DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents,
because they sa w he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of
the king's commandment." Hebrews 11:23.
As I observed to you in the exposition, the stress in these passages of
sacred biography should be laid upon the words, "by faith." The mighty
deeds of heroes and the obedient acts of pilgrim fathers are only told
to us because they spring out offaith.. It is to commend the root that
the fruits are mentioned. The children are named one by one that the
mother may have the praise, for faith is the mother of all virtues.
According to this Book, God estimates men by their faith and "without
faith it is impossible to please God." Faith is well-pleasing to the
Most High, but it is in proportion to its strength, for there are cases
in which weakness of faith has evidently been followed by chastisement
and other cases in which strength of faith has been abundantly honored.
The more you believe, the more God blesses you. If you believe with
faith as small as a grain of mustard seed you shall be saved, for where
there is faith there is salvation. But if your faith is weak, you shall
miss many comforts and only as your faith grows and becomes strong
through Divine Grace shall you be a receiver of the greater, deeper and
higher things of the Covenant of Grace. More faith is what we need and
the Lord is willing to give it, Grace upon Grace! He delights,
especially, to strengthen the faith which we already possess by trying
it, by sustaining it under trials and thus rooting and grounding it. He
thus causes it to become firm and vigorous.
Oh that we might always live so that the Lord might see in all our
actions that they spring from faith. Then shall our actions as well as
ourselves be always accepted of Him by Christ Jesus, for the Lord has
plainly declared, "the just shall live by faith; but if any man draws
back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him"–that is, draws back from
faith and runs in the way of sense and feeling. Having begun by faith
we are to live by faith. We are not to find life in the Gospel and then
nourish it by the Law. We are not to begin in the Spirit and then seek
to be made perfect by the flesh, or by confidence in man–we must
continue to walk by the simple faith which rests only upon God, for
this is the true spirit of a Christian.
Faith is the freewoman's child and it cannot live with merit, or
self-righteousness, for that is the bondwoman's child and the Scripture
says, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." Faith is, in God's
sight, the very soul of all holy actions. That which is done without
faith, even though, considered in itself, had there been faith at the
back of it, it might have been accepted, yet it is not accepted without
faith. As no sacrifice, even though it were an unblemished one, should
be offered except with salt and with fire– and that fire a holy and
heavenly fire–so nothing will be accepted of God except it is mixed
with faith.
Hearing is no hearing to profit if it is not mixed with faith in them
that hear it. And even doing may stand in our way unless, first of all,
we have attended to that work–that God-like work, that work of
God–that we believe in Him whom He has sent. There must be faith!
Without it, it is impossible to please God and He measures our actions
according to the faith from which they proceed. I do again, therefore,
very strongly say I take the meaning of these texts to be not a
laudation of the acts, themselves, as much as an honor put upon faith,
itself, by the Holy Spirit.
If you read of those who subdued kingdoms, that is not the
point–others have subdued kingdoms–but it is, "who through faith
subdued kingdoms." If you read of those who escaped the edge of the
sword–many have done that, but none are recorded here but those–"who
by faith escaped the edge of the sword." "Turned to flight the armies
of the aliens." Many have done that by valor and strength. But to do it
by faith–that is the thing! Many have endured scourging and bonds and
imprisonments. Many have wandered about destitute, afflicted,
tormented. But such sufferings are nothing unless they are borne by
faith!
I might almost quote the words of Paul, only altering them a little,
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not
faith, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And
though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, and
all knowledge. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and
though I give my body to be burned, and have not faith, it profits me
nothing" Faith–first, middle, last–must be the walk, life and triumph
of the Christian! God gives to faith, God accepts from faith, God saves
through faith, God keeps through faith, God sanctifies through faith,
God perfects through faith. In all good things the power, life and
acceptance are, "not of works, lest any man should boast," but by faith
that all things may be of Grace alone!
I come, now, to take up the instance of faith mentioned in the text,
and as I do so I trust many here will be asking themselves the
question, "Have I that faith which sees the invisible? Have I a faith
which exercises an operative power over my entire life? Am I a believer
in God, in His dear Son, in His most sacred Word? Is that faith real,
practical, effective? If not, I can be sure that I am without God and
without hope in the world! If He, by His Grace, has given me the faith
of His elect whereby I discern Him, recognize Him, act towards Him as
the God that is and is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,
then I am accepted in Christ Jesus."
Let us read our text again and then we will fall to and gather
instruction from it. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three
months by his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they
were not afraid of the king's commandment"–their faith made them brave
and led them to preserve their little one.
I. My first observation about this brief narrative is this–IT IS A
GREAT BLESSING WHEN IN A FAMILY BOTH THE PARENTS HAVE FAITH. Paul, in
one text, says, "By faith he was hid three months by his parents." Now
you will please to notice that Moses, himself, in the account which he
gives in the second chapter of Exodus, ascribes this to his
mother–"When she saw that he was a good child she hid him three
months." Stephen, in his speech before the Sanhedrin, says, "In which
time Moses was born and was exceedingly fair, and nourished up in his
father's house three months." Thus mentioning, rather, his father than
his mother.
Paul writes in Hebrews, "He was hid three months by his parents," thus
mentioning both of them. No doubt the Apostle combined the two other
Inspired utterances. Do you wonder that Moses chiefly mentions his
mother, Jochebed? I do not. What man is there among us but always
delights to mention his godly mother? And though we would have no
partialities about our parents, yet without controversy, great is the
mystery of a mother's love and there are some points about it in which
it makes a deeper impression upon the memory than a father's care.
Prize fathers as you may, and will, and should–yet there is a tender
touch that comes home to every man's heart when he thinks of his
mother!
It seems natural that Moses should, when he wrote the account, mention
most of all his mother and, indeed, and of a truth, a mother has more
to do with a baby than a father can have. In its tender infancy she is
naturally its chief guardian. Perhaps, too, though we cannot be sure,
Jochebed may have been the stronger Believer of the two and may have
been the main instigator of the child's preservation. There are other
instances in Scripture of the same sort, if it were so. Manoah would
have been sadly put about if it had not been for his wife when she
said, "If the Lord had meant to destroy us, He would not have showed us
such things as these."
The mother of Zebedee's children is often mentioned, while very little
is said about Zebedee. And I know there are many instances now extant
where, if we had to write the religious history of families, albeit
that the father is a good man, yet the mother, I was about to say, is
better and would be the prominent actor in any family deed of faith.
Well, let us imagine it to have been so. Jochebed, the wife, has the
stronger faith. She is not a business person. She stays at home and
looks after little Moses as she did after little Aaron and little
Miriam in their time. The father must go out brick-making and earn the
family bread. But mother at home, though not conspicuous, but rather
obscure, walks near to God and believes in Him and so becomes the very
center and pivot upon which the household rests and turns.
It is often so and blessed is that man who can say as much of his own
wife. He will never be envious of her, but rather rejoice that, if he
is Amram, God has given him a Jochebed whom his son, Moses, will
mention in years to come even if he forgets his father! The husband
will be well content to have it so, for the joy and peace which he
receives from a godly woman of decided and vigorous piety will be an
abundant compensation for being a little overshadowed in the memory of
an honored son. But what a blessing it was, dear Friends, that although
Moses does not say his father hid him, yet he had his share in it, for
Stephen says he was nourished three months in his father's house.
The father was cognizant of it, helpful in it and hopeful about it. He
was fully agreeing, consenting and assisting in all that the mother
did. Would God it were so in all families! When husband and wife fit
together in the things of God like brick and mortar, then is the house
well built! But when the mistress pulls one way and the master draws
the other– when one is for Christ and the other is for Belial–the
house is divided against itself and how can it stand? It is no marvel
when both parents serve the Lord that their children are brought up in
His fear and become their happiness and their honor! And it is equally
natural that if an ungodly father undoes all that can be done by a
godly mother, the evil example of the stronger should be followed
rather than the godly example of the weaker.
If I address any husband here who is as yet an unbeliever, I can but
pray the Lord and join my prayers with those of his wife that he may be
brought to know the Lord and rest in Him. Both the parents of Moses
believed, so my text says, and both acted by faith in disobeying the
cruel order of the king. If they had not agreed about it, I do not see
how Moses could have been concealed. But they both went together in the
hiding of the child and, dear Friends, how well it will be if we all go
together in the endeavor to bring our children to Christ! If our
prayers are united, if our example is one, if our teaching is never
contradictory, if both parents are with like earnestness seeking the
salvation of their little ones, we may rest assured the promise will be
kept, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he
will not depart from it."
II. Our second remark shall be that TRUE AND EVEN REMARKABLE FAITH MAY
ACT IN A VERY COMMONPLACE WAY. What do we read? By faith they "subdued
kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword," and so on, and so on. Why, these are great things and worthy of
mention among memorable deeds! Yes, but this, also, is great in its
way– "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his
parents." It has no trumpet ring about it like stopping lions' mouths,
quenching fires and subduing kingdoms–but in God's consideration–from
his point of view, the hiding of a little baby three months may be as
great an instance of admirable and acceptable faith as any of them!
Even turning to flight the armies of the alien may not be greater than
defeating the malice of a king by saving a little child! But you say to
me, "It was a very natural thing for a mother to do. When Pharaoh had
given orders that all the male children should be destroyed, was it not
natural enough that a mother should try to preserve her child's life?
Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb?" Yes, yes, I know all that and admit
it! But still, the Lord is not praising the natural affection, but the
supernatural faith. A very strong current is seen when Nature and faith
both set the same way. Yet it is not Nature but faith which bears the
sway!
Sometimes faith has to go against Nature, as in the case of Abraham
when he was told to offer up his son. And then faith wins the victory!
And here, though faith and Nature ran together and so made the current
stronger, still the text does not say, "By the force of Nature, by the
natural love of parents for their child, Moses was hid three months."
No, but they did it, "by faith," so the Spirit says, and He knows how
they came to do it better than we do! We would say, "Nature led them to
conceal the baby," but God says, "Faith led them to do it." And, in
their degree, both are true. Nature prompted, but faith compelled,
constrained and enabled them to do what else their timidity would not
have ventured upon.
But was it not a very simple thing to be doing by faith–the mere
hiding of a child? Yes, but not so easy as it looks. Sometimes, I
suppose, the mother said, "Hush! Hush! Hush! Dear child, you must not
cry, whatever your pain, as Egyptian children may, for if some stranger
should hear a child's cry, it will be reported to Pharaoh's murdering
officers and you will die." Many, many times the instinctive cry must
have been hushed by a mother's sedulous care. And when neighbors came
to the door, little can we tell the difficulty to put them off the
scent, to keep them from knowing that there was such a little living
treasure anywhere about the house. How often would callers in the
daytime put the family into a fever? And in the middle of the night how
readily would both parents start if someone knocked at the door, or
loitered under the window!
A rustling outside their poor little house would make them full of
alarm. They were so distressed because they were breaking the king's
law and though they were not afraid of it, they were afraid of the
king's officers who might come and seize their child. Yes, it was a
very simple thing to do, just to hide away a baby–keep it quiet and
not let anybody know about it–but it was done by faith and that makes
the act Divine. It was natural. It was simple. I admit all that, but
when
the Holy Spirit says, "By faith his parents hid him," it makes the
simple and the natural action to glow with an unusual glory, like the
bush in Horeb, which was only a bush, but yet the Lord appeared in it!
And here is the point of it, dear Friends, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters
and all of you engaged in common life–do you not see how you can use
faith to honor God in ordinary things? You think I preach by faith in
this pulpit and so I do, blessed be God! But then you can darn
stockings by faith, mend and piece and save and make a little go a long
way by faith! When you are ill, you can lie and cough by faith without
being impatient! You can keep your temper sweet with a provoking
husband, or a disobedient child by faith! You can do all sorts of
things by faith! It rides the whirlwind, but it threads a needle! It
climbs up to the Throne of God and yet it stands by a baby's cradle!
Faith can obtain the promises, but it can sit down and twist bulrushes,
boil bitumen and stir a tar pot to pitch a little ark within and
without with pitch, if it is necessary. There is nothing that faith
cannot make noble when it touches it! You need not say, "I need to get
away from my daily business, or from my domestic concerns, in order to
show my faith." No, no! Stop where you are and show it! If a soldier
wants to be brave and asks his captain what he can do, he will tell
him, "You keep rank in the day of battle. You fire your gun when the
word is given." In order to be a brave man you need not leave the
ranks, nor run up to the cannon's mouth out of mere bravado!
Soldier of Christ, just keep your place! Do the work appointed by the
great Lord, trusting in Him and believing in His power to help you. So
shall you make your life sublime, however commonplace it may appear to
carnal eyes. By faith these parents hid their child three months–a
short time, perhaps, you will think. If you had to go through their
anxieties you would reckon that it was the longest three months you
ever lived! Three months the officers are after your darling child and
every time you look it in the face you are afraid it will be snatched
away from your arms to be flung into the river. In vain, O Mother, do
you give your child its daily food! In vain do you delight in its
dimpled cheek and laughing eyes, for it must die! The crocodiles of the
Nile must feast upon that beloved flesh! Such would her fears be day
and night!
Three months both parents must have been in great distress and they
could hardly have held on under such an agony of mind if it had not
been by faith! But faith enabled them to watch during the weary days
which must have been crowded with tortures. Though the time seems short
to you who never lost a child and to all of us who never knew what it
was to live under the heart-rending peril of having our infants
murdered, yet it filled all the little world of a mother's and a
father's heart–and what could be worse? They bore the perpetual
anxiety and hid the child by faith, believing and hoping that God would
have pity upon them.
III. A third principle which we will lay down is this, that FAITH WILL
ACT WITH A VERY SLENDER
ENCOURAGEMENT. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months
by his parents, because they saw he was a proper child." As I read
these words I thought to myself, "I wonder what parents do not see
their children to be very proper children?" It seems to be the general
rule that we have, all of us–at least all mothers–the most beautiful
children that ever have been born! A slender reason, it seems, to be
for hiding a child three months! Stephen says in his speech that the
child was "exceedingly fair" and, if you look at Stephen's speech, you
will see that the translators have put in the margin, "fair to God." So
it may run, "when they saw that the child was fair to God."
Now, I gather from that expression that the child was exceedingly
beautiful–beyond the common run of children. That there was a charm
about its features, a remarkable glory about its face and something
superhuman, probably, since it was fair to God. A spiritual air floated
about the child's face, as if it bore some glimmerings of the Glory of
Sinai, of the wondrous shepherd-lawgiver who led the people 40 years
through the wilderness. In the baby's face there were prophecies of the
man of God. Surely among them that have been born of women there has
not been born a greater than Moses! And about him as a child there was
a something so striking, so marvelously beautiful, that his parents
were fascinated by him.
Now, you can get a great deal of sunshine through a little hole and you
can see a very large prospect through a small glass–and it is, as it
were, a little space that the faith of Amram and Jochebed looked
through–but they saw great things! Here was born to them a lovely
child, an extraordinary child, a child fair to God! Well, what did they
say? "This remarkable child, surely, was not brought into the world
without some purpose on the part of God with regard to it. We will keep
it alive. This is not a child that can die or shall die. We will keep
it alive. Pharaoh or no Pharaoh, such a child as this must and shall
live."
Perhaps they remembered that it was close upon the time when God had
promised to deliver His people, Israel. I should not think that
believing Israelites had quite forgotten that God had told Abraham that
they should be in bondage 400 years–and they must have known that the
time would expire within another 80 years–and it is probable that the
mother said, "There is to come a deliverer. There is something about
this child's face which makes me hope that he will be the deliverer."
Jochebed's faith that God would deliver His people was strong and so
she thought, "Perhaps this is to be the champion who shall bring Israel
out of Egypt. I will save him. I will save him! He shall be hid.
Pharaoh shall not have him. All his edicts shall not drive me to expose
him to death." She looked for a deliverer and expected him to
come–this was faith!
O dear Friends, if we had but such faith as this woman had, what
wonders we should do because we have not to look through a little
glass, but have a wide window open before us! She had no Bible! The man
who was to write the first Book in the Bible was her own little child!
She had only oral traditions handed down from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
her fathers. And she had only the fact that their child was exceedingly
comely to cheer her in this special hope. But she believed in God and
that enabled her to endure danger for her child's sake. She believed
God. Now "God who in old times spoke to His servants by the Prophets
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed
heir of
all things."
He has let the full Glory of Heaven blaze forth in the face of Jesus!
What manner of Believers ought we to be, surrounded by such a light and
nursed in the midst of such mercy? May God grant that our faith, having
so much encouragement, may act strongly to the Glory of God! But if
sometimes you should seem to have very little to catch hold upon, dear
Brother, dear Sister, do not throw away that little! If you should only
see some little token for good–some one little cloud the size of a
man's hand–still expect a shower of mercies! Even if all things should
seem to be against you, and only one thing should appear to be for you,
still draw sweet inferences from slender promises, or from what may
appear to be slender promises, for truly the Lord is good and His mercy
endures forever–and you may stay yourselves upon Him!
IV. A fourth principle is clear in the text, namely, that FAITH HAS
GREAT POWER IN OVERCOMING FEAR.
The text says they were not afraid of the king's commandment. The
king's commandment made all Egypt tremble! It does now! The Egyptians
are still the meanest of all peoples. The description given of them in
the Prophet holds good to this day! Everywhere, all over Egypt, you
will hear the stick going. No other race of men would ever bear the
beatings as the Egyptians do–the whole mass of them working,
practically, for one man–that he may spend a superabundance upon
himself. As they are now, so they have been from the beginning–a
generation of yielding slaves, trodden down perpetually by greedy
oppressors!
The Israelites in Egypt had no doubt caught very much the spirit of the
Egyptians and the spirit of the Egyptians was the exact opposite of the
spirit of a true-born Englishman! You and I rejoice that we are free.
We are in the habit of discussing laws and criticizing statutes and if
there were an unjust edict passed, we should not scruple for a single
moment to break it! We should even feel a pleasure in putting our foot
through an unrighteous act of Parliament, for we have been trained for
centuries in the habits and ways of liberty and think and speak for
ourselves! But it has never been so in Egypt and specially was it not
so in those days. Then they might well swear by the life of Pharaoh for
they all lived by the permission of Pharaoh!
They belonged to him–their lands and everything. Therefore it must
have taken a good deal for these two, son and daughter of Levi, to feel
that they could go against the king's commandment! They had a right to
do so. What right had Pharaoh to order them to destroy their children?
It was their duty to break the king's commandment and they did it
because they had faith! I am bound to admit, though I have commended
the spirit of Englishmen, that there are a great many people, even in
this country, who are very much ruled by what is called Law. The Church
established by Law will always enjoy a vast prestige because it has
royalty for its head and the State at its back. To me its connection
with the State is worthy to be called, "the king's evil," but to others
it seems a beauty spot!
To the unthinking crowd, that which is established by Law must be
right! Do the ritualistic priests come to us with legal authority?
Well, then, who among us may dare to question their doings? Have
certain rubrics been ordained by the Lords and Commons in assembled
Parliament? Has Her Majesty given consent to them? Well, then, they
must be proper and correct! A great many people have never got out of
that style of thinking and perhaps never will! Whereas, to me, it
seems to be a first principle of the Christian Church that Christ's
Kingdom is not of this world and that to all these great ones of the
earth, the only thing is to say, "Keep your hands off the Ark lest you
meet with the doom of Uzziah! Come humbly, like disciples, to sit at
the feet of Jesus and learn of Him–but do not set up to be legislators
for His dominion, nor dare to intermeddle or make rules or regulations
for the spiritual Kingdom! We care nothing for your ordinances and
regulations! You have no power here! Let Caesar have his own, but he
must not touch the things which belong to
Christ."
Now this woman, by faith, had got beyond the fear of Caesar, the Caesar
of the age, the Pharaoh of the period. Whatever he might establish by
law was just nothing at all to her. She broke away from it. There was,
no doubt, appended to Pharaoh's statute, a punishment for anybody who
should not obey the law. Perhaps four lives were in danger for the sake
of that one little life–her husband, herself, Aaron and Miriam, her
daughter. If the officers enter the house and they find that little
Moses has been saved, it may be they will destroy the family, root and
branch. That fear must have been upon her, but yet, through faith, she
will run all risks–and so will all her family risk themselves that
this promising child whom they believe God has sent to them for a noble
purpose may live!
Now, dear Friends, I want you, if you have faith in Christ, to manifest
it by overcoming all fear of the consequences of doing right. It is
right to obey God rather than man! God has the first claim upon us.
Indeed, God has the only claim upon us! We are to obey men for God's
sake! But when man's authority oversteps itself and interferes with the
authority of God, then it becomes treason to the great King to obey
even the greatest of kings! Parents and all in authority over us are to
be obeyed in all things up to that point. It stops there! I pray that
you may have Grace to do the right thing, everyone among you, even if
it costs you everything. If to be honest would make you lose your
employment. If to speak the Truth of God would bring you into trouble
about your daily bread, do it and dare it!
"We must live," says somebody. I do not know that. It might be better
to die than to live under some circumstances–certainly better to die a
martyr than to live a traitor–better to die for the right than to live
in sin! You say, "We must live." I will tell you another, "must." We
must die! And it becomes us to live with that always before us, for we
shall be called to "give an account for the things done in the body,
whether they are good or whether they are evil." Beloved, may we have
the faith that masters fear so that we can go through the world
fearless of popular opinion, fearless of ungodly censure, fearless of
the little circle around us to whom some are altogether slaves! May we
fear God and therefore be no more afraid of man's commandments. Be just
and fear no consequences! If the heavens, themselves, should shake, we
would do no wrong, nor tell a single lie to prop up the skies! Let the
sun, moon and stars come down sooner than we should, ourselves, fall
from our integrity! May faith give us such a fearless walk as this!
V. But now, fifthly, and very briefly, I want you to notice that FAITH
IS OFTEN A PRECURSOR TO GREAT
IDEAS. The mother of Moses had to hide her child. I have no doubt if
she were here and if her husband were here, they would have a long
story to tell of the things that happened–how often their hearts were
in their mouths, how frequently poor Amram was in a cold sweat because
one of his companions with whom he worked talked of going home with
him! How that prying neighbor of theirs, who always wanted to put her
finger into everybody's business, tried to find out what there was that
made Mrs. Jochebed stay at home so much.
They might relate how they were afraid, even, of their own little
children, lest they might, in their play, talk of their little brother!
What fear was upon the whole family, lest discovery should lead to
destruction, we may guess from their hiding the baby. The mother was
forced to come up with ingenuous ways to hide her child and she used
all her wits and common sense. She did not put her child in the front
room, or carry it into the street or sit at the open door and nurse it!
No, she was prudent and acted as if all depended upon her concealing
the baby.
Some people suppose that if you have faith you may act like a fool! But
faith makes a person wise. It is one of the notable points about faith
that it is sanctified common sense! That is not at all a bad definition
of faith. It is not fanaticism, it is not absurdity–it is making God
the grandest asset in our account–and then reckoning according to the
soundest logic. It is not putting my hands into boiling water with the
impression that it will not scald me! It is not doing foolish and
absurd things! Faith is believing in God and acting towards God as we
ought to do. It is treating Him, not as a cipher, but as a grand
over-topping numeral in all our additions and subtractions!
It is realizing God–that is what it is! And in that sense, faith is
the truest reason, spiritualized and lifted up out of the ordinary
sphere in which godless men choose to indulge in it. It is sanctified
reason, enlightened from on high! The
mother wants the Lord to preserve her child, but she knows that God
would have her to be the instrument of it, so she hides him. And when
she can no longer hide him, then comes that little business of making
an ark. Faith is inventive, but at the same time faith always likes a
precedent! I imagine that the mother of Moses thought of making that
ark and pitching it within and without because she had heard about
Noah's ark!
Her faith made her love the memorial of the Lord's working salvation in
days of old. She had not a book to read, but she had been told that
story about Noah's ark. "Well," said she, "I will have a little ark for
my little Noah and as I cannot otherwise save him, I will act as Noah
did when, being moved with fear, he prepared an ark for the saving of
his house." Brothers and Sisters, it is always safe for faith to think
out her plans, but if she can discover one of God's plans and adopt it,
then faith is more confident! There are always precedents if you look
for them. You can find a Noah's ark somewhere and make a little one
after that model. Of course your ark cannot be as big as Noah's, but
then, if it were, it would be too big for little Moses–he would be
lost in it! A little ark will do for a little Moses.
Go upon your own scale and work after the model which some servant of
God was taught to set you. And as you have the same God to deal with
and He has the same love to you as He had for the saints of old, you
will find the old plans work exceedingly well! Some of you young folks
always want something new of your own. Well, after a good deal of
trying all sorts of new things, I always find out that if my new plans
succeed, they turn out to have been old ones! There is nothing new
under the sun that is worth trying! As sure as ever you strike out a
new path you will find, if it is the right path at all, that somebody
went that way years before. One has wittily complained of the ancients,
that they have taken all our original thoughts and all our original
plans–and carried them out before we had an opportunity to claim them!
But still, the faith of Moses' mother was inventive. She invents the
ark, yet does she borrow from the precedent of former days! She
considers the days of old and her spirit makes diligent search–and she
acts after the way in which men of God had acted before. A critical
commentator complains that the faith of these parents was somewhat
weak. It made them go part of the way towards putting their child out
of existence by putting him out in the ark and leaving him among the
bulrushes. Well, I do not know anything about that! I am always
satisfied with not knowing what I do not know–that is to say, if I see
that God says nothing about their weak faith, I think we had better not
say anything about it, either!
By faith they did what they did and they did the best thing possible!
And if there was weakness, as probably there was, still, as a painter,
when he was sketching a favorite prince, took care to put his finger
upon an uncomely spot in his face, so does the Holy Spirit, when He
speaks of these godly parents, omit all mention of defects in their
faith! He praises their faith and it would be presumption on our part
to modify His verdict. May we have as much faith as they had when we
are tried and we shall have no need to fear.
VI. Lastly, FAITH'S SIMPLE ACTS OFTEN LEAD ON TO THE GRANDEST RESULTS.
"Take care of that child, Miriam. Do not let him cry, for fear anyone
should hear." Now, that everyday act of Miriam in nursing the baby. The
mother giving the child the breast to stop its cries. The father
watching the door and all those little things, were small matters, yet
how wonderfully they conduced to the great future by which Pharaoh's
power was broken! The whole history of Israel rested upon hiding that
little child! The whole history of Israel, did I say? Think of the
names that hung upon the child's life–Aaron, Joshua, Samson, Barak,
David, Solomon and even the Divine Baby of Bethlehem and the whole
history of Israel were connected with Moses!
Wrapped up in that child was the history of the world, for in the
Jewish people all nations were blessed and blessing comes only to us
Gentiles through the Jew! Greater blessings are yet to come by the same
channel! Oh yes, she takes care of Moses and hides him and her reward
is that Moses lives–and in due time, there he is, ready for his
work–waving his rod over the fields of Zoan, working plagues and
wonders! And there he is by the dark sea, drowning all Pharaoh's host
and then leading the people to the mount of God, even to Horeb, and
bringing them to the margin of the promised land! There he is! And he
could not have been there if by faith his mother had not hid him three
months!
You do not know all you are doing when you do little things in faith!
Brothers and Sisters, do not despise domestic duties, but bring up all
your children, your little children, in God's fear! Correct their
little habits, bear with their little ways, teach them their little
hymns–all lead up to great results! Do not, I beseech you, despise and
sin against the child! You know not what is in him, or her, or what in
God's great book of history those tiny hands are yet to write! If you
have no children but have some other sort of work to do for God, do not
think little of it! Grand events hinge on little
incidents! Great wheels turn on little axles! There is a tiny part to
each machine of unutterable importance. You never know the infinity of
the influence of a word! To the wise man nothing is little–to the fool
nothing is truly great. Make all things great by doing them by faith!
So there I finish. Have you faith in God? Are you really believing in
Him? Are you trusting in Jesus? Have you accepted His way of salvation?
My dear Friend, if you have not, you are going the wrong way to work in
everything! If I were to go into a country where there was a king and I
took note of everything except that king and the king's laws, I should
soon get into trouble. If he were a king whose power was everywhere
present and yet I never recognized him, I should certainly make a
failure of my life in his dominions!
You come into this world where God is and He is Omnipotent to bless or
curse you–will you disregard Him? You come under certain Laws of His
and if you take no note of them or Him, but live only seeing what your
eyes can see and only knowing what comes under the cognizance of your
senses, you will lead a bankrupt life and fail at the last. Why, Sirs,
I dare to say concerning myself that the grandest object of my thought
is always my God in Christ! I have most excellent and admirable friends
here who love and esteem me, but I dare not lean on one of them! I must
lean upon God alone!
He gives me many mercies and favors, but I know what it is to have been
without them and to have been just as happy as I am with them! And now
I know what it is to live above them and just live upon God! I could
bear to let all go if you leave me my God. But if there is no God, then
I am, of all men, most miserable! I have learned to live on Him, to
trust Him and to run to Him with all my troubles and I find that He
always sustains me. I go to Him with all my joys and He keeps me steady
under them. He is All in All to me and I can and do only say this much
about myself that I may recommend my Lord to you all! I beseech every
young man and woman, every middle-aged man and woman and even every old
man and woman here to taste and see that the Lord is good!
I cannot understand some of you poor people–how can you live without
God when you have so little comfort of a temporal sort? I cannot
understand you rich people–how can you live without God when He is so
good and kind to you? How can you forget Him who daily loads you with
benefits? You seem to me to get the husks and not to look for the
kernels! You are living on the outside skins and never suck the juice
of joy! The soul of life is to live to God! The peace, the deep, the
heavenly rest which the soul gets must always come by a living faith in
Jesus Christ!
I say this because there is not one among you who, if you have this
faith, may not exercise it whatever your calling may be! You may drive
horses, you may measure calico and weigh up sugar–and do all by faith
to God's Glory! You may be on the Exchange, or you may be a
book-folder, or a porter, or a nursery governess, or a plain cook–but
everywhere, faith has something to do and you can show the power of
faith in common life! God grant you may have faith worked in you by the
Holy Spirit. God is true, why do you not trust Him? God is true, why do
you not believe Him? The Christ of God is gracious, why do you not
accept Him? He loves to save sinners! He receives all them that come to
Him! Why do you not come to Him? God grant you may, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.