One Antidote for Many Ills
A Sermon
(No. 284)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, November 9th, 1859, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we
shall be saved."–Psalm 80:10.
THIS SEEMS TO BE the only prayer the Psalmist puts up in this Psalm, as
being of itself sufficient for the removal of all the ills over which
he mourned. Though he sighs over the strife of neighbors and the
ridicule of foes; and lamenting the ill condition of the goodly vine,
he deplores its broken hedges, and complains of the wild beasts that
waste and devour it, yet he does not petition the Most High against
these evils in detail; but gathering up all his wishes into this one
prayer, he reiterates it o'er and o'er–"Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." The reason is
obvious. He had traced all the calamities to one source, "O Lord God,
how long wilt thou be angry–?" And now he seeks refreshing from one
fountain. Let thy face no longer frown, but let it beam upon us with a
smile and all shall then be well. This is a select lesson for the
church of Christ. "In your troubles, trials and adversities, seek
first, chiefly, and above everything else, to have a revival of
religion in your own breast, the presence of God in your own heart;
having that, you have scarcely anything beside to pray for; whatever
else may befal you shall work for your good, and all that seems to
impede your course, shall really prove to be a prosperous gale, to waft
you to your desired haven: only, take care that you seek of God that
you yourselves are turned again unto him, and that he would give you
the light of his countenance; so shall you be saved."
This morning's sermon, then will be especially addressed to my own
church, on the absolute necessity of true religion in our midst, and of
revival from all apathy and indifference. We may ask of God multitudes
of other things, but amongst them all, let this be our chief prayer:
"Lord, revive us; Lord, revive us!" We have uttered it in song; let me
stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance, to utter it in your
secret prayers, and make it the daily aspiration of your souls. I feel,
beloved, that notwithstanding all opposition, God will help us to be
"more than conquerors, through him that loved us," if we are true to
ourselves, and two to him. But though all things should go smoothly,
and the sun should always shine upon our heads, we should have no
prosperity if our own godliness failed; if we only maintained the form
of religion, instead of having the very power of the Holy Spirit
manifested in our midst.
I shall endeavor to urge upon you this morning, first of all, the
benefits of revival, as we shall find some of them suggested in this
Psalm; and secondly, the means of revival–"Turn us again, O Lord God
of hosts;" then, thirdly I shall exhort you to use these means, that
you may acquire these benefits.
I. THE BENEFITS OF REVIVAL TO ANY CHURCH IN THE WORLD will be a lasting
blessing. I do not mean that false and spurious kind of revival which
was so common a few years ago. I do not mean all that excitement
attendant upon religion, which has brought men into a kind of spasmodic
godliness and translated them from sensible beings, into such as could
only rave about a religion they did not understand. I do not think that
is a real and true revival. God's revivals, whilst they are attended
with a great heat and warmth of piety, yet have with them knowledge as
well as life, understanding as well as power. The revivals that we may
consider to have been genuine, were such as those wrought by the
instrumentality of such men as President Edwards in America, and
Whitfield in this country, who preached a free-grace gospel in all its
fullness. Such revivals I consider to be genuine, and such revivals, I
repeat again, would be a benefit to any church under heaven. There is
no church, however good it is, which might not be better; and there are
many churches sunken so low, that they have abundant need, if they
would prevent spiritual death, to cry aloud, "Lord, revive us."
Among the blessings of the revival of Christians, we commence, by
noticing the salvation of sinners. When God is pleased to pour out his
Spirit upon a church in a larger measure than usual, it is always
accompanied by the salvation of souls. And oh, this is a weighty
matter, to have souls saved. Some laugh, and think the salvation of the
soul is nothing, but I trust, beloved, you know so much of the value of
souls that you will ever think it to be worth the laying down of your
lives, if you might but be the means of the saving of one single soul
from death. The saving of souls, if a man has once gained love to
perishing sinners, and love to his blessed Master, will be an
all-absorbing passion to him. It will so carry him away, that he will
almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the
stout, brave fireman, who careth not for the scorch or for the heat, so
that he may rescue the poor creature on whom true humanity hath set his
heart. He must, he will pluck such a one from the burning, at any cost
and expense to himself. Oh the zeal of such a man as that Whitfield to
whom I have alluded! He says in one of his sermons, "My God, I groan
day-by-day over the salvation of souls. Sometimes," he says, "I think I
could stand on the top of every hackney-coach in the streets of London,
to preach God's Word. It is not enough that I can do it night and day,
laboring incessantly by writing and by preaching, I would that I were
multiplied a thousand-fold, that I might have a thousand tongues to
preach this gospel of my blessed Redeemer." Ah, you find too many
Christians who do do not care about sinners being saved. The minister
may preach, but what heed they the results" So long as he has a
respectable congregation, and a quiet people, it is enough. I trust, my
friends, we shall never sink to so low a state as to carry on out
services without the salvation of souls. I have prayed my God many a
time, and I hope to repeat the prayer, that when I have no more souls
to save for him, no more of his elect to be gathered home, he may allow
me to be taken to himself, that I may not stand asks cumberground in
his vineyard, useless, seeing there is no more fruit to be brought
forth. I know you long for souls to be converted. I have seen your glad
eyes when, at the church-meetings; night after night, sinners have told
us what the Lord has done for them. I have marked your great joy when
drunkards, blasphemers, and all kinds of careless persons have turned
with full purpose of heart unto God, and led a new life. Now, mark you,
if these things are to be continued, and above all, if they are to be
multiplied, we must have again a revival in our midst. For this we must
and will cry, "O Lord our God, visit thy plantation, and pour out again
upon us thy mighty Spirit."
Another effect of a revival in a church, is generally the promotion of
true love and unanimity in its midst. I will tell you the most
quarrelsome churches in England, if you will tell me the most lazy
churches. It has actually become a proverb now-a-days. People say, when
persons are sound asleep, "He is as sound asleep as a church;"–as if
they really thought the church was the soundest asleep of anything that
exists! Alas that there should be so much truth in the proverb. Where a
firm, established for business would have all its eyes open–where a
company, that had for its object the accumulation of wealth, would be
ever on the watch–churches, for the most part, seem to neglect the
means of doing good and fritter away holy opportunities of advancing
their Master's cause; and for this reason, many of us are split in
sunder. There are heart-burnings, achings, ranklings of soul,
quarellings amongst each other. An active church will be a united
church; a slumbering church will be sure to be a quarrelsome one. If
any minister desires to heal the wounds of a church, and bring the
members into unanimity, let him ask God to give them all enough to fill
their hands, and when their hands are full of their Master's work, and
their mouths are full of his praise, they will have no time for
devouring one another, or filling their mouths with slander and
reproach. Oh, if God gives us revival, we shall have perfect unanimity.
Blessed be God, we have much of it; but oh for more of it that our
hearts may be knit together as the heart of one man,–that we, being
one army of the Living God, may none of us have any anger or ill-will
towards each other, but being–as I trust we all are–brethren and
sisters in Christ Jesus, we may live as becometh such. Oh that Christ
would give us that spirit that loveth all, hopeth for all, and will
bear burdens for all, passing by little things, and differences of
judgment and opinion, that so we may be united with a three-fold cord
that cannot be broken. A revival, I think, is necessary for the
unanimity of the church.
A revival is also necessary, in order that the mouths of the enemy of
the truth may be stopped. Do they not open wide their mouths against
us" Have they not spoken hard things against us?–ay, and not only
against us, but against the truth we preach, and against the God we
honor. How shall their mouths be stopped? By our replying to them? No;
foul scorn we think it to utter one single word in our own defense. If
our conduct be not sufficiently upright to commend itself, we will not
utter words in order to commend it. But the way we can shut our
adversaries' mouths is this: by seeking a revival in our midst. What!
do they rail against our ministry? If more souls are saved, can they
rail against that? Ay, let them if they will. Do they speak against the
doctrines? Let them; but let our lives be so holy that they must lie
against us when they dare to say that our doctrines lead any into sin.
Let us seek of God that we may be so earnest, so eminently holy, so
God-like, and so Christ-like, that to all they say their own
consciences may tell them, "Thou utterest a falsehood whilst thou
speakest against him." This was the glory of the Puritans: they
preached doctrines which laid them open to reproach. I am bold to say I
have preached the doctrine of the Puritans, and I am bold to say,
moreover, that those parts which have been most objected to in my
discourses, have frequently been quotations from ancient fathers, or
from some of the Puritans. I have often smiled when I have seen them
condemned, and said, "There now, sir, thou hast condemned Charnock, or
Bunyan, or How, or Doddridge," or some other saint of God whom it so
happened I quoted at the time. The word condemn was theirs, and
therefore it did not so much affect me. They were held up to reproach
when they were alive, and how did they answer their calumniators? By a
blameless and holy life. They, like Enoch, walked with God; and let the
world say what they would of them, they only sought to keep their
families the most rigidly pious, and themselves the most strictly
upright in the world; so that while it was said of their enemies, "They
talk of good works," it was said of the Puritans, that "They did them,"
and while the Arminians, for such they were in those days, were living
in sin, he who was called Calvinist, and laughed at, was living in
righteousness, and the doctrine that was said to be the promoter of sin
was found afterwards to be the promoter of holiness. We defy the world
to find a holier people than those who have espoused the doctrines of
free-grace, from the first moment until now. They have been
distinguished in every history, even by their enemies, as hating been
the most devotedly pious, and as having given themselves especially to
the reading of God's Word and the practice of his law; and whilst they
said they were justified by faith alone, through the blood of Christ,
none were found, so much as they, seeking to honor God in all the
exercises of godliness, being "a peculiar people, zealous of good
works." Their faith let us follow, and their charity let us emulate.
Let us seek a revival here; and so our enemies' mouths, if not entirely
shut, shall be so far stopped that their consciences shall speak
against them whilst they rail against us. We want no eminent reply to
silence their calumny; no learned articles brought out in our
vindication; no voice lifted up in our favor. I thank my friends for
all they do; but I thank them little for the true effect it produces.
Let us live straight on; let us work straight on; let us preach
straight on, and serve our God better than heretofore, then let hell
roar, and earth resound with tumult, the conscious integrity of our own
spirit shall preserve us from alarm, and the Most High himself shall
protect us from their fury. We need a revival, then, for these three
reasons, each of which is great in itself.
Yet, above all, we want a revival, if we would promote the glory of
God. The proper object of a Christian's life is God's glory. The church
was made on purpose to glorify God; but it is only a revived church
that brings glory to his name. Think you that all the churches honor
God? I tell you nay; there are some that dishonor him–not because of
their erroneous doctrines, nor perhaps because of any defect in their
formalities, but because of the want of life in their religion. There
is a meeting for prayer; six people assemble besides the minister. Does
that proclaim your homage to God? Does that do honor to Christianity?
Go ye to the homes of these people; see what is their conversation when
they are alone; mark how they walk before God. Go to their sanctuaries
and hear their hymns, there is the beauty of music, but where is the
life of the people? Listen to the sermon, it is elaborate, polished,
complete, a master-piece of oratory. But ask yourselves, "Could a soul
be saved under it, except by a miracle? Was there anything in it
adapted to stir men up to goodness? It pleased their ears; it
instructed them in some degree, perhaps, but what was there in it to
teach their hearts?" Ah, God knows there are many such preachers.
Notwithstanding their learning and their opulence, they do not preach
the gospel in its simplicity, and they draw not near to God our Father.
If we would honor God by the church, we must have a warm church, a
burning church, loving the truths it holds, and carrying them out in
the life. Oh that God would give us life from on high, lest we should
be like that church of old of whom it was said, "Thou hast a name try
live, and art dead." These are some of the benefits of revivals.
II. WHAT ARE THE MEANS OF REVIVAL? They are two-fold. One is, "Turn us
again, O Lord God of hosts;', and the other is, "Cause thy face to
shine." There can be no revival without both of these. Allow me, my
dear hearers, to address you one by one, in different classes, in order
that I may apply the former of these means to you.
"Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts." Your minister feels that he needs
to be turned more thoroughly to the Lord his God. His prayer shall be,
God helping him, that he may be more fearless and faithful than ever;
that be may never for one moment think what any of you will say with
regard to what he utters, but that he may only think what God his
Master would say concerning him;–that he may come into the pulpit with
this resolve–that he cares no more for your opinion with regard to the
truth than if you were all stones, only resolving this much:–come loss
or come gain by it, whatsoever the Lord God saith unto him, that he
must speak; and he desires to ask his Master that he may come here with
more prayer himself than heretofore, that whatever he preaches may be
so burnt into his own soul that you may all know, even if you do not
think it true yourselves, that at any rate he believes it, and believes
it with his inmost soul. And I will ask of God that I may so preach to
you, that my words may be attended with a mighty and a divine power. I
do forswear all pretense to ability in this work. I forswear the least
idea that I have aught about me that can save souls, or anything which
could draw men by the attractions of my speech. I feel that if you have
been profited by my preaching, it must have been the work of God, and
God alone, and I pray to him that I may be taught to know more my own
weakness. Wherein my enemies say aught against me, may I believe what
they say, but yet exclaim,
"Weak though I am, yet through his might,
I all things can perform."
Will you ask such things for me, that I may be more and more turned to
God, and that so your spiritual health may be promoted.
But there are some of you who are workers in the church. Large numbers
are actively engaged for Christ. In the Sabbath-school, in the
distribution of tracts, in preaching the Word in the villages, and in
some parts of this great city–many of you are striving to serve God.
Now what I ask and exhort you to is this: cry unto God–"Turn us again,
O God." You want, my dear working friends, more of the Spirit of God in
all your labors. I am afraid we forget him too much, we want to have a
greater remembrance of him. Sunday-school teachers, cry unto God that
you may attend your classes with a sincere desire to promote God's
glory, leaning wholly on his strength. Do not be content with the
ordinary routine, gathering your children there, and sending them home
again but cry, "Lord, give us the agony which a teacher ought to feel
for his child's soul." Ask that you may go to the school with deep
feelings, with throes of love over the children's hearts, that you may
teach them with tearful eyes, groaning before heaven that you may be
the means of their salvation and deliverance from death. And you who in
other ways serve God, I beseech you do not be content with doing it as
you have done. You may have done it well enough to gain some approval
of your fellows: do it better, as in the sight of the Lord. I do not
mean better as to the outward form, but better as to the inward grace
that goeth with it. Oh! seek from God that your works may be done from
pure motives, with more simple faith in Christ, more firm reliance on
him, and with greater prayer for your success. "Turn us again," is the
cry of all, I hope, who are doing anything for Jesus.
Others of you are intercessors; and here I hope I have taken in all who
love the Lord in this place. Oh! how much the strength of a church
depends upon these intercessors! I kind almost said we could do bettor
without the workers than the intercessors: We want in every church, if
it is to be successful, intercessors with God–men who know how to
plead with him and to prevail. Beloved, I must stir you up again on
this point. If you would see great things done in this place, or in any
other place, in the salvation of souls, you must intercede more
earnestly than you have done. I thank God our prayer-meetings are
always full; but there are some of you whom I do not see so often as I
would desire. There are some of you business-men who are accustomed to
come in for the last half-hour, and I have seen you, and called on you
to prey. For six months I have not seen some of you at all. There are
others whom I know to be as much engaged as you are, who somehow or
other manage to be always here. Why is it not so with you? If you do
not love prayer, then I wish you not to come until you do. But I do ask
of God to bring you into such a state of mind, that your soul may be
more thoroughly with the Lord's church, and you may be more thoroughly
devoted to his service. Our prayer-meeting is well attended, and is
full, but it shall be better attended yet, and we shall have the men
among us coming up "to the help of the Lord against the mighty." We do
want more prayer. Your prayers, I am sure, have been more earnest at
home than ever they were, during the last three weeks; let them be more
earnest still. It is by prayer we must lean on God; it is by prayer
that God strengthens us. I beseech you, wrestle with God, my dear
friends. I know your love to one another, and to his truth. Wrestle
with God, in secret and in public, that he would yet open the windows
of heaven, and pour out a blessing upon us, such as we shall not have
room enough to receive. There must be a turning again to God of the
intercessors in prayer.
Again: we want a turning again to God of all of you who have been
accustomed to hold communion with Jesus, but who have in the least
degree broken off that holy and heavenly habit. Beloved, are there not
some of you who were accustomed to walls with God each day? Your morn
was sanctified with prayer, and your eventide was closed in with the
voice of praise. You walked with Jesus in your daily business; you were
real Enochs, you were Johns, you did lay your head on the bosom of your
Lord. But ah! have not some of you known suspended communion of late?
Let us speak of ourselves personally, instead of addressing you; have
not we ourselves held less communion with Jesus? Have not our prayers
been fewer to him, and his revelations less bright to us? Have we not
been content to live without Emmanuel in our hearts? How long is it
with some of us singe our morsel was dipped in the honey of fellowship?
With some of you it is weeks and months, singe you had your love visit
from Jesus. Oh! beloved, let me beseech you, cry unto God, "Turn us
again." It will never do for us to live without communion; we cannot,
we must not, we dare not live without constant hourly fellowship with
Jesus. I would stir you up in this matter. Seek of God that you may
return, and experience the loveliness of Jesus in your eyes, that you
may know more and more of your loveliness in his eyes.
And once more, beloved, "Turn us again" must be the prayer of all you,
not only in your religious labors, but in your daily lives. Oh! how I
do groan over each one of you, especially those of you who are my
children in Christ, whom God has granted me to be the means of bringing
from nature's darkness into marvellous light; that your lives may be on
honor to your profession. Oh! my dear hearers, may none among you who
make a profession, be found liars to God and man. There are many who
have been baptized, who have been baptized into the waters of
deception: there are some who put the sacramental wine between their
lips, who are a dishonor and a disgrace to the church in which they
assemble. Some who sing praises with us here can go and sing the songs
of Satan elsewhere. Ay, are there not some among you, whom I cannot
detect, whom the deacons cannot, nor your fellow-members either, but
whose consciences tell you, you are not fit to be members of a church?
You have crept into our number, you have deceived us, and there you
are, like a cancer in our midst. God forgive you and change your
hearts; God turn you to himself! And oh my brethren one and all of us,
though we hope we have the root of the matter in us, yet how much room
there is for improvement and amendment! How are your families
conducted? Is there as much of that true and earnest prayerfulness for
your children as we could desire? How is your business conducted? Are
you above the tricks of trade? Do you know how to stand aloof from the
common customs of other men, and say, "If all do wrong it is no reason
why I should–I must, I will do right?" Do you know how to talk? Have
you caught the brogue of heaven? Can you eschew all foolishness, all
filthy conversation, and seek to bear the image of Jesus Christ in the
world? I do not ask you whether you use the "thee" and "thou," and the
outward formalities of ostentatious humility, but I ask you whether you
know how to regulate your speech by the Word of God. I trust, in some
degree, that you all do but not an we could desire. Cry out, then, ye
Christians, "Turn us again, O God!" If others sin, I beseech you, do
not you sin, remember how God is dishonored by it. What! will you bring
shame on Christ, and on the doctrines we profess? There is enough said
against them without our giving cause of offense; lies enough are made
up, without our giving any effuse that men should truthfully speak ill
of us. Oh! if I thought it would avail, methinks I would go down upon
my knees, my brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, to beg of you, as
for my very life, that you would live close to Jesus. I do pray the
Holy Spirit that he may so rest on you in every place, that your
conversation may be "such as becometh the gospel of Christ;" and that
in every act, great or small, and in every word of every sort, there
may be the influence from on nigh, moulding you to the right, keeping
you to the right, and in everything bidding you to become more and more
patterns of godliness, and reflections of the image of Jesus Christ.
Dear friends, to be personal with each other again, are we where we
want to be just now many of us? Can we put our hands to our hearts, and
say, "O Lord, I am, in spiritual things just where I desire to be?" No,
I don't think there is one of us that could say that. Are we now what
we should desire to be if we were to die in our pews? Come now, have we
so lived during the past week, that we could wish this week to be a
specimen-week of our whole lives? I fear not. Brethren, how are your
evidences?–are they bright for heaven? How is your heart?,–is it
wholly set on Jesus? How is your faith?–doth it dwell on God alone? Is
your soul sick, or is it healthy? Are you sending forth blossoms and
bearing fruit, or do you feel dry and barren? Remember, blessed is the
man who is planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season. But how about yourselves? Are not some of you so
cold and languid in prayer, that prayer is a burden to you? How about
your trials? Do they not break your heart more, almost, than ever they
did? That is because you have forgotten how to cast your burden on the
Lord. How about your daily life? Have you not cause to grieve over it,
as not being all you could desire it? Ah! beloved, do not reckon it a
light matter to be going backwards, do not consider it a small thing to
be less zealous than you used to be. Ah! it is a sad thing to begin to
decline. But how many of you have done so! Let our prayer be now,–
"Lord, revive us, Lord, revive us,
All our help must come from thee."
Do, I beseech you, I entreat you, in the name of God our Father, and
Jesus Christ our brother, search into your own hearts; examine
yourselves, and put up this prayer, "Lord, wherein I am right, keep me
so, against all opposition, and conflict; but wherein I am wrong, Lord
make me right, for Jesus' sake." We must have this turning again unto
God, if we would have a revival in our breast. Every unholy liver,
every cold heart, every one who is not entirely devoted to God, keeps
us back from having a revival. When once we have all our souls fully
turned unto the Lord, then I say but not till then, he will give us to
see the travail of the Redeemer's soul, and "God, even our own God
shall bless us, and all the ends of the world shall fear him."
The other means of revival is a precious one–"cause thy face to
shine." Ah! beloved, we might ask of God, that we might all be devoted,
all his servants, all prayerful, and all what we want to be; but it
would never come without this second prayer being answered; and even if
it did come without this, where would be the blessing? It is the
causing of his face to shine on his church that makes a church
flourish. Do you suppose that, if to our number there were added a
thousand of the most wealthy and wise of the land, we should really
prosper any the more without the light of God's countenance? Ah! no,
beloved, give us our God, and we could do without them, but they would
be a curse to us without him. Do you imagine that the increase of our
numbers is a blessing, unless we have an increase of grace? No, it is
not. It is the crowding of a boat until it sinks, without putting in
any more provision, for the food of those who are in it. The more we
have in numbers, the more we need have of grace. It is just this we
want every-day: "Cause thy face to shine." Oh! there have been times in
this house of prayer, when God's face has shone upon us. I can remember
seasons, when every one of us wept, from the minister down almost to
the child; there have been times, when we have reckoned the converts
under one sermon by scores. Where is the blessedness we once spoke of?
Where is the joy we once had in this house? Brethren, it is not all
gone; there are many still brought to know the Lord; but oh! I want to
see those times again, when first the refreshing showers came down from
heaven. Have you never heard that under one of Whitfield's sermons
there have been as many as two thousand saved? He was a great man; but
God can use the little, as well as the great to produce the same
effect; and why should there not be souls saved here, beyond all our
dreams? Ay, why not? We answer, there is no reason why not, if God does
but cause his face to shine. Give us the shining of God's face; man's
face may be covered with frowns, and his heart may be black with
malice, but if the Lord our God doth shine, it is enough
"If he makes bare his arm,
Who can his cause withstand
When he his people's cause defends
Who, who can stay his hand?"
It is his good hand with us we want. I do think there is an opportunity
for the display of God's hand at this particular era, such as has not
been for many years before, certainly, if he doeth anything, the crown
must be put on his head, and on his head alone. We are a feeble people:
what shall we do? But if he doeth anything, he shall have the crown and
the diadem entirely to himself. Oh that he would do it! Oh that he
would honor himself! Oh that he would turn unto us that we might turn
unto him, and that his face may shine! Children of God, I need not
enlarge on the meaning of this. You know what the shining of God's face
means; you know it means a clear light of knowledge, a warming light of
comfort, a living light poured into the darkness of your soul, an
honorable light, which shall make you appear like Moses, when he came
from the mountain–so bright, that men will scarce dare to look upon
you. "Cause thy face to shine;" Shall we not make this our prayer,
dearly beloved? Have I one of my brethren in the faith, who will not
this day go home to cry out aloud unto his God, "Cause thy face to
shine?" A black cloud has swept over us, all we want is that the sun
should come, and it shall sweep that cloud away. There have been
direful things; but what of them, if God, our God, shall appear? Let
this be our cry, "Cause thy face to shine." Beloved, let us give no
rest unto our God, until he hears this our prayer, "Turn us again, O
Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved."
III. Come, now, let me stir you all up, all of you who love the
Saviour, to seek after this revival. Some of you, perhaps, are now
resolving in your hearts that you will at once, when you reach your
homes, prostrate yourselves before your God, and cry out to him that he
would bless his church; and oh! do so I beseech you. It is common with
us under a sermon to resolve, though after the sermon we are slow to
perform. You have often said, when you left the house of God, "I will
carry out that injunction of my pastor, and will be much in prayer."
You thought to do it so soon as you arrived at home, but you did not,
and so there was an untimely end of the matter–it accomplished not
what was designed. But this time, I beseech you, while you resolve be
resolute. Instead of saying within yourselves, "Now I will devote
myself more to God, and seek to honor him more," anticipate the
resolution by the result. Ye can do more in the strength of God than ye
can think or propose to yourselves in the utmost might of man. Resolves
may pacify the conscience very frequently for a while, without really
benefitting it. You say you will do it, conscience therefore does not
reproach you with a disobedience to the command, but ye do it not after
all, and so the effect has passed away. Let any holy and pious
resolution you now form be this instant turned into prayer. Instead of
saying, "I will do it, put up the prayer, Lord enable me to do it;
Lord, grant me grace to do it." One prayer is worth ten thousand
resolutions. Pray to God that you, as a soldier of the cross, may never
disgrace the banner under which you fight. Ask of him that you may not
be like the children of Ephraim, who turned back in the day of battle,
but that you may stand fast in all weathers, even as good old Jacob,
when "in the day the drought consumed him and the frost by night,"–so
may you serve that God who has galled you with so high a galling.
Perhaps others of you think there is no need of a revival, that your
own hearts are quite good enough; I hope but few of you think so. But
if thou dost think so my hearer, I warn thee. Thou fanciest thou art
right, and therein thou dost prove that thou art wrong. He who says
within himself, "I am rich and increased with goods," let him know that
he is "poor and naked and miserable." He who says he needs no revival
knoweth not what he says. Beloved, you shall find that those who are
noted as best among God's people need to write themselves the word; and
those who fancy all goes well in their hearts ofttimes little know that
an under-current of evil is really bearing them away as with a tide
where they would not wish to go, whilst they fancy they are going on to
peace and prosperity.
Oh! beloved, carry into effect the advice I have just given. I know I
have spoken feebly. It is the best I can do just now, I have only
stirred you up by way of remembrance. Think not my desires are as
feeble as my words; imagine not that my anxiety for you is or can be
represented by my speech. Ask, I beseech you, ask of God, that to every
one of you brethren and sisters, the simple exhortation of one who
loves you as his own soul, may be blessed. God is my witness, belayed,
that for him I seek to live: no other motive have I in this world, God
knoweth, but his glory. Therefore do I bid and exhort you, knowing that
you love the same God, and seek to serve the same Christ, do not now,
in this hour of peril, give the least cause to the enemy to blaspheme.
Oh! in the bowels of Christ, I entreat you for his sake who hung upon
the tree and who is now exalted in heaven by his bloody sacrifice
offered for your redemption, by the everlasting love of God, whereby
you are kept. I exhort, I beseech, I entreat you, as your brother in
Christ Jesus, and such an one as your pastor, be in nothing I moved by
your adversaries. "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, when they shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely, for our Saviour's sake." But do
ask that your life and conversation may be an honor to your Lord and
Master; in nothing give occasion for the enemy to malign our sacred
cause; in everything may your course be "like the shining light, which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
But oh! ye who come here and approve the truth with your judgment but
yet have never felt its power in your hearts or its influence in your
lives, for you we sigh and groan; for your sake I have stirred up the
saints among us to pray. Oh how many of you there are that have been
pricked in your consciences and hearts many a time. Ye have wept, ay,
and have so wept that you have thought with yourselves "Never souls
wept as we have done!" But ye have gone back again. After all the
solemn warnings ye have heard, and after all the wooings of Calvary, ye
have gone back again to your sins. Sinner! thou who heedest little for
thyself, just hear how much we think of thee. Little dost thou know how
much we groan over thy soul. Man! thou thinkest thy soul nothing, yet
morning, noon, and night, we are groaning over that precious immortal
thing which thou despisest. Thou thinkest it little to lose thy soul,
to perish, or mayhap to be damned. Dost thou account us fools that we
should cry over thee? Dost thou suppose we are bereft of reason, that
we should think thy soul of so much concern, whilst thou hast so little
concern for it? Here are God's people, they are crying after thy soul;
they are laboring with God to save thee. Dost thou think so little of
it thyself, that thou wouldst fool away thy soul for a paltry pleasure,
or wouldst procrastinate thy soul's welfare beyond the limited domain
of hope; Oh! sinner, sinner, if thou lovest thyself, I beseech thee,
pause and think that what God's people love must be worth something,
that what we labor for, and strive for, must be worth something, that
what was reckoned worth a ransom so priceless as Jesus paid must have
its sterling value in the sight of heaven. Do, I beseech thee, pause?
think of the value of thy soul; think how dreadful it will be if it is
lost; think of the extent of eternity, think of thine own frailty;
bethink thee of thine own sin, and of thy deserving. May God give thee
grace to forsake thy wicked ways, turn unto him and live, for he "hath
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but rather that he should
turn unto him and live!" Therefore, saith he, "Turn thee, turn thee,
why wilt thou die?"
And now oh Lord God of hosts, hear our ardent appeal to thy throne.
"Turn us again." Lighten our path with the guidance of thine eye, cheer
our hearts with the smiles of thy face. O God of armies, let every
regiment and rank of thy militant church be of perfect heart, undivided
in thy service. Let great grace rest upon all thy children. Let great
fear come upon all the people. Let many reluctant hearts be turned to
the Lord. Let there now be times of refreshing from thy presence. To
thine own name shall be all the glory, "O thou that are more glorious
and excellent then the mountains of prey!"