The Covenanter
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 31, 1887,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His Co
venant and His testimonies." Psalm 25:10.
THIS Psalm is intensely earnest. "Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my
soul." The sentences are ingots of gold. Every word is exceedingly
weighty with sense and sincerity. I take it that one reason for this
weight is the fact that David was in affliction. He says, "I am
desolate and afflicted. Look upon my affliction and my pain." Pain is a
great disenchanter. Flowery speeches suit the summer tide of our
health, but we find them not in the winter of our grief. Pain kills
fine phrases as a mighty frost kills butterflies and moths. You can
play with religion until you are laid low and then it becomes serious
work. The romance of religion is one thing–the reality of it is
another. It would be a great blessing to some if they were shriveled
with a little pain, otherwise they will grow unbearable in their pride.
The frog drinks and drinks–and thinks he will soon swell into an
ox–one single bitter drop is mingled with the stream and he is back
into a frog again. It is often the best thing that can happen to us
that we should be reduced to our true selves and not be left to strut
about as noble somebodies. May our meditations this morning be solid
and leave on our minds no savor of unreality!
Mixed also with David's suffering was a sense of sin. Read verse
eleven, "For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is
great." And again, in verse eighteen, "Forgive all my sins." No man
need have a worse trouble than conviction of sin. A thorn in the flesh
is nothing to a thorn in the conscience. A sense of sin is another
great disenchanter. This bursts the bubbles of conceit by thousands.
When the heart is awakened and sin is laid bare by the Spirit of God,
so that we are truly humbled by it, life ceases to be sport and an
awful earnestness pervades our being. To carry burning coals in the
bosom is nothing compared with bearing sin in an awakened conscience.
There is no cheating your soul when sin lies hard on it and no attempt
is then made at dealing with God in a dishonest manner. But, crushed
into the dust, we pine for a real atonement and a real faith in it–and
the true seal of the Spirit to make our pardon sure. When sin is truly
felt, we come before the great Father, not with mimic sorrow, but with
downright soul-weeping and heartbreaking. We cry to Him, "God, be
merciful to me a sinner!" If we feel either of these two things, pain
or sin–and who among us can hope to be without them at all
times?–then we shall see the solemn side of life and look for those
sure consolations by which we may be sustained. I hope that our subject
of discourse today may help in that direction.
One other thing is notable about David in writing this Psalm–whatever
his trouble might be and however deep his sense of sin–he always
looked Godward. He cries, "Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul."
"Remember me for Your goodness' sake, O Lord." In our text his mind
dwells upon "the paths of the Lord." The ungodly fly away from God when
He chastens them, but the saints kiss the chastening rod. The child of
God goes home when it grows dark. We seek our healing from the hand
which has wounded us! Which way do you look in a storm? If the Lord is
now your haven, you shall fly to Him in the last dread storm, for that
way your eyes have turned these many years. If you look for everything
from God, you are looking out of the right window. When your eyes look
toward the great sea of Divine All-Sufficiency, you shall not look in
vain. You may have to come again seven times before you see your
deliverance and when you see it, it may seem no bigger than a man's
hand, but you shall not be ashamed in the end. I trust this mark and
evidence of a child of God is upon many of you this morning and if it
is, you are among the Lord's host whom I would call to the battle! With
your eyes looking right on and your eyelids straight before you, come
with me to the rallying-place of the Lord of Hosts!
In my text I see two things worth talking about. The first is, the
spiritual covenanter–"such as keep His Covenant and His testimonies."
And, secondly, here is his notable experience–"all the paths of the
Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His Covenant."
I. Observe in the text the footprint of THE SPIRITUAL COVENANTER. You
have all heard of the old Covenanters of Scotland. Their decision of
mind and force of character–their theory of government for the kingdom
of Scotland was quaintly unpractical–but it grew out of true and deep
fear of the Lord. The Old Testament spirit in them was not enough
tinctured with the meekness of the Lord Jesus, or they would not have
touched the weapons of steel, but in this mistake they were very far
from being alone. In my bedroom I have hung up the picture of an old
Covenanter. He sits in a wild glen with his Bible open before him on a
huge stone. He leans on his great broadsword and his horse stands
quietly at his side. Evidently he smells the battle afar off and is
preparing for it by drinking in some mighty promise. As you look into
the old man's face you can almost hear him saying to himself, "For the
crown of Christ and the Covenant, I would gladly lay down my life this
day."
They did lay down their lives, too, right gloriously, and Scotland owes
to her covenanting fathers far more than she knows. It was a grand day,
that in which they spread the Solemn League and the Covenant upon the
tombstones of the old Kirk yard in Edinburgh–and all sorts of men came
forward to set their names to it! Glorious was that roll of worthies.
There were the lords of the covenant and the common men of the
covenant–and some pricked a vein and dipped the pen into their blood,
that they might write their names with the very fluid of their hearts!
All over England there were men who entered into a like Solemn League
and Covenant and met together to worship God according to their right
and not according to human order-books. They were resolved upon this
one thing–that Rome should not come back to place and power while they
could lift a hand against her–neither should any other power in throne
or Parliament prevent the free exercise of their consciences for
Christ's cause and Covenant!
These stern old men, with their stiff notions, have gone. And what have
we in their places? Indifference and frivolity! We have no Roundheads
and Puritans, but then we do have scientific dress-making and we play
lawn tennis! We have no contentions for the faith, but then our
amusements occupy all our time! This wonderful 19th Century has become
a child and put away manly things. Self-contained men–men in whom is
the true grit–are now few and far between as compared with the old
covenanting days!
But I want to speak this morning, not of the old covenanters, but of
those who at this day keep the Covenant of the Lord. Would to God we
had among us great companies of "such as keep His Covenant and remember
His Commandments to do them"! The true covenanter is one who has found
God and, therein, has made the greatest discovery that was ever made.
He has discovered not only a God, but the living and true God–and he
is resolved to be on living terms with Him for time and for eternity!
He will henceforth never shut his eyes to God, for his longing is to
see more and more of Him. He is determined to be right with God, for he
feels that if he were right with all his fellow creatures and
everything about them, yet if he were wrong with God, he would be out
of order in the main point. He has settled in his own soul that he will
know the Lord, be right with Him, at peace with Him, yes, and in league
with Him! It is not natural for men to thus cling to God and seek after
Him–but it has become natural to this man–so that he hungers and
thirsts for the living God. By this very fact the man is ennobled! He
is lifted up above the brutes that perish. A man capable of the idea of
covenant with God and taken up with a passion for it, must surely be
born from above! There must be a Divine Nature within him, or he would
not be drawn towards the Divine One above him. It is even so–the
Spirit of God has been working here!
Already, too, this man has discovered another Covenant, whose ruins lay
between him and God and block the road. Turning to his Bible, the
Believer discovers that we were, from the first, under covenant towards
God. He reads of the first Covenant, the Covenant with our first
father, Adam, which was broken by his disobedience, whose fatal breach
has brought upon us unnumbered losses and woes. This Covenant the
Believer has not ignored, for he has felt his share in its failure and
come under the condemnation of it. His very desire to be right with God
has brought home to him the judgment of the Law. He has smarted under
the lash of it. He has seen the Lord arrayed in robes of justice
avenging the quarrel of His Covenant and he has said to himself, "What
shall I do? The Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good.
But I am carnal, sold under sin."
Brothers and Sisters, we are condemned under the first Covenant, not
only by the act of our representative, but also through our personal
endorsement of his rebellion by our own actual sin. That Covenant,
which should have been a Covenant of life, has become a Covenant of
death to us. You know what I mean, for I speak to many who know, by
deep personal experience, what it is to be the prisoners of the
Covenant, shut up in soul despair and numbered for destruction. You
could not keep the Law–you felt you could not, though you wished you
could–the future was against you. As for former violations of the Law,
you could make no amends for them–the past was against you. Even then
your inward corruptions were gnawing at your heart like the worm that
never dies and the horseleech that is never satisfied–the present was
against you. Yet despite all this, you still followed after the Lord
and could not live without Him!
This covenanter of whom I speak is one who has, through Divine
enlightenment, perceived a better Covenant and sure salvation therein.
He has seen in the Lord Jesus a Second Adam, greater than the first,
and he has heard the glorious Lord exclaim, "I have given Him as a
Covenant for the people." He has seen Jesus pledged unto God to make
good the breaches of the broken Covenant! The Believer has seen the Son
of God arrayed in blood-stained garments coming from Geth-semane. He
has seen Him answering at the bar for the broken Law, scourged with the
chastisement of our peace and bound with the bands of our condemnation.
I say the Believer has seen the beloved Surety of the New Covenant
meeting the Law's demands at Calvary, surrendering His hands to be
nailed for our sins, His feet to be fastened up for our wanderings and
His heart to be pierced for our wantonness!
O my Soul, have you not seen your Lord bareheaded amid the tempest of
Divine wrath for sin? Have you not heard Him cry, "My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me"? If so, you have seen how, out of the old
Covenant, the new was born, like life from between the ribs of death!
Our soul has stood in the midst of the horrible tempest, half-blinded
by the lightning and deafened by the thunder. At last there has been a
tear in the black mantle and a shower of wondrous love has followed the
black tempest–and a Voice has been heard, sweeter than the harps of
angels, saying, "It is finished." Thus have the Lord's covenanted ones
come forth from under the old Covenant into a Covenant of Grace, in
which peace and joy abound! Now are we in happy league with God! Now we
would think and feel and act in harmony with God! Our covenant with Him
shall compass all our life–we are His and He is ours. "The Lord is my
portion, says my soul" and, on the other hand, "The Lord's portion is
His people." Henceforth we would have no life except for the living
God! He is our ambition and our expectation, our end and our way, our
desire and our delight! He rejoices over us to do us good and we
rejoice ourselves in Him and seek His Glory.
The spiritual covenanter has the Covenant with God written on the
tablets of his heart. I have known Believers, when first converted,
follow a hint given them by Dr. Doddridge in his, "Rise and Progress of
Religion," where he draws up a covenant which he invites the reader to
sign. Some have executed a deed with great solemnity and have also
observed the day of its signature from year to year. Very proper, no
doubt, to some natures, but I fear that to the more timid and
conscientious, such covenants are apt to cause bondage. When they find
that they have not, in all things, lived up to their own pledges, they
are apt to cut themselves off from all part and lot in the matter–this
is the Covenant of Works and not of Grace! It is a covenant on paper
and not the Covenant written upon the heart and mind. The true
covenanter wills the will of God. It is not merely that God commands
him to do right, but he longs to do it. God's Law is his love. That
which is pleasing to God is pleasing to His people because their hearts
are made like His own. The Divine likeness is restored by the Spirit of
Grace and, therefore, the will of the Lord is written out upon the
new-born nature. Holiness is the passion of a true Believer. He
consents and assents to the Law, that it is good, and the Divine Life
within him delights itself in the Law of the Lord. This is the surest
sort of Covenant–this Divine writing in the nature, according to that
gracious promise–"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you." "I will put My Law in their inward parts and
write it in their hearts." O happy man whose covenant with God is the
Covenant of his own desire, who wills and wishes and longs and labors
to yield himself fully and wholly unto the Law of his God!
This covenanting man does not regard himself any more as one by
himself, for he is joined unto the Lord and has entered into the
closest fellowship with Him. None can separate him from God–the union
is vital and complete. He has thrown his little all into God's great
all and taken God's great all unto himself to be his heritage forever!
And now, therefore, he is in God and God in him. You ask me what it is
which thus binds the man to God? I answer–he feels that he is joined
unto the Lord for many reasons and among the best because the Lord has
chosen him to be His own. He is old-fashioned enough to believe that
God has a choice in the salvation of men and he perceives, because
faith has been
granted him, that the Lord has evidently chosen him unto salvation. He
often cries, "Why me? Why me?" and yet knowing that those whom the Lord
calls by Grace, He first predestinated thereto, he is not ashamed to
believe in his election!
Now the man that believes that God has chosen him–that is the man to
enter into covenant with God and to keep that covenant! He that is
chosen of God chooses God and chooses Him because he is chosen. The
vows of God are upon him. Such amazing Grace compels him to a
consecrated life.
Moreover, in addition to the choice of God, this covenanter sees a
blood-mark upon his body, soul and spirit. The redemption made on the
Cross, whatever its other bearings, is seen by the Believer to be
specially for him. He cries, "For me the bloody sweat! For me the
spitting and the scourging! For me the nails and the spear! Truly I am
not my own, I am bought with a price." This blood-bought man feels that
he cannot be as other men are–he must subscribe with his hand unto the
God of Jacob and acknowledge and confess that he belongs only to the
Lord. Others may be their own lords, but as for us, we have been
redeemed, not with corruptible things as with silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of the Son of God! O Sirs, if you know your election
and your redemption, you must and will dedicate yourselves unto the
Lord by a covenant which cannot be broken! If the choice of the Father
and the redemption of the Son do not supply us with a potent force
towards holiness, what can do so? Well may we be the covenanted ones of
God when we are thus distinguished.
Besides, the covenanting Believer feels that he has been the subject of
a special call. Whatever God may have done with others, he knows that
He has dealt specially with him in a way of Grace and mercy. The Lord
has said to him, "I have called you by your name; you are Mine." A
Voice has called him from his kindred and from his father's house as
surely as Abraham was called. The Lord, Himself, has brought him out of
darkness into marvelous light. Whatever the Gospel may be to the
congregation at large, it has been the power of God to him, for in it
he has felt the touch of a Hand unfelt before and heard the sound of a
Voice unheard in all the days gone by. Omnipotent Grace has awakened
the echoes of his soul. "When You said, Seek you My face; my heart said
unto You, Your face, Lord, will I seek." This special and effectual
call is another mighty reason for entering into league and covenant
with God. By that Omnipotent call, O Lord, I render up myself to You.
Let the world do as it wills, we cannot account for its folly, but as
for us and our house, we will serve the Lord. Our bonds of amity with
the world are broken–let it do and say what it will–but to the Lord
are we bound forever by that same power which has fetched us out of our
former slavery. What with election, redemption and calling, what more
can we say?
Yes, I can say something more, for this true covenanter feels that he
is now united to God in Christ Jesus. Matchless doctrine, unity with
God through Jesus Christ! No man knows all the name and nature of the
man quickened of the Spirit. You cannot tell from where he comes, nor
where he goes. We talk of aristocrats, but Believers are the
aristocrats of Heaven and earth! We often hear the words, "royalty,"
and, "blood royal"–the blood royal of the universe is in the man that
believes in Jesus! He has made us unto our God, kings and priests. By
virtue of our union with Christ, we are one with God and partakers of
the Divine Nature. The day shall come when all the gewgaws and
trappings of courts shall be laid aside as faded tawdriness–and then
the true dignity and honor of the twice-born, the quickened by the Holy
Spirit, shall be truly seen. To be members of the body of Christ–this
means glory, indeed! To be married unto the King's Son, even to the
Lord Jesus–this means such bliss as angels cannot reach! Do you wonder
that because of such immeasurable privilege we make a sure covenant
with God?
There are three or four things I would say briefly about this true
covenanter–the Lord make each one of us to be of his stamp! You may
know him by his attachment to the Lord Jesus, who is the sum,
substance, surety and seal of the Covenant. You may also know him by
his zeal for the Gospel through which the Covenant is revealed to the
sons of men. He will not hear anything which is not according to the
old Gospel, for he counts another Gospel to be a pestilent evil. He is
very fond of the word, "Grace," and with the thing itself he is
altogether enamored. The man that is in covenant with God cannot bear
the idea of human merit–he loathes it–it raises his indignation. Have
I not known some Christian people come out from hearing certain sermons
with their souls on fire with holy wrath? I feel, in casting my eyes
over many modern writings, as if I had breathed poisonous gas and was
likely to die. We cannot endure the smell of sacramen-tarianism,
priestism and human righteousness! Others may feed on philosophical
morality, but nothing but the Grace of God will do for us! Cats and
dogs may feed on any rubbish, but men of God must live on the Grace of
God and nothing
else! Our keeping the Covenant and the testimonies binds us to a firm
adherence to the Inspired Gospel and the Grace of God which is the
Glory of it.
He who is, indeed, in covenant with God is known by his continual
regard to the life, walk, and triumph offaith. He has faith and by that
faith he lives and grows. He is and has and does all things by
faith–and you cannot tempt him away from that faith wherein he stands.
Carnal sense and fleshly feeling are not able to tempt him from
believing. The highest enjoyment proffered by a fancied perfection
cannot charm him from standing by faith. "No," he says, "I must trust,
or else it is all over with me. My element is faith and, as a fish out
of water dies, so do I die and all my covenanting with God dies, too,
unless I cling by faith to the promise of a faithful God." Though all
men should live by sight and feeling, yet will not the true covenanter
quit the hallowed way of faith in the Lord!
This covenanting man will also be known by his stern resolve to
preserve the Gospel in its purity and hand it on to others. When the
Truth of God was made known to Abraham, it was committed to him and to
his descendants as a sacred deposit of which they were to be the
guardians and trustees. It was theirs to keep that lamp burning by
which the rest of the elect would, in due time, would be saved from
darkness. At this hour the eternal Truths of the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ are given over to certain chosen men and women to be
preserved by them till the coming of the Lord. This keeping is to be
accompanied with a constant proclamation, so that the Truth of God may
spread as well as live, and may go on conquering and to conquer. O you
who are the covenanted ones of God, let not His Gospel suffer damage!
I charge you that love the Lord to bind the Gospel about you more
firmly than ever. Bear aloft the standard of our grand army. The
blood-stained colors of the Cross–bear them to the front–spread them
to every wind and uplift them on every hill! And if you cannot spread
the Truth and are shut up to defend it, then do so even to the death!
Wrap the colors about your heart! Be wrapped in them as in your shroud
if you cannot live bearing them as your flag! A true covenanter says,
"Sooner death than false of faith." The crown of our Lord Jesus shall
never suffer loss. We will do everything for Jesus! We will, for His
sake, bear reproach and for His sake labor to win souls unto God. We
vow that He shall be glorified in our mortal bodies and that by some
means His great name shall be made known to the ends of the earth. O my
comrades! I am revived by the very thought of you. God has yet His
faithful covenanters who have not bowed the knee to Baal, to whom the
Lord is God and King forever and ever!
II. Under our second head let us now study THE COVENANTER'S NOTABLE
EXPERIENCE. The text says, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and
truth unto such as keep His Covenant and His testimonies."
Observe, first, that the Lord makes many approaches to covenanting men.
He does not leave them alone, but He comes to them and manifests
Himself to them. By the expression, "All the paths of the Lord," I
learn that the Lord has many ways of drawing near to His chosen. Not in
the public highways of Grace, only, does He meet those with whom He is
on terms of peace, but in many private and secret paths. In a grass
field, a path is made by constant treading, and God makes paths to His
people by continually drawing near unto their souls and communing with
them. The Lord has many paths, for He comes to them from different
points of the compass, according as their experience requires. He
sometimes uses this way and sometimes another, that He may commune with
us. He will never leave His covenanted ones alone for long. Often does
He say, "Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a
covenant with Me by sacrifice."
I like the word, "paths," as we have it in our English version, for it
seems to say that the Lord has walks of His own. He makes ways for
Himself and comes along them quietly, taking His people at unawares. On
a sudden He whispers a Word of heavenly promise and then is away again.
But He is not long gone–He makes another path and comes to us with new
unction and fresh revealings. His visits to us have been many and
gracious. O my Hearer, if you will give yourself to God, God will give
Himself to you! Young man, I invite you to the grand destiny of one
that shall henceforth live with God, to whom God shall manifest
Himself. Will not this be a distinguished honor? Do not think it
unattainable! God may be reached–if you will consecrate yourself to
Him this day by a Covenant of Salt through Jesus Christ the
Ever-Blessed Sacrifice–you shall know the visitations of the Almighty!
You shall, like Enoch, walk with God!
Believe me, I speak truth and soberness. Between this place and the
pearly gates, the Lord will come unto you, yes, He will take up His
abode with you. When you cannot get to Him, He will come to you, for He
is a great path maker. His ways are in the sea and He leaps over the
mountains. He has a desire to the work of His hands and that desire
will break through stone walls to reach you! What a life is that to
which the Lord makes innumerable paths! Happy shall He be who shall
attain to it!
Note, next, that all the dealings of God with His people are in a way
of mercy. "All the paths of the Lord are mercy." This is well, for the
best of the saints will always need mercy. Those who keep His Covenant
are still kept by His mercy. When they grow in Grace and come to be
fully developed Christians, they still need mercy for their sins, their
weaknesses, their necessities. The Lord exercises mercy to the most
highly instructed Believer as well as to the babe in Grace–mercy to
the most useful worker as much as to the most weary sufferer. Thank God
that His mercy towards us is forever!
That mercy will always be "tender mercy," abiding mercy and abounding
mercy. His mercy is constant as the day, fresh as the hour, new every
morning. Mercy covers all. In every gift of Providence and in every way
of predestination, mercy may be seen. It would be greatly to our
advantage to think more of the mercy of God to us. So much of His mercy
comes and goes without our noticing it! Shame that the Lord should thus
be deprived of the revenues of His praise!
In Hebrews I find the word here used is, "wheel tracks," such ruts as
wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink
up to the axles. God's ways are, at times, like heavy wagon tracks and
they cut deep into our souls–yet they are, all of them, mercy. Whether
our days trip along like the angels mounting on Jacob's ladder to
Heaven, or grind along like the wagons which Joseph sent for Jacob,
they are, in each case, ordered in mercy! I stand by the happy memories
of a tried past, as in summer weather I walk down a green lane and as I
look at the deep ruts which God's Providence made long ago. I see
flowers of mercies growing in them. All the crushing and the crashing
was in goodness. Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the
days of my life! Yes, "all the days of my life"–the dark and cloudy,
the stormy and the wintry–as surely as in "the days of Heaven upon the
earth." Brothers and Sisters, we may sing a song of unmingled mercy!
The paths of God have been to us nothing else but mercy. Mercy, mercy,
mercy! "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever."
The Psalmist says, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth."
That is to say, God has always shown the Truth of His Word. He has
never been false to His pledges. He has done according to His Word.
Moreover, the blessings which God has promised have always turned out
to be as He represented them. We have followed no cunningly devised
fables. The blessings of Grace are not fancies or frenzies,
exaggerations or mere sentiments. The Lord has never fallen short of
His promise. He has never kept His Word to the ear and broken it to the
heart. All the ways of God have not only been merciful and true, but
they have been essential "mercy and truth." We have had truth of mercy;
verity of mercy; substantial, solid, essential mercy. I have found no
delusion in trusting in God. I may have been a dreamer in some things,
but when I have lived unto God I have then exercised the shrewdest
common sense and have walked after the rule of prudence.
It is no vain thing to serve God–the vanity lies on the other side. I
know that many of you think that Christian experience leans to the
region of sentiment, if not of imagination–but, indeed, it is not so!
The surest fact in a Believer's life is God's nearness to him, care for
him, love to him. Other things are shadows or shinings which come and
go, but the goodness of God is the substance, the truth, the reality of
life. How I wish I could persuade you of this! But, alas, the carnal
mind will not receive spiritual things! I may bear witness of that
which I taste and handle, but you will not believe me. Divine Spirit,
come and open blinded eyes!
To this rule there is no exception–"All the paths of the Lord are
mercy and truth unto such as keep His Covenant." They say there is no
rule without an exception, but there is an exception to that rule. All
God's dealings with His people are gracious and faithful. Sometimes the
ways of God are full of Truth and mercy manifestly–they have been so
to me in many a notable instance. I hope I do not trouble you too often
with personal experiences. I do not narrate them out of egotism, but
because it seems to me that every Christian should add his own personal
testimony to the heap of evidence which proves the Truths of our God.
If I tell you about John Newton, you answer, "He is dead," but if I
tell you of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he stands before you!
Some 10 days ago I was called to bear a baptism of pain. I had a night
of anguish and the pangs ceased not in the morning. How gladly would I
escape from these acute attacks, but it seems I may not hope it! I felt
worn down and spent. Far on in the morning my ever-thoughtful secretary
came by my bedside and cheered me greatly by the news that the letters
brought tidings of considerable help to the various enterprises. In
fact, there was far more coming in than is at all usual at this season!
A legacy was reported of £500 for the Orphanage and £500 for the
College. Another will was mentioned in which the Orphanage was made
residuary legatee. Living friends had also sent large sums as by a kind
of concert of liberality! They did not know that their poor friend was
going to be very ill that morning, but their Lord knew, and He moved
them to take away every care from His servant. It seemed to me as if my
Lord said to me, "Now, you are
not going to fret and worry while you are ill. You shall have no
temptation to do so, for I will send you so much help for all My work
that you shall not dare to be cast down."
Truly in this the paths of the Lord to me were mercy and truth! Many
and many a time have I been lost in wonder at the Lord's mercy to His
unworthy servant. I bow my head and bless the name of the Lord and cry,
"Why this to me?" Ah, Brothers and Sisters! One can bear rheumatism or
gout when mercy flows in as a flood! "Shall we receive good at the
hands of the Lord and shall we not receive evil?" Seeing it all comes
from the same hands, we should receive it with equal cheerfulness. Now
will I suffer with patience and endure with tranquility, for the Lord
has dealt graciously and tenderly with His servant! I have often found
His consolations abound in proportion to my tribulations, insomuch that
I am on the look-out for the mercy when I begin to feel the smart, even
as a child looks for the sweet when he finds himself called upon to
take medicine. Those more closely around about me say, "Now that you
have a bad time of personal suffering, you will see the Lord doing
wonderfully for you"–and they are not disappointed. Indeed, I serve a
good Master–I can speak well of Him at all times–and specially do I
find Him kind when the weather is rough around His pilgrim child!
Have you not found it so in your way? Come, dear Friends, you cannot
speak this morning, for one is enough for a public assembly, but you
can speak when you have had your dinners and your children are round
about you. Tell them how gracious God has been to you in your times of
trouble. Utter exceedingly the memory of His great goodness!
Mark you, when we cannot see it, the Lord is just as merciful in His
ways to us. We may not expect to be indulged and pampered by being made
to see the mercy of God, like silly children that will be in a pet and
a fume unless their father stuffs their mouths with sweetmeats and
their hands with toys. God is as good when He denies as when He grants!
And though we often see the marvelous tenderness of our God, it is not
necessary that we should see it to make it true. Our God is wise as a
father and tender as a mother–and when we cannot comprehend His
methods, we still believe in His love. This is not credulity, but a
confidence to which the Lord is fully entitled! There can be no doubt
about it, that "all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such
as keep His Covenant."
I hear some say, "These things do not happen to me. I find myself
struggling, alone, and full of sorrow." Do you keep the Covenant? Some
of you professing Christian people live just any way and not by
Covenant rule. You do not live to God. You do not keep His Covenant.
You do not observe His testimonies. You are not living consecrated
lives! Therefore, if you do not enjoy His mercy and His truth, do not
blame the Lord! The text says that all His paths are mercy and truth
"unto such as keep His Covenant." Remember the saying and do not expect
the blessing apart from it. O child of God, be more careful to keep the
way of the Lord–more concentrated in heart in seeking His Glory–and
you shall see the loving kindness and the tender mercy of the Lord to
you. God bless this feeble testimony of mine to all who are assembled
here this morning!
I have this much to add to it–What a bliss it is to have entered upon
the spiritual life and to be in covenant with God! If there were no
mercy joined to it of a Providential character, it would nevertheless
be the grandest thing that ever could happen to any of us to be living
onto God. I call all short of this death and I know no other name for
it. What solidity we have in godliness! It puts eternal rock beneath
our feet. There are fascinating things in life about which you are
almost afraid to enquire, for fear they should not prove to be what
they seem. All earthborn joys are of this kind–their charms are on the
surface, their beauty is skin deep. But in regard to the life
consecrated to God by His Covenant and then enriched by His mercy–you
may pry, dig, search–and the more you do so, the more you will be
positive that now you are in the land of realities! Though we do not
see, yet we perceive with a perception clearer than sight–and we shall
so perceive through life! And when they fling back those golden gates
and we peer into the spirit land, then shall we value, most of all, the
life which observes the Covenant of God and is surrounded with mercy
and truth!
What a wondrous thing the life of a consecrated man will seem to be
when it shall be viewed in its completeness in the light of the eternal
Throne of God! Then will the embroidery of love be seen in its beauty
and the fabric of life will be acknowledged to be worthy of a God.
Things not seen as yet will be seen, then–and things known in part
will be seen in all their bearings! I suppose that one of the
engagements of Heaven will be to observe how kindly our God has dealt
with us upon the road. At any rate, when we come to the Glory Land, we
shall only reckon that to have been true life which was spent in
communion with God. Link us with God and we live–divide us from Him
and we are dead!
I hear worldlings mutter–"What is the man thinking? We know nothing
and care nothing about being in covenant with God." Truly you despise
the life I set before you, but it is your own way of life which most
deserves scorn, O you
who live for gain or pleasure! I will sketch you with the pencil of the
Truth of God. It is a country scene and it passed under my own eyes but
a few hours ago. I sat by the river, at a point where abundant springs
poured forth new streams. It was a brook, wide but shallow, and the
pure water glided along refreshingly under the overhanging boughs.
Little children were there, wading into the stream and enjoying its
cool waters. One of them was a true representative of your wealthy
merchants. He went fishing with a bright green glass bottle and his
ventures were successful. Again and again I heard his voice ring out
most joyously and impressively, "Look! Look! Here! Here! Such a big
'un! I have caught such a big 'un!" It was by no means a whale which he
had taken, but a fish which might be half-an-inch long. How he exulted!
"Such a big 'un!" To him the affairs of nations were as nothing
compared with the great spoil which he had taken. That is the gentleman
upon the Exchange who has made that successful speculation! For the
next few days he will astonish everybody as they hear that it was "such
a big 'un!" Earth, Heaven and Hell–time and eternity–may all accept
the go-by, now that the glass bottle contains its prey! I confess I was
not carried away with admiration for the child's fortune, neither did I
envy him the fullness of his satisfaction.
His brother, not far off, varied my picture for me. He was less richly
endowed and yet he had a very serviceable tin can with which he fished
most diligently. Soon I heard his voice pitched in another key–"Nasty
little things! They won't come here! I can't catch 'em! They're good
for nothing! I won't try any more." Then the impetuous genius threw his
tin can with a splash into the water–and his enterprise was ended.
That is the gentleman whose company has been wound up, or whose goods
will not command a market. Things will not come his way. He cannot get
on. He has made a failure of it and is in the Gazette. All society is
out of order, or he would have been sure to succeed. He is sick of it
all for the present. You smile at my boys! O worldlings, these are
yourselves! You are those children–and your ambitions are their
stories–
"O happy man that lives on high, While men lie groveling here."
Without God you are paddling in the brooklet of life, fishing for
minnows! If you get a grip of God, because He has laid hold on you, O
Man, there is then a soul in you! Then have you come to be allied with
angels and akin to seraphim! Apart from God you subside into shameful
littleness. O Lord Jesus pity those who forget You! Amen.