DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 9, 1870,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Cast me not away from Your Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit
from me." Psalm 51:11.
THIS Psalm is beyond all others a photograph of penitent David. You
have probably seen that interesting slab of stone which bears on its
surface indications of the fall of raindrops in a primeval shower–this
Psalm preserves the marks of David's teardrops for the inspection and
instruction of succeeding generations. Or what if I change the figure
and borrow another from an Oriental fable? They said of old that pearls
were formed by drops of spring rain falling into shells upon the shores
of the sea. So here, the drops of David's repentance are preserved in
inspired Scripture as precious, priceless pearls.
This Psalm is as full of meaning as of tenderness. I know not how large
a literature has gathered around it, but certainly writers of all
creeds and ages have used their pens to illustrate it–and there is
room for as many more. It is a perfectly inexhaustible Psalm. Its deep
shaft of sorrowful humiliation leads to veins of golden ore. The stones
of it are the place of sapphires.
We shall confine ourselves, this morning, to this one verse–not with
any prospect of being able to bring out all its meaning, but rather
hoping to make use of it–and to find produced in ourselves a measure
of the feeling which it so solemnly expresses. If we should be made to
drink into its spirit, and then to pour out our hearts at the feet of
our Redeemer, it will be an unspeakable blessing. We shall use the
text, first, in its evident sense as the utterance of a penitent saint.
Secondly, we shall employ it, as I think it may be used, as the cry of
an anxious Church. And then, thirdly, but in a very modified sense, we
shall put it into the mouths of awakened, but as yet unsaved souls.
I. First, then, in its largest, widest, and primitive sense, we must
regard this verse as THE CRY OF A PENITENT CHILD OF GOD. "Cast me not
away from Your Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit from me." This
will certainly be fit language for any child of God here who has fallen
into gross sin. I trust, my Brothers and Sisters, this may not be your
case, but if it should be, hesitate not when you have fallen into
David's sin, if you feel David's repentance, to offer David's prayer,
"Cast me not away from Your Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit
from me."
Backsliding Christian, you may yet return–there are pardons for sins
of deepest dye. The Lord will heal your broken bones, and restore unto
you the joy of His salvation. But probably far more of us will have an
equal necessity to utter this supplication on account of gradual inward
backsliding from the former closeness of our walk with God. One great
sin, when committed, startles the soul into repentance.
But a continuation of sin will be found to be even more dangerous.
Though no one of the company of our transgressions may be a peculiarly
striking iniquity, yet the whole together may produce an equally
lamentable result upon the soul. White ants will devour a carcass as
surely and as speedily as a lion. Many threads of silk twisted together
may hold a man as fast as one band of iron.
Come, let us consider. Many of us have been saved by Divine Grace, and
not barely saved, but we have been made to walk in the light of God's
Countenance. We have been somewhat like Daniel, men greatly beloved and
highly favored. Now, have we acted in conformity with such
distinguishing mercy? Have we manifested a holy jealousy such as Divine
love ought to produce in us? Must not some here confess that their love
has by degrees grown cold, or at least lukewarm? Must not many of us
acknowledge that we have been very carnal, so as to have been overjoyed
with worldly prosperity, or overly dampened with worldly adversity?
Must we not acknowledge, many of us, that we have been slothful in the
Master's service? Are there not some among you who for the last few
months have done little or nothing for the Church and Truth of Christ?
You were once diligent
in your Master's business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. But
that has gone–your former zeal and fidelity have departed from
you–unstable as water, you do not now excel. With this there has crept
over some hearts a listlessness in prayer, a want of enjoyment in
reading the Word, a deadness towards spiritual things, a carelessness
of walk, a carnal security of spirit. Dr. Watts' verse might suit some
of you sadly well–
"In vain we tune our formal songs,
In vain we strive to rise.
Hosannas languish on our tongues,
And our devotion dies."
Now, in such a case, my Brothers and Sisters, if you are conscious of
an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. If you are
obliged to confess that the former days were better than now, and to
admit that the consolations of the Lord are small with you–I do, in
deep and anxious sympathy with your condition–exhort you to use from
your heart the language of the Psalmist, "Cast me not away from Your
Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit from me."
You will perceive that a soul which can really pray thus has life–true
spiritual life–still struggling within. An ungodly man does not ask
that he may abide in nearness to God. Rather, he would say, "Where
shall I flee from Your Presence?" He does not seek for God's Spirit. He
is quite content that the evil spirit should rule him, and that the
spirit of this world should be predominant in him.
But here is life, struggling, panting, crushed, painful life–but life
for all that. The higher spiritual life which sighs after God. I have
seen in the corner of the garden a little fire covered up with many
damp autumn leaves. I have watched its feeble smoke, and known thereby
that the fire still lived and was fighting with the damp which almost
smothered it. So, here, these desires and sighs and cries are as so
much smoke, indicating the Divine fire within. "Cast me not away from
Your Presence," shows a soul that loves God's Presence. "Take not Your
Holy Spirit from me," reveals a heart that desires to be under the
dominion of that Spirit yet more completely.
Here are signs of life, though they may appear to be as indistinct and
doleful as hollow groans far underground– such as have been heard from
men buried alive–voices from the sepulcher, choked and ghostly, but
telling of life in the charnel house, grappling with death, and crying
out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?" Let us look at
these words closely, since I have shown you how applicable they are to
us, and how they indicate spiritual life. I think when David used them,
he may have looked back in his mind to that portion of sacred history
with which he was conversant.
He remembered when Adam and Eve, having rebelled against their Maker,
were driven out from God's Presence, when the cherubim with flaming
sword blocked the gate of Eden's blighted garden. "My God," he seems to
say, "I, too, have offended. Your Presence is my Paradise, my Eden, all
else is wilderness to me–barren, thorn-bearing wilderness. O drive me
not out! Cast me not away from Your Presence! Let me but know You love
me and I shall be in Eden. Let me but know that I am still Your child,
Your favored one, and I will find in that sweet assurance my Paradise,
my all. Let me be a courtier in Your palace, or even a doorkeeper in
Your house, and I will be content. "But from Your Presence banish me
not, else do You wither all my joys."
Did he think of Cain, too, and was his mind so distressed that he was
half afraid lest he should become like that marked man who went out
from the Presence of the Lord to be a wanderer and a vagabond, and find
from then on no rest for the sole of his feet? Did he feel that if he
were exiled from God's Presence he would be just as wretched as the
accursed Cain, himself? Did the thought of that first manslayer put an
emphasis into the prayer, "Cast me not away from Your Presence"?
Do you think he remembered Pharaoh, too, in that memorable night when
the cloud that imaged the Presence of Jehovah came down between Israel
and Egypt, and the dark side of it was towards Pharaoh? For God
indignantly turned His back upon the haughty king, while His face shone
lovingly upon His chosen, but afflicted people. Did he mean by our text
to say, "Lord, turn not Your back on me. Cause not such trouble and
confusion in my soul as ensued in Egypt's hosts when the night of Your
wrath fell on it. O cast me not away from Your Presence"?
Is it possible that the penitent monarch, while penning this Psalm,
thought of Samson, too, and therefore uttered the latter part of the
verse, "Take not Your Holy Spirit from me"? Did he remember the
strongman who could tear a lion as though it were a kid when the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him, or smite the Philistines hip and thigh till
he piled them
up in heaps when God was with him–but who, when his locks had been
shorn, and the Spirit was gone–was ignomini-ously bound, and with
blinded eyes was made to do a mill horse's work?
Did he think of the hero of Gaza and say, "My God, take not Your Holy
Spirit from me. Leave me not to be the sport of my enemies. Cast me not
off as one whom You can no longer employ for high and honorable
service. Take not Your Holy Spirit from me"? Or is it not very likely
that if he thought of all these, yet his eyes were peculiarly fixed
upon one between whom and himself there had been a very close relation?
I mean Saul, his predecessor on the throne. That man had been chosen to
rule God's people Israel, but he proved rebellious, and he was cast
away from God's Presence, so that God would not hear him in the hour of
distress.
No Urim and Thummim would give him a Divine response. No Prophet would
regard him. No priest could present for him acceptable sacrifices. He
was cast away from God's Presence, and the Spirit was finally gone from
him. Even that ordinary measure of the Spirit which he had once enjoyed
was gone. Saul was once among the Prophets, but we find him by-and-by
among the witches. Saul had lost all prudence in the council chamber,
all success in the battlefield. The voice of Him by whom kings reign
had gone forth against him, and broken his scepter.
"Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has also rejected
you from being king." All this David remembered with a shudder, and his
heart said to him, "What? Shall the son of Jesse be like the son of
Kish? Shall the second anointed of Samuel be like the first, of whom
the Lord said, 'It repents Me that I have set up Saul to be king' "? He
became overwhelmed with dreadful apprehension and turned to the Lord
with a bitter cry, "Oh, can it be, my God? Shall I also be cast away
from Your Presence, and Your Spirit taken from me?" He bows himself in
agonizing prayer with this as his petition, "Cast me not away from Your
Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit from me."
Give me your patient attention, you who love the Lord, while I try to
give you many reasons why such a prayer as this should arise out of the
depths of your hearts, and leap from your lips. As for the first
petition of the text, "Cast me not away from Your Presence," my
Brethren, we have need to present it, for God's Presence is to us our
comfort amid affliction. He is "a very present help in trouble." It is
our greatest delight–of all our true joys it is the source and sum. We
call Him by that name, "God our exceeding joy."
The Lord's Presence is our strength. God with us is our banner of
victory. When He is not with us we are weaker than water, but in His
might we are Omnipotent. His Presence is our sanctification. By
beholding the Glory of the Lord we become like He. Communion with God
has a transforming power upon us. This, too, is our highest
glory–angels have no brighter honor. And this shall be our Heaven
hereafter–to dwell in the immediate and unveiled Presence of the Lord
in His own Palace forever.
I cannot, however, dwell at length on this first part of the text, and
therefore I have summarized the reasons for its use. But the second I
shall ask your attention to in greater detail. "Take not Your Holy
Spirit from me." Remember, my Brethren, it was the Holy Spirit who
first of all regenerated us. If we have, indeed, been born again from
above, our new birth was by the Holy Spirit. "Not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," are we made
this day spiritual men. If, therefore, we have not the Spirit, or it is
possible that the Spirit is taken from us, the very essence of our
spiritual life is gone. We are utterly dead, we are no longer numbered
with the living people of the living
God.
The Holy Spirit is not to us a luxury, but a necessity. We must have
the Spirit of God or we live not at all in a spiritual sense. If any
man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. Without the
supernatural work of this Divine Person upon our nature we are not
numbered with the family of God at all. Remember, my dear Friends, that
into the Holy Spirit you and I, when we professed our faith in Jesus,
were baptized. We were immersed "into the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And this day, without the Holy
Spirit, you and I are fraudulent professors, baptized deceivers, and
arrant hypocrites.
If we were not, indeed, baptized into the Holy Spirit, how dare we be
baptized into the outward symbol? As he who, if an unworthy
communicant, eats and drinks condemnation to himself, even so does the
unworthy participant in Baptism. This day we are bearing a false
profession, we wear a fictitious name, we are as those who said they
were Jews and were not, but did lie. We number ourselves with the
people of God, but if we have not the Spirit we shall at last be
numbered with the castaways. See to this, I pray you, and O may the
preacher see to this himself!
Remember, too, that the Spirit of God is to each one of us the Spirit
of adoption. "You have not received," says the Apostle, "the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Without the Spirit of God, then, we have
no Spirit of adoption. We have lost that best of all blessings, the
son-ship, which places us in possession of all the treasures of Heaven
as joint-heirs with Christ.
In the wilderness it was the sonship of our Lord which Satan assaulted
when he tempted the Savior. "If You are the Son of God," said he.
Christ the Lord, however, stood fast upon this point and was not
moved–and therefore He conquered. Let anything come between us and the
distinct recognition of our sonship towards God and we are undone.
Lord, if it so pleases You, suffer Satan to rob me of all my goods, as
Job was deprived of all his treasures. And let the desire of my eyes be
taken from me, and my eyes, themselves, no more behold the sweet light
of day.
But "take not Your Holy Spirit from me," for then my very relation to
You would vanish from my heart. While I can say, "My God, my Father," I
have enough, though all else is gone. But if You are no Father to me,
or I have no Spirit of adoption towards You, then I am undone, indeed.
"Take not Your Holy Spirit from me," is a necessary prayer, for to do
so would be to end our spiritual life, to cast us out as mere
pretenders, to treat us as trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Further, let us not forget that it is by the Holy Spirit that we have
access to God. "We have access by one Spirit unto the Father," says the
Apostle. Now, access to God is among the richest of our privileges. Let
a man be able to take his burdens to God and it little matters how
heavy they may be. Let him be able to tell his needs to his Father, and
it little signifies how great those needs may be, for God will supply
them all according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But take
away the Mercy Seat, or block up the road by which the Believer reaches
it. Withdraw his power in prayer, and his faith in the promise–and all
this you do if you take away the Holy Spirit from him–then is the
Believer ruined, indeed.
Praying in the Holy Spirit is the only true praying. O may we never
cease from it! "He helps our infirmities: for we know not what we
should pray for as we ought." Without His teaching, then, what
stammering prayers, what wandering prayers, what prayers that are not
prayers at all we should offer! We must have the Spirit or else our
great resource and remedy of prayer becomes unavailable. On your knees,
then, you that have wandered and deserve to be forsaken and deserted of
the Holy Spirit! I beseech you cry mightily, "Take not Your Holy Spirit
from me," and let your plea be in the name and merit of Christ Jesus
the Savior.
Moreover, Brethren, the Holy Spirit is our great Instructor. In these
times, when errorists of all kinds are anxious to mislead us, some from
the side of credulity, and others from the side of skepticism, we have
need to pray every day, "Take not Your Holy Spirit from me." One says,
"Lo, here!" Another, with equal vehemence, cries, "Lo, there!" We have
not only, "another gospel," but we have fifty other gospels now
preached. Though there is but one foundation and one salvation, yet
there are those among us who proclaim with earnestness this, and that,
and other doctrines as fundamental, though their teaching is of the
flesh, and not of God.
The young and unwary must often have cause, in great bewilderment, to
enquire, "How shall I know the Truth? By what means shall I discern the
way?" Now, the Spirit of God is given to "lead us into all Truth," and
reverently sought, He will be given to all who lack wisdom–to teach
them the things of Christ, by taking those precious things and
revealing them unto their hearts.
But oh, without the Holy Spirit our patient and Infallible Teacher, we
should be like a child in the woods when the sun has gone down,
wandering here and there, torn with briers and fearful of the wolf,
crying in the dark for its father. Or like a traveler lost on one of
our southern downs, surrounded by a clinging mist, not knowing which
way he goes, and in constant danger of falling from some lofty cliff
into the sea. "Take not Your Holy Spirit from me." You puzzled and
bewildered children of God, here is a prayer for you–and God fulfill
it to you according to His infinite mercy.
Again, I pray that I may be helped to magnify the Holy Spirit in your
esteem, making you to love Him and worship Him more than ever. Dear
Brethren, we want the Holy Spirit as our Comforter. This is one of His
names, the Paraclete, the Comforter. He has come on purpose to appease
the griefs of His children, and bring peace into their minds. Now,
whatever our troubles may be, if we have such a Comforter, we can
afford to welcome them.
Our adversities may be innumerable, but with the Holy Spirit's
Presence, we rise above them all. But, O my God, if the Comforter is
gone, then my brain reels, my spirit sinks, I give up the conflict, I
cannot endure to the end–for only by His consolations shall I in
patience possess my soul.
Though I might enlarge, I must not, for time reproves me. The Holy
Spirit is our Sanctifier, and when we feel sin raging within, how can
we hope to conquer without His aid? If He should leave us, if He who
began the work does not keep His hand to it, how will it ever be
complete? Holiness is too Divine a work to be worked in us by any
inferior hand. He who made the first rough draft must put in the
perfecting stroke, or all will remain incomplete.
And He, also, is our power for practical service–the "power from on
high" for which Apostles tarried of old. If the Holy Spirit is not with
the preacher, vain are his pleadings with men. If He is not with the
teacher in his class, with any worker for God–what is their labor but
beating the air, or reasoning with the waves? If no other person can
pray this prayer from his inmost soul, at least the preacher can.
It rises up, as the Lord knows, from the very center of my heart. I
dread beyond all things the Spirit's withdrawal. Death has not half the
terror of that thought. I would sooner die a thousand times than lose
the helpful Presence of the Holy Spirit. I will just one moment allude
to a controversy which has raged around this text, and then pass on.
Some have said, "Then a true saint may be cast away, lose the Spirit of
God, and perish." The argument being that there is no need for a man to
pray for that which God is sure to give, or pray against an evil which
God will never inflict.
The answer is briefly this–I should not dare to pray, "Cast me not
away from Your Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit from me," if I
had not the promise that He will not cast me away from His Presence,
nor take His Holy Spirit from me. Instead of it not being right to pray
for what God will give, I venture to say it is not right to pray for
what God will not give. The promise is not a reason for not praying,
but the very best reason in all the world for praying. Because I
earnestly believe that no real child of God will ever be cast away from
God's Presence, therefore I pray that I may not be.
And because I am well persuaded that from no really regenerated soul
will God ever utterly take His Spirit, therefore, for that reason above
all others do I pray that He may never take His Spirit from me. I say,
again, it is absurd to argue that a thing which God promises to give is
not to be asked for, for has He not Himself said, "I will yet for this
be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them"? The fact
that the continuance of the Holy Spirit is the subject of an inspired
prayer rather strengthens, than weakens the certainty of the promised
blessing.
Moreover, be it remembered, that God may partially take away His
Presence and His Spirit, and yet, after all, never remove His
everlasting and eternal love from that person. For He may only withdraw
for a season, for wise reasons, to return again afterwards with
fullness of Grace. Against this partial desertion we are, however,
allowed and encouraged to pray. Once again, remember that when a man
has sinned, as David did, and is bowed down as David was, he cannot
always pray in language which would be precisely suitable for a
well-assured saint.
He has doubts as to whether he is saved, and therefore he does well to
pray on the lowest ground as though he were not surely a saint, but
might prove an apostate after all. It is most natural for a backslider
to use expressions implying the very worst, expressions rather of fear
than confidence, rather of distress than repose. David cries like Jonah
out of the belly of Hell, "Cast me not away from Your Presence."
The lower down we get, the better. I frequently find that I cannot pray
as a minister. I find that I cannot sometimes pray as an assured
Christian, but I bless God I can pray as a sinner. I begin again with,
"God be merciful to me, a sinner," and by degrees rise up again to
faith, and onward to assurance. When assurance is gone, and faith is
weak, it is a great comfort that we may pray a sinner's prayer–the
words of which may be inaccurate as to our actual condition, but
correctly describe our doubts and fears, and supposed condition.
II. But now I shall pass on to take these words and use them as THE
VOICE OF AN ANXIOUS CHURCH. The true Church of God may well pray, "Cast
me not away from Your Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit from me."
Brethren, I shall speak pointedly to this Church, over which the Holy
Spirit has made me an overseer. Let us, my dear Brethren, remember that
there have been Churches of old which God has cast away from His
Presence.
Where are the Churches of Asia that were once like golden candlesticks?
Where are Sardis, Thyatira and Laodicea? Can you find so much as a
relic of them? Are not their places empty, void and waste? Look at the
Church of Rome, once a martyr Church, valiant for the Truth of God, and
strong in the Lord–now the very personification of Antichrist, and
utterly gone aside to the worship of images and all manner of
idolatries–an apostate and defiled thing, and no more a Church of
Christ at all.
Now, what has happened to other Churches may happen to this Church and
we ought to be very earnestly on our guard lest so it should be. In
your own time you yourselves have seen Churches flourishing,
multiplying, walking in peace
and love. But for some reason not known to us but perceived by the
Watcher who jealously surveys the Churches of God, a root of bitterness
has sprung up, divisions have devoured them, heresy has poisoned them,
and the place that once gloried in them scarcely knows them now.
Existing they may be, but little more–dwindling in numbers, barren of
Divine Grace–they are rather an encumbrance than power for good.
Remember, then, Beloved, that the power of any Church for good depends
on the Presence of God, and that sin in the Church may grieve the Lord
so that He may no more frequent her courts, or go forth with her
armies. It is a dire calamity for a Church when the Lord refuses any
longer to bless her work, or reveal Himself in her ordinances.
Then is she driven of the wind here and there like a boat derelict and
castaway. The Lord may, because of sin, take away His Holy Spirit from
a Church. The spirit of love may depart, the spirit of prayer may
cease, the spirit of zeal and earnestness may be removed, and the
Spirit which converts the souls of men may display His power elsewhere,
but not in the once-favored congregation. Let me impress upon you that
all this may readily happen if we grieve the Holy Spirit as some
Churches have done.
My Beloved, let me refresh your memories with the recollection that the
great power of the Church does not lie in the power of her
organizations. You may have good schemes for work wisely arranged and
managed, but they will be a failure without the Divine energy. Too
often excellent methods are rigidly adhered to, and confidently relied
upon, and yet, without the Holy Spirit they are sheer folly.
We are told that in unhappy Paris, when first the mails were stopped,
the drivers of the mail carts took their seats upon their boxes and sat
there, though no horses were forthcoming. Red tape commands as much
reverence as the magic cord of the Brahmins. Formal routine satisfies
many. Preachers, deacons, and teachers sit on the boxes of their mail
coaches for the appointed time, but the power which moves the whole is
too much forgotten, and in some cases ignored.
Souls are not saved by systems, but by the Spirit. Organizations
without the Holy Spirit are windmills without wind. Methods and
arrangements without Divine Grace are pipes from a dry conduit, lamps
without oil. Even the most Scriptural forms of Church government and
effort are null and void without the "power from on High."
Remember, too, that the power of the Church does not lie in her gifts.
You might, every one of you, have all wisdom and be able to understand
all mysteries. We might all speak with tongues and be numbered among
the eloquent of the earth–but our Church might not flourish for all
this. Gifts glitter, but are not always gold. Gifts may puff up, but
they cannot build up if the Holy Spirit is not there.
Strife and divisions, emulations and jealousies are, through the evil
of our nature, the very frequent consequences of the possession of
great talents by a Church–and these things are unmingled evils. Nor
does the power of the Church consist in her wealth. When the Spirit is
with her, sufficient treasure is laid at her feet, and the "daughter of
Tyre is there with a gift." But if the Spirit of God is gone, we might
say of all the money that was ever poured into ecclesiastical coffers
by those who sought to strengthen her, "Your money perish with you!"
Gold avails nothing to a Church devoid of Divine Grace, it does but
increase the evil which is corrupting within. O you vainglorious
Churches–you may gild your domes, you may make your pillars of
alabaster, and cover your altars with precious stones–you may clothe
your priests in scarlet and in fair white linen, you may make your
ceremonies imposing, your processions gorgeous, and your music
enchanting–but all this avails nothing if the Spirit of God is gone!
All that remains for you is as sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal.
Nor, and here let me press this upon you, does the strength of a Church
lie merely in her doctrines. I know not that Laodicea held false
doctrines, yet was she nauseous to the Lord. Orthodox Churches may
become lifeless corpses. Truth may be held in unrighteousness. Creeds
most accurate may be but the cerements in which a dead Church is
wrapped to be carried to her burial. Men have had sound views of the
Truth of God, and yet have been unsound in life, and sound in nothing
else but in the sleep of carelessness.
Nor does the strength of a Church lie in her numbers. Congratulate
yourselves that your membership is counted by thousands, but if you
become a mob and not an army, or an army without a Divine Leader, and
without the enthusiasm which only the present Spirit of God can
give–what are your numbers but the source of difficulty, corruption,
and failure? You are like so many grains of sand that cannot unite. You
are altogether broken, and poured out like water if the Spirit is gone.
What availed the number of the Scribes and priests of old when God had
left them to their own blindness? What can the largest flock of sheep
do without a shepherd? What is a large Church without the Lord's
Presence but a mass of chaff to be scattered with a whirlwind, or to
rot on the threshing floor? So, too, is it with the past history and
the prestige of a Church. It is vain to depend on these. There is far
too great an attitude among us to fall back on what our fathers did, or
what we ourselves achieved ten or twenty years ago. My word to you, my
dearly Beloved Church, is, "Hold fast that which you have, that no man
take your crown."
Our crown as a Church has been this–we have been a soul-winning
Church. We have had nothing else whereof to boast, but this is our
claim–we have sought the souls of men, and God has given them to us.
To Him be all the glory. Shall we lose that crown through slackness and
lukewarmness? It must be so unless we cry again and again, "Take not
Your Holy Spirit from us." The Holy Spirit we want to abide with us in
all the excellency of His glorious power. And if we have Him not, woe
is the day. Our Shiloh shall become a desolation, and this beautiful
house of our assembling shall become a hissing and a reproach.
Brethren, I will use an image which will come home to your minds at
once. Any Church of God from which the Spirit has departed becomes very
much like that great empire with whose military glory the world was
dazzled, and whose strength made the nations tremble. France, mistress
of arms, queen of beauty, arbiter of politics–how soon has she fallen!
I have heard many reasons given for her sudden overthrow, but I
scarcely believe any of them to be sufficient to account for such a
fall.
In an hour, like a lily broken at the stalk, she has withered. On a
sudden, as though the hand of God had gone out against her, her glory
has departed. Why was it? I do not believe that it was any lack of
courage in her soldiery, nor do I even think that there was more than
usual deficiency of skill in her commanders. Her hour had come, she was
weighed in the balances and found wanting, and her prowess failed her
as in a moment. The nation once so great now lies bleeding at her
victor's feet, pitied of us all, none the less, because her folly
continues the useless fight.
Just so have we seen it in Churches. May we never so see it here.
Everybody may be saying, "How wondrously that Church flourishes! What
power! What influence! What numbers!" And on a sudden some radical evil
which had been eating out the very soul of the Church may come to its
issue–and then, as in a moment, all the apparent prosperity will
subside–and the Philistines will rejoice. May it not be so! May our
prayer be, "Take not Your Holy Spirit from us."
Travelers in Egypt point to spots where once grew luxurious vegetation
when the soil was constantly irrigated by the rich stream of the Nile.
But now the irrigation, having ceased, the sand of the Libyan desert
has conquered the fertile ground and annexed it to the wilderness.
After this sort, Churches irrigated by the Spirit once produced rich
harvests of souls–left of the Spirit the sand of the world has covered
them–and where once all was green and beautiful there is nothing but
the former howling wilderness.
It awakens melancholy reflections when we hear of the bodies of old
Egyptian kings, proud lords of millions of men, dragged by our
discoverers out of their secret chambers in the pyramids and exposed to
every vulgar eye. The great sarcophagus has had its lid uplifted, and
the monarch who once ruled the world has been taken out and his corpse
unrolled for the sake of a little old linen, and an ounce or two of the
embalming gum. Poor mummy! Once a Pharaoh whose voice could shake a
nation and devastate continents–now used to heat an Arab's kettle or
to furnish an object for a museum.
So with a Church–alive by the Divine indwelling–God gives it royalty
and makes it a king and priest unto Himself among the sons of men. Its
influence is felt further than it dreams. The world trembles at it, for
it is fair as the sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with
banners. But when the Spirit of God is departed, all that remains is
its old records, ancient creeds, title-deeds, traditions, histories and
memories!
It is in fact a mummy of a Church rather than a Church of God, and it
is better fitted to be looked at by antiquarians than to be treated as
an existent agency. May we never come to this! May the Tabernacle abide
in prosperity till the Temple of God shall be among men. Let our whole
Church lift up the prayer, "Cast me not away from Your Presence. And
take not Your Holy Spirit from me."
III. But time outruns me, and therefore I must close by regarding this
as THE CRY OF AN AWAKENED SINNER. Not properly, nor accurately, but
still instructively I may use it. O unconverted Man, if you are,
indeed, anxious about your soul, pray this prayer, "Cast me not away
from Your Presence. And take not Your Holy Spirit from me." Say you
thus to the Lord, "O You most merciful God, pronounce not yet that
word, 'Depart, you cursed.' My God, cast me not away as reprobate.
"Let Your longsuffering spare me a little longer, till Your Grace has
saved me. Let me still stand on praying ground and pleading terms with
You! 'Take not Your Holy Spirit from me.' It is true I have not Your
Spirit as I gladly would have it, but still I hear Your Word. O let me
not be denied the hearing of Your Gospel which by Your Grace may bless
my soul. Still have I Your Holy Book, and Your Spirit's voice is heard
there–may it lead me to Jesus. O take not away Your Book from me! Shut
me not up in Hell, where I shall feel the threats, but never know the
promises of Your Word.
"Sometimes Your Spirit touches my conscience–hard as my heart is–it
sometimes trembles. Sometimes I feel myself inclined to love You if I
could. I feel some sighing and yearning after You. Take not these
beginnings of Grace from me. O God, I wait upon You in the hearing of
Your Word, and sometimes I hope Your power, Your life, will come to me,
and I, even I, the chief of sinners, shall yet be saved. O take not
away that hope utterly and forever. Swear not in Your anger that I
shall never enter into Your rest, but rather turn Your pitying eyes on
me and break my heart this day, and bind it up with the dear Savior's
love. Save me, O save me, with Your great salvation, for the sake of
Jesus, Your Son."
Have you prayed that prayer, dear Hearer? It shall be heard. But hear
what God speaks to you–it is this–"Believe you now this day, and
trust in Jesus and you shall be saved." Come now and put yourself
before the Cross. Trust yourself for time and for eternity in His dear
hands, who there poured out His soul unto death for sinners. Then shall
you know without a doubt that He will never cast you away from His
Presence!
"Him that comes to Me," says Jesus, "I will in no wise cast out." Then
shall you know that the Spirit shall not be taken from you, for He is
with them that believe, and He shall abide in them forever. God bless
you, every one of you, for Christ's sake. Amen.
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A Singular But Needful Question