A Blow For Puseyism
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 8, 1865, BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"It is the spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing: the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." John 6:63.
OUR Lord had plainly told His hearers that He was the Bread of Life.
And that except they ate His flesh and drank His blood there was no
life in them. His hearers understood this in a sensual manner and they
very naturally put the question, "How can this Man give us His flesh to
eat?" Now the Savior had never intended to be understood in a carnal
manner. It was far enough from His design to inculcate the carnal
eating of His body and therefore He at once told them that His words
were not understood.
And He delivered Himself of a great general principle, as truly
applicable to our day as to His own. In effect He taught them just
this–"It is not the eating My flesh in a carnal way, even if you could
do it, which would be of any service to you. For that would be only
feeding the flesh, which profits nothing. A spiritual feeding can alone
quicken and bless you. It is this which you cannot understand. And
therefore you hear My words as if they were as dead and fleshly as
yourselves, whereas My teaching bears no gross and sensuous meaning,
for the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life."
If I am not mistaken, this verse contains a great principle which
needs, in these days, to be proclaimed on the housetops. It is the
medicine which would cure the diseases of this present time if men were
divinely led to receive it. The text is very deep–like all the
teaching of our Savior recorded by John, the words are extremely
simple–but the mystery is most profound. May the Holy Spirit lead us
all not only to comprehend its teaching, but to feel its power.
What is meant by "the flesh" here? The word "flesh" in Scripture has
eleven or twelve different modifications of its one abiding meaning. In
this passage it means that which is outward and sensuous and appeals to
the eye, or the ear, or to other powers of man's bodily nature. There
was much of this in the Jewish faith–but whenever the worshippers
rested in it and did not reach to its spiritual teaching–it profited
them nothing. Paul uses the same term when, speaking to the Judaizing
Galatians, he asks them, "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made
perfect by the flesh?"
Which we understand to mean, having begun by God's Holy Spirit with a
spiritual love to God, a spiritual faith in Jesus and a spiritual life
within, do you mean, now, to be made perfect by external ordinances,
resting and abiding in them as though they had a power to bless?
External ceremonial religion is well and aptly set forth here as
"flesh." What is the meaning of the term "spirit" here? If the Holy
Spirit had been intended, in the judgment of our translators, they
would have placed a capital S. It cannot, however, refer to the Holy
Spirit because the explanatory key sentence is this– "The words which
I speak unto you, they are spirit."
Now, as we all know, words cannot be the Holy Spirit. The word "spirit"
stands here in contrast with the term "flesh." Flesh is external
religion, the carnal part of it–that which the eye sees and the ear
hears. Spirit is the inward part of religion–that which the soul
understands, receives, believes and feeds upon. It is this–this
spiritual element in religion which quickens it and makes it a living
thing–while the mere external, the flesh, except as the Spirit
quickens it, profits nothing.
This spiritual religion is consistent with the spiritual nature which
God the Holy Spirit gives to us. And as Christ's teachings are
themselves living and spiritual, they are the proper food of spiritual
men. The Jews commonly thought that religion lay in ceremonial
observances–in eating certain meats or abstinence from them–in
washings of the hands before eating. In various baptisms, in going up
to the temple to pray, and such like outward performances. Jesus tells
them to their faces that this flesh religion profits nothing–it is
dead, unquickened and unquickening!
What, then, is the life of godliness? What is the vitality and essence
of acceptable worship? His answer, virtually, is, "It is not your
outward observances, but your inward emotions, desires, beliefs and
adoration which are living worship." Then He adds, in effect, "My words
are not concerning outward observances, but are of a spiritual
character. I come not to you with 'touch not, taste not, handle not,'
or with 'wash, vow, stand, sit, kneel'–My words deal with inner life
and spirit and are addressed to your spiritual natures. The words which
I speak unto you are spirit and life."
I. Our first point will be THE UNPROFITABLE FLESH–the external
observances of religion are, in themselves, utterly unprofitable. To
begin with the greatest monstrosity of this kind in the present
day–the real and corporeal Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in what
is superstitiously called the Blessed Sacrament! I would scarcely
mention this if it were a doctrine merely of the Church of Rome. But
when I read the newspapers and other productions of the High Church
party, I find that transubstantiation with all its fullness of
absurdity is extensively preached and believed in the Church of
England!
And there are hundreds of clergy who speak of the Lord's Table as an
"altar" and of the Supper as the celebration of a "sacrifice," while
the symbols are spoken of as though they were to be reverenced even as
the Lord Himself! It is laid down as a doctrine, that every time the
bread is broken by these priests, the very body of Jesus Christ is
actually received by the persons participating! That this is
monstrously absurd, I think every intelligent person knows! But it has
been said that the more absurd it is, the more room there is for faith!
And now some have even been thankful for having its absurdity proven,
"For," they have argued, "it will be the more meritorious for us to
believe it."
To such persons we would briefly say, if Jesus Christ's body is really
received into your mouth, broken with your teeth and made to enter into
your stomach, then, in the first place, you are guilty of a gross act
of cannibalism and nothing better, inasmuch as you eat human flesh!
And, in the next place, you cannot derive any virtue from it, for Jesus
Christ tells you at once, "It is the Spirit that quickens. The flesh
profits nothing."
If you did actually eat the very body of Christ it would affect your
digestive and secretive organs and through them your flesh, just as
other bread, or, if you like it better, other flesh would do! And how
could this affect your heart and soul? Does Divine Grace operate
through the stomach, and save us through our bowels? Prove this and you
will make converts of us!
But do not men receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's
Supper? Yes, spiritual men do, in a real and spiritual sense, but not
in a carnal sort–not so as to crush it with their teeth, or taste it
with their palate, or digest it by the gastric juices! They receive the
Lord Jesus, as Incarnate and Crucified, into their spirits, as they
believe in Him, love Him, and are comforted by thoughts of Him. "But
how is that a real reception of Him?" cries one! Alas, this question
reveals at once the world's thoughts! You think the carnal, alone,
real, and that the spiritual is unreal. If you can touch and taste you
think it real–but if you can only meditate and love–you dream it to
be unreal.
How impossible it is for the carnal mind to enter into spiritual
things! Yet, hearken once again–I receive the body and blood of Christ
when my soul believes in His Incarnation. When my heart relies upon the
merit of His death. When the bread and wine so refresh my memory that
thoughts of Jesus Christ and His agonies melt me to penitence, cheer me
to confidence and purify me from sin. It is not my body which receives
Jesus, but my spirit! I believe in Him, casting myself alone upon Him.
Trusting Him, I feel joy and peace, love and zeal, hatred of sin and
love of holiness–and so as to my spiritual nature I am fed upon Him.
My spiritual nature feeds upon truth, love, Divine Grace, promise,
pardon, covenant, atonement, acceptance–all of which I find, and much
more–in the Person of the Lord Jesus. Up to the extent in which my
spirit has communion with the Lord Jesus, the ordinance of breaking of
bread is living and acceptable because the spiritual element quickens
it. But to the extent in which I merely receive the bread and wine and
my spirit is not exercised about Jesus Christ–to that extent it
profits me nothing–it is a mere external ceremony and nothing more.
The bread is only bread, the wine is merely wine, the eating is simply
eating bread and no more. The whole outward ceremony is what it seems
to be and not a jot more! But the unseen fellowship of hearts with
Jesus–this is the quickening element and this, alone.
The same principle applies in the case of Baptism. According to God's
Word, Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12, Baptism sets forth our union with
Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. Is there anything in the
water in which the person is immersed? Nothing whatever! Is there
conveyed, by the water, or in the water, any spiritual gift or Grace?
Not in any way except so far as this–if the water reminds the
spiritual nature in the man of the death of Christ. Then his spirit
enjoys communion with Christ in His death. If the water forcibly
portrays to him the Savior's burial so that his spirit feels itself to
be buried to the world. If rising out of the water reminds the man of
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, so that he, in spirit, rises from a
dead world into a newness of life, then there is life in the Baptism.
The Holy Spirit quickens it– but the mere water–the carnal part of
the ordinance, in itself profits nothing!
The putting away of the filth of the flesh is nothing, but the answer
of a good conscience toward God is the vitality of Baptism. It is only
vital up to the extent in which the spirit exercises itself. This
speaks strongly against the Baptism of infants. We do not enter on this
subject from love of controversy, but the question is fairly involved
in the subject. If the baptized person, infant or adult, enters in
spirit into the meaning and teaching of Baptism, he is truly baptized.
But, inasmuch as in our firm conviction a babe does not enter in spirit
into the subject at all, it has only received the unprofitable Baptism
of the flesh, since the Spirit which quickens was absent.
Whether you are infants or adults, if your renewed spirit enters into
the form, it quickens the form and makes it live. But if you come to it
without spiritual life and without exercising spiritual emotions, the
water, the fleshly part of the ordinance, profits you nothing. It is
only so far as your spirit has fellowship with Jesus Christ in it–both
in the act and in meditation upon it afterwards–that Baptism becomes
of the slightest possible profit to you. We put the two ordinances
together and say to you–you will find in these just as much as your
spirit shall get from them and not an atom more! Only so far as the
symbol aids thought and emotion can it be of service. The outward does
not profit a little, it profits nothing whatever.
Take next the doctrine of the Apostolic succession. There are certain
persons still out of Bedlam who say of all ministers but those of their
own sect, no matter how much the Lord may have honored them in the
conversion of sinners and the edification of saints, they are intruders
and not true ministers of Jesus Christ! Their clerics are the
legitimate successors of the Apostles and they only. For the moment we
will allow the historical question–we will suppose that up to Judas,
or some other Apostle, they can trace a line through Popes of Rome, or
Archbishops of Canterbury. We will suppose that a little stream comes
trickling down to them through the dunghill of the dark ages, having
its original rise in the Apostolic era.
Well, what now? Hear this Word of God–"The flesh profits nothing." The
mere fleshly connection between bishop and bishop established by
successive laying on of hands and anointing is utterly valueless! The
great question is concerning the spiritual succession! Do we see in you
the same spirit that was in the Apostles? Open your mouths and let us
hear the same simple, unadorned Gospel which the Apostles proclaimed!
Let us hear you say with Paul, "You observe days and months, and times
and years. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in
vain." Let us hear from your lips the Doctrines of Grace and faithful
warnings against looking for salvation by our own works!
Let us perceive that you are free from the beggarly elements of
ceremonialism, and are not to be judged in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath (Col.
2:16). Is there as little pomp about you as about the tentmaker of old?
From where do these silk chasubles, albs of fine linen, stoles of
watered silk, maniples, capes and garments covered with gold and silver
and embroidery come? The Apostolic fishermen surely did not fish for
souls in such fine raiment!
Show us Apostolic simplicity, faith and truthfulness! We care not a fig
either way for your fleshly succession! We demand that you prove your
spiritual one! It was a tolerably impudent thing for a bishop once to
say, in reference to John Williams and other missionaries in the South
Sea Islands, "They act as pioneers. They prepare the way for a more
regular force. The missionary in due time is followed by the Churchman
who erects the converts into an orderly edifice, having for its
foundation the lively stones of an Apostolic priesthood, qualified to
offer the oblation of a spiritual sacrifice."
Now, my Lord Bishop, you shall, yourself, decide which is the more
Apostolic–yourself at home at ease, in enjoyment and luxury–or John
Williams, traveling from island to island with his life in his hand. He
is casting down idols by the power of the Gospel and transforming
savages into Christian men! You live in state and he dies a martyr! You
boast and he toils! You talk of your own priesthood and he of Jesus
Christ! You are filled with zeal for a sect and he with love for
souls–surely if wit remains beneath your miter, you, yourself, can
judge which of the two is the more Apostolic!
If the Apostle Paul, himself, came to find out his successor, where
would he look for him–in the missionary doing Apostolic work–or in
the bishop talking about what he will do after the other has laid the
foundation and stained it with his blood? When we see the Divine
calling of our honored pastors denied and hear the impudent claims of a
tribe of hireling priests, we can only cry, "To what an extent pretense
may run!" Let them boast the fleshly succession, but let us seek
spiritual union with the Apostle's Lord.
The Puseyites of our Savior's day said, "We have Abraham for our
father," just as these say, "We are the successors of the Apostles."
And we meet our modern Pharisees with the same rebuke with which the
Baptist met their ancient types, "They which are of faith, these are
children of Abraham," and successors of the Apostles, too! Let us
remain content with spiritually following Jesus and doing His work. And
let the sons of the bondwoman boast a worthless fleshly succession if
they will–"It is the spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing."
These things more concern other people than ourselves, therefore let us
come a little nearer home. Much is said nowadays about an ornate form
of worship. The excellency of melodious music is much extolled. The
swell of the organ, it is said, begets a hallowed frame of mind. But
how far is the effect sensuous and how far spiritual? Is it not to be
feared that an anthem in a service is often no more a spiritual
exercise than a glee at a concert? Music has charms and he who cannot
feel them is to be pitied.
But, acceptable heart worship is quite another thing–no arrangement of
notes and chords can ever do the work of God the Holy Spirit. Unless
music can aid in making sinners penitent–in leading souls to Jesus
Christ, or uplifting saints in holy joy to the Throne of God–we must
hold that in vital godliness, it profits nothing. Architecture, with
its arched roofs and noble pillars and dim religious light is supposed
to impart a reverence and awe which befit the solemn engagements of
Sunday and draw the mind towards the invisible God. Well, if
combinations of stone can sanctify the spirit of man, it is a pity that
the Gospel did not prescribe architecture as the remedy for the ruin of
the Fall! If gorgeous buildings make men love God and long-drawn aisles
renovate men's spiritual nature, build, all you builders, both day and
night!
If bricks and mortar can lead us to Heaven, alas, for the confusion
which stopped the works at Babel! If there is such a connection between
spires and spiritual things as to make human hearts beat in unison with
the will of God, then build high and loftily and lavish your gold and
silver! But if all that you produce is sensuous and nothing more, then
turn to living stones and seek to build up a spiritual house with
spiritual means!
We are told, nowadays, that the pompous array of ministering priests,
the beauty of symbolism, the painting of windows, the smoke of incense
and so on, tend to draw people into the place of worship and that when
there, they aid in elevating their minds. What does Scripture say about
it all? This thing was tried among the Jews and Christ's remark when He
comes to sum up the long trial is, "It is the spirit that quickens. The
flesh profits nothing." The real inward spirit of man is not blessed by
sounds which charm the ear but appeal not to the understanding. Nor by
colors which delight the eye but gladden not the affections of man!
To gratify taste is well enough for the carnal, but it profits nothing
in the sight of God. It may be as well to be artistic as to be plain,
but it is of no matter either way if tested by the Word–in the
balances of the sanctuary these matters are lighter than vanity. We
must make precisely the same remark concerning eloquence. Here we deal
more closely with our own Brethren, who, in this thing look to the
flesh as others do. Many persons have come to think that oratorical
ability is essential in the minister.
It is not enough, some think, to preach the Truth with the Holy Spirit
sent down from Heaven–we must also preach it in the wisdom of words
with excellency of speech! The trappings of oratory and the drapery of
eloquence are thought to be profitable. Ah, dear Friends, one half of
the emotions excited in our places of worship are of no more value than
those excited at the theater. The mere ring of words is no more than a
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. "The flesh profits nothing."
So far as the Truth of God itself moves our inmost souls, preaching is
of real service. But if that which you hear only commends itself to you
because of the sweet voice that speaks it–or the telling tones in
which it is delivered–your hearing is a carnal exercise and profits
you nothing! It is only when your spirit grasp the truths. When your
heart embraces Christ. When your soul beholds God by the eye of faith
that you derive benefit! We may bring this principle to bear on the
revivals over which we have watched with much hope but with more
anxiety. In many revivals there has been too much aim at getting up an
excitement–a carnal enthusiasm.
Excited persons pray one after the other. Excited persons speak and the
stamp and motion of the hand and the tear trickling from the eye–all
these are supposed to be of great service. I grant you that excitement
may sometimes be used by God to stir the spirit of man, but unless, my
dear Hearers, your religion is based on something more than animal
excitement, it is based upon a lie! Your spirit must come to know its
ruin before God, and be humbled. Your spirit must come to take hold of
Jesus Christ and believe in Him. Your spirit must undergo the Divine
change which only God the Holy Spirit can work–or else that excitement
shall be nothing more than the blowing up of a bubble which shall burst
and leave not a trace behind.
Take care of any religion which merely tickles your fancy, excites your
passions, or stirs your blood! True Grace penetrates the very core of
our nature. It changes the heart, subdues the will, renews the passions
and makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus! To come yet closer to
ourselves, in the matter of prayer and the ordinances of God's House, I
am afraid we too often forget this great rule–that it is the spirit
that quickens and that the flesh profits nothing. We pray, I suppose,
as a matter of habit–every morning and evening. But how often we spend
our few minutes and we rise from our knees satisfied.
And if anybody should ask, "Have you been praying?" We would say,
"Yes," but it has been the flesh prayer, the dead form without the life
of the heart. In reality there has been no prayer at all! It has been
the flesh, which profits nothing. It is only that prayer in which the
spirit talks with God that is real prayer! The carnal man is quite
satisfied if he can get through a certain string of expressions, but
the spiritual man is not content with this. Luther used to complain
very much of distractions in prayer and some said they could not
understand it. "No," Luther might have said, "I dare say you cannot,
for, being unspiritual, you do not understand spiritual difficulties."
Bernard complained much of the wandering of his thoughts in prayer and
when someone said he thought Bernard must be a very great sinner to let
his thoughts wander so, Bernard said, "I will give you a trial. I will
give you a horse if you can say the Lord's Prayer and think of nothing
else." So the man began, "Our Father which are in Heaven," when he
stopped short and turning round, said, "But you must give me the bridle
to get him home with." So hard is it to keep the mind upon the object
of devotion!
While the sinner's words are going up to God he thinks that he is
praying, but he has not prayed at all unless his heart has talked with
God. Why, Brethren, some of the best prayers that have ever been prayed
had not a single word to express them with. They were heart prayers and
went up to Heaven in all their naked unclothed glory, like disembodied
spirits and God accepted them. Many a prayer that has had the choicest
words to garnish it has been nothing but a dead prayer wrapped up in
cerements and only fit to be cast into the grave forever.
So with public worship. You would feel unhappy if you had spent the
whole Sunday without going to a place of worship–but you are quite at
ease if you come here and leave your hearts at home. When we are
singing, you sing with us. And when we are praying, you cover your
eyes, too. And when we are preaching, some of you think of what I am
talking about and some do not. But when you get through the appointed
hour, you feel quite easy–but oh, remember that the mere carnal act of
being here profits nothing.
Oh, dear Friends, shake off the idea that going up to a place of
worship, or opening a Bible, or reading family prayer, or kneeling
down, can, as mere acts, save your souls! I do not speak against them
as to their profit in some respects, but as to salvation and the real
vital work, which is acceptable before God, the mere form profits
nothing! It is only as your spirit prays, as your spirit seeks, as your
spirit worships, as your spirit listens to God's Word, that there is
any quickening power in it whatever!
Once more. There are certain persons who take considerable delight in
having seen, as they think, visions and other manifestations of Christ
with their eyes–and having heard certain texts mysteriously spoken in
their ears. Now I am not going to deny that you may have seen these
visions and heard these sounds. I do not think you did, but whether you
did or not is no matter–they profit you nothing. That which merely
comes to this eye is nothing–it must come to the soul's eye of faith.
That which comes to this ear is nothing unless it gets into the heart's
ear–unless your soul hears it.
If I were to see all the devils in Hell I should not think myself
damned because of that. And if you have seen all the angels in Heaven
you must not think you are saved because of that! It is not what a man
sees with his eyes, or hears with his ears–it is what the spirit
receives which saves the soul. "God is a Spirit and they that worship
Him must worship him in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such
to worship Him."
II. The text mentions the QUICKENING SPIRIT. That which puts life into
our religion is its being received and acted out by a spiritual nature.
For, first of all, it is the spiritual nature which quickens the man.
The man who has not received, by the work of God, the Holy Spirit, a
spiritual nature, is described by Paul as being dead in trespasses and
sins. The Spirit finds men carnal and breathes into them a new and
better nature, and then they become what they never were before,
quickened, spiritual men.
This spirit of theirs is a quickening spirit, for it quickens all the
ordinances. A carnal man is baptized–but it is the fleshly Baptism
which profits nothing. A spiritual man comes to Baptism, and he is
baptized and he quickens the Baptism–it becomes a real living Baptism
to him, for he has fellowship with Jesus Christ in it. A carnal man
comes to the Lord's Supper and he eats and drinks, what? "Damnation
unto himself, not discerning the Lord's body." A spiritual man comes
there and he eats and drinks and what, then? Why it becomes a living
ordinance to him–the bread sets forth to him the body of Christ and
the wine sets forth the blood–and in spirit he feeds upon his
incarnate Savior.
The possession of a spiritual nature and the exercise of that spiritual
nature in the ordinances quickens them. So it is with prayer. The mere
act of speaking one form of words is of no more profit than the
repeating of any other. The Lord's Prayer, said backwards, is quite as
acceptable to God as the Lord's Prayer said forwards unless the spirit
enters into it. You might as well repeat the multiplication table as
repeat the collect of the day as far as God is concerned, unless your
spirit prays.
But when the spirit is engaged in repentance, in faith, in joy, in
love–then the prayer is quickened. So with all the actions of man's
life. If I give bread to the hungry, if I visit the sick, if I
subscribe towards a good object–that is all nothing unless my heart is
in the deed. But if I feed the poor because I love Jesus. If I seek to
glorify God in my deeds of charity and holiness, they become living
actions. Apart from all that they profit nothing to me before God. The
spiritual part of my nature must quicken my whole life and make it real
life, or else it will be a dead carnal existence before the Lord.
The spiritual nature has for its Author the Divine Father. The
sixty-fifth verse of the chapter in which our text is found tells us
that no man can come unto Christ except it is given him of the Father.
To be spiritual is a gift of God the Father. He has begotten us again
into a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The new life is the actual operation of the Holy Spirit–no man becomes
spiritual except the Holy Spirit enters into him. Deity comes into
contact with humanity and quickens the spiritual man. The mark by which
this spirituality is discovered is faith. "Whoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God."
Every man who rests upon Christ for salvation has the proof of his
being spiritual. Modes of speech, or dress, or worship are not the
marks of the spiritual–only simple, spiritual faith in the Lord Jesus
is. True religion has always been spiritual, but mere professors have
ever been content with the outward form alone. Among the Jews, when
symbols were abundant, the mass either stuck fast in the types and
could get no farther, or else they went clean away to idolatry. In
these latter times the Lord has taken away almost all that is
ceremonial in our religion. Two simple forms, alone, remain.
And now there is another grand trial to see whether men can live in a
spiritual religion and that trial has come to prove just this–that
none can do so but those who are born of God. The most of mankind
cannot get on with a religion in which there is nothing to see, nothing
to please the ear, or to gratify their taste. It is only the spiritual
man who is so overwhelmed with the glories of God that he does not need
the glories of man! He is so overcome with the splendor of Christ that
he does not want the splendor of the masses! He is so taken up with the
magnificence of the great High Priest that he does not care for
gorgeously appareled priests!
Blessed is that man who sees, though his eyes are blind! Who hears,
though his ears are deaf! Who tastes, though his appetite fails! Who
lives, though his heart and flesh fail–blessed is he who sees Him who
is invisible and has revealed unto him what eye has not seen and what
ear has not heard! This will not suit many of you. A religion of
thinking and believing is too hard for you. Repenting, believing,
trusting–these things men will not do. They will kneel down any
quantity of times! They will even, if told by a priest, lick the floor
with their tongues–or they will walk with peas in their shoes, or whip
their backs–but when it comes to believing, hoping, trusting, fearing
and so on, men are so little inclined to mental operations, especially
under the dictation of a higher authority, that they will not have
anything to do with them.
What?" they say, "a religion in which there is nothing for me to see!
What? An unseen altar?" Yes, an unseen altar. "Am I not to see the
sacrifice?" No. "Never to see it? Then I do not understand it. What? A
God, but no symbols! No crucifixes! No crosses! What? No holy wafer, no
sacred place, nothing sacred?" No, nothing visible to be reverenced,
nothing whatever but the unseen God. "What? Not even my place of
worship, is not that to be holy?" No, if you are a Christian, all
places must alike be sacred to you. "Neither in this mountain, nor yet
at Jerusalem shall men worship the Father, but those that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
You must be yourself a temple and God must dwell in you! You must be
yourself a priest and everywhere you must offer spiritual sacrifice.
"The spirit quickens, but the flesh profits nothing."
III. The Savior tells us in the closing sentence THAT HIS WORDS ARE
SPIRIT AND LIFE. Beloved, never was there a more true sentence spoken!
Listen to other teachers and you get precepts concerning washing,
eating, bowing, etc., which are fleshly. But hear Jesus and His
words–they all aim at the heart. Listen to the Puseyite and hear his
word–"You should take care to attend Matins and early celebrations in
our holy and beautiful Church! You should decorate the altar, get a
surpliced choir, have processions and put on the holy garments."
Now you see at once that these are not spiritual things–these are not
life. Ritual performances are very pretty spectacles for silly young
ladies and sillier men to gaze upon–but there is no shadow of spirit
or life in them. The High Church ritual does not look like a Divine
thing–on the contrary–if I stand among the throng and gaze at all its
pret-tiness, it looks amazingly like a nursery game, or a stage play!
Lack of taste, you say. Not so, I reply. My eyes admire your glittering
colors and the splendor of your services is taking to me, as a man. I
enjoy the swell of your organ and I can even put up with the smell of
your incense (if you buy it good), but my spirit does not care for
these fooleries–it turns away sickened and cries, "There is nothing
here for me. There is no more nourishment for the spirit in all this
than there is food for man in a swine's trough!" The words of Jesus
Christ are throughout unceremonial and unformal–they are spirit and
they are life–and we turn to them with all the greater zeal after
having seen enough of your childish things!"
On my Lord's words I fix my hope in the battle now waging with
ceremonialism and I wish that all ministers of Christ would scorn to
use any other weapons. I know the talk is that we ought to vie with the
false churches in the beauty of our services–but this is a temptation
of the devil! If the simple preaching of the Cross will not attract the
people, let them go away. Let the Lord's servants renounce the sword
and shield of Saul and go forth with the Gospel sling and stone! Our
weapons are the Words of Jesus–these are spirit and these are life.
Architecture, apparel, music, liturgies– these are neither spirit nor
life. Let those rest on them who will–we can do without them, by God's
help. Our sires, in the Puritan age, fought and won the battles of
Christ without these things. In later days Whitfield stirred his age
with nothing but the Word of God. Rowlands and Christmas Evans roused
the men of Wales with no attraction but the Cross.
My dear Brethren in Christ, ministers of the Gospel who are now
present–let me beseech you–stand to the Gospel! Set your backs
against the tendency of the times to depart from the simplicity of
Jesus Christ! If men will not come to hear us because we preach the
Gospel, draw them by no other attraction! I rejoice in the vast crowd
so constantly assembled here because my enemies, themselves, are
witnesses that there is nothing in me to which the honor can be
ascribed! An uplifted Savior still draws all men to Him!
Dear Friends, pray that the great and blessed Spirit, who first gives
spiritual life, may continue to feed and nourish and perfect that life
in you until you shall come to that Heaven where ALL is spiritual!
Where they need no candles, nor light of the sun. Where no temple is
found, because the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple! Where
spiritual life shall be developed into its purest form! Where, in
spiritual bodies, you shall see the spiritual God and reign before His
Throne, world without end. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORESERMON–John 6:26.