies and commandments of the Most High, God shall be his buckler, his shield, and his high tower. But if he turns aside to his own imaginings, his fall shall be certain! May the Lord keep the Church in this matter, and her day of victory shall soon come. May Christ be her only Head and her triumph draws near! I can see the morning breaking-yonder are the first streaks of light upon the sky - the Master is coming because the Church begins to acknowledge Him - and then shall her happy days begin and the days of her mourning shall be ended forever and ever.

CHAPTER 18. "MY LORD AND MY GOD"

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Then He said to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold My hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered, and said unto Him, My Lord and my God."
John 20:27,28.

We are, all of us, apt to fall into a wrong state of heart, not because we are unconverted, nor yet because we are false to Christ, but simply because of our natural infirmities. So long as we are in this body, exposed to trial and temptation, we shall be prone to start aside like a broken bow. Thomas was a true-hearted follower of Jesus. He loved his Master. It had been a severe shock to his sensitive disposition and his thoughtful mind to see his Master betrayed, arraigned, scourged, crucified, dead and buried. He could not, at once, rally from the agitation it caused him, or think it possible that Jesus could have risen from the dead. Pondering the matter scrupulously, it seemed to him to involve too great a miracle to be credited-far beyond anything to be expected! He would require, he said, very clear and satisfactory proofs before he would believe it. In like manner, you and I have, each of us, our characteristic faults. We may not be too thoughtful, like Thomas-we may, perhaps, be too thoughtless-and that is quite as mischievous. Even our pleasing qualities which adorn us as virtues may become our temptations. The best point about us, as a sound judgment was in the case of Thomas, may become the very snare that entangles us. Let no man judge his fellow. Above all, let no man exalt himself. He that is in his best estate, today, may be in spiritual poverty tomorrow! He who rejoices in God and walks in holy consistency may, before another sun has risen - few, though the hours of interval are-have felt his feet slide from under him and so fallen from his steadfastness as to have dishonoured his God, and pierced himself through with many sorrows!

God grant that our meditation may be for the comfort of some present, while we proceed to notice the Master and the servant-Jesus and Thomas-narrowly looking at the actions of them both.

I. LET THE MASTER FIRST ENGAGE OUR ATTENTION - THE MASTER IN THE PRESENCE OF AN UNBELIEVING DISCIPLE WHO HAS TREATED HIM WITH NO LITTLE PRESUMPTION AND RASHNESS.

How exquisitely touching, His gentleness! Does He upbraid Thomas? Is there indignation in His tone? Is there petulance in His chiding? Does He exclaim, "How dare you doubt that I am alive?" Or turns He upon him with some rough sentence, asking "Why this impertinence that you should speak of putting your finger into My wounds, and thrusting your hand into My side? Unworthy servant, from this moment I disown you for having spoken so disrespect-fully of your Lord and Master." No, far from it! He rather takes Thomas on his own ground, considers his infirmities, and meets them precisely as they are, without a single word of rebuke until the close-and even then He puts it very lovingly. The whole conversation was, indeed, a rebuke, but so veiled with love that Thomas could scarcely think it so. He speaks to him as if nothing had occurred to give any cause of offence, or by his presumption to occasion any estrangement.

Dwell for a moment on the mercy which our Lord must have shown-and the blessed patience He must have exercised, to bear thus with Thomas. Ought he not to have known from the Old Testament that the Christ would rise from the dead? Had he not been reminded once and again by his Master of the prophecies which spoke concerning the death of Christ, and the Glory that should follow? Had he not heard the Master, Himself, frequently say that the third day He would rise again? He must have been present with the other Apostles when they turned His oracular sentences over in their minds and said, one to another, "What does He mean by this, that He shall suffer and that He shall rise?" And had He not just before seen the women and conferred with the Apostles who testified that they had found an empty tomb, that they had been told by angels that Jesus had risen-yes, more-that when they were sitting together, Jesus had appeared in their midst? Yet, so strong was his unbelief, that he puts his own judgment against their assertion of fact, against the Inspired Scriptures, against the thrilling words that fell from the Master's own lips, against the united, concurrent acknowledgment of all the Brothers! And do you think not, Brothers and Sisters, that our wilfulness is sometimes as irrational and unwarranted as his? We harbour doubts in the teeth of accumulated evidences and then credit ourselves with being wise and right, while we disparage all others as being foolish and wrong! The principle which lies at the root of all the heresies and the schisms that tear and divide the Church is just that self-confidence which will not let us yield, even though better men than ourselves-yes, though the united consent of the whole Church should bear testimony to a fact or a Truth of God to which we disagree! Through some lack of information or through some flaw of judgment, we judge differently from our companions and forthwith our self-approbation is unyielding, and our conduct is intolerant! It was no small scandal thus to put himself in opposition to the Master, in opposition to the Scripture and in opposition to all his fellow servants! Still, our Lord Jesus Christ forbears to utter a word of denunciation. He just says, "Reach here your finger and behold My hands; and reach here your hand and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing." Softer words He could not have spoken! He responds without reproach. Such loving kindness and tender mercy as David was known to sing of old, did our blessed Redeemer show!

Another ground for admiring our Lord's great patience with Thomas is that Thomas had dared to dictate the terms upon which he would believe-and he had selected such terms as must have been most offensive had Jesus Christ been of a lofty, imperious, un-condescending spirit. Who is Thomas that he should put his hands into those wounds so lately healed? That side pierced by the soldier's spear? Is Thomas to make another road to that sacred heart? Strange that he should have asked so mysterious a sign to strengthen his faith! What? Was there no other way of believing in his Lord but that he must pass his finger and his hand into the very wounds of that blessed body? Ah, see how presumptuous the servant! See, also, how sympathizing the Master! Was it not asking too much-far too much? Such a prayer ought not to have come from a disciple who had never forsaken his Master, much less from Thomas, who had fled with the rest, and had been absent when the Apostles had gathered together and seen the Master! But yet Jesus is so forbearing towards him. I know not whether to wonder more at the impertinence of the servant or the clemency of the Master! Let us take the lesson to ourselves. Have we during the past week fallen into a signal state of gross unbelief? Have we been thinking harsh thoughts of God? Has some sin suspended our communion with our Saviour? Are we now cold at heart and void of spiritual emotion? Do we feel quite unworthy to draw near unto Him who loved us with so great a love? Be not desponding! The God of All Patience will not desert you! The love which our Lord Jesus Christ bears to His people is so great that He passes by their transgression, iniquity and sin! No, there is no anger on His part to divide you from your Lord. Behold! He comes over the mountains of your sins! He leaps over the hills of your follies. Since He thus graciously comes to you, will you not gladly come to Him? Do not think for a moment that He will frown or repulse you! He will not remind you of your cold prayers, your neglected closet, your unread Bible - nor will He chide you for losing occasions of fellowship-but He will receive you graciously, love you freely and grant you just what, at this moment, you need! I pray you notice the Master's patience. Come to Him, dear child of His, you beloved disciple of His, and have fellowship with Him now!

While we are speaking of the Master, I should next like to call your attention to the Master's great care. He had been to see His disciples once. He had stood in their midst and said, "Peace be unto you." He had given them their commission, had breathed upon them and given them the Holy Spirit. But there was an absent one. Well, "what man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go and seek after that which has gone astray?" There was one missing and Jesus must come again! There must be the same salutation of peace. There must be the same blessing bestowed, again, for Thomas must not be left out in the distribution of spiritual gifts. Thomas ought to have sought after Christ, especially after having been absent on the first occasion when He visited them. He surely ought to have said, "My Master came to me and I was not there! I will, therefore, seek Him, be He where He may, and I will tell Him how I regret that I should have missed the golden opportunity of His Presence." But, Beloved, Thomas did not seek His Master. Therein He was just like we are! It is preventing Grace, Brothers and Sisters - it is Grace that is beforehand with us - even with our faint desires, which comes to us from Jesus Christ. Oh, how our Lord outruns us! Our sense of need is not as swift of foot as His perception of our need! Long before we know we need Him, He understands that we require Him and He comes to us to bless us! It was for one He came, and for that one who did not seek Him! He was found of one who sought Him not! You might have thought that Thomas would have been as well left alone a little while. We would have said, "Well, if he is so obstinate as to lay down such conditions, let him cool a bit! Let him just stop awhile in the cold till he is willing to come in at the door, and not to make conditions that he must come in at the window, or by some way of his own. So let him wait, for beggars ought not to be choosers, nor should impertinent disciples be tolerated." Yes, but Jesus will tolerate what we will not-and He will put up with us when we cannot put up with our Brothers and Sisters! We have not half as much to bear with from them as He has from us! Though Thomas might thus have been left, and deserved to have been left, yet Jesus came to him because He knew that His coming to him would be much better than letting him stay away. So, Disciple, do not say to yourself, "I cannot come to the Table tonight, I do not feel fit! I shall not strive after fellowship with Christ-I do not feel as if my soul could enjoy it." No, but it will do you no good to stay away! Will you turn aside from the Master? Will you refuse the symbols of His death? Be not so rash and inconsiderate, I entreat you! Why should He not come to you? Before that bread is broken, you may have experienced a delightful change in the state of your heart and, with pleasing surprise you may be crying out, like Thomas, "My Lord and my God." And, oh, is it not blessed to think that Christ does not stop till His disciples invite Him? He does not wait for them to get ready for Him! No, He comes to them and meets them-and finds them before they have sought Him! If you are in the mood of Thomas, perhaps you may be insisting upon some signs and wonders, as he did. Know you not that the Master can give you His own sign, unfold His own wonder and bestow upon you such a blessing that your heart shall scarcely have room enough to receive it? His tenderness and His care baffle all our thoughts and expectations!

Though we have already observed it, linger, I beseech you, upon the Master's matchless condescension. Behold the Lord of Life, who had overcome the sharpness of death and passed out of the portals of the tomb in triumph, having spoiled principalities and powers and overthrown sin, death, and Hell-the Son of God, at whose Resurrection angels had attended, glad to wait as servants upon His royalty, that Lord - what do you think? He must strip Himself to gratify a disobedient, unbelieving disciple-yes, He must strip Himself! It were not enough to show His hands-that were kindness-but those hands must be touched and those wounds, themselves, must be probed by a finger all too curious! It would have been profane, had it not been for the Divine Pity that allowed it! The way into His heart must be revealed. Well, well, but He did it. Angels must have been shocked when they heard a man say, "I will not believe unless He bares His side to me"-still, He did it! Yes, just before He died, you will remember how He laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself, and washed His disciples' feet. Now that He is risen from the dead, He is the same Christ - and if He condescended, then, to wash His disciples feet, He will condescend, now, to bear with a disciple's bad manners and will even meet him in his infirmities! If they cannot be healed without a sight of His wounded Person, he shall gaze upon His side again! He will do anything for the love of His people. There is no kindness too costly for Christ to show!

Now then, you who, while eagerly longing for His company, hide your face and blush for very shame, do you say, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. My heart is not worthy to receive You as a guest"? True, you are not worthy-neither was Thomas. Yet you shall have His favour and rejoice in the light of His Countenance if you sigh and cry for it! Doubtless you have been very far, during the week, from what you, yourself, wish you had been. Nevertheless, "He will blot out your iniquities like a cloud, and your transgressions like a thick cloud." Your old friends may have passed you in the street and did not recognize you because you are now so poor, but Jesus knows you! No one, perhaps, knows the privations you have had to put up with, poor Christian. You fancy you are despised and neglected by everybody-perhaps it may be your fancy, yet it is cutting to the heart even to think that your Christian Brothers and Sisters look down upon you! But Jesus never looks down contemptuously on His people. He condescends to stand on their platform and put Himself on a level with them with a sacred familiarity suited to their case. Full often He draws most near with most engaging smiles to those who are in the saddest plight. This is how Jesus is known to act. He never speaks proudly and loftily. His condescension unto His children, like His watchfulness over them, is unvarying!

Once more, the Master's bounty challenges our admiration and our confidence. When Thomas had received what he asked for, you might easily have conjectured that he would be put down in the second class of disciples. Instead of that, however, he was well commended in the Apostleship, and though not present when Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive you the Holy Spirit," yet on the Day of Pentecost Thomas received the same cloven tongue and the same power as the rest. Indeed, we have reason to believe that Thomas became as earnest an Apostle, as faithful a witness, and as blessed a martyr of the faith of Christ, as either Peter or James! The Master will not stint His goodness because we once and again display our meanness. No, Beloved, He will give us according to our ability to receive. If we are not able to receive, today, He will enlarge our desires and expand our capacities till tomorrow we may be able to receive from His fullness and Grace for Grace! Come, then, you hungry, starving Souls, you Believers who are coming near to penury and spiritual bankruptcy-draw near in the spirit of love to Christ who is as certainly present in this place with us as He was with them in that chamber where the 12 were gathered! Draw near in spirit and in truth to Him and your souls shall be enriched to your own profit and to the Glory of God!

And now I have a few words to say about:-

II. THE SERVANT. Thomas, struck with the Master's knowledge of what had been going on in his heart and overwhelmed with the manifestation of the Master's Presence and His Power, exclaimed, "My Lord and my God." These five words are full of meaning. Let me endeavour to interpret them for you. First, they were an expression of faith. Thomas now avows the faith which before he had disclaimed. "I will not believe," he said, "except-except-except." Now he believes a great deal more than some of the other Apostles did-so he openly avows it. Thomas was the first Divine who ever taught the Deity of Christ from His wounds! Nor has every Divine since then been able to see the Deity of Christ in His wounded Humanity risen from the dead. This Thomas did. He declared the proper Humanity of Christ when he touched Him and he declared His proper Deity when he avowed Him to be both Lord and God! Thomas was slow in arriving at facts, but he had a comprehensive mind - and when he did arrive at a conviction, he grasped it thoroughly in all its bearings. Peter would be impetuous and leap to a conclusion, but Thomas must consider the circumstances, weigh the testimony, try, judge, and prove the evidences before he acknowledged a Truth of God. When his judgment did yield assent, he was firm. There was no shaking. He understood the Truth he adhered to better than others. Delightful in the ears of Christ, my Brothers and Sisters, is the expression of our faith! Let none of us hesitate to go over in our minds our avowal of faith in Him "who lives and was dead, and is alive forevermore."

It well becomes us, sometimes, to perform what the Catholics call, "acts of faith." I mean in holy contemplation and quiet meditation, to declare before the Lord that we believe in the facts that are made known to us and the Doctrines that have been delivered to us. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God-forever be His name adored! That He is self-existent and full of Power and Glory! We believe that He laid aside that Glory and became a Man in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He did not disdain to sleep upon His virgin mother's breast. He lived a life of holiness and died a death of scorn and ignominy. He slept in the tomb and the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven. He sits at the right hand of God, even the Father. He reigns over all things for His people, having power over all flesh that He may give Eternal Life to as many as the Father has given Him. He shall shortly come to judge the quick and the dead. Among the sons of men He shall reign. He shall sit upon the Throne of His Father David. Prayer, also, shall be made for Him continually and daily shall He be praised!

The short but expressive avowal of faith which Thomas made suggests to me this word of counsel. We should frequently make before God a declaration of our faith in the Deity of our Lord Christ and in all the Glories which surround His Character. Let this be done vocally when you can - or otherwise mentally - for the exercise is profitable. But these words, "My Lord and my God," sound a little different to me from a simple avowal of faith. It was, as someone has said, like the cry of a dove that at last had found its mate. Poor Thomas! He doubted his Master, but he needed Him and could not be happy without Him! Now he has come flying back and he has found Him, and he seems to put his head, as it were, into the bosom of his Master, and to begin to weep and sigh like a poor child that has lost its mother in the streets of London and, when it is brought back again, cannot say anything else but, "My mother," and, "my mother," and," my mother," and feels so happy to think it has found, again, the dear bosom on which to rest! So Thomas seems to say, "I have found You, my Master, my Lord and my God." He seems to humble himself, as though he would say, "How could I doubt You? Where have I been? What have I been thinking? What has my obstinate mind driven me to? What did I say? What did I ask? How could I be so impertinent? My Lord and my God! You have forgiven it all and in Your Presence I seem to moan it out in those few words. Your silly servant, Your foolish servant, but You, my blessed Master, my condescending Master, 'my Lord and my God!'" Well now, Beloved, there is something very sweet in this. Though I called it moaning, still there is much music in it. Come now, you who have wandered, come and tell Christ at the Table all about it! Come and tell Him that you are grieved and that you are not so grieved as you ought to be. Tell Him you are sorry that you should not have lived with Him day by day. Your self-reproach may well be keen:-

Penitently bewail before Him that you should have been so bewitched as to cleave to things below, and let your God, your Saviour, go! Intense feeling commonly finds expression in few words. Silence is sometimes more thrilling than speech. "My Lord and my God" is the breathing of a contrite heart relieved in having found the Grace it needs!

The short prayer, however, "My Lord and my God," is the outcome of more than one emotion. If it involved a pang, it included an intense pleasure. Was it not a joyous astonishment which begot those words It was so sweet to Thomas that he hardly thought his fellow disciples would be able to appreciate so great a wonder. It was too much for himself, so he addresses himself to the Master, as if He, alone, being the greatest marvel, could sympathize with him. "I marvel," he seemed to say. "I could not have believed it! I saw the traitor kiss Your cheek. I saw You dragged off with staves and lanterns to that lion's den! I saw You when You were in Pilate's hall, tried and mocked. I saw You when You were fastened to the tree. I stood there and I saw You bleed and die. I saw Your body taken down and wrapped in spices-and is it the same, the very same? Oh, yes, I recognize You. I know those hands. I took those loaves from them when the thousands were fed in Galilee. I know that face-full many a time have I looked with beaming eyes on that loving Countenance of Yours! I know that side-it is the same side I saw the soldier pierce, and I know it! It is the same! It is Yourself, Yourself, Yourself, the risen Christ! Oh, wonder of wonders! I can say no less! I can say no more! "'My Lord and my God!'"

Well now, holy wonder, Beloved, is no mean kind of worship! It is, perhaps, no mean part of the worship of Heaven. I like that verse we sing:-

Will it not be a surprise when we get there? Though, indeed, we shall see nothing in Heaven but what we have been told of on earth for it will be just such a Heaven as God has told us of - yet we shall say that the half was not told us because we did not understand what we heard and could not enter into the meaning of deep spiritual revelations! Oh, what astonishment might seize upon us now if we could really grip the thought-and I hope we shall! "Jesus has loved, and lived, and died for me - and now He lives and pleads for me!" Oh, Believer, get to see Christ now with the optics of your mind! See Him now exalted in the highest heavens, though once rejected of men and, as with astonishment you behold the ineffable splendour of that starry Throne of God, surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand of the chariots of God, and chariots of messengers of fire, all waiting to obey His Sovereign Will-as you see the Man whose head was once crowned with thorns, from the highest seat that Heaven affords claiming Eternal Sovereignty, bow your head in devout astonishment, fall at His feet and, giving tongue to your rapture, exclaim, "My Lord and my God!"

And did not Thomas, by such an exclamation as this, renew his personal betrothal to Christ and his positive consecration to His service "My Lord," he says, "You Are, and I am Your servant. My God, henceforth You Are, and I am Your worshipper as long as I live." Beloved, years ago some of us were first spiritually espoused to Christ. Gladly would I re-member those blessed hours when my young heart went out after Him and His blessed heart of love was revealed to me! We ought not to forget those times, for He does not forget them. He says to Israel, "I remember you, the kindness of your youth, and the love of your espousals." With what enthusiasm we sung:-

Perhaps many years have passed over you since then, but whether they have been many or few, I am sure we have not been invariably true to those vows and resolutions. Our memory of Him has not been equal to His mindfulness of us. Now, if the Lord should come to you afresh and give you a choice season of fellowship with Him, would it not be a most suitable response to give yourself up to Him afresh? Should we not often do this? Would not the freshness of close fellowship be peculiarly suitable for the renewal of our Covenant with our Lord, and of our consecration of ourselves to His service? On that night you were baptized, you could sing sincerely:-

Oh, that God's Holy Spirit would enable you now to say in your soul, "Jesus, the despised of men, whom the great ones of this world know not, in whose blessed Person and redemptive work they will not believe, I take You, my Master. I acknowledge You to be my Lord. Your people shall be my people. Your God and Father shall be my God. Your blood shall be my confidence, and Your Law my rule. Your love shall quicken my love. Your life shall be my example. Your Glory shall be the one objective for which I strive. You, O Christ, are 'my Lord and my God.'" So shall your faith abound and all your Graces flourish!

Do I hear some timid voice from this congregation whispering a complaint? "Ah, there is nothing for me! He is speaking to the disciples. When the doors are shut, I am shut outside as a stranger. There is nothing for me. I am a sinner." Oh, but I tell you, if you will but knock, Jesus Christ will come outside to you! The doors are not shut to keep out poor sinners from the Presence of the Saviour! Do you need Jesus to reveal Himself to you? Exalted in the highest heavens, He looks down upon you now! His voice is calling you, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." Oh, poor Sinner, if you cannot put your finger into the print of the nails, yet believe that Jesus died! Then trust Him and rely upon His merits. Cast yourself flat at His feet! Stay yourself upon His Passion and Atonement, and you shall be saved-saved now-saved without a moment's delay! So shall all these other joys be your, for you, too, shall be numbered with the family and you shall feast upon the children's meat, and be partakers of all the privileges of the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty!

CHAPTER 19. THE FORERUNNER

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"Where the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus."
Hebrews 6:20.

The Jewish high priest went within the veil once a year and represented the people there, but he was never their forerunner, for no one followed him into the Most Holy Place. His entrance within the veil did not admit another human being-and when he came forth, the veil again concealed the secret glories of the Most Holy Place even from him for another year and from all others at all times-so that neither Aaron, nor any other high priest of his line could ever be called a forerunner within the veil. This is one of the many instances in which our Lord Jesus Christ, as the great Antitype, far excels all the types. They do, as it were, represent the hem of His garment, but the glorious majesty and fullness of His high priestly office, they are not able to set forth.

Moreover, this title of Forerunner is peculiar to the passage before us. The fact that Christ is the Forerunner of His people may be found in other words in the Scriptures and again and again in this Epistle. But it is only here that we have the exact expression that Jesus Christ within the veil has gone to be the Forerunner of His people.

Now, what is peculiar and unique usually excites curiosity and attention. And if it is something peculiar and unique with regard to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself peculiar and unique, we should look at it as closely as we can and bend our whole minds and hearts to the consideration of it.

I. I am going to speak, first, upon THE NAME WHICH IS USED CONCERNING JESUS CHRIST AS THE FORERUNNER. Our Lord is sometimes spoken of as the Master, the Messiah, the Son of Man and so on, but here He is simply called Jesus. "Where the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus."

I do not pretend to know why this title was selected, but at least it may be suggested that Jesus is the name which His enemies despise-Jesus of Nazareth, "the Nazarene," as His fiercest foes cry to this day. About the name, Christ, there is always a measure of respect, for even those who do not believe Him to be the Christ, yet look for a Christ, a Divinely-anointed One, a Messiah sent from God. But, "Jesus," is the personal name of Him who was born at Bethlehem, the Son of Mary, to whom the angel said before His birth, "You shall call His name JESUS." It is "the Nazarene" who is "the Forerunner, even Jesus," and it is that name of Jesus that has caused His enemies to gnash their teeth and speak and act against Him, even as Paul confessed to king Agrippa, "I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." It is by that name which His enemies abhor that He is known within the veil! They speak of Him there as the Saviour, the Joshua, the Jehovah-Jesus of His people - and by that name we know Him as our Forerunner. Moreover, Jesus is not only the name which is hated by His foes, but it is the name which is dearest to His friends. How charming is its very sound! You know how our hymn writers have delighted to dwell upon it. Dr. Doddridge wrote:-

And Charles Wesley sang:-

Out of all our Saviour's names-and they are all precious to us and, at certain times each one has its own peculiar charm-there is not one which rings with such sweet music as this blessed name, "Jesus." I suppose the reason of this is that it answers to our own name, the name of sinner. That name needs, to cover it, the names of Him who saves His people from their sins. The sound of this confession, "I have sinned," is like that of a funeral knell. But the music of the sentence, "Jesus saves me," is like that of a marriage peal! And, as long as I am a sinner, the name of Jesus will always be full of melody to my soul. To the Old Testament saints, it was comforting to read of Him who was to be born-"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace"-and we still delight to repeat those majestic sounds. But in our quiet and calm moments, and especially in times of despondency and depression of spirit, the music of the harp sounds most sweetly when this is the note which the minstrel evokes from it, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." And it is very pleasant to me to think that this is the name that we shall remember best even in Heaven. He has gone there, as Jesus, to be our Forerunner, so Dr. Watts was right when he sang:-

II. Now I want to show you IN WHAT SENSE JESUS IS OUR FORERUNNER.

The word used here means a person running before-a herald, a guide, one who precedes. Such terms would correctly interpret the Greek word used here, so it means, first, one who goes before to proclaim, or to declare. A battle has been fought and the victory won. A swift young man, out of the ranks of the victors, runs with all speed to the city, rushes through the gate into the marketplace, and proclaims to the assembled people the welcome news, "Our country is victorious! Our commander is crowned with laurels." That young man is the forerunner of the victorious host. The whole army will be back, by-and-by, the conquering legions will come marching through the streets and all eyes will gaze with admiration upon the returning heroes - but this is the first man to arrive from the field of conflict to report the victory! In that sense, Jesus Christ was the Forerunner to report in Heaven His own great victory. He did much more than that, as you well know, for He fought the fight alone and of the people there were none with Him. He was the first to report in Heaven His own victory. On the Cross He had met Satan and all the powers of darkness-and there had He fought and overcome them and shouted the victor's cry-"It is finished!" Who shall report the victory in Heaven? Shall some swift-winged angel, one of the many that had hovered round the Cross and wondered what it all could mean, fly like a flame of fire, pass through the gates of pearl and say, "He has done it"? No, Jesus must Himself be the first to proclaim His own victory and the eternal safety of all for whom He died! They tell out this good news through the streets of Heaven to this day, but He it was who first certified it! When He ascended up on high leading captivity captive. When He entered within the veil and stood before His Father, the First-Begotten from the dead. When He declared by His majestic Presence that all was finished. When He proclaimed the justification of all His elect-in that proclamation He was our Forerunner - the first to proclaim that glorious Truth of God, "It is finished!"

A second meaning of the word, forerunner, will be found in this sense of possessing, for Christ has gone to Heaven not merely to proclaim that His people are saved, but to possess Heaven on their behalf. Representatively, He has taken possession of the heavenly places in the name of those for whom He died. Christ had paid the purchase price of our eternal inheritance. We as yet have not entered upon possession of it, but He has and He has taken possession of it in our names. All the elect are summed up in Him who is their Covenant Head-and He being there, they are all there in Him. As the burgesses of a town sit in the House of Commons represented by their member, so we sit in the heavenly places represented by our Leader who sits there in our name. He has taken seisin, as they used to say of old - taken possession of all the Glory of Heaven in the name of His people! Why is Heaven mine tonight? Because it is His-and all that is His is mine! Why is eternal life yours, Beloved? Why, because "your life is hid with Christ in God" and He has in Heaven for you, eternal life, and all its accompaniments of joy and blessedness! And He is sitting there enjoying them because they are His and yours. You are one with Him, so He is your Forerunner in that sense.

Christ is also our Forerunner in the sense of preceding us. The Forerunner goes first and others must come afterwards. He is not a forerunner if there are not some to run behind him. When John the Baptist came, he was the forerunner of Christ. If Christ had not come after him, John the Baptist would have come for nothing. As Jesus is the Forerunner to Heaven, rest assured that those for whom He is the Forerunner will in due time follow Him there. The least pledge of the glories of the saints in Heaven is the Glory of Christ there. The surest proof that they shall be there is that HE is there, for where He is, there must also His people be. I delight to think of Jesus Christ as our Forerunner because I feel sure that the mighty Grace which worked so effectually in Him, and made Him run before, will also work in all His people and make them run behind till they enter into the same rest that He now enjoys!

And once again, Christ is our Forerunner within the veil in the sense that He has gone there to prepare a place for us. I do not know what was needed to make Heaven ready for us, but whatever was needed once is not needed now, for Heaven has been ready for us ever since Christ went to prepare it. We have sometimes arrived at a house when we were not expected-our friends have been glad to see us, but we could hear the bustle of preparations and we almost wished that we had not gone, so to put them into such a flutter in getting ready for us. But no unexpected guest shall ever await at Heaven's gate! They are watching and waiting for us. They know just when we shall get there and Christ has gone to make everything ready for His long-expected and greatly-loved ones. "I go to prepare a place for you," said Christ to His disciples - and that place He has prepared. We have not to go into an undiscovered country, for however glorious the new world might be, the first man to enter it would tread its soil with trembling feet, for he would not know what he might find there. It was a brave thing to be a Columbus to discover a new world, but it is a happier thing to go to a country that has been discovered many hundreds of years, where civilization has provided for the supply of all our needs. Christ was the Columbus of Heaven and He has made it ready for us who are to follow Him there when our turn shall come to emigrate to the better land!

III. Now I want to answer this question, INTO WHAT IS CHRIST OUR FORERUNNER? He is our forerunner within the veil. Where is that?

Well, first, it is where all our hope is fixed. Our hope is fixed on things invisible, mysterious, spiritual, sublime, immutable, Divine-which are where Christ is. Paul tells us that the anchor of our soul is "within the veil, where the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus." Within the veil is, also, the place of the greatest possible nearness to God. Under the old dispensation, it was an awfully solemn thing for a man to be allowed to enter within the veil. Anyone who ventured in there uncalled would have been instantly destroyed. To stand within the veil was a joyous, blissful privilege, yet it involved enormous responsibility. But you and I, Beloved, stand there in the closest possible nearness to God because Christ has gone there as our Forerunner. He is not merely our Forerunner so that we may enter there in 20 or 30 years' time, or whenever we die, but that we may now boldly enter into the heavenlies where He has gone! Where He is, we are bound to go. Well then, as Christ is there, at His Father's side - "The Man of Love, the Crucified" - let us not fear to enter where we have the right to go! It is very sad that when some of us pray, we do not dare to enter within the veil. Even the outer court seems to be too holy a place for us! If we do venture into the court of the priest, we are all in a tremble. But, Brothers and Sisters, we are permitted to enter into that which is within the veil, for Jesus is there and He bids us come to Him - therefore let us come boldly. There is a measure of holy familiarity which the devout man may enjoy in the Presence of God. It is a blessed privilege to know God as your Father and to be as bold with Him as a child is with a father-with the boldness of a love which does not dare because it deserves, but dares because God loves and which, while it humbles itself into the very dust, yet grasps the feet of God even there, clings to Him and delights in its nearness to Him! Is it not a cause of untold joy to us that Jesus Christ is within the veil now as our Forerunner, that we may daily go where He always is? This is the right position for a child of God in prayer! He must not stand at the foot of Sinai. He must not stand in any unclean place, but he must go where the blood has been sprinkled on the Mercy Seat- brought near by the precious blood of Jesus!

Let us also remember that this place of nearness to God, into which Christ has gone, will mean nearness to God in a higher sense, by-and-by. You cannot conceive of anybody being nearer to God than Christ is "within the veil." In that nearness He is our Forerunner if we are truly in Him by faith. Is not that a wonderful thought? We might have thought that in that wondrous nearness to God which the Mediator enjoys, He would be alone, for He is so very near, but it is not so. He has Himself said, "To Him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My Throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father on His Throne." It is not only true that we are to behold Christ's Glory, but even while on earth He said, "Father, I will that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory" - as if they would never fully see that Glory till they were with Him where He is. To whatever heights of Glory He has gone-to whatever raptures of joy He has ascended, He has gone there as the Forerunner of His people!

I may seem to be uttering truisms, but I cannot help it. These are the sort of Truths of God upon which one cannot give allegories, illustrations, or fine sentences. The Truths themselves are so glorious that it would be like painting the lily and gilding it with pure gold to try to adorn it. We must not attempt it, but just leave the Truths as they are for the Spirit of God to apply them to your souls-and so I mean to do after I have mentioned a few practical inferences from the Truth which I have been trying to set before you.

The first is, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, this-let us each one endeavour by faith to realize our nearness with Christ. He has entered within the veil, but He has entered as our Forerunner. Remember that although you are imperfect, feeble, sorrowing, yet you are one with Jesus Christ! You believe that as a Doctrine, but I want you to realize it now as a fact. If you had a rich friend who had given you an equal share with himself of all that he possessed, even if you had not entered upon the possession of it, you would think, "I have not to depend upon charity for my daily bread, for my rich friend has made me as rich as he is, himself." Now, whatever joy that might give you, it ought to give you far more to think that you are one with Christ and that Christ is one with you! When you suffer, Christ is suffering in one of the members of His mystical body. And when He rejoices, it is His desire that His joy may be in you, that your joy may be full. He has married you and He means you to take His riches as well as Himself and to reckon that all He is and all He has is yours. If the Holy Spirit would cause you to realize this, it would make your soul leap within you and bless the Lord and magnify His holy name! "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine." No, more, I am a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Our interests are one, for we are one and Christ up there, in the heavenlies, is but myself there, for I am in Him and I shall soon be actually and literally where He is, as I now am in the Person of Him who is there as my Representative and Forerunner. That is the first practical thought.

And the second is this-is He your Forerunner, Be-loved? Then, run after Him. There can be no forerunner, as I have said before, unless somebody follows. Jesus is our Forerunner, so let us be His after-runners. "Ah," says one, "but He is so different from us." The beauty of it is that He is not different from us, for He was a Man like ourselves. "Forasmuch then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." Though in Him was no sin, yet in all other respects He was just such as we are-and it cost Him as much to run as it will cost us to run-yes, more, for His race was more arduous than ours is. "You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin," therefore "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds." Your road may be full of crosses, but they are not such crosses as the one He carried. You have suffered bereave-ments. Yes, and "Jesus wept." You have to endure poverty. And He had not where to lay His head. You are often despised. And He is still "despised and rejected of men." You are slandered. But as they called the Master of the house, Beelzebub, what wonder is it that they speak ill of those who are the members of His household? Jesus Christ ran the very race that you have to run and He ran it perfectly! And that same power which worked in Him to run until He entered within the veil, and so passed the goal, will help you to run till you reach the same spot. If He is your Forerunner and He has run the race, it is essential that you should run it, too, and should also win the prize. Courage, Brothers and Sisters-nothing is too hard for our poor manhood to accomplish through the power of the ever-blessed Spirit! As Christ has conquered, so can we. Sin's assaults can be repelled, for Christ repelled them. The Holy Spirit can lift up "poor human nature"-as we call it - into something nobler and better, transforming it into the likeness of the Human Nature of the Christ of God, till in that Human Nature, purity and holiness, shall dwell even to perfection!

Follow, Brothers and Sisters, the mighty Runner who has gone before you within the veil! And the best way to follow Him is to put your feet into His footprints. It may seem as if you might get to the goal either this way or that, but the best Christian is he who does not wish for any other path than that which his Master trod. I would like-oh, that I might realize it-to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Not to say, "This is not essential, and that might be dispensed with," but, like the Master, Himself, to say, "Thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness." Good writing, I think, depends very much upon the little letters. If you want to read a man's letter easily at the first glance, he must write legibly, and mind his Ps and Qs, and all the other letters of the alphabet, especially those that are nearly alike, such as C and E, or I and L. O Christian, there may be very little difference, to the eye of man, between this letter and that of the Believer's alphabet, but you will do best if you follow your Master exactly in all points! No hurt comes of doing that, but great hurt comes of even the least laxity. Follow closely your great Forerunner! Follow at His heels, as a dog follows his master. Just as Christ ran, so may the Holy Spirit help you to run with endurance the race set before you, "looking unto Jesus."

The next thing I have to say is this-let us love our Lord intensely. He has gone to Heaven, but He has not gone there for Himself alone. He has got so into the habit of sharing with His people all that He has that He has not left off that habit now that He has got into Glory! He says, "I am here for My people. I was on the Cross for them and I am on the Throne for them." It is marvellous that even the reward that is given to Him, He shares with His own beloved ones, for there is nothing that He has that He keeps to Himself! It was a blessed marriage day for us, His people, when He took us to be His-for with all His heavenly gifts He did us endow and now He has nothing but what He holds in common with His people. We are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Then must we not love Him much who has loved us so much that He has given us Himself and all He has? Come, my cold heart, if there is anything that can warm you, surely it is the thought of such true, fond, constant, faithful love as this! Indulge a moment's thought now. Indulge it quietly. Let your soul picture Him. Come to His feet and kiss them. And if you have an alabaster box of precious ointment, break it open and anoint Him, and fill the house with the perfume of your offering of love and gratitude.

Last of all, since Christ has gone to Heaven to be our Forerunner, let us trust Him. We could have trusted Him, I hope, while He was running His race, so surely we can trust Him now that He has won it. The saints of God who lived before Christ came to dwell upon the earth, trusted Him before He started to run. His Apostles and other disciples, in their poor feeble way, trusted Him while He was running - so shall not we trust Him now that the race is finished and He has gone into Glory on our behalf? If a man says, "I will do a thing," if he is a truthful man and he can do what he says, we depend upon him. But when he has done it, it would be a shame not to depend upon him. If Christ came here tonight, never having died, and He said to us, "You poor lost ones, I mean to save you," ought we not to believe Him? If He said, "Dear children of Mine, I mean to come and run a race and win it for you," would we not say, "Lord Jesus, we trust You"? Well, He is not here in bodily Presence-He is up yonder. Do you not see Him with the crown upon His head? There He sits in Glory-innumerable angels are bowing before Him and cherubim and seraphim are praising Him day without night-and the redeemed from among men are singing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us." Can you not trust Him, Sinner? "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." Can you not trust Him? He is within the veil, pleading for us, and pleading for all who come unto God by Him-and setting His people the example of coming there to plead, too.

As He is there, can we not all trust Him? The dying thief trusted Him when His hands were nailed to the Cross. Can we not trust Him now that His hand grasps the sceptre of Sovereignty? The dying thief trusted Him when men ridiculed Him and thrust out their tongues, and railed at Him-can we not trust Him now that Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of His Glory? Surely we must! Jesus, Master, if we never have relied upon You before, grant us the Grace to do so now! And as for those of us who have depended on You these many years, You dear, tried, precious, faithful Lover of our souls, surely we have done with doubting! We are in Your bosom-no, more-we are inside Your very heart and, therefore, we must be safe! Who can harm us there? You did say, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish."

With this assurance let us go our way, resolving to follow our Forerunner till we get where He is, "within the veil," and then forever to follow Him "wherever He goes." Amen.

CHAPTER 20. ALPHA AND OMEGA

A Sermon delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
Revelation 22:13.

Every Sunday school child knows that there is no great mystery hidden in the words, "Alpha and Omega." We have here the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, so that the sense would be, "I am A and great O," in the Greek, or in plain English, "I am A and Z." "Jesus is the Alpha and Omega: A and Z: the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."

Our text demands no preface. Indeed, I do not know how I could venture to put a single letter before Alpha. Let us therefore come to our subject at once. In three ways I shall talk of the text. First, I shall bring certain doctrines to it. Secondly, we will look at the doctrines which are really in it. And then thirdly, at the lessons which naturally flow from it.

I. At the outset, WE SHALL BRING CERTAIN TRUTHS OF GOD TO THE TEXT. This is a much too common method of preaching and one which I am very far from admiring as a custom. When some preachers get a text, the enquiry is not what Truth is in the passage, but what sense shall they thrust upon it. Full often the poor text is served as a cook treats a bird. It is first killed and then stuffed with any kind of fancies that the preacher may have chopped up ready to hand. By frankly stating that my first observations are not in the verse before us, I shall avoid sanctioning such methods of abusing God's Word. The thoughts to which I now give utterance have been suggested by many commentators and certainly, if they are not the legitimate offspring of the text, are closely connected with it.

  1. Of things which we may fairly bring to the text, let us notice first that our Lord may well be described as the Alpha and Omega in the sense of rank. He is Alpha, the First, the Chief, the Foremost, the First-Born of every creature, the Eternal God. Man by nature is not the first even among creatures, for angels excel him by far. Nor are angels the chief, for our glorious Lord infinitely transcends them. He who made is greater than they who are made. And He who sends is greater than those who are sent. Jesus Christ stands Alpha in honourable degree-no angel can vie with Him. "Being made so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, you are My Son, this day have I begotten you"? "And again, when He brings in the first begotten into the world, He says, And let all the angels of God worship Him." As for the Son, He has ap-pointed Him heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, but of the angels it is asked - "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

    Alpha was frequently used by the Hebrews to signify the best, just as we are accustomed to use the letter A. We say of a ship, for instance, that it is "A-1." So Jesus Christ may truly be said to be the Alpha, the First in this sense. Call Him by whatever title Scripture has affixed to Him and He is the First in it. Is He a Prophet? Then all the Prophets follow at a humble distance, bearing witness of Him. Is He a Priest? Then He is the Great High Priest of our profession. He is the fulfilment of all that which the priest did but typically set forth. Let Him mount His Throne as King, then he is King of kings and Lord of lords. "His dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom is from generation to generation." If He is the builder of His Church, He is the wise Master-Builder. If a Shepherd, He is the Great Shepherd who shall appear. If the cornerstone, He is the Chief Corner-stone-in fact, it matters not what title, or which character He bears, He is in all these respects the Alpha, as much surpassing all things that may be compared to Him-as the sun excels the stars, or as the sea exceeds the drops of the dew.

    But, Beloved, though our blessed Lord is thus Alpha - the First - He was once in His condescension made Omega, the Last. How shall I describe the mighty descent of the Great Saviour? Down from the loftiness of His Father's Glory and from the grandeur of His own Divine estate, He stooped to become Man. There is a vast distance from the Alpha of Deity, down to that letter which stands for manhood. But to this He came, He was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death. But this is not enough. He stoops lower than man. Yes, there is a verse in which He seems to put Himself on a level with the least of all creatures that have life-He says, "I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people." His Father forsook Him-the wrath of Heaven rolled over Him. He was so utterly crushed and broken that He was poured out like water and brought into the dust of death. Marshal the creatures of God in their order, in the dread day when Jesus hangs upon the Cross, and you must put Him for misery, for weakness, for shame as the Last, the Omega. How marvellous is this tremendous sweep of His humiliation, that from the highest Throne in Glory He should descend into the lowest depths of the tomb!

    Death brings the creature to its very lowest degradation and makes it as though it were nothing. Jesus died and as I see the incorruptible Body lying in Joseph's sepulchre, I can but marvel that ever the great Alpha should come so low as to yield up the ghost, being subjugated beneath the power of the last Adversary. Now, this is not in the text, but it may be fairly brought to it, I think, and without any compulsion, it may shake hands with the passage as being near of kin to it.

  2. We will make another observation which is not in the text, but which is still a very precious Truth of God, namely, that Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega in the Book of Holy Scripture. Open the first page and a discerning eye will see Jesus Christ in Genesis. We know that the worlds were made by Him, and as we hear that majestic sentence, "Let Us make man in Our own Image after Our likeness," we at once discern Him as one of the sacred Trinity. We go onward to the Fall and at the gates of Eden the promise of the woman's Seed consoles us.

    We advance to the days of Noah and lo, we see the Saviour typified in the ark, which bears a chosen company out of the old world of death into the new world of life. We walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah's day. We dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise. We leave the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh on his deathbed. We see his seed brought out of Egypt and eating the Lamb of God's Passover. We reach the age of the Law and here the types crowd in upon us. But time permits not even a glance - suffice it to say, in brief, that we view the face of Jesus in almost every page and behold His Character painted to the life in nearly every Book.

    Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one way-they all stand as the cherubs did, over the ark, desiring to look within and to read the mystery of God's great Propitiation. In the New Testament we find our Lord the one constant theme of every page. It is not an ingot here and there, or dust of gold thinly scattered - but here you stand upon a solid floor of gold-for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified. What would be left of the Evangelists if you could remove Christ from them? What are Paul's Epistles if Jesus is taken away? The whole of the Pauline literature sinks in a moment if Jesus is withdrawn. And what have Peter, James, Jude, or John to write upon but the same Subject? Is it not Jesus still?

    Do not shut the Book too hastily, for see its closing sentence is bejeweled with the Redeemer's name. "Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Brethren, we should always read Scripture in this light. We should consider the Word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from Heaven. And then, looking into it, we see His face reflected as in a glass-darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing Him as we shall see Him face to face.

    This volume contains Jesus Christ's letters to us, perfumed by His love. These pages are the garments of our King and they all smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia. Scripture is the golden chariot in which Jesus rides and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy Child, Jesus - unroll them and you find your Saviour. Talk not to us of bodies of divinity - the only body of Divinity is the Person of Christ. As for theology, Christ is the true Theology-the incarnate Word of God. And if you can comprehend Him you have grasped all Truth. He is made unto us Wisdom-getting Him you have the Wisdom of the Scriptures. The quintessence of the Word of God is Christ. Distil the Book - reach its essential quality and you have discovered Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and the king of the Jews. He is the Alpha and Omega of Holy Scripture.

  3. Another fact is also sweetly true, although not, perhaps, in our text. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the great Law of God. Brethren, the Law of God finds not a single letter in human nature to meet its demands. You and I are neither Alpha nor Omega to the Law, for we have broken it altogether. We have not even learned its first letter-"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart," and certain I am we know but very little of the next-"your neighbour as yourself." Even though renewed by Divine Grace, we are very slow to learn the holiness and spirituality of the Law.

    We are so staggered by the letter that we often miss its spirit altogether. But, Beloved, if you would see the Law fulfilled, look to the Person of our blessed Lord and Master. What love to God is there! O Brothers and Sisters, where shall we find anything to be compared to it? "The zeal of Your house has eaten Me up." "Know you not that I must be about My Father's business?" "My meat and My drink is to do the will of Him that sent Me." What love to man you find in Him. Talk not of the good Samaritan. Here is One who is better than he-the Samaritan did but give his wine and his oil and his two-pence. Jesus gives Himself - gives His heart's blood instead of wine and the anointing of the Holy Spirit instead of oil. While for food He gives His own Flesh and Blood for poor humanity to feed upon. Jesus loved in such a way that, as we said on Thursday night, all the love that ever gleamed in human bosoms, if it could be gathered together, would be but as a spark-while His great love to man would be as a flaming furnace heated seven times hotter than human imagination can conceive. Do not, beloved Friends, if you are in Christ Jesus, permit legal fears to distress you at the remembrance of your failures in obedience, as though they would destroy your soul.

    Seek after holiness, but never make holiness your trust. Seek after virtue-pant for it-but when you see your own imperfections, do not despair. Your saving righteousness is the righteousness of Christ-that in which God accepts you is Christ's perfect obedience. And we say of that again, in the words of the text, Jesus Christ is "Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End." There is not a precept which He has not fulfilled in its widest sense.

    As for the spirit of the Law, it breathes through His whole life of holiness and service. And as for the letter of the Law, He has carried it out to its extremity. The Commandment may be exceedingly broad, but not broader than the life of Christ. The Law may ask perfection, but it could not ask and could not have a greater perfection than is found in the Person of Him whose name is "The Lord our Righteousness."

Brethren, these three matters I cannot affirm to be in the text, but can you blame me for bringing them forward? They stand in such a near connection with the exact sense of the passage that they cannot well be omitted. May the Lord bless them to you.

II. Now we will take the text itself. And show what are THE TRUTHS WHICH WE ASSUREDLY BELIEVE TO BE IN IT.

  1. Our Lord Jesus is Alpha and Omega in the great alphabet of being. Reckon existences in their order and you begin - "In the beginning was the Word." Proceed to the conclusion. Suppose that all the universe has melted like the hoarfrost of the morning-imagine that all worlds are extinguished as the sparks from the forge - conceive that, as a painted bubble passes away forever, so the whole creation has departed - What then? What is the Omega? Why assuredly Jesus Christ would still be "God over all, blessed forever. Amen." This we are quite sure is in the text, because the expression, "Alpha and Omega," is only used four times in Scripture. And on the second occasion we find it in the eleventh verse of the first chapter of the Book of the Revelation, in a connection which leads us to conclude that it must relate to the eternity and self-existence of our Lord. For the seventeenth verse explains the eleventh thus, "Fear not. I am the First and the Last: I am He that lives and was dead. And, behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of Hell and of death." Those expressions manifestly refer to the eternity of Christ. To His self-existence, His having life in Himself. To the fact that death did by no means destroy His self-existence and that now since His resurrection, He lives forevermore, death has no more dominion over Him. Beloved, this is a great theme. When we begin to talk of the eternity of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are overwhelmed by the glory of our subject. We need the eagle eyes and the eagle wings of John to see and soar into heavenly things. I read the other day a word by an ancient author and in the chapter upon the eternity of God I could not help noticing that there was hardly a word of more than one or two syllables-sure sign of the sublimity of the theme and of the inability of man to see more than its most simple outline. Will you go back six thousand years, when the world has newly emerged from darkness? Will you fly on, if you can, through all the ages of the geological periods, if such there were? Can you journey back millions of years? Can you, can you? Can you reach in spirit the time when as yet cherubim were not born, when the solemnity of silence had never been disturbed by song of seraph, when the unnavigated ether had never been stirred by the wings of angels? There is no world, no sun, no stars-space alone exists. Can you go further back till space is gone? You cannot. It is impossible. You are lost. For you can only think of space and time. But if you could by any stretch of imagination multiply the millions of years of which we dreamed just now, by another million times and that a million million million times more-and those on still as far as ever human arithmetic can go-yes, and beyond the possibilities of angelic computation, yet even then you have not begun to fathom the eternity in which God has dwelt alone. Certainly there was an age in which God was dwelling alone, not in solitude, for, as the fathers very rightly say, you must not use the term "solitude" in reference to God, since the three Divine Persons everlastingly delighted in each Other and so knew no solitude - yet there was and is an aloneness in our God, since He is before all things.

    Can your thoughts attain to that age of God in lonely Glory - in that eternity we know that Jesus was? He, whom though we have not seen His face, unceasingly we do adore, was then the eternal Son. The Word was God. Jesus was Alpha. To fly as far in the other direction - when the little river of time shall have been absorbed into the deep ocean of eternity, when all the world shall have departed even as the motes which dance in the sunbeam are seen no more when the sunbeam is gone-still Jesus shall be the Omega. It has been well observed by Dr. Gill, that no doubt the words, "Alpha and Omega," are comprehensive-they take in all the letters between.

    Certainly God comprehends all creatures. God is that without Whom there is nothing and in Whom are all things. Philo, the Jew, compares the great God to a tree and all creatures to the leaves and fruits, which are all in the tree. But the metaphor is not complete because you may remove fruit from the tree, but there can be no creature out of the power and will of God by which alone it can exist at all. If you remove the fruit from the tree, the tree has at least lost something. But if all creatures were destroyed, yet still the Lord would be as infinitely God as He is now. If the creatures were multiplied, God were no more-and if diminished, He were no less.

    The creatures may be likened to the waves and God to the great sea. The waves cannot exist apart from the sea, nor the creatures apart from God-but no earthly figure of the Divine can be complete. The waves are a portion of the sea, but the creatures are not God, nor do they contribute to His Essence or attributes. The sea would be diminished if the waves were gone. But if you could take all creatures away, God would be no less God nor less Infinite than He is now. In fact, the moment we begin to talk of infiniteness, we know nothing of diminishing or of increasing.

    O Brothers and Sisters, we must leave this subject in the silence of reverent humility, for my little boat is out of sight of shore already. I must not venture further on this great and wide sea:-

    • "Great God, how infinite are You!
      What worthless worms are we!
      Let the whole race of creatures bow,
      And pay their praise to You."

    A deaf and dumb man in one of the institutions in Paris was asked to write upon the slate his idea of God's eternity, and he wrote the following forcible lines: "It is duration without beginning or end. Existence without bounds or dimensions. Present without past or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age. Life without birth or death. Today without yesterday or tomorrow." "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."

  2. Another Truth of God is most certainly in the text, namely, that Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega in the alphabet of creating operations. Who was it that began to make? Not an angel, for the angel must first be made. Did matter create itself? Was there an effect without a cause? It is contrary to our experience and our reason to believe any such thing. The first cause stands first. And the first cause is God in the Divine Trinity, the Son being one Person of that Trinity. He is Alpha because His hand first of all winged angelic spirits and made His ministers a flame of fire.

    He first made all things out of nothing. He moulded the clay from which man was made. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that is made. As He alone began, so His power maintains the fabric of creation. All things consist by Him. Christ is the great iron pillar of the universe and the creatures twine about Him as the vine does about its prop. These things are not, they vanish like a dream if Jesus withdraws His power. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Brethren, there may be creations going on at the present moment-fresh globes may even now be fashioned between the hands of Omnipotence. If so, in every one of these Immanuel has a share.

    At this very moment new comets may be launched like thunderbolts upon their fiery way, but not without the Son of God. Human souls issue from the womb of creation every hour, but in their sustenance and sending forth, the mighty God is ever present. On, on, on, as the works of God shall be enlarged and extended, as the universe shall grow on every side, Christ shall be there still-His Father's delight, with whom He takes counsel-His equal, bearing with Him the name of Alpha and Omega. If this world shall be rolled up like a worn-out vesture, He shall roll it up. If the stars shall wither, it shall be at Jesus' bidding - if the sun shall be quenched, His breath shall blow out its coal. And if the moon shall be black as sackcloth of hair, Christ's hand shall extinguish the lamp. He shall do it all, even until the end shall come, for He is Omega as well as Alpha.

  3. So again, beyond a doubt, our text intends that Christ is Alpha and Omega in all Covenant transactions. Beloved, here is a theme worthy of many discourses from the most eminent Divines. The thoughts of God, the eternal Decrees, the inscrutable purposes of Jehovah-these are deep things-but we know this concerning them, that from first to last they all have a relation to Christ. Concerning our race and the elect out of it, the whole matter is encompassed in the Person of the Redeemer.

    Do you speak of election? "Mine elect in whom My soul delights," is Christ's name. We are chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. Speak of our being predestinated to be sons-we are only made so in Him who stands as the elder Brother. Every separate individual of the chosen tribe stands only by virtue of an union which was established from of old between his person and the Person of the Redeemer. Search for the celestial fountain from which Divine streams of Divine Grace have flowed to us and you find Jesus Christ as the wellspring of Covenant love. If your eyes shall ever see the Covenant roll, if you shall ever be permitted in a future state to see the whole plan of redemption as it was mapped out in the chambers of eternity, you shall see the blood-red line of atoning sacrifice running along the margin of every page. And you shall see that from beginning to end one object was always aimed at-the glory of the Son of God.

    The Father begins with exalting Jesus and concludes with glorifying Him with the Glory which He had with Him before the world was. How I do love the Doctrines of Grace when they are taken in connection with Christ! Some people preach the Calvinistic points without Jesus. But what hard, dry, marrow preaching it is. Oh, dear Friends, the letter kills. It breeds in men a controversial, quarrelsome spirit. But when you preach the Doctrines of Grace as they are in Christ, as Dr. Hawker would have preached them! When you talk of them as Rutherford would have talked of them-oh, then a holy unction rests upon them and they become inestimably precious!

    And let every Believer remember he does not get these doctrines as he should get them unless he receives them in Christ. Everywhere the Lord Jesus is to be considered! Not as the Friend of a day, or our Saviour only in His life on earth-but as the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world-anointed Mediator set up from everlasting days. By faith I see Him as the eternal Son of God. I see Him standing in the purpose of the Father as the Covenant Head of the elect. I see Him in due time born of a woman, but I do not forget that His goings forth are of old from everlasting, and that before the daystar knew its place, His de-lights were with the sons of men.

    I see Him. He cries, "It is finished!" He bows His head. I do not, however, forget that He is not dead, but that when the world shall die and time shall conclude its reign, then He who is the Ancient of Days shall live and shall flourish in immortal youth. Alpha and Omega is Jesus Christ, then, in the eternal purposes and in the Covenant transactions of God.

  4. Jesus Christ is certainly Alpha and Omega in all salvation-work as it becomes apparent in act and deed. That this is the meaning of the text I am clear, because in the first passage where the Alpha and Omega occurs - namely, in the first chapter of the Revelation, eighth verse-you will see that all the works of salvation are ascribed to our Lord. Read the fifth verse, "Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the First-born of the dead and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He comes with clouds. And every eye shall see Him ... I am Alpha and Omega."

    Now, we have here a summary of the great transactions of Saving Grace. You have here that He loved us - loved us before the world was, with an everlasting love. You have next, that He washed us from our sins in His own blood, in which you have His redemption and our consequent pardon, justification and sanctification, all of which come to us through Him. As for our glory, it is the result of His second advent. Therefore, "Behold, He comes," makes Him the Omega, as the, "Unto Him that loved us," made Him the Alpha. I need not repeat to you who know so well that, "There is none other name given under Heaven whereby we must be saved," and that in no part or portion of that salvation can any other name be admitted into partnership with His.

    Jesus must begin. Jesus must conclude. It is very striking to observe the commencement and the perfection of the spiritual life both laid at Jesus' door in the sixth verse of the twenty-first chapter - "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." So then, if you have any thirst, you must come to Jesus Christ at the beginning to get the water of life. If you have been led to know your own emptiness-if you have received from His Spirit a hungering and a thirsting after righteousness, go not to the Law- look not within. But come to the Alpha, drink and be satisfied.

    If, on the other hand, life is near its close-if you have been preserved in holiness, if you have been kept in righteousness-remember still to trust in the Omega. For these words follow, "He that overcomes shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be My son." So that the inheriting of all things, the final overcoming of all spiritual foes comes through Jesus, just as did the first drink of living water. The first breath which heaves the spiritual lungs, the first light which greets the newly-opened eyes, comes from Jesus who is the Beginning. And the last shout of faith, the last shout of holy joy which shall admit the saints into the Paradise of God shall proceed from Him who is the End.

    Beloved, lay back upon Christ with all your strength-lean on Him with all your weight. He who began will finish - He never was Alpha yet without being Omega, too. Nothing shall change His purpose-neither Heaven, nor earth, nor Hell can afford a motive to turn Him from His way of love. "He is of one mind and who can turn Him? What His soul desires, even that He does."

  5. There is one more Truth of God which I conceive to be in the text. Jesus is Alpha and Omega not only in the individual salvation of every saint, but in the whole chain of the Church's history. Where shall I say that the Church began? Why, very speedily after there was a seed of the serpent, there was also a Seed of the woman. Surely the line of demarcation began hard by the gates of Eden. There we see Abel worshipping God in faith and Cain who was of the Wicked One and slew his brother.

    Do we not, thus early see in Abel's sacrifice the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world? Follow the Church through all her varied fortunes and you will find her always bearing the banner of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah at her forefront. No matter if she wanders about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented. Christ is still the Daystar of her comfort in her victories. His name is the loudest note-others may have slain their thousands, but the Son of David his ten thousands. No name wakes up the songsters of Israel like the name of Messiah, the Coming One. Nothing can move the feet of Zion's maidens so joyously in the sacred dance, nothing can make the daughters of Jerusalem smite their timbrels to a more joyful strain than this-"He comes-He comes who shall judge the world in righteousness and His people with Truth."

    Since the first advent of our Lord, has not the Church ever carried Jesus as her standard? Where will you find the Church without Christ? Jesus is yonder, among the snowy mountains of Switzerland, and His Church is with Him though her sons bear the names of heretics, schismatic, traitors, and worse. The Church of Rome has forgotten her first husband and played the harlot, committing fornication with the kings of the earth. But there was a faithful bride found for the Son among the Albigenses and the Waldenses, in whose homes Jesus dwelt. What was their battle cry? What was the note they chanted round the family hearth? What was the name they pressed to their bosom when they dared not sing for fear the foe should fall upon them? Was it not the name of Jesus?

    And when the dark ages passed away, what light do I see gleaming yonder? What does Luther proclaim? What does Calvin teach? It is the great name of Jesus which is their common theme! What do you say, Brothers and Sisters? Do you not join hands in solemn covenant, and say today, "His name shall endure forever! His name shall be remembered as long as the sun"? Do you not long for the time when, "all nations shall be blessed in Him, all people shall call Him blessed"? Surely you yourselves will help to fulfil the promise, "one generation shall praise His name to another and shall declare His mighty acts."

    But the end comes. Jehovah's banner will soon be furled-His sword shall be sheathed forever - the unsuffering kingdom shall be proclaimed. Swords shall be broken and spears shall be snapped. The sun shall look upon no battlefield, but shall greet the reign of universal peace. What then? Jesus' name shall then be known everywhere. Men shall talk of Him and think of Him by day and by night. Prayer, also, shall be made for Him continually, and daily shall He be praised. They who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. Then comes the end. The Judgment Throne is set. The wicked are summoned. The righteous on the right hand have received their rewards- from whose hands? From the hands of the Omega who closes the chapter with His benediction, "Come, you blessed of My Father."

    There are the wicked. Hell is gaping for them. The tongues of flames lick up the multitudes as the lion devours his prey. Who is this that pronounces the thundering sentence, "Depart, you cursed"? It is the Omega. That same Face which once was bedewed with tears, is now brighter than the sun with flashes of lightning. The Voice which said, "Come to Me, you weary," now says, "Depart, you cursed." He began - He ends - the Alpha is the Omega. But it is an end without end. Long, long through the ages of eternity, amid Heaven's perfect inhabitants, His name shall be the perpetual theme of song. Down there, amidst the howls of the damned, they shall, against their will, declare His awful justice - they shall proclaim, in their eternal moans, the power of the pierced feet which shall tread them as clusters in the wine-press until their blood flows forth to the horses' bridles in eternity. Heaven and earth and Hell shall adore Jesus as Alpha and Omega. Hallelujah, hallelujah! Jesus Christ reigns still as the Lord God omnipotent-Alpha and Omega!

III. By your patience we will notice A FEW THINGS WHICH FLOW OUT OF THE TEXT.

  1. The first is this-Sinner, Saint, let Jesus be Alpha and Omega to you today in your trust. Poor Soul, are you willing to be saved? But do you say, "I have not this qualification, or that recommendation?" Ah, do not begin with yourself as the Alpha! Come to Jesus as you are and let Him be Alpha to you. Are you black with sin? Let Him wash you. Is your heart hard? Let Him soften it. Are you a dead good-for-nothing soul? Are you ragged and wretched? Are you lost, ruined and undone? Do not stop to write Alpha first. Do not stop to begin your own salvation.

    Sinner, remember there is no preparation wanted for Christ. Just lean upon Him wholly. Take Him to begin with- no, let Him take you to begin with. Drop into His arms now, repose upon Him now. You will never get true salvation unless the first letter in it is Christ, for He is the Alpha. It will all have to begin over again if you begin with humblings, with repentings, with convictions, or with anything but Christ. It must all be done over again, I say, unless you begin with Jesus. There He is. His wounds are flowing, His heart is breaking, His soul is in anguish-there is the Alpha of your salvation.

    Look and live. "Look unto Me and be you saved all you ends of the earth." Child of God, let Him be the Omega of your salvation. If you have begun with Him, do not now confide in yourself. Shall I say to you as Paul did to the Gala-tians, "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh?" "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." Your first hope was through looking to Jesus, will you now look to your sanctifications, to your prayers, to your evidences, to your humbling, to your communing? Away with all these if they pretend to be the ground of your soul's comfort! Remember, child of God, that to the end of the chapter it must be as it was in the beginning - "None but Jesus, none but Jesus, Can do helpless sinners good." Up in that chamber of yours, with strong crying and tears you turned to God, and you never had any comfort till you looked to Jesus only. And in that other chamber where you shall lie dying with the dampness of death heavy on your brow-you shall have no comfort but Jesus only. You passed through the river of conviction and Jesus forbade your drowning. You shall go through the stream of death and He shall still keep your head above the waves. Alpha and Omega should Christ be to everyone of us as our trust this morning.

  2. Beloved, if we have trusted Him, let Him be Alpha and Omega in our love. Oh, give Him the first place in your love. Young Woman, may the Holy Spirit win your young heart for my Lord and Saviour. Let the flower of your heart be offered to Him in the bud. O you, young Children, who are your mother's delight and your father's care-I pray that your first dawning days may be consecrated to the Saviour. Let him be Alpha with you. I trust He is Alpha to some of us and has been so for years. We can use the words of the Psalmist, "I was cast upon You from the womb. You have been my God from my youth up. Truly I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid."

    You who are growing old and gray-headed, let Him have the Omega of your love. As you lean upon your staff, bending downward as if to salute your grave, bear loving recollection of all the years of His patience and the days of His faith- fulness to you. Breathe the prayer, "Now, also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not." See to it that you forsake Him not, but clasp Him with an expiring grasp as the Omega of your soul's delight.

  3. But, surely, Brothers and Sisters, our Lord should be the Alpha and Omega of our life's end and aim. What is there worth living for but Christ? Oh, what is there in the whole earth that is worth a thought but Jesus? Well did an old writer say, "If God is the only Eternal, then all the rest is but a puff of smoke and shall I live to heap up puffs of smoke? And shall I toil and slave merely to aggrandize myself with smoky treasures that the wind of death shall dissipate forever?" No, Beloved let us live for eternal things and what is there of eternal things that can be chosen but our Lord? O let us give Him next year the Alpha of our labour.

    Let us begin the year by working in His vineyard! Toiling in His harvest field this year is almost over. There is another day or two left-let us serve Him till the year is ended, going forward with double haste because the days are now so few. "Lord teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Let your time and your talents, your substance and your energies all be given to my Master, who is worthy to be your soul's Alpha and Omega.

  4. Lastly, Jesus crucified should be the Alpha and Omega of all our preaching and teaching. Woe to the man who makes anything else the main subject of his ministry. "God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." Do not tell me you preach sound doctrine-you preach rotten doctrine, if you do not preach Christ-preach nothing up but Christ and nothing down but sin. Preach Christ! Lift Him up high on the pole of the Gospel, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and you will accomplish your life's end.

    Preach orthodoxy, or any form of doxy - if you have left out Christ - there is no manna from Heaven, no water from the rock, no refuge from the storm, no healing for the sick, no life for the dead. If you leave out Christ, you have left the sun out of the day and the moon out of the night. You have left the waters out of the sea and the floods out of the river. You have left the harvest out of the year, the soul out of the body-you have left joy out of Heaven-yes, you have robbed all of its All. There is no Gospel worth thinking of, much less worth proclaiming in Jehovah's name, if Jesus is forgotten. We must have Jesus, then, as Alpha and Omega in all our ministrations among the sons of men.

And now I am very conscious, this morning, that I have only ploughed the surface. I wish I could drive into the subsoil of such a glorious text as this, but I suppose that the ploughman who can do this had need to have been caught up to the third Heaven and even then would fail. Who shall know anything of God but those who have seen Him and have beheld His Glory in Heaven? As for us, our eyes are lacking. We have Jesus among us, but we perceive not His excellent Glory. Like Peter and James and John, we sleep while Jesus is transfigured.

The theme is far too high for me. Who can know God but God? Who can reveal Him but the Only-Begotten? And who can comprehend the fullness of Him who is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last? It is enough if we have a saving acquaintance with the Redeemer, enough for our peace and joy, but gracious Lord, by Your Grace, teach us more. Amen.