A Hearer In Disguise
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY EVENING, JULY 31, 1864, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Audit was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in
at the door, thathe said, Come in, you wife of Jeroboam; why do you
pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy tidings."
1 Kings 14:6.
AHIJAH the Prophet was blind. Did I not tell you this morning that
God's servants could be happy without the light of the sun? If God
should be pleased to deprive their natural eyes of the pleasures of
light their souls would not be without joy, for as in the New
Jerusalem, so in the renewed heart–"the glory of God does lighten it
and the Lamb is its Light. " Doubtless this was the case with that
venerable Prophet. He was not like Moses, whose eyes did not wax dim
and whose natural strength did not abate. But his eyes were set with
age. The organs of vision had so decayed through the multitude of his
years that he could not see so much as a ray of light.
Yet doubtless when he could not look out of the windows, God looked in.
And when there was no beam coming in from the sun, much light was
darted in from Heaven. What man of modern times saw more than blind
Milton? It were well for us to feel the influence of that "drop
serene," and close our eyes forever if we could but see such visions of
God as Milton has penned in his Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.
Here is a fine picture for you. Behold the venerable Prophet sitting
alone in his humble cottage. And yet not alone, because his God is with
him. Blind, but yet in the highest sense a Seer, looking into the
invisible and by faith beholding things which we blind men who have our
sight can never see!
Ahijah beheld what eye has not seen and heard what ear has never heard.
This, then, may furnish a word of comfort at the outset to any who are
suffering under infirmity–Jesus can mend you. You are not the only
persons who have been called to suffer. Full many of your humble
guild–the company of the blind–have been gifted with spiritual sight.
If you have lost hearing, or the use of any of the members of your
body, remember that no strange thing has happened to you but such as is
common to man. There is a way by which, in proportion as your
tribulations abound, so your consolations may abound through Jesus
Christ!
No, these very privations which you feel so sadly, which so loudly
demand our sympathy, may by God's love be transmuted into mercies by a
holy alchemy which really turns iron into gold! He can turn your losses
into gains and your curses into blessings. Mark well this venerable
Prophet–a man so old as to have survived the senses which give life
its charm–is it not time for him to die? Has he not outlived his
usefulness when he is made entirely dependent upon his fellow creatures
and a burden to himself? Why does not the Prophet's Master send a
convoy of angels to take the good man Home?
There he sits without any apparent perception of the scenes transpiring
around him. Surely, surely it is time for the Master to call him away!
But no, He does not. Ahijah must not die! He has another message to
deliver and he is immortal till his work is done. I have no doubt he
sweetly slept after he had delivered his last message, but not till
then. Brothers and Sisters, you and I have no right to want to go to
Heaven till our work is done! There is a desire to be with Christ which
is not only natural but spiritual. There is a sighing to behold His
face which if a man is without I shall question if he is a Christian at
all! But to wish to be away from the battle before we win the victory
and to desire to leave the field before the day is over is but lazy and
listless! Therefore let us pray God to save us from it.
Whitfield and a company of ministers were talking together and
expressing their desire to go to Heaven. Good Mr. Tennant was the only
man who differed from them. He said he did not wish to die. And he
thought that if his Brother Whitfield would but consider for a time, he
would not wish to be gone, either. He said, if you hire a man to do a
day's work and he is saying all the day, "I wish it were evening, I
wish it were time to go home," you would think," what a lazy fellow he
is," and you would wish you had never engaged him. "So," he said, "I am
afraid it is nothing but our idleness that often prompts us to desire
to be away from our work."
If there is a soul to win, let me not stop until I have won it. Truly
some of us might summon up courage enough to say, "I would gladly
barter Heaven for the Glory of Christ and not only wait twenty years
out of Heaven if I may have twenty years of glorifying Him the better,
but wait out altogether if I may outside Heaven sing to Him sweeter
songs and honor Him more than I can inside its walls. For outside
Heaven shall be Heaven to me if it shall help me to glorify my Lord and
Master the better."
You have heard, I dare say, that anecdote of good Mr. Whitfield? In his
early ministry, lying down, as he thought, to die in a high fever, a
poor Negro woman was sitting by his side and tending him. In his sad
moments Whitfield thought of dying, but the black woman said, "No,
master Whitfield, you are not to die yet. There are thousands of souls
to bring to Christ! So keep up your spirits, for you must live and not
die–your Master has yet work for you to do."
All this comes to my mind as I think of that venerable old Prophet,
sitting in his chair, waiting until he shall have spoken to Jeroboam's
wife. And then after that ascending to his Father and his God–but not
until his work was done. We have introduced to you Ahijah, the
venerable Prophet. We must now address you upon an incident connected
with his closing ministry. In our text we have before us an occasional
hearer. Secondly we observe a useless disguise. And thirdly we listen
to heavy tidings.
I. We have before us, first of all, THE OCCASIONAL HEARER. Jeroboam and
his wife did not often go to hear Ahijah. They were not people who went
to worship Jehovah. They neither feared God nor regarded His Prophet.
There may be some such here tonight. You do not often come to a place
of worship. I am glad you are here now. It may be my Master has sent me
with tidings for you. Give earnest heed, I pray, that the tidings may
be received and blessed. I am sometimes tired of preaching to those who
hear me every Sunday for I fear some of them never will be saved.
They get hardened by the Gospel. All the blows of the hammer have only
tended to weld their hearts to their sins and make them harder instead
of melting them. May God grant, however, that my fears may be removed
and that some who have long resisted the wooings of the Gospel may yet
yield. I have more hope of you occasional hearers–I know that when my
Master has helped me to cast the net on the right side of the ship I
have taken some of you. There are among those numbered with us some of
the best in the Church and the most useful men in our society who were
brought in by dropping into the place just as stray hearers–passing
by, perhaps, or coming out of curiosity. But God knew who they were,
knew how to adapt the sermon to the case and affect the heart with the
Word!
Now, here was an occasional hearer. And we make the observation that
this occasional hearer was totally destitute of all true piety. Most
occasional hearers are. Those who have true religion are not occasional
hearers. You will find that truly gracious persons are diligent in the
use of the means. Instead of thinking it a toil to come up to the place
of worship, I know there are some of you who wish there were two
Sundays in the week. And the happiest times you ever have are when you
are sitting in these seats and joining in our sacred songs–
"Your earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love." There is no verse which gives
you a better idea of Heaven as a place than that–
"Where congregations never break up, And Sabbaths have no end."
Gracious souls love the place where God's honor dwells and the
assembling of themselves together is always a blessed thing to them.
But occasional hearers are generally graceless persons. I know how you
spend your Sunday. There is the morning–you are not up very early. It
takes a long time to dress on a Sunday morning. Then follows the Sunday
paper, with the news of the week that must be gone through. The wife
has been toiling hard all the morning with the dinner– what do you
care? Then there is the afternoon, when there is a little more lolling
about. Then in the evening there is the walk. But the day, after all,
is not very happy and comfortable–and sometimes you have wished there
were no Sundays except that they give your body a little rest.
You do not fear God, nor do you care for His service. Nevertheless I am
glad you have come here tonight for who can tell?–my Lord, who found
out Jeroboam's wife, can find you out. And though it is many a day
since you darkened the walls of God's sanctuary, this shall be the
beginning of many such days to you. And who can tell?–this may be your
new-birth night when you shall turn over a new leaf! No, not turn over
a new leaf, but get a new look altogether and find your name written in
the Lamb's Book of Life.
The second remark about these occasional hearers is that when they do
come, they very generally come because they are in trouble. When
Jeroboam's wife came and spoke to the Prophet it was because the dear
child was ill at home. I know some occasional hearers who go to a place
of worship as people go to a pharmacy–that is when they want something
because they do not feel quite right. Yes, your child is very sick. You
have been watching all day and you have thought, "I cannot stand it any
longer. I will just walk out and go to a place of worship tonight. I
want something to cheer me."
You have had such trials lately that your wife said to you, "John, we
must not keep on in this way any longer. It is clear all we do ends
without any prosperity. We put our money into a bag which is full of
holes. We spend it for that which is not bread. We labor for that which
does not profit." So you have come here to see if the Lord may have a
word of comfort through His servant who speaks to you. I can only say
you are very welcome to come in, you wife of Jeroboam! We are as glad
to see you as though you always came and we do hope that this sorrowful
affliction may be overruled by God for your lasting good.
There are persons who profess to be atheists, but their atheism is not
very deep. Addison tells us of a man who, on board ship in a storm,
knelt down to pray and expressed his firm belief in a God. When he got
ashore someone laughed at him for it and he challenged the man to a
duel. They fought together and the atheist fell wounded. When the blood
was flowing he believed there was a God and he began to cry to God with
all his might to save him. The physician bound up the wound. The man
put the question to him–"Is it mortal?" "No," the doctor said, "it is
only a flesh wound." "Then," said the man, "there is no God. I am a
thorough atheist."
He believed in God when he thought he was going to die–the moment he
felt himself better he returned to his unbelief. A pretty religion,
that, to live in and a pretty religion to die with! Your absence from
God's House will do very well when things go well with you–you can go
out with a young wife to dissipate in frivolity hours which should be
sacred to worship. But when sickness comes and when affliction falls
heavily upon you–when you have trial after trial and you, yourself,
begin to get gray with many cares, and feeble and helpless with many
years. And when death comes near and casts his pale shadow across your
cheek. And strange thoughts, oblivious of all around, come over you by
day, and singular dreams which throw you into the company of the long
since dead, surprise you by night.
When fears and frights and signs and calls and bodings of imagination
prove the wanderings and weakness of your brain–then, but possibly not
till then–you will think of going to the house of God. I am glad,
therefore, if this trouble has visited you early, or ever "the grinders
cease because they are few and those that look out of the windows are
darkened." And I am very glad that you have come to the House of God.
Come in, you wife of Jeroboam, for I bear you tidings from the God of
Heaven tonight!
There is a third point–this woman would not have come but that her
husband sent her on the ground that he had heard Ahijah preach before.
It was this Prophet who took Jeroboam's mantle and rent it in pieces
and told him he was to be king over the ten tribes. That message proved
true–therefore Jeroboam had confidence in Ahijah. There are some of
you who at times used to hear the Gospel. You have not been of late.
But there were seasons when you did come up to God's House–yes, and
times when you used to tremble under God's Word. If I am not mistaken,
there are men and women here tonight who once were conscience-stricken.
The Word of God used to come home to you with exceeding great power and
make you tremble.
Did you not even profess faith in Christ? Why, some of you were very
busy at revival meetings trying to bring others to the Savior. But your
religion was like smoke out of the chimney–it has all blown away. Like
early mist it was soon scattered when the sun had risen. Yet the
remembrance of these things sticks by you now. You cannot help it–you
feel there must be something in religion. The old stings which were in
your conscience have not been quite extracted. Therefore at the present
moment you are quite willing to listen to the Word–perhaps even hoping
that it may come with true power now and that you may, after all, be
saved!
I wish I could wake the echoes of the slumbering consciences of some of
you! O that I could recall the days of your youth–the times of your
boyhood and girlhood–when you went up to the assembly of the saints to
keep holy day! Those things you cannot quite forget. I pray that such
remembrances may often turn your feet towards the place of wor- ship.
We have brought out three points of character–they were persons of no
piety. In trouble they sought the Prophet. And they had confidence in
him because they had heard him preach before.
But there is one more point–they had one godly member of their family
and that brought them to see the Prophet. Their child was sick and ill
and it was that which led them to enquire at the hands of the Lord. I
hope there is no family here which has the misfortune to be without a
Believer in it. You, Man, have no fear of God. But strange to say, the
Lord has taken one out of your family to be a witness for Him. That
daughter of yours, you sometimes jeer at her, but you know you value
her! You used to send her to the Sunday school just to get rid of her,
but the Lord met with her. And what a comfort she has been to you! How
glad she has made your heart, though you do not tell her so!
Perhaps the godly one in the family is like this young Ahijah in the
text, he is sick and near death. You can remember, though you do not
fear God, how the darling boy was sick! How you sat by his little bed
and took his hand in yours when it was scarcely anything but skin and
bone! How he prayed for you at night, that God would save father and
mother and take them to Heaven! And how, just as he died, he looked out
on you with those bright eyes so soon to be filmed in death and said,
"Father, will you not follow me?"
Since that time you have often felt that something is beckoning you up
yonder. And though you have gone on forsaking God and despising holy
things, yet still there is a little link between you and Heaven which
is not snapped yet and you sometimes feel it tugging at your heart. I
pray God it may tug so hard tonight that your heart may go up to God
and lay hold of Jesus, the Savior of sinners! What joy it causes me to
think that God does call one out of a godless household because where
there is one there is sure to be another before long! It is like
putting a light into the midst of stubble– there will soon be a blaze.
I have hope of a family when one child is converted, for Grace is like
precious ointment–it spreads a perfume all around. When a box of
fragrant spice is put into a room the perfume soon fills the entire
chamber, then creeps silently up the stairs into the upper rooms and
ceases not its work until it has filled the whole house. So when there
is true Grace in a house, the Holy Spirit blesses its hallowed power,
till even the lodgers and family acquaintances begin to feel the
influence of it! Is it your one praying child that has brought you here
tonight? May God grant that he may be the means of bringing you to
Heaven as well!
But there is one sad reflection which should alarm the occasional
hearer. Through Jeroboam's wife did come to the Prophet that once and
heard tidings, yet she and her husband perished after all. Oh, if there
were the register kept of the many thousands who come inside the
Tabernacle gates and listen to our voice, I am afraid–I am sadly
afraid it would be found that there were many who did hear the tidings
and did tremble at them, too–who nevertheless despised the counsels of
the Most High! They have turned not at His rebuke, went on in their sin
and perished without hope. Shall it be so with any of you?
Are you to be firewood in Hell? Will you make your bed among the
flames? My Hearers, will you die without God and without hope? Will you
leap into the black unknown with no bright promise of the Savior to
cheer you in the thick darkness? May God prevent it! May He be pleased
to bring you to Christ, the Rock of your salvation, that you may depend
upon Him with your whole heart! While thus speaking about the
occasional hearer, an idea haunts my mind that I have been drawing
somebody's portrait. I think there are some here who have had their
character and conduct sketched out quite accurately enough for them to
know who is meant. Do remember that if the description fits you, it is
meant for you. And if you, yourself, have been described, do not look
about among your neighbors and say, "I think this is like somebody
else." If it is like you, take it home to yourself and God send it into
the center of your conscience so that you cannot get rid of it.
II. Our second consideration is the USELESS DISGUISE. Jeroboam's wife
thought to herself, "If I go to see Ahijah, as he knows me to be the
wife of Jeroboam, he is sure to speak angrily and give me very bad
news." Strange to tell, though the poor old gentleman was blind, she
thought it necessary to put on a disguise! So she removed her best
garment and put on a countrywoman's russet gown and away she went. She
left the scepter and crown behind and took a basket, as though she had
just come from market.
In this basket she did not put gold, jewels and silver, but a present
such as a farmer's wife might bring. There were loaves and biscuits and
a jar of honey. And as she went along, she thought, "The old gentleman
will not know me." She traveled through her own dominions and nobody
knew her. She went into the neighboring dominions of Judah as far as
Shiloh. And she pleased her imagination with the thought, "How I shall
deceive him! I will ask him a question, as if I were a farmer's wife
and he will not know who I am. He will be pleased with my present and
prophesy soft things concerning my child."
How great was her surprise! No sooner did the blind Prophet hear her
footsteps, than he said, "Come in, you wife of Jeroboam. Why do you
pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy tidings." How
she started back with astonishment! She had deceived hundreds who were
blessed with eyes, but here was a man who not only could not be
deceived, but found her out before she had opened her lips and
recognized her before she had time to test her sorry lies or tell her
subtle tale! "Come in, you wife of Jeroboam." I do not suppose there is
anybody come here disguised as to dress tonight, though such things may
happen. The working man who is afraid he shall be laughed at if he is
known may come here in disguise.
Now and then a clergyman may come in who would not be very comfortable
in his conscience if it were known he did such a thing and so he does
not show himself exactly in his regular garb. Notwithstanding whoever
you may be, disguised or not, it is of no use where God's Gospel is
preached! It is a quick discerner and will find out the thoughts and
intents of the heart. It will search you out and unmask your true
character, disguise yourself as you may. Many who come to God's House
not disguised in dress, are still disguised in manner and appearance.
How good you all look! When we sing and you take your books, how
heavenly-minded! And when we pray, how reverent you are! How your heads
are all bowed– your eyes covered with your hands!
I do not know what you all say in your hats when you come in and I
should not like to know. I do not know how much praying there is when
you sit in a devout posture, though you assume the attitude and compose
your countenance as those who draw near to supplicate the Lord. I am
afraid there are many of you who do not pray a word or present a
petition, though you assume the posture of suppliants. When the singing
is going on there are many who never sing a word with spirit and
understanding. In the house of God I am afraid there are many who wear
a mask–they stand as God's people stand, sit as they sit, pray as they
pray, and sing as they sing–and all the while what are you doing?
Some of you have been attending to your children while we have been
singing tonight. Some of you have been casting up your ledger,
attending to your farms, scheming about your carpentering and
bricklaying! Yet all the while if we had looked into your faces we
might have thought you were reverently worshipping God. Oh, those
solemn faces and those reverent looks! They do not deceive the Most
High God! He knows who and what you are. As you are in His House, He
sees you as clearly as men see through glass.
As for hiding from the Almighty, how can you hide yourself from Him? As
well attempt to hide in a glass cage, for all the world is a glass cage
before God. When you look into a glass beehive, you can see the bees
and everything they do–such is this world–a sort of glass beehive in
which God can see everything. The eyes of God are on you continually.
No veil of hypocrisy can screen you from Him. There may be some among
you who occasionally sit here, some members of this Church who, after
all, may pretend to be other than you are. It is a melancholy and a
most solemn reflection that there are many who profess to be Christians
who are not Christians.
There was a Judas among the twelve. There was a Demas among the early
disciples. And we must always expect to find chaff on God's floor
mingled with the wheat. I have tried, the Lord knows, to preach as
plainly and as much home to the mark as I could to sift and try you.
But for all that the hypocrite will come in. After the most searching
ministry there are still some who will wrap themselves about with a
mantle of deception. Though we cry aloud and spare not and bid you lay
hold on eternal life, yet, alas, how many are content with a mere name
to live but are dead? Many come here and even hold office in the
Church, yes, the minister himself may even preach the Word and, after
all, be hollow and empty.
How many who dress and look fair outside are, as John Bunyan said, only
fit to be tinder for the devil's tinder box– for they are all dry and
sere within! God save us from a profession if it is not real! I pray
that we may know the worst of our case. If I must be damned, I would
sooner go to Hell unholy than as a hypocrite. That backdoor to the pit
is the thing I dread most of all! Oh, to sit at the Lord's Table and to
drink of the cup of devils! To be recognized among God's own here and
then to find one's own name left out when He reads the muster roll of
His servants! Oh, what a portion for eternity!
I bid you tear off this mask, and if the Grace of God is not in you, I
pray you go into the world which will be your fitting place! Abstain
from joining the Church if you are not really a member of the body of
Christ. You see why I urge this–because no dressing up, however neatly
it may be done–can conceal us from God. Oh, how some who have been
fair on earth have been startled when they thought they were going into
Heaven! They had their foot almost on the doorstep, but the angel came
and said, "Get out of here, wife of Jeroboam. I know you! You could
deceive the minister! You could deceive the deacons! You could get
baptized and join the Church. But you can not enter here! Get out! Your
portion is with the filthy in the pit of Hell."
O, may Jesus never say this to you and me! But may we all be so real
here that He may say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "O God, see
me!" Write that on the palm of your hand and look at it. Wake up in the
morning with it. Sleep with it before you on your curtains. "O, God,
see me!"–
"O may this thought possess my breast,
WhereverIrove, whereverIrest
Nor let my weaker passions dare
Consent to sin, for God is there!"
III. Now we come to a close with a few words upon the HEAVY TIDINGS.
The woman stood amazed as the Prophet proceeded to expose the iniquity
of her husband's house, the certain judgment which God would execute,
and the terrible disgrace with which the name of Jeroboam should be
execrated because they had revolted from God and set up for themselves
the calves of Baal. As for the child, respecting whom she had come to
enquire, he should die. That death was the quenching of a bright spark
in the heart of the parents but none the less a mercy for the youth.
"All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam
shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing
toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam." Let me linger
on this part of the narrative a moment. In that wicked house there was
one bright gem upon which the Lord put a high value. The lad was taken
from the evil to come. The kindness of the Lord appeared in his
death–while all the judgments were reserved for his father's family.
Do I not speak to some of you ungodly persons who have lost your little
children and while you wept bitter tears as you carried them to the
grave, you said, "Well, he is better off," or, "she sleeps in Jesus"?
Did you ever think, that as for you, you are worse off? You have no
hope and are living without God in the world. Let us picture Jeroboam
and his wife at the tent of their son. There was everything to cheer
the heart as to him who had departed. But everything to fill the soul
with gloom concerning those who remained. The like has been the case at
the funerals of your gracious little ones. We need shed no tears over
the bier. Let us keep our lamentations for the mourners who attend the
funeral.
Ah, but you may make the reflections all your own. You, too, have been
outside the gates of the city to carry your offspring to the spot in
God's acre where they now slumber. Did you think in that mournful hour
that the first fruits of your household was holy unto the Lord? We
never cease to wonder that the young should die. Yet it has ever been
so. And well, indeed, can I believe that mercy of a sweet-smelling
savor is to be found in those dispensations of God's Providence which
so often darken the windows of our heart and wither the fairest buds in
our garden.
Where of old did Death strike its first dart? Did it pierce the heart
of Adam, the sinner, or strike down the relentless Cain? No, but
righteous Abel was the first of men who departed from earth to be
absent from the body and present with the Lord! Even so have you, full
many of you, committed your children to the dust in an assured hope for
them, according to the Word of the Lord. A hope which you cannot
cherish for yourselves! O Sinners, be cautious of your tears, your
sighs and your groans–pour them not out with such profuseness as an
offering at the graves of those who sleep in Jesus and are blest. You
will need them all for your own souls presently! Take up a lamentation
for your own doom! Unless you repent, your funerals, O ungodly ones,
will call for shrill notes of endless despair!
Let me pause. I have glad tidings to preach to some of you before I yet
again deliver these heavy tidings to those who despise the Word. Is
there one soul here that desires to be saved? Sinner, I have glad
tidings for you! Here are the words, "Whoever will, let him come and
take of the Water of Life freely." Though you have been a drunkard or a
swearer– though you have been a whoremonger or a thief–yet there is
salvation for any man who comes to Jesus Christ for it. And if the
Spirit of God moves you to come now–
"Let not conscience make you linger. Nor of fitness fondly dream. All
the fitness He requires,
Is to feel your need of Him.
This He gives you!
It is His Spirit's rising beam."
You say, "How can I go to Christ?" It is no great effort. It is, in
fact, the absence of all effort. You have not to climb to Heaven to
reach Him, nor to travel to the ends of the earth to find Him. Never
doubt, if the Holy Spirit is with you, you may find Him tonight. The
way to be saved is simply to trust Christ. Jesus Christ took the guilt
of His people and carried it Himself. If you trust Him, you shall have
peace, for Jesus took your sin. An old woman servant was once carrying
a large bough of a tree to have it cut into pieces to make a fire. A
little boy, one of the family, seeing the end of it dragging along the
ground and making it very heavy, came and took hold of the end, and the
burden grew light. Then said the servant, "Ah, master Frank, I wish you
could take hold of one end of the greater burden that I have to
carry–I have a burden of sin. The more I drag it about, the heavier it
becomes. I wish Jesus Christ would take hold of one end of it."
The little boy said, "My mother told me yesterday that Jesus Christ
carries all our sins, therefore, you do not need Jesus Christ to carry
one end of it, He will take the whole of it." The poor woman, who had
been long seeking rest, found it by that remark of the child. Yes,
Jesus does take your sins! If you trust Christ, this is the evidence
that all your sins are laid on Him–
"Sinner, do nothing, Either great or small. Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago."
Your salvation is finished by Christ if you believe. Not only the first
strokes, but the finishing touch Christ has given. The bath you shall
wash in, He has filled it. The robe you shall wear, He has woven it.
The crown you shall wear, He has bought it. The Heaven you shall
inhabit, He has prepared it. "It is finished!" All you have to do is to
wear it. Take it and wear it! Accept it as a gift of His Free Grace.
May God bring you into such a mind that you may be willing to receive
it. And if you are willing to receive it, take it, take it and go your
way rejoicing. Thus you see, I bring good tidings to seekers. But I
have a heavy message for some of you. Let me deliver it as in the sight
of God, with deep solemnity of purpose. Sinner, unrepentant Sinner, I
have heavy tidings for you. You are now under God's wrath. The wrath of
God abides on you. It is not as though a tempest hovered in the sky–it
has gathered round your devoted head! "God is angry with the wicked
every day." Sinner, God has bent His bow and made it ready and fitted
His arrow to the string and He has pointed it at you.
He has furbished His sword and made it sharp and it is sharp for you! O
barren fig tree, the axe is laid at your root! God even now looks upon
you with anger as you do offend Him and sin against Him with a high
hand. Turn! Turn! For it is either turn or burn! And God give you to
turn lest you burn forever! I have worse tidings still, worse than you
think. There is speedy death for you. I know not how long you may live.
But out of this vast assembly there is every probability that one or
two of us will be in eternity before next Sunday. You can calculate
that as well as I can. There is a certain number of deaths in the
population every week.
Here are several of you gathered here–some six or seven thousand
immortal souls. And we may die–but there are some of us who must die.
It is rarely a week passes without a death of someone in this Church,
much more in the congregation. I suppose I never did address the same
assembly twice and never shall. And though you were all willing to come
next Sunday, yet there would be some of you who could not come because
you will have appeared at the bar of God. Prepare to meet your God!
There is no cholera abroad, but death has other weapons. The fever
sleeps, but the gates to the grave are many and you may pass through
one of them before ever you are aware of it. Prepare! Prepare! Because
He says, "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"
I have heavy tidings for some of you. I give you warning to set your
house in order, for you must die and not live. I speak now
prophetically of some here present! Let them take heed unto their ways
lest the day of Grace pass and they die are they have thought of
Christ. I have heavier tidings still. After death the judgment. First
comes the skeleton king. And then Hell follows him. Oh, is it true that
some of us may be in Hell before another week? True! Alas! Too true! I
do evoke you, then–since there is this possibility, no, since there is
an absolute certainty that before long, except we repent, we shall all
likewise perish–I do plead with you to think upon your eternal state!
By the wrath of God and by the love of God–by your own soul and by the
value of it–by Heaven and its joys, which you will lose! By Hell and
its torments, which you must endure! By the blood of Jesus! By the
groans and sweat of that Redeemer who delights to receive sinners and
who declares that any who come to Him He will in nowise cast out, I
beseech you, as your Brother and your friend, fly, fly, fly to Jesus!
May the Lord help you to trust Him now. There, just as you are, flat
before the Cross, Sinner–no stopping, no waiting, no preparing–come
to Jesus in all your sin–all black and filthy, just as you are!
"Mercy's gate is never shut, Jesus' heart is never hard." His blood
shall never lose its power. Do you trust Him? Trust Him! Trust Him and
we will meet in Heaven to praise His name, world without end. Amen.