A Song and a Solace

A Song and a Solace

(No. 2682)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 8, 1900.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
1, 1881.

"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved
my spirit And these things have You hid in Your heart: I know that this
is with You." Job 10:12,13.

BEFORE I speak upon these two verses, I will read the four which
precede them, that you may note the connection in which they are found.
Job is in great trouble, in sore distress of soul. His heart is very
heavy and his unfriendly friends are casting salt into his wounds
instead of trying to heal them. In his distress, he turns to his God
and appeals to Him in this fashion (beginning at the 8th verse)–"Your
hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet You
destroy me. Remember, I beseech You, that You have made me as the clay;
and will You bring me into dust again? Have You not poured me out as
milk and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and
flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews." Then follows our
text–"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has
preserved my spirit. And these things have You hid in Your heart: I
know that this is with You."

You see that Job is appealing to the pity of God and this is the form
of his argument–"You are my Creator–be my Preserver. You have made
me–do not break me. You are dealing very harshly with me, I am almost
destroyed beneath the pressure of Your hands. Remember that I am Your
own creature. Weak and frail as I am, I am the creation of Your hands.
Therefore, despise not Your own work. Whatever I am, with the exception
of my sin, You have made me what I am. 'Tis You who has brought me into
my present condition–consider, then, O God, what a poor, frail thing I
am and stay Your hand and do not utterly crush my spirit."

This is a wise prayer, a right and proper argument for a creature to
use with the Creator. And when Job goes still further and, in the
language of our text, addresses God not only as his Creator, but as his
Benefactor, and mentions the great blessings that he had received from
God, his argument still holds good. "Do not, Lord, change Your method
of dealing with me. You have given me life, You have shown me special
favor, You have hitherto preserved me. Cast me not away from Your
Presence. Dismiss me not from Your service, let not Your tender mercies
fail, but do unto me, now, and in days to come according as You have
done unto me in the days that are past."

In speaking about these two verses, I am going to use them in two
senses. The first in one sense and the second in another, but both and
each of them in its own true meaning, so far as I understand it. First,
here is a song for bright days. "You have granted me life and favor,
and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." Secondly, here is a
solace for dark nights. "And these things have You hid in Your heart: I
know that this is with You."

I. First, then, let us use the former part of our text as A SONG FOR
BRIGHT DAYS–"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation
has preserved my spirit."

Whatever we have received that is good, has come to us from God as a
matter of pure favor–certainly we have deserved nothing at His hands
but displeasure, and everything short of death and Hell is a mercy–and
a thing for which to magnify the goodness of God. In this first portion
of our text, there is a mention of three blessings that must never be
forgotten. The great charter of God's bounty includes three notable
things which He has granted to us–life, favor and His visitation which
has preserved our spirit.

Now, then, you joyful ones, unite with me while we, first, bless God
for granting us life. To a Christian, life is a blessing in itself.
Considered alone, it is a blessing. But to the ungodly man it may turn
out to be a curse, for it would have been better for that man if he had
never been born. But to a godly man like Job, it is a great mercy even
to have an existence. Blessed be the Lord who brought us into the world
and gave breath to these lungs, and the flowing life to these veins!
Blessed be God for having made us! Sometimes, as I gaze upon the world
in springtime, or in the summer, it appears to me that it is a great
happiness to all Nature to simply exist. Look at the lovely lily, as it
stands quite still and never speaks–it seems to praise God in silence
by its beauty. But a Christian should go beyond a mere flower. He ought
to feel that it is a great favor to be made by God. The man who knows
that his eternal future is secured by the unfailing Grace of God may
forever praise the Lord who has given him life!

I find that in the Hebrew, this word, "life," is in the plural–"You
have granted me lives" and, blessed be God, we who believe in Jesus
have not only this naturallife which we share in common with all men,
but the Holy Spirit has begotten in the hearts of Believers a new life
infinitely higher than mere natural life–a life which makes us akin to
Christ, joint-heirs with Him of the eternal inheritance which He is
keeping for us in Heaven! A Christian is lifted into quite another
sphere of action–he is no longer in the carnal but in the
spiritual'realm and, therefore, he understands things that are hidden
from carnal eyes–and he lives in the midst of a world into which the
unregenerate cannot possibly come. An unconverted man cannot enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven. He cannot even see it until he is born again,
regenerated by the Holy Spirit! But once he is born again, he can bless
God for giving him a second life infinitely better than the first one!
Our well-being is a far higher thing than simply our being! The new
creation is vastly superior to the first creation, good as that was,
and the life of God in the soul is infinitely above the mere ordinary
life of man!

Let us praise God, then, for life, and especially for this higher life
if it is ours. What a joy it is to live in this respect! You know that
when a person is very sick and ill, and can scarcely turn in bed, or
lift a hand–when every sense is deprived of enjoyment and every vein
or nerve becomes a road for the hot feet of pain to travel over–then
life is hardly to be called life. But when God graciously raises us up
from sickness, we ought to bless Him for giving us life again–
prolonged, restored, enjoyable life. And when the heart itself is
sick–when the spirit flags and the soul is ready to burst with inward
grief–then the spiritual life seems scarcely to be life. But when,
through the mercy of God, the Holy Spirit comes to us and applies the
pardoning blood of Jesus to our heart and conscience, and whispers
peace to our troubled spirit so that we can read our title clear to
mansions in the skies, then our spiritual life is life indeed! We run,
we leap, we fly! We would scarcely exchange for the bliss of angels the
joy which the spiritual life brings to us at such times. And we bless
and magnify the Lord who has granted us this higher life, this life so
blessed, so superlatively blessed that even here below it makes us
anticipate and realize some of the glory of Heaven itself! Are you, my
Brother, my Sister, enjoying these lives? Do you feel that it is your
privilege to be one with Christ and to live because He lives? And do
you really know that you have received this wondrous blessing? Oh,
then, sing unto the Lord as long as you live, for it is the living,
even the living in Zion who shall praise Him as we do this day! Let
this be one of your songs in this bright day of your happy experience.
Let the joy of your heart ring it out in the words of our text–"You
have granted me life."

Next, we have to praise God for granting us favor I am quite unable to
tell you to the fullest all that is wrapped up in that word, "favor."
Favor from God! It is a great word in the original, a word big with
meaning, for it means the love of God. What the expression, "the love
of God," fully means, we cannot tell, for Charles Wesley truly wrote–

"God only knows the love of God." God loves immeasurably. The force and
extent of true love never can be calculated–it is a passion that
cannot be measured by degrees as the temperature can be recorded on the
thermometer. It is something that exceeds and overflows all
measurement, for a man gives all his heart when he truly loves. So is
it with God–He sets no boundary to His love. When He loves a man, the
great infinity of His Being flows out towards His chosen. How much God
loves you, my Brother, my Sister, if you are, indeed, one of His elect
and redeemed people, it would not be possible even for an angel to
calculate! Bernard of Clairvaux wrote–

"The love of Jesus–what it is, None but His loved ones know"– but I
correct the poet, for even His loved ones cannot know it, except in
that sense which Paul intended when he wrote to the Ephesians, "that
you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the

breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of
Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the
fullness of God." We might rightly paraphrase Job's words and say, "You
have granted me life and love." Oh, what wondrous words to put
together, life and love! Life without God's love is death. But put
God's love with it and then what a song we ought to send up to His
Throne if we feel that He has given us both spiritual life and infinite
love.

The word, "favor," however, means not only love, but, as we ordinarily
use it, it means some special form of Divine Grace and goodness. I know
that there are some people who never will admit that God favors anyone,
or that He has any special love toward some more than toward others.
They do not like that hymn which Dr. Watts wrote. I heard one alter the
verse–

"Let those refuse to sing That never knew our God; But favorites ofthe
heavenly King May speak their joys abroad."

The gentleman did not like the word, "favorites," so he gave out the
line–

"But subjects of the heavenly King."

I let him sing it in that fashion, for I thought that very likely he
was only a subject. But I sang the line correctly because I knew that I
was one of the King's favorites, and I was resolved to rejoice in that
fact! So I am at this moment, for I know that I have received special
favor from God and that there are some who have not received such favor
and mercy. If, at this hour, anyone of you is a child of God, it is
because God has done more for you than He has done for others. If there
is a difference between you and others, somebody made that
difference–and whoever made it ought to be honored and praised for it.
Did you make it yourself? Shall I put the crown on your head? Why, if
you are right-hearted, you will cry, "No, no! It is God who has made me
to differ from others! It is His Grace which has been given to me, to
bring me out of the darkness in which others have been left."

So, whatever others may think or say, we, at any rate, believe in that
special form of Grace which may be called favor–"You have granted me
life and favor." The Lord has given peculiar favor unto His own chosen
people and this makes them sing a song that rises above all the others!
"He has not dealt so with any nation." "Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Let them
praise the Lord with thanksgiving evermore and if you, dear Friends,
belong to that privileged company, praise the Lord!

By the word, "favor," is also meant Grace in all the shapes which it
assumes, so Job's words might be rendered, "You have granted me life
and Grace." Come, my Brothers and Sisters, if you can say this, just
think over all that it means. "You have granted me the Grace and favor
of Your electing love and of Your redeeming love, the Grace of
effectual calling, the Grace of regeneration, the Grace of
justification, the Grace of adoption, the Grace of perseverance until
this day, the Grace of sanctification," (for all this is of Grace).
"You have given it, You have granted it of Your free favor and granted
it to me."

"I do not know whether God has granted this Grace to me," says one.
Well, my dear Brother, you cannot sing while you doubt this, but if,
through faith in Jesus, you know that God has given you life and Grace,
sing away, sing despite all that might stop you, for this is a mercy
which should forever monopolize the music of everyone who has been thus
favored of God! "You have granted me life and Grace." I do not know
what any other person in this place might say, but if no one else said
it, I would be compelled, in the courts of the Lord's House and in the
midst of His people, to say, "I bless His name for giving me life and
Grace. I am altogether undeserving of such mercy, yet He has favored me
with His goodness, so that I cannot do otherwise than feel overwhelmed
by His Grace." I do not know whether you can all say the same, but I
feel persuaded that there are scores, hundreds, yes, even thousands of
you who might stand up and say, "We bless God that though unworthy of
His notice, He has granted us life and Grace."

Now let us dwell, for a minute or two, on the third blessing of this
Divine grant–"and Your visitation has preserved my spirit.." There is
a wonderful range of meaning in those words, but Job, no doubt, first
refers to the Providence of God by which He makes, as it were, a
visitation of all the world, but especially of His own people. As a man
who possesses a large estate, if he is wise, goes around and looks over
all his cattle and his servants and his fields–and makes a visitation
to see whether all is going well, for he knows that the master's eye
does much–so does God visit the earth, inspect it and care for the
creatures whom He has formed to live upon it. "He gives to the beast
his food, and to the

young ravens which cry." The Lord keeps a watchful eye upon the whole
universe. He leads out the stars, calling them all by their names, and
nightly marshals their serried ranks. He counts even the sparrows, so
that not one of them falls upon the ground without His knowledge. It
has been the Providence of God that has preserved us up to now, so let
us bless Him for this great favor.

Some of us have had very special Providential deliverances. we will not
mention them, tonight, because they are too many. It has been well
said, "He that watches Providence shall never be without a Providence
to watch." I am sure it is so. You who have had your eyes divinely
opened must have seen an act of God's gracious Providence everyday.
Some will only see God's Providence in deliverance from a terrible
catastrophe–such as an escape from fire, or from a railway accident,
or something of that unusual and startling kind. But, indeed, the
Providence of God is watching over us just as much when we sit in our
home, or sleep in our beds, or go about our daily duties. People used
to say of Dr. Gill, my illustrious predecessor, that they could easily
find him, for he was always in his study. And someone remarked, "At any
rate, he is in a safe place there–a man is out of harm's way when he
is studying at home." It so happened that the Doctor was called away
from his study one day when a high wind blew down a stack of
chimneys–which crashed right through the house into his study–and
would have surely killed him if he had been in the place where he was
usually sitting! Truly, it is the Providence of God that preserves our
lives as much when we are at home as if we were out on the vast deep
when it is tossed with tempests.

Now, Brothers and Sisters, is it not wonderful that some of us are
alive at all? Have not most of you reason to praise God for some very
singular instances of his guardian care which has preserved you in
being until this day? Refuse not to sing to God the song of
thanksgiving which is His due! Prolonged life should beget continual
gratitude and votive offerings ofjoyful praise should ascend unto the
Most High.

Oh, but that is only the beginning of the meaning of Job's words, "Your
visitation has preserved my spirit." God has visited those of us who
are His people in other ways besides the watching of His Providence.
Let me mention some of them. He has visited some of us with
correction–and we do not like that form of visitation. We have been
smitten heavily with His rod till all our bones have ached and the
blows have been so severe that they have left black bruises. Or we have
lost friend after friend, or we have been corrected by the scandal and
the slander of wicked men, or in some way or other God has used man as
the rod in His hand to chasten us. "Now no chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." Look back and see whether you cannot say to God, "Your
visitation in correction has preserved my spirit." Can you not say,
"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept Your Word"?
There have been times, in the lives of some of us, when nothing but
affliction could have saved us from falling into gross sin. We would
have been carried away with pride, but we suffered from grievous
depression of spirit and so could not afford to be proud. There have
been times when we would have been exalted above measure, but the thorn
in the flesh was graciously given to us, a messenger of Satan came to
buffet us, and so we were preserved in the hour of temptation.

There are some whom God will yet permit to be rich, who would not have
been capable of managing so much money to the Lord's honor and glory if
they had not, for a while, had to live on short commons. The very thing
we regret most in Providence will probably be that in which we shall
rejoice most in eternity. You know, in this world, we see the wrong
side of the carpet that is being woven. We are like Hannah More in the
carpet factory, when she said to the workman, "I cannot see any
design–there seem to be a great number of loose pieces of wool, but I
cannot perceive any pattern or order." "No, Madam," said the man, "of
course you cannot, because you are standing on the wrong side of the
carpet. If you will come to the other side, you will then see it all."
We are on the wrong side, at present, but God will take us to the other
side, by-and-by, and then we shall each one say, "O my Lord, how
wrongly did I judge You! How little did I understand Your dealings with
me! I thought Your visitation would have crushed me, but it preserved
my spirit."

There are other visitations, however, such as the visitations of
consolation. Oh, how sweet those are to the soul when in trouble! You
and I must have known times when our spirits have gone down below
zero–when no earthly friend could comfort us and we could not think of
any source of consolation for ourselves. Just then, some unnoticed
promise of the Word of God has dropped into our soul with charming
effect. It was, perhaps, but a sentence of half a dozen words, but they
came from God, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and they were so
powerfully applied to our spirit that we said, "I do not mind what
burden I have to bear, for I know that Christ's Grace will be
sufficient for me. I cannot tell what the

Divine will may be concerning me, or however dark and dreary may be the
Valley of the Shadow of Death through which I shall have to pass, but
God's rod and staff are evidently with me and they will comfort me in
the most trying hour and my Lord, Himself, will surely bring me through
all my tribulations." Cannot some of you say that your blessed Savior,
who has suffered for you and who understands all your griefs, has come
and bound up your broken hearts, and given you unfailing comfort when
you were in such sorrow that you feared you would have lost your reason
and, perhaps, even taken your own life? But here you are, the living to
praise Him, and to say, "Your visitation by way of comfort has
preserved my spirit."

Once more, how sweet are the visitations of God in communion! Have you
not sometimes had such communion with your Lord, during a sermon, that
you have said, "My steps had well-nigh slipped, but now my Lord has
come near unto me and he has made me to stand so firmly that nothing
can cast me down"? Or perhaps you have gone upstairs to your room when
you have been weighed down under very heavy grief and you have told it
all to Jesus–whispered it all into the ear that never wearies of His
people's complaints. And, after awhile, you have come down and you have
felt, "Now I do not mind what happens. I can even face a frowning
world, for Jesus Christ's visitation has preserved my spirit." I am
also sure that many of us can say that at the Lord's Table, in the
breaking of bread, our spirits have been so refreshed that we could go
out into our daily callings, or back to our domestic griefs and feel,
"It really does not matter now. I can shoulder my cross, for I have
seen the Crucified! I can bear my own sorrows, for I have had
fellowship with Him in His sorrows. I could even die for His sake, for
I have entered into fellowship with His death."

"Your visitation has preserved my spirit." I want you, my Brother, my
Sister, to pray for that visitation tonight. Ask the Lord Jesus not
only to pay a visit to your soul, but to come and stay with you. You
have only to open the door of your heart and He will come in. That is
what He said even to lukewarm Laodicea. "If any man hears My voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with Me." So open wide the door at once. You say, "But there is nothing
within–it is only an empty house." That does not matter to Him, for He
will bring with Him the provisions on which He will sup with you, and
you with Him. Open the door, give Him heart-room! Say, "Come in,
blessed Savior! Why do You stand outside?" He says to you who are slow
to admit Him, "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops
of the night." Oh, keep not the door of your heart closed against Him
any longer! At least be willing that He should enter. Praythat He may
enter! Cry to Him to enter and He will surely come in to you, and you
shall have such a blessed season that you shall say, "Your visitation
has preserved my spirit."

I have it deeply impressed upon me–so I must say it–that there are
some of you who had better get a good feast tonight, for you have a
great sorrow coming. You had better enter into close fellowship with
Christ tonight, for the dark clouds of trouble are gathering about you.
The tempest lowers and if your ship is not prepared to weather the
storm by having Christ on board, it will go ill with you. Avail
yourselves of this present opportunity of a visit from Christ! Creep to
the Cross! Clasp it to your heart, hide yourselves there, for no
lightning flash can strike you there–that Cross will conduct the
lightning of Divine wrath right away from you and you will be saved!
And you will say afterwards, "I am glad that I stayed for the Communion
and that I communed, for I did not merely eat bread and drink wine, I
spiritually ate the flesh and drank the blood of my Lord. And I had
fellowship with Him and He has made me strong to suffer or to serve."
If it is so with us now, or if it has been so in the past, let us sing
unto the Lord a glad song of thanksgiving for this trinity of
blessing–life, favor and preserving visitation–yes, let us sing unto
Him as long as we live!

II. Very briefly must I speak upon the second part of our subject, that
is, A SOLACE FOR DARK NIGHTS "And these things have You hid in Your
heart: I know that this is with You."

There is another interpretation of this verse, quite different from the
one that I am going to give you, but I do not think that Job ever could
have meant what some people think he did. I believe that when he said,
"These things"–that is, life, favor and God's gracious
visitation–"These things have You hid in Your heart: I know that this
is with You," that he meant, first, that God remembers what He has
done, and will not lose His pains. ' "You have granted me life and
favor,' Lord, You have not forgotten that. You have hidden that in Your
heart, You remember it well. Since You have done this for me, and You
remember that You have done it, therefore You will continue Your mercy
to me and not lose all the Grace and goodness which You have already
bestowed upon me."

Just think of that for a minute. Even if you have forgotten all that
God has done for you, God has not forgotten it! If you do a kindness to
a man, it is very probable that he will not remember it, but you will.
Many children forget all the

kindness and love of their mother, but the mother remembers all that
she did for her children in the days of their helplessness and she
loves them all the more because of what she did for them. There is a
little secret which I may whisper in your ear. If you want people to
love you, do what you can for them, yet, possibly, you will not gain
their love by that process. But if you let them do something for you,
they will be sure to love you, then! When you have done much for
anyone, you are especially bound to that person, so Job puts it thus,
"You, Lord, have done much for me. You have all this in Your
remembrance and I am persuaded that this binds You to me–Your great
goodness in giving me life, and favor, and in visiting me–all this has
bound You to me, and I am persuaded that You will not leave me." That
is the teaching of the verse many of us delight to sing–

"His love in time past forbids me to think

He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink.

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,

Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through."

If the Lord had not meant to finish His work, He would never have begun
it. If He had not meant to bring us to Heaven, He would not have
snatched us like brands from the burning. If He had not meant to
complete His work, He would not have spent so much upon us. "Spent so
much upon us?" asks one. Yes, He lavished upon His people more than all
the millionaires who were ever upon the earth have possessed! He
expended more than there is in Heaven with the exception of that which
He spent upon them. "What is that?" you ask. He spent the life of His
only-begotten Son–and Heaven itself does not contain any other
treasure that is at all comparable to the Father's equal Son! He spent
the best He had upon us and do you think that, after that, He will ever
leave us? No, that can never be! Though He were to take away all our
property. Though He were to deprive us of every one of our children.
Though He were to cover us from head to foot with sores. Though He
should cause us to sit upon a dunghill and scrape ourselves with a
potsherd. Though the very wife of our bosom should bid us curse God and
die. Though all our friends should become miserable comforters and make
us ready to curse the day on which we saw the light–yet still, God
must be gracious to us, and we must trust Him! Yes, though He should
slay us, yet must we trust Him! All the goodness of the past is an
infallible guarantee that He will be good to us even to the end,
according to that Word concerning the Lord Jesus, "Having loved His own
which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." That is one
meaning of the verse.

But, next, I think that the words, "And these things have You hid in
Your heart: I know that this is with You," have this meaning, that God
sometimes hides His favor and love in His heart, yet they are still
there. At times it may be that you get no glimpse of His face, or that
you see no smile upon it. When that is my experience, I love to turn to
that verse in the 63rd Psalm–"Because You have been my help, therefore
in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice." It is all shadow, shadow,
shadow–no sunshine–I cannot see my God, but the very shadow is the
shadow of His wings and as you may often see the chickens cower down
beneath the mother hen, and nestle there, so in the shadow of His wings
will I rejoice! And you, dear Friend, may share that blessed and safe
shelter. "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings
shall you trust: His truth shall be your shield and buckler."

When there is no light, you shall walk on as steadily as if seven suns
were shining! When there is no comfortable assurance for you. When
there is no temporal deliverance. When there is nothing for you out of
the winepress or out of the barn. When there is no friend nor helper
near you, when the fig tree does not blossom, when you have no flocks,
and your herds are cut off by the storm–when God's mercy seems to be
clean gone, forever, and His promises all appear to fail, it is not
really so–

"He hides the purpose of His Grace To make it better known."

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, therefore, O tried child
of God, learn what Job, here, teaches us, that these things are still
hidden in the heart of God, and that Eternal Love holds fast to the
objects of its choice.

"I know that this is with You," said Job, so the last thing I want you
to learn from his words is that God would have His people strong in
faith to know this Truth Job says, "I know that this is with You." I
speak to many persons who say that they are Christians and who,
perhaps, are Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ–and one of their
clearest evidences is that they are very happy. Dear young people, I am
glad you are so happy. True religion makes people happy–it is a
perennial fountain of delight. But do not set too much store by your
emotions of delight, because they may be taken from you–and then where
will your evidences be? God's people sometimes walk in darkness and see
no light. There are times

when the best and brightest of saints have no joy. I will not say
whether they are not to be blamed for that–it is probable that they
are, in most instances, though I do not see that Job could be much
blamed. I wish I were able to be a thousandth part as good as he was
with a thousandth part of his pains and troubles. But it is a fact that
whether rightly or wrongly, God's people are not always joyous. As
Peter says, "For a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations." Whenever you get into that condition, dear young
people, if you have learned to trust Christ before, trust Him still! If
your religion should not, for a time, yield you any joy, cling to it
all the same! Do not give it up, for if there is any time when you need
faith, it is when your spirits sink and when your outward trials
multiply.

You see, God does not give you faith in order that you may merely run
about in the meadows with it all among the fair spring flowers. I will
tell you for what purpose He gives you faith–it is that you may put on
your snow-shoes, go out in the cold wintry blast and glide along over
the ice and the snow. He does not give you faith that you may put it on
as I remember seeing Napoleon's guard with armor in which I saw my face
as well as ever I did in a mirror. The Lord does not give you faith
merely that you may go on parade with it and show yourself–you are to
fight with it! There is not a fragment of faith that you have which
will not be dinted by the blows of the enemy and rusted through
exposure to the weather. You will have difficulties, mark you, as
surely as you have faith! You will have a difficulty in maintaining
your faith against the assaults of the adversary, for wherever there is
faith in the world, there are trials for it to encounter.

Railway men do not build bridges over rivers without an intention of
sending engines and trains across them–and God does not give faith
without an intention of letting it be tried. And He wants you to know,
when He does try you, or permit others to try you, that He still loves
you. When He leaves you for a little while in the dark, He loves you
just as much as when you were in the light. A little child cries and
says that her mother does not love her because she has put her to bed
and gone downstairs, and left her in the dark. She will always be a
baby if the mother stays there with a candle by the hour together till
she gets to sleep. The mother wants her child to grow into a woman and
she trains her accordingly. So is it with us. God does often humor our
littleness and weakness by doing many kind things to us as we do to
poor feeble little children, but He wants us to grow up and become men
and women in Christ Jesus and to be strong in the Lord.

I pray that you, my dear Brothers and Sisters, may be stalwart
Christians of this sort. You see, if our faith is to depend upon our
disposition–our joy or our sorrow–it will always be fluctuating up
and down–and we shall be apt to think that we may be saved today and
lost tomorrow. That is not the teaching of the Bible! When you are on
the mountain with Christ, you are safe, but when you are at the bottom
of the valley with Christ, you are just as safe! When you sit at the
table with Christ, you are safe, and so are you if you should be at sea
with Christ in a vessel. Only have faith in Him and say, "My God, Your
will towards me to give me life, and favor, and preservation may be
hidden, but it is still in Your heart, 'I know that this is with You.'"

Now I must leave these things with you. You who know and love the Lord
will seek a renewal of His visitations tonight. But as for you who do
not know Him, oh, how I wish that you did! Often as I come on this
platform and look upon this throng of people, I would wonder why so
many came if I did not know that the earnest, simple preaching of the
Gospel will never fail to bring people together. But as you have come
to hear the Gospel, I pray you also to receive it. Do not merely hear
it, but acceptit. If there were diamonds to be given away, here, and I
said that I would give them to everybody who was willing to have them,
I am sure that you would not be content to hear me talking about their
beauty, their facets, or their particular brilliance–but you would
each one cry out, "Hand me one!" "Give me one!" "Pass me down one worth
a hundred thousand pounds! I will be content with thatand you may leave
off talking if you like!"

I will leave off talking about Christ if you will take Him as your
Savior. I shall not need to extol Him when you have once accepted Him,
for you will find out His excellence for yourselves. The Scripture
says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Oh, that you would all
taste and see for yourselves! You would know His goodness far better
from that taste and sight than you can ever know it from any human
language, however earnest it may be! God bless you all, for Christ's
sake! Amen.