Suggested by the loss of the "Princess Alice,"
Delivered on Thursday Evening, September 5th, 1878, by
C.H. SPURGEON,
At the [2]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe?" 2 Samuel 18:29.
THIS WAS SAID by David after a great battle in which many had been
slain, and the hosts led by Absalom had fallen to the number of twenty
thousand; perishing not only by the sword, but among the thick oaks and
tangled briers of the wood, which concealed fearful precipices and
great caverns, into which the rebels plunged in their wild fright when
the rout set in. His father's anxious question concerned his wicked but
still well-beloved son, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" He does not
appear to have asked, "How have we won the victory?" but "Is the young
man Absalom safe?" Not "Is Joab, the captain of my host, alive, for
upon him so much depends?" but "Is the young man Absalom safe?" Not
"How many of our noble troops have fallen in the battle?" but "Is the
young man Absalom safe?" It has been said that he showed here more of
the father than of the kingmore of affection than of wisdom; and that
is, doubtless, a correct criticism upon the old man's absorbing
fondness. David was no doubt, in this case, weak in his excessive
tenderness. But, brethren, it is much more easy for us to blame a
father under such circumstances than for us quite to understand his
feelings; I may add, it would be wiser to sympathize, as far as we can,
than to sit in judgment upon a case which has never been our own.
Perhaps if we were placed in the same position we should find it
impossible to feel otherwise than he did. How many there are at this
present moment who have, no doubt, other very weighty businesses, but
whose one only thought just now is, "Is the young man safe? Is my son
safe? Is my father safe? Is my wife safe?" A vessel has gone down in
the river with hundreds on board, and weeping friends are going hither
and thither from place to place, hoping and yet fearing to identify the
corpse of some beloved one; longing to find one who has not been heard
of since the fatal hour, and trembling all the while lest they should
find him or her among the bodies which have been drawn from the cold
stream. The one thought uppermost with scores to-night is this one"Is
my beloved one safe?" Do you blame them? They are neglecting business,
and forsaking their daily toil, but do yon blame them? A hundred
weighty things are forgotten in the one eager enquiry: do you, can you,
blame them? Assuredly not. It is natural, and it is therefore, I think,
but right. Though, no doubt, David did afterwards show a measure of
petulance and of rebellion against God, and is not altogether to be
commended, yet who that has a father's heart within him would not
rather undertake to justify than to censure the aged parent? When the
old man asks concerning his son, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" and,
finding that he is not, cries, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" we
would not, like Joab, go in to him and coarsely upbraid him, however
much he might deserve it, but we would rather sit down and weep in
sympathy with those that feel a kindred anxiety, and see if we may not
learn something from their sorrow. If our own anxieties are free in
that direction, let us turn them in some other direction which may be
really useful, and tend to the glory of God.
Let us first, to-night, consider for a little this question of anxiety,
then think of occasions for its use, and then, thirdly, suggest answers
which may be given to it.
I. First, let us think of THIS QUESTION OF ANXIETY"Is the young man
Absalom safe?"
And the first remark is, it is a question asked by a father concerning
his son. "Is he safe?" The anxieties of parents are very great, and
some young people do not sufficiently reflect upon them, or they would
be more grateful, and would not so often increase them by their
thoughtless conduct. I am persuaded that there are many sons and
daughters who would not willingly cost their parents sorrow, who,
nevertheless, do flood their lives with great grief. It cannot always
be innocently that they do this: there must be a measure of wanton
wrong about it in many cases where young people clearly foresee the
result of their conduct upon their friends. There are some young men,
especially, who in the indulgence of what they call their freedom
trample on the tender feelings of her that bare them, and frequently
cause sleepless nights and crushing troubles to both their parents.
This is a crime to be answered for before the bar of God, who has given
a special promise to dutiful children, and reserves a special curse for
rebellious ones. All parents must have anxieties. There is never a babe
dropped into a mother's bosom but it brings care, labor, grief, and
anxiety with it. There is a joy in the parental relationship, but there
must necessarily be a vast amount of anxious care with it throughout
those tender years of infancy in which the frail cockle-shell boat of
life seems likely to be swamped by a thousand waves which sweep
harmlessly over stronger barques. The newly-lit candle is so readily
blown out that mothers nurse and watch with a care which frequently
saps the parental life. But our children, perhaps, do not give us most
anxiety when they are infants, nor when we have them at school, when we
can put them to bed and give them a good-night's kiss and feel that all
is safe; the heavy care comes afterwardsafterwards when they have
broken through our control, when they are running alone, and on their
own account, when they are away from our home, when they are out of the
reach of our rebuke, and do not now feel as once they did the power of
our authority, and hardly of our love. It is then to many parents that
the time of severe trial begins, and, doubtless, many a grey head has
been brought with sorrow to the grave by having to cry, "I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me."
Many a father and many a mother die, murdered, not with knife or
poison, but by unkind words and cruel deeds of their own children. Many
and many a grave may well be watered by the tears of sons and
daughters, because they prematurely filled those graves by their
ungrateful conduct. Let us all think, who still have parents spared to
us, how much we owe to them, and let it be our joy, if we cannot
recompense them, at any rate to give them so much of comfort by our
conduct as shall show our gratitude. Let them have such joy in us that
they may never regret the anxieties of past years, but may have their
hearts made to rejoice that they brought into the world such sons and
daughters. If we have had parents who did care for us, and anxiously
said, "Are they safe?" let us be grateful to God, and let us never show
that we undervalue his mercy by treating the boon with contempt.
Secondly, this was a question asked about a son who had left his
father's house. "Is the young man Absalom safe?" As I have already
said, we have not so much anxiety about our children when they are at
home and when the nursery holds them as we have afterwards when they
are beyond our reach. They have formed their own attachments, and have
commenced life entirely on their own account. Even if they are in the
same town, we are concerned for their welfare; but if they are in
another land, we have still more anxious thoughts. Possibly some of you
have your sons and daughters far removed from you, and I do not doubt
that, if it be so, you often start at night with the question, "How
fares it with my boy? How is it with my son?" He is far away there, an
emigrant, or a sailor at sea, or in some distant country town engaged
in earning his livelihood, and you wonder whether he is alive and well.
If you know him to be on shore, you would fain know whether he goes
regularly to the house of God on the Sabbath-day. You wonder where he
spends his evenings. You wonder into what sort of company he may have
fallen, what sort of master or shopmates he lives with, and what are
the influences of his home. I am quite sure that such anxious questions
frequently plough deep furrows across your minds. There are some young
men here to-night, in London, come to live in our great city, and I
want kindly to remind them of the tender thoughts about them at
homehow mother and father, perhaps at this very hour, are thinking of
them and praying for them. They would be glad, probably, to know that
their son is where he is, but they might have sorrow if they knew where
sometimes he wastes his evenings, and where he has begun to spend a
part of his Sabbath-day. They would be grieved to know that he is
beginning to forget the habits formed at homethat now in the room
where there are others sleeping he is afraid to bow his knee in
prayerthat the Bible in which his mother wrote his name, and
concerning which the promise was given that there should be a portion
read every day has not been read, but some book of very doubtful
character has taken its place. Young friend, some of us who are a
little older know your experience of leaving home, and we trust you
will know our experience of having been followed by the prayers and
tears of parents who have lived to rejoice that their prayers for us
were abundantly answered. May it be so in your case, for, if not, you
will go from bad to worse and perish in your sin. Yet it is very hard
for a young man to go down to hell, riding steeple-chase over a
mother's prayers. It takes a great deal of energy to damn yourself when
a father and a mother are pleading for your salvation, and yet there
are some who accomplish it; and, when they come into the place of ruin
and destruction, surely there shall be a heavier measure meted out to
them than to those who were trained in the gutter and tutored in the
street, and never knew what it was to be the subjects of parental
prayer. O Lord Jesus, thou who didst raise the widow's dead son, save
those sons who are dead in trespasses and in sins, who are even now
being carried out to be buried in the tomb of vice and corruption.
"Is the young man Absalom safe?" may very readily remind us of the
anxieties of Christian parents about their sons and daughters when they
are away from home.
But there is a touching point about this. It is the question of a
father about his rebellious son. Absalomthe young man Absalomwhy
should David be concerned about him? Was he not up in arms against him?
Did he not thirst for his father's blood? Was he not at the head of a
vast host, seeking anxiously to slay his father, that he might wear his
crown, which he had already usurped. Why, methinks, he might have said,
"Is the young man Absalom dead? for if he is out of the way there will
be peace to my realm, and rest to my troubled life." But no, he is a
father, and he must love his own offspring. It is a father that speaks,
and a father's love can survive the enmity of a son. He can live on and
love on even when his son seeks his heart's blood. What a noble passion
is a mother's love or a father's love! It is an image in miniature of
the love of God. How reverently ought we to treat it! How marvelously
has God been pleased to endow, especially godly people, with the sacred
instinct of affection towards their children, an instinct which God
sanctifies to noblest ends. Our children may plunge into the worst of
sins, but they are our children still. They may scoff at our God; they
may tear our heart to pieces with their wickedness; we cannot take
complacency in them, but at the same time we cannot unchild them, nor
erase their image from our hearts. We do earnestly remember them still,
and shall do so as long as these hearts of ours shall beat within our
bosoms. I have now and then met with professing Christians who have
said, "That girl shall never darken my door again." I do not believe in
their Christianity. Whenever I have met with fathers who are
irreconcilable to their children, I am convinced that they are
unreconciled to God. It cannot be possible that there should exist in
us a feeling of enmity to our own offspring after our hearts have been
renewed; for if the Lord has forgiven us, and received us into his
family, surely we can forgive the chief of those who have offended us;
and when they are our own flesh and blood we are doubly bound to do so.
To cast off our own children is unnatural, and that which is unnatural
cannot be gracious. If even publicans and sinners forgive their
children, much more must we. Let them go even to extremities of
unheard-of sin, yet as the mercy of God endureth for ever, so must the
love of a Christian parent still endure. If David says, "Is the young
man Absalom safe?" we have none of us had a son that has acted one half
so badly as Absalom; and we must, therefore, still forgive and feel a
loving interest in those who grieve us.
At this time I would address any young person who has heen a great
grief to those at home? Do you treat this matter lightly? Do your
parents' anxieties seem to you to be foolishness? Ah, let me remind you
that though your course of life may be sport to you, it is death to
those at home. You may dry up your heart towards your mother, but your
mother's heart still overflows with love to you. You may even count it
a joke that you have caused her tears; but those tears are sincere, and
reveal her inward agony of soul. Can you ridicule such tender
affection? I have known some young people who have fallen so low as to
have made mockery of their parents' piety. It is a horrible thing to
do, and woe unto those who have been guilty of it. Yet many Christian
parents only return prayers and greater affection for such unkindness
as this, and still go on to lay their children's case before God, and
beseech him for his mercy's sake to have mercy upon them. Now, erring
young man, since there is something human remaining in you, I appeal to
your tenderer nature that you will not continue to offend against such
marvellous love, and will not wantonly go on to trample on such patient
forgiveness. Absalom, if he could have heard his father ask the
question, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" was, I doubt not, bad enough
still to have rebelled against him; but I hope it is not so with anyone
here; nay, I trust that when the most wilful shall see the deep and
true love of their parents' hearts they will hasten to be reconciled to
them, and spend the rest of their lives in undoing the ill which they
have done.
The question of my text is the question of a parent concerning a son
who, if he were not safe, but dead, was certainly in a very dreadful
plight. "Is the young man Absalom safe?" said David, with all the
deeper earnestness because he felt that if he was not alive he was in
an evil case. He has died red-handed in rebellion against his
fatherinto what shades must his guilty soul have descended? O beloved,
that is a very serious question to ask about any departed person. Where
is he? Is his soul safe? I could almost pray that, when any die by
sudden death, they might be God's people, and that the sinners might
escape till they have found Christ. We admire that Christian man who,
finding himself with another at the bottom of a coal pit, was about to
ascend in the cage. There was only a chance for one, for the basket
would hold no more. He had taken his place, but he left it, and said to
the other miner, "My soul is saved; I am a believer in Christ. You are
not. If you die you are a lost man. Jump into the cage." Thus he
allowed his unconverted companion to escape. and ventured his own life
in his stead. If we are ourselves in Christ, it would be Christlike to
be ready to die instead of the unsaved; then should we carry out
David's wish"Would God I had died for thee." To diethe bitterness of
death is passed where there is a good hope through grace; but for those
to die who have no hope, no Christ, no heaventhis is death indeed. I
can very well imagine any of you asking very seriously about your sons
and daughters, "Are they safe?" when you know that if they have been
suddenly taken away they were altogether unprepared. If men and women
are unconverted when they die they will die twice, and the second death
is the most to be feared. Are not some of you, my hearers, in such
danger? Dear friends, where would you be suppose at this moment the
blast of death were to pass through this house and chill your very
marrow? If, now, the secret arrow must find a target in some one bosom,
where would you be if it should be ordained for you? Do ask yourself
the question, and, if you have no hope in Christ, God help you to seek
and find forgiveness by the precious blood of Jesus.
Yet, once more, this was a question, alas! which was asked by a father
about a son who was really dead at the time when the question was
asked. It was late in the day to enquire for Absalom's safety; for it
was all over with that rebellious son. The three darts of Joab had gone
through the very heart of Absalom, and there, hanging by its hair in
the oak, his body dangled between earth and heaven. He had already been
justly executed for his crimes, and yet his father asked, "Is the young
man Absalom safe?" It is too late to ask questions about our children
when they are dead. I should think that David's heart must have been
pierced with many sorrows at the thought of his own negligence of his
children, for there are hints in his life which lead us to fear that,
if not altogether an Eli, he was far too negligent in the matter of
household management. We read of one son of his that his father had
never denied him anything, and I can hardly imagine a man to be a good
father of whom that could be said concerning any one of his sons. The
practice of polygamy is altogether destructive of proper family
discipline, and David had erred greatly in that respect; besides which
he was so occupied with public affairs, that his sons were allowed too
great a liberty. And now he is vainly asking "Is the young man Absalom
safe?" The question is too late. It is of no use to wring your hands if
your boy has grown up to be a debauchee and a drunkard: train him while
he is yet young, and bring him with your prayers and tears to Christ
while yet a child. Mother, it will little avail you to tear your hair
because of a daughter's dishonor if you have permitted her to go into
society where temptations abound. Let us do for our children what we
can do for them while they are little ones. While the warm metal flows,
as it were, soft and plastic, let us try to turn it into the right
mould: for if it once grows cold, we may beat it in vain, it will not
take the desired image and superscription, Oh that those of us who have
little children about us may have grace to train them up in the way
they should go, for when they are old they will not depart from it. You
cannot bend the tree, but you can twist the sapling: look ye well to
it. Snatch the opportunity while yet it is before you, lest, when your
children have plunged into sin, or may even have plunged into the pit,
you vex your souls in vain and cry, "Woe is me." I shall never forget
the anguish of a poor illiterate woman whom I had been the means of
leading to Christ. She was rejoicing in Christ when I had seen her
before, but when I saw her next she was in great sorrow and bondage of
spirit, and I said to her, "What aileth thee?" She replied, "My
children! my children! They are all grown up, and they are all ungodly.
My husband died and left me a widow with five or six of them. I worked
hard morning and night, as you know I must have done, to find them
clothes and food; and I brought them up as well as I could; but, woe's
me, I never thought about their souls. How could I?" said she, "for I
never thought about my own; and now I am saved, but they are all
worldly and careless. and I cannot undo the mischief." She told me
that, touched with a feeling of love to her children, she had resolved
to go and speak to each of them about their eternal state; and she made
her first visit to her eldest son, who had a family of children around
him, and when she began to tell him about her conversion and her
salvation and joy in the Lord, he so cruelly laughed her to scorn that
it broke her heart. I did all I could to cheer and comfort her; but I
can only say to younger persons, who are converted whilst still they
have their little ones about them, never let the occasion go, lest you
have to cry out at last, "O Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God
I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son! for thou hast fallen in thy
iniquity, and it may be thy blood will be required at thy parent's
hands." God grant that this question of anxiety may be asked in time by
wise parents, and not left till its answer shall smite as doth a
dagger.
II. Secondly. You have had the question; we are now to speak upon SOME
OCCASIONS WHEN THAT QUESTION WOULD VERY NATURALLY BE USED. "Is the
young man Absalom safe?"
The question would be used, of course, in times, like the present, in
reference to this mortal life. When a fearful calamity has swept away
hundreds at a stroke such an enquiry is on every lip. On Wednesday
morning how many families must have looked down those fearful lists,
having been up all night watching and waiting for some one who did not
come home. What a dreadful night to spend in watching for son or
father, or daughter or mother; and how awful the tidings of the
morning! In the case of a family near my own house, the servant was
left at home with one little babe, and all the rest of the family went
out for a day's pleasure and health-seeking. Nobody has ever come home!
Nobody has come to relieve the servant and embrace the child! You may
imagine the anxiety of that servant with her little charge, to find
master and mistress and the rest never coming home. There is also a
case of a mother upstairs with a new-born little one at her side, and
her husband and her other children, who had gone out, never returned.
May we never know such sorrow! Then is the question asked in accents of
terror, "Is the young man Absalom safe?"
Times of disease, also, raise such enquiries. Well do I recollect some
four-and-twenty years ago, when first I came to London, it was my
painful duty to go, not only by day, but by night, from house to house
where the cholera was raging; and almost every time I met the beloved
friends at Park Street it was my sorrow to hear it said, "Mr. So-and-so
is dead. Mistress A. or B. is gone," till I sickened myself from very
grief. It was then most natural that each one should say concerning his
relative at a little distance," Is he still alive? Is he still safe?"
Now, if in any future day the shadow of a disaster should cross your
path, and you should be in fear that your beloved ones are lost, I pray
you, if you are Christian people, exercise faith at such a time, and
stay yourselves upon God. Recollect, if you become so anxious as to
lose your clearness of mind, you will not be fit for the emergency. It
may be that by retaining calmness of soul you will be of service; but
by giving up the very helm of your mind, and allowing yourself to drift
before the torrent of anxiety, you will become useless and helpless. In
patience possess your souls. The world is in God's hand after all. The
young man Absalom will not die without the appointment of heaven. Your
children are not out of the keeping of the Most High. However dear they
are to you, and however great their peril, there is One that ruleth and
overruleth; and quiet prayer has more power with him than impatient
fretfulness. If your dear ones are dead you cannot restore them to life
by your unbelief; and if they still survive, it will be a pity to be
downcast and unbelieving when there is no occasion for it. "Your
strength is to sit still." Remember that you are a Christian, and a
Christian is expected to be more self-possessed than those who have no
God to fly to. The holy self-composedness of faith is one of the things
which recommend it to the outside world, and men who see Christian men
and women calm, when others are beside themselves, are led to ask,
"What is this?" and unconsciously to own, "This is the finger of God."
So when you ask the painful question before us, ask it still with faith
in God.
But, dear friends, sometimes we have to ask this question about friends
and children, with regard to their eternal life. hey are dead, and we
are fearful that they did not die in Christ, and therefore we enquire,
"Is the young man Absalom safe?" It is very painful to the Christian
minister when that question is put to him, and it is not for him to
answer it in most cases. As a rule he knows too little of the person to
form a judgment. He may, perhaps, have paid a visit or two, and he may
have been encouraged by a few hopeful words: but what can we judge from
a dying-bed? It is very easy for a dying person to be deceived and to
deceive others, and we had better leave judgments and decisions in the
hand of God. Those who know all about the person's life, and have been
in the chamber all the time of his sickness, and know more, how should
they judge? I answer, where there has been no previous godly life,
where the conversion must have been a very late one, and the signs and
marks of it are feeblejudge hopefully, but judge honestly. You are
allowed to hope, but still be honest, and avoid, above all things, the
unwisdom I have seen in some people of holding up a son or a daughter
or a friend for an example, when the individual has lived an ungodly
life, and never showed the slightest sign of grace while in active
life, but merely used a pious expression or two at the last. Hope if
you dare, but be very careful of what you say. To parade the few last
words as if they had more weight in them than a long life cast into the
other scale is very unwise. It is most injurious to the rest of the
family, and is apt to make them feel that they may live as they like,
and yet be considered saints when they die. I rather admire, though I
might not imitate, a father who, on the contrary, when his ungodly son
died, said to his sons and daughters, "My dear children, much as I wish
I could have any hope about your brother, his whole life was so
inconsistent with anything like that of a Christian, that I fear he is
lost for ever. I must warn you earnestly not to live as he lived, lest
you should die as he died." There was honesty in such dealing, honesty
to be admired. If you must judge and answer the question, "Is the young
man Absalom safe?" be not so hopeful as to deceive yourselves and
others, and be not so severe as to constitute yourselves judges upon a
matter in which you can know, after all, but little, unless the whole
life has been before you. In that case you may judge with some degree
of certainty, for it is written, "By their fruits shall ye know them."
"Is the young man Absalom safe? " is a more practical question when we
put it about young people and old people, when they are still alive,
and we are anxious about their spiritual condition. "Is the young man
Absalom safe?" That is to say, is he really safe for the future?for
this world and for the world to come. We saw him in the enquiry-room,
we heard him speak out his anxiety, and we marked his tears; but is he
safe? Not if he stops there. We have seen him since then at the house
of God amongst the most earnest hearers. He leans forward to catch
every syllable: he is evidently in earnest; but is he safe? Not if he
stops there. He is a seeker: there can be no doubt about it. He has now
begun to read his Bible, and he endeavors to draw near to God in
prayer. Is he safe? Not if he stops even there. He must come to faith
in Jesus Christ and really cast himself upon the great atonement made
by the redeeming blood, or else he is not safe. The question for you
Sunday-school teachers to ask about your children is, Are they safe?
Have they reached the point in which they turn from darkness to
lightfrom the power of Satan to the power of Christ? "Is the young man
Absalom safe?" Is he saved? That is the point.
I believe there is a denomination of Christians who receive into
membership those who desire to be saved. I will not judge such a plan,
but I dare not follow it. To desire to be saved is a very simple
matter, and means little. The point is to be saved. That is the
question, and over it all our anxiety should be expended. "Is the young
man Absalom"not hopeful, not aroused or convicted, but is he "safe"?
Is he saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation? Hear it all of
you, and answer for yourselves.
III. The third point is to be THE ANSWERS WHICH WE HAVE TO GIVE TO THIS
QUESTION"Is the young man Absalom safe?"
This question has often been sent up by friends from the country about
their lads who have come to London"Is my boy Harry safe! Is my son
John safe?" Answer, sometimes: "No, no. He is not safe. We are sorry to
say that he is in great danger." I will tell you when we know he is not
safe.
He is not safe if, like Absalom, he is at enmity with his father. Oh,
no. He may attend a place of worship, and he may profess to pray, and
he may even take upon himself the name of a Christian; but he is not
safe if he is at enmity with his parents. That will not do at all.
Scripture saith, "If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how
can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The words are quite as forcible
if we read father instead of brother. If a man love not his own parents
on earth, how can he love his Father who is in heaven? No, no; he is
not safe.
"Is the young man safe?" Well, no. We have seen him lately in bad
company. He has associated with other young men who are of loose
morals. He prefers to spend his evenings where there may be bare
decency in the songs and the conversation, but scarcely more. No, the
young man Absalom is not safe there. He may be very moral himself, but
he will not long remain pure if he goes into such society. If you sit
among coals, if you do not burn yourself, you will blacken yourself. If
you choose bad company, if you are not absolutely made to transgress as
they do, yet you will damage your reputation. No, the young man Absalom
is not safe.
And he is not safe, because he has taken to indulge in expensive
habits. "Absalom prepared him," it is said, "chariots and horses, and
fifty men to run before him." This extravagance was a sign of evil. A
youth who lavishes money upon needless luxuries is not safe. Certain
young men of London, with small salaries, manage to cut a superb
figure, and we fear that something wrong lies behind it. Their plain
but honest and respected fathers certainly would not know them if they
were to see them in full array. It is a bad sign when young men go in
for dash and show beyond their position and means. Of course, every
man's expenditure must be regarded with reference to his income and
station in life. I am not touching upon the style of men of rank and
fortune, though even there a vain-glorious appearance is the index of
evil; but there are some young fellows scarcely out of their teens, or
who have scarcely ended their apprenticeships, whose pocket-money must
be easy to count, who nevertheless indulge themselves in all sorts of
extravagances, and when I see them doing so I feel sure that the "young
man Absalom" is not safe.
Another thing. The young man Absalom is not safe, as you may see, if
you look at his personal appearance. We read, "But in all Israel there
was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole
of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year's end that he
polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:)
he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's
weight." When young people are taken up with their own persons, and are
vain of their hair, their looks, and their dress, we are sure that they
are not safe, for pride is always in danger. Let young men and women
dress according to their stations; we are not condemning them for that.
I recollect Mr. Jay saying, "If you ladies will tell me your income to
a penny, I will tell you how many ribbons you may wear to a yard"; and
I think that I might venture to say the same. But I do notice that when
young people begin to be vain of their beauty and fond of dress they
are in great peril from various kinds of temptations. There is a
canker-worm somewhere in their brain or their heart that will eat up
their good resolutions and fair characters. No, the young man with his
boasted beauty is not safe.
And we are sure the young man Absalom is not safe, when he has begun to
be vicious. You recollect what Absalom did: I need not go into
particulars. Now, many a young man, albeit he is not reckoned a bad
fellow, has still gone astray in private life, and if all secrets were
laid bare, he would be almost ashamed to sit among respectable people
who now receive him into their society. No, he is not safe.
"Is the young man Absalom safe?" No, David, he is not, for the last
time we saw him he was in a battle, and the people were dying all
around him, and therefore he is not safe. How can he be safe where
others fall? Yes, and I saw the young man come out of a low place of
amusement late one night, and I thought, "No, the young man Absalom is
not safe," for many perish there. I heard of his betting at the races,
and I thought, "The young man Absalom is not safe, for multitudes are
ruined there." I saw him in loose company one evening, and I said, "No,
the young man Absalom is not safe: he is surrounded by those who hunt
for the precious life." It is never safe for us to be where other
people fall; because if they perish, why should not we? The youth did
not see this but answered me fiercely when I pointed out his danger. He
said that he knew how to keep himself: it was not to be taken for
granted, because he was going in for amusements, that he would become
vicious. "Of course," said he, "there are young fellows who cannot take
care of themselves, but I am quite able to look after myself. I can put
on the drag whenever I please; I am gay, but I am not bad; I am free,
but not vicious." Yes, but I wrote down, "The young man Absalom is not
safe"not half so safe as he thinks he isand all the less safe,
because he thinks so much of himself, and is so particularly sure that
he can conquer where other people perish. No, the young man Absalom is
not safe.
Now, the young man is here to-night who will answer to the next
description. He is a very nice young fellow. All of us who know him
love him and are right glad to see him among us. He is a great hearer
and lover of the gospel word, but he is not decided. He has never taken
his stand with God's people, confessing Christ as his Lord. "Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian," he has often said; but he is not
quite persuaded yet. Is the young man safe? Oh, no. He is very hopeful,
God bless him! We will pray him into safety if we can; but he is not
safe yet. Those people who were almost saved from the wreck of the
Princess Alice were drowned; and those persons who are almost saved
from sin are still lost. If you are almost alive you are dead; if you
are almost forgiven you are under condemnation; if you are almost
regenerated you are unregenerate; if you are almost a Christian you are
without God and without hope, and if you die almost saved you will be
altogether lost.
O my dear young brother, I wish that I could answer and say, "Yes, the
young man Absalom is safe: he has taken the decisive step, he has
resigned himself into the hands of Jesus, and Jesus will keep him to
the end." May the Holy Ghost lead you to this.
A pleasant task remains, I will now answer that question with a happy
"Yes." Yes, the young man Absalom is safe.
Why? Well, first, because he is a believer in Christ. He has cast
himself upon Jesus. He knew that he could not save himself, and so he
came to Christ that Christ might save him, and he has left himself
entirely in the hands of Jesus to be his for ever and ever.
The young man is saved, for he loves the gospel. He will not go to hear
anything but the gospel. He sticks to the truth, he knows the
unadulterated milk of the Word, and he cannot be deceived and led
astray with false doctrine, for that he hates. He does not gad about to
go and hear this and that, but he knows what has saved his soul, and he
holds fast the form of sound words. The young man is safe.
I know he is safe, for he is very humble. He is not perfect yet: he
does not say that he is, nor boast of his attainments. He does not want
to be the forehorse of the team, he is willing to be placed anywhere so
that he can be useful. He often wonders that he is a Christian at all,
and ascribes it all to divine grace. He is a lowly young man, and
therefore he is safe enough, for such the Lord preserveth.
Moreover, he is very diffident of himself. He is afraid sometimes to
put one foot before another for fear he should take a wrong step. He is
always going on his knees to ask for direction; he waits upon God for
guidance, and does not dare to do anything without the direction of the
word and the Spirit. He is a prayerful man, and therefore he is safe;
for who can hurt the man who dwells at the mercy-seat? He is also a
very careful man in his daily walk. He labors to be obedient to the
will of God, he aims at being holy, and to be holy is to be safe.
Worldlings say that he is a cant and a hypocrite, and thus they have
set their stamp on him, and marked him as a follower of the despised
Redeemer. He is a genuine character, or else they would not persecute
him. The people of God love him, and he loves them, and he dwells among
them, and says of the house of God,
"Here my best friends, my kindred dwell, Here God my Savior reigns."
Write home to his father and all his friends, and say, "The young man
is safe." He is in Christ, and he is in Christ's church, and he is
seeking to serve God. He is beginning to work for the Master, he is
trying to bring souls to Jesus; the Holy Spirit is working in him and
by him to the glory of God. Yes, he is safe enough, for he is "Safe in
the arms of Jesus."
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Psalm 90.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"90, 566, and "Safe in the arms of Jesus"
(25 "Flowers and Fruits.").