A Free Salvation
A Sermon
(No. 199)
Delivered on Friday Afternoon, June 11, 1858, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
on the Grand Stand, Epsom Race-Course.
"Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."–Isaiah
55:1.
YOU see, I have something to sell this evening, I have to invite you to
come and buy that which, in the gospel will this night be proclaimed.
Now, it is usual when persons have anything to sell, to exhibit the
article, to describe its character, and speak of its excellencies, for
until persons are made aware of the nature of that which you exhibit,
it is not likely that they will be prepared to buy it. That shall be my
first business this evening Then the man who has aught to sell, in the
next place, endeavors to bring those who hear him up to the price at
which he desires to sell. My business tonight is to bring you down to
the price–"Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." I
shall then conclude by addressing a few sentences of earnest persuasion
to those who despise that glorious salvation which it is our privilege
to preach, and turn away from those generous stipulations–"without
money and without price."
I. In the first place, then, I have to preach, to-night, WINE AND
MILK–"Come buy wine and milk." There we have a description of the
gospel–wine that maketh glad the heart of man; milk, the one thing and
the only thing in the world which contains all the essentials of life.
The strongest man might live on milk, for in it. there is everything
which is needed for the human frame–for bone, for sinew, for nerve,
for muscle, for flesh–all is there. There you have a double
description. The gospel is like wine which makes us glad. Let a man
truly know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will be a happy
man, and the deeper he drinks into the spirit of Christ, the more happy
will he become. That religion which teaches misery to be a duty. is
false upon the very face of it, for God, when he made the world,
studied the happiness of his creatures. You cannot help thinking, as
you see everything around you, that God has sedulously, with the most
strict attention, sought ways of pleasing man. He has not just given us
our absolute necessities, he has given us more, not simply the useful,
but even the ornamental The flowers in the hedgerow, the stars in the
sky, the beauties of nature, the hill and the valley–all these things
were intended not merely because we needed them, but because God would
show us how he loved us, and how anxious he was that we should be
happy. Now, it is not likely that the God who made a happy world would
send a miserable salvation. He who is a happy Creator will be a happy
Redeemer, and those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, can bear
witness that the ways of religion "are ways of pleasantness and all her
paths are peace." And if this life were all, if death were the burial
of all our life, and if the shroud were the winding-sheet of eternity,
still to be a Christian would be a bright and happy thing for it lights
up this valley of tears, and fills the wells in the valley of Baca to
the brim with streams of love and joy. The gospel then, is like wine.
It is like milk, too, for there is everything in the gospel that you
want. Do you want something to bear you up in trouble? It is in the
gospel–"a very present help in time of trouble." Do you need something
to nerve you for duty? There is grace all-sufficient for everything
that God calls you to undergo or to accomplish. Do you need something
to light up the eye of your hope? Oh! there are joy-flashes in the
gospel that may make your eye flash back again the immortal fires of
bliss. Do you want something to make you stand steadfast in the midst
of temptation? In the gospel there is that that can make you immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord. There is no passion, no
affection, no thought, no wish, no power which the gospel has not
filled to the very brim. The gospel was evidently meant for manhood; it
is adapted to it in its every part. There is knowledge for the head;
there is love for the heart; there is guidance for the foot. There is
milk and wine, in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I think there is another meaning in the two words "milk and wine."
Wine, you know, is a rich thing, something that requires much time to
manufacture. There has to be vintage and fermentation and preservation
before wine can come to its full flavour. Now, the gospel is like that,
it is an extraordinary thing for feast days; it gives a man power to
use a vintage of thought, a fermentation of action, and a preservation
of experience, till a man's piety comes forth like the sparkling wine
that makes the heart leap with gladness. There is that, I say, in
religion, that makes it an extraordinary thing, a thing for rare
occasions, to be brought out when princes sit at the table. But milk is
an ordinary thing; you get it every day, anywhere. If you just run out
into the farm yard there it is; there is no preparation required. it is
ready to the hand. it is an ordinary thing. So is it with the gospel:
it is a thing for every day. I love the gospel on Sunday, but, blessed
be God, it is a Monday gospel too. The gospel is a thing for the
chapel, and it is a thing for the church, there it is like wine. But it
is a thing for the farm yard, it is a thing which you may observe
behind the plough, and hum behind the counter. The religion of Christ
is a thing that will go with you into your shop, on to the Exchange,
into the market, everywhere. It is like milk–an everyday dish–a thing
which we may always have, and upon which we may always feast. Oh! thank
heaven, there is wine for that high day when we shall see the Saviour
face to face; there is wine for that dread day when we shall ford the
stream of Jordan–wine that shall remove our fears and bid us sing in
the midst of the dark billows of Death: but thanks be unto him, there
is milk too–milk for everyday occurrences, for every-day actions, milk
for us to drink as long as we live, and milk to cherish us till the
last great day shall come.
Now, I think I have explained the figure in my text; but still some
will say, "What is the gospel?" Well, the gospel, as I take it, can be
looked at in various ways, but I will put it to night as this–the
gospel is the preaching of a full, free, present, everlasting pardon to
sinners through Jesus Christ's atoning blood. If I understand the
gospel at all, it has in it a great deal more than this; but still this
is the substance of it. I have to preach to night the great fact that
while all have sinned, Christ hath died, and to all penitents who now
confess their sins and put their trust in Christ, there is a full, free
pardon–free in this respect, that you have nothing to do in order to
get it. The meanest sin-stricken sinner has simply to pour out his
plaintive griefs before God; that is all he asks. There is no fitness
needed;–
"All the fitness he requireth,
Is to feel your need of him:
This he gives you;
'Tis his Spirit's rising beam."
There is no need to pass through years of penance, of hard labor, and
of trial; the gospel is as free as the air you breathe. You do not pay
for breathing; you do not pay for seeing the sunlight, nor for the
water that flows in the river as you stoop to drink it in your thirst.
So the gospel is free; nothing is to be done in order to get it. No
merits need be brought in order to obtain it. There is free pardon for
the chief of sinners through Jesus Christ's blood. But I said it was a
full pardon, and so it is. When Christ does anything he never does it
by halves. He is willing this night to blot out every sin and cleanse
every iniquity of every soul present who is now prepared by God's grace
to seek his mercy. If now, sinner, God hath put it in thine heart to
seek him, the pardon which he is prepared to give thee, is a full one;
not a pardon for a part of your sins, but for all at once:–
"Here's pardon for transgressions past,
It matters not how black their cast,
And, oh! my soul with wonder view,
For sins to come here's pardon too."
Here is pardon for your drunkenness, pardon for your oaths, pardon for
your lust, pardon for your rebellion against heaven; for the sins of
your youth and the sins of your old age, for the sins of the sanctuary
and the sins of the brothel, or the tavern. Here is pardon for all sin,
for "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." But
again, the pardon we have to preach is a present pardon. If you feel
your need of a Saviour, if now you are enabled to believe in Christ,
you shall be pardoned now. Those who have ordinary hopes say they hope
to be pardoned when they come to die. But, beloved, that is not the
religion we preach. If you will now make confession of sin, now seek
the Lord, you shall be pardoned now. It is possible for a man to have
come in here with all his sins hanging about his neck like a millstone,
enough to sink him lower than the lowest hell, and yet to go out of
this door with every sin blotted out. If now he is enabled to believe
on him, he may this night receive perfect pardon from the hand of God.
The pardon of a sinner is not a thing done when he is dying, it is done
when he is living–done now. And there be some here I trust, and they
not a few, who can rejoice to night in the fact that they are pardoned.
Oh! Is it not a magnificent thing for a man to be able to tread God's
earth with this for a song in his mouth, "I am forgiven, I am forgiven;
I am pardoned?" I think it is one of the sweetest songs in all the
world–scarcely less sweet than that of the cherubim before the
throne–
"Oh. how sweet to view the flowing
Of his soul redeeming blood!
With divine assurance knowing,
He has made my peace with God."
Oh! what would you give for such a salvation as this, ye mourning
souls? It is preached to you without money and without price, and I am
bidden to cry "Ho! ho! Every one that thirsteth; if you feel your need
of Christ, if you are now ready to confess your sins, come and take it
freely without money and without price." But the best remains for the
last. The pardon which is proclaimed to-night, is not only a free, and
full, and present, but it is a pardon that will last for ever. If the
Queen pardons any one–grants a free pardon–it is impossible that man
should be punished for the same offense. Very often, however, the Queen
grants a reprieve that is not a full pardon. There are cases in which
persons are so far pardoned, that they are not executed for the crime,
but confined during Her Majesty's pleasure. Now, our Lord never does
that; he makes a clean sweep of it: there is not one sin that he allows
to remain. When he does wash a soul, he washes it whiter than the
driven snow. God doth things perfectly. But the best of it is, that
what he does once is done for ever. This is the very glory of the
gospel. If you get pardon to-night, you are saved now, but you never
shall be condemned. If a man believeth in Christ with all his heart,
his salvation is secure beyond hazard; and I always look upon this as
the very jewel of the crown of salvation, that it be irreversible. If I
commit my soul into the hands of God,
"His honor is engaged to save
The meanest of his sheep.
All that his heavenly father gave
His hands securely keep.
Not death or hell shall e'er divide
His fav'rites from his breast;
In the dear bosom of their God
They must for ever rest."
God does not make you his child to-day, and turn you out to-morrow; he
does not forgive you to-day, and then punish you the next day. As true
as God is God, if thou gettest thy pardon to-night Christian, the earth
may melt away just as a moment's foam dissolves into the wave that
bears it and is lost for ever; the great universe may pass away and be
like the hoar-frost before the morning sun; but thou never canst be
condemned. As long as God is God, he who has got his pardon signed and
sealed, is beyond the reach of harm. I would not preach any other–I
dare not. It would not be worth your receiving, it would not be worth
my taking the trouble to preach; but this is worth any man's having
indeed, for it is a sure investment. He Who puts himself into the hands
of Christ has a sure keeper, come what may–and there may come strong
temptations and strong affections, and there may come strong pains and
hard duties, but he that hath helped us bears us through, and makes us
more than conquerors too. Oh! to be pardoned once, with the certain
assurance that we shall be pardoned for ever, beyond the hazard of
being cast away!
And now again, I will just preach this salvation, for this is the wine
and milk which is proclaimed without money and without price. Beloved,
all this is to be gained by faith in Christ–whosoever believeth in him
who died upon the tree, and groaned away his life for us–shall never
come into condemnation: he is passed from death unto life, and the love
of God abideth in him.
II. And now, having thus exhibited the article, my next business is to
BRING THE BIDDERS UP TO THE AUCTION BOX AND SELL IT. My difficulty is
to bring you down to my price, as old Rowland said. He was preaching in
a fair, and he heard a man selling his goods. "Ah!" said he, "as for
those people over there, their difficulty is to bring people up to
their price; whereas, my difficulty is to bring you down to my price."
Now, here is a gospel fully preached, without money and without price.
Here comes some one up to the sacred desk, transformed for the moment
into an auction box, and he cries, "I want to buy." What will you give
for it? He holds out his hands, and he has such a handful; he has to
lift up his very lap with more, for he can hardly hold all his good
works. He has Ave-Marias and Paternosters without number, and all kinds
of crossings with holy water, and bendings of the knee, and
prostrations before the altar, and reverence of the host, and attending
at the mass, and so on. In French, they call the mass the messe, and a
mess it is and no mistake, but there are a great many people who trust
in it; and when they come before God, they bring all these things as
the ground of their reliance.
And so, Sir Romanist, you are coming to get salvation are you? and you
have brought all this with you. Friend, I am sorry for thee, but thou
must go away from the box with all thy performances, for it is "without
money and without price," and until thou art prepared to come empty
handed thou canst never have it. If thou hast anything of thine own
thou canst not receive it. "But," says he, "I am no heretic. Am I not
true to the Pope? Do I not make confession and get absolution, and pay
my shilling?" Do you my friend? Then because you pay your shilling for
it, it is good for nothing, for that which is good for something you
can have "without money and without price." The light we pay for is a
sickly thing, but that which we get from heaven for nothing, is the
rich healthy light which makes the heart glad. So the pardon that comes
from Christ is "without money and without price."
Then another comes up and says "I am glad you have served the Romanist
like that. I hate the Church of Rome, I am a true Protestant, and
desire to be saved." What have you brought, sir? "Oh, I have brought no
Ave-Marias, no Paternosters; I abhor the names; I do not like those
Latin names, not I. But I say the collect every Sunday; I am very
attentive to my prayers I go to church almost as soon as the doors are
open," or (if he is a Dissenter) "I go to chapel three times on the
Sabbath. and I attend the prayer-meetings and beside that, I pay
everybody twenty shillings in the pound. I had rather pay twenty-one
shillings than nineteen. I would not like to hurt anybody. I do not
tread upon a worm if I can help it, I am always liberal, and assist the
poor when I can. I may make a little slip just now and then. I may turn
aside a little; still, if I am not saved I do not know who will be. I
am as good as my neighbors, and I think, sir, I certainly ought to be
saved, for I have very few sins, and what few there are do not hurt
other people; they hurt me more than any one else. Besides, they are
mere trifles; only one or two days in the year I break loose, and a man
must have a little amusement after all. I assure you I am one of the
best, most honest, and sober, and religious people going." Well, my
friend, I am sorry to hear you quarrelling with the Romanist, for I do
not like to see twin brothers disagree. You are both of the same kith
and kin, believe me, for the essence of Popery is salvation by works
and ceremonies. You do not practice his works and ceremonies, but then
you hope to be saved by your own, and you are just as bad as he. I will
send you away; there is no salvation for you, for it is "without money
and without price;" and as long as you bring these fine good works of
yours you cannot have it. Mark, I do not find any fault with them, they
are good enough in their place, but they won't do here to-night, and
they won't do at the judgment bar of God. Practise those things as much
as you like, they are good in their place. but still, in the matter of
salvation you must leave them out, and come for it as poor guilty
sinners and take it "without money and without price." Says one, "Do
you find fault with good works?" Not at all. Suppose I see a man
building a house, and he were fool enough to lay the foundation with
chimney-pots. If I should say, "My dear man, I do not like these
chimney-pots to be put into the foundation," you would not say I found
fault with the chimney-pots, but that I found fault with the man for
putting them in the wrong place. Let him put good solid masonry at the
bottom, and then when the house is built he may put on as many
chimney-pots as he likes. So with good works and ceremonies they will
not do for a foundation. The foundation must be built of more solid
stuff. Our hope must be built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and
righteousness, and when we have built a foundation with that, we may
have as many good works as we like–the more the better. But for a
foundation, good works are fickle and feeble things, and he that useth
them will see his house totter to the ground.
But see another man. He is a long way off, and he says, "Sir, I am
afraid to come; I could not come and make a bid for the salvation. Sir,
I've got no larnin', I'm no scholard I can't read a book, I wish I
could. My children go to Sunday-school; I wish there was such a thing
in my time, I can't read, and its no use my hoping to go to heaven. I
goes to church sometimes, but oh dear! it's no good; the man uses such
long words I can't understand'em, and I goes to chapel sometimes, but I
can't make it out. I knows a little of the hymns my child says, about
'Gentle Jesus meek and mild,'–and
'Oh! that will be joyful, when we meet to part no more.'
I wish they would preach like that, and then, maybe, I could make it
out. But I'm no sholard, sir, and I don't think I can be saved." O my
dear friend, you need not stand over there at the back. Come along with
you. It wants no scholarship to go to heaven. The more you know the
better it will be for you on earth no doubt, but it will be of no
particular use to you in heaven. If you can "read your title clear to
mansions in the skies," if you know enough to know yourself a lost
sinner, and Christ a great Saviour, that is all you want to know to get
to heaven. There is many a man in heaven that never read a letter on
earth–many a man that could not, if his life depended on it, have
signed his name, but was obliged to write a cross as "Tom Stiles's
mark" and there he is among the brightest. Peter himself has not a
brighter place than manly poor ignorant souls who looked to Jesus
Christ, and were enlightened. I will tell you something to comfort you.
Don't you know that Christ said, the poor had the gospel preached to
them and besides that, he said, "Except a man be converted, and become
as a little child, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." What
does that mean, but that we must believe the gospel like little
children? A little child has not much learning: he just believes what
he is told, and that is what you are to do. You are to believe what God
tells you. He says, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save
sinners. That is no hard thing, is it? You can believe that; and if you
can, it you are destitute of all human knowledge, you shall without
doubt, know hereafter what you know not now.
Now, I see a man come up to the stall, and he says, "Well, I will have
salvation sir, I have made in my will provisions for the building of a
church or two, and a few almshouses, I always devote a part of my
substance to the cause of God; I always relieve the poor, and
such-like; I have a pretty good share of money, and I take care not to
hoard it up; I am generous and liberal, I try to set up poor
trades-people, and so forth. Won't that carry me to heaven?" Well, I
like you very much, and I wish there were more of your sort. There is
nothing like generosity and liberality certainly, where it is exhibited
towards the sick and the poor, the destitute and the ignorant, and in
the cause of God; but if you bring these things as your hope of heaven,
my dear friend, I must undeceive you. You cannot buy heaven with gold.
Why, they pave the streets up there with it. Are we not told in the
book of Revelation, that the streets of the city were all of pure gold
like unto transparent glass. Why, if you had twenty thousand pounds you
could not buy a flag-stone with it. Baron Rothschild could not buy a
foot of heaven if he spent all his money for it. It is too precious a
place to be bought with gold and silver. If all the wealth of the
Indies could be shot out in order to buy one glimpse of heaven, it
would be useless. There is no man that could get so much as a distant
peep within its pearly gates for all the gold that heart could conceive
or covetousness desire. It is given away for nothing. Christ will never
sell it–never–because there is nothing that can be brought at all
equal to its value. What Christ bought with blood you cannot buy with
gold. He redeemed us not with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
but with his precious blood; and there is no other price that can ever
be allowed. Ah! my rich friend, you are just on a level with your
poorest laborer. You may wear broadcloth, and he fustian, yet he has as
good an opportunity of being saved as you. Ah! my lady, satin has no
preference in heaven above calico or cotton.
"None are excluded hence but those who do themselves exclude."
Wealth makes distinction on earth, but no distinction at the cross of
Christ. You must all come alike to the footstool of Jesus, or else not
come at all. I knew a minister who told me he was once sent for to the
dying bed of a Roman who was very well to do in the world, and she
said, "Mr. Baxter, do you think when I get to heaven Betsy my servant
will be there?" "Well," he said, "I don't know much about you, but
Betsy will be there; for if I know any one who is a pious girl, it is
she." "Well," said the lady, "don't you think there will be a little
distinction? for I never could find it in my heart to sit down with a
girl of that sort, she has no taste, no education, and I could not
endure it. I think there ought to be a little difference." "Ah! you
need not trouble yourself, madam," said he, "there will be a great
distinction between you and Betsy, if you die in the temper in which
you now are; but the distinction will be on the wrong side; for you
will see her in Abraham's bosom, but you yourself will be cast out. As
long as you have such pride in your heart, you can never enter into the
kingdom of heaven." He spoke to her very plainly, and she was mightily
offended. But I believe she preferred to be found out of heaven to
submitting to sit with her servant Betsy. Let us respect rank and title
here, if you please: but when we preach the gospel we know no such
thing. If I preached to a congregation of kings, I would preach just
the same gospel that I would preach to a congregation of clodhoppers.
The king on his throne, and the queen in her palace, have no gospel
different from you and me. However humble and obscure we may be there
stands the gate of heaven wide open; there is the king's royal highway
for us. The highway is as much for the poor man as for the rich man; so
is the kingdom of heaven–"without money and without price."
Now I hear my friend the Calvinist over there say, "Well, I like that,
but still I think I can come, and though I can say with you,–
'nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.'
Yet I can say this–I have had a deep experience, sir, I have been led
to see the plague of my own heart, and I have felt a great deal. When I
come to Christ I rely a great deal upon my feelings. I do not think you
are right in calling all kinds of sinners to come to Christ, but you
are right in calling me, for I am one of the right sort. I am one of
the publican sort; I am pharisaical enough to think that; I think that
I most certainly have a special commission to come, for I have such an
experience that if I were to write my biography, you would say, This is
a good experience; this man has a right to come to Christ.' " Well,
friend, I am sorry to upset you, but I shall be compelled to do so. If
you bring your experience to Christ when you come to him, you are as
bad as the Romanist who brings his masses and Ave-Marias. I like your
experience very well, if it be the work of God's grace in your heart,
but if you bring it when you come to Christ, you put that before
Christ, and it is an Anti-Christ. Away with it! away with it! When we
have been preaching to poor sinners and tried to describe their state
by nature and their feelings, I have been afraid after all, that we
were fostering a spirit of self righteousness, and teaching our hearers
to think that they must get certain feelings, before they can come to
Christ. Let me just, if I can, preach the gospel in the broadest way
possible, and that is the most truthful way. Christ wants your feelings
no more than he does your money, and that is, not at all. If you want
good experience you must come to Christ:–
"All the fitness he requireth, is to feel your need of him."
Yes, but stop–
"This he gives you, tis his Spirit's rising beam."
You are to come to Christ to get everything. You are not to say, "Well,
I will believe first, and then come." No; go to Christ for faith. You
must look to the cross even to get a sense of sin. We do not feel our
sins so much before we see the cross, but we feel them most afterwards.
We look to Christ first; then repentance flows from both our streaming
eyes. Remember, if you go anywhere else to find a Saviour, you are on
the wrong track. If you try to bring anything to Christ, to use a
homely proverb, it is like bringing coals to Newcastle. He has
plenty–he does not want any of yours, and what is more, as soon as he
sees anything in your hands he will turn you straight away. He will
have nothing to do with you until you can say–
"Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling."
I have heard of a negro who was convinced of sin, and at the same time
his master was under conviction. The negro found peace with God, but
the master was a long time seeking without any hope; and at last he
said, "I cannot make out how it is that you found comfort so soon, and
I cannot get it at all." So the negro after asking his master to excuse
his speaking plainly, said, "Massa, I tink it is just dis. When Jesus
say, Come along,' he say, I give you a righteousness dat cover you from
head to foot.' I, poor negro, looks down at myself, covered all over
wid filthy rags, and I say, Lord, clothe me, I am naked,'–and off go
my rags. Now, massa, you not so bad as dat. When he say, Come along,'
to you, you look at your coat, and you say, Well, it wants a little
mending, but I fink it will wear a little longer. Dere is a great hole
here, but a little darning and stitching will do it up again.' So,
massa, you keep your old coat; you keep on darning and stitching, and
you never get comfort. But if you would take it off, you would get
comfort at once." That is just it, we will be trying to get something
before we come to Christ.
Now I dare say in this congregation I have a hundred different phases
of this singular fatuity of man–the desire to bring something to
Christ. "Oh," says one "I would come to Christ, but I have been too
great a sinner." Self again, sir; your being a great sinner has nothing
to do with that. Christ is a great Saviour; and however great your sin,
his mercy is greater than that. He invites you simply as a sinner. Be
you big or little, he bids you come to him and take his salvation
"without money and without price." Another says, "Ah! but I do not feel
it enough." Self again. He does not ask you about your feelings he
simply says, "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth."
"But, sir, I cannot pray." Self again. You are not to be saved by your
prayers; you are to he saved by Christ, and your business is simply to
look to Christ. he will help you to pray afterwards. You must begin at
the right end by clinging only to his cross and trusting there. "But,"
says another "if I felt as So-and-so did." Self again. What business
have you to talk so? Christ is where you are to look, not to self.
"Yes," you say, "I think he would receive anybody but me." Please, who
gave you any leave to think at all in the matter? Does he not say, "Him
that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out?" Why, you are thinking
your soul into eternal ruin. Give up thinking, and believe. Are your
thoughts as God's thoughts? Remember, his thoughts are as much higher
than yours as heaven is higher than earth "But," says one, "I have
sought him and I have not found him." Dear friend, can you truly say
that you have come to Christ with nothing in your hand, and have looked
alone to him, and yet he has cast you away? Do you dare to say that?
No, if God's Word be true, and you are true, you cannot say that. Ah! I
remember how that struck my heart when I heard my mother say it once. I
had been some years seeking Christ, and I never could believe he would
save me. She said she had heard many people swear and blaspheme God,
but one thing she had never heard–she had never heard a man say he had
sought Christ, and Christ had rejected him. "And," said she, "I do not
believe that God would permit any man to live to say that." Well, I
thought I could say it; I thought I had sought him, and he had cast me
away, and I determined I would say it, even if it destroyed my soul: I
would speak what I thought was the truth. But, I said to myself, "I
will try once more" and I went to the Master, with nothing of my own,
casting myself simply on his mercy; and I believed that he died for
me:–and I have never said that, and blessed be his holy name, I know I
never shall. Nor will you. Oh, do try him.
"Make but a trial of his love;
Experience will decide
How blest are they, and only they,
Who in his love confide."
If you will come down to this price, and take Christ for nothing, just
as he is, "without money and without price," you shall not find him a
hard Master.
III. Now, I have to use a FEW ARGUMENTS with you, and may God apply
them to your hearts! I would first speak to some of you who never think
about these things at all. You have come here to hear the Word today,
because it is preached in a strange place; otherwise you might not have
been in the house of God at all. Very seldom you vex yourselves with
religious questions; you do not ask yourselves many questions about it,
because you feel it would be an awkward thing for you if you were to
think much of religion, you feel there would be a necessity for a
change of life in you, for thoughts about religion and your present
habits would not suit well together. My dear friends, bear with me a
moment if I press you very much home. Did you ever hear of the ostrich?
When the hunter pursues it, the poor silly bird flies away as fast as
it can, and when it sees that there is no way of escape, what do you
suppose it does? It buries its head in the sand, and then thinks it is
safe, because it shuts its eyes and cannot see. Is not that just what
you are doing? Conscience won't let you rest, and what you are trying
to do is to bury it. You bury your head in the sand; you do not like to
think. Ah! if we could bring men to think, what a wonderful thing we
should have done! That is one of the things, sinner, that, without
Christ, you dare not do. Do you think? We have heard of men afraid to
be alone half an hour because of thoughts too terrible for them. I
challenge any of you without God, to spend one hour on that heath, or
in this balcony, or in your own house at home, and just chew these
thoughts, masticate them–"I am an enemy to God, my sins are not
forgiven; if I die to-night, I am damned to all eternity; I have never
sought Christ, and never found him to be mine." I defy you to keep at
that an hour. You dare not, you would be afraid of your shadow. The
only way sinners can be happy is by thoughtlessness. They say, "Cover
it up; bury my dead out of my sight." They put such thoughts away. Now
is this wise? Is there anything in religion? If not, it will be
consistent in you to deny it; but if this Bible is true, if you have a
soul that is to live for ever, is it rational, is it sensible, is it
prudent, to be neglecting your eternal soul? If you suffered your
bodies to starve, you would not want much argument, would you, to
induce you to eat? But here is your soul perishing, and yet no mortal
tongue can persuade you to attend to that. Ah! is it not strange that
men are going to live for ever in eternity, and yet they have never
provided for it. I have heard of a certain king who had a fool in his
court, who made a great many merry jests, and the king gave him a
stick, and said, "Keep that till you find a bigger fool than yourself."
At last the king came to die, and when he lay a-dying, the jester came
to him and said, "Master, what is the matter?" "I am going to died said
the king." "Going to die–where's that?" "I am going to die, man, don't
laugh at me now." "How long are you going to be there?" "Well, where I
am going I shall live for ever." "Have you got a house there?" "No."
"Have you made any preparation for the journey?" "No." "Have you got
any provision whatever, as you are going to live there such a long
time?" "No." "There, take the stick; fool as I am, I have made
preparation. I am not such a fool as to have to live in a place where I
have not got a house." Christ has prepared for his people a mansion in
heaven. There was much wisdom in the jester's language. Let me speak to
you, even though it be in his language, but very seriously. If men are
to live for ever in heaven, is it not a strange, wild, frantic freak of
intolerant madness, that they never think of the world to come. To-day
they think, but for ever–they put that away. Time, and its poor
baubles and its toys do fill the heart; but eternity–that hill without
a summit, that sea without a shore, that river without an end, over
which they are to sail for ever–they never think of that. Will you
pause a moment and recollect that you have to sail for ever, and you
must sail o'er the burning waves of hell, or else o'er sparkling
streams of glory. Which shall it be with you? You will have to consider
this soon. Before many days, and months, and years are gone, God will
say to you "Prepare to meet thy God," and it may be that the summons
shall come to you Then you are in the death struggle when the stream of
Jordan is chilling your blood, and your heart is sunken within you by
reason of fear. And what will you do then? What wilt thou do in the
swellings of sin in the day when thou art spoiled? What shalt thou do
when God shall bring thee into judgment?
And I have now the pleasing task of closing by addressing men of
another character: Ah! friend; you are not careless. You have many
thoughts, and they pain you; but, although you would be glad to get rid
of them, you would be afraid to do so. You can say, "Oh! I do feel it
were well for me if I could rejoice in Christ–I do feel I should be
happy if I could be converted." Friend, I am glad to hear thee say so.
Where God has put the work of an impressed heart, I do not think he
will leave it till he has finished. Now, I want to speak to you very
seriously to-night, but for a minute. You do feel your need of a
Saviour. Remember, Christ died for you. Believe that–will you? There
he hangs upon his cross, dying; look into his face, it is full of love,
it is melting with forgiveness; his lips are moving, and he says,
"Father forgive them." Will you look to him? Can you hear him say it,
and yet turn away? All he asks you is simply to look, and that look
will save you. You do feel your need of a Saviour; you know you are a
sinner. Why tarry? Do not say you are unworthy. Remember, he died for
the unworthy. Do not say he will not save you. Remember, he died for
the devil's castaways; the very dram and scum of the world Christ has
redeemed. Look at him. Can you look at him and not believe him? Can you
see the blood streaming from his shoulders, and trickling from his
hands and side, and not believe him? Oh! by him that liveth and was
dead, and is alive for evermore, I entreat you to believe on the Lord
Jesus; for thus is it written, "He that believeth on the Lord Jesus,
and is baptized, shall be saved."
Once when Rowland Hill was preaching, Lady Ann Erskine happened to be
driving by: she was in the outer ring of the circle, and she asked the
coachman, what all the people were there for. He replied, "They are
going to hear Rowland Hill." Well, she had heard a great deal about
this strange man, accounted to be the very wildest of preachers, and so
she drew near. No sooner did Rowland Hill see her, than he said, "Come,
I am going to have an auction, I am going to sell Lady Ann Erskine."
(She of course stopped, and she wondered how she was going to be
disposed of.) "Who will buy her?" Up comes the world. "What will you
give for her?" "I will give her all the pomps and vanities of this
present life; she shall be a happy woman here she shall be very rich,
she shall have many admirers, she shall go through this world with many
joys." "You shall not have her; her soul is an everlasting thing; it is
a poor price you are offering, you are only giving a little and what
shall it profit her if she gain the whole world and lose her own soul?
Here comes another purchaser–here is the devil. "What will you give
for her." "Well" says he, "I will let her enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season, she shall indulge in everything her heart shall set
itself unto; she shall have everything to delight the eye and the ear;
she shall indulge in every sin and vice that can possibly give a
transcient pleasure." Ah! Satan, what will you do for her for ever? You
shall not have her, for I know what you are; you would give a paltry
price for her, and then destroy her soul to all eternity. But, here
comes another–I know him–it is the Lord Jesus. "What will you give
for her?" Says he, "It is not what I will give, it is what I have
given; I have given my life, my blood for her; I have bought her with a
price, and I will give her heaven for ever and ever; I will give her
grace in her heart now and glory throughout eternity."
"O Lord, Jesus Christ," said Rowland Hill, "thou shalt have her. Lady
Ann Erskine, do you demur to the bargain?" She was fairly caught; there
was no answer that could be given. "It is done," he said, "it is done;
you are the Saviour's; I have betrothed you unto him; never break that
contract." And she never did. From that time forth, from being a gay
and volatile woman she became one of the most serious persons, one of
the greatest supporters of the truth of the gospel in those times, and
died in a glorious and certain hope of entering the kingdom of heaven.
I would be well pleased if I might make a match of some of you this
night; if you would now say, "Lord, I will have thee," Christ is ready.
If he has made you ready he is never behind hand himself. Whosoever is
willing to have Christ, Christ is willing to have him. What sayest
thou? wilt thou go with this man? If thou sayest "Ay," God bless thee!
Christ saith "Ay" too, and thou art saved, saved now, saved for ever!
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