“My Lord and My God!”

"My Lord and My God!"

(No. 1775)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 13, 1884,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord and my God!'" John
20:28.

WHEN the Apostles met on the first Lord's Day after Jesus had risen,
Thomas was the only disciple absent out of the eleven. On the second
Lord's Day, Thomas was there and he was the only disciple doubting out
of the eleven. How much the fact of his doubting was occasioned and
helped by the fact of his former absence, I cannot say, but still, it
looks highly probable that had he been there at the first, he would
have enjoyed the same experience as the other 10, and would have been
able to say as they did, "We have seen the Lord." Let us not forsake
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, for we
cannot tell what loss we may sustain thereby. Though our Lord may
reveal Himself to single individuals in solitude as He did to Mary
Magdalene, yet He more usually shows Himself to two or three, and He
delights, most of all, to come into the assembly of His servants.

The Lord seems most at home when, standing in the midst of His people,
He says, "Peace be unto you." Let us not fail to meet with our fellow
Believers! For my part, the assemblies of God's people shall always be
dear to me. Where Jesus pays His frequent visits, there would I be
found–

"My soul shall pray for Zion still,

While life or breath remains.

There my best friends,

My kindred dwell.

There God my Savior reigns."

I know that full many of you can most heartily say the same. Oh, that
we may behold the Lord Jesus in the present assembly! On the second
occasion, Thomas is present, and he is the only one out of the 11 who
is vexed with doubts. He cannot think it possible that the Lord Jesus,
who was nailed to the Cross, and whose side was pierced, could have
really risen from the dead. Observe joyfully the Lord's patience with
him. All the others had been doubtful, too, and the Lord had gently
upbraided them for their unbelief and the hardness of their hearts.

But Thomas is not convinced by the ten-fold testimony of his Brothers,
who, each one, well deserved his implicit confidence. After the plain
way in which the Lord had told His disciples that He should be
crucified and would rise again from the dead, they ought to have
expected the Resurrection–and inasmuch as they did not, they were to
be blamed– but what shall we say of him who, in addition to all this,
had heard the witness of his 10 comrades who had actually seen the
Lord? Yet there he is, the one doubter, the one sturdy questioner who
has laid down most stringent requirements as to the only way in which
he will be brought to believe. Will not his Lord be provoked by his
obstinacy?

See how patient Jesus is! If we had been in that case and had died for
those people–and had passed through the grave and risen again for
them–we would have felt very greatly grieved and somewhat angered if
they had refused to believe in what we had done. But our Lord shows no
such sign. He is tender among them as a nursing father. He rebukes
their unbelief–that was necessary for their sakes–but He manifests no
vexation of spirit. Especially on this occasion He shows His tenderness
toward Thomas and addresses His first words to him. If Thomas will not
be convinced except by what I must call the most gross and
materialistic evidence, our Master will give him such evidence!

If he must put his finger into the print of the nails, he shall put his
finger there! If he must thrust his hand into His side, he shall be
permitted to take that liberty! Oh, see how Jesus condescends to the
weaknesses and even to the follies of His people! If we are
unbelieving, it is not His fault, for He goes out of His way to teach
us faith–and sometimes He even gives what we have no right to ask,
what we have no reason to expect, what it was even sin in us to have
desired! We are so weak, so ignorant, so prone to unbelief that He will
do anything to create, sustain and strengthen our faith in Him! He
condescends to men of low estate. If through our own folly we are such
babes that we cannot eat the meat which is fit food for men, our Lord
will not grow weary of giving us milk, but He will even break the bread
into morsels and take away the hard crusts that we may be able to feed
thereon. It is not His will that one of His little ones should perish
and, therefore, He chases away unbelief, which is their deadliest foe.

Our Lord had special reasons for turning as He did to Thomas, that day,
and for taking so much trouble to bring Thomas out of his unbelieving
condition. The reason must have been, surely, first, that He desired to
make of Thomas a most convincing witness to the reality of His
Resurrection. Here is a man who is determined not to be deceived–let
him come and use the tests of his own choice. If you tell me that the
Resurrection of our Lord from the dead was witnessed by men who were
prepared to believe it, I reply that the statement is totally false!
Not one among that company even knew the meaning of the Lord's prophecy
that He would rise, again, from the dead! It was hard to make any of
them catch the idea–it was so foreign to their thought–so far above
their expectation. In Thomas we have a man who was especially hard to
be convinced. A man who was so obstinate as to give the lie to 10 of
his friends with whom he had been associated for years!

Now, if I had a statement to make which I wished to have well attested,
I would like to place in the witness box a person who was known to be
exceedingly cautious and wary. I would be glad if it were known that,
at the first, he had been suspicious and critical, but had, at length,
been overwhelmed by evidence so as to be compelled to believe. I am
sure that such a man would give his evidence with the accent of
conviction as, indeed, Thomas did when he cried, "My Lord and my God!"
We cannot have a better witness to the fact that the Lord is risen,
indeed, than that this cool, examining, prudent, critical, Thomas
arrived at an absolute certainty!

Further, I conceive that our Lord thus personally dealt with Thomas
because He would have us see that He will not lose even one of those
whom the Father has given Him. The Good Shepherd will leave the 99 to
seek the one wanderer! If Thomas is the most unbelieving, Thomas shall
have the most care! He is only one, but yet he is one, and the Lord
Jesus will not lose one whom He has ordained to save! You and I might
have said, "Well, if he will not be convinced, we must leave him alone.
He is only one–we can do without his testimony–we cannot be forever
seeking a solitary individual. Let him go." Thus might we have done,
but thus Jesus will not do! Our Good Shepherd looks after the units–He
is tenderly observant of each separate individual–and this is a ground
of comfort to us all! If one sheep is lost, why not the whole flock? If
one is thus cared for, all will be cared for!

This note is also to be heard in reference to this matter–it is to be
feared that the dull, the slow, the questioning, the anxious, the weak
in faith make up a very considerable part of the Church–I do not know
that they are in the majority, but they are certainly far too numerous.
If all Christians were arranged and classified, I fear we could not,
many of us, place ourselves in the front rank, but a large portion
would have to go among the Little-Faiths. Our Lord here shows us that
He has a condescending care for those who lag behind. Thomas is a week
behind everybody else, yet his Lord has not lost patience, but waits to
be gracious.

The other 10 Apostles have all seen the Lord and been well assured of
His Resurrection for the last seven days. But that is no reason why the
latecomer should be left out in the cold. Our Lord does not leave the
rear rank to perish. We know that in the wilderness, the Amalekites
slew the hindmost of the children of Israel. But when King Jesus heads
the army, no Amalekites shall smite even the hindmost of His people,
for the Glory of the Lord shall bring up the rear! The walls of Zion
enclose babes as well as veterans! The Ark of our salvation preserves
mice as well as bullocks! Our Solomon speaks of the hyssop on the wall
as well as of the cedar in Lebanon–and the Glory of the Lord may be
seen in the preservation of the glowworm's lamp as truly as in the
sustenance of the furnace of the sun!

Now, if there should be any in this assembly who honestly have to put
themselves down in the sick list, I beg them to take comfort while I
try and set forth the experience of Thomas and what came of it. First,
I shall call your attention to the exclamation of Thomas, "My Lord and
my God!" Secondly, we will consider, how he came to it. And thirdly,
how we come to it, for I trust many of us have also cried, "My Lord and
my God!"

I. Let us consider THE EXCLAMATION OF THOMAS, "My Lord and my God!"
This is a most plain and hearty confession of the true and proper Deity
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is as much as a man could say if he wished
to assert indisputably and dogmatically that Jesus is, indeed, God and
Lord. We find David saying, "O Lord of Hosts, my King,

and my God," and in another place, (Psa. 35:23), he says, "My God and
my Lord," terms only applicable to Jehovah! Such expressions were known
to Thomas and he, as an Israelite, would never have applied them to any
person whom he did not believe to be God! We are sure, therefore, that
it was the belief of Thomas that the risen Savior was Lord and

God.

If this had been a mistake, the Lord Jesus would have rebuked him, for
He would not have allowed him to be guilty of worshipping a mere man.
No good man among us would permit a person to call him God and Lord–we
would feel like Paul and Barnabas when they tore their clothes because
the men of Lystra were ready to sacrifice to them–how much more would
the holy Jesus have felt a revolting of spirit against the idea of
being worshipped and called, "My Lord and my God," if He had not been
of such a Nature that He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God!"
The perfect Jesus accepted Divine homage and, therefore, we are assured
that it was rightly and properly given. And we here, at this moment,
offer Him, by His Grace, the same adoration!

To escape from the force of this confession, some who denied our Lord's
Deity in olden times had the effrontery to charge Thomas with breaking
the Third Commandment by uttering such a cry of surprise as is common
among profane talkers. Just as thoughtless persons take the Lord's name
in vain and say, "Good God!" or, "O Lord!" when they are much
astonished, so certain ancient heretics dared to interpret these
words–"My Lord and my God!" It is clear to any thoughtful person that
this could not have been the case. For, in the first place, it was not
the habit of a Jew to use any such exclamation when surprised or
amazed. An irreligious Gentile might have done so, but it was the last
thing that would occur to a devout Israelite.

If there is one thing about which the Jews in our Lord's times were
particular beyond everything, it was about using the name of God. Why,
even in their sacred books they have omitted the word, "Jehovah," and
have only written "Adonai," because of a superstitious reverence for
the very letters of the Divine name! How can we, then, believe that
Thomas would have done what no Jew at that time would have dreamed of?
Israel, after the Babylonian captivity, had many faults, but not that
of idolatry or irreverence to the Divine name! I do not know what an
Israelite might have said under the influence of a great surprise, but
I am absolutely certain that he would not have said, "My Lord and my
God!"

In the next place, it could not have been a mere exclamation of
surprise, or an irreverent utterance because it was not rebuked by our
Lord–and we may be sure He would not have suffered such an unhallowed
cry to have gone without a reprimand. Observe, too, that it was
addressed to the Lord Jesus–"Thomas answered and said unto Him, My
Lord and my God!" It was not a mere outburst of surprise addressed to
no one, but it was an answer directed to the Lord who had spoken to
him. It was also such a reply that our Lord Jesus Christ accepted it as
an evidence of faith, for in the 29th verse He says, "You have
believed," and that confession was the only evidence of His believing
which our Lord had received from Thomas. A mere outcry of confused
astonishment in irreverent words would never have been received as a
satisfactory proof of faith!

Sin is not an evidence of faith! The slander proposed by the Arian
must, therefore, be rejected with derision. I am almost ashamed to have
mentioned it, but in these days, when every kind of error is rife, it
is necessary to bring to light and break in pieces many idols which we
had rather have left with the moles and bats. I regard this cry of
Thomas, first, as a devout expression of that holy wonder which came
upon him when his heart made the great discovery that Jesus was
assuredly His Lord and God. It had flashed upon the mind of Thomas that
this august Person whom he had regarded as the Messiah was also God. He
saw that the Man at whose feet he had sat was more than man and was
assuredly God, and this amazed him so that he used broken speech.

He does not say, "You are my Lord and my God," as a man would say who
is making a doctrinal statement, but he brings it out in fragments. He
makes adoration of it. He cries in ecstasy, "My Lord and my God!" He is
amazed at the discovery which he has made and probably, also, at the
fact that he has not seen it long before. Why, he might have known it
and ought to have perceived it years before! Had he not been present
when Jesus trod the sea? When He hushed the winds and bade the waters
sleep? Had he not seen Him open the blind eyes and unstop the deaf
ears? Why did he not cry, "My Lord and my God," then?

Thomas had been slow to learn and the Lord might have said to him, as
He did to Philip, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you
not known Me?" Now, all of a sudden, he does know his Lord–knows Him
to such a surprising extent that such knowledge is too wonderful for
him! He had come to the meeting to prove whether He who appeared

to his Brothers was the same Man who had died on Calvary, but now he
seems to have forgotten that original question– it is more than
answered–it has ceased to be a question! He is carried far further by
the flood of evidence! He is landed in a full belief of the Godhead of
Jesus! He spies out within that wounded body the indwelling Godhead
and, at a leap, he springs beyond the conviction that it is the same
Man, to the firm assurance that Jesus is God and, consequently, in
broken accents, but with double assurance, he cries, "My Lord and my
God!"

My Brothers and Sisters, how I wish you would all follow Thomas this
morning! I will stop a minute that you may do so. Let us wonder and
admire! He that had not where to lay His head. He that suffered
scourging and spitting, and died on Calvary is, nevertheless, God over
all, blessed forever! He who was laid in the tomb lives and reigns,
King of kings and Lord of lords! Hallelujah! Behold, He comes in the
Glory of the Father to judge the quick and the dead! Let your spirits
drink in that Truth of God and be amazed at it! If the fact that Jesus,
the Son of God, suffered and bled and died for you, never astonishes
you, I fear that you do not believe it, or have no intelligent
apprehension of the full meaning of it! Angels wonder, should not you?!
Oh, let us feel a holy surprise, today, as we realize the Truth that He
who has redeemed us from our sins by His blood is the Son of the
Highest!

Next, I believe that this was an expression of immeasurable delight,
for you observe he does not say, "Lord and God," but, "My Lord and my
God!" He seems to take hold of the Lord Jesus with both hands, by those
two blessed "mys"– "My Lord and my God!" Oh, the joy that flashed from
the eyes of Thomas at that moment! How quickly his heart beat! He had
never known such joy as at that instant and, though he must have felt
deeply humbled, yet in that humiliation there was an excessive
sweetness of intense satisfaction as he looked at His Divine Lord and
gazed on Him, from the pierced feet up to the brow so marred with the
crown of thorns, and said, "My Lord and my God!" There is, in these few
words, a music akin to the sonnet of the spouse in the Canticles when
she sang, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His."

The enraptured Apostle saw the Friend of his heart standing before him,
shining upon him in love and knitting His heart to him. I pray you
follow Thomas in this joy in Christ. I pause a minute that you may do
so. Jesus now stands before you, visible to your faith. Delight
yourselves in Him! Be always ravished with His love! He is altogether
lovely and altogether yours! He loves you with all the infinity of His
Nature! The tenderness of His Humanity and the majesty of His Deity
blend in His love to you. Oh, love the Lord, you, His saints, for He
deserves your hearts! Therefore at this moment say, "My Lord and my
God!"

More than this, I believe that the words of Thomas indicate a complete
change of mind–in other words, a most hearty repentance. He has not
asked of the Lord Jesus to be permitted to put his finger into the
print of the nails. No, all that has gone without debate. If you look
at the chapter you will find no statement that he ever did handle the
Lord as he had, at first, proposed. Whether he did put his finger into
the print of the nails and his hand into His side must forever be
unknown to us until we see Thomas in Heaven and ask him the question.
If you read the Savior's words as commanding him to do so, then we may
conclude that he did so–but if you read them as only permitting him to
do it–then I think he did not do it.

I put the question to a dear companion of mine–I read the passage and
then I asked–"What do you think, did Thomas put his hand into Christ's
side?" And the answer from a thoughtful mind and a gentle heart was
this–"I do not think he could. After the Master had so spoken to him,
he would shrink from doing so, and would think it willful unbelief to
attempt it." This reply coincided exactly with my own convictions. I
feel sure that had it been my case, I would have felt so ashamed at
ever having proposed such a test, and so overwhelmed to find the Lord
yielding to it, that I could not have gone an inch further in the way
of seeking tokens and proofs unless I had been absolutely commanded to
do so. So, judging Thomas to be like ourselves and, indeed, much better
than any of us, notwithstanding his imperfection, I gather that he
completely turned round and, instead of putting his finger into the
print of the nails, he cried, "My Lord and my God!"

The Savior said to him, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed."
Now, I lay no stress upon it, but it would seem probable that the
Savior might have said, "Because you have touched Me, you have
believed," if Thomas had, indeed, touched Him. But inasmuch as He only
speaks of sight, it may be that sight was enough for Thomas. I do not
insist upon it, but I think it right to suggest it. I feel it is not
unreasonable to conclude that all Thomas did was to look at his Lord.
He could do no more–the delicacy of his spirit would not permit him to
accept the offered test–his reverence

stopped him. He saw and believed! In Him we see a complete change of
feeling–from being the most unbelieving of the 11, he came to believe
more than any of them and to confess Jesus to be God!

This exclamation is also a brief confession offaith, "My Lord and my
God!" Whoever will be saved, before all things, it is necessary that he
is able to unite with Thomas heartily in this creed, "My Lord and my
God!" I do not go in for all the minute distinctions of the Athanasian
Creed, but I have no doubt that it was absolutely necessary, at the
time it was written, and that it materially helped to check the
evasions and tricks of the Arians. This short creed of Thomas I like
much better, for it is brief, pithy, full, sententious and it avoids
those matters of detail which are the quicksands of faith. Such a
belief is necessary–and no man can truly hold it unless he is taught
by the Holy Spirit. He can say the words, but he cannot receive the
spiritual Truth! No man can call Jesus, "Lord," but by the Holy Spirit.
It is, therefore, a most necessary and saving creed that we should cry
to the Lord Jesus, "My Lord and my God!" I ask you to do this, now, in
your hearts. Renew your faith and confess that He who died for you is
your Lord and God.

Socinians may call Jesus what they please–to me He is God over all,
blessed forever! I know that you say, "Amen!" Further than this, do you
not think that these words of Thomas were an enthusiastic profession of
his allegiance to Christ? "My Lord and my God!" It was as though he
paid Him lowliest homage and dedicated himself, then and there, in the
entirety of his nature to His service. To Him whom he had once doubted,
he now submits himself, for in Him he fully believes. He does as good
as say, 'Henceforth, O Christ, You are my Lord and I will serve You.
You are my God, and I will worship you."

Finally, I regard it as a distinct and direct act of adoration. At the
feet of the manifested Savior, Thomas cries, "My Lord and my God!" It
sounds like a rehearsal of the eternal song which ascends before that
Throne where cherubim and seraphim continually cry, "Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth." It sounds like a stray note from those choral
symphonies which day without night circle the Throne of the Eternal!
Let us, in solemn silence, now present our souls before the Throne of
God, bowing in reverent adoration unto Him that was, and is, and is to
come, even the Lamb that was slain, who is risen, and who lives
forever.

"My Lord and my God!" O Son of Mary, you are, also, Son of the Highest,
and unto my heart and spirit you are my Lord and my God and I worship
you this day! We have not time or else I would sit down and invite you
to spend a few minutes in private, personal worship, following the
example of Thomas in adoring our Lord and God.

II. Our next division is to be headed with the question–HOW DID HE
COME TO THAT EXCLAMATION? Have

you ever thought what Thomas's feelings were when he went to the
meeting that evening? His going needed a complicated explanation. Why
did he mingle with men whose assertions he doubted? Could he have
fellowship with them and yet call them liars? Suppose Jesus Christ to
be dead and not risen–why does Thomas go? Is he going to worship a
dead man? Is he about to renounce the faith of the last two years? How
can he hold it if Jesus is not alive? Yet how can he give it up? Was
Jesus Christ, Lord and God to Thomas when he first entered that
meeting? I suppose not. He did not, when he entered the room, believe
Him to be the same Person who had died.

The other disciples believed and Thomas was now the lone
doubter–peculiar, positive, obstinate. Has it never happened to other
disciples to drift into much the same condition? Thomas was a lot out
of catalog that evening–he was the odd person in the little gathering
and yet, before service was over, the Lord had completely changed him.
"Behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which
shall be last." The first thing, I think, that led Thomas to this
confession of his belief in Christ's Deity was that he had his thoughts
revealed. The Savior came into the room, the doors being shut–without
opening the doors He suddenly appeared before them by His own Divine
Power.

Then and there, pointing to Thomas, He repeated to him the very words
which Thomas had said to his Brothers. They had not been reported to
the Savior, but the Savior had read Thomas' thoughts at a distance and
He was, therefore, able to bring before him, his exact words. Notice
that the Savior did not say, "Stoop down and put your finger into the
nail prints in My feet." Why not? Why, because Thomas had not said
anything about His feet and, therefore, the Savior did not mention
them! Everything was exact. We, in looking at it, can see the
exactness, but Thomas must have felt it much more. He was overwhelmed!
To have his thoughts put in plain words and to hear his own words
repeated by Him whom they concerned, this was truly amazing! "Oh," he
says, "He who now speaks to me is none other than God! And He shall be
my Lord and my God." This helped him to his assured conviction that the
One who had read his thoughts must be God.

He was aided still further, for as soon as he perceived that this was
the same Jesus with whom he had conversed before, all the past must
have risen before his mind and he must have remembered the many
occasions in which the Lord Jesus had exercised the attributes of
Deity. Those past conversations, thus revived before him, must all have
gone to support the conviction that Jesus was none other than Lord and
God. And then, I think, the very air, and manner, and Presence of the
Savior convinced the trembling disciple. They say there is a divinity
that hedges a king–that I am not prepared to believe, but I am sure
there was a majesty about the look of our Lord–a more than human
dignity in His manner, tone, speech and bearing! Our Lord's personal
Presence convinced Thomas, so that he saw and believed.

But perhaps the most convincing arguments of all were our Lord's
wounds. It seems a long way round to infer the Deity of Christ from His
wounds, yet it is good and clear argument. I shall not set it out in
order before you, but leave you to think it out for yourselves! Yet one
little hint I would give you–here is a wound in His side more than
sufficient to have caused death. It has gone right to the heart–the
soldier pierced His side with a spear and forthwith flowed there out
blood and water–proving that the heart was pierced. The opening was
still there, for the Lord invited Thomas to thrust his hand into His
side–and yet Jesus lived!

Heard you ever such a story as this–a man with a gaping wide death
wound inviting another to thrust his hand therein? Had our Lord been
living after the way in which we live, by the circulation of our blood,
one can hardly see how this could have been possible! Flesh and blood,
being subject to corruption, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, but the
Savior's risen body came not under that description, as, indeed, His
buried body did not, for He saw no corruption. I invite you to note
well the distinction which may be seen in our Lord's words concerning
His own body. He does not speak of His body as flesh and blood, but He
says, "Handle Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you
see I have." It was a real body and a material body, for He took a
piece of a broiled fish and honeycomb and did eat before them–but
still His Resurrection body, living with an open wound in His side,
reaching to the heart, was not after the manner of men.

So even in the wounds of Christ, we read that He is Man, but not mere
man! His wounds, in various ways, were evidence to Thomas of His Deity.
Anyway, the glorious fact rushed upon Thomas's astonished mind in a
single moment and, therefore, he cried out, "My Lord and my God!"

III. Finally, let us see HOW WE MAY COME TO IT. That is our final point
and the most practical of all. I doubt not that the Spirit of God was
at work with Thomas, at that time, very mightily–and that the true
cause of his enlightenment was heavenly illumination. If ever any one
of us shall cry in spirit and in truth, "My Lord and my God!" the Holy
Spirit must teach us. Blessed are you who can call Jesus, "Lord and
God," for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but the
Father from Heaven.

But I will tell you when Believers do cry, "My Lord and my God!" I
remember the first time it filled my heart. Burdened with guilt and
full of fears, I was as wretched as a man could be outside of Hell,
when I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Look unto Me, and be you
saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none
else." I did look, then and there, by His Grace! I gave a faith-glance
to Him who suffered in my place and, in an instant, my peace was like a
river! My heart leaped from despair to gladness and I knew my Lord to
be Divine! If anyone had said to me, then, "Jesus Christ is not God," I
would have laughed him to scorn! He was beyond all question, my Lord
and my God, for He had worked a Divine work in me!

It may not be an argument to anybody else, but forgiveness consciously
known in the soul is a conclusive argument to the man who has ever felt
it! If the Lord Jesus turns your mourning into dancing! If He brings
you up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay and sets your
feet upon a rock and establishes your goings, He is sure to be your
Lord and God from that time on and forever! In the teeth of all that
deny it–in the teeth of all the devils in Hell–the redeemed heart
will assert the Godhead of its Savior! He that has saved me is, indeed,
God, and beside Him there is none else. This first avowal has proved to
be only the beginning of these confessions. We remember many other
acknowledgments of the same fact.

We were severely tempted and yet we did not slip, nor stain our
garments, a wonder that we escaped! He that kept us from falling, must
be God. I know some moments in my life when I could stand and look back
in the morning light upon the valley through which I had passed in the
dark–and when I saw how narrow the pathway was; how a little step to
the left or to the right must have been my total destruction and yet I
had never tripped, but had come straight through in

perfect safety–I was astounded and, bowing my head, I worshipped,
saying, "The Lord has been my refuge and my defense. He has kept my
soul in life and preserved me from the Destroyer, therefore will I sing
songs unto Him as long as I live." Oh, yes, dear children of God, when
your heads have been covered in the day of battle, you have magnified
the Keeper of Israel, saying, "My Lord and my God!"

We have felt that we could not doubt, again, and have joyfully
committed ourselves to His keeping as to the guardian care of a
faithful Creator. Such, also, has been the case in time of trouble,
when you have been comforted and upheld. A very heavy affliction has
fallen upon you and yet, to your surprise, it has not crushed you as
you feared it would have done. Years before you had looked forward to
the stroke with agonizing apprehension and said, "I shall never bear
it." But you did bear it and, at this moment, you are thankful that you
had it to bear! The thing which you feared came upon you and when it
came, it seemed like a feather compared with what you expected it to
be–you were able to sit down and say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has
taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Your friends were surprised at you–you had been a poor, wretchedly
nervous creature before, but in the time of trial you displayed a
singular strength such as surprised everybody! Most of all, you
surprised yourself, for you were full of amazement that in weakness you
were made so strong. You said, "I was brought low, and He helped me."
You could not doubt His Deity then–anything which would rob Him of
Glory you detested, for your heart said, "Lord, there is none that
could have solaced my soul in this fashion save only the Lord God
Almighty." Personally I have had to cry out, "It is the Lord," when I
have seen His wonders in the deep. "O my Soul, you have trodden down
strength." My soul shall magnify my Lord and my God, for, "He sent from
above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He brought me forth,
also, into a large place: He delivered me, because He delighted in me."

There have been other occasions less trying. Bear with me if I mention
one or two more. When we have been musing, the fire has burned. While
studying the story of our Lord, our faith in His Deity has been
intensified. When the Spirit of God has revealed the Lord Jesus to us
and in us, then we have cried, "My Lord and my God!" Though not after
the flesh, yet in very deed and truth we have seen the Lord. On a day
which I had given up to prayer, I sat before the Lord in holy
peacefulness, wrapped in solemn contemplation. And though I did not see
a vision, nor wish to see one, yet I so realized my Master's Presence
that I was borne away from all earthly things and knew of no man save
Jesus, only. Then a sense of His Godhead filled me till I would gladly
have stood up where I was and have proclaimed aloud, as with the voice
of a trumpet, that He was my Lord and my God!

Such times you, also, have known. Jesus is often known of us in the
breaking of bread. At the Communion Table many a time we have seen and
adored. It was very precious–we were ready to weep and laugh for joy.
Our heart kept beating to the tune of, "My Lord and my God!" Perhaps it
was not in any outward ordinance that your soul thus adored, but quite
away in the country, or by the seaside, as you walked along and
communed with your own heart, you were suddenly overpowered with a
sense of Jesus' glorious Majesty, so that you could only whisper to
yourself as in a still small voice, "My Lord and my God!" Or perhaps it
was when you were laid aside with illness that He made all your bed and
then you knew His Divine Power.

It was a long and weary night to those who watched you, but to you it
was all too short and brimmed with sweetness, for the Lord was there,
and He gave you songs in the night! When you awoke you were still with
Him and felt ready to faint with overwhelming delight because of the
brightness of the manifestation. At such a time you could have sung–

"My Christ, He is the Lord of lords,

He is the King of kings!

He is the Sun of Righteousness,

With healing in His wings!

My Christ, He is the Hea ven of heavens,

My Christ, what shall I call?

My Christ is first, my Christ is last,

My Christ is All in All!"

I will tell you, yet again, when Jesus has been Lord and God both to me
and to you–and that is in times when He has blessed our labors–and
laid His arm bare in the salvation of men! When our report has been
believed by those who rejected it, before, and the Lord has sent us a
happy season of revival, we have given to Him the glory and rejoiced in
His Omnipotent Love!

We prayed for our children and when, to our surprise–it is a shame to
say, "to our surprise," for it ought not to have surprised us–the Lord
heard our prayer and, first one, and then, another, came to us and
said, "Father, I have found the Lord!" Then we knew that the Lord, He
is God, and our God, too! We looked up from our prayers with tears in
our eyes to think the Lord Jesus could have heard such weak petitions.
And we said in the depths of our hearts, "My Lord and my God!" We went
out and tried to teach a dozen or two in a cottage–poor, broken words
were all that we could utter–but the Lord blessed it and we heard a
poor woman crying for mercy as we came out–and we said inwardly, "My
Lord and my God!"

If you have been in the Enquiry Room after some Brother, whom God
greatly honors, has been proclaiming the Word with power, and if you
have seen the people falling right and left under the shafts of the
Divine Word, you must have cried, "This is no cunningly devised fable,
no fiction, and no fancy," and your heart must have throbbed with all
its life, "My Lord and my God!" Have you not felt as if you would dare
to go through the very streets of Hell and tell the grinning fiends
that Christ is King and Lord forever and ever? The time is very soon
coming with some of us when we shall have our last opportunities in
this life to find this true. How comforted and refreshed have I often
been when visiting dying saints. Truly the Lord has prepared a table
for them in the presence of the last enemy.

I can truly say that no scenes that these eyes have ever beheld have so
gladdened me as the sight of my dear Brothers and Sisters when they
have been departing out of the world unto the Father! The saddest scene
has been the happiest! I have known some of them in life as
self-distrusting, trembling, lowly-minded Believers–but when they have
come into the Valley of Death, they have displayed no fear, no doubt,
but all has been full assurance! Placid, calm, beautiful, joyful and
even triumphant have been the last hours of timid Believers! As I have
heard their charming words, I have been certain of the Godhead of Him
who gives us victory while we die! It is faith in His name that makes
men strong in death! When heart and flesh fail us, only the living God
can be the strength of our life and our portion forever.

How sweet to know Jesus as our living God in our dying moments! In Him
we rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory, as we say unto Him
in death, "My Lord and my God!" Come, Brothers and Sisters, be of good
cheer! A little further on and we shall come to the narrow stream! This
we shall cross in an instant and then it will be but a short, short
time! Twenty years is soon gone, a hundred years, even, fly away as on
eagles' wings–and then we shall be forever with the Lord in Glory! How
sweetly will we sing to His eternal praise, "My Lord and my God!"

There shall be no doubters in Heaven! No skeptics shall worry us there!
But this shall be the unanimous voice of all the redeemed–"Jesus is
our Lord and God." The united Church, freed from every spot and
wrinkle, and gloriously arrayed as the Bride of Christ, shall be
conducted to His Throne and acknowledged as the Lord's Beloved. And
then shall she with full heart exclaim, "My Lord and my God!"