Frost And Thaw
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 24, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; He casts
out His hail like morsels. Who can stand before His cold? He sends out
His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters
flow." Psalm 147:16-18.
LOOKING out of our window one morning we saw the earth robed in a white
mantle–in a few short hours the earth had been covered to a
considerable depth with snow. We looked out again in a few hours and
saw the fields as green as ever and the plowed fields as bare as if no
single flake had fallen! It is no uncommon thing for a heavy fall of
snow to be followed by a rapid thaw. These interesting changes are
worked by God, not only with a purpose toward the outward world, but
with some design toward the spiritual realm. God is always a teacher.
In every action that He performs He is instructing His own children and
opening up to them the road to inner mysteries.
Happy are those who find food for their Heaven-born spirits, as well as
for their mental powers in the works of the Lord's hand. I shall ask
your attention, first, to the operations of nature spoken of in the
text. And, secondly, to those operations of Divine Grace of which they
are the most fitting symbols.
I. Consider first, THE OPERATIONS OF NATURE. We shall not think a few
minutes wasted if we call your attention to the hand of God in frost
and thaw, even upon natural grounds.
1. Observe the directness of the Lord's work. I rejoice as I read these
words, to find how present our God is in the world. It is not written,
"the laws of nature produce snow," but, "HE gives snow," as if every
flake came directly from the palm of His hand. We are not told that
certain natural regulations form moisture into frost–no, but as Moses
took ashes of the furnace and scattered them upon Egypt, so it is said
of the Lord, "HE scatters the frost like ashes." It is not said that
the Eternal has set the world going, and by the operation of its
machinery ice is produced. Oh no, but every single granule of ice
descending in the hail is from God–"HE casts out His hail like
morsels."
Even as the slinger distinctly sends the stone out of his sling, so the
path of every hailstone is marked by the Divine power. The hail is
called, you observe, "His hail." And in the next sentence we read of
His cold. These words make nature strangely magnificent. When we look
upon every hailstone as God's hail, how precious the watery diamonds
become! When we feel the cold nipping our limbs and penetrating through
every garment, it consoles us to remember that it is His cold. When the
thaw comes, see how the text speaks of it–"He sends out His word."
He does not leave it to certain forces of nature, but like a king, "He
sends out His word and melts them; He causes HIS wind to blow." He has
a special property in every wind–whether it comes from the north to
freeze, or from the south to melt–it is HIS wind! Behold how in God's
temple everything speaks of His Glory. Learn to see the Lord in all
scenes of the visible universe, for truly He works all things.
This thought of the directness of the Divine operations must be carried
into Providence. It will greatly comfort you if you can see God's hand
in your losses and crosses. Surely you will not murmur against the
direct agency of your God! This will put an extraordinary sweetness
into daily mercies, and make the comforts of life more comfortable
still, because they are from a Father's hand. If your table is scantily
furnished it shall suffice for your contented heart when you know that
your Father spread it for you in wisdom and love. This shall bless your
bread and your water! This shall make the bare walls of an
ill-furnished room as resplendent as a palace, and turn a hard bed into
a couch of down.
My Father does it all. We see His smile of love even when others see
nothing but the black hand of Death smiting our best beloved. We see a
Father's hand when the pestilence lays our cattle dead upon the plain.
We see God at work in mercy when we ourselves are stretched upon the
bed of languishing. It is ever our Father's act and deed! Do not let us
get beyond this–but rather let us enlarge our view of this Truth of
God and remember that this is true of the little as well as of the
great. Let the lines of a true poet strike you–"If pestilence stalks
through the land, you say the Lord has done it–has He not done it when
an aphid creeps upon the rosebud? If an avalanche tumbles from its Alp,
you tremble at the will of Providence–is not that will as much
concerned when the sere leaves fall from the poplar?" Let your hearts
sing of everything–Jehovah-Shammah–the Lord is there.
2. Next, I beg you to observe with thanksgiving the ease of Divine
working. These verses read as if the making of frost and snow were the
simplest matter in all the world! A man puts his hand into a wool-pack
and throws out the wool. God gives snow as easily as that! "He gives
snow like wool." A man takes up a handful of ashes and throws them into
the air so that they fall around. "He scatters the frost like ashes."
Frost and snow are marvels of nature! Those who have observed the
extraordinary beauty of the ice crystals have been enraptured, and yet
they are like morsels–just as easily as we cast crumbs of bread
outside the window to the robins during wintry days!
When the rivers are frozen hard, and the earth is held in iron chains,
then the melting of the whole–how is that done? Not by kindling
innumerable fires, nor by sending electric shocks from huge batteries
through the interior of the earth–no–"He sends forth His word and
melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow." The whole
matter is accomplished with a word and a breath. If you and I had any
great thing to do, what puffing and panting, what straining and tugging
there would be! Even the great engineers who perform marvels by
machinery make much noise and stir about it.
It is not so with the Almighty One. Our globe spins round in 24 hours,
and yet it does not make so much noise as a humming top! And yonder
ponderous worlds rolling in space track their way in silence. If I
enter a factory I hear a deafening dropping over a wheel. There is a
never ceasing click-clack, or an undying hum–but God's great wheels
revolve without noise or friction! Divine machinery works smoothly.
This case is seen in Providence as well as in nature. Your heavenly
Father is as able to deliver you as He is to melt the snow, and He will
deliver you in as simple a manner if you rest upon Him. He opens His
hand and supplies the want of every living thing as readily as He works
in nature. Mark the ease of God's working–He does but open His hand.
3. Notice in the next place the variety of the Divine operations in
nature. When the Lord is at work with frost as His tool, He creates
snow, a wonderful production–every crystal being a marvel of art. But
then He is not content with snow–from the same water He makes another
form of beauty which we call frost, and yet a third lustrous sparkling
substance, namely glittering ice! And all these by the one agency of
cold. What a marvelous variety the educated eye can detect in the
several forms of frozen water!
The same God who solidified the flood with cold soon melts it with
warmth. But even in thaw there is no monotony of manner–at one time
the joyous streams rush with such impetuosity from their imprisonment
that rivers are swollen and floods cover the plains. At another time,
by slow degrees, in scanty driblets, the drops regain their freedom.
The same variety is seen in every department of nature. So in
Providence the Lord has a thousand forms of frosty trials with which to
try His people, and He has ten thousand beams of mercy with which to
cheer and comfort them!
He can afflict you with the snow trial, or with the frost trial, or
with the ice trial if He wills. And another time He can, with His word,
relax the bonds of adversity, and that in countless ways. Whereas men
are tied to two or three methods in accomplishing their will, God is
infinite in understanding and works as He wills by ways unknown of
mortal minds.
4. I shall ask you, also, to consider the works of God in nature in
their swiftness. It was thought a wonderful thing in the days of
Ahasuerus that letters were sent by post upon swift horses. In our
country we thought we had arrived at the age of miracles when the axles
of our cars glowed with speed, and now that the telegraph is at work we
stretch out our hands into infinity! But what is our speed compared
with that of God's operations? Well does the text say, "He sends forth
His commandment upon earth: His word runs very swiftly." Forth went the
word, "Open the treasures of snow," and the flakes descended in
innumerable multitudes. And then it was said, "Let them be closed," and
not another snow-feather was seen.
Then spoke the Master, "Let the south wind blow and the snow be
melted," and it disappeared at the voice of His word. Believer, you
cannot tell how soon God may come to your help. "He rode upon a cherub
and did fly," says David, "Yes, He did fly upon the wings of the wind."
He will come from above to rescue His beloved. He will rend the heavens
and come down! With such speed will He descend that He will not stay to
draw the curtains of Heaven, but He will rend them in His haste and
make the mountains flow down at His feet–that He may deliver those who
cry unto Him in the hour of trouble. That mighty God who can melt the
ice so speedily can take to Himself the same eagle wings and hasten to
your deliverance. Arise, O God! And let Your children be helped, and
that right quickly!
5. One other thought. Consider the goodness of God in all the
operations of nature and Providence. Think of that goodness negatively.
"Who can stand before His cold?" You cannot help thinking of the poor
in a hard winter–only a hard heart can forget them when you see the
snow lying deep. But suppose that snow continued to fall! What is there
to hinder it? The same God who sends us snow for one day could do the
like for fifty days if He pleased. Why not?
And when the frost pinches us so severely, why should it not be
continued month after month? We can only thank the goodness which does
not send "His cold" to such an extent that our spirits expire.
Travelers towards the North Pole tremble as they think of this
question, "Who can stand before His cold?" For cold has a degree of
omnipotence in it when God is pleased to let it loose. Let us thank God
for the restraining mercy by which He holds the cold in check.
Not only negatively, but positively there is mercy in the snow. Is not
that a suggestive metaphor? "He gives snow like wool." The snow is said
to warm the earth. It protects those little plants which have just
begun to peep above ground and might otherwise be frostbitten. As with
a garment of down the snow protects them from the extreme severity of
cold. Watts sings, in his version of the hundred-and-forty-seventh
Psalm–
"His flakes of snow like wool He sends, And thus the springing corn
defends."
It was an idea of the ancients that snow warmed the heart of the soil,
gave it fertility, and therefore they praised God for it. Certainly
there is much mercy in the frost, for pestilence might run a far longer
race if it were not that the frost cries to it, "Up to here shall you
come, but no farther." Noxious insects would multiply until they
devoured the precious fruits of the earth if sharp nights did not
destroy millions of them so that these pests are swept from off the
earth. Though man may think himself a loser by the cold, he is a great
ultimate gainer by the decree of Providence which ordains winter!
The quaint saying of one of the old writers that, "snow is wool, and
frost is fire, and ice is bread, and rain is drink," is true, though it
sounds like a paradox. There is no doubt that frost, in breaking up the
soil, promotes fruitfulness, and so the ice becomes bread. Thus those
agencies which for the moment deprive our workers of their means of
sustenance, are the means by which God supplies every living thing.
Mark, then, God's goodness as clearly in the snow and frost as in the
thaw which clears the winter's work away.
Christian, remember the goodness of God in the frost of adversity. Rest
assured that when God is pleased to send out the biting winds of
affliction He is in them, and He is always love–as much love in sorrow
as when He breathes upon you the soft south wind of joy. See the
loving-kindness of God in every work of His hand! Praise Him–He makes
summer and winter–let your song go round the year! Praise Him–He
gives day and sends night–thank Him at all hours! Cast not away your
confidence, it has great recompense of reward.
As David wove the snow, and rain, and stormy wind into a song, even so
combine your trials, your tribulations, your difficulties and
adversities into a sweet Psalm of praise, and say perpetually–
"Let us, with a gladsome mind, Praise the Lord, for He is kind."
Thus much upon the operations of nature. It is a very tempting theme,
but other fields invite me.
II. I would address you very earnestly and solemnly upon THOSE
OPERATIONS OF GRACE OF WHICH FROST
AND THAW ARE THE OUTWARD SYMBOLS. There is a period with God's own
people when He comes to deal with them by the frost of the Law. The Law
is to the soul as the cutting north wind. Faith can see love in it, but
the carnal eye of sense cannot. It is a cold, terrible, comfortless
blast. To be exposed to the full force of the Law of God would be to be
frostbitten with everlasting destruction. Even to feel it for a season
would congeal the marrow of one's bones and make one's whole being
stiff with fear. "Who can stand before His cold?"
When the Law comes forth thundering from its treasuries, who can stand
before it? The effect of law-work upon the soul is to bind up the
rivers of human delight. No man can rejoice when the terrors of
conscience are upon him. When the Law of God is sweeping through the
soul, music and dancing lose their joy–the bowl forgets its power to
cheer–and the enchantments of earth are broken. The rivers of pleasure
freeze to icy despondency. The buds of hope are suddenly nipped and the
soul finds no comfort.
It was satisfied once to grow rich, but rust and canker are now upon
all gold and silver. Every promising hope is frost-bitten, and the
spirit is winter-bound in despair. This cold makes the sinner feel how
ragged his garments are. He could strut about when it was summer
weather and think his rags right royal robes–but now the cold frost
finds out every tear in his garments, and in the hands of the terrible
Law he shivers like the leaves upon the aspen. The north wind of
judgment searches the man through and through. He did not know what was
in him, but now he sees his inward parts to be filled with corruption
and rottenness.
These are some of the terrors of the wintry breath of the Law. This
frost of Law and terrors only tends to harden. Nothing splits the rock
or makes the cliff tumble like frost when succeeded by thaw, but frost
alone makes the earth like a mass of iron breaking the plowshare which
would seek to pierce it. A sinner under the influence of the Law of
God, apart from the Gospel, is hardened by despair and cries, "There is
no hope, and therefore I will go after my lusts. Whereas there is no
Heaven for me after this life, I will make a Heaven out of this earth!
And since Hell awaits me, I will at least enjoy such sweets as sin may
afford me here."
This is not the fault of the Law–the blame lies with the corrupt heart
which is hardened by it. Nevertheless, such is its effect. When the
Lord has worked by the frost of the Law, He sends the thaw of the
Gospel. When the south wind blows from the land of promise bringing
precious remembrances of God's fatherly pity and tender
loving-kindness, then straightway the heart begins to soften and a
sense of blood-bought pardon speedily dissolves it. The eyes fill with
tears, the heart melts in tenderness, rivers of pleasure flow freely
and buds of hope open in the cheerful air! A heavenly spring whispers
to the flowers that were sleeping in the cold earth–they hear its
voice, and lift up their heads, for "the rain is over and gone. The
flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."
God sends His Word, saying, "Your warfare is accomplished, and your sin
is pardoned." And when that blessedly cheering Word comes with power to
the soul and the sweet breath of the Holy Spirit acts like the warm
south wind upon the heart, then the waters flow and the mind is filled
with holy joy, and light, and liberty!–
"The legal wintry state is gone, The frosts are fled, the spring comes
on. The sacred turtledove we hear Proclaims the new, the joyful year."
Having shown you that there is a parallel between frost and thaw in
nature and Law and Gospel in Grace, I would utter the same thoughts
concerning Grace which I gave you concerning nature.
1. We began with the directness of God's works in nature. Now, beloved
Friends, remark the directness of God's works in Grace. When the heart
is truly affected by the Law of God. When sin is made to appear
exceedingly sinful. When carnal hopes are frozen to death by the Law.
When the soul is made to feel its barrenness and utter death and
ruin–this is the finger of God! Do not speak of the minister. It was
well that he preached earnestly–God has used him as an instrument–but
God works all.
When the thaw of Divine Grace comes, I pray you will discern the
distinct hand of God in every beam of comfort which gladdens the
troubled conscience, for it is the Lord, alone, who binds up the broken
in heart and heals all their wounds! We are far too apt to stop in
instrumentalities. Folly makes men look to sacraments for
heart-breaking or heart-healing, but sacraments all say, "It is not in
us." Some of you look to the preaching of the Word and look no higher.
But all true preachers will tell you, "It is not in us."
Eloquence and earnestness at their highest pitch can neither break nor
heal a heart. This is God's work! Yes, and not God's secondary work in
the sense in which the philosopher admits that God is in the laws of
nature–but God's personal and immediate work. He puts forth His own
hand when the conscience is humbled, and it is by His own right hand
that the conscience is eased and cleansed. I desire that this thought
may abide upon your minds for you will not praise God otherwise. Nor
will you be sound in doctrine.
All departures from sound doctrine on the point of conversion arise
from forgetfulness that it is a Divine work from first to last–that
the faintest desire after Christ is as much the work of God as the gift
of His dear Son–and that our whole spiritual history through, from the
Alpha to the Omega, the Holy Spirit works in us to will and to do of
His own good pleasure. As you have evidently seen the finger of God in
casting forth His ice and in sending thaw, so I pray you recognize the
handiwork of God in giving you a sense of sin and in bringing you to
the Savior's feet. Join together in heartily praising the
wonder-working God who does all things according to the counsel of His
will–
"Our seeking Your face Was all of Your Grace!
Your mercy demands and shall have all the praise:
No sinner can be Beforehand with You,
Your Grace is preventing, almighty and free."
2. The second thought upon nature was the ease with which the Lord
worked. There was no effort or disturbance. Transfer that to the work
of Divine Grace. How easy it is for God to send law-work into the soul!
You stubborn Preacher, you cannot touch him! And even Providence has
failed to awaken him. He is dead–altogether dead in trespasses and
sins! But if the glorious Lord will graciously send forth the wind of
His Spirit, that will melt him.
The swearing reprobate, whose mouth is blackened with profanity–if the
Lord does but look upon him and make bare His arm of Irresistible
Grace–shall yet praise God and bless His name! And he will live to His
honor. Do not limit the Holy One of Israel. Persecuting Saul became
loving Paul, and why should not that person be saved of whose case you
almost despair? Your husband may have many points which make his case
difficult, but no case is desperate with God! Your son may have
offended both against Heaven and against you, but God can save the most
hardened. The sharpest frost of obstinate sin must yield to the thaw of
Divine Grace. Even huge icebergs of crime must melt in the Gulf stream
of infinite love.
Poor Sinner, I cannot leave this point without a word to you. Perhaps
the Master has sent the frost to you, and you think it will never end.
Let me encourage you to hope, and yet more, to pray for gracious
visitations. Miss Steele's verses will just suit your mournful, yet
hopeful state–
"Stern winter throws his icy chains,
Encircling nature round.
How bleak, how comfortless the plains,
Late with bright verdure crowned!
The sun withdraws his vital beams,
And light and warmth depart.
And, drooping lifeless, nature seems
An emblem of my heart–
My heart, where mental winter reigns
In night's dark mantle clad,
Confined in cold, inactive chains!
How desolate and sad!
Return, O blissful sun, and bring
Your soul-reviving ray–
This mental winter shall be spring,
This darkness cheerful day."
It is easy for God to deliver you. He says, "I have blotted out like a
thick cloud your transgressions." I stood the other evening looking up
at a black cloud which was covering all the heavens and I thought it
would surely rain. I entered the house and when I came out again the
sky was all blue–the wind had driven the clouds away. So may it be
with your soul. It is an easy thing for the Lord to put away sin from
repenting sinners. All obstacles which hindered our pardon were removed
by Jesus when He died upon the Cross, and if you believe in Him you
will find that He has cast your sins into the depths of the sea! If you
can believe, all things are possible to him that believe.
3. The next thought concerning the Lord's work in nature was the
variety of it. Frost produces a sort of trinity in unity–snow, frost,
ice–and when the thaw comes its ways are many. So is it with the work
of God in the heart. Conviction comes not alike to all. Some
convictions fall as the snow from Heaven–you never hear the flakes
descend– they alight so gently one upon the other. There are softly
coming convictions–they are felt, but we can scarcely tell when we
began to feel them. A true work of repentance may be of the gentlest
kind.
On the other hand, the Lord casts forth His ice like morsels–the
hailstones rattle against the window and you think they will surely
force their way into the room! And to many persons convictions come
beating down till they remind you of hailstones. There is variety. It
is as true a frost which produces the noiseless snow as that which
brings forth the terrible hail. Why should you want hailstones of
terror? Be thankful that God has visited you, but do not dictate to Him
the way of His working.
With regard to the Gospel thaw. If you may but be pardoned by Jesus, do
not stipulate as to the manner of His Grace. Thaw is universal and
gradual, but its commencement is not always discernible. The chains of
winter are unloosed by degrees–the surface ice and snow melt–and
by-and-by the warmth permeates the entire mass till every rock of ice
gives way. But while thaw is universal and visible in its effects you
cannot see the mighty power which is doing all this. Even so you must
not expect to discern the Spirit of God.
You will find Him gradually operating upon the entire man, enlightening
the understanding, freeing the will, delivering the heart from fear,
inspiring hope, waking up the whole spirit, gradually and universally
working upon the mind and producing the manifest effects of comfort,
and hope, and peace. But you can no more see the Spirit of God than you
can see the south wind. The effect of His power is to be felt, and when
you feel it, do not marvel if it is somewhat different from what others
have experienced. After all, there is a singular likeness in snow and
frost and ice, and so there is a remarkable sameness in the experience
of all God's children! But there is still a great variety in the inward
operations of Divine Grace.
4. We must next notice the rapidity of God's works. "His word runs very
swiftly." It did not take many days to get rid of the last snow. A
contractor would take many a day to cart it away, but God sends forth
His word and the snow and ice disappear at once. So is it with the
soul–the Lord often works rapidly when He cheers the heart. You may
have been a long time under the operation of His frosty Law, but there
is no reason why you should be another hour under it. If the Spirit
enables you to trust in the finished work of Christ, you may go out of
this house rejoicing that every sin is forgiven!
Poor Soul, do not think that the way from the horrible pit is to climb,
step by step, to the top! Oh, no! Jesus can set your feet upon a rock
before the clock shall have gone round the dial. He can, in an instant,
bring you from death to life, from condemnation to justification.
"Today shall you be with Me in Paradise," was spoken to a dying thief,
black and defiled with sin. Only believe in the atoning sacrifice of
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!
5. Our last thought upon the operation of God was His goodness in it
all. What a blessing that God did not send us more law-work than He
did! "Who can stand before His cold?" Oh, Beloved, when God has taken
away from man natural comfort and made him feel Divine wrath in his
soul, it is an awful thing! Speak of a haunted man–no man need be
haunted with a worse ghost than the remembrance of his old sins.
The childish tale of the sailor with the old man of the mountain on his
back who pressed him more and more heavily is more than realized in the
history of the troubled conscience. If one sin does but leap on a man's
back it will sink the sinner through every standing place that he can
possibly mount upon! He will go down, down, under its weight till he
sinks to the lowest depths of Hell. There is no place where sin can be
borne till you get upon the Rock of Ages–and even there the joy is not
that you bear it–but that Jesus has borne it all for you!
The spirit would utterly fail before the Law if it had full sway. Thank
God, "He stays His rough wind in the day of His east wind." At the same
time, how thankful we may be that we ever felt the law frost in our
soul. The folly of self-righteousness is killed by the winter of
conviction. We should have been a thousand times more proud and
foolish, and worldly than we are if it had not been for the sharp frost
with which the Lord nipped the growths of the flesh.
But how shall we thank Him sufficiently for the thaw of His
loving-kindness? How great the change which His mercy made in us as
soon as its beams had reached our soul! Hardness vanished! Cold
departed! Warmth and love abounded, and the life-floods leaped in their
channels! The Lord visited us and we rose from our grave of despair
even as the seeds arise from the earth! As the bulb of the crocus holds
up its golden cup to be filled with sunshine so did our new-born faith
open itself to the Glory of the Lord!
As the primrose peeps up from the sod to gaze upon the sun, so did our
hope look forth for the promise, and delight itself in the Lord. Thank
God that spring tide has with many of us matured into summer, and
winter has gone, never to return. We praise the Lord for this every day
of our lives, and we will praise Him when time shall be no more in that
sunny land–
"Where everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers.
A thread-like stream alone divides
That heavenly land from ours."
Believe in the Lord, you who shiver in the frost of the Law, and the
law of love shall soon bring you warm days ofjoy and peace. So be it.
Amen.