Am I Sought Out?

Am I Sought Out?
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 23, 1863, BY THE REV. C.
H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"You shall be called, Sought Out." Isaiah 62:12.
THE first meaning of our text is very clear. Here is a prophecy,
because Jerusalem, having been despoiled of her beauty by her enemies,
was for a long time forsaken and worthy to be called, "A city which no
man seeks after," so, in a brighter day, her glory shall return, she
shall be an attraction to all lands and the joy of the whole earth.
Multitudes of willing pilgrims shall seek her out that they may behold
her beauty. She shall be a city greatly set by and greatly sought out
by those who love the hallowed spots where the mighty deeds of the Lord
were worked and the arm of Jehovah made bare.
The text, doubtless, has a similar reference to the Church of God.
During many centuries the Church of Christ was hidden–a thing obscure,
despised, unknown, abhorred. She concealed herself in the
catacombs–her followers were the poorest and most illiterate of
men–proscribed by cruel laws and hunted by ferocious foes. Although
the royal bride of Christ, and destined to be the ruler of nations, she
made no figure in the world's eyes. She was but a little stone cut out
of the mountain without hands. But the day is already come in which
multitudes seek the Church of Christ. Behold, they fly as a cloud and
as doves to their windows! They ask the way to Zion with their faces in
that direction.
As time rolls on and the millennial kingdom of Christ comes nearer and
nearer, the Church of God shall be more and more sought out. From the
ancient east and the far-off west they shall come, multitudes beyond
all count, saying, "Tell us where is the city of the Lord, the people
of His love?" Though this, doubtless, is the primary meaning, I
nevertheless believe that we may, without violence to the text, use it
in another manner in a fuller and more spiritual sense. The Church of
God may well be called "Sought Out." And the like title may truthfully
be applied to every single member of that dearly-loved and
dearly-purchased family. All the children of God may take for their
name and distinction, the words, "Sought Out."
Without indulging in a longer preface, let us at once proceed to map
out the plan of our present meditation. We intend to talk a little
while upon the natural condition implied, and then upon the surpassing
grace revealed. Our third point will be the distinguishing title
justified, and finally, the special duty suggested.
I. First, THE NATURAL CONDITION IMPLIED IN THE TITLE, "SOUGHT OUT." If
the Church of God, my Brothers and Sisters, has been "sought out," then
it is clear enough that originally it was lost–lost like that woman's
piece of silver which she valued so much that she lit her candle and
swept her house and searched diligently until she found it. The
tremendous fact of man's utter ruin is the underlying cause of the
necessity for Divine Grace to seek out its object. If the Fall had not
been so complete in its ruin, there had been no need to seek us, for we
should have sought the Lord. This, however, is the gloomy truth–that
we are altogether become abominable and all flesh has perverted its
way.
Of this fact there can be no doubt, for you and I, who have been saved
by Grace, know right well that we were lost– hopelessly and forever
lost–had not Jesus sought us out. Many of the chosen seed are suffered
to indulge in sin until they are lost even to the presence of virtue
and morality–lost to the hopes of the most earnest friends and the
most affectionate entreaties of anxious relatives. Lost we all were in
our federal head, by imputation of his sin–lost effectually by
infusion of his corrupt nature. Lost, afterwards, by our practice.
Lost, manifestly, by an accumulation of evil habits and the growing
force of depraved appetites.
We have, by nature, departed far from God and, like the prodigal, have
gone into a far country. We are comparable to that poor wretch who was
possessed with a legion of devils, whom fetters could not bind, nor
chains restrain. He who said that by nature man is half brute and half
devil, was not far from the truth. O my Brothers and Sisters, shall we
ever know in this life how lost we were by nature? Until we can
comprehend what "the wrath of God" means, by gazing stead- fastly into
the pit of Hell–until we can understand the purity of God amid the
perfection of Heaven–and so can measure the awful distance between our
depraved condition and the perfect holiness of Jehovah, we shall not
know how lost we were.
But we know enough to make us shudder. Oh, when we saw, or thought we
saw, the desperate evil of sin, then we cried out, "Lost! Lost! Lost!"
with greater bitterness than he who sorrows for his only son, even for
his first-born. Oh, the horrors of that terribly truthful discovery
which showed us ourselves. We felt in our conscience that we were lost
to everything which could commend us to God or could attract His
regard. We knew that in ourselves there were no means of restoration to
purity and happiness. We were utterly and entirely lost and, as I said
before, some of us lost with a vengeance–for our outward life had
become a foul development of the filthy fountains within.
Aliens, enemies, rebels, traitors–what shall we say More? No name is
too vile for us. Had we been left to lie among the broken potsherds as
worthless refuse, or had we been swept away with every unclean and
loathsome thing, this had been our just desert. God could not have been
too severe, even if the lowest pit of Hell had been our portion. And
then, my Brothers and Sisters, we were so lost that we did not seek the
Lord. Natural men have superficial and passing thoughts of seeking God,
but they have no true hunger and thirst after Him. Now and then a pang
of conscience, a sickly wish after something better crosses the
unrenewed mind.
But as the smoke out of the chimney is blown away by the wind, so these
hasty emotions are gone and forgotten. As the dew which trembles at
early morn upon the hedgerow evaporates in the heat of the sun, so the
best desires which un-regenerate men can know are soon melted away when
once the sun of the world's temptation rises upon us. My Brothers and
Sisters, we who know the Lord know that we had no serious effectual
thoughts of seeking after God until He sought after us. We were
wandering sheep, well skilled in straying, but without the will to
return. When the Spirit of God came upon us, He found nothing in our
hearts ready to work with Him, but everything running in the opposite
direction. Every imagination of the thought of our heart was only evil,
and that continually. Those who repent and seek the Lord before His
Grace draws them to Himself must be of a different race from us, for we
were far off and loved the distance too well to dream of returning.
To descend still lower, my Brothers and Sisters–as we had no thought
of coming to God–so we never should have willed to return. Left to
ourselves, like the lost sheep, we should have wandered farther and
farther, feeding upon yonder mountain of vanity, or skipping in the
green valleys of sin. But back to God, to Christ, to Heaven, we never
could or should have come. As well might water labor to ascend like
fire, as for fallen humanity to long after God. Wolves and tigers do
not without miracle renounce their feasts of blood, nor will man refuse
his natural food of sin. If there is any true desire in the human heart
towards God and His Christ, it must have been implanted there by a
Divine power.
God Himself in His bounty must have placed it there, for from the soil
of nature it never could have come–at least so we have found it in our
own case, for to this day, though we are saved, we find that the
natural motions of our heart are all from God–none of them to God. And
though we are His children exalted above measure by His great Grace,
yet still the evil heart of unbelief departs from the living God and
never does it come toward Him. O carnal Mind, you desperately evil
thing, you are not reconciled to God, nor indeed can you be!
God, You Giver of every good and perfect gift, had You left us until
our nature had spontaneously desired renewal, and our hearts had panted
after Your salvation, You would have left us forever! For we would have
chosen the downward path and the lusts of the world we would have
sought! The text, I think, implies all this, for God never works
unnecessary wonders, and if we could have come to Him, or would have
come to Him without His seeking us, doubtless He would have left us to
that free will of which some boast so much. Brethren, we were lost,
lost without a wish to return and without a possibility of ever having
such a wish.
1 must go further–our lost estate is strewn yet more clearly in the
fact that, so far from seeking God, we did not desire Him to seek us.
Till He first inspired the wish to be found, we resisted His seeking.
So far from asking Him to visit us with His salvation, when He did
come, we took up arms against our gracious Friend. Well do I remember
those early strivings of the Spirit with my youthful heart which I
choked one after the other with a resolute determination. Well can I
recollect those strong wrestlings, when it seemed as if the Spirit of
God would separate me from my sins and I must lay hold on Christ and
yet, determined still to abide in sin and self-righteousness, I stood
out against the Lord and would not have "that Man" to reign over me.
Ah, how long did Jesus stand and knock at our door, so long that He
might well cry as He does in the Canticles, "My head is wet with dew
and My locks with the drops of the night." We would not let Him
in–instead of rising to open, we sought to fasten every bolt and to
send every bar home. We turned the horrible key of our self-will in the
wards of the lock, with a, "depart from us, we desire not the knowledge
of Your ways." Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, if He sought us out, it was
not because we had a will towards Him, or because we were importunate
in prayer. Our will was His great opponent. We were desperately set on
mischief, and if we had not been sought out by Sovereign Grace, saved
we never would have been–
"'Twas Your love, O God, that knew us, Earth's foundations long before.
That same lo ve to Jesus drew us, By its sweet constraining power, And
will keep us Safely, now and evermore."
To complete the story of this, our natural condition, I must add that
our being sought out, considering our condition, was one of the
greatest wonders ever known or heard of. I have heard this expressed in
words occasionally. When a man has come to join the Church, he has said
to me, "If anyone had told me six months ago that I should make a
profession of being a follower of Christ, I would have knocked him
down. If anyone had said to me ,'You will repent of your sins and seek
and find a Savior,' I should have laughed him to scorn. 'I am no such
fool,' I would have said, as to become one of your canting hypocritical
Methodists–such a thing can never be.' " And yet the thing did occur.
And that soul which was once like the demoniac, full of devils, comes
to sit clothed and in its right mind at the feet of the Savior,
rejoicing in His power to save. In everyone of us, if we have not put
it into just such words, the Divine Grace which sought us has been
quite as illustrious. What reason can you find why God should love you?
How can you show any reason why He should follow you in all your
wanderings? Why was it that He should track your devious footsteps and
never leave you until the predestinated moment came? How was it that
then He grappled with you and overcame– and made you willingly bow
your neck to His joyous yoke? You can tell no reason. You can only clap
your hands in admiration, and lift up your heart in wonder–and bless
and praise the Lord that your name is, "Sought Out."–
"'Twas all of Your grace we were brought to obey While thousands were
suffered to go The road which by nature we chose as our way, Which
leads to the region of woe."
Thus much concerning our natural condition. You who know it, and have
felt it, need not my words to teach you. It is well for you to look
often to the hole of the pit where you were drawn and the rock where
you were hewn. A sight of your first state will humble you and fill
your heart with praise to the God of Grace who has made you to differ.
II. Secondly, we have in the text SURPASSING GRACE REVEALED. This grace
lies in several particulars. First, that they were sought out at all.
It is very wonderful Grace on the part of God that He should plan a way
of salvation, that He should prepare a great marriage supper and issue
the invitation to all men to come and feast. The Gospel which says to
men, "Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life
freely," is a most gracious Gospel. But there is something more
gracious than this generous summons.
One would have supposed that after the invitation had been freely
given, and the preparation for the feast had been generously made, that
the Lord would leave men to come or not as they willed. It is Divine
Grace enough, surely, for God to provide meat for the hungry. Let them
come and eat, and if they will not, let them starve. To prepare
ointment for the wounded, is not that enough? If the sick will not
accept the medicine, then let them perish for their ingratitude in
rejecting the healing gift. Ah, but God's ways are not as our ways.
Your bounty and mine would never dream of going any further. We never
force our charity on unwilling recipients.
We do not follow after diseased men and beg and plead with them to be
made whole. Not we. We think our bounty large enough if we give to him
that asks of us–but to seek after pensioners–this we never did and
probably never shall do. But hear, O earth! And be astonished you
heavens! After the general proclamation of the Gospel has been made and
man has rejected it. After Christ has been offered to men and they have
refused Him, God's love does not stop there, but, determined to glorify
His love, He then comes to seek out those who will not seek Him!
"If," says He, "you will not turn at My rebuke. If My invitation is
trod under foot–I will do more than this–I will come out in the
splendor of My Grace and the magnificence of My power, and I will deal
with that will of yours and overcome it. I will touch that stubborn
nature of yours and make you yield. 'A new heart also will I give you
and a new spirit will I put within you.' 'You shall call Me, my Father.
And shall not turn away from Me.' " It is a marvel of marvels, that
sinful man fleeing from his Maker, rejecting his Creator's invitation,
refusing to be blessed with the blessedness of God, is nevertheless
with unparalleled perseverance and unexampled love sought out and made
captive by Almighty love!
But this Grace appears even more conspicuous if you consider the
persons sought out. That any should be sought out is matchless
Grace–but that we should be sought–is Grace beyond degree. My
Brother, my Sister, I do not know what may have been your particular
condition, but this I do know–you will feel that there was ten times
more reason that you should have been left out than that you should
have been included in the purpose of Grace. Often have I thought that I
was the odd man. If in the muster roll of eternal life there must be
one left out, I should myself have made the selection of my own person
as the one most worthy to have been disregarded. Why me, Lord? Why
me?–
"Why was I made to hear Your voice, And enter where there's room; While
thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?"
Does not the same thought arise in your mind? Is not your soul stirred
with a holy and grateful wonder that you should have been sought out?
And when, my Brothers and Sisters, I think of some in this place–some
who once were in the harlots' company–but who were sought out. Some of
you who once were plunged in drunkenness, how shall I sufficiently
praise the Lord for you? Many of you on the Sunday never listened to
the preached Word, but sought your own pleasure and followed your own
business–but you were sought out! Many a tongue that sung the hymn
just now once cursed and blasphemed God. Glory be to the Divine Grace
which sought you out!
Yes, though such were some of us, "we are washed, we are sanctified, we
are cleansed." And is not this a marvel that such as we are should have
been sought out? If He had sought kings and princes we might have found
a reason, but to seek us poor, obscure working men, illiterate, without
ability–this is Sovereign Grace indeed! That He should seek the good,
the moral, the excellent, we should not marvel at. But to seek us, the
depraved, the wicked, the abandoned–how shall we glorify His name?
Tell it in Hell and let devils howl! Publish it in Heaven and let
angels sing! Chant it, you blood-washed ones before the Eternal Throne!
He has chosen the base things of this world and the things that are
not– To bring to nothing the things that are! This is a wonder of
wonders, that we, even we, should bear the name of "Sought Out"!
Nor must I fail to bring to your recollection that the surpassing Grace
of God is seen very clearly in that we were sought OUT. The word "out,"
conveys a mass of meaning. We were not only sought, but sought out. Men
go and seek for a thing which is lost upon the floor of the house, but
in such a case there is only seeking, not seeking out. The loss is more
perplexing and the search more persevering when a thing is sought out.
We were mingled with the mire. We were as when some precious piece of
gold falls into the sewer and men have to gather out and carefully
inspect a heap of abominable filth. They turn it over and over and over
and continue to stir and rake and search among the heap until the thing
is found.
Or, to use another figure, we were lost in a labyrinth. We wandered
here and there and when ministering mercy came after us, it did not
find us at the first coming. It had to go to the right hand and to the
left and search here and there and everywhere, to seek us out. We were
so desperately lost and had got into such a strange position that it
did not seem possible that ever Grace could come to us. And yet we were
sought out! No gloom could hide us, no filthiness could conceal us–we
were found! Glory be to Divine Grace, God the Holy Spirit found us! The
lives of some of God's people, if they could be written, would make you
marvel. The romance of Divine Grace is infinitely more interesting than
the romance of imagination.
We have known persons who have run into the arms of Christ while they
were intending to run down to Hell. Some who no more dreamed of being
saved than of being made princes–who strolled into the House of God
from curiosity– and the ministers finger, or the glance of his eyes
arrested them, and they felt the power of life Divine. Some who were
rushing to the river to take away their own lives, but some text spoke
to their conscience and arrested their guilty feet.
Strange and marvelous are the ways which God has used to find His own.
He would shake a whole nation with His strong right hand to find His
own elect.
He would shake all nations and bring the whole world to unparalleled
confusion before He would suffer one of the blood-bought pearls of His
crown to be lost among the ruins of the Fall. He must and will seek
them out, as the shepherd seeks out his sheep in the cloudy and dark
day–bringing some of them down from the steep summit–others from the
caverns among the crags. Some from the river's brink, others from the
flood itself–all must be brought into one place, where they shall form
one fold, under one Shepherd.
One second will suffice to hint, dear Brothers and Sisters, that the
Grace of God is illustrious in the Divine agent by whom we are sought
out. The text, taken in its connection, tells us that we were sought
out divinely. Saved souls are sought out by God Himself and Omnipotence
is strained, Omniscience is fully exercised–every attribute of God is
put to its sternest labor to seek out lost souls! The most tremendous
effort of Divine strength we know to be the regeneration of man. To
bring Christ from the dead made God's name to be right honorable for
mighty power–but to raise His people from their graves is equally a
work of stupendous power and Grace.
Do you ever wonder, Christian, who it was that came to seek you? It was
not the minister. He might have sought you year after year and never
have found you. Your tearful mother, with her many prayers, would have
missed you. Your anxious father, with his yearning heart of compassion,
would never have discovered you. Those providences, which like great
nets were seeking to entangle you, would all have been broken by your
strong rushes after evil. Who was it sought you out? None other than
Himself. The Great Shepherd could not trust His under-shepherds. He
must Himself come, and oh, if it had not been for those eyes of
Omniscience, He never would have seen you–He never would have read
your history and known your case.
If it had not been for those arms of Omnipotence, He never could have
grasped you. He never could have thrown you on His shoulders and
brought you home rejoicing. You were divinely sought. There is as much
the impress of the finger of God upon a sought-out soul, as there is
upon a newly-created world. You may see God's finger in the green mead
studded with yellow flowers, in the flowing rills and towering mounts,
and in the bright lamps of Heaven at eventide–but you shall see the
whole hand of God most clearly when a new-born soul is led to seek
after the Lord's salvation. You shall be called "the people sought
out." And this shall be the wonder of it–that you were sought out in a
Divine fashion–
"Love strong as death, no, stronger,
Love mightier than the grave.
Broad as earth and longer
Than ocean's widest wave–
This is the love that sought us,
This is the love that bought us,
This is the love that brought us,
To most glad day from saddest night,
From deepest shame to glory bright,
From depths of death to life's fair height."
Then, dear Brothers and Sisters, to close this part, remember that the
glory of it is that we were sought out effectually. We are a people not
sought out and then missed at the last. Almightiness and wisdom
combined will make no failures. I may seek some of you in vain, as,
alas, I have done. I may preach and preach again, as I do today and
yet, perhaps, you will all miss the net. But when my Master comes out
to fish for souls the net will soon be full–there is no failure in His
case. All of us, dear Brothers and Sisters, who have been brought into
union with Christ, know that we were brought because it was effectual
Grace that came to us.
There is a Grace which may be resisted, there are common strivings of
the Spirit, against which a man may contend successfully. But when the
Spirit puts out the fullness of His Divine energy, with the intention
to work a sure work, it can never be frustrated. In each of our cases
there has been a Divine intention, Omnipotent, to constrain us to be
saved. That intention has been followed up by a Divine action, which it
was impossible for us to have effectually resisted. Which, in fact, we
did not, and could not resist, because it charmed us into a complete
subjection. We yielded at once to its sway. This has taken place in
every single heart and this is the glory of the name "sought out"–that
we were not half sought out, we were not feebly and unsuccessfully
sought–but we were effectually and completely sought out. That is the
reason why we are today heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
III. Let us notice, in the third place, THE DISTINGUISHING TITLE
JUSITIFIED. We are a people sought out.
How were we sought out? Let us justify the name.
Brethren, we are sought out, first of all, in the eternal purposes and
the work of Christ. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven was
the commencement, the first overt act of seeking our souls. All that
bloody pilgrimage of His, when hands and feet were bleeding. All that
dreadful suffering of His upon the Cross, was a seeking out of His
people. Like some great pearl diver, the Lord Jesus Christ stood upon
the glorious cliff's of Heaven and plunged deep into the floods of
sorrow and sin that He might seek out the lost pearls. Virtually, our
Lord did save all His people then and there. "He came to seek and to
save that which was lost," and He did save, by His death, all His
elect.
Though not actually, they were virtually every one of them saved in
that very hour when He bowed His head and said, "It is finished." At
that moment they were in His hands, they were united to His Person in
the Divine decree. At that moment they stood in Him–
"Not as they stood in Adam's Fall, When sin and sorrow covered all; But
as they'll stand another day, Fairer than sun's meridian ray." "He has
saved us" first, "and called us" afterwards, "with a holy calling."
This seeking out, as far as we know it, began with gracious words of
mercy. In the case of some, these were heard very early. A godly mother
told us the Truths of God with weeping, a holy father set us a good
example. We were sought out by that little Bible we were taught to read
and that hymnbook which was put into our hands.
We were sought out when we were taken to the House of God. The minister
preached the Gospel freely to all. He described our character and
affectionately bid us come to Jesus. We were sought out while the
preacher called the Sabbath-breaker, while he called the hard-hearted,
the hypocrite, the formalist, the abandoned, the profane. While he
called each of these, according to our case we felt that he was calling
us. And we thought the eyes of Jesus were looking on us and His voice
was bidding us repent and live. Sometimes we were specially sought out
under the ministry when the preacher was led to describe our case,
painting it in glowing colors. We thought somebody had told him. He
seemed to know us so well, to have read us through and through and we
went home to our chamber, moved, at least for a season, with a desire
after God–for we had been sought out.
Nor did the Lord leave us only to the kind invitations of the ministry.
Afflictions sought us out. The fever hunted us to the Cross. When the
cholera came, it carried a great whip in its hand to flog us to the
Savior. We had serious losses, a decaying business–all which should
have weaned us from the world. Our friends sickened–from their graves
we heard the voice of invitation, "Come unto Christ and live." We were
disappointed in some of our fondest hopes, and our heart, torn for the
time, yearned after a higher life and a deeper satisfaction. Affliction
after affliction and tribulation after tribulation were the means which
God used for seeking us out.
And then came visitations, mysterious visitations. It was in the night
season when all was still. We sat up in our bed and solemn thoughts
passed through us. The preacher's words which we had heard years ago
came back fresh as when we heard them for the first time. Old texts of
Scripture, the recollection of a mother's tears–all these came upon
us. Or it was in the midst of business and we did not know how it was,
but suddenly a deep calm came over us. We felt as if an unseen hand was
drawing us to pray. We resisted the Divine impulse, but we knew that it
had been there. It came again and again, and often as we walked the
streets we seemed attended by another soul than our own. It appeared to
us, as if at times we were two men in one–and that new and better man
wrestled with us like the angel with Jacob.
And at last Divine Grace overcame us and brought us to repentance and
humble faith. But after all, dear Friends, these visitations, these
providences, the preaching and so on, would all have been nothing, if
it had not been for the appointed time when the Holy Spirit came and
sought us out. Can I ever forget that moment when the preacher's finger
pointed to me and he said, "Young man, believe in Jesus Christ, believe
in Jesus Christ now." It was not his voice, alone, that spoke to me,
but the voice from the mysterious Throne said, "Believe now." And
believe I did. I found no will to refuse.
The thing I could not do before, the thing I did not understand till
that moment, I both understood and did. I did believe in Jesus and the
burden rolled from off my bowed shoulders, and the spirit was
emancipated and free. O may that time come to you who have never yet
been sought out! May the Spirit of God so touch you that you cannot
resist Him– so effectually move you, that you must yield subjection to
the Cross of Christ. In your cases as well as mine, Beloved in the Lord
Jesus, you will be led to see that it was the effectual power of God
the Holy Spirit that really did bring you to Christ. So that the title
is fully justified–"Sought Out."
There may be some persons who come to Christ of themselves, I do not
believe there are, and I am not one of them. There may be some who keep
to Christ by the power of their free will–I believe there is a whole
denomination who profess to do so–but I can only say their experience
is the very reverse of what I have felt. I believe that those of whom
we read in Christian biographies and in Scripture owed their salvation
to free, rich, and Sovereign Grace. The religion of these persons who
come to Christ of their own free will is of modern invention, and I
would not give a snap of the finger for the grace that springs from
self, or another snap of my finger for the conversion which is the
result of free will.
May the Lord give us to be born from above and if we have not a
religion which is not worked in us by the Spirit of God, the sooner we
get rid of it the better! Then, perhaps, we shall go to Him who can
give us the true bread of Heaven, that we may not be found empty at the
last.
IV. Now I have dispatched these three matters and I come to the
practical part of the subject and may I have your earnest attention?
There is A SPECIAL DUTY INCUMBENT UPON THOSE WHO WEAR THE TITLE,
"SOUGHT OUT."
My Brothers and Sisters, if it is really so that you are such debtors
to Divine seeking, ought you not to spend your whole lifetime in
seeking others out? If you owe everything to Divine Grace and nothing
to self, are you not under solemn obligation to be the Lord's forever
and ought you not–not by proxy, but personally and individually,
everyone of you–to seek out the rest of the Lord's people, that they,
like you, may bear the title of a people sought out? I am earnest in
the desire of inducing every member of this Church and of every other
Church to be winners of souls.
The preaching of the Gospel is God's grand instrument of mercy. That is
His great magnet. Those of you who can use this holy weapon, do. You
that have ability and have talents, devote yourselves to God's cause.
Give yourselves up to His ministry. I would to God there were more of
those who are successful in professions, men who either in medicine or
law have attained eminence, would consecrate their talents to the
ministry. They need not fear that in giving themselves to God He will
not take care of them. And as to honor, if it is found anywhere, it is
the sure heritage of the faithful ambassador of Christ.
If you have been sought out, my Brother, I do not blush to recommend
you to give up the most lucrative employment to seek out others. If you
have the power to stir other's hearts, if God has given you the tongue
of the eloquent, consecrate it neither to parliament nor to the bar.
Devote it to the plucking of brands from the burning–become a herald
of the Cross and let the whole world, as far as possible, hear from you
the tidings of salvation!
The preaching of the Gospel is not the only means. It is a way of
seeking out most commonly used. But there are other methods which I
will recommend to you this morning. We are not to preach merely to
those who come to listen. We must carry the Gospel to where men do not
desire it. We should consider it our business to be generously
impertinent–thrusting the Gospel into men's way–whether they will
hear or whether they will not. Let us hunt for souls, first of all, by
visitation. There are thousands in London who never will be converted
by the preaching of the Gospel, for they never attend places of
worship. Some of them do not know what sort of thing a religious
service is. We may shudder when we say it–it is believed there are
thousands in London who do not even know the name of Christ–living in
what we call a Christian land–and yet they have not heard the name of
Jesus!
Thank God things are better than they were. But things are still bad
enough. Brethren, you must go and see these things and mend them. To
the lodging houses, young men, you must carry the Gospel, and to those
thickly-peopled habitations, where every room contains a family and not
one room a Christian. I believe there is very much good to be done by
house-to-house visitation. Not by City Missionaries and Bible-women
only–may God speed those noble bodies of laborers–but by all of you!
By you that have position in society among your neighbors–make
yourselves free and go and talk to them of Christ in the little houses
that are near to you. As far as your time allows, be a visitor.
And if there is one dark part of the town known to you as the haunt of
sinners, make it a point to use this agency of visitation from
house-to-house. Let the lost sheep of Israel's house be sought out.
Some will need special means, before ever they can be found and brought
in. How does one's heart rejoice over the reformatories and the
midnight meetings– over the attempts to bring that class of souls to
Christ. I have often heard it said that few of the converts from those
meetings hold on and prove sincere. It is a great falsehood–a very
considerable portion are reformed and mere reformations are of little
use–but where regeneration is worked and these girls are pointed to a
Savior, you will never find one of them go back.
Has not God been pleased to give us in this Church scores of instances
where those who were decoys for Satan are now the leaders of others to
the Cross of Christ and like Mary, love much because they have much
forgiven? Seek them out. If there is any other class that is neglected,
seek it out. If you happen to know any of the more degraded part of the
population who are only sought for by the policeman and never hear a
word of good advice–except from the stipendiary magistrate–do seek
them out. If Christ sought you out, the inference is strong that you
ought to seek out others! And if special means are needed, let special
means be applied.
You must be very kind. To broken hearts you must speak very gently.
Their distance from God is a distance of fear. The gulf that separates
them is despair. There are some such in this house, perhaps. Seek them
out and if you find them very desponding, writing bitter things against
themselves, let love be shown them. Try if you can, to get the cords of
affection around them and so draw them to Christ. Do not turn from them
and say, "They are such miserable objects, so unbelieving. I will not
look after them." But the more you find they need a tender heart and a
weeping eye to bring them to the Savior, the more carefully follow them
till you bring them to Him.
You will find some who will want a world of perseverance. Perhaps your
child has been for thirty years unconverted. Your prayers have been
unheard till now and the devil tempts you to give it up. Never do so.
If you had to be sought so long–and some of you needed to be sought
for fifty years before you were found–never give up a fellow creature.
Follow your child in all his ingratitude, pursue his footsteps with
your loving kindness and never leave him until you have brought him, at
last, to find joy where you found it–in the wounds of Jesus.
Let me beg you, where all other means fail, to seek men by your
prayers. As long as a man has one other man to pray for him there is a
hope of his salvation. If you, in your daily supplications, make
mention of men–if you select special cases–if you bear their names
before the Lord, you shall have the joy of seeing them turned from
darkness to light. And they with you shall be a people "sought out." If
a word of mine shall stir up but one of you to seek the Lord's hidden
ones, my soul shall rejoice. And if every one of you shall register a
vow in this House of Prayer–"I will seek out some family today and
continue my work tomorrow. And the next day I will be seeking out
others. I will not wait till they come to me to be taught, but go and
seek them and compel them to come in that the house may be filled, that
the Church of God may have its full complement of Christ's chosen."
If you will do this, my soul shall be well content. If you have never
been sought, then you will not seek others. If you have never tasted
that the Lord is gracious, I shall not marvel that you neglect this
work. But oh, by the Hell from which you are delivered, by the Heaven
to which you are going, by the blood which redeemed you from death and
Hell, by that gracious Spirit which quickened you and still keeps you
alive, by every glorious promise which stimulates you in your onward
career, I pray you spend yourselves and be spent in seeking souls!
Look at this great mass of habitation, this wilderness of human
dwellings–if we do not work with all our might we can never hope to
see the knowledge of the Lord covering this great world of London–let
alone the greater world outside! O let us be up and doing and let it be
told in every house, in every alley, that Christians care for souls. If
you are the people sought out, go and seek others. Tell them that,
"Whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved."