A Boundless Benediction
(No. 2531)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 22, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
10, 1884.
"By the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of Heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies under." Genesis 49:25.
You must have noticed, when reading Jacob's prophecies concerning his
sons, that the good old man, when he came to talk about Joseph,
suddenly seemed to be freer of speech than while he was addressing any
of the others. The dying flame of life within him appeared to burn up
more brightly at the sight of the son of his old age, the darling of
his heart. The blessing which Jacob pronounced upon Joseph was infinite
in extent–he seemed to ransack Heaven and earth in order to express
the desire of his soul–and what he knew as a Prophet to be the purpose
of God.
It is observable, here, and it is to be noted in a great many other
places, that God's richest blessing often falls upon those who have
been the most tried. This boundless benediction is to come upon "the
crown of the head of him that was separate from his brothers" through
their jealousy, ill-will and malice. All this blessing is for the one
whom the archers sorely grieved, at whom they shot and whom they
desperately wounded. So have you and I observed, Beloved, that as our
tribulations abound, so our consolations abound by Christ Jesus. It
seems as if it were necessary for a life which is to win the highest
blessing, that it should be greatly checkered with affliction. You must
go down if you are to rise up! You must carry heavy ballast if you are
safely to bear full sails. It has been so, in the experiences of many
of us, till we have come to this conclusion–in days of joy we tremble
for all the good which the Lord has made to pass before us–but in days
of trial we rejoice because we are expectant of a greater weight of
glory and of the peaceable fruits of righteousness which will,
by-and-by, be ours through our troubles!
I think all of us who are wise would be willing to take the blessing of
Joseph. We might not like to be with him as he was despised by his
brothers. We might not care to be put into the pit with him. We might
not wish to be cast into prison with him. But we may be well content to
take the bitters with the sweets, for, when Joseph came to the sweets,
they were exceedingly sweet, indeed!
Remember, too, that Joseph was not only a specimen of a tried saint,
but also of a separated saint. There are some of God's people who are
so surrounded by adversaries that they have to go to Heaven very much
alone. It is preferable to go with Mr. Great-Heart, the women and
children and old Father Honest and Mr. Valiant-for-Truth–and all the
good company who make up the Church of God on pilgrimage. But sometimes
there is a pilgrim who has to pursue his journey all by himself. It is
somewhat of a loss for him, for he misses many of the blessings of
Christian communion–but God has a way of making up for all His
people's losses if they are but faithful to Him. So Joseph, though he
had not fellowship with his brothers, found better fellowship in his
God and he was greatly the gainer! Am I at this moment addressing a
tried child of God who is compelled to pursue his way very much in
solitude? Then, I pray you, ask the Lord to give you the blessings of
the text–the blessings that shall be over your head. "Blessings of
Heaven above." And the blessings that shall be under your
feet–"blessings of the deep that lies under."
Moreover, to complete the description of Joseph, I notice that he was
not only tried and separated, but he was very severely tempted. I need
not do more than just allude to his temptation in the house of
Potiphar. For so young a man, how well he behaved! How gloriously he
showed that he truly feared God! And I believe that any of us who are
exposed to unusual temptation, if we only have Grace enough to resist
it, are on the road to a far larger blessing than the untempted can
expect. The Lord tries us in different ways and when we come forth out
of the furnace as gold seven times purified, then there is some
honorable use to which that gold is to be put! Are you tempted just
now, dear Friend? Is it something very pleasant to the flesh, but very
deadly to the spirit? Escape for your life and in that act of escape,
you will have opened a window through which the sunshine shall come
upon you in an altogether unexpected manner! Perhaps not at the moment,
for Joseph had to go to prison and to lie there for a long while, but,
before long, you shall see that fidelity to conscience and to the Truth
of God will certainly bring its own reward. These preliminary remarks
are suggested by the surroundings of our text which show that the
blessing came upon the tried, the separated and the tempted Joseph.
"I do not understand," says one, "how trials and blessings go
together." Perhaps you do not, but there are many old women here who
do–and there are many of us whom you would, perhaps, set down as being
very ignorant–who perfectly understand it. You see, experience
teaches. There are many who will criticize some of the sentences of
Ralph Er-skine in his Believer's Riddle, and say that these things are
contradictory. Just so, but faith has to credit contradictions. If you
do not know that the spiritual life is a profound paradox, you do not
know anything at all. The way of a serpent on the rock, or of a ship in
the sea, is a mere trifle compared with the way of spiritual life in
the soul of man! To understand yourself, you must understand the
mystery of the two natures and of the daily inward conflict between
them–the carnal mind that never can be reconciled to God and that
heavenly mind that cannot sin because it is born of God–both of which
co-exist in the Believer. They cause him often to be like Paul, in whom
there was the company of two armies, crying, one moment, "O wretched
man that I am!" and saying in the same breath, "I thank God through
Jesus Christ our
Lord."
Please note, next, that God alone is the source of all blessing–"By
the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of Heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies under." All these are blessings
distinctly from God and there is nothing which looks like a blessing
which will turn out to be a blessing unless God is recognized in it. If
God gives you your wealth, you shall be truly rich–otherwise you shall
be one of those poor rich people who enjoy nothing. If God gives you
your health and you are grateful for it, you shall have true sanity,
for your soul shall be in health even as your body is. Restoration from
sickness should always be ascribed to God. Whatever part the physician
may play–and he often plays a very important part–yet to God, who
gives the physician wisdom and skill, must the gracious result be
ascribed. Whatever may be said to be due to nature–and there is no
doubt that a good constitution often works for itself more healing than
does the doctor's medicine–yet, since that constitution is the gift of
God, He is still to be praised! Every moment we owe the breath in our
nostrils to the Lord's kind forbearance. This dust would soon return to
its brother dust if God did not animate it by His breath. Therefore He
is to be praised for every moment of our life. But when, on certain
occasions, disease and pain set in and we are rendered extremely
weak–and life, then, more apparently than ever, seems to hang upon a
thread–if we are restored, our God deserves, then, a still more
special song of thanksgiving. Did not King Hezekiah sing unto the Lord
when he had been raised up from sore sickness and his life had been
preserved? He did not praise the lump of figs which had been the
instrument of relieving him, or sing to the praise of the Prophet
Isaiah who had prescribed for him–he praised the God who had healed
him and magnified His holy name! Remember, Beloved, that whatever God
gives you is a right-handed blessing for which you are to thank Him,
and by which you are to serve Him. But also remember that, "Every good
gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the
Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning." What you get of the devil and what you get of yourself will
prove to be a curse to you–God alone can give you the blessing!
Is it not sweet to think that the Lord is almighty as a blessing God?
Jacob says to Joseph, "The Almighty, who shall bless you," and he seems
to imply that He will give an almighty blessing! Is it not a glorious
thought that God, being infinitely great, does not give as if He were
little and that the Infinite does not bless according to the narrow
limits of our finite minds? Well may we join with Paul in saying, "Unto
Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory in
the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen." Yes, God is almighty to bless us. Oh, happy is that man who has
the blessing of the Lord resting upon him!
And, according to the verse in which our text is found, the Lord
delights especially to bless the children of His own servants–"Even by
the God of your father, who shall help you, and by the Almighty, who
shall bless you." Do you not feel that the son of your dearest friend
has some kind of claim upon you? If you have long loved the father, you
naturally take to the children for his sake. And though Grace does not
run in the blood, "For the promise is unto you and to your children,
and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call," yet the God of Abraham does delight in Isaac, and the God of
Isaac delights in Jacob, and the God of Jacob blesses Joseph, and the
God of Joseph blesses Eph-raim and Manasseh! God likes to cleave to His
old friends, even to a thousand generations of them that love Him! He
will never turn aside from those who keep His Covenant. I count it a
far greater honor to be descended from the saints of God than to be
descended from the greatest princes who ever stirred the history of the
world. Will not you, Beloved, pray for your children as your fathers
prayed for you? And will not this verse encourage you to expect a great
blessing for your Joseph from the God who has dealt so graciously with
you? O young man, may the blessing of the God of your father come upon
you, even the blessing of "the Almighty, who shall bless you with
blessings of Heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under!"
Notice, once more, before we get into the very heart of the text, that
when God is about to bless His people, He can make the causes of
disquietude to become the sources of benediction. Men are, by nature,
afraid of the heavens–the superstitious dread the signs in the sky and
even the bravest spirit is, sometimes, made to tremble when the heavens
are ablaze with lightning. And when the pealing thunder seems to make
the vast concave of Heaven to shake and to reverberate, who but God can
give us the blessings of the upper sky? As for "the deep that lies
under," why, in the imagination of some men, it is the world of
darkness and the Valley of the Shadow of Death! And when earthquakes
happen, as they do much more often in the East than here, then are men
sorely afraid. They know not what lies in the deep caverns beneath them
and they tremble, and are dismayed, but God can give us the "blessings
of the deep that lies under." He can, in fact, encompass us with
blessings so that we shall go forth with joy and be led forth with
peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before us into
singing–and in yon dark forests, the very trees shall clap their
hands! Has He not promised that the beasts of the field shall be at
peace with us and that the stones of the field shall be in league with
us? The stars in their courses fight for the people of God! And the
earth below is still moved to its inmost depth by the power of Him that
keeps Israel, who does neither slumber nor sleep.
Thus, dear Friends, have I brought you up to the text which I think
readily divides itself into two parts and so furnishes us with our
themes for meditation–first, the blessings of Heaven above. And,
secondly, the blessings of the deep beneath.
I. First, there were given to Joseph THE BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN ABOVE. And
I believe that they are also given to all God's people who are in
trouble, who bear themselves well in temptation and who are sustained
by Divine Grace as Joseph was. You and I, as God's people, shall have
the blessings of Heaven above.
Joseph had them, first, literally, that is to say, upon his country.
There was the blessing of the sun which, in its season, shone to help
vegetation to develop itself, to produce the fruits and to ripen the
harvest. There were the blessings of the moon, for, in the darkness of
the night men were cheered by it–and the moon has various subtle
influences upon plants and people of which we know but little. But,
whatever those blessings were, Joseph's land had the blessings of the
moon and of the stars. There fell upon his mountains the blessings of
the dew which comes at nightfall very heavily in the East–and makes up
for the lack of rain. Joseph had the dew and, in due season, Joseph had
the rain, too–the early and the latter rains–and the two tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh rejoiced in possessing a fertile country, a land
for which the Lord their God cared very specially. Thus they had,
literally, the blessings of Heaven above. And you and I, Beloved, shall
have all the blessings of Heaven above, literally, as far as they would
be real blessings to us according to that ancient promise, "The sun
shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night…The Lord shall
preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and
even for evermore."
But, just now I am going to show that God's people shall have these
blessings metaphorically. That is to say, they shall have that which is
representedby the sun–the sunlight of Divine favor. You shall have
fulfilled to you, tried child of God, the benediction of the High
Priest, "The Lord bless you, and keep you: the Lord make His face shine
upon you, and be gracious unto you: the Lord lift up His Countenance
upon you, and give you peace." You shall have as much of the light of
God's Countenance as you can bear and, if you will walk with Him, as
Joseph did, in all carefulness and uprightness, then you shall have
that sunlight continually with you, making glad your heart and ripening
within you the fruits of Grace to the glory of God!
Then, when the night comes, you shall have the Word of God shining in
your soul, like the moon and, oftentimes, the borrowed and reflected
light of the Gospel ministry shall be a blessing to you when,
otherwise, you would have been in darkness of spirit. You shall have a
blessing by night as well as by day–a blessing on your sleep and on
your rest, as well as on your labor! God will never cease to bless out
of Heaven those whom He has eternally chosen as His own.
Nor shall you, who are the Lord's people, lack the reviving and
refreshing dew. If you live near to God, you shall be able to say with
Job, "The dew lay all night upon my branch." Oftentimes, when the
threshing floor shall be dry, your fleece shall be wet, for the Lord
shall send to you a perpetual watering by the dew of Heaven. Has He not
said of His vineyard, "I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every
moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day"? O my Brothers
and Sisters, it is, indeed, a great blessing when your soul is full of
the heavenly dew–the unction of the Holy One–the bedewing of the Holy
Spirit! This blessing is also intended for all the people of God.
And you shall have the rain, too, in its own season, for the value of
the blessings of Heaven is very much dependent upon the season in which
they come. Sometimes it is good for us to be surrounded with a damp
atmosphere and dark clouds, but there are times when the plants must
have sunlight. And there are seasons when the soul must have delight in
its God. You shall have the dampness when you need it and you shall
have the brightness when you can bear it. The Lord will give you, just
as He gives a land when He means to bless it, the early rain in its
season and the latter rain in its season–the dew in its night and the
sunlight in its day. Oh, be glad, dear Friend, that all that the high
peaks of Bashan and the hills of Ephraim ever possessed shall be yours
spiritually and you shall bring forth abundant fruit to the glory of
God!
Now, for a minute or two, let me show you that this blessing of Heaven
above may be looked at as being similar to the blessing of the dew and
of the sunlight. Look now, not merely at the metaphor, but at the
inward similarity. The blessings of Heaven, both naturally and
spiritually, come to men sovereignly. If we summoned a Parliament, they
might talk as much folly as they usually do, but they could not produce
a shower of rain by all their talk! If we had all the kings and queens
in the world gathered together, they could not give the farmer one
sunshiny day when God willed to cover the sky with clouds! He gives
dew, or rain, or sunlight according as He wills it. Well, so is it with
the Grace of God in all its various forms! It is the Sovereign gift of
Heaven and the Lord holds in His own hand the prerogative to give it or
to withhold it–
"When He shuts up in fell despair, Who can remove the iron bar?"
And when He gives light and liberty, who is there that can darken the
child of God, or thrust him into the dungeon? It is God who gives the
rain, the dew and the sunlight–and it is He, also, who alone can give
Divine Grace.
But these blessings of Heaven are effectual as well as Sovereign. When
God makes it rain in the East, it rains and nobody has to go outside to
see whether it is raining or not. And when the sun shines in the East,
it is hot and nobody has to question whether the sun is shining or not.
It so shines that you need to get under the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land and, in like manner, I know that when God blesses His
people, they are blessed! If His Grace descends, He gives a plentiful
shower whereby He does refresh His inheritance when it is weary! When
His dews fall, they saturate our fleece till we could wring out the
water as Gideon did! The Lord never fails to complete all the processes
He intends at the various seasons! Who can stand before His cold, or
before His heat? So is it with His Grace–it is effectual in
accomplishing the purposes of the Most High.
But the blessings of Heaven are also exceedingly pure. What can there
be whiter than snow that drops from the sky? What can there be purer
than the mountain spring? It is almost too pure for man's sinful
palate, but everything that God sends from Heaven is, like Himself,
pure and clean. So is His Grace. When it comes into the heart, it is a
lovely thing, a thing of good repute and it makes us, also, to be of
good repute when we yield to its power.
And what a sublime thing is that which comes from Heaven! You know how
God said to Job, "Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops
of dew?" He seemed to ask where else they could come from but from
Him–and certainly He it is who bestows His Grace, whatever shape it
may take! Every drop of Grace that comes into the soul of a man
glorifies the God who sent it, so that the gifts of God's Grace are
included in the blessings of Heaven above.
The blessings of Heaven above are also continuous, for, if it does not
always rain, then the sunlight takes up its work, or the moon operates
upon the earth. But there is always some blessing coming from the sky
towards man. The world is never cut asunder from its moorings amid the
stars–they all have their ordained influences upon us and, in like
manner–no child of God is ever beyond the reach of the sweet
influences of the Pleiades of the promises! And God, the great Father
of Lights, is always affecting for good the hearts of all His people.
Continuous are the blessings which come from Heaven!
So, you see, there is a similarity between the benedictions of Grace
and the blessings of Nature.
And, dear Friends, I think that there is a specialty about some
blessings which proves that they have come from above more distinctly
than any others. For instance, that first Grace which works in the
heart–is not that just like the rain which comes when nobody is
looking for it? The man has never prayed for Grace or, even if he has
prayed for it, there is no true prayer ever offered until first of all
Grace has come to produce that prayer. The sinner is never beforehand
with God. If you begin to pray at this moment, it is because God's
Grace has begun to work upon your heart so that you can pray. He is
always first! That is one of the blessings of Heaven, then–that first
movement of the Eternal Spirit upon the dead, chaotic heart–producing
light and order. That is surely from Heaven and God has given it to His
people.
And do you not see how clearly Grace comes from Heaven because it keeps
on coming even when it is not fed by us? Though we often flag in our
spiritual experience, the great God never flags. "If we believe not,
yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself." Often, when our
heart's fire would go out, His flaming love burns so continually that
the fire within us is kept alive. Because He perseveres in love, we
persevere in Grace. If God changed in His thoughts toward us, we would
be utterly cast away, but He does not change and, therefore, we are not
consumed. This is another proof that the gift of His Grace is purely
and clearly out of Heaven–Heaven's own benison, the blessing of Heaven
above.
I can look back upon many mercies which I have received which do not
appear to have come to me by any channel except through the blessed
Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean not by any human channel.
Oftentimes, when we are alone, sweet thoughts refresh us and comforts
come flying into our spirit–singing like the birds which are all alive
at springtime. We know not how those sweet songsters came, but we hear
them singing! Those are, indeed, blessings from Heaven above that never
touch the earth, but come directly from God to your heart. Perhaps you
will have more of them soon, in times of greater trouble and direr
sickness and, as you get nearer to the Hill Country, when there is only
the narrow river between you and the golden shore, then shall you have
more and more of the blessings of Heaven above. They are all yours, but
they shall come to you in their season.
Finally, under this head, I may say that we actually and certainly have
the blessings of Heaven above. Why, Beloved, all that there is in
Heaven is given to us! There is God the Father in Heaven, and He is our
Father. "The blessings of Heaven above" must include the blessing of
Him who has begotten us, again, unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead! Our dear Father's own benediction comes
to us warm out of His infinite heart–the heart that gave us Jesus and
now can deny us nothing. Oh, what a blessing we have in that love of
our Father in Heaven! But Jesus is there, too–
"He who on earth as Man was known, And bore our sins and pains, Now
seated on the eternal Throne, The God of Glory reigns"
and all the blessing there is in Him comes streaming down to His
people!
There is not one of the children of God who has any idea of a
thousandth part of the blessing that he is continually receiving from
the Lord Jesus Christ. "It pleased the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell" and of His fullness we are daily receiving, Grace for
Grace. There, also, in Heaven is the blessed Spirit, the Comforter, and
He blesses us, for He is here as well as there. He is in us and with
us, and abides with us henceforth and forever, to illuminate, to
comfort, to direct, to refresh, to sanctify, to make perfect. Every
form of His blessing is ours. Then, as you look again up to Heaven, you
may rest assured that there is not an angel there but is bound to bless
you. When the triune God becomes your God, then for certain all the
courtiers of the King's palace are your ministers, "sent forth to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation."
Beloved in Christ, what is there in Heaven that is not assured to you
by your Covenant-keeping God who is eternal, immutable, full of
benediction, infinite, almighty in the love that He has to His
children? All this blessedness is yours, whether the sun and the moon
shine, or are beclouded! All these blessings are yours even as the dew
falls and the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and return not
there. At all seasons the windows of Heaven are open and you have not
room to receive the blessings that are continually coming to you from
above! You do not know how much of blessing you may have–yes, and
shallhave–if you have but Grace to open wide your mouth to ask
largely–and to receive largely from Him who gives without stint and
without upbraiding. Blessed men, blessed women are you who have
believed in Christ and have the blessings of Heaven above! I pity any
who have not so believed, for the curse–not the blessing–is theirs.
II. Now we must spend a few minutes in considering the second part of
our subject, namely, THE BLESSINGS OF THE DEEP BENEATH. These are the
blessings which come from God's works–from Nature–from Providence:
"blessings of the deep that lies under." Moses called it, "the deep
that couches beneath."
This promise may be taken, first, literally, as an allusion to wells
and springs. Underneath the earth there are great reservoirs of water
which are constantly being tapped in these days by men who make
artesian wells, but, in that country, where they did not know anything
about boring artesian wells, they did know that springs often bubble up
from the bowels of the earth in very strange places, sometimes on the
very tops of hills! It is a remarkable thing that on the Island of St.
Helena, a mere pile of rock which stands up out of the water hundreds
of feet above the level of the sea–there are found numerous fountains
of water, more than sufficient to supply all the needs of that place.
And in all sorts of strange places, where you would not expect to find
them, even in deserts, springs come up and create an oasis of green in
the midst of the barren sand. So the tribes of Joseph were to have the
blessing of springs that bubble up among the valleys, or come leaping
down the hills, to make glad the pastures and the fields.
The analogy of that is just this–that all God's people are to have the
blessing of the inward design of creation. What is it? Those things
which you can see are merely the garments of some great thought of God.
The sea, the land, the sky–these are, as it were, the words in which
some thought of the Eternal is couched–in part concealed, in part
revealed. But the great design of Creation is the Glory of God through
the salvation of His redeemed. On the innermost heart of Creation, if
you could get at it and could read it with the eyes of God, you would
see this inscription, "Made for the accomplishment of the salvation of
God's elect and, thereby, for the Glory of God." When He made mankind
on earth, multitudinous as the bees that swarm out of their hives, the
first thought with God was concerning His own people. The race was to
live and exist by His supreme mercy, because of His love to His own
people–and His people are still made to live that they may be the
means of blessing others! First, the bread is given to the disciples
and then the disciples give it to the multitude. The first thought of
God is that His own children shall be blessed. When I gaze upon the sea
with its rolling waves, or look upon the plains and the forests, or
think of this round world and the myriads of stars, the first thing I
am to remember is this–that it is the love of God which has clothed
His thought in these marvelous garments! The deep that lies under them
all is His love to His people and that you who are His shall enjoy most
blessedly.
And, next, this is the secret of Divine Providence. You cannot see the
deep that lies under, but you can perceive what is God's design in
Providence. Why these wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines and
devastations? The man who can read history aright down to the birth of
Christ and, making that the center, will read on to the death of Christ
and all the later history. He will begin to understand that all of it
is merely the salvation of the chosen people hammered out–either
nearer or more remotely–it all tends to that result. The issues of all
events turn upon the grand Plan of Redemption! It is so in the great
matters of life and it is equally so in the little. Your poverty, your
sickness, the death of one you love–all of that had in it the deep
that lies under–promoting the Glory of God and your eternal safety!
So, Beloved, the next time you get where you cannot see to the bottom
of the clear waters, say to yourself, "There is a deep that lies under,
and that is mine, and I am to have the blessing of it. I cannot see
what God means by this experience, but how can such a babe as I am ever
hope to understand the Infinite? I was born only yesterday and the
Eternal God has lived forever and ever. He must have designs that I
cannot grasp. The deep that lies under in Providence is, however,
mine."
God's servants, in reviewing their lives, must often be startled to
notice how, in their ministry, simple matters are proved to be from the
Lord though, at the time, they knew it not. Have you never heard the
story of the Scottish minister? It is one which is, beyond all
question, a pure matter of fact. He went to a certain place to preach
and took with him the sermon which he intended to use. He went upstairs
to refresh his memory with his manuscript and knelt to pray. And when
he had done praying, he could not find the sermon! He was in a great
state of anxiety about it, for he could not remember anything else that
he could preach except a sermon upon the text, "You shall not kill." He
thought that would be a very odd discourse to deliver when taking an
occasional service at a Brother minister's church–and he did not wish
to preach it. It was one of a course of sermons that he had preached to
his own people upon the Decalogue but, though it was a sermon
apparently quite unfit for the occasion, he could remember no other and
he, therefore, preached from the text, "You shall not kill"–a sermon
against the crime of murder.
When the service was over, there rushed into the vestry a man,
apparently demented. And, shutting fast the door that none might hear,
he confessed to the preacher that he had committed a murder which had
never been discovered. And he received direction from the minister what
to do in order that he might find peace with God. That done, the
preacher returned to the bedroom where he had prayed–and the first
thing he saw when he entered the room was the sermon that he had
intended to preach, lying where he could not help seeing it! Often, we
do not perceive what is immediately before our eyes–and this good man
had not seen his manuscript, for there was a secret design of
Providence to be worked through its loss.
There is also a great deep that lies under, not only in Creation and in
Providence, but in the teachings of God in the Scriptures. You, dear
Friends, who have been lately converted, cannot fully comprehend some
of the deeper doctrines of our holy faith. It is a mercy that you need
not understand them in order to be saved. If I am very thirsty, I do
not require to go down into the heart of the earth to see where all the
reservoirs of water are–here is a little spring that is bubbling up
and I have only to lie down by it and drink. That is enough for me
because it quenches my thirst. Of course, after I have done that, I
desire to intermeddle with all knowledge and I would like to go in
search of the hidden springs of the great sea of the Truth of God to
find out what it is that God calls His deep things, that I may know all
that I can concerning them. But, whatever those deep things are, you
who love the Lord and live near to Him have the blessing of those deep
doctrines, those vast Truths before which the human mind lies prostrate
in adoration. They are all yours–you have the blessings of the deep
that lies under!
Whatever God's eternal purpose which is not yet revealed, may be, it is
not for you and me to try to clamber up and gaze upon the mysterious
volume wherein is written all that shall yet come to pass. But we may
be quite sure that there is nothingin that book which is not full of
blessing to them that love God and are the called according to His
purpose. You can rest content with that! When God is pleased to turn
the next leaf of the volume of the future and you hear it rustle, do
not be eager to read what the next lines may be. Whether they are of
gloom or ofjoy–stand back and say–
"My God, I would not long to see My fate with curious eyes, What gloomy
lines are writ for me, Or what bright scenes may rise." It is enough
for me that my name is in the Book of Life and that, being there, all
things must work together for my good! The deep that lies under is mine
with all the blessings that are hidden in it.
The more you think on this theme, the more you will see what there is
in it, for, after all, there is no dark thing that you can think of but
what there is a great deep of blessing underneath it. For instance,
what lies under death, itself? Why, resurrection! And Jesus says, "I am
the Resurrection and the Life." But there could not be any resurrection
if there were not death, first! And it is not an ill thing that this
body should lie in the grave and have fellowship with Christ in death,
that it may afterwards have fellowship with Him in His Resurrection! Do
not be content with looking at the top of the soil of the Truth of God,
but think of the vast deep of Infinite Mercy and Love that lies
underneath it!
But what is at the bottom of all? I answer, God Himself ' 'The deep
that lies under" is God, for "underneath are the everlasting arms."
God's Mercy, God's Love, God's Grace–this is the deep that lies under
everything! This deep is unsearchable. As no man can see the great deep
that lies under the earth, so we cannot search out or measure the great
deeps of everlasting love. This we know–the great deeps under the
world are always there. As they were there in Noah's day and answered
to God's call and destroyed the earth at His bidding, so they are still
there and will be while the earth remains. And there is always, in the
heart of God, the immutable deep of Divine Love and faithfulness
towards His own Joseph. The deeps are always there and we may always
feel sure that those deeps are inexhaustible. The springs that come up
from the deep are never dried in summer and they are never frozen in
winter. I know a spring which, within a few yards of its source,
produces a river which turns a great mill-wheel within a distance of
about the length of this Tabernacle from the place in which it comes
out of the earth. It is an extraordinary thing, the force that there is
in the deep that lies under–a force that is never exhausted! And such
is God's eternal love to His chosen.
The best of all is that this great deep that lies under, though
unsearchable, immutable and inexhaustible, is, nevertheless, available!
Look, Moses does but smite the Rock and the waters flow out from the
great deep that lies under. God does but speak and in the wilderness
waters leap up and streams in the desert. When man could not get at the
flood underneath, then God made the flood come welling up for man! And
now He has taught man to get at it and man sets his boring machinery to
work and, if he does but continue long enough, it is very seldom that
he does not, at last, tap God's great wine cellar–the best wine that
there ever was–which He brews up among the everlasting hills to make
drink for His people. And up it comes, always fresh, clear and sweet,
as stored away by God, long ago, and now given out at the touch of
man's industry. Oh, dear Friends, I wish that some of you would come
and drink of the water that is so freely flowing! And those of you who
cannot find it, I want you to begin working with that blessed
boring-machine of prayer, and to keep on working right down through all
the rocks of doubt and fear–boring, and boring, and boring away till,
at last, you come to the Living Water of which you may have enough to
drink forever!
At my Nightingale Lane house, I had a well which produced the sweetest
water I ever drank. It was 460 feet deep. The man who had it made would
have a well sunk only there, so the workmen dug down 100, 200, 300 feet
and they quite despaired of finding water. But the owner said, "Keep on
working. I will bore to the center of the earth, but I will have the
well made, so keep on." And they did keep on till they reached the
enormous depth of 460 feet! Then, one day the workmen came up to dinner
and they never went down any more–for while they were away the water
burst through! They had left their tools below, but they could never
get them up any more, and they are there now.
I know some people who have a very deep experience and, for a long time
they keep on boring away through all the mud and slush of their
feelings. If this is the case with any of you, I hope that you will get
through that experience very soon and that you will come to the Living
Water. And when it comes rushing up, you will have to drop your tools
and just drink to the full of that which God freely gives to all who
ask for it! You have only to ask and receive! God grant that you may do
so, for Jesus' sake! Amen.