Our Leader Through the Darkness
(No. 3370)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE MILDMAY PARK CONFERENCE, 1890.
"Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who
walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the
Lord and rely upon his God." Isaiah 50:10.
"Behold I have given him for…a leader " Isaiah 55:4.
I DESIRE to speak to you, dear Friends, not only of Jesus as our
Leader, but of following Him in the dark. Can you see Jesus in the
dark? Yes. We sometimes see Him better in the dark then in the light.
If you will go outside in the daytime and look up, you will not be able
to see a single star. But if you will get into the bucket of a well and
go down into the darkness, very soon you will behold the stars. To
descend may sometimes be the shortest way to ascend. Certainly, to
suffer is the road to the land where there is no suffering–and to be
in present darkness may be the nearest way to eternal light. All light,
but that which comes through Christ, Himself, hinders rather than helps
our sight of Him. He is best seen by His own light. Begone, sun!
Begone, moon! Begone, you candles! He is the Sun of Righteousness and
where He is, there is light enough! All earth-born light hinders the
vision of His face. I fear that many, trusting in the greatness of
their mental light, have become blind to the Glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Blessed is he who sees Christ by Christ–the Crucified
in the light of His five wounds–the Risen One by the brilliance of His
own life!
Darkness–can it fall upon a child of God? He is a child of
light–shall he walk in darkness? Not in darkness in the sense of
ignorance, sin and death, but in the sense of gloom and sorrow! Saints
may have much of it. The heir of Heaven sometimes knows a midnight. But
if he is with Jesus, following Him as his Leader (and that is my
topic), then he is in a safe condition. The words of one of our songs
are ringing in my ears–
"Anywhere with Jesus!
Anywhere with Jesus!" Better in the dark with Jesus than in the light,
yes, than in Heaven, itself, without Him–
"Not all the harps above
Can make a heavenly place,
If Christ His residence removes,
Or but conceals His face."
Give us Christ and we will make no hard terms about darkness, or light!
Only let us be with Him and it is enough. "Forever with the Lord" is
only another word for glory everlasting!
Adam, I suppose, was created in the daylight and he wandered about in
the Garden enjoying his God and the fair works which surrounded him.
When night came on, darkness was a new phenomenon to him. He must have
wondered at it, but since he had no sin, his childlike trust in God
would not permit him to be afraid. He laid himself down to rest without
a fear. It was a memorable night for him. In the dark he lost
something, but the loss was a great gain. In the morning, when he woke
up, he found someone there–the very one he needed. She was there, whom
the Lord had made for him, since, "it was not good that man should be
alone." So have you and I found the darkness coming on and we have been
distressed for a moment–but when we have thought of God we have found
rest. Then we may have lost a good deal in the darkness, as we thought,
for we were conscious of an inward pain taking away what we thought to
be a vital part of ourselves–but when we came out of the gloom into
the morning light, a joy was ours which we had not known before–a joy
that has been our companion and our comfort to this very day! Brothers
and Sisters, I have lost nothing by the darkness. I say, "I," for
everyone must bear witness for himself. I believe every child of God
can say the same. Do not
the dews fall at eventide? Could we bear the perpetual shining of the
burning sun? Is not the morning freshness so great a joy that it
compensates us for the night by which we reach it?
As I thought over my theme, "Jesus, our Leader in the Dark," I began to
fall in love with the dark. There are two parts to my subject–if one
seems gloomy, the other is bright enough! Following Christ is a
lightsome theme! The darkness may be very dark, but I say I have almost
fallen in love with it when Jesus comes to me therein and makes it His
pavilion! Rutherford declared that the cross which he carried for his
Lord at last came to be so dear to him that he was half jealous of it,
lest he should begin to love the cross with a love rivaling his love to
his Lord! Darkness of soul in itself is horrible, but the rich fruit it
has brought to us has made us cease to dread it. We now can thank God
that the evening and the morning make up the day–and the evening is as
much a part of the day as the morning. The nights of our lives are as
rich as the days. The agony is as useful as the rapture. The depression
as instructive as the exaltation. Let us think, then, of–
I. THE DARKNESS THAT CHRISTIANS MAY KNOW.
Well, surely we may say, first, that in some respects we are always in
the dark while here below. We must wait with patience "until the day
breaks and the shadows flee away." Our Lord here on earth may be said
to have been always in the dark in comparison with the Glories which He
left, in contrast with the bliss that He has reassumed. To be here at
all, was to Him to be in the dark. The ever-blessed Son of the Father
was away from the home country and its splendor–he was among sinners
and His heart was pained with human sin, His ears were vexed with
ungodly speeches, His eyes were filled with tears because of obstinate
rebellions! He was all tenderness and yet His soul was among lions. It
must have been a constant trial to His holy, sensitive spirit to have
dwelt in the midst of sinners. So in a certain sense we, also, are
always in the shade compared with what is coming. "It does not yet
appear what we shall be." He is coming! He is coming! The axles of His
chariot are hot with speed. He cries, "Behold, I come quickly." When He
comes, the Glory of His Presence will make the greatest joys that we
have ever known to seem but twilight, as compared with the full day of
His appearing! If His life was so truly in darkness, we must not wonder
if our lives are the same.
We are not, however, dependent upon natural light any more than He was.
If a Christian can only be happy when his feelings are right, I should
be afraid that he is trusting in his feelings! If you are only
confident when your frames are delightful, I should be afraid that you
are resting in your frames and feelings! Faith is a principle which has
its root, deeper feelings. We believe whether we see or not. We believe
whether we feel or not. We believe in Christ upon the testimony of the
Father concerning Him–that testimony is enough for us even if there
are no attendant signs. Our happy experience of salvation is a pleasant
confirmation of the Word of the Lord! And when it seems to fail us, we
still believe. God is not changed because we tremble! Christ is not
altered because we are in fear! The ground on which we stand for
salvation is not our attainments, nor our experiences, nor our
communions. We stand upon the finished work of Christ in which we
believe, whether it is dark, or whether it is light. The young
Christian will say, "I believe that I am saved because I am so happy."
He is no more correct than the old Christian would be if he should say,
"I believe that I am saved because I am unhappy." Let me explain
myself. The value of feeling depends upon its cause. All happiness in
the young man is not a proof of piety. He might be happy if he had
received a large legacy, or had been invited to a party of pleasure.
All unhap-piness in the old Christian is not good evidence of Grace–by
no means would such an assertion stand! And yet, if we sigh and cry
because of the abominations of the city, we have therein a strong
evidence of our being on the side of Christ and righteousness. If we
mourn our imperfections and lack of spotless holiness, our very sighing
and crying are proofs of heavenly life and salvation! The heart is
clean, and the course of the soul is heavenward when the heart can
never be satisfied with anything short of perfect holiness.
Had we not been quickened, and quickened to a high degree, too, we
would have been content with dim signs of holiness. But now nothing but
perfection will content us–we are unhappy when even the least mist
comes between us and God–and these feelings prove how much we love Him
and how our very element is to dwell in unbroken communion with Him. We
are not dependent, therefore, upon happiness or unhappiness as the
ground of our confidence. Christ loved me and gave Himself for me–this
is the Rock upon which I stand! He died effectually for every soul that
trusts Him. I trust Him and this is the token that He has redeemed me
from my sins. I am His. Here is my rock of refuge! I stand on Christ's
righteousness, be it dark or light. The ground of a Christian's faith
is not moved in the least degree by the time of his spiritual day, or
the state of wealth in his experience. Could we sit forever on the top
of Tabor, we would be no
safer than if we were made to dwell always in the Valley of
Humiliation, longing for brighter days. Christ! Christ! Christ! In Him
we are safe!
Yet, dear Friends, there are glooms which fall to the lot of some of
God's best people. I would have you beware, my Brothers and Sisters who
have made a great advance in Grace, and are very joyful in the Lord, of
judging your fellow Christians. I have noticed with sorrow on the part
of some, whose shoelaces I am not worthy to unloose, that,
nevertheless, they are hard towards the lambs and the lame of the
flock. Because they have not reached your own high attainments, do not
condemn them! If you have strong faith, you may condemn unbelief, but
do not condemn weak Believers, who may have beautiful points of
character, although they are as yet mere babes in Grace! Have you never
heard of the strong cattle, of whom the Lord said, "Because you have
thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with
your horns till you have scattered them abroad; therefore will I save
My flock and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between
cattle and cattle." Beware lest you become proud of your attainments
and unkind to those beneath your level! I believe that there is such a
thing as being so long in the light that you do not believe that others
are in the dark. Or, if they are, you judge them to be weak and foolish
and you are apt to scold them. Brother, you cannot scold the darkness
into light! A little sympathy will do far more than what you are
pleased to call faithful upbraiding. That word, "faithful," sometimes
means, "cruel."
None can doubt that some excellent children of God are often in gloom
through bodily sickness and weakness. There are forms of sickness which
bring no depression with them. You might suffer from them through life
and never be saddened. But there are certain forms of disease which
touch not only the bone and the flesh, but also the mind. The pain of
the mind encroaches upon the spirit and the spirit is darkened with
trouble. "Oh, but they ought not to be troubled." Granted, but they are
troubled, and I have noticed this–that your very strong men, yes, and
your very strong ministers, too, who can say rather sharp things about
the weak–and may be justified in saying them, yet, nevertheless, are
not themselves beyond incurring the same rebukes! Great teachers may
not make good sufferers. When the hot iron touches them, it is another
thing from what it seemed to be. It sounds fine for them to say that we
ought not to be cast down, but ask their wives what these strong men
are like when their head aches, or their heart is out of order! When
nights grow long and weary with sleeplessness, do they show all the
faith of which they now speak? Ah, Brothers, the flesh is weak!
But our Lord knows all about sickness–"He Himself took our infirmities
and bore our sicknesses." No form of sickness is beyond the sympathy of
Jesus. Nothing is sweeter or more reviving than His fellow feeling. One
does not know how sympathy works so effectively, but it does operate
marvelously. A little girl said to her mother, "Mother, poor Widow
Brown has asked me to come in every day and see her. She says that I
comfort her so! Mother, I don't know anything that I do to comfort her.
I would wipe all her tears away if I could, but when she sits and
cries, I go and put my cheek against hers and I cry, too. And she
kisses me and says that I comfort her." Just so. One poor human being
can cheer another by fellow feeling, but how much more can Jesus do it!
Oh, to feel your Master's tears drop on your cheek! When you are
weeping, then you read that "Jesus wept."–
"In every pang that rends the heart The Man of Sorrows had a part."
Another cause of great gloom is frequent with us–it is bereavement I
will not say much about it, lest I needlessly draw up the sluices for
many a widow, or wifeless husband, or fatherless child. How often does
the mourner judge that he has laid the best part of himself in the
grave! However dear they were, they could not stay with us–perhaps,
because they were so good that it was necessary that Christ should have
them away from earth. He prayed for them, "Father, I will that they be
with Me where I am"–but we kept on praying the other way–"Father, we
will that they be with us where we are." Our Lord's prayer conquered
ours! It should do so, for they were more His than ours since He had
bought them with His blood. We should never pray against our Lord, but
when we do, may His prayer always have the preference, as it will. Yet
bereavement has brought many a Mary and Martha very low.
"Jesus wept" at the grave of Lazarus. Here, too, we see that the Master
is near akin unto us. I believe that if we want to know the weeping
Savior, we must weep. We always see our Lord, to a great extent, like
ourselves. If we are pilgrims, He comes to us as a wayfarer, as He did
to Abraham. If we are in conflict, like Jacob, He comes to wrestle with
us. If we are in trouble, He meets us, like Moses, at the burning bush.
If we are soldiers, like Joshua, He meets us as Captain of the Lord's
host. If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are in the furnace, the Son of
God makes the fourth in the fire! As we
are, so does He become, that as He is, so may we become! Our
bereavements are a part of the way in which we see and follow our Lord.
And poverty, too. Many of you have never known poverty. I do not wish
that you should, for poverty is a very heavy cross to many of the
children of God. It hinders them when they would give to the Lord's
cause and hampers them in their work for Him. This, perhaps, is not so
lamentably true as they think. When poverty involves crushing toil,
long hours of labor and scarcely enough bread to keep body and soul
together, then it is, indeed, a burden. Dire poverty has hung like a
cloud over many a child of God. There is a poverty which the poets
love–it dwells in a thatched cottage whose porch is overgrown with
woodbine. Perhaps if the poets had rheumatism through the wind blowing
through the decaying walls, they might not sing of it quite so sweetly.
But in London we have a poverty that has neither porch nor
woodbine–poverty that has no cottage, but a single room where scarcely
the decencies of life can be preserved. Beloved, it you have to suffer
from this gloom, remember that the Son of Man had not where to lay His
head.
Another gloom has shadowed many here present in their measure and upon
some, in special, it has loomed tempestuously. It is the cloud of
slander and reproach If you have preserved your garments unspotted. If
you have sought nothing but the Glory of God and yet you find
everything that you do misrepresented, your words misconstrued and
yourself abused–this is truly a trial. Slander is no bed of roses, nor
a test to be desired but, oh, how easy is it then to see Jesus and how
sweet it is to follow Him! "He was despised and rejected of men." If
they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, they have not left
another name that is bad enough for us! We might in very modesty wish
to have a name a little lower than our Lord's, guided by the same
motive which made a great saint consider ordinary crucifixion too great
an honor and, therefore, entreated to be nailed to the cross with his
head downwards! Would you not be content to be called something worse
than Beelzebub? Might you not gladly accept such a name as winebibber
and madman, that you might come in behind your Leader? "Consider Him
who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself," and then
sing–
"If on my face, for Your dear name, Shame and reproach may be, I'll
hail reproach, and welcome shame, For You'll remember me!"
Gloom also falls upon the Christian in time of desertion. I do not know
whether Judas had sons and daughters, but I have seen several persons
who bear a family likeness to that son of perdition. "He that eats
bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me," is a sentence often
repeated. "It was not an enemy that reproached me–then I could have
borne it– but it was you, a man my equal, my acquaintance. We took
sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company."
This, also, is an oft-told tale. Yet fret not too much because of
ingratitude, fickleness and treachery. Is it not written, "Cursed is he
that trusts in man"? All men are liars! Can you not be content to take
the inevitable? Your Master had His Judas. Shall not you have yours?
"Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled." It may be so with you
all the more because you desire to be faithful to your Lord.
The worst cloud of all, I think, is deep depression of spirit
accompanied with the loss of the Light of God's Countenance. Sickness,
poverty, slander–none of these things are comparable to depression!
"The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit
who can bear?" Do you know what exceeding heaviness means? I pray that
you may have but very little of it, but if you do have it, remember Him
who said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Those words were
once a great comfort to a child of God dying in despair. Though an
eminently gracious man, he was in the dark. He could not find his God
and he knew that he was soon to pass into eternity. I do not think our
heavenly Father often puts His children to bed in the dark, but if He
does, they will wake up in the Light of God in the morning! This man of
God said to the minister who visited him, "O Sir, although I have
trusted Christ for years and have served His cause, I have lost Him.
What will become of a man who dies feeling that God has deserted him?"
The wise pastor answered him, "What became of the Man who, just before
His death, cried, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' Is He not
on the highest Throne of Glory even now?" The sick man's mind was
lightened in a moment! He began to say, as the Lord Jesus did after the
dark sentence, "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit," and he
died in peace. Yes, God loves His people quite as much when He leaves
them in the dark, as when He sets them at His right hand in the Light!
Measure not God's love by His Providences, nor even by His
manifestations of them. Measure it by the gift of the Only-Begotten,
for Jesus is the only measure of the immeasurable love of God our
Father! Yes, a child of God may be in depression for many a year.
Timothy Rogers was the victim of despondency for many years and yet he
came out into the
Light and then wrote his experience in his memorable book, Trouble of
Mind, which has been of great service to others in like condition. I
hope that none of you will wish to be in soul darkness. Some trembling
people acquire a sort of perpetual palsy of fear. They have become so
shut up in doubt that they are afraid to come out of it into the light
of faith. Come out of your hiding places, you troubled ones! Do not
make yourselves one line lower in spirits than you can help! But if you
should be long in depression and that depression should turn to
despondency, and that despondency should curdle into despair, believe
in God! Say with Job, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him." If
I cannot see His face with delight, yet in the shadow of His wings will
I rejoice!
I come now to the more specially practical part of my sermon.
II. THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH THIS DARKNESS IS PERMITTED.
There were three aspects of the darkness which our Lord endured in
which we should resemble Him. First, He was in darkness for education.
' 'Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which
He suffered." Our Mediator went to school and His schoolbooks were "the
things that He suffered." Do we learn much out of any other books? Is
not our best schoolmaster the one named Adversity? Are not our best
schoolbooks printed in the old black letter? We make but small account
of any other. Our Lord Jesus learned obedience. Some people, when they
get into the dark, think that they can make no progress, but must lie
still. Say not so! Our greatest progress should be made in the dark. We
should grind most when the wind blows hardest. A friend of mine went to
Australia and on board of his ship there were a number of gentlemen of
different degrees of ignorance, one of whom was a complete greenhorn.
He had never been to sea before. I do not think he had been anywhere
else. When it came to be night, he said, "Where do they put up
tonight?" My friend said, "What do you mean?" He replied, "You do not
mean to say that they will go on sailing in the dark?" "Certainly,"
replied my friend. But the other said, "Why, they may run into
something, for they cannot see their way." "No," my friend answered,
"and they will not see their way till we get to our destination, unless
they touch at the Cape! And they will travel as fast in the night as in
the day." So they did. Who but a fool would have thought otherwise?
Growth in Divine Grace must go on in the dark, as well as in the light.
I have been told that plants do most of their growing at night. Surely,
Christ's plants grow very fast after a period of darkness which has
been sanctified to them. I half wish for some friends that I know that
they might have just a day or two of darkness. I hope I am not unkind.
I know one who would wish to sympathize if he could, but he has never
had an illness. And when he does sympathize, it is a remarkable thing
that he should be able to do it. You think of him with wonder, as you
would think of an elephant picking up a pin! He does it, but it seems
out of his line–it does not come to him naturally. Our Lord learned
obedience towards God through His sufferings. If you think of it
deeply, it was a very great lesson for Him to learn. The Ruler of
Heaven and earth, whose will was Law, had to learn obedience! He
speaks, and legions of angels fly at His commands–and yet He has to
learn to obey! Now that He is here on earth, in the fashion of a man,
He becomes an obedient Servant. Have you and I ever learned that
lesson? It is not every Christian that has learned obedience of the
commonest sort. I know some Christians who would think it dreadful to
obey ecclesiastically. "Obey them that have the rule over you," is not
a pleasant Scripture to them. They will have no pastor. Nobody ever was
set over them. I am sure I am devoutly grateful that I was not, for it
would be a very uncomfortable office to guide such unruly spirits!
Obedience is one of the lessons of wisdom which this age needs to
learn, for everybody must be master or mistress nowadays. We all desire
to rule and we all feel that we could do it far better than the present
leaders are doing! He who has the least wisdom and has failed in
business half a dozen times, is the very person who believes himself to
be the most fitted to be Prime Minister! We do not love obedience, but
we have to learn it. The rod is our Teacher's instrument–this
darkness, this heaviness, is pressing us into true service. We are now
to follow Jesus in the dark by learning obedience as He learned it. The
Lord prosper us in this!
We have next to learn sympathy. I have hinted at that already. "We have
not an High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin." Our glorious Elder Brother learned sympathy by suffering! By His
passion He learned compassion. Whenever we suffer, let us regard it as
a part of our education and so follow Christ closely to learn of Him,
as He learned of the Father. See yonder text, "Take My yoke upon you,
and learn of Me; and you shall find rest unto your souls!" First we
come to Him by faith and He gives us rest. That is one sort of rest.
Then, by obedience, we take His yoke upon us and we learn of Him, and
we find rest– another degree of rest. The one is given and the other
is found, but there is no finding the second rest except with the yoke
upon our shoulders and learning of Christ!
Education in the dark helps to keep us from self-dependence. I
sometimes sing–
"If today He deigns to bless us With a sense of pardoned sin, He
tomorrow may distress us, Make us feel the plague within– All to make
us
Sick of self, and fond of Him."
The Angel wrestled with Jacob. We usually speak of Jacob's wrestling
with the Angel. I suppose that he did so wrestle, for there cannot be a
wrestle at all without two being in it. But the main point of the
conflict was that the Angel wrestled with Jacob. What wrestling God has
had with us to get our self out of us! We are such Jacobs–we are
plotting, scheming–and crafty. God would beat us down as to this
fleshly wisdom and when He has laid us low as Jacob and made us lame,
then He will knight us, and we shall come off the field as prevailing
princes, or Israels! The death of self-dependence is the joy and
triumph of faith! And this often comes through darkness. God bless the
darkness, then, for our education–and may we follow Christ by complete
obedience to God!
I spoke of three things. The second is for usefulness. Our Lord went
into the dark to save the guilty sons of men. We cannot follow Him in
the central darkness, where all the storm clouds gathered, for that was
Substitutionary. Into that awful winepress, where He went alone as our
Sacrifice, we would not think of intruding! But nevertheless, there is
a cup of which He has said–"You shall indeed drink of the cup that I
drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall you be
baptized." We have no atonement to make. "It is finished." Yet for the
ingathering and saving of the elect of God, it is necessary that the
Church of God, in many of its members, should pass into the darkness.
I will tell you a story. It shall be none the worse because it is of
myself, for we are gathered here to bear and hear personal testimony.
One Sunday I preached a sermon from this text–"My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?" What I then spoke was in the agony of my heart,
for I felt that I was, myself, for a while, forsaken. Such was the
sorrowful dread of my spirit.
I could not tell why I should have been made to feel in this way. I was
not sick. I could see no physical cause. I had not wandered from God
and I could see no moral cause. But after the sermon there came into
the vestry a man of about sixty, whose very hair seemed to stand on end
and his eyes were bright with a strange luster. He took my hand and
stood and held it, and wept. I looked at him and I saw that I had
before me a man dazed, if not crazed. "Birds of a feather will flock
together." It struck me that he was a madman and I was not much
mistaken. Then he said to me, "Nobody ever preached my experience
before! I have now been for years in a horrible gloom of great darkness
and could not find God, but this morning I learned that I was not the
only man in the thick darkness, and I believe that I shall get out." I
answered, "Yes, that was the reason why I was put into the dark, that I
might help you. And now that I know the reason, I am already out of the
prison!"
I had many interviews with that man. I piloted him back from the gulf
of insanity. I was enabled, by God's Grace, to lead him into joy and
peace, so that he could resume his daily calling. The Lord's servants
have to experience many things which are not so much for themselves as
for usefulness towards others–and we ought to be content to have it
so. You cannot help a man if you know nothing about him and, therefore,
the Lord sends you into many a thick wood and dark valley that you may
meet with His own redeemed in their wanderings. If you did not know the
wilderness, how could you act as a guide through it? So it is for
usefulness that God calls us there–and as Jesus went there to save,
let us learn from Him the great Grace of self-sacrifice!
I have done when I have added the third thing. Darkness may come over
the soul that we may give glory to God. Our Lord Jesus passed through
the darkness that He might glorify the Father's name. The lesson which
He set before us was that He still believed. Read the 22nd Psalm. See
there the faith of the much hunted "hind of the morning." He goes back
to his early infancy, when God cared for him. "You are He that took me
out of the womb." He goes back to ancient history–"Our fathers trusted
in You: they trusted, and You did deliver them." Read that Psalm
carefully and mark that the sufferer's faith never failed him. Dear
Friends, can your faith stand in trial? "I have great faith," says one.
Yes, there was a staff that stood by a brook and looked at the
reflection of his antlers in the water, and said, "What fine horns I
have! My friends in the herd no sooner hear the bay of a dog than they
take to their heels. But I, with such fine horns, will fight any dog,
or, for that matter, any pack of hounds! Let them come up and they
shall see what my horn can do." So he said–and he was a fine fellow,
was he not? Landseer might have been proud to sketch him! That is the
very picture of a
man full of untried faith. Presently there was heard the yelp of some
poor puppy–and where was our stag? His heart was not as strong as his
horns and his legs were carrying him far away from the dog! So it is
with untried faith. You must not be sure of it for a moment. Fear will
destroy it in the day of trouble.
Our Lord had abundant and abiding faith. I will only quote one instance
of it–His faith in prayer to God in Geth-semane. There are two parts
in that wonderful prayer of His in the garden. "O My Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but
as You will." We dwell too exclusively upon the full surrender at the
end– please notice the prayer itself. "If it is possible, let this cup
pass from Me." When you are in the dark, go to God and plead with Him
to take the gloom away! Ask Him to take the cup from you–and be bold
to go as far as your Lord did–which is a very long way, indeed, for He
said, "If it is possible." Go to that length! I would encourage the
child of God in the dark to "possess his possessions," to make real use
of promises and expect help. We do not always trust God as being what
He declares Himself to be, but sometimes if we would but do so, our
darkness would come to an end! I remember in my own case, after a
period of continued pain with little sleep, I sat up, as best I could,
one morning in my bed, in an agony of pain–and I cried to the Lord for
deliverance. I believed fully that He could deliver me then and there,
and I pleaded my sonship and His Fatherhood. I went the length of
pleading that He was my Father and I said, "If it were my child that
suffered so, I would not let him suffer any longer if I could help him.
You can help me. And by Your fatherly love I plead with You to give me
rest." I felt that I could add, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as
You will." But I did the first thing, first–I pleaded with my Father
and went first where Christ went first, saying, "My Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass from me." I shall never forget my success
in this appeal! In real earnest I believed God to be my Father and
threw myself upon Him– and within a few minutes I dropped back upon
the pillow, the pain subsided, and very soon I slept most peacefully.
God loves us to believe Him and to plead earnestly with Him, for even
if He does not think it best to grant our request, He will be pleased
for us to go on to number two and, with full submission cry,
"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
You can hardly prove that you have any will to surrender if you have
not first brought it before the Lord in fervent prayer! Pray about the
matter up to the hilt, and then sheathe the prayer in submission, if it
is not the Lord's will. O Brothers and Sisters, let us learn this last
virtue! Faith healing is grand, but faith enduring is grander! Glorify
God by believing that His will is right and that the strokes of His rod
are kind. Use both edges of the sword of faith! Believe for deliverance
fromsorrow, or for deliverance insorrow. Anyhow, honor the Son by fully
trusting Him. This is the way to follow your Leader, who said, "I will
put my trust in Him."
Oh, that the Lord our God may be with you all in the hour of darkness!
If it is not so now, may it may be very soon! I would have you lay by
these Truths of God in store for future use. When one is very happy,
the suspicion lurks at our feet that this is too good to last.
Therefore, the poet of experience said–
"We should suspect some danger near When we perceive too much delight."
Let it, then, be settled in your minds that you will trust only in the
Lord and keep your expectation only upon Him. Come fair, come foul,
come wind, come rain, come hail, come tempest, or come all the
brightness of a fruitful summer, it shall make no difference to us, for
ours is not the confidence which changes with the weather, but that
which has its foundation among things eternal and immutable–
"And when your eye of faith is dim, Still hold on Jesus, sink or swim!
Still at His footstool bow the knee And Israel's God, your strength
shall be!"