DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
1 Corinthians 9:22.
IT is a grand thing to see a man thoroughly possessed with one master
passion. Such a man is sure to be strong and if the master principle is
excellent, he is sure to be excellent, too. The man of one objective is
a man, indeed. Lives with many aims are like water trickling through
innumerable streams, none of which is wide enough or deep enough to
float the merest cockleshell of a boat. But a life with one objective
is like a mighty river flowing between its banks, bearing to the ocean
a multitude of ships and spreading fertility on either side. Give me a
man not only with a great objective in his soul, but thoroughly
possessed by it–his powers all concentrated and he on fire with
vehement zeal for his supreme objective–and you have put before me one
of the greatest sources of power which the world can produce!
Give me a man engrossed with holy love as to his heart and filled with
some masterly celestial thought as to his brain and such a man will be
known wherever his lot may be cast and I will venture to prophesy that
his name will be remembered long after the place of his sepulcher shall
be forgotten. Such a man was Paul. I am not about to set him upon a
pedestal, that you may look at him and wonder, much less that you may
kneel down and worship him as a saint. I mention Paul because what he
was, we ought, every one of us to be. And though we cannot share in his
office, not being Apostles and though we cannot share in his talents or
in his inspiration, yet we ought to be possessed by the same spirit
which actuated him and, let me also add, we ought to be possessed by it
in the same degree!
Do you object to that? I ask you what was there in Paul, by the Grace
of God, which may not be in you? And what had Jesus done for Paul more
than for you? He was divinely changed and so have you been if you have
passed from darkness into marvelous light! He had much forgiven and so
have you, also, been freely pardoned. He was redeemed by the blood of
the Son of God and so have you been–at least you profess to have been.
He was filled with the Spirit of God and so are you if you are truly
such as your Christian profession makes you out to be. Owing, then,
your salvation to Christ, being debtors to the precious blood of Jesus
and being quickened by the Holy Spirit, I ask you why there should not
be the same fruit from the same sowing?
Why not the same effect from the same cause? Do not tell me that the
Apostle was an exception and cannot be set up as a rule or model for
common folk, for I shall have to tell you that we must be such as Paul
was if we hope to be where Paul is. Paul did not think that he had
attained, neither was already perfect. Shall we think him to be so?
Shall we think him to be so as to regard him to be matchless and so be
content to fall short of what he was? No! Let it be our incessant
prayer, as Believers in Christ, that we may be followers of Paul so far
as he followed Christ! And where he failed to set his feet in his
Lord's footprints, may we even outstrip him and be more zealous, more
devoted to Christ than even the Apostle of the Gentiles! O that the
Holy Spirit would bring us to be like our Lord Jesus Himself!
At this time I shall have to speak to you upon Paul's great objective
in life. He tells us it was to "save some." We will then look into
Paul's heart and show you a few of the great reasons which made him
think it so important that at least some should be saved. Then,
thirdly, we will indicate certain of the means which the Apostle used
to that end. We will speak with this end in view–that you, my dear
Hearers, may seek to "save some." That you may seek this because of
potent reasons which you cannot withstand and that you may seek it with
wise methods such as shall, in the end, succeed.
I. First, then, Brothers and Sisters, WHAT WAS PAUL'S GREAT OBJECTIVE
IN HIS DAILY LIFE AND MINISTRY? He says it was to save some. There are
ministers of Christ present, at this hour, together with City
Missionaries, Bible-Women, Sunday school teachers and other workers in
my Master's vineyard. And I make bold to enquire of each one of
them–is this your objective in all your Christian service? Do you,
above all things, aim at saving souls? I am afraid that some have
forgotten this grand objective. But, dear Friends, anything short of
this is unworthy to be the great end of a Christian's life!
I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men and as
long as people can be gathered in crowds and their ears can be tickled
and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is
content and folds his hands and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did
not lay himself out to please the public and collect the crowd! If he
did not save them, he felt that it was of no use to interest them.
Unless the Truth of God had pierced their hearts, affected their lives
and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, "Who has
believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
It seems to be the opinion of a large party in the present day that the
objective of Christian effort should be to educate men. I grant you
that education is, in itself, an exceedingly valuable thing, so
valuable that I am sure the whole Christian Church rejoices greatly
that at last we have a national system of education which only needs to
be carefully carried out and every child in this land will have the
keys of knowledge in his hand. Whatever price others may set upon
ignorance, we are promoters of knowledge–and the more it can be
spread, the better shall we be pleased. But if the Church of God thinks
that it is sent into the world merely to train the mental faculties, it
has made a very serious mistake, for the objective of Christianity is
not to educate men for their secular callings, or even to train them in
the politer arts or the more elegant professions, or to enable them to
enjoy the beauties of Nature or the charms of poetry.
Jesus Christ came not into the world for any of these things, but He
came to seek and to save that which was lost! And on the same errand
has He sent His Church–and she is a traitor to the Master who sent her
if she is beguiled by the beauties of taste and art to forget that to
preach Christ and Him Crucified is the only objective for which she
exists among the sons of men! The business of the Church is salvation!
The minister is to use all means to save some! He is no minister of
Christ if this is not the one desire of his heart. Missionaries sink
far below their level when they are content to civilize–their first
objective is to save. The same is true of the Sunday school teacher and
of all other workers among children–if they have merely taught the
child to read, to repeat hymns and so forth, they have not yet touched
their true vocation. We must have the children saved! At this nail we
must drive and the hammer must come down upon this head always–if by
all means I may save some–for we have done nothing unless some are
saved!
Paul does not even say that he tried to moralize men. The best promoter
of morality is the Gospel. When a man is saved, he becomes moral–he
becomes more–he becomes holy. But to aim first at morality is
altogether to miss the mark! If we did attain it–and we shall not–yet
we should not have attained that for which we were sent into the world!
Dr. Chalmers' experience is a very valuable one to those who think that
the Christian ministry ought to preach up mere morality, for he says
that in his first parish he preached morality and saw no good whatever
arising out of his exhortations. But, as soon as he began to preach
Christ Crucified, then there was a buzz and a stir and much
opposition–but Grace prevailed!
He who wishes for perfumes must grow the flowers. He who desires to
promote morality must have men saved. He who wants motion in a corpse
should first seek life for it and he who desires to see a rightly
ordered life should first desire an inward renewal by the Holy Spirit.
We are not to be satisfied when we have taught men their duties towards
their neighbors, or even their duties towards God–this would suffice
for Moses, but not for Christ! The Law came by Moses, but Grace and
Truth came by Jesus Christ. We teach men what they ought to be, but we
do far more–by the power of the Gospel applied by the Holy Spirit, we
make them what they ought to be by the power of God's Spirit. We put
not before the blind the things that they ought to see, but we open
their eyes in the name of Jesus! We tell not the captive how free he
ought to be, but we open the door and take away his fetters! We are not
content to tell men what they must be, but we show them how this
character can be attained and how Jesus Christ freely presents all that
is essential to eternal life to all those who come and put their trust
in Him.
Now observe, Brothers and Sisters, if I, or you, or any of us, or all
of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating
men, or moralizing men–when we shall come to give an account at the
Last Great Day, we shall be in a very sorry condition and we shall have
but a very sorry record to render. For of what use will it be to a man
to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be
to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds and Heaven and earth
are shaking and the Pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the
unsaved soul? Of what use, even, to have moralized a man if he is still
on the left hand of the Judge and if, "Depart, you cursed," shall be
his portion? Blood red with the murder of men's souls will be the
skirts of professing Christians unless the drift and end and aim of all
their work has been to "save some."
Oh, I beseech you, especially you, dear Friends, who are working in
Sunday and Ragged Schools and elsewhere, do not think that you have
done anything unless the children's souls are saved! Settle it that
this is the top and bottom of the business and throw your whole
strength in the name of Christ and by the power of the Eternal Spirit
into this one objective–if by any means you may save some and bring
some to Jesus that they may be delivered from the wrath to come! What
did Paul mean by saying that he desired to save some? What is it to be
saved? Paul meant by that nothing less than that some should be born
again–for no man is saved until he is made a new creature in Christ
Jesus! The old nature cannot be saved–it is dead and corrupt. The best
thing that can be done with it is to let it be crucified and buried in
the sepulcher of Christ.
There must be a new nature implanted in us by the power of the Holy
Spirit or we cannot be saved. We must be as much new creations as if we
had never been–we must come a second time as fresh from the hand of
the Eternal God as if we had been molded today by Divine wisdom as Adam
was in Paradise! The Great Teacher's words are, "The wind blows where
it wishes and you hear the sound thereof, but you cannot tell where it
comes nor where it goes; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit."
"Except a man is born again from above he cannot see the kingdom of
God." This, then, Paul meant, that men must be new creatures in Christ
Jesus and we must never rest till we see such a change worked upon
them! This must be the objective of our teaching and of our praying,
indeed, the objective of our lives, that "some" may be regenerated.
He meant, in addition to that, that some might be cleansed from their
past iniquity through the merit of the atoning Sacrifice of the Son of
God. No man can be saved from his sin except by the Atonement. Under
the Jewish Law it was written, "Cursed is everyone that continues not
in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them." That
curse has never been reversed and the only way to escape from it is
this–Jesus Christ was made a curse for us, as it is written, "Cursed
is every one that hangs on a tree." Now, he who believes in Jesus, who
puts his hand upon the head of Jesus of Nazareth, the Scapegoat of His
people, has lost his sins! His faith is sure evidence that his
iniquities were of old laid upon the head of the great Substitute. The
Lord Jesus Christ was punished in our place and we are no longer
obnoxious to the wrath of God. Behold, the sin-atoning Sacrifice is
slain and offered on the Altar and the Lord has accepted it–and is so
well pleased that He has declared that whoever believes in Jesus is
fully and eternally forgiven!
Now, we long to see men thus forgiven. We pine to bring the prodigal's
head to the Father's bosom, the wandering sheep to the Good Shepherd's
shoulder, the lost piece of money into the owner's hands and until this
is done, nothing is done! I mean, Brothers and Sisters, nothing
spiritually, nothing eternally, nothing that is worthy of the agony of
a Christian's life, nothing that can be looked upon as deserving of an
immortal spirit's spending all its fires upon it. O Lord, our soul
yearns to see Jesus rewarded by the salvation of the blood-bought. Aid
us to lead souls to Him!
Once more. When the Apostle wished that he might save some he meant
that being regenerated and being pardoned, they might also be purified
and made holy, for a man is not saved while he lives in sin. Let a man
say what he will, he cannot be saved from sin while he is the slave of
it! How is a drunk saved from drunkenness while he still riots as
before? How can you say that the swearer is saved from blasphemy while
he is still profane? Words must be used in their true meaning. The
great objective of the Christian's work should be that some might be
saved from their sins–purified and made white–and made examples of
integrity, chastity, honesty and righteousness as the fruit of the
Spirit of God. And where this is not the case we have labored in vain
and spent our strength for nothing.
Now, I declare before you all that I have, in this house of prayer,
never sought anything but the conversion of souls. And I call Heaven
and earth to witness–and your consciences, too–that I have never
labored for anything except the bringing of you to Christ that I might
present you, at last, unto God accepted in the Beloved! I have not
sought to gratify depraved appetites either by novelty of doctrine or
ceremony, but I have kept to the simplicity of the Gospel. I have kept
back no part of God's Word from you, but I have endeavored to give you
the whole counsel of God. I have sought out no fineries of speech, but
have spoken plainly and right straight at your hearts and consciences.
And if you are not saved, I mourn and lament before God that up to this
day, though I have preached hundreds of times to you, yet I have
preached in vain!
If you have not closed in with Christ. If you have not been washed in
the fountain filled with blood, you are waste pieces of soil from which
no harvest has yet come. You tell me, perhaps, that you have been kept
from a great many sins; that you have learned a great many Truths of
God by coming here. So far so good! But can I afford to live for this,
merely to teach you certain Truths or keep you back from open sins? How
could this content me if I knew all the while that you were still
unsaved and must, therefore, after death, be cast into the flames of
Hell? No, Beloved, before the Lord I count nothing to be worthy of your
pastor's life, soul and energy but the winning of you to Christ!
Nothing but your salvation can ever make me feel that my heart's desire
is granted!
I ask every worker here to see to this, that he or she never turns
aside from shooting at this target and at the center of this target,
too, namely, that we may win souls for Christ and see them born to God
and washed in the fountain filled with blood! Let the workers' hearts
ache and yearn–and their voices cry till their throats are hoarse–but
let them judge that they have accomplished nothing whatever until, at
least, in some cases, men are really saved! As the fisherman longs to
take fish in his net. As the hunter pants to bear home his spoil. As
the mother pines to clasp her lost child to her bosom, so do we faint
for the salvation of souls! And we must have them, or we are ready to
die. Save them, O Lord, save them for Christ's sake!
But now we must leave that point for another.
II. THE APOSTLE HAD GREAT REASONS FOR SELECTING SUCH AN OBJECTIVE IN
LIFE. Were he here I
think he would tell you that his reasons were something of this kind.
To save souls! If they are not saved, our God is greatly dishonored!
Did you ever think over the amount of dishonor that is done to the Lord
our God in London in any one hour of the day? Take, if you will, this
prayer hour, when we are gathered here ostensibly to pray. If the
thoughts of this great assembly could all be read, how many of them
would be dishonoring to the Most High? But outside of every house of
prayer, outside of every place of worship of every kind, think of the
thousands and tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, who have
all this day neglected the very semblance of the worship of the God who
has made them and who keeps them in being!
Think of how many times the door of the gin-palace has swung on its
hinges during this holy hour! Think how many times God's name has been
blasphemed at the drinking bar! There are worse things than these, if
worse can be, but I shall not lift the veil. Transfer your thoughts to
an hour or so later, when the veil of darkness has descended. Shame
will not permit us even to think of how God's name is dishonored in the
persons of those whose first father was made after the image of God,
but who pollute themselves to be the slaves of Satan and the prey of
bestial lusts! Alas! Alas for this city! It is full of abominations of
which the Apostle said, "It is a shame, even, to speak of those things
which were done of them in secret."
Christian men and women, nothing can sweep away the social evil but the
Gospel! Vices are like vipers and only the voice of Jesus can drive
them out of the land! The Gospel is the great besom with which to
cleanse the filthiness of this city but nothing else will avail. Will
you not, for God's sake, whose name is every day profaned, seek to save
some? If you will enlarge your thoughts and take in all the great
cities of the Continent–yes, further still–take all the idolaters of
China and India, the worshippers of the false prophet and the
Antichrist, what a mass of provocation have we here! What a smoke in
Jehovah's nose must this false worship be! How He must often put His
hand to the hilt of His sword as though He would say, "Ah! I will ease
Myself of My adversaries." But He bears it patiently. Let us not become
indifferent to His longsuffering, but day and night let us cry unto Him
and daily let us labor for Him if by any means we may save some for His
Glory's sake.
Think, dear Friends, also, of the extreme misery of this, our human
race. It would be a very dreadful thing, tonight, if you could get any
idea of the aggregate of the misery of London at the present moment in
the hospitals and the workhouses. Now, I would not say half a word
against poverty–wherever it comes, it is a bitter ill–but you will
mark as you notice carefully, that while a few are poor because of
unavoidable circumstances, a very large mass of the poverty of London
is the sheer and clear result of profuseness, lack of forethought,
idleness and, worst of all, drunkenness. Ah, that drunkenness! That is
the master evil! If drink could be gotten rid of, we might be sure of
conquering the very devil himself! The drunkenness created by the
infernal liquor dens which plague the whole of this huge city is
appalling!
No, I did not speak in haste, or let slip a hasty word. Many of the
liquor dens are nothing less than infernal–in some respects they are
worse, for Hell has its uses as the Divine protest against sin–but as
for the gin palace there is nothing to be said in its favor. The vices
of the age cause three-fourths of all the poverty! If you could look at
the homes tonight, the wretched homes where women will tremble at the
sound of their husband's foot as he comes home, where little children
will crouch down with fear upon their little heap of straw because the
human brute who calls himself, "a man,"
will come reeling home from the place where he has been indulging his
appetites–if you could look at such a sight and remember that it will
be seen 10,000 times over tonight, I think you would say, "God help us,
by all means, to save some." Since the great axe to lay at the root of
the deadly upas tree is the Gospel of Christ, may God help us to hold
that axe there and to work constantly with it till the huge trunk of
the poison tree begins to rock to and fro and we get it down and London
is saved–and the world is saved from the wretchedness and the misery
which now drips from every branch!
Again, dear Friends, the Christian has other reasons for seeking to
save some–chiefly because of the terrible future of impenitent souls.
That veil which hangs before me is not penetrated by every glance, but
he who has his eyes touched with heavenly eye-salve sees through it and
what does he see? Myriads upon myriads of spirits in dread procession
passing from their bodies and passing–where? Unsaved, unregenerate,
unwashed in precious blood, we see them go up to the solemn bar where,
in silence, the sentence comes forth and they are banished from the
Presence of God–banished to horrors which are not to be described nor
even to be imagined! This, alone, were enough to cause us distress day
and night! This decision of destiny has about it a terrible solemnity.
But the Resurrection trumpet sounds! Those spirits come forth from
their prison. I see them returning to earth, rising from the Pit to the
bodies in which they lived! And now I see them stand–multitudes!
Multitudes! Multitudes! Multitudes–in the Valley of Decision. And HE
comes with the crown upon His head and the books before Him, sitting on
a Great White Throne. And there they stand as prisoners at the bar! My
vision now perceives them–how they tremble! How they quiver like aspen
leaves in the gale! To where can they flee? Rocks cannot hide them!
Mountains will not open their bowels to conceal them! What shall become
of them? The dread angel takes the sickle, reaps them as the reaper
cuts up the tares for the oven–and as he gathers he casts them down
where despair shall be their everlasting torment! Woe is me, my heart
sinks as I see their doom and hear the terrible cries of their too-late
awaking!
Save some, O Christians! By all means save some! By yonder flames and
outer darkness and the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of
teeth, seek to save some! Let this, as in the case of the Apostle, be
your great, your ruling objective in life, that by all means you may
save some! For, oh, if they are saved, observe the contrast. Their
spirits mount to Heaven and after the Resurrection their bodies ascend,
also, and there they praise redeeming love! No fingers more nimble on
the harp strings than theirs! No notes more sweet than theirs, as they
sing, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His blood,
be Glory forever and ever." What bliss to see the once rebellious
brought home to God and heirs of wrath made possessors of Heaven!
All this is involved in salvation. O that myriads may come to this
blessed state. "Save some"–oh, some at least! Seek that some may be
there in Glory! Behold your Master! He is your Pattern. He left Heaven
to save some. He went to the Cross, to the grave, to "save some." This
was the great objective of His life, to lay down His life for His
sheep. He loved His Church and gave Himself for it, that He might
redeem her unto Himself. Imitate your Master! Learn His self-denial and
His blessed consecration if by any means you may save some! My soul
yearns that I personally may "save some," but broader is my desire than
that. I would have every one of you, my beloved Friends, associated
here in Church fellowship, to become spiritual parents of children for
God!
Oh, that each of you might "save some!" Yes, my venerable Brothers and
Sisters, you are not too old for service. Yes, my young Friends, you
young men and maidens, you are not too young to be recruits in the
King's service! If the kingdom is ever to come to our Lord and, come it
will, it never will come through a few ministers, missionaries, or
evangelists preaching the Gospel. It must come through each of you
preaching it–in the shop and by the fireside–when walking abroad and
when sitting in the chamber. You must, all of you, be always
endeavoring to "save some." I would enlist you all afresh tonight and
bind anew the King's colors upon you! I would that you would fall in
love with my Master all over again and enter a second time upon the
love of your espousals! There is a hymn of Cowper's which we sometimes
sing–
"O for a closer walk with God!"
May we get to have a closer walk with Him and if we do, we shall also
feel a more vehement desire to magnify Christ in the salvation of
sinners. I would like to press the inquiry upon my hearers tonight, you
who are saved–How many others have you brought to Christ? You cannot
do it by yourself, I know, but I mean how many has the Spirit of God
brought by you? How many, did I say? Is it quite certain that you have
led any to Jesus? Can you remember one? I pity
you, then! "Write," said Jeremiah, "Write that man childless." That was
considered to be a fearful curse! Shall I write you childless, my
beloved Friends? Your children are not saved, your wife is not saved
and you are spiritually childless! Can you bear this thought? I pray
you wake from your sleep and ask the Master to make you useful.
"I wish the saints cared for us sinners," said a young man. "They do
care for you," answered one, "care very much for you." "Why don't they
show it, then?" he asked, "I have often wished to have a talk about
good things, but my friend, who is a member of the Church, never
broaches the subject and seems to study how to keep clear of it when I
am with him." Do not let them say this about you! Tell them about
Christ and things Divine and make this your resolve, every one of you,
that if men perish they shall not perish for lack of your prayers, nor
for lack of your earnest and loving instructions! God give you Grace,
each one of you, to resolve, by all means, to save some and then to
carry out your intentions!
III. But my time is almost gone and therefore I have to mention, in the
last place, THE GREAT METHODS WHICH THE APOSTLE USED. How did he, who
so longed to, "save some," set about it? Why, first of all, by simply
preaching the Gospel of Christ. He did not attempt to create a
sensation by startling statements. Neither did he preach erroneous
doctrine in order to obtain the assent of the multitude. I fear that
some evangelists preach what, in their own minds, they must know to be
untrue. They keep back certain doctrines, not because they are untrue
but because they do not give scope enough for their ravings and they
make loose statements because they hope to reach more minds. However
earnest a man may be for the salvation of sinners, I do not believe
that he has any right to make any statement which his sober judgment
will not justify.
I think I have heard of things said and done at revival meetings which
were not according to sound doctrine, but which were always excused by
"the excitement of the occasion." I hold that I have no right to state
false doctrine even if I knew it would save a soul! The supposition is,
of course, absurd! But it makes you see what I mean. My business is to
bring to bear upon men, not falsehood, but the Truth of God and I shall
not be excused if, under any pretense, I palm a lie upon the people.
Rest assured that to keep back any part of the Gospel is not the right,
nor the true method for saving men. Tell the sinner all the doctrines.
If you hold Calvinistic doctrine, as I hope you do, do not stutter
about it, nor stammer over it, but speak it out! Depend upon it, many
revivals have been worthless because a full-orbed Gospel was not
proclaimed.
Give the people every Truth of God, every Truth of God baptized in holy
fire, and each Truth will have its own useful effect upon the mind. But
the great Truth is the Cross, the Truth that "God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life." Brethren, keep to that! That is
the bell for you to ring. Ring it, man! Ring it! Keep on ringing it!
Sound forth that note upon your silver trumpet, or if you are only a
ram's horn, sound it forth and the walls of Jericho will come down!
Alas for the fineries of our "cultured" modern divines. I hear them
crying out and denouncing my old-fashioned advice. This talking about
Christ Crucified is said to be archaic, conventional and antique–and
not at all suitable to the refinement of this wonderful age!
It is astonishing how learned we have all grown lately. We are getting
so very wise, I am afraid we shall ripen into fools before long, even
if we have not arrived at it already! People need "thinking" nowadays,
so it is said, and the working men will go where science is deified and
profound "thought" is enshrined. I have noticed that as a general rule
wherever the new "thinking" drives out the old Gospel there are more
spiders than people–but where there is the simple preaching of Jesus
Christ, the place is crowded to the doors! Nothing else will crowd a
meeting house, after all, for any length of time, but the preaching of
Christ Crucified!
But as to this matter, whether it is popular or unpopular, our mind is
made up and our foot is put down. We have no doubts or questions as to
our own course. If it is foolish to preach up Atonement by blood, we
will be fools! And if it is madness to stick to the old Truths of God
just as Paul delivered them, in all their simplicity, without any
refinement, or improvement, we mean to stick to it even if we are put
in the stocks as being incapable of progressing with the age, for we
are persuaded that this "foolishness of preaching" is a Divine
ordinance and that the Cross of Christ which stumbles so many and is
ridiculed by so many more, is still the power of God and the wisdom of
God! Yes, just the old-fashioned Truth of God–if you believe, you
shall be saved–we will stick to that and may God send His blessing
upon it according to His own eternal purpose.
We do not expect this preaching to be popular, but we know that God
will justify it before long. Meanwhile, we are not staggered because–
"The Truths we love, a sightless world blasphemes As childish dotage
and delirious dreams! The danger they discern not they deny– They
laugh at their only remedy–and die."
Next to this, Paul used much prayer. The Gospel alone will not be
blessed. We must pray over our preaching. A great painter was asked
what he mixed his colors with and he replied he mixed them with brains.
That is well for a painter, but if anyone should ask a preacher what he
mixes the Truth of God with, he ought to be able to answer–with
prayer, much prayer. When a poor man was breaking granite by the
roadside, he was down on his knees while he gave his blows and a
minister passing by, said, "Ah, my Friend, here you are at your hard
work! Your work is just like mine–you have to break stones, and so do
I." "Yes," said the man, "and if you manage to break stony hearts, you
will have to do it as I do–down on your knees." The man was right. No
one can use the Gospel hammer well except he is much on his knees. But
the Gospel hammer soon splits flinty hearts when a man knows how to
pray. Prevail with God and you will prevail with men. Fresh from the
closet to the pulpit let us come, with the anointing oil of God's
Spirit fresh upon us. What we receive in secret, we are to cheerfully
dispense in public. Let us never venture to speak for God to men until
we have spoken for men to God! Yes, dear Hearers, if you want a
blessing on your Sunday school teaching, or any other form of Christian
labor, mix it up with fervent intercession!
And then observe one other thing. Paul went to his work always with an
intense sympathy for those he dealt with–a sympathy which made him
adapt himself to each case. If he talked to a Jew, he did not begin at
once blurting out that he was the Apostle to the Gentiles, but he said
he was a Jew, as Jew he was. He raised no questions about nationalities
or ceremonies. He wanted to tell the Jew of Him of whom Isaiah said,
"'He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief," in order that he might believe in Jesus and so be saved.
If he met a Gentile, the Apostle to the Gentiles never showed any of
the squeamishness which might have been expected to cling to him on
account of his Jewish education. He ate as the Gentile ate and drank as
the Gentile did. He sat with him and talked with him. He was, as it
were, a Gentile with him.
He never raised any question about circumcision or uncircumcision, but
solely wishing to tell him of Christ who came into the world to save
both Jew and Gentile and to make them one. If Paul met with a Scythian,
he spoke to him in the barbarian tongue and not in classic Greek. If he
met a Greek, he spoke to him as he did at the Areopagus, with language
that was fitted for the polished Athenian. He was all things to all
men, that he might, by all means, save some! So with you, Christian
people–your one business in life is to lead men to believe in Jesus
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit–and every other thing should be
made subservient to this one objective. If you can but get them saved,
everything else will come right in due time.
Mr. Hudson Taylor, a dear man of God, who has labored much in Inland
China, finds it helpful to dress as a Chinaman and wear a pigtail. He
always mingles with the people and, as far as possible, lives as they
do. This seems to me to be a truly wise policy. I can understand that
we shall win upon a congregation of Chinese by becoming as Chinese as
possible and, if this is the case, we are bound to be Chinese to the
Chinese to save the Chinese! It would not be amiss to become a Zulu to
save the Zulus, though we must mind that we do it in another sense than
Colenso did. If we can put ourselves on a level with those whose good
we seek, we shall be more likely to effect our purpose than if we
remain aliens and foreigners and then talk of love and unity.
To sink myself to save others is the idea of the Apostle. To throw
overboard all peculiarities and yield a thousand indifferent points in
order to bring men to Jesus is our wisdom if we would extend our
Master's kingdom! Never may any whim or conventionality of ours keep a
soul from considering the Gospel–that were horrible, indeed. Better
far to be personally inconvenienced by compliance with indifferent
things, than to retard a sinner's coming by quarrelling about trifles.
If Jesus Christ were here today I am sure He would not put on any of
those gaudy rags in which the Puseyite delights himself. I cannot
imagine our Lord Jesus Christ dressed out in that style. Why, the
Apostle tells our women that they are to dress themselves modestly and
I do not think Christ would have His ministers set an example of
tomfoolery!
But yet, even in dress, something may be done on the principle of our
text. When Jesus Christ was here, what dress did he wear? To put it in
plain English, He wore a smock frock. He wore the common dress of His
countrymen–a
garment woven from the top throughout, without seam–and I think He
would have His ministers wear clothes which are most like the clothes
which their hearers wear in common–and so, even in dress, associate
with their hearers and be one among them. He would have you teachers,
if you want to save your children, talk to them like children and make
yourselves children if you can. You who want to get at young peoples'
hearts must try to be young. You who wish to visit the sick must
sympathize with them in their sickness. Get to speak as you would like
to be spoken to if you were sick. Come down to those who cannot come up
to you.
You cannot pull people out of the water without stooping down and
getting hold of them. If you have to deal with bad characters you must
come down to them, not in their sin, but in their roughness and in
their style of language so as to get a hold of them. I pray God that we
may learn the sacred art of soul-winning by adaptation. They called Mr.
Whitefield's chapel at Moorfields, "The Soul Trap." Whitefield was
delighted and said he hoped it always would be a soul trap! Oh that all
our places of worship were soul traps and every Christian a fisher of
men, each one doing his best, as the fisherman does, by every art and
artifice, to catch those they fish for! Well may we use all means to
win so great a prize as a spirit destined for eternal weal or woe!
The diver plunges deep to find pearls and we may accept any labor or
hazard to win a soul. Rouse yourselves, my Brothers and Sisters, for
this God-like work and may the Lord bless you in it! I commend these
wandering thoughts to your earnest attention. I pray the ungodly to
think of what their ruin will be unless they come to Jesus and trust in
Him. And I ask Believers to be doubly earnest, from this time forth, in
laboring to save the souls of men! And may God send us such a blessing
that we shall not have room to receive it! Amen.
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The Philosophy of Promise