A Mournful Defection
(No. 2914)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN
THE YEAR 1877.
"Will you also go away?" John 6:67.
No mischief that ever befalls our Christian communities is more
lamentable than that which comes from the defection of the members. The
heaviest sorrow that can wring a pastor's heart is such as comes from
the betrayal of his most familiar friend. The direst calamity the
Church can dread is not such as will arise from the assault of enemies
outside, but from false brethren and traitors within the camp. My
eminent predecessor, Benjamin Keach, though arrested, brought before
the magistrates, imprisoned, pilloried and otherwise made to suffer by
the Government of the times for the Gospel doctrines that he preached
and published, found it easier to brook the rough usage of open foes
than to bear the griefs of wounded love, or sustain the shock of
outraged confidence. I should not think his experience was very
exceptional. Other saints would have preferred the rotten eggs of the
villagers to the rooted animosities of slanderers. Troy could never be
taken by the assaults of the Greeks outside her walls. Only when, by
trickery, the enemy had been admitted within the citadel was that brave
city compelled to yield. The devil himself was not such a subtle foe to
Christ as was Judas, when, after the Supper, Satan entered into him.
Judas was a friend of Jesus. Jesus addressed him as such. And Judas
said, "Hail, Master," and kissed Him. But Judas it was who betrayed
Him! That is a picture which may well appall you–that is a peril which
may well admonish you.
In all our churches, among the many who enlist, there are some who
desert. They continue awhile and then they go back to the world. The
radical reason why they retire is an obvious incongruity. "They went
out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us." The unconverted adherents in
our fellowship are no loss to the church when they depart. They are not
a real deficit, any more than the scattering of the chaff from the
threshing floor is a detriment to the wheat. Christ keeps the winnowing
fan always going. His own preaching constantly sifted His hearers. Some
were blown away because they were but chaff. They did not really
believe. By the ministry of the Gospel, by the order of Providence, by
all the arrangements of Divine Government, the precious are separated
from the vile, the dross is purged away from the silver so that the
Good Seed and the pure metal may remain and be preserved. The process
is always painful. It causes great searching of heart among those who
abide faithful–and occasions deep anxiety to gentle spirits of tender,
sympathetic mold.
I trust, dear Friends, that you will not think I harbor any ungenerous
suspicions of your fidelity because my text contains as pointed and so
personal an appeal to your conscience. There is more of pathos than of
passion in the question as our Lord puts it–"You will not go away,
will you?" He addressed the favored twelve. I put it to myself. I put
it to those who are the officers of the Church. I put it to every
member without exception–Will you also go away? But should there be
one to whom it is peculiarly applicable, I do not desire to flinch from
putting the question most personally to that one–"What? Are you going?
Do youmean to turn back? Do youmean to go away?"
I. Let us approach the enquiry sideways. "Will you also go away?"
"Also" means "as well as other people." WHY DO OTHERS GO? If they have
any good reason, perhaps we may see cause to follow their example. Look
narrowly, then, at the various causes or excuses for defection. Why do
they renounce the religious profession they once espoused? The
fundamental reason is lack of Grace, a lack of true faith, an absence
of vital godliness. It is, however, the outward reasons which expose
the inward apostasy of the heart from Christ of which I am anxious to
treat.
Some there are in these days, as there were in our Lord's own day, who
depart from Christ because they cannot bear His Doctrine. Our Lord had
more explicitly than on any former occasion declared the necessity of
the soul's feeding upon Himself. They probably misunderstood His
language, but they certainly took offense at His statements. Hence
there were those who said, "This is an hard saying; who can bear it?"
So they walked no more with Him.
There are many points and particulars in which the Gospel is offensive
to human nature and revolting to the pride of the creature. It was not
intended to please man. How can we attribute such a purpose to God? Why
should He devise a goal to suit the whims of our poor fallen human
nature? He intended to save men, but He never intended to gratify their
depraved tastes. Rather does He lay the axe to the root of the tree and
cut down human pride. When God's servants are led to set forth some
humbling Doctrine, there are those who say, "We will never assent to
that." They kick against any Truth of God which clashes with their
prejudices. What do you say, Brothers and Sisters, to the claims of the
Gospel on your allegiance? Should you discover that God's Word rebukes
your favorite pleasure, or contradicts your cherished convictions, will
you forthwith take the huff and go away? No, but if your hearts are
right with Christ, you will be prepared to welcome all His teaching and
yield obedience to all His precepts. Only prove it to be Christ's
teaching and the right-minded professor is ready to receive it. That
which is transparent on the face of Scripture he will cordially accept,
as he says, "To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not
according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." As
far that which is merely inferred and argued from the general drift of
Scripture, the true heart will not be hasty to reject, but patient to
investigate, like the Bereans who "were more noble than the Jews of
Thessalonica, in that they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those
things were so."
Oh, that the Word of Christ may dwell in us richly! God forbid that any
of us should ever turn aside, being offended because of Him, His
blessed Son, His holy example, or His sacred teaching! May we be always
ready to believe what He says and prompt to do what He commands!
Remember, Brothers, that the Gospel commission has three parts to which
the minister has to attend. We are to first go and preach the Gospel. "
Go you, and disciple all nations." The second part is, "baptizing
them." And the third part is, "teaching them to observe all things
whatever I have commanded you." As willing disciples of Jesus, let us
press forward, paying attention to His voice, following in His
footsteps, and counting His revealed will as our supreme law. Far be it
from us to go back from Him because we are offended at His Doctrine!
Others there are who desert for the sake of gain. Many have been
entangled in that snare. Mr. By-Ends originally went on pilgrimage
because he thought it would pay. There was a silver mine on the road
and he purposed to survey it and see whether silver might not be
obtained there as well as at the golden city beyond. He came, if I
remember rightly, of a family that got its living by the waterman's
business, looking one way and pulling another. He was apparently
striving for religion, though all the while he had his eye on the
world. He was for holding with the hare and running with the hounds!
So, when he came to a point where he must part with one or the other,
he considered which would, upon the whole, be the more profitable and
gave up that which appeared to involve loss and self-sacrifice–and
kept to that which would, as he called it, "help him in the main
chance," and assist him to get on in the present life. Sincerely do I
trust there is no one among us but who despises Mr. By-Ends and all of
his class! If you would make money–and there need be nothing sinful in
that–do let it be made honestly. Never let riches be pursued under the
pretense of religion! Sell your wares and find a market for your
merchandise, but do not sell Christ, nor barter a heavenly birthright
for a worthless bribe! Put what goods you please into your shop window,
but do not put a canting, hypocritical expression on your face, or
"wear a holy look," with a view of turning godliness into gain.
Some leave Christ, and go away, terrified by persecution. Nowadays, it
is supposed that there is no such thing, but that is a mistake, for
though martyrs are not burned at Smithfield and the Lollards' Tower is
a place for show (a memorial of times long ago), yet the harassment,
the cruelty and the oppression are far enough from being obsolete!
Godless husbands play the part of petty tyrants and will not permit
their wives the enjoyment of religion, but make their lives bitter with
a galling bondage! Employers full often wreak malice on servants whose
piety towards God is their sole cause of offense. Worse still, there
are working men who consider themselves intelligent who cannot allow
their fellow workman liberty to go to a place of worship without sneers
and jeers and cruel mocking! In many cases the mirth of the workshop is
never louder than when it is turned against a believer in Christ! They
count it rare fun to hunt a man who cares
for the salvation of his soul. They call themselves, "Englishmen," but
certainly they are no credit to their country! Look at the base-born,
ill-bred cowards–yonder is an atheist–he is raving about his rights
because the magistrate will not believe him on his oath! He claims
liberty of conscience to be a heathen, but denies his comrade's right
to be a Christian! Look at that little party of British workmen–they
belong to the Sabbath Desecration Society. They are petitioning
Parliament to open museums and theatres on Sundays and at the same time
they are hounding to death a poor fellow who prefers going to Chapel!
They air their own self-respect by the words they utter, while they
betray their self-abasement by the scorn they vent on those who presume
to sing a hymn. They hail the drunkard as a chum and rout the sober man
as a fiend! I wonder that there is not more honorable feeling, more
good faith and true fellowship among our skilled workmen than to permit
one man being made the butt of a whole community!
God give you Grace to bear such persecutions as these! If they cut you
to the quick, may you learn to bear them with equanimity and even to
rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for the Savior's sake!
Some of us have had to "run the gauntlet" for many years. What we have
said has been constantly misrepresented. What we have endeavored to do
has been misjudged and our motives have been misunderstood. Yet here we
are, as happy as anybody out of Heaven! We have not been injured by any
or all the calumnies that have been heaped upon us. Our foes would have
crushed us, but, blessed be God, He cheered us often when we were cast
down. The Lord give you, in like manner, strength of mind and courage
of heart to bear the trial manfully! Then you will care no more for the
laughter and the sneers of men than you do for the noise of those
migratory birds high overhead which you hear on an autumn evening as
they are making their weary journey to a distant clime. Take heart,
Brothers and Sisters! Fear God and face your accusers. True courage
grows strong on opposition. Never think of deserting the army of
Christ! Least of all should you play the coward because of the
insolence of some ill-mannered bully. Let not your faith be vanquished
by such scoffing. Alas, that so many a cowardly spirit has gone away
for the sake of carnal ease–and deserted Christ–when he has become
the drunkard's jest and the derision of fools!
There are some people who forsake true religion out of sheer
lightheartedness. I know not how to account for some men's defections.
If you take up the list of shipwrecks, you will notice some that have
gone down through collisions and others through striking upon rocks,
but sometimes you read of a vessel, "Foundered at sea." How it
happened, no, one knows–the owner himself cannot explain it! There are
some professors who, concerning faith, have made shipwreck under such
apparently easy circumstances–so free from trial, so exempt from
temptation, that we have not seen anything to awaken anxiety on their
behalf–yet all of a sudden they have foundered. We are startled and
amazed. I remember one who fell into a gross sin, of whom a Brother
unwisely said, "If that man is not a Christian, I am not." His prayers
had certainly been sweet. Many a time they had melted me down before
the Throne of Grace and yet the life of God could not have been in his
soul, for he lived and died in flagrant vice and was impenitent to the
last! Such cases I can only attribute to a sort of lightheadedness
which can be charmed with a sermon or a play–take a pew at the Chapel
or a box at the opera with equal nonchalance and eagerly follow the
excitement of the hour, "everything by turns and nothing long."
"Unstable as water, they shall not excel."
On the spur of the moment, they profess Christianity, though they do
not espouse it. And then, without troubling themselves to renounce it,
they drop off into infidelity. They are soft and malleable enough to be
hammered into any shape. Made of wax, they can be molded by any hand
that is strong enough to grip them. The Lord have mercy upon any of you
who may happen to be of that type! You spring up soon and suddenly you
wither. Hardly is the seed sown before the sprout appears! What a
wonderful harvest you promise! But, ah, no sooner has the sun risen
with a burning heat than, because there is no depth of soil, the green
shoot withers away. Pray God that you may be plowed deep, that the iron
pan of rock underneath may be broken right up, that you may have plenty
of subsoil and root-hold, that the verdure you produce may be
permanent. Lack of principles is deadly, but the lack is far too
common. Never cease to pray that you may be rooted and grounded,
established and built up in Christ so that when the floods come and the
winds blow, you may not fall with a great destruction–as that house
fell which was built upon the sand!
But, oh, what multitudes are tempted aside from following Christ and
His Church by evil companions! They do not avoid the society of the
wicked and as a man is known by the company he keeps, we soon discover
the direction in which they are drawn. The more intimately we know
them, the more readily we perceive their propensities. Have a care,
then, with whom you associate. Never confide in those persons of whose
principles you have good cause to stand in doubt.
Above all, let me admonish you young people not to be "unequally yoked
together." Marriage without the fear of God is a fearful mistake. Those
ill-assorted unions between Believers and unbelievers rob our churches
of more members than any other popular delinquency that I know of!
Seldom–I might almost say never–do I meet with a woman professing
godliness who becomes joined in wedlock to a man of the world but what
she goes away. She ceases to follow Jesus and we hear no more of her.
Absorbed in the pursuits, the pains and the pleasures of the life that
now is, she is sucked under the stream and drawn into the vortex. In
the romance of her courtship, she glibly said, "I shall win him," but,
in the reality of their conjugal bonds, he could coolly say, "I have
won you." Probably the stronger nature wins the day. In this case,
however, a precept of the Gospel is violated and the penalty of
disobedience is incurred. It is much easier for the one who professes
religion to give up the faith, after laying down the Cross, than for
another who has no religion to take up the Cross and follow the Savior
in whom he has never yet believed! I counsel you, young man or woman,
who contemplate a marriage on the basis of capricious attraction,
without reference to the sanctity of the relationship before God, to
communicate your intention to your minister and renounce your
membership in the Church before you say your vows! Voluntarily give up
all profession of religion! Do not wait to be excommunicated! Do not
sneak away without giving an account of yourself. You had better count
the cost and pay the price of your own presumption. Should your
unwarranted but sanguine hopes succeed and your earnest endeavors to
gain the conversion of your helpmeet be successful, that would be an
uncovenanted mercy! If God chose to give it to you, it would not even
then excuse you for tempting Him by your waywardness, or provoking Him
to jealousy by your willfulness! There is an express command, "Be you
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." I appeal to every
Christian man or woman who has been converted since marriage– Do you
not find it exceedingly difficult to keep up your courage when one
pulls one way and one another? And does it not cut you to the quick to
think that your union is but temporary–that however dear you may be to
each other now, you will be parted at the Judgment Seat of
Christ–parted to meet no more? The Lord make us careful about our
associates, about those among whom we stand, by whom we sit, with whom
we walk!
And oh, how many leave Christ for the sake of sensual enjoyments! I
will not enlarge upon this. Certain, however, is it that the pleasures
of sin for a season fascinate their minds till they sacrifice their
souls at the shrine of sordid vanity. For a merry dance, a wanton
amusement, or a transient joy that would not bear reflection, they have
renounced the pleasures that never pall, the immortal hopes that never
fail and turned their backs upon that blessed Savior who gives and
feeds the taste for unspeakable joy, for joy full of glory!
In our pastoral oversight of such a huge Church as this, we have
painful evidence that considerable numbers gradually grow cold. The
elders' reports on the absentees reiterate the vain excuses for
non-attendance. One has so many children. The distance is too great for
another. When they joined the Church, their family was just as large
and the distance was just the same! But the household cares become more
irksome when the concern for religion begins to flag–and the fatigue
of travelling increases when their zeal for the House of God falters.
The elders fear they are growing cold. No actual transgression can we
detect, but there is a gradual declension over which we grieve. I dread
that cold-heartedness–it steals so insensibly yet so surely over the
entire frame. I do not say that it is worse than open sin. It cannot
be. Yet it is more insidious. A flagrant delinquency would startle one
as a fit does a patient, but a slow process of backsliding may steal
like paralysis over a person without awakening suspicion. Like the
sleep which comes over men in the frozen regions–if they yield to it
they will never wake again. You must be awakened or else this
inactivity will surely end in death! "Gray hairs are here and there
upon him, yet he knows not." Is it so with any of you, dear Friends?
Are you going aside by slow degrees? He that loses his substance little
by little presently becomes a bankrupt–and painful is the discovery
when the end is precipitated! How miserable must a spiritual bankruptcy
be to him who wastes by degrees his heavenly estate, if he ever had
any! No words can describe it. God preserve us from such a catastrophe!
Some have turned aside who allege so through change of circumstances.
They were with us when their means of livelihood were competent, if not
affluent. From reverses in business they have sunk in their social
position. Hence they do not like to come into fellowship with us as
they were known to do. Now, from my inmost soul I can say if any of our
members become poor, I, for one, do not think one atom the less of
them, or hold them in less esteem, however impoverished they may
become! Do not tell me that you have no fit clothes to come in, for any
clothes that you have paid for are creditable. If you have not paid for
them, I cannot make excuses for you. Be honest. Silk or fustian need
not shame you, but for fineness or fashion I should certainly blame
you! I am always glad to see Brothers and Sisters sitting here, as I
sometimes do, in their smock-frocks. One good friend is rather
conspicuous in that line. The wholesome whiteness of his rural garb is
rather attractive. If he has paid for it, he is a far more respectable
man than anyone that has run into debt for a suit of broadcloth that he
cannot pay for! And I rejoice to think that I am not merely expressing
my own feeling, but that which is shared by the whole community! We all
delight to see our poor Brothers and Sisters. If there are any of you
suffering from a sensitiveness of your own, or a suspicion of our
reflections, the sooner you get rid of such foolish pride the happier
you will be! You want to be thought respectable? Don't you know that a
man is respectable for his character, not for the money he has in his
pocket?
Others forsake Christ when they become rich and increased in goods.
They did not scorn the little conventicle when they were plain plodding
people, but since fortune has smiled on them and they have moved their
residence from a terrace to a mansion–and they have taken to keep a
carriage–they feel bound to move in another circle. To their parish
church, or to some Ritualistic church in their neighborhood, they go
once on the Sunday. They patronize the place by their presence. They
show themselves among the elite of that locality! They bow, and bend,
and face about to the East as though they had been born to the manner!
They are too respectable to go into the little Baptist Chapel. They
receive visitors in the afternoon, dine late and dissipate Sabbatic
hours in the frivolous pretence of showing off their gentility. Well, I
think their departure is not to be lamented. When gone, they are
certainly no loss to anybody. We sigh for them as we would for Judas or
Demas. They have fallen foul of what they thought their good fortune,
but of what has proved to be their ruin! Those who have true
principles, when they rise in the world, see more reason why they
should use their wealth and their influence in aiding a good cause.
Principle would prevail over policy to the end of their lives if in
their hearts they believed the Truth of God as it is in Jesus. It were
no dishonor to a prince to go and sit down side by side with a pauper,
were they both true followers of Jesus Christ!
In old times, when our grandfathers sought refuge in caves and dens of
the earth, they met the high and the low, the bond and the free. Or
when, in earlier ages, the Christians gathered in the catacombs, men
out of Caesar's household– now a chief, then a senator, then a prince
of the blood–came and sat down in those caverns, lighted with the dim
candle, to listen while some unshod but Heaven-taught man declared the
Gospel of Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit! That they were
illiterate, I am quite sure, for, on looking over the monuments that
are found in the catacombs, it is rare to find one inscription that is
thoroughly well spelt. Though it is evident enough that the early
Christians were an uneducated company of men, yet those that were great
and noble, learned and polished, did not disdain to join with them–
nor will they in any age if the Light of Heaven shines and the love of
God burns in their hearts!
Unsound doctrine induces many to apostatize. There is always plenty of
that about. Deceivers will beguile the weak. Some have been turned
aside by modern doubt–and positive infidelity has its partisans. They
begin cautiously by reading works with a view to answer scientific or
intellectual skepticism. They read a little more and dive a little
deeper into the turbid stream because they feel well able to stand
against the insidious influence! They go on till at last they are
staggered. They do not repair to them who could help them out, but they
continue to flounder on till, at last, they have lost their footing and
he that said he was a Believer has ended in stark atheism–discrediting
even the evidence of the existence of God! Oh, that those who are well
taught would be content with Gospel teaching! Why should you be so
unwise as to go through pools of foul teaching merely because you think
it easy to cleanse yourself of its pollution? Such trifling is
dangerous! When you begin to read a book and find it pernicious, put it
aside. Someone may upbraid you for not reading it all through, but why
should you?
If I have a roast on my table of which the smell and the taste at once
convince me that it is putrid and unwholesome, should I show discretion
by eating the whole of it before giving my judgment that it is not fit
for food? One mouthful is quite enough–and one sentence of some books
ought to suffice for a sensible man to reject the whole mass! Let those
who can relish such meat feed on it, but I have a taste for better
food. Keep to the study of the Word of God. If it is your duty to
expose those evils, encounter them bravely with prayer to God to help
you. But if not, as a humble Believer in Jesus, what business have you
to taste and test such noxious fare when it is exposed in the market?
Can you doubt that there are some who turn aside from Christ and His
people through sheer laziness. They have nothing whatever to do–and
what must a Christian be who has no part in the service of Christ?
Nothing to do for Jesus? A drone in the hive! I do not wonder that you
go away. My wonder is that the bees do not drive you out. On the other
hand, I fear others have gone aside through having been too busy–they
have been so occupied that they have neg-
lected to feed their own souls. I am always pleased to see our dear
Brothers and Sisters diligent in the service of Christ. I am glad to
miss many of you on the Lord's-Day evening when I know how well you are
engaged. I could spare a few more of you if you were intent upon
teaching the young, or exhorting those who are out of the way. But I
earnestly admonish you never to be negligent of your own souls while
you are vigilant for the souls of others! If you do not get nourished
with the Bread of Life yourselves, you cannot grow in Grace! This
caution, I am fully persuaded, is not uncalled for. There are some who
get so absorbed in Christian work that they never listen to the Word.
They hardly ever read. They only talk. This is sorry work. If you do
not take in, you cannot give out. If your own soul is starved, you
cannot be strong for the Lord's service. Get at least one good
spiritual meal in the day. Then spend all the strength you have for God
and rely on Him for frequent renewals. Keep up the fire within and add
fresh fuel to give a more fervent heat. See to it that you are not
losing communion with Christ while you think you are getting
conversions to Christ. That is a peril you good people must not play
with! It is far too serious. But I will not continue in this strain. It
is painful to me, if not to you.
II. Now I want briefly to answer a second enquiry–WHAT BECOMES OF
THOSE WHO TURN ASIDE?
Well, if they are God's children, I will tell you what becomes of them,
for I have seen it scores of times. Though they go aside, they are not
happy. They cannot rest, for they are miserable even when they try to
be cheerful. After a while they begin to remember their first Husband,
for it was better with them, then, than now. They return, but there are
scores and scores who, to say nothing of the shame they have to carry
with them to their grave, are never afterwards the men they were
before. They have to take a second place among their comrades. And even
should Sovereign Grace so wonderfully bless their painful experience
that they are fully restored, they can never mention the past without
bitter regret. Their by-path is serving others' as a beacon–they will
say to young people, "Never do as we have done! Nothing but mischief
comes of it."
In the vast majority of cases, however, they are not the Lord's people.
So this is what comes of it. Those who prove traitors to a profession
they once made are the hardest people in the world to impress.
Doubtless some of you, when you lived in the country, used to always be
punctual at your usual place of worship. But since you have come to
London, where your absence from any sanctuary is unnoticed, you rarely
enter the courts of the Lord's House, nor would you have been here
tonight but for some special inducement–some country cousin or some
particular friend having brought you. Though unknown to me, God scans
your path. Well, here you are, and yet it may be too little profit. You
have had counsels and cautions in such profusion that it is like
pouring oil down a slab of marble to admonish you. May God of His
Omnipotent Mercy break your stone heart or there will be no hope for
you! Such people frequently lose all conscience. They can go a great
deal further in talking against religion than anybody else! They will
sometimes venture to say they know so much about it that they could
expose it. Their boasts and their threats are alike useless, but as
boys whistle while they walk through the churchyard to keep their
courage up, so do their vain talk and their senseless stories betray
their stifled fear! They speak contemptuously of God while they justify
themselves in a course for which their own conscience upbraids them.
They go back–alas, some of them, to prove themselves the most
abandoned sinners in the world! There could not have been a Judas to
betray Christ had he not been first distinguished as a disciple who
ventured to kiss his Master. You must pick from among the Apostles to
find an apostate! As the ringleaders in riotous transgression, when
converted, often make the best revivalist preachers, so those that seem
to be the most loyal subjects of Christ, when they become renegades,
prove to be the bitterest foes and the blackest sinners!
Painful reminiscences rush over one's mind. Standing here, now, in the
midst of a great Church, I call to mind things that have harrowed up my
soul. God grant I may not see the likes of them again! They go away!
Ah, me! Full many of them go away to die in blank despair. Did you ever
read the life of Francis Spira? If you want to sleep tonight, do not
take up that memoir. Did you ever read the life of John Child, a
Baptist minister of about 200 years ago? Mr. Keach gives it in one of
his works. He was a man who knew the Truth of God and, to a great
extent, had felt its power, but he went aside from it and before he
came to die, his expressions were too terrible to listen to. The
remorse and despair of his spirit chafed everyone away. At last he laid
violent hands upon himself.
For any man to eat bread at the Lord's Table, to drink of the cup of
blessing, to mingle with the saints, join in their prayers and their
hymns, professing to be a disciple of Christ–and then to go back and
walk no more with Him–is to venture on a course of no ordinary danger!
When his conscience is again awakened, how he wishes that he had never
been
born! Could he annihilate his anguish-smitten soul to terminate his
existence might be accounted wise. But that is impossible. The relief
he seeks he cannot find when he takes the dreadful leap from suffering
here, to an aggravated form of misery hereafter–ten thousand times
worse to endure! He seals his doom and makes his own damnation sure as
he raises against himself a murdering hand!
Do I address anyone here who is bereft of every ray of hope and
shivering on the brink of despair? To him I say– While there is life,
there is hope! Jesus Christ can forgive you! Return to Him! He can wash
you in His blood. He can make you clean, though your sin is as scarlet.
But, oh, do not trifle, make no delay! Tarry no longer in your present
condition else maybe you will fill up the measure of your iniquities
before you are aware and you may taste, even in this world, some
beginning of the wrath to come! If not rescued as a trophy of Grace
right speedily, you may become a monument of God's wrath–a beacon to
deter others from daring to turn aside! I speak solemnly. I cannot help
it. So intensely do I feel the terror of that woe and so confident am I
that some of you are making light of it, that I would go down on my
knees and entreat you with tears to repent of what you are doing. You
have got on the inclined place and you are going down, down, down! Your
feet are even now on the slippery places from which multitudes have
been cast down into destruction! How they are brought into desolation
as in a moment! The Lord make haste to deliver you! May He stretch out
His hand and rescue you! I can only call out to you. You seem to have
got where I cannot reach you. Do not venture a footstep further on that
dangerous road! Look to Jesus, look to Jesus! He can redeem your life
from the Pit by His Sovereign Grace–but He alone can do it! Then, as a
wandering sheep brought back to the fold, you shall adore His name.
III. My third enquiry is–WHY SHOULD WE NOT GO AWAY AS THEY HAVE?
Were we left to ourselves, I cannot tell you any reason why we should
not go as they have. Nor, indeed, could I tell you why the best man
here should not be the worst before tomorrow morning if the Grace of
God left him. John Bradford, you know, as he saw the poor criminals
taken away to Tyburn to be executed, used to say, "There goes John
Bradford but for the Grace of God." And everyone of us might say the
same. To abide with Christ, however, is our only security and we trust
we shall never depart from Him. But how can we make sure of this? The
great thing is to have a real foundation on Christ to begin
with–genuine faith, vital godliness. The foundation is the first
matter to be attended to in building a house. With a bad foundation,
there cannot be a substantial house. You require a firm bottom, a sound
groundwork before you proceed to the superstructure. Do pray God that
if your religion is a sham, you may find it out now. Unless your hearts
are deeply plowed with genuine repentance and unless you are thoroughly
rooted and grounded in the faith, you may have some cause to suspect
the reality of your conversion and the verity of the Holy Spirit's
operation in you. May the Lord work in you a good beginning and then
you may rely upon it, He will carry it on to the day of Jesus Christ!
Then remember, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you would be preserved
from falling, you must be schooled in humility and keep very low before
the Lord. When you are half-an-inch above the ground, you are that
half-inch too high! Your safety is to be nothing. Trust Christ, but do
not trust yourself. Rely on the Spirit of God, but do not rely on
anything that is in yourself–no, not on a Grace you have received, or
on a gift you possess. Those do not slide who walk humbly with God.
They are always safe whose entire dependence is upon the dear Redeemer.
Be jealous of your obedience. Be circumspect. Be careful. Take heed to
yourselves–your walk and conversation cannot be too cautious. Many are
lost through being too remiss, but none through being too scrupulous.
The statutes of the Lord are so right that you cannot neglect them
without diverging from the path of rectitude. Watch and pray. God help
you to watch, or else you will get drowsy. Never neglect prayer. That
is at the root of every defection. Retrogression commonly begins at the
closet. To restrain prayer is to deaden the very pulse of life. "Watch
unto prayer."
And, dear Friends, shun the company which has led other people astray.
Parley not with those whose jokes are profane. Stay right away from
them. It is not for you to be seen standing, much less to be found
sitting down with men of loose manners and lewd talk. They can do you
no good, but the evil they can bring upon you would not be easy to
estimate! You may have heard the story–but it is so good it bears
repeating–of the lady who advertised for a coachman and was waited
upon by three candidates for the situation. She put to the first one
this question–"I want a really good coachman to drive my pair of
horses and, therefore, I ask you how near you can drive to danger and
yet be safe?" "Well," he said, "I could drive very near, indeed! I
could go within a foot of a precipice without fear of any accident so
long as I
held the reins." She dismissed him with the remark that he would not
do. To the next one who came she put the same question. "How near could
you drive to danger?" Being determined to get the job, he said, "I
could drive within a hair's breadth and yet skillfully avoid any
mishap." "You will not do," she said. When the third one came in, his
mind was cast in another mold, so on the question being put to him,
"How near could you drive to danger?" he said, "Madam, I never tried.
It has always been a rule with me to drive as far from danger as I
possibly can." The lady hired him at once! In like manner I believe
that the man who is careful to run no risks and to refrain from all
equivocal conduct, having the fear of God in his heart, is most to be
relied upon! If you are really built upon the Rock of Ages, you may
meet the question without dismay, "Will you also go away?" and you can
reply without presumption, "No, Lord, I cannot and I will not leave
You, for to whom should I go? You have the words of eternal life." So
be it. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calls you, who
also will do it." Amen.