A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 18, 1872,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the
villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine
flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud
forth: there willI give you my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and
at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I
have laid up for you, O my beloved." Song of Solomon 7:11-13.
I REMEMBER to have heard it said that when a Church is in a right
condition, all that it wants on the Sabbath is that the sermon should
be like the orders given by a commanding officer to his troops–it need
not be rhetorical or eloquent, it only need be clear and plain–a word
of direction for the Lord's servants. If the soldiers are prepared for
action they will not look to be regaled with oratory, but having heard
the words of command they will, with all their hearts, go about to obey
them.
Assuredly the Church needs instructing, consoling and edifying, as well
as directing, but this morning I feel that I have a word from the
Captain of our salvation, addressed first to this particular regiment
and next to those other portions of the Grand Army which are
represented here this morning. I speak as unto wise men–judge what I
say! Traveling along our island just now you see everywhere the sickle,
or the reaping machine, in full work. Harvest whitens the plains!
Everywhere the loaded wagons are bearing home the precious fruits of
the earth. My spirit is stirred within me and my soul is on fire, for I
see everywhere a harvest except in the Church of Christ.
Reapers are busy everywhere except in the fields of our Divine Boaz.
All fields are ripe but those of Bethlehem! All barns are filling but
those of the Great Husbandman! Christ Jesus has scarcely a sheaf
ingathered of late. We hear of very few results from the sacred sowing
of the Word of God. Here and there the Church, like Ruth, gathers an
ear–a very precious ear, it is true–for who shall estimate the value
of a single soul? But we have no wave-sheaves as in the days of
Pentecost, or, if we have them, they are few and far between. And as
for the harvest home which we have so long expected, our eyes fail in
looking for it in vain.
As a Church constituting a part of the Master's field, we have had, for
years, one continued harvest but still never such an one as has
satisfied our spirits, for our idea of our King is such that the
largest increase to His Church would not content us–we should still
feel that our Lord Jesus deserved far more! As He has not yet seen of
the travail of His soul so as to be satisfied, so neither are we, His
servants, content on His behalf, but we long, and cry, and pray for a
larger harvest as His reward for the dread sowings in bloody sweat and
streams of vital blood of Gethsemane and Golgotha!
The time when our Churches can operate extensively with the greatest
convenience will soon be upon us. We do not usually look for any great
things during the summer, when congregations are scattered at the
seaside and workpeople are busy many hours in the day. The summer of
Nature is the winter of the Church, and the earth's winter is our
harvest. These warm days will soon be gone and the long evenings will
come–and with them abounding opportunities of doing good. Therefore,
it seemed to me to be a seasonable thing to give the rallying cry this
morning and bid our friends remember that the harvest of the Church
comes on quickly!
I would urge you all to sharpen your sickles and with good hope and
prayerful confidence prepare for the appointed weeks of our harvest!
May God, by His Holy Spirit, inspire you with zeal for the work which
awaits you and give you to walk in fellowship with Jesus in all that
you do.
I. We shall, this morning, first of all, call your attention to the
fact which is implied in the words of our text, that LOVE IS THE GREAT
MOTIVE FOR ACTION IN THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. All through these verses the
spouse acts with reference to her beloved. It is for him that she goes
forth into the field. For the sake of his company and the quiet
enjoyment of his love she would lodge in the villages. And all manner
of pleasant fruits, new and old, which are stored within her gates she
declares to be laid up for her beloved. Love, then, is the fittest and
most powerful motive to holy service. "The love of Christ constrains
us."
This love has about it certain marked peculiarities. It is first a love
which realizes the person of the beloved. In the text the spouse speaks
of "my beloved" as of a real person, whom she sees, upon whom she
leans, and with whom she talks. Christ Jesus is to His Church no
fiction, no myth, no imaginary hero. Throughout the song both the
personages are most real to each other, so real that they both enter
into graphic descriptions of each other's beauties and present us with
portraits drawn by the pencil of admiring love. Now a Church will
always be strong when the Lord Jesus is real to her! By this, indeed,
may her power be estimated. Jesus must be to us no historical Person
who was once on earth, but is now dead and powerless–He must be an
actual Person living still in our midst.
Imagine, my Brothers and Sisters, with what enthusiasm the present
audience would be stirred if I should retire and in my place there
should come forward the very Christ who was nailed to the Cross of
Calvary! You would know Him by His hands and His feet–the sacred marks
of His passion. Oh, how the sight of Him would stir your souls! You
would be bowing your heads in adoration and grudging the closing of
your eyes even for a second in prayer, for you would desire, without a
pause, to drink in the blessed vision! And if the Crucified One should
stand here, and say, "My Brethren, My blood-bought Ones for whom I laid
down My life, there is yet much to be done to extend My kingdom. There
are precious souls, Brothers and Sisters of yours who know not My name,
who must be brought in. There are ignorant ones to be taught and sinful
ones to be restored."
And suppose He should then point with His hand to one of you, and say,
"I send you there," and to another, "I send you there." Why you would
feel at once anointed to the appointed work and go forth to do it with
much earnestness, carefulness and joy! You would be right pleased to
receive a commission from those dear honey-dropping lips! My Brethren,
have you forgotten that you walk by faith and will you permit it to be
thought that sight would have more power over you than faith? I trust
you will not have it so! Then, remember, by faith you may realize and
ought to realize this morning that Jesus walks among the golden
candlesticks and is in His Church now, saying to every one of His
people, "Go and serve Me! Seek My blood-bought ones! Help My feeble
ones! Feed My sheep and My lambs!"
I pray you, let your faith, this morning sweeten your duties by the
knowledge that they arise out of your Beloved's personal commands!
Execute His holy commands as if you had received them, as in very deed
you have–directly from Himself! Let your heart go with mine, while I
say–"Jesus, my Beloved, though I see You not, and must be content to
behold You by faith, alone, yet my faith shall be more influential than
my sight. I know that You are here and what You bid me do my soul shall
perform with all her might, because You say it!"
Note next that the love here spoken of was well assured of the
affection of its beloved. Note the verse which precedes our text, "I am
my beloved's, and his desire is towards me." A Christian is never
strong for service when he does not know whether Christ loves him or
not. If that is a question, you have put out the fire by which alone
the force can be generated which must work the machinery of your
spirit. You must know beyond question that Jesus loves you and gave
Himself for you! You must feel that He is loving you now, that His
heart is looking out through those dear eyes which once wept over
Jerusalem and that the meaning of His loving glance is, "Soul, I love
you, I loved you so that I gave Myself for you and I have not repented
of the gift. I love you still as much as I loved you upon Calvary's
bloody tree."
It is strength to feel that still "His desire is toward me." Oh, when
you feel, "Jesus loves me, Jesus desires me to show my love to Him.
Jesus at this moment thinks of me and takes a delight in me"–this will
make you strong as a giant in the cause of your Beloved! Between the
very jaws of death a man would venture who felt that the love of Christ
was set upon him! Love to Jesus is the fountain of courage, the mother
of self-denial and the nurse of constancy. Strive, then, for a
well-assured sense of the Savior's love. Be not content till you
possess it, for it will be health to your spirit and marrow to your
bones–it will be a belt of strength to your loins and a chain of honor
about your neck.
Observe that the love of the spouse lived in fellowship with the
well-beloved. "Come, my beloved, let us go, let us lodge, let us get
up, let us see." "There will I give you my loves." True love to Jesus
grows stronger and stronger in proportion as it abides in Him. We are
cold in our love because we live at a distance from Him. The angel who
dwells in the sun has never to complain of an ice-bound heart, and he
who lives in Christ and abides in Him will blaze and glow with a warmth
of love comparable to that of Christ Himself. I do not think that the
numbers of a Church will have so
much to do with the work it accomplishes–that depends more upon the
degree of love than upon the length of the Church roll!
A small Church inflamed with ardent affection for the Divine Lord will
do more for Him than a great host eaten up by worldliness. Love burns
its way by its own vehement flames. Coals of juniper are soon felt. The
Enochs are the men– they walk with God and therefore they have power
over their times. The Johns are the men–they lean on Jesus' bosom and
when they come forth to tell of what they have seen and heard, they
speak with authority as sent by the Most High. The Lord give to us, as
members of this Church, to abide in habitual fellowship with Jesus–not
to have occasional spasms of delight in God–but one unbroken rest in
Him!
We would not now and then look through the windows of agate and behold
the King in His beauty, but we would continue "looking unto Jesus." We
would have His praise continually in our mouths and His love burning
like the quenchless altar fire of the temple forever within our hearts.
This is the one thing necessary to promote and sustain a revival in a
Church. If we have abounding love to Jesus we can prosper under
disadvantages, but if we have it not we have lost the great secret of
success. Love to Jesus teaches our hands to war and our fingers to
fight. It sets us side by side with the conquering Immanuel and makes
us share His victories. It yokes us with the strong Son of God and so
makes our infirmities to be but opportunities for the display of His
power.
This love leads the Church to hold all things in joint possession with
Christ. Observe that word, "at our gates are all manner of pleasant
fruits." Love to Jesus constrains us to make over all that we hold to
Him, while faith appropriates all that Jesus has to itself. Love will
not stand to have divided properties. Such was the love of Jesus that
He gave all that He had to us. He could not bear to have anything, not
even His Throne itself, that should be altogether to Himself. He
stripped Himself to His last rag to clothe us and then gave us His
breath to be our life, His blood to be our health! And now, today, if
we love Him as we should, we are saying–
"IfI might make some reserve, And duty did not call; I'd love my God
with zeal so great, That I would give Him all."
I like to think, in Church matters especially, that we are all
Christ's–that if we have any ability, it is Christ's ability–to be
laid at His feet. If we have any substance, it is Christ's money–to be
used in spreading His Church. Our Sunday school is Christ's nursery and
the little ones are Christ's lambs. Our work out of doors in preaching
at the corners of the streets is Christ's mission–it is His trumpet
that is blown when the Gospel is preached! Every form of agency is not
ours–it is Christ's. Or if ours, it is only because it is His. Oh, to
have more and more all things common with our Lord, and no longer to
speak of mine or yours! Beloved, we are joint heirs with Him! All that
we have is His and all that He has is ours! When the Church believes
and acts upon this, the hour of her success is close at hand.
Consider once more that the love which is the great motive to Christian
action is a love which looks to Jesus for united operation. It is,
"Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us get up early
to the vineyard." Oh, it is glorious when Christ comes with the
preacher, not the servant alone, but the Master looking through His
servant's eyes, and speaking with His servant's tongue and pleading
with His servant's heart! Oh, it is good teaching in your Sunday school
when Jesus sits there among the boys and girls and speaks to their
hearts! It is good going into lodging-houses or calling at the people's
doors to tell them of the Savior when Jesus knocks as well as you and
the Crucified goes with you among the fallen, the infidel and the
profane!
All is well when the Redeemer leads the way. Be not afraid, Beloved,
for you go in good Company. Who among us will be afraid to do anything
or go anywhere if Jesus says, "I will go with you"? Such was the prayer
the spouse put up, and doubtless she was led to pray for that which God
will grant. Let us pray with her as she prayed. Come, Savior, come up
with us to whatever we attempt for You! If there are any Brethren here
who are working away for You in dark places in London, dear Savior
carry the lantern with them–be their Light! If they are digging for
You and quarrying amidst granite rocks which refuse to yield to their
strokes, come Almighty One and wield Your hammer and straightway the
stones shall be broken!
Come with us, Lord! This is the fellowship we desire of You–the
fellowship of labor and of soul-winning. We would not only sit at Your
feet to learn, but we would take up our cross and follow You! We would
go with You where
ever You go! We would fight, or labor, or suffer, or live, or die at
Your bidding! Be this the fellowship You shall bestow upon us!
II. Secondly, LOVE LEADS US TO GO AFIELD IN THE SERVICE OF JESUS.
"Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field." A loving Church
spontaneously puts herself upon widened service. She has a large heart
towards her Lord and longs to see Him reign over all mankind. She does
not wait to hear, again and again, the Macedonian's cry, "Come over and
help us," but she is prompt in mission enterprise. She does not tarry
till she is forced by persecution to go abroad everywhere preaching the
Word, but she sends forth her champions far and wide. As sure as ever
she loves her Lord she asks herself the question, "What more can I do
for Him?"
When she looks over the plot of ground which she has been tilling, she
says, "It is not large enough! The harvest I can get out of this will
not suffice me for my dear Lord." And she says to Him, "Let me go to
the regions beyond to break up the fallow ground and cause the
wilderness to blossom." Now, beloved members of this Church, do you not
feel some such desire this morning? It is upon my heart that we should
be undertaking larger things for Christ. Keep up the old agencies by
all manner of means–quicken them, strengthen them! But does not love
suggest that as increasing years add increasing indebtedness to
Christ–as we are always receiving fresh mercies, so we should make new
and larger returns to our best Friend?
If by us, as a Church, nothing new may be ventured, yet cannot each
individual have his own plan and branch out afresh? Will not each man
say in his heart, "What can I do for Jesus today, over and above what I
should have done if things had gone on in the ordinary course?" Enquire
of Him you love and if your hearts are with Him, it will not be long
before you will discover what He would have you do. The spouse, when
she said, "Let us go forth into the field," knew that the proposal
would please her Lord for the nature of Christ is a large and loving
one, and, therefore, He would bless the far-off ones. His is no narrow
heart! His thoughts of love are far reaching and when the Church says,
"Let us go forth into the field," truly her Lord is not backward to
accept the invitation!
The spouse does not guess at this, nor does she merely infer it from
her Bridegroom's nature, but she has it in express command from His own
lips, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature." There stand the orders! And when our largest enterprises
shall have been fulfilled we shall not have exceeded them. There is no
exclusion put upon any tribe or clan. No classes are laid under ban, no
individuals are exempted. Therefore, Church of Christ, by the love you
bear to your crucified Master, by His wounds and death for you and by
His living love to you, seek out the lost and gather together the
outcasts! You fishers of men, launch out into the deep and let down
your nets for a draught! You sowers of holy seed, go abroad, and sow
the untrodden wastes! You consecrated builders, break away from old
foundations and lay fresh groundwork for a larger temple for your God
and King! Surely the Spirit of love in a Church will suggest this.
Note that the spouse is evidently prepared for any discomfort that may
come as the result of her labor. She must leave the fair palaces of her
royal husband and lodge in rustic cottages. Poor lodging there for
Solomon's fair spouse, but what does she care? Any roof which covers
her from the evening dew and shields her from the drops of the night
shall quite suffice her. Yes, if he is there, the tents of Kedar shall
be fair as the curtains of Solomon, for his sake. Brothers and Sisters,
if you serve the Lord Christ in breaking up fresh ground you may have
to meet difficulties and make sacrifices, but they will be as nothing
to you–you will welcome them for His dear sake!
Am I stirring no hearts now? Has my finger touched no responsive
strings? I think I feel in my own soul that some of you are responding!
Some Brother, some Sister is here–I know not to whom the prophetic
word is coming–who is saying, "Lord, I am Your spouse. I will go forth
with You into the field and I will lodge with You in the villages if
there I may but glorify Your name." Observe, too, the spouse is quite
ready to continue in this uncomfortable service. She says, "I will
lodge in the villages." There will she abide awhile, not paying a
flying visit, but stopping until the good work is done for which her
Lord and she went forth.
Oh, get out, you Christians, into the distant fields of labor! Many of
you men–how often have I said it!–sit here Sunday after Sunday and
hear many sermons when I believe you would be better engaged if you
were yourselves preaching and winning souls for the Redeemer! I have
often been glad to miss some of my dearest Brothers from our
assemblies. Your presence gives me great pleasure but when I know you
have been away, seeking after Christ's blood-bought souls, I have had
pleasure in your absence! Go, and the Lord go with you! Go, more of
you! Yes, I say, go, more
of you! Your empty seats will be occupied by sinners whom God will
save, while you, dear Brothers, if you are fighting for my Master
somewhere else, will do my Master much more service than you could have
done by listening to me!
We must not allow a single talent to lie idle. We must not waste an
hour of these blessed Sabbaths. We must get us away among the ignorant
ones and carry them the light! We must hunt for precious souls. For our
Master's sake and in His strength and company we must compass sea and
land for His redeemed ones! Only, if any of you go, do not try to go
alone. Stop until you breathe the prayer, "My Beloved, let us go." You
go in vain when you go not with the Master, but when you have secured
His company, then go and welcome, for you "shall doubtless come again
rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you."
Observe how the spouse says, "There will I give you my loves." As much
as to say, if Jesus will thus go with us into active service, then will
we reveal to Him the love of our hearts. I suppose there may have been
times in the Church when a hermit's life would suitably reveal the
heart's love to Jesus but I am certain it is not so now. If there are
any here who love contemplation and would gladly spend their whole
lives in quiet retirement, I am persuaded that such a course would be
injurious to their generation and to the cause of the Truth of God. Of
course there may be exceptions and if you have no gifts but such as
could be serviceable to Christ in solitude, use them in solitude. But
from the most of us the times demand activity. So dark is the world we
cannot afford to lose a glow-worm's spark. Men are perishing, can we
let them perish? Would we suffer a soul to be lost even though it were
given to us in exchange to enjoy the highest fellowship with
Christ?
Behold this day the sheep have gone astray and the wolves are howling
after them–not even to enjoy the great Shepherd's company can we, the
under-shepherds, dare to leave you wanderers to perish! The Church
today has her vocation which is not so much to eat the fat and drink
the sweet as to light her candle and sweep her house and seek
diligently till she find her lost piece of money. Think not that active
service prevents fellowship–no, it is but another form of sitting at
His feet–another shape of fellowship quite as true and because more
called for at this era–even more acceptable! I know I have had as
great fellowship with Christ in His service as ever I have had in quiet
contemplation.
When I have met with a poor soul who has rejected the Lord I have felt
my heart breaking over him like the heart of Christ over obstinate
Jerusalem. When I have seen the tears flowing from a penitent's eyes
who could not, as yet, find the Savior, I have felt sympathy with Jesus
when He has looked upon the like and had compassion upon them! And when
I have seen the glow of joy when the sun of Christ's countenance has
shone at last upon the troubled heart, I have entered into the joy of
the Lord when He rejoices over one sinner that repents!
Laziness never yet had communion with Christ. Those who walk with
Christ must walk swiftly. Jesus is no idler or loiterer–He is about
His Father's business–and you must march with quick step if you would
keep pace with Him. As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes,
are sluggards to active persons. Those who have much to do have no
fellowship with gossips who drop in to while away the hours with chat.
Jesus has no fellowship with you who care not for souls that are
perishing. He is incessantly active and so must you be if you would
know His love. There is a fierce furnace heat beating upon everything
today–men are toiling hard to hold their own–and Jesus must not be
served by slothful hearts.
I am sure that I err not, from His mind, when I say to you, Beloved, if
you would know the Beloved fully you must get up early and go afield
with Him to work with Him. Your joy shall be in spending and being
spent for Him.
III. Thirdly, LOVE LABORS, ALSO, AT HOME. Nearer the palace there were
vineyards and the spouse said, "Let us get up early to the vineyards."
Note, then, that the Church does her work at home as well as abroad.
When she loves her Lord she works with zeal and she gets up early. All
men in Holy Scripture who loved God much rose early to worship Him. We
never read of one saint engaged upon sacred service who rose late.
Abraham rose early. David rose early. Job rose early and so did they
all.
It is put here as the very type and symbol of an earnest, vigorous
service of Christ. Dear Brothers and Sisters, there is such a thing,
you know, as keeping the Sunday school going and keeping the Tract
Society going, and keeping the Evangelists' Society going–and yet
nobody is up early, but, after a fashion, everybody is nodding. I know
these warm Sunday mornings it is not a very difficult thing for some of
you, if you try hard, to go to sleep during a sermon. Well, that is a
visible slumber and is soon over, but there is an invisible sleep which
will come on Sunday afternoon when you
are teaching which is neither so soon discovered nor so easily cured.
You are talking, talking, addressing your class, or speaking to your
men and women, or whatever else may be your calling, and all the while
your soul is nodding.
Anybody can wake you up with a push in your side if only your body is
sleeping, but when the soul is slumbering it is not so easy. I fear
greatly that a large proportion of Christian workers are usually
asleep. What a difference there is between what a man teaches when he
is asleep and what he teaches when he is awake! You can see it in a
minute. I could not describe the difference but it is apparent in tone
and manner and in every other way. The man may say and do the same
thing, but still it is a different thing. The children soon perceive it
if it is in your class. Your hearers soon perceive it if it is in your
pulpit.
Oh that God would wake up this Church! I do not believe that success so
much depends upon what the Church does as upon how she does it. You may
take your hammer and go tinkering about and not fasten a tin-tack, but
if your arm has muscle in it you will soon be driving the nails home to
the very head and clinching them. May the Lord's love so come upon you
all, my Brothers and Sisters, that what you do you may do with all your
might, plunging your whole soul into His service and never sparing
force in anything.
Notice God's people, when they are awake, first look well to the
Church. "Let us see if the vine flourishes." The Church is Christ's
vine. Let us take stock of it. Beloved, we ought to be, each one of us,
in a measure, pastors of the Church. In so large a Church as this the
pastoral office cannot be vested in one, or even in twenty. Each must
look after his brother and thus you must be pastors of one another.
Watch over one another, pray for one another. How wonderful is the
power of prayer! We do not know what blessings come from our prayers.
Ten thousand darts might long ago have pierced the Lord's elect were it
not that the prayers of the saints are a shield over their heads,
defending the sacramental host from harm.
Then the Church looks after the little ones. "Let us see if the vine
flourishes, whether the tender grape appear." No earnest Church forgets
the children of her Sunday school and every other agency for the young
will be sure to be well minded. An active Church seeks to bring Jesus
among the children to see if the tender grapes appear. She pays her
visits and performs her services, but always in His dear company.
Helpers in the Sunday school and workers for Christ, I salute you! The
Lord be with you. The Lord give you to see many tender grapes appearing
and may this Church have joy of you as hundreds shall be converted to
God by your instrumentality!
Then the Church also takes notice of all enquiries. "Let us see whether
the pomegranates bud forth." If a Church is alive there will always be
many to observe where the first tear of repentance is glistening. In
this congregation every Sunday, thank God, some persons are pricked in
the heart. Watch them, Brothers and Sisters! Those of you who occupy
your seats and do not go afield can do the cause great service by
watching at home. There is no need to leave those seats in order to be
useful. Around you there are unconverted persons. Each Sunday, morning
and evening there come in here strangers and it may be the Lord will
deal with them, only be on the alert. Speak with them and try, if you
can, to use the shorthanded claymore, that if my longer bladed sword
may not have reached them, you who are near at hand may send a deadly
wound into the very heart of their sins.
my Brethren, words fail me to set before you the ways in which you may
show your love to Jesus in the Church itself, but I am certain that
there is no need for me to speak. Love, herself, will teach you!
Mothers somehow bring up their children, though there are no colleges
for mothers! Love, with its instincts makes them wise and so will
Christians with their love to Jesus become wise to serve. I do believe
the less rule and human direction there is in the Church, the better. I
do not need to say, "Brother, do this, and do that." If you love Christ
you will know what to do better than anybody else can tell you. You
will find your own places–the Lord will lead you to them.
1 might put a square man into a round hole if I had the placing of you,
but love always puts the man into the right position. It tells him what
suits his qualifications and it puts him to his work. And what is more,
it keeps him to it! I shall measure your love to Jesus and measure my
own, not by the way in which we can talk, or the way in which we can
criticize other workers, but by the way in which we shall henceforth
labor for the Lord!
IV. The last point is this, that LOVE IN A CHURCH BRINGS FORTH ALL ITS
STORES FOR THE BELOVED.
The Church of God has, in herself, through the rich love of her
Husband, all manner of pleasant fruits. This Church is a large one, but
the same Truth of God will hold good of the smallest Church. The Lord
never leaves His Church without a suitable measure of gifts and Divine
Grace. If our spiritual nostrils and eyes could act this morning, we
should discern all
the fruits of the Paradise of God in this Church and we should smell
the sweet savor of all pleasant things–for some Brethren here have the
apples of faith, others bear the delicious pomegranates of love–and
others yield the charming clusters of hope and joy.
There are all manner of pleasant fruits among us. One has one, another
has another and in some hearts there are many fruits united. A Church
of God, if well cultivated, is rich in multiform displays of the fruit
of the Spirit of God. Some of these fruits are new, and oh, how full of
savor they are! Our new converts, thank God for them–what a freshness
and power there is about their love! Certain moldy old professors have
lost their taste all together–they have passed beyond the time in
which they were sweet–they have gotten into the sleepy pear state and
are getting rotten. They are chips in the porridge–the taste has gone
out of them–if they ever had any. Alas, some have acquired a nauseous
flavor, they are very naughty figs, indeed! The new fruits may be sharp
and have more pungency than mellowness about them, but for all that
they are choice to the Lord Jesus whose Soul desires the first ripe
fruits. I thank God for youthful zeal! It might, with advantage, have a
little more knowledge mingled with it, yet the zeal is good and the
fervent is good. May we never be without new-born souls!
Then there are old fruits, the experience of Believers who are ripening
for Heaven–the well-developed confidence which has been tried in a
thousand battles and the faith which has braved a lifetime of
difficulties. These old fruits–the deep love of the matron to Christ,
the firm assurance of the veteran Believer–there is a mellowness about
them which the Lord delights in! All these choice things ought to be
laid up. Every good thing in a Church is meant to be stored up, not to
be despised and forgotten! And the point of all is that all in the
Church ought to be laid up for our Beloved. And now is the time when I
earnestly ask, in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the roes and by the
hinds of the field, yes, by each sacred token of the love you bear your
Master, that each one of you should bring forth his pleasant fruits
whether they are new or whether they are old.
We do not bring them forth to buy His love, we know better–for though
we should give all the substance of our house for love it would be
utterly worthless! We do not bring forth these fruits to secure His
love for the future, either– we know His is an everlasting love that
never can be taken away from us. We do not bring them forth because we
need to commend ourselves. Ah, no, any beauty we have does not lie in
the fruits of our storehouses but in what He has put upon us and in
what His love sees in us. Neither do we bring forth these pleasant
fruits to feed on them ourselves. Old experiences are moldy things. Old
manna breeds worms and stinks. And as for any fruits which we have
brought forth we take no satisfaction in them ourselves. All we have
belongs to Him and to Him alone and at His feet we would lay it all!
I beseech you, Brothers and Sisters, if you have any love, pour it out
upon Him! If you have any faith exercise it for Him! If you have any
courage be bold for Him! If you have any endurance endure hardness for
Him! If you have any Grace, any virtue, any gift of His
Spirit–anything that is lovely and of good repute–use it for Him! Now
is the day, now is the hour, now His love puts in her claim and serves
you with her sacred writs. By the espousals which you have not
forgotten, by the Covenant which you have oft repeated with Him, by the
seals of His table, by your burial with Him in Baptism in days gone by,
I beseech you now bring forth all your pleasant things for your
Beloved! None for anyone else, but all for Him!
I fear we often forget to do all for Him. I know if I preach a sermon
and have any recollection that such-and-such a passage might please a
learned or wealthy hearer, I have failed to please God. If I have any
consideration in my mind as to whether I shall gain esteem for
excellence of speech I am weak. But if I preach for Jesus only, then
whoever finds fault it doesn't matter because my work is sweet to Him.
And if you pray in the Prayer Meeting, or teach in the class, or give
your contribution to the Lord's work–if you feel you have done it for
HIM–oh, then you know you have done right because that is the point
which sweetens all! I believe that many have stolen up to the
offering-box and dropped in what they could give for the Lord's sake,
and none have known it, and therefore Christ has accepted it–while
others may have given large sums ostentatiously because others of their
standing were giving as much, and therefore they were not accepted.
I need your aid for the College and the Orphanage, but do not give for
my sake, but for my Lord's sake! Put what you give into the pierced
hands–make that your treasury! Jesus is your Master! No one else has
bought you! No one else has died for you! No one else will receive you
until His fond embrace at the last! No one else is preparing Heaven for
you! No one else can say, "Well done good and faithful servant." Serve
Him, then, with both your hands, with all your heart,
with every drop of blood in your veins and every breath in your lungs!
Give Him yourself, your whole self, from the soles of your feet to the
crown of your head–and when you have done that, if He spares you for
another half century you will find that you have spent the best life
for yourself–though that must not enter into your thoughts.
I have thus spoken to my own dear Friends and Brothers and Sisters in
Christ, but let me remind those who are not in Christ that nothing of
this has anything to do with them. I don't bid you do anything for
Christ. I cannot. Christ does not need His enemies to work in His
vineyard. I do not ask you either to give to Jesus or to work for Him!
Why should you? Till you love Him your services would be a mockery of
Him. I hold up no standard to enlist under it men whose hearts are
disloyal toward our Captain. Ah, no! And if your service is rejected,
and you feel grieved at heart that it is so, let me whisper this word
in your ear–your heart may yet be made right.
You may yet come and serve Him. Here is His message to you–"Come now
and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as
scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like
crimson they shall be as wool." "He that believes and is baptized,
shall be saved." There is the point for you, good Friend. You must
begin with being, yourself, saved–and then when you are saved you can
serve Christ. Christ will have no man work for Him with the view of
saving himself–you must first be saved, and then you have not your own
salvation to look to! When you have left that with Christ, you can then
labor for Him.
A rich English merchant was requested by Queen Elizabeth to take up
certain affairs of hers. "Your Majesty," said he, "I am willing enough,
but if I do your bidding my business will be ruined." "Sir," said the
Queen, "You attend to my business, and I will attend to yours." Now,
Sirs, give the business of your soul's salvation to Christ! Let Him
save you and when that is done you can make it your business to serve
Him and He will be glad of such a servant. The Lord bless you, for
Jesus' sake. Amen.
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The Resurrection Credible