Absconding and Apostasy
(No. 3556)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1917
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON
"Will you also go away?"
John 6:67.
No mischief that ever befalls our Christian communities is more
lamentable than that which comes from the defection of the members. The
heaviest sorrow that can wring a pastor's heart is such as comes from
the treachery of his most familiar friend. The direst calamity the
Church can dread is not such as will arise from the assault of enemies
outside, but from false Brothers and Sisters within the camp. My
eminent predecessor, Benjamin Keach, though arrested, brought before
the magistrates, imprisoned, pilloried and otherwise made to suffer by
the Government of the times for the Gospel Doctrines that he preached
and published, found it easier to brook the rough usage of open foes
than to bear the griefs of wounded love, or sustain the shock of
outraged confidence. I should not think his experience was very
exceptional. Other saints would have preferred the rotten eggs of the
villagers to the rooted animosities of slanderers! Troy could never be
taken by the assaults of the Greeks outside her walls. Only when, by
stratagem, the enemy had been admitted within the citadel, was that
brave city compelled to yield. The devil, himself, is not such a subtle
foe to the Church as Judas, when, after the supper, Satan entered into
him. Judas was a friend of Jesus. Jesus addressed him as such. And
Judas said, "Hail, Master," and kissed Him. And it was Judas who
betrayed Him! That is a picture which may well appall you–that is a
peril which may well admonish you! In all our churches, among the many
who enlist, there are some who desert. They continue awhile, and then
they go back to the world. The radical reason why they retract is an
obvious disagreement. "They went out from us because they were not of
us, for if they had been of us, doubtless they would have continued
with us." The unconverted adherents to our fellowship are no loss to
the Church when they depart. They are not a real loss, any more than
the scattering of the chaff from the threshing floor is a detriment to
the wheat. Christ keeps the winnowing fan always going. His own
preaching constantly sifted His hearers. Some were blown away because
they were chaff. They did not really believe. By the ministry of the
Gospel, by the order of Providence, by all the arrangements of Divine
Government, the precious are separated from the vile, the dross is
purged away from the silver that the good seed and the pure metal may
remain and be preserved! The process is always painful. It causes great
searching of heart among those who abide faithful–and occasions deep
anxiety to gentle spirits of tender, sympathetic mold.
I trust, dear Friends, that you will not think I harbor any ungenerous
suspicions of your fidelity because my text contains so pointed and so
personal an appeal to your conscience. There is more of pathos than of
pardon in the question as our Lord put it, "Will you also go away?" He
addressed the favored twelve. I put it to myself. I put it to those who
are the officers of the Church. I put it to every member without
exception–Will you also go away? But should there be one to whom it is
peculiarly applicable, I do not desire to flinch from putting the
question most personally to that one, "What? Are you going? Do you mean
to turn back? Do you mean to go away?"
Let us approach the enquiry sideways. Will you alsogo away? "Also"
means as well as other people. Why do others go? If they have any good
reason, perhaps we may see cause to follow their example. Look
narrowly, then, at the various causes or excuses for defection. Why do
they renounce the religious profession they once espoused? The
fundamental reason is lack of Grace, a lack of true faith, an absence
of vital godliness. It is, however, the outward reasons which expose
the inward apostasy of the heart from Christ of which I am anxious to
treat. I. WHY SOME LEAVE CHRIST
Some there are in these days, as there were in our Lord's own day, who
depart from Christ because they cannot bear His Doctrine. Our Lord had
more explicitly than on any former occasion declared the necessity of
the soul's feeding upon
Himself. They probably misunderstood His language, but they certainly
took offense at His statement. Hence there were those who said, "This
is a hard saying; who can hear it?" So they walked no more with Him.
There are many points and particulars in which the Gospel is offensive
to human nature and revolting to the pride of the creature. It was not
intended to please man. How can we attribute such a purpose to God? Why
should He devise a Gospel to suit the whims of our poor fallen human
nature? He intended to save men, but He never intended to gratify their
depraved tastes. Rather does He lay the axe to the root of the tree and
cut down human pride. When God's servants are led to set forth some
humbling Doctrine, there are those who say, "Ah, I will not assent to
that!" They kick against any Truth of God which wounds their
prejudices! What say you, Brothers and Sisters, to the claims of the
Gospel on your allegiance? Should you discover that God's Word rebukes
your favorite pleasure, or contradicts your cherished convictions, will
you forthwith take offense and go away? No, but if your hearts are
right with Christ, you will be prepared to welcome all His teaching and
yield obedience to all His precepts. Only prove it to be Christ's
teaching and the right-minded professor is ready to receive it. That
which is transparent on the face of Scripture, he will cordially
accept, as he says, "To the Law and to the testimony! If they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." As
for that which is merely inferred and argued from the general drift of
Scripture, the true heart will not be hasty to reject, but patient to
investigate, like the Bereans, who, "were more noble than the Jews of
Thessalonica, because they searched the Scriptures to see whether these
things were so." Oh, that the word of Christ may dwell in us richly!
God forbid that any of us should ever turn aside offended because of
Him–His blessed Person, His holy example, or His sacred teaching! May
we be always ready to believe what He says and prompt to do what He
commands!
Remember, Brothers and Sisters, that the Gospel commission has three
parts to which the minister has to attend. We are first, to go and
preach the Gospel. "Go you, and disciple all nations. "The second thing
is "baptizing them." And the third thing is "teaching them to observe
all things whatever I have commanded you." As willing disciples of
Jesus, let us press forward, listening to His voice, following in His
footsteps and accounting His revealed will as our supreme law! Far be
it from us to go back, to repine, or to desert Him, then, because we
are offended at His Doctrines!
Others there are who desert the Savior for the sake of gain. Many have
been entangled in that snare. Mr. By-Ends originally went on pilgrimage
because he thought it would pay. There was a silver mine on the road
and he purposed to survey that and see whether silver might not be
obtained, as well as the Golden City beyond! He came, if I remember
rightly, of a family that got its living by the waterman's
business–looking one way and pulling another. He was apparently
striving for religion, though he had his eyes all the while on the
world! He was for holding with the hare, and running with the hounds.
So when he came to a point where he must part with one or the other, he
considered upon which the whole would be most profitable–and he gave
up that which appeared to involve loss and self-sacrifice–and kept to
that which would, as he called it, help him in the "main chance," and
assist him to get on in the present life. Sincerely do I trust there is
no one among us but what despises Mr. By-Ends and all of his class! If
you would make money–and there need be nothing sinful in that–do let
it be made honestly! Never let riches be pursued under the pretence of
religion! Sell your wares and find a market for your merchandise, but
do not sell Christ, nor barter a heavenly birthright for a worthless
bribe. Put what goods you please into your shop window, but do not put
a canting, hypocritical expression on your face, or "wear a holy look,"
with a view of turning godliness into gain! God save us from that
arrant villainy! May it never have a footing in our midst!–
"Neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone." Does any man join a church for the
sake of the respectability it implies, or for the standing it may give
him, or for the credit he may get? He will soon find that it does not
answer his purpose. Then away he will go! But the graver probability is
that he will be thrust out with shame!
Some leave Christ and go away terrified by persecution. Nowadays it is
supposed that there is no such thing. But that is a mistake, for though
martyrs are not burned at Smithfield, and the Lollards' Tower is now a
place for show (a memorial of times long ago), the harass, the cruelty
and the oppression are far enough from being obsolete! Godless husbands
play the part of petty tyrants and will not permit their wives the
enjoyment of religion, but make their lives bitter with a galling
bondage. Employers full often wreak malice on servants whose piety
towards God is their sole cause of offense. Worse still, there are
working men who consider themselves intelligent who cannot allow their
fellow workman liberty to go to a place of worship without sneers,
jeers, and cruel mocking! In many cases the mirth of the workshop is
never louder than when it is turned against a Believer in Christ. They
count it rare fun to hunt a man who cares for the salvation of His
soul. They call themselves, "Englishmen," but certainly they are no
credit to their country! Look at the base-born, ill-bred cowards!
Yonder is an atheist! He is raving about his rights because the
magistrate will not believe him on his oath–he claims liberty of
conscience to be a heathen, but denies his comrade's right to be a
Christian! Look at that little party of British workmen–they belong to
the Sabbath Desecration Society. They are petitioning Parliament to
open museums and theaters on Sundays, and at the same time they are
hounding to death a poor fellow who prefers going to Chapel. They air
their own self-respect by the oaths they utter, while they betray their
self-abasement by the scorn they vent on those who presume to sing a
hymn! They hail the drunk as a chum and scorn the sober man as a fiend!
I wonder that there is not more honorable feeling, more good faith and
true fellowship among our skilled workmen than to allow of one man
being made the butt of a whole community! God give you Grace to bear
such persecutions as these! If they cut us to the quick, may we learn
to bear them with equanimity, and even to rejoice that we are counted
worthy to suffer for the Savior's sake!
Some of us have had to run the gauntlet for many years. What we have
said has been constantly misrepresented. What we have endeavored to do
has been misjudged and our motives have been misunderstood. Yet here we
are, as happy as anybody out of Heaven! We have not been injured by any
or all the calumnies that have been heaped upon us. Our foes would have
crushed us but, blessed be God, He cheered us often when we were cast
down. The Lord give you, in like manner, strength of mind and courage
of heart to bear the trial manfully! Then you will care no more for the
laughter and the sneers of men than you do for the noise of those
migratory birds high overhead which you hear on an autumn evening as
they are making their weary journey to a distant clime! Take heart,
Brothers and Sisters! Fear God and face your accusers. True courage
grows strong on opposition. Never think of deserting the army of
Christ! Least of all should you play the coward because the insolence
of some ill-mannered bully. Let not your faith be vanquished by such
scoffing. Alas, that so many a cowardly spirit has gone away for the
sake of carnal ease–and deserted Christ when His dear name had become
the drunk's jest and the derision of fools!
And there are people who forsake true religion out of sheer levity. I
know not how to account for some men's defections. If you take up the
list of wrecks, you will notice some that have gone down through
collisions, and others through striking rocks–but sometimes you meet
with a vessel "foundered at sea." How it happened, no one knows. The
owner, himself, cannot understand it. It was a calm day and there was a
cloudless sky when the vessel sank. There are some professors who,
concerning faith, have made shipwreck under such apparently easy
circumstances, so free from trial, so exempt from temptation, that we
have not seen anything to awaken anxiety on their behalf, yet all of a
sudden they have foundered! We are startled and amazed. I remember one
that fell into a gross sin, of whom a Brother unwisely said, "If that
man is not a Christian, I am not." His prayers had certainly been
sweet. Many a time they have melted me down before the Throne of Grace
and yet the life of God could not have been in his soul, for he lived
and died in flagrant vice– and was impenitent to the last! Such cases
I can only attribute to a sort of levity which can be charmed with a
sermon or a play. They can take a pew at the Chapel or a box at the
opera with equal nonchalance and eagerly follow the excitement of the
hour, "everything by turns, and nothing long." "Unstable as water, they
shall not excel." At the spur of a moment they profess Christianity,
they do not espouse it–and then, without troubling themselves to
renounce it–they drop off into infidelity. They are soft and malleable
enough to be hammered into any shape. Made of wax, they can be molded
by any hand that is strong enough to grip them! The Lord have mercy
upon any of you who may happen to be of that species! You spring up
soon, and suddenly you wither! Hardly is the seed sown before the
sprout appears. What a wonderful harvest you promise! But ah, no sooner
has the sun risen with a burning heat than, because there is no earth,
the good seed withers away! Pray God that you may be plowed deep, that
the iron pan of rock underneath may be broken right up, that you may
have plenty of subsoil and root–that the verdure you produce may be
permanent! Want of principle is deadly, but the lack is far too common.
Never cease to pray that you may be rooted and grounded, established
and built up in Christ, so that when the floods come and the winds
blow, you may not fall with a great destruction, as that house fell
which was built upon the sand!
And, oh, how many leave Christ for the sake of sensual enjoyments! I
will not enlarge upon this. Certain, however, it is that the pleasures
of sin for a season fascinate their minds till they sacrifice their
souls at the shrine of sordid vanity! For a merry dance, a wanton
amusement, or a transient joy that would not bear reflection, they have
renounced the pleasures that never pall, the immortal hopes that never
fail–and turned their backs upon that blessed Savior who gives and
feeds the tastes for unspeakable joys, for joys full of glory! In our
pastoral oversight of a Church like this, we have painful evidence that
a considerable number gradually grow cold. The Elders' reports of the
absentees reiterate the vain excuses for nonattendance. One has so many
children. The distance is too great for another. When they joined the
Church their family was just as large, and the distance was just the
same! But the household cares become more irksome when the concern for
religion begins to flag–and the fatigue of travelling increases when
their zeal for the House of God falters. The Elders fear they are
growing cold. No actual transgression can we detect, but there is a
gradual declension over which we grieve. I dread that cold-heartedness!
It steals so insensibly, yet so surely over the entire frame. I do not
say that it is worse than open sin. It cannot be. Yet it is more
insidious. A flagrant delinquency would startle one as a fit does a
patient, but a slow process of backsliding may steal like paralysis
over a person without awakening suspicion. Like the sleep which comes
over men in the frozen regions, if they yield to it, they will never
wake again! You must be awakened, or else this supineness will surely
end in death! "Gray hairs were upon him here and there, and he knew it
not." Is it so with any of you, dear Friends? Are you going aside by
slow degrees? He who loses his substance little by little presently
becomes a bankrupt, and painful is the discovery when the end comes!
How miserable must a spiritual bankruptcy be to him who wastes by
degrees his heavenly estate, if he ever had any! No words can describe
it. God preserve us from such a catastrophe!
Some have turned aside, who allege that they did so through change of
circumstances. They were with us when their means of livelihood were
competent, if not affluent. From reverses in business, they have sunk
in their social position. Hence they do not like to come into
fellowship with us as they were known to do. Now from my inmost soul I
can say if there are any persons that grew poor, I, for one, do not
think one atom the less of them, or hold them in less esteem, however
impoverished they may have become! Do not tell me that you have no
clothes fit to come in, for any clothes that you have paid for are
creditable. If you have not paid for them, I cannot make excuses for
you. Be honest. Wool or fustian need not shame you, but for fineness or
fashion I should certainly blame you! I am always glad to see Brothers
and Sisters sitting here, as I sometimes do, in their smock frocks. One
good friend is rather conspicuous in that line. The wholesome whiteness
of his rural garb is rather attractive. If he has paid for it, he is a
far more respectable man than anyone that has run into debt for a suit
of broadcloth that he cannot pay for! And I rejoice to think that I am
not merely expressing my own feeling, but that which is shared by the
whole community! We all delight to see our poor Brothers and Sisters.
If there are any of you suffering from a sensitiveness of your own, or
a suspicion of our reflections, the sooner you get rid of such foolish
pride, the happier you will be! You are jealous of being thought
respectable? Don't you know that a man is respectable for his
character–not for the money he has got in his pocket?
Others forsake Christ because they have become rich and increased in
goods. They did not scorn the little conventicle when they were plain,
plodding people–but since fortune has smiled on them and they have
moved their residence from a terrace to a mansion, and they have taken
to keep a carriage–they feel bound to move in another circle! To the
parish church, or to some ritualistic church in their neighborhood,
they go once on the Sunday. They patronize the place by their
presence–they show themselves among the elite of that locality. They
bow and bend, and face about to the east, as though they had been to
the manner born. They are too respectable to go into the little Baptist
Chapel. They receive visitors in the afternoon, dine late, and
dissipate Sabbath hours in the frivolous presence of showing off their
gentility! Well, I think their departure is not to be lamented. When
gone they are certainly no loss to anybody. We sigh for them as we
would for Judas or Demas! They have fallen foul of what they thought
their good fortune but of what has proved to be their ruin! Those who
have true principles, when they rise in the world, see more reason why
they should spend their wealth and their influence in aiding a good
cause. Principle would prevail over policy to the end, if in their
hearts they believed the Truth of God as it is in Jesus! It were no
dishonor to a prince to go and sit down side by side with a pauper,
were they both true followers of Jesus Christ! In old times, when our
sires met in caves and dens of the earth, they met the liege and the
lowly, the bond and free. Or when, in even earlier ages, the Christians
gathered in the catacombs, men out of Caesar's household, now a chief,
then a senator, soon a prince of the blood, came and sat down in those
caves, lighted up with the dim candle, to listen while some unshod but
Heaven-taught man declared the Gospel of Jesus with the power of the
Holy Spirit! That they were illiterate, I am quite sure, for on looking
over the monuments that are found in the catacombs, it is rare to find
one inscription that is thoroughly well spelt. Though it is evident
enough that the early Christians were an illiterate company of men, yet
those that were great and noble did not disdain to join with them, nor
will they if the light of Heaven shines and the love of God burns in
their hearts!
Unsound Doctrine occasions many to apostatize. There is always plenty
of that about. Deceivers will beguile the weak and some have been led
aside by modern doubt–and modest infidelity has its partisans. They
begin cautiously by reading works with a view to answer scientific or
intellectual skepticism. They read a little more and dive a little
deeper into the turbid stream, because they feel well able to stand
against the insidious influence. They go on till, at last, they are
staggered. They do not go to those who could help their scruples, but
they continue to flounder on till at last they have lost their
footing–and he that said he was a Believer has ended in stark atheism,
doubting even the existence of a God! Oh, that those who are well
taught would be content with their teaching! Why meddle with heresies?
What can they do but pollute your minds? Were I to get black, I imagine
that I could wash away all the soils, but I would be sorry to black
myself for the sake of washing! Why should you be so unwise as to go
through pools of foul teaching merely because you think it easy to
cleanse yourself of its pollution? Such trifling is dangerous! When you
begin to read a book and find it pernicious, put it aside. Someone may
upbraid you for not reading it all through, but why should you? If I
have a roast on my table of which the smell and the taste at once
convince me that it is putrid and unwholesome, should I show my
discretion by fairlyeating it all before giving my judgment that it is
not fit for food? One mouthful is quite enough! And one sentence of
some books ought to be quite enough for a sensible man to reject the
whole mass! Let those who can relish such meat have it, but I have a
taste for better food. If it is your duty to expose these evils,
encounter them bravely, with prayer to God to help you. But if not, as
a humble Believer in Jesus, what business have you to taste and test
such noxious fare when it is exposed in the market? Keep to the study
of the Word of God!
I will not continue in this strain. It is painful to me, if not to you.
I will condense into a few sentences my answer to the second enquiry–
II. WHAT BECOMES OF THEM?
Those who go aside–what becomes of them? Well, if they are God's
children, I will tell you what becomes of them, for I have seen it
scores of times. Though they go aside, they are not happy. They cannot
rest, for they are miserable even when they try to be cheerful. After a
while they begin to remember their first Husband, for then it was
better with them than now. They return, but there are scores and
scores, to say nothing of the shame which they have to carry with them
to their grave, who are never the men they were before! They have to
take a second place among their comrades. And even should Sovereign
Grace so wonderfully bless their painful experience that they are fully
restored, they can never mention the past without bitter regret. Their
by-path serving for others' beacon, they will say to young people,
"Never do as I have done. Nothing good, all mischief, comes of it." In
the vast majority of cases, however, they are not the Lord's people. So
this is what comes of it. Those who prove traitors to a profession they
once made are the hardest people in the world to impress. Doubtless
some of you, when you lived in the country, used always to be punctual
at your usual places of worship, but since you have come to London,
where your absence from any sanctuary is unnoticed, you rarely enter
the courts of the Lord's House–nor would you have been here tonight
but for some special inducement–some country cousin or some particular
friend having brought you. Though unknown to me, God scans your path.
Well, here you are, and yet it may be to little profit. You have had
counsels and cautions in such profusion that it is like pouring oil
down a slab of marble to admonish you. May God in His Omnipotent Mercy
break your stubborn heart, or there will be no hope for you! Such
people frequently lose all conscience. They can go a deal further in
talking against religion than anybody else. They will sometimes venture
to say they know so much about it that they could expose it. Their
boasts and their threats are alike unmeaning–but as boys whistle while
they walk through the churchyard to keep their courage up, so do their
vain talk and their senseless stories betray their stifled fear. They
speak contemptuously of God while they justify themselves in a course
of which their own conscience upbraids them! They go back–alas, some
of them to prove themselves the most abandoned sinners in the world!
The raw material out of which the devil constructs the deadliest fabric
is that which was presumed to be the most saintly substance.
There could not have been a Judas to betray Christ had he not first
been distinguished as an Apostle, who ventured to kiss his Master. You
must pick him from among the Apostles to make an apostate. As the
ringleaders of riotous transgression, when converted, often make the
best revivalist preachers, so those who seem to be the most loyal
subjects of Christ, when they become renegades, prove to be the
bitterest foes and the blackest sinners! Painful reminiscences rush
over one's mind. Standing here now in the midst of a great Church, I
call to mind things that have harrowed up my soul. God grant I may not
see the likes of them again! They go away! Ah, me, full many of them go
away to die in blank despair. Did you ever read the life of Francis
Spira? If you want to sleep tonight, do not take up that memoir! Did
you ever read the life of John Child, a Baptist minister of about 200
years ago? Mr. Keach gives it in one of his works. He was a man who
knew the Truth of God and, to a great extent, had felt its power. But
he went aside from it and before he came to die, his expressions were
too terrible to listen to. The remorse and despair of his spirit chased
everyone away. At last he laid violent hands upon himself. For a man,
after having once looked Christ in the face and kissed Him, to betray
Him and crucify Him afresh, to hang himself is not to be wondered at!
To eat at the Lord's Table, to drink of that cup of blessing, to mingle
with the saints, join in their prayers and their hymns, professing to
be a disciple of Christ and then to go back and walk no more with Him,
is to venture on a course of no ordinary danger! The swing of the
pendulum, if it has been lifted high and let go, is so much the greater
on the other side. I marvel not that any man should be precipitated
into flagrant sin who willfully renounces his vows of consecration to
Jesus!
And oh, when his eyes are opened and his conscience is awakened, how he
wishes that he had never been born! Could he terminate his existence
and annihilate his anguish-smitten soul, then the direst act of
desperation by which he could end a life he could not mend, might be
accounted wise. But no, that is impossible! The relief he seeks, he
cannot find when he takes the dreadful leap from suffering here to an
aggravated form of misery hereafter, ten thousand times worse to
endure! He seals his doom and makes his own damnation sure, as he
raises against himself a murdering hand. Do I address anyone here
bereft of every ray of hope and shivering on the brink of cold despair?
Hold now, I would cry in your ears– do yourself no harm! You can do
yourself no good! Think not to cure your woes by committing another
crime–
"It were madness thus to shun the living light, And plunge your guilty
soul in endless night."
While there is life there is hope! Jesus Christ can forgive you. Return
to Him. He can wash you in His blood. He can make you clean, though
your sin is as scarlet. But, oh, do not trifle, make no delay! Tarry no
longer in your present condition, otherwise maybe you will fill up the
measure of your iniquities before you are aware, and you may taste,
even in this world, some beginning of the wrath to come! If not rescued
as a trophy of Grace right speedily, you may become a monument of God's
wrath–a beacon to deter others from daring to turn aside! I speak
solemnly, but I cannot help it. So intensely do I feel the terror of
that woe, and so confident am I that some of you are making light of
it, that I would go down on my knees and entreat you with tears to
remind you what you are doing. You are on a steep plane and you are
going down, down, down! Your feet are even now on the slippery places
from which multitudes have been cast down into destruction! How are
they brought into desolation as in a moment! The Lord make haste to
deliver you! May He stretch out His hand and receive you! I can only
call out to you. You seem to have got where I cannot reach you. Do not
venture a footstep further on that dangerous road. Look to Jesus, look
to Jesus! He can redeem your life from the pit of Hell by His Sovereign
Grace, but He alone! Then as a wandering sheep, brought back to the
fold, you shall adore His name!
Our third point is this–
III. WHY SHOULD WE NOT GO AWAY AS THEY HAVE GONE?
Were we left to ourselves, I cannot tell you any reason why we should
not go as they have gone. Nor, indeed, could I tell you why the best
man here would not be the worst before tomorrow morning, if the Grace
of God left him. John Bradford, you know, as he saw the poor criminals
taken away to Tyburn to be executed, used to say, "There goes John
Bradford, but for the Grace of God." Verily each one of us might say
the same! To abide with Christ, however, is our only security–and we
trust we shall never depart from Him. But how can we make sure of this?
The great thing is to have a real foundation in Christ to begin
with–genuine faith, vital godliness. The foundation is the first
matter to be attended to in building a house. With a bad foundation
there cannot be a substantial house. You require a firm bottom, a sound
groundwork, before you proceed to the superstructure. Do pray God that
if your religion is a sham, you may find it out now! Unless your hearts
are deeply plowed with genuine repentance, and unless you are
thoroughly rooted and grounded in the faith, you may have some cause to
suspect the reality of your conversion and the verity of the Holy
Spirit's operation in you. May the Lord work in you a good beginning,
and then you may rely upon it, He will carry it on to the day of Jesus
Christ!
Then remember, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you would be preserved
from falling, you must be schooled in humility and keep very low before
the Lord. When you are half an inch above the ground, you are that
half-inch too high. Your place is to be nothing! Trust Christ, but do
not trust yourself. Rely on the Spirit of God, but do not rely on
anything that is in yourself–no, not on a Grace you have received, or
on a gift you possess! Those do not slide who walk humbly with God.
They are always safe whose entire dependence is upon God. Be jealous of
your obedience! Be circumspect! Be careful! Take heed to
yourselves–your walk and conversation cannot be too cautious. Many are
lost through being too remiss, but none through being too scrupulous.
The statutes of the Lord are so right that you cannot neglect them
without diverging from the path of rectitude. Watch and pray! God help
you to watch, or else you will get drowsy. Never neglect prayer. That
is at the root of every defection. Retrogression commonly begins at the
closet. To restrain prayer is to deaden the very pulse of life! "Watch
unto prayer."
And I beseech you, dear Friends, do shun that company which has led
other people astray. Parley not with those whose jokes are profane.
Keep right away from them. It is not for you to be seen standing, much
less to be found sitting down with men of loose manners and lewd
converse! They can do you no good, but the evil they can bring upon
you, it would not be easy to estimate. You may have heard the
story–but it is so good it will bear repeating–of the lady who
advertised for a coachman, and was waited upon by three candidates for
the situation. She put to the first one, this question, "I want a
really good coachman to drive my pair of horses and, therefore, I ask
you how near you can drive to danger and yet be safe?" "Well," he said,
"I could drive very near, indeed! I could go within a foot of a
precipice without fear of any accident so long as I had the reins." She
dismissed him with the remark that he would not do. To the next one who
came, she put the same question. "How near could you drive to danger?"
Being determined to get the position, he said, "I could drive within a
hair's breadth, and yet skillfully avoid any mishap." "You will not
do," she said. When the third one came in, his mind was cast in another
mold, so when the question was put to him, "How near could you drive to
danger?" he said, "Madam, I never tried. It has always been a rule with
me to drive as far off from danger as I possibly can." The lady engaged
him at once!
In like manner, I believe that the man who is careful to run no risks
and to refrain from all equivocal conduct, having the fear of God in
his heart, is most to be relied upon. If you are really built upon the
Rock of Ages, you may meet the question without dismay, "Will you also
go away?" and you can reply without presumption, "No, Lord, I cannot,
and I will not go, for to whom should I go? You have the words of
eternal life." And may the very God of Peace wholly sanctify you! And I
pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calls
you, who also will do it! Amen.