Christ–The Power and Wisdom of God
A Sermon
(No. 132)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, May 17, 1857, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."–1 Corinthians 1:24.
UNBELIEF toward the gospel of Christ is the most unreasonable thing in
all the world, because the reason which the unbeliever gives for his
unbelief is fairly met by the character and constitution of the gospel
of Christ. Notice that before this verse we read–"The Jews required a
sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom." If you met the Jew who believed
not on Christ in the apostle's day, he said, "I can not believe,
because I want a sign;" and if you met the Greek, he said, "I can not
believe, because I want a philosophic system, one that is full of
wisdom." "Now," says the apostle, "both these objections are untenable
and unreasonable. If you suppose that the Jew requires a sign, that
sign is given him: Christ is the power of God. The miracles that Christ
wrought upon earth were signs more than sufficiently abundant; and if
the Jewish people had but the will to believe, they would have found
abundant signs and reasons for believing in the personal acts of Christ
and his apostles." And let the Greeks say, "I can not believe, because
I require a wise system: O Greek, Christ is the wisdom of God. If thou
wouldst but investigate the subject, thou wouldst find in it
profoundness of wisdom–a depth where the most gigantic intellect might
be drowned. It is no shallow gospel, but a deep, and a great deep too,
a deep which passeth understanding. Thine objection is ill-founded; for
Christ is the wisdom of God, and his gospel is the highest of all
sciences. If thou wishest to find wisdom, thou must find it in the word
of revelation."
Now, this morning, we shall try to bring out these two thoughts of the
gospel; and it may be that God shall bless what we shall say to the
removing of the objection of either Jew or Greek; that the one
requiring a sign may see it in the power of God in Christ, and that he
who requireth wisdom may behold it in the wisdom of God in Christ. We
shall understand our text in a threefold manner: Christ, that is,
Christ personally, is "the power of God and the wisdom of God;" Christ,
that is, Christ's gospel, is "the power of God and the wisdom of God;"
Christ, that is, Christ in the heart–true religion, is "the power of
God and the wisdom of God."
I. First, to begin, then, with CHRIST PERSONALLY. Christ considered as
God and man, the Son of God equal with his Father, and yet the man,
born of the Virgin Mary. Christ, in his complex person, is "the power
of God and the wisdom of God." He is the power of God from all
eternity. "By his word were the heavens made, and all the host of
them." "The Word was God, and the Word was with God." "All things were
made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." The
pillars of the earth were placed in their everlasting sockets by the
omnipotent right hand of Christ; the curtains of the heavens were drawn
upon their rings of starry light by him who was from everlasting the
All-glorious Son of God. The orbs that float aloft in ether, those
ponderous planets, and those mighty stars, were placed in their
positions or sent rolling through space by the eternal strength of him
who is "the first and the last." "the Prince of the kings of the
earth." Christ is the power of God, for he is the Creator of all
things, and by him all things exist.
But when he came to earth, took upon himself the fashion of a man,
tabernacled in the inn, and slept in the manger, he still gave proof
that he was the Son of God; not so much so when, as an infant of a span
long, the immortal was the mortal and the infinite became a babe; not
so much so in his youth, but afterward when he began his public
ministry, he gave abundant proofs of his power and Godhead. The winds
hushed by his finger uplifted, the waves calmed by his voice, so that
they became solid as marble beneath his tread; the tempest, cowering at
his feet, as before a conqueror whom it knew and obeyed; these things,
these stormy elements, the wind, the tempest, and the water, gave full
proof of his abundant power. The lame man leaping, the deaf man
hearing, the dumb man singing, the dead rising, these, again, were
proofs that he was, the "power of God." When the voice of Jesus
startled the shades of Hades, and rent the bonds of death, with
"Lazarus, come forth!" and when the carcass rotten in the tomb woke up
to life, there was proof of his divine power and Godhead. A thousand
other proofs he afforded; but we need not stay to mention them to you
who have Bibles in your houses, and who can read them every day. At
last he yielded up his life, and was buried in the tomb. Not long,
however, did he sleep; for he gave another proof of his divine power
and Godhead, when starting from his slumber, he affrighted the guards
with the majesty of his grandeur, not being holden by the bonds of
death, they being like green withes before our conquering Samson, who
had meanwhile pulled up the gates of hell, and carried them on his
shoulders far away.
That he is the power of God now, Scripture very positively affirmeth;
for it is written, "he sitteth at the right hand of God." He hath the
reins of Providence gathered in his hands; the fleet coursers of Time
are driven by him who sits in the chariot of the world, and bids its
wheels run round; and he shall bid them stay when it shall please him.
He is the great umpire of all disputes, the great Sovereign Head of the
church, the Lord of heaven, and death, and hell; and by-and-by we shall
know that he shall come,
"On fiery clouds and wings of wind,
Appointed Judge of all mankind;"
and then the quickened dead, the startled myriads, the divided
firmaments, the "Depart, ye cursed," and the "Come, ye blessed," shall
proclaim him to be the power of God, who hath power over all flesh, to
save or to condemn, as it pleaseth him.
But he is equally "the wisdom of God." The great things that he did
before all worlds were proofs of his wisdom. He planned the way of
salvation; he devised the system of atonement and substitution; he laid
the foundations of the great plan of salvation. There was wisdom. But
he built the heavens by wisdom, and he laid the pillars of light,
whereon the firmament is balanced, by his skill and wisdom. Mark the
world; and learn, as ye see all its multitudinous proofs of the wisdom
of God, and there you have the wisdom of Christ; for he was the creator
of it. And when he became a man, he gave proofs enough of wisdom. Even
in childhood, when he made the doctors sit abashed by the questions
that he asked, he showed that he was more than mortal. And when the
Pharisee and Sadducce and Herodian were all at last defeated, and their
nets were broken, he proved again the superlative wisdom of the Son of
God. And when those who came to take him, stood enchained by his
eloquence, spell-bound by his marvelous oratory, there was again a
proof that he was the wisdom of God, who could so enchain the minds of
men. And now that he intercedeth before the throne of God, now that he
is our Advocate before the throne, the pledge and surety for the
blessed, now that the reins of government are in his hands, and are
ever wisely directed, we have abundant proofs that the wisdom of God is
in Christ, as well as the power of God. Bow before him, ye that love
him; bow before him, ye that desire him! Crown him, crown him, crown
him! He is worthy of it, unto him is everlasting might; unto him is
unswerving wisdom: bless his name; exalt him; clap your wings, ye
seraphs; cry aloud, ye cherubim; shout, shout, shout, to his praise, ye
ransomed host above. And ye, O men that know his grace, extol him in
your songs for ever; for he is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God.
II. But now Christ, that is, CHRIST'S GOSPEL, is the power and the
wisdom of God.
1. Christ's gospel is a thing of divine power. Do you want proofs of
it? Ye shall not go far. How could Christ's gospel have been
established in this world as it was, if it had not in itself intrinsic
might? By whom was it spread? By mitered prelates, by learned doctors,
by fierce warriors, by caliphs, by prophets? No; by fishermen,
untaught, unlettered; save as the Spirit gave them utterance, not
knowing how to preach or speak. How did they spread it? By the bayonet,
by their swords, by the keen metal of their blades? Did they drive
their gospel into men at the point of the lance, and with the cimeter?
Say, did myriads rush to battle, as they did when they followed the
crescent of Mohammed, and did they convert men by force, by law, by
might? Ah I no. Nothing but their simple words, their unvarnished
eloquence, their rough declamation, their unhewn oratory; these it was,
which, by the blessing of God's Spirit, carried the gospel round the
world within a century after the death of its founder.
But what was this gospel which achieved so much? Was it a thing
palatable to human nature? Did it offer a paradise of present
happiness? Did it offer delight to the flesh and to the senses? Did it
give charming prospects of wealth? Did it give licentious ideas to men?
No; it was a gospel of morality most strict, it was a gospel with
delights entirely spiritual–a gospel which abjured the flesh, which,
unlike the coarse delusion of Joe Smith, cut off every prospect from
men of delighting themselves with the joys of lust. It was a gospel
holy, spotless, clean as the breath of heaven; it was pure as the wing
of angel; not like that which spread of old, in the days of Mohammed, a
gospel of lust, of vice, and wickedness, but pure, and consequently not
palatable to human nature. And yet it spread. Why? My friends, I think
the only answer I can give you is, because it has in it the power of
God.
But do you want another proof? How has it been maintained since then?
No easy path has the gospel had. The good bark of the church has had to
plow her way through seas of blood, and those who have manned her have
been bespattered with the bloody spray; yea, they have had to man her
and keep her in motion, by laying down their lives unto the death. Mark
the bitter persecution of the church of Christ from the time of Nero to
the days of Mary, and further on, through the days of Charles the
Second, and of those kings of unhappy memory, who had not as yet
learned how to spell "toleration." From the dragoons of Claverhouse,
right straight away to the gladiatorial shows of Rome, what a long
series of persecutions has the gospel had! But, as the old divines used
to say, "The blood of the martyrs" has been "the seed of the church."
It has been, as the old herbalists had it, like the herb camomile, the
more it is trodden on, the more it grows; and the more the church has
been ill-treated, the more it has prospered. Behold the mountains where
the Albigenses walk in their white garments; see the stakes of
smithfleld, not yet forgotten; behold ye the fields among the towering
hills, where brave hands kept themselves free from despotic tyranny.
Mark ye the Pilgrim Fathers, driven by a government of persecution
across the briny deep. See what vitality the gospel has. Plunge her
under the wave, and she rises, the purer for her washing; thrust her in
the fire, and she comes out, the more bright for her burning; cut her
in sunder, and each piece shall make another church; behead her, and
like the hydra of old, she shall have a hundred heads for every one you
cut away. She can not die, she must live; for she has the power of God
within her.
Do you want another proof? I give you a better one than the last. I do
not wonder that the church has outlived persecution so much as I wonder
she has outlived the unfaithfulness of her professed teachers. Never
was church so abused as the church of Christ has been, all through her
history; from the days of Diotrephes, who sought to have the
pre-eminence, even to these later times, we can read of proud, arrogant
prelates, and supercilious, haughty lords over God's inheritance.
Bonners, Dunstans, and men of all sorts, have come into her ranks, and
done all they could to kill her; and with their lordly priestcraft they
have tried to turn her aside. And what shall we say to that huge
apostacy of Rome? A thousand miracles that ever the church outlived
that! When her pretended head became apostate, and all her bishops
disciples of hell, and she had gone far away, wonder of wonders, that
she should come out, in the days of the glorious Reformation, and
should still live. And, even now, when I mark the supineness of many of
my brethren in the ministry-when I mark their utter and entire
inefficiency of doing aught for God–when I see their waste of time,
preaching now and then on the Sunday, instead of going to the highways
and hedges and preaching the gospel everywhere to the poor–when I see
the want of unction in the church itself, the want of
prayerfulness–when I see wars and fightings, factions and
disunions–when I see hot blood and pride, even in the meetings of the
saints; I say it is a thousand thousand miracles that the church of God
should be alive at all, after the unfaithfulness of her members, her
ministers, and her bishops. She has the power of God within her, or
else she would have been destroyed; for she has got enough within her
own loins to work her destruction.
"But," says one, "you have not yet proved it is the power of God to my
understanding." Sir, I will give you another proof There are not a few
of you, who are now present, who would be ready, I know, if it were
necessary, to rise in your seats and bear me witness that I speak the
truth. There are some who, not many months ago, were drunkards; some
who were loose livers; men who were unfaithful to every vow which
should keep man to truth, and right, and chastity, and honesty, and
integrity. Yes, I repeat, I have some here who look back to a life of
detestable sin. You tell me, some of you, that for thirty years even
(there is one such present now) you never listened to a gospel
ministry, nor ever entered the house of God at all; you despised the
Sabbath, you spent it in all kinds of evil pleasures, you plunged
headlong into sin and vice, and your only wonder is, that God has not
out you off long ago, as cumberers of the ground; and now you are here,
as different as light from darkness. I know your characters, and have
watched you with a father's love; for, child though I am, I am the
spiritual father of some here whose years outcount mine by four times
the number; and I have seen you honest who were thieves, and you sober
who were drunkards. I have seen the wife's glad eye sparkling with
happiness; and many a woman has grasped me by the hand, shed her tears
upon me, and said, "I bless God; I am a happy woman now; my husband is
reclaimed, my house is blessed; our children are brought up in the fear
of the Lord." Not one or two, but scores of such are here. And, my
friends, if these be not proofs that the gospel is the power of God, I
say there is no proof of any thing to be had in the world, and every
thing must be conjecture. Yes, and there worships with you this day
(and if there be a secularist here, my friend will pardon me for
alluding to him for a moment), there is in the house of God this day
one who was a leader in your ranks, one who despised God, and ran very
far away from right. And here he is! It is his honor this day to own
himself a Christian; and I hope, when this sermon is ended, to grasp
him by the hand, for he has done a valiant deed; he has bravely burned
his papers in the sight of all the people, and has turned to God with
full purpose of heart. I could give you proofs enough, if proofs were
wanted, that the gospel has been to men the power of God and the wisdom
of God. More proofs I could give, yea, thousands, one upon the other.
But we must notice the other points. Christ's gospel is the wisdom of
God. Look at the gospel itself and you will see it to be wisdom. The
man who scoffs and sneers at the gospel does so for no other reason but
because he does not understand it. We have two of the richest books of
theology extant that were written by professed infidels–by men that
were so, I mean, before they wrote the books. You may have heard the
story of Lord Lyttleton and West. I believe they determined to refute
Christianity; one of them took up the subject of Paul's conversion, and
the other, the subject of the resurrection; they sat down, both of
them, to write books to ridicule those two events, and the effect was,
that in studying the subject, they, both of them, became Christians,
and wrote books which are now bulwarks to the church they hoped to have
overthrown. Every man who looks the gospel fairly in the face, and
gives it the study it ought to have, will discover that it is no false
gospel, but a gospel that is replete with wisdom, and full of the
knowledge of Christ. If any man will cavil at the Bible, be must cavil.
There are some men who can find no wisdom anywhere, except in their own
heads. Such men, however, are no judges of wisdom. We should not set a
mouse to explain the phenomena of astronomy, nor should we set a man
who is so foolish as to do nothing but cavil to understand the wisdom
of the gospel. It needs that a man should at least be honest, and have
some share of sense, or we can not dispute with him at all. Christ's
gospel, to any man who believes it, is the wisdom of God.
Allow me just to hint that to be a believer in the gospel is no
dishonor to a man's intellect. While the gospel can be understood by
the poorest and the most illiterate, while there are shallows in it
where a lamb may wade, there are depths where leviathan may swim. The
intellect of Locke found ample space in the gospel; the mind of Newton
submitted to receive the truth of inspiration as a little child, and
found a something in its majestic being higher than itself, unto which
it could not attain. The rudest and most untaught have been enabled, by
the study of the holy Scripture of God's truth to enter the kingdom;
and the most erudite have said of the gospel, it surpasses thought. I
was thinking the other day what a vast amount of literature must be
lost if the gospel be not true. No book was ever so suggestive as the
Bible. Large tomes we have in our libraries which it takes all our
strength to lift, all upon holy Scripture; myriads upon myriads of
smaller volumes, tens of thousands of every shape and size, all written
upon the Bible; and I have thought that the very suggestiveness of
Scripture, the supernatural suggestiveness of holy Writ, may be in
itself a proof of its divine wisdom, since no man has ever been able to
write a book which could have so many commentators and so many writers
upon its text as the Bible has received, by so much as one millionth
part.
III. CHRIST IN A MAN THE GOSPEL IN THE SOUL, is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. We will picture the Christian from his beginning to
his end. We will give a short map of his history. He begins there, in
that prison-house, with huge iron bars, which he can not file; in that
dark, damp cell, where pestilence and death are bred. There, in poverty
and nakedness, without a pitcher to put to his thirsty lips, without a
mouthful even of dry crust to satisfy his hunger, that is where be
begins–in the prison chamber of conviction, powerless, lost and
ruined. Between the bars I thrust my hand to him, and give to him in
God's name the name of Christ to plead. Look at him; he has been filing
away at these bars many and many a day, without their yielding an inch;
but now he has got the name of Christ upon his lips; he puts his hands
upon the bars, and one of them is gone, and another, and another; and
be makes a happy escape, crying, "I am free, I am free, I am free!
Christ has been the power of God to me, in bringing me out of my
trouble." No sooner is he free, however, than a thousand doubts meet
him. This one cries, "You are not elect;" another cries, "You are not
redeemed;" another says, "You are not called;" another says, "You are
not converted." "Avaunt," says he, "avaunt! Christ died;" and he just
pleads the name of Christ as the power of God, and the doubts flee
apace, and he walks straight on. He comes soon into the furnace of
trouble; he is thrust into the innermost prison, and his feet are made
fast in the stocks. God has put his hand upon him. He is in deep
trouble; at midnight he begins to sing of Christ; and lo! the walls
begin to totter, and the foundation of the prison to shake; and the
man's chains are taken off, and he comes out free; for Christ hath
delivered him from trouble. Here is a hill to climb, on the road to
heaven. Wearily he pants up the side of that hill, and thinks he must
die ere he can reach the summit. The name of Jesus is whispered in his
ear; he leaps to his feet, and pursues his way, with fresh courage,
until the summit is gained, when he cries, "Jesus Christ is the
strength of my song; he also hath become my salvation." See him again.
He is on a sudden beset by many enemies; how shall he resist them? With
this true sword, this true Jerusalem blade, Christ, and him crucified.
With this he keeps the devil at arm's length; with this he fights
against temptation, and against lust, against spiritual wickedness in
high places, and with this he resists. Now, he has come to his last
struggle; the river Death rolls black and sullen before him; dark
shapes rise upward from the flood, and howl and fright him. How shall
he cross the stream? How shall he find a landing place on the other
side? Dread thoughts perplex him for a moment; he is alarmed; but he
remembers, Jesus died; and catching up that watchword he ventures to
the flood. Before his feet the Jordan flies apace; like Israel of old,
he walks through, dry shod, singing as he goes to heaven, "Christ is
with me, Christ is with me, passing through the stream ! Victory,
victory, victory, to him that loveth me!"
To the Christian in his own experience Christ is ever the power of God.
As for temptation he can meet that with Christ; as for trouble he can
endure that through Christ who strengthens him, yea, he can say with
Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Have you
never seen a Christian in trouble, a true Christian? I have read a
story of a man who was converted to God by seeing the conduct of his
wife in the hour of trouble. They had a lovely child, their only
offspring. The father's heart doted on it perpetually, and the mother's
soul was knit up in the heart of the little one. It lay sick upon its
bed, and the parents watched it night and day. At last it died. The
father had no God: he rent his hair, he rolled upon the floor in
misery, wallowed upon the earth, cursing his being, and defying God in
the utter casting down of his agony. There sat his wife, as fond of the
child as ever he could be; and though tears would come, she gently said
"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of
the Lord." "What," said he, starting to his feet, "you love that child?
I thought that when that child died you would break your heart. Here am
I, a strong man. I am mad: here are you, a weak woman, and yet you are
strong and bold; tell me what it is possesses you?" Said she, "Christ
is my Lord, I trust in him; surely I can give this child to him who
gave himself for me." From that instant the man became a believer.
"There must," said he, "be some truth and some power in the gospel,
which could lead you to believe in such a manner, under such a trial."
Christians! try to exhibit that spirit wherever you are, and prove to
the worldling that in your experience at least "Christ is the power of
God and the wisdom of God."
And now the last point. In the Christian's experience, Christ is
wisdom, as well as power. If you want to be a thoroughly learned man
the best place to begin, is to begin at the Bible, to begin at Christ.
It is said that even children learn to read more quickly from the Bible
than from any other book; and this I am sure of, that we, who are but
grown-up children, will learn better and learn faster by beginning with
Christ than we could by beginning with any thing else. I remember
saying once, and as I can not say it better I will repeat it, that
before I knew the gospel I gathered up a heterogeneous mass of all
kinds of knowledge from here, there, and everywhere; a bit of
chemistry, a bit of botany, a bit of astronomy, and a bit of this,
that, and the other. I put them altogether, in one great confused
chaos. When I learned the gospel, I got a shelf in my head to put every
thing away upon just where it should be. It seemed to me as if, when I
had discovered Christ and him crucified, I had got the center of the
system, so that I could see every other science revolving around in
order. From the earth, you know, the planets appear to move in a very
irregular manner–they are progressive, retro grade, stationary; but if
you could get upon the sun, you would see them marching round in their
constant, uniform, circular motion. So with knowledge. Begin with any
other science you like, and truth will seem to be awry. Begin with the
science of Christ crucified, and you will begin with the sun, you will
see every other science moving round it in complete harmony. The
greatest mind in the world will be evolved by beginning at the right
end. The old saying is, "Go from nature up to nature's God;" but it is
hard work going up hill. The best thing is to go from nature's God down
to nature; and if you once get to nature's God, and believe him and
love him, it is surprising how easy it is to hear music in the waves,
and songs in the wild whisperings of the winds; to see God everywhere,
in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling brooks, and hear him
everywhere, in the lowing of cattle, in the rolling of thunder, and in
the fury of tempests. Get Christ first, put him in the right place, and
you will find him to be the wisdom of God in your own experience.
But wisdom is not knowledge; and we must not confound the two. Wisdom
is the right use of knowledge; and Christ's gospel helps us, by
teaching us the right use of knowledge. It directs us. Yon Christian
has lost his way in a dark wood; but God's Word is a compass to him,
and a lantern, too: he finds his way by Christ. He comes to a turn in
the road. Which is right, and which is wrong? He can not tell. Christ
is the great sign-post, telling him which way to go. He sees every day
new straits attend; he knows not which way to steer. Christ is the
great pilot who puts his hand on the tiller, and makes him wise to
steer through the shoals of temptation and the rocks of sin. Get the
gospel, and you are a wise man. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and right understanding have they who keep his
commandments." Ah! Christian, you have had many doubts, but you have
had them all unriddled, when you have come to the cross of Christ. You
have had many difficulties; but they have been all explained in the
light of Calvary. You have seen mysteries, when you have brought them
to the face of Christ, made clear and manifest, which once you never
could have known. Allow me to remark here, that some people make use of
Christ's gospel to illuminate their heads, instead of making use of it
to illuminate their hearts. They are like the farmer Rowland Hill once
described. The farmer is sitting, by the fire with his children; the
cat is purring on the hearth, and they are all in great comfort. The
plowman rushes in and cries, "Thieves! thieves! thieves!" The farmer
rises up in a moment, grasps the candle, holds it up to his head,
rushes after the thieves, and, says Rowland Hill, "he tumbles over a
wheelbarrow, because he holds the light to his head, instead of holding
it to his feet." So there are many who just hold religion up to
illuminate their intellect, instead of holding it down to illuminate
their practice; and so they make a sad tumble of it, and cast
themselves into the mire, and do more hurt to their Christian
profession in one hour than they will ever be able to retrieve. Take
care that you make the wisdom of God, by God's Holy Spirit, a thing of
true wisdom, directing your feet into his statutes, and keeping you in
his ways.
And now a practical appeal, and we have done. I have been putting my
arrow on the string; and if I have used any light similes, I have but
done so just as the archer tips his arrow with a feather, to make it
fly the better. I know that a rough quaint saying often sticks, when
another thing is entirely for-gotten. Now let us draw the bow, and send
the arrow right at your hearts. Men, brethren, fathers, how many of you
have felt in yourselves that Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom
of God? Internal evidence is the best evidence in the world for the
truth of the gospel. No Paley or Butler can prove the truth of the
gospel so well as Mary, the servant girl yonder, that has got the
gospel in her heart, and the power of it manifest in her life. Say, has
Christ ever broken your bonds and set you free? Has he delivered you
from your evil life, and from your sin? Has he given you "a good hope
through grace," and can you now say, "On him I lean; on my beloved I
stay myself?" If so, go away and rejoice: you are a saint; for the
apostle has said, "He is unto us who are saved, Christ the power of God
and the wisdom of God." But if you can not say this, allow me
affectionately to warn you. If you want not this power of Christ, and
this wisdom of Christ now, you will want them in a few short moments,
when God shall come to judge the quick and the dead, when you shall
stand before his bar, and when all the deeds that you have done shall
be read before an assembled world. You will want religion then. O that
you had grace to tremble now; grace to "kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little."
Hear ye how to be saved, and I have done. Do you feel that you are a
sinner? Are you conscious that you have rebelled against God? Are you
willing to acknowledge your transgressions, and do you hate and abhor
them, while at the same time you feel you can do nothing to atone for
them? Then hear this. Christ died for you; and if he died for you, you
can not be lost. Christ died in vain for no man for whom he died. If
you are a penitent and a believer, he died for you, and you are safe;
go your way: rejoice "with joy unspeakable, and full of glory;" for he
who has taught you your need of a Saviour, will give you that Saviour's
blood to be applied to your conscience, and you shall ere long, with
yonder blood-washed host, praise God and the Lamb saying, "Hallelujah,
for ever, Amen!" Only do you feel that you are a sinner? If not, I have
no gospel to preach to you; I can but warn you. But if you feel your
lost estate, and come to Christ, come, and welcome, for he will never
cast you away.