Compassion For The Multitude

Compassion For The Multitude
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 1, 1862, BY REV. C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And they say unto Him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes. He
said, Bring them here to Me." Matthew 14:17,18.
As was Christ, my Brethren, when in this world, so are we also. Such,
indeed, is our calling of God. As Jesus was "the true light which
lights every man that comes into the world," so He says to His
disciples, "You are the light of the world." How memorable are those
words of our Lord–"As You, Father, have sent Me into the world, even
so have I also sent them into the world!" And how weighty are those
expressions of the Apostle–"We pray you in Christ's place." "We then,
as workers together with Him!"
There is something more than an interesting parallel that I want you to
observe. A rich allegory appears to be couched in the simple record of
the Evangelists. The history of Christ is in type a history of His
Church. A skillful reader would soon think this matter out. You will
remember how Christ's Church was wrapped in swaddling bands at the
first, how she was laid in the manger of obscurity, how her life was
conspired against by heathen kings. You will remember her Baptism of
the Holy Spirit, her trials and her temptations in the wilderness.
The life of Christ afterwards will soon be thought out by you as
shadowing forth a picture of the career of the Church. There is
scarcely any point in the entire history of Jesus, from the manger at
Bethlehem to the garden of Geth-semane, which is not, besides its
personal narrative, a typical and pictorial history of His Church. Thus
the Lord has been pleased to bequeath to His Church a great example
written in His own holy life. As He raised the dead, so is she to do it
through His Spirit that dwells in her. As He healed the sick, so is she
to carry on a great healing ministry throughout the world.
Or, to come to our text, as Christ fed the hungry, so the Church,
wherever she meets with those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, is to bless them in the name of Him who has said, "They
shall be filled." Your business as a Church today, and my business as a
member of the Church of Christ, is to feed hungry souls who are
perishing for lack of knowledge with the bread of life. The case before
us we think will furnish a noble picture of our duty, of our mission,
and of what we expect the Master to do for us that we may work mightily
for Him.
Let us endeavor first to glance at the whole scene, collecting into
harmony the accounts given by the four Evangelists. And afterwards we
shall proceed to consider two practical lessons to be deduced from it.
This miracle is recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There is some
little divergence in each, as there naturally would be, for no four
spectators could give the same description of any one scene. But what
one omits another supplies. A point that will be most interesting to
one, had failed to strike another, while a third has been interested in
something which the fourth had altogether omitted.
It appears that Christ had sought out a waste region near the town of
Bethsaida. Bethsaida was a place which He had frequently visited.
Earnestly, on another occasion, did He warn Bethsaida and Chorazin,
reminding them that their privileges would rise up in judgment against
them to condemn them for their unbelief. He had sought out this waste
place for the purpose of retirement, or for the sake of both Himself
and His disciples, that they might rest from their weary toils.
The people follow Him, they throng Him all day long. He preaches the
Gospel to them, He heals their sick. And it was somewhere in the
afternoon that the Master, ever patient and prescient of human wants,
calls Philip to Himself. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida and Jesus said to
Philip, "From where shall we buy bread that these may eat?" This He
said to try Him to see whether his faith was proof against misgiving.
Had Philip been a wise disciple he would have replied, "Master, You can
feed them."
But he was a weak follower of the mighty Lord. You know he afterwards
proved his ignorance by saying, "Lord, show us the Father and it
suffices." And he then received a mild rebuke–"Have I been so long a
time with you and yet you have not known Me?" On this, Philip shows
that he has not yet learned the lesson of faith. He cannot believe in
anything he cannot see with the eyes of sense. Puzzled and amazed, he
betakes himself to his fellow disciples to talk over the matter. Andrew
suggests that there is a lad hard by that has five barley loaves and a
few small fishes.
Certainly, Andrew thinks, though they will not be enough, it is our
duty to do our best. So the loaves and fishes are purchased out of the
scanty store that Judas handed out, not perhaps without some grief to
his heart, that he should have to look so much after other people. As
the day wears on and the sun begins to set, the disciples come to the
Master. Though the proposal had been suggested by Him, they seem to
think He has forgotten it. So they come to Him and say, "Master, send
the multitude away."
They had thought over the problem of how to feed these people and had
come to the conclusion that they could not do it. As they could not
feed them, the next best thing would be to send them away to provide
for themselves. Since they could not supply their necessities, they
would endeavor to shut their eyes to their needs. "Master, send them
away. Let them go and buy for themselves." The Master promptly replies,
"They need not depart. There is no necessity for it–you give them to
eat."
Indeed, He spoke wisely. Why should hungry men depart from the house of
Him who feeds all things, who opens His hands and satisfies the desire
of every living thing? "You give them to eat," said He, that He might
bring out from them a fair acknowledgment of their poverty. "Master,"
they said, "we have here but five barley loaves and a few small fishes.
What are they among so many?" Lifting up their eyes upon the vast
assembled mass they roughly calculate that there must be five thousand
men, beside a fair complement of women and of children.
The Master bids them bring those loaves and fishes. He takes them, but
before He breaks them, being a God of order, He bids the people sit
down in companies. Mark, who is always such a keen observer, and
paints, like Hogarth, all the little minutiae of the picture–says they
sat down on the green grass, as if it were exceedingly abundant and
verdant just there. Then he adds, they sat down by companies,
afterwards using a word, which is translated "in ranks" in our version,
but the Greek is such as you would use if you spoke of a long range of
beds in a flower garden.
They sat down in green beds, as it were, with walks in between them.
Mark seems to have got the idea that they were like a number of flowers
whom his Master went round to water. When they had all thus sat down,
so that the strong might not struggle after the bread and tread it
under foot, and that the weak might not be neglected–all placed in
their rows–then the Master lifted up His eyes before them all, asked a
blessing, broke the bread and gave it to the disciples and also the
fishes.
The disciples went round and distributed to each man, to each woman and
child–and they did eat. They had been fasting all day long, so I dare
say we should not be far wrong if, following the example of a
countryman whom I once heard, we laid a marked emphasis on the word
"did"–"they did eat!" They ate till their hunger was appeased. They
ate till they were filled. They ate till they were abundantly
satisfied. Then, I could suppose, on the table, or on a spot of the
green grass, where Christ had laid out the first bread and fishes, the
fragments that lay there had, in the meantime, multiplied.
One does not like the idea of the disciples going round to gather up
the odds and ends and crumbs that had fallen from each man–one would
hardly think it would have been seemly. But here was bread that was not
injured, that had not fallen in the dust or the mire–fragments–and
they gathered up more than they had at first. Here, too, we have a
wonder. Things had been multiplied by division and had been added to by
subtraction. More was left than there had been at the first! No doubt
that was done to disarm doubt and to defeat skepticism.
In after days, some of those men might say, "True, we did eat and were
satisfied, or it seemed as if we did, but it might have been in a kind
of dream." That bread which was left, the twelve baskets full,
furnished something solid for them to look at, so that they might not
think it an illusion. They gathered up the twelve baskets full. This
seems to be the crowning part of the miracle.
Our Lord Himself, in referring to the miracle in after days, constantly
says, "When we fed five thousand with five barley loaves, how many
baskets had you? And when we fed four thousand, how many baskets full
did you take up?" As if the taking up of the full baskets at the end
was the clenching of the nail to drive home the blessed argument that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who gave His people bread to eat,
even as Moses fed the Israelites with manna in the wilderness.
Having thus considered the facts, we shall take them as a basis upon
which to build, God helping us, two practical lessons. The text and the
miracle itself teach us, first, our mission and our weakness. Secondly,
our line of duty and Christ's strength.
I. We are clearly taught here OUR MISSION AND OUR WEAKNESS. Our
mission! Behold before you, disciples of Christ, this very day,
thousands of men and women and children, who are hungering for the
bread of life. They hunger till they faint. They spend their money for
that which is not bread, and their labor for that which satisfies not.
They fall down famished in your highways, perishing for lack of
knowledge. Still worse, when they faint, there are some who pretend to
feed them.
Superstition goes about, and offers them stones instead of bread and
serpents instead of fish. The Papist and the ceremonialist offer to
sell these hungry souls something to gratify them. They try to feed,
but it will not satisfy. They do but eat the wind and swallow the
whirlwind. The infidel tries to persuade them that they are not hungry,
they are only a little nervous. Thus he mocks their appetite. As soon
will the body be satisfied with bubbles, or the mouth be filled with
shadows, as the soul is satisfied with delusions and inventions of man.
They faint. They famish. They are ready to die.
Those who pretend to supply them do but mock and tantalize their needs.
Nor can they feed themselves. Their wallets are empty. When Adam fell,
he beggared all his posterity–neither man, nor woman, nor child among
them is able to satisfy his or her own hunger. The ten thousands of
your race in this land–in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in America and
Australia–not one among them, should they all subscribe together,
could find so much as one loaf upon which a single soul might feed.
Barrenness, leanness and sterility have seized upon all the fields of
man's tillage. They yield him nothing. He sows, but he reaps not. He
plows but obtains no harvest. By the works of the flesh no man living
can be justified, and in the devices of human tradition or human
reason, no souls can possibly find substantial comfort. See, disciples
of Christ, see the great need which is before your eyes. Open the eyes
of your understanding. Let your heart move, let your hearts beat with
sympathy. Let your souls be alive to pity–do feel for those millions!
I beseech you, if you cannot help them, weep over them. Let there be
now before your mind's eye a clear and distinct recognition of the many
hundreds and thousands who are crying to you, "Feed us, for we famish!
Give us bread to eat, or we die!"
I think I hear you reason in your hearts and whisper one to another,
"Who are we that we should feed this multitude? Look at their hosts,
who can count them? As the stars of Heaven for multitude, so are the
seed of Adam. These hungry, craving mouths are almost as numerous as
the sands on the sea shore. Why should we feed them?" Even so,
remember, this is your mission. Neither should any of you take up and
adopt a weakness of faith that was illustrated by Philip's questioning.
If ever the world is to be led, it is with Christ through the Church.
Until the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ, we are the warriors who must carry the victorious arms of
the Cross to the uttermost parts of the earth. We are the almoners of
God's free bounty, until the fullness of the Gentiles is gathered in.
God commands all men everywhere to repent. And we are to utter His
mandate. Oh, my Brethren, you know how Jesus worked the work of His
Father. You know how He went about doing good. But do you know how He
said, "Greater works than these shall you do, because I go unto My
Father"?
Let the words sink down into your ears. Let the vision rise perpetually
before your eyes. See your work. Great as it is, dispirited as you may
be by the great multitude who crave your help–yet recognize the appeal
to your faith. Let the magnitude of the mission drive you more
earnestly to the work instead of deterring you from it.
Do I hear you murmur, "The multitudes are great and scant the supply.
We have but five loaves and they are made of barley. We have but two
fishes and they are little ones. The bread hardly suffices for
ourselves. The fishes are so small that they will be more bones than
meat. What are these among so many?" "Do I hear you tell us, Sir, that
we as a Church are to feed the world–how can we? How few are our
talents! We are not rich in substance, we have no wealth with which to
supply our missionaries, that we may send them out by hosts to lift up
the banner of Christ. We have little talent–there are not many among
us who are learned or wise–we have not much eloquence. We feel, though
we do not feel enough–
'Gladly my pity would reclaim, And snatch the firebrand from the flame.
But feeble my compassion pro ves, And so must weep where most it
loves.'
"Besides," some of you add, "what can I do individually? Of what use
can I be? And what can the few friends who are in earnest do? Why, the
world will laugh at such a feeble body of men. They will say, 'What are
these feeble Jews doing?' We have a mountain before us and we have to
level it to a plain–how can we do it? Our strength is not
sufficient–we are destitute of power. Oh, had we the great and noble
on our side! Had we kings to be the nursing fathers, and queens the
nursing mothers of our Church! Had we the rich to give their lavish
treasure and the learned to give their wit and the eloquent to give
their golden speech–then we might succeed!
"But alas! Alas! Silver and gold we have none. And at the Master's feet
we can lay but little–so little that it is utterly insignificant when
compared with the world's pining wants, the whole creation's piteous
laboring groans." Then I think I hear you heave a sigh and say again,
"There is no more that we know of, no more bread that is procurable. We
cannot buy for all this multitude." Brothers and Sisters if we have
little gifts ourselves, we cannot buy the eloquence of others. Indeed,
it were no use if it were bought. For oratory purchased is of no use to
any cause. We need for Christ's cause the free utterance of willing men
who "speak through their throats," and feel from their hearts what they
propound with their lips.
Such speak because they cannot help speaking. "Woe is me if I preach
not the Gospel." If we have little ability of our own, we cannot buy
more of others. The offices of love can never be assigned to the
hireling. But I think I hear your disheartened spirits crying, "If we
could add mercenary troops to the hosts of God, we might succeed–if we
could procure by our donations more help, more strength for the Lord
God of Hosts, then might there be bread in His house and then might the
multitudes be fed."
But two hundred pennyworth would not suffice for the five thousand. And
millions would not suffice for the thousand millions of poor benighted
men and women. Master, what can we do? There are so many–we have not
the bread ourselves, and we cannot buy it on their behalf.
And then I hear the groan of one who is growing gray in years, "Oh, I
feel it, but it is getting late with me and the world's necessities are
getting stern. The hunger has continued until men are famished. They
have been without bread till they are ready to perish and faint by the
way. The night comes on, a long and dreary night–who shall work, then?
We are ready to go down into our graves. Our shadows are lengthened and
our frame is shrunken. We are weak and hang our heads like bulrushes,
as men who seek the grave that has long been seeking them."
Let me tell you, My Brethren and fathers, we who are in our opening
youth, we feel that, too. Good God! Our days spin round us now and our
weeks seem to be hissing through the air, leaving a track like that of
a burning brand. Work as we may, and some of us can say that we lose no
time in Christ's cause, yet we can do nothing. We seem to be like one
man alone against an innumerable host, or like a child seeking to
remove a mountain with its own puny hands.
Night is getting spent, we are growing sear, our years are flying by,
our deaths are coming on. Souls are dying– Hell is filling. All down
the cataract of destruction men are being plunged incessantly beyond
our sight, beyond our hope. We cannot do it. The more we feel our
responsibility, the more our infirmity oppresses us. My Lord, You have
called us to a work that is too hard! We cannot do it, Master. We come
to Your feet and we say we cannot give food to these multitudes to eat.
Mock us not. Command us not to impossibilities.
You have bid us preach the Gospel to every creature under Heaven. We
cannot reach them. We are too few. We are too feeble. We are too weak.
We are too devoid of talent. Master, we cannot do it! At Your feet we
are ready to fall in sheer despair. But hark! I hear the cries of the
multitude as they come up in our ears. They say to us, "We are
perishing– will you let us perish? We are famishing–will you let us
famish? Our fathers have gone down to Hell and our fathers' fathers
have perished for lack of the bread that came down from Heaven and will
you let us die?"
Across from Africa the multitudes look over the sea to us and they
beckon with their fingers–"Will you let us perish? Shall we forever be
hunting ground for those who delight in chains and bloodshed?" From
Asia they lift up the cry–"Will you always leave us? Shall we always
be the bond slaves of Juggernaut, Brahma, Servia and Vishnu?" From
Australia they cry to us, such as have not already perished. The
Aborigines cry, "Shall we never see the light of the Gospel? Shall we
never hear the Gospel?" And worse than the Aborigines, the wail of not
a few who remember in dreams the services of our sanctuaries, but have
forgotten in their labors the observance of our Sabbaths, their cry is
piercing, indeed.
Oh, how terrible is the wail–the combined wail that comes up from all
the nations under Heaven! One man in Paul's dream, who said, "Come over
and help us!" was enough to oblige him to action. And here are millions
not in a dream but in open vision, who all at once say, "Come and help
us." Did we say, just now, we could not? Surely we must recant our
words and say, "We must." Good Master, we must! If we cannot, we must.
We feel our weakness, but there is an impulse within us that says we
must do it and we cannot stop, we dare not–we were accursed if we did.
The blasts of Hell and the wrath of Heaven would fall upon us if we
renounced the task. The world's only hope– shall we put that out? The
lone star that gilds the darkness–shall we quench that? The saviors of
men, and shall we fold our arms and let them die? No! By the love we
bear for Your name–by the bonds that unite us to You–by everything
that is holy before God and humane in the sight of our fellow
mortals–by everything that is tender and gentle in the throbbing of
our hearts, and the yearning of our hearts–we say we must, though we
feel we cannot!
Yet there is a strong tendency in our hearts to shift personal
responsibility. "Let us send them away into the villages to buy meat."
We look towards some Bethsaida in the distance and say, "Let them go
there and get food." This is a strong temptation with many Churches.
Perhaps, you say, "We have not got all this work to do ourselves–there
are other Churches. Let them do their part. In all the suburbs of
London there are Chapels. There is the parish Church– cannot they hear
the Gospel there? There is the City Missionary going about after them.
What need is there that we should visit them? No doubt there are some
good men preaching in the street. Why should I do it? Let them go into
the villages and get meat."
Ah, but not so–the Master said to you, "You give them to eat." "YOU."
Let this Church feel that it should look upon the world as if it were
the only Church and do its utmost as if it had no helper under Heaven
but had all the work to do itself. And let the entire body of the
Church of our Lord Jesus Christ–instead of looking to societies for
evangelization, or to commerce, or to governments–remember that she is
the sole savior of the world. Christ never was incarnate in kings and
in princes. His incarnation today is in the sacramental host of His
elect.
If you ask me where is God on earth, I point to the man Christ Jesus.
If you ask me where is Christ on earth, I point you to His faithful
Church, called by His Spirit. As Christ was the world's hope, so is the
Church the world's hope–and she must take up the charge as if there
were not another. Instead of sending some to this town and some to
that, she must hear her Master say, "You give them to eat." I do fear,
dear Friends, that we are, many of us, getting into a very easy state
about perishing men, because we keep out of their way. To stop your
ears to the cries of the hungry, or shut your eyes to the wants of the
widow and the fatherless, is not the way to relieve famine.
Nor is it the way of doing good in the world, to avoid the haunts of
the poor and to leave the dens of desolation and sin. It is ours to
touch the leper with our healing finger, not to shrink from his
presence. It is ours to go and find out the stripped, and wounded, and
helpless of the sons of men, and then to pour in the oil and the wine.
Leave the priest and the Levite, if they will, to pass by on the other
side. Your Master asks of you, Christian, practical, personal service.
And your Christianity is worth nothing unless it makes you heed His
word–"You give them to eat"–unless it makes you, as individual
members, and as an united body, do God's work for the world's sake and
for Jesus Christ's sake.
I will tell you, the people of my charge, that the world's salvation is
given instrumentally into your hands. As far as your power lies, you
are to consider yourselves as the world's hope, and you are to act as
such. And what shall I say of you if, instead of accepting this charge
from Christ, you shall sit still and do nothing? If, after having built
this great house in which you meet, you should disregard others who
hear not the Word of Christ–if, being fed with Heaven's food
yourselves, you shall be satisfied to let others perish–I tell you
that, as a Church, Ichabod shall be written upon your brow!
The garments of this Church shall be rent and her veil shall be torn
away from her. She shall be set as a hissing. She shall be made a
pillar of salt, like Lot's wife throughout all generations, if she
dares to look back, now that the Master has called her to a great and
solemn work. He that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not
worthy of the kingdom. I have faith in you, dear Friends, but I have
more faith in my God. I have faith in you that you will not turn back
but accept the awful charge which devolves upon you of giving light to
the world. But if you reject it, I will be a swift witness against you
at the Last Great Day–that you knew your Master's will and that you
did it not–that you were called to the Master's service and you slunk
back again to indolence and sloth.
II. Having thus dwelt upon our mission and enlarged upon our weakness,
it is time to turn the topic and come TO OUR LINE OF DUTY AND THE
MASTER'S STRENGTH. Our line of duty begins, first of all, in immediate
obedience to Christ's first command–"Bring them to Me." "Five loaves,
Master, it is all we have; two fishes." "Bring them to Me." In Mark,
the words are used–"Go and see." They were to look in their wallets
and be quite sure that they had not any more. They were to rummage
among all their treasures and bring every crust, every piece of flesh,
or bread, to Christ.
"Bring them to Me." "Master, they are barley loaves; only five." "Bring
them to me." "There are two fishes. They are only two. They are not
worth thinking of. Let us keep them for ourselves." "No, bring them to
Me." "But they are such little fishes." "Bring them to Me," He says,
"bring them to Me." The Church's first duty is, when she looks to her
resources and feels them to be utterly insufficient for her work, still
to bring all that she has to Christ.
But how shall she bring them? Why, in many ways. She must bring them to
Christ in consecration. There is a Brother, yonder, who says, "Well, I
have but little money to spare!" "Never mind," says Christ, "let what
you have be brought to Me." "Ah," says another, "I have very little
time that I can spare in laboring to do good. "Bring it to Me." "Ah,"
says another, "but I have little ability; my stock of knowledge is very
slender; my speech is contemptible." "Bring it to Me." "Oh," says one,
"I could only teach in the Sunday school." "Bring it to Me." "Ah," says
another, "and I do not know that I could do that. I could but
distribute a tract." "Bring it to Me."
Every talent that the Church has is to be brought to Christ and
consecrated. And mark this–I speak a strong thing which some will not
be able to receive–anything which you have in this world, which you do
not consecrate to Christ's cause, you do rob the Lord of. Every true
Christian, when he gave himself to Christ, gave everything he had.
Nothing he has is his own–it is all the Master's. We are not true to
the Master's cause unless it is so. "What? not provide for our
families?" Yes, verily, but that is given to God. "Not provide for
ourselves?" Yes, verily, so long as you are not covetous.
Remember, it is your Master's business to provide for you. If He
provides for you through your own exertions, you are doing your
Master's work and receiving of His bounty, for it is His work to
provide for you. But still there must always be a thorough consecration
of everything you have to Christ. Where your consecration ends, your
honesty with God ends. How often you have made the vow in your hymn!
And will you not be true to your covenant with Him?–
"All that I am and all I have, Shall be forever Yours. Whatever my duty
bills me give, My cheerful hands resign. And if I might make some
reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God with zeal so great, That
I would give Him all."
"Bring them to Me"–not only in consecration but also in prayer. I
think our Prayer Meetings should be the seasons when the Church brings
up all her barley loaves and fishes to Christ. To get them blessed,
here we come together, great Master, around the altar. We are weak and
feeble, we come to be made strong. We have no power of ourselves, we
come that we may receive power from on high. And we wait in the Prayer
Meeting, as Your disciples did in the upper room at Jerusalem, till the
Spirit is poured out.
It is marvelous how a man with one talent can sometimes do ten times
more than a man with ten talents, for he has ten times the Grace. A
soldier, after all, is not always useful according to his weapon. Give
a fool an Armstrong gun and perhaps he will destroy himself with it.
Give a wise man but the poorest piece of firearm and you shall find,
with good and steady aim, and bold advance, he shall do more service
with his small weapon, than the other with far better arms.
So there are men who seem as if they might be leaders in God's house,
that are laggards, doing nothing–while there are others who are but
little in Israel, whom God, through His Grace, makes to be mighty.
Bring here, O you servants of the Lord, all that you have kept back,
pour all the tithes into His storehouse, that His House may be full.
Prove Me now, says the Lord of Hosts, if I do not open the windows of
Heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough
to receive it.
Let us bring all we have to Christ, likewise in faith, laying it all at
His feet, believing that His great power can make little means suffice
for mighty ends. "Lord, there are only five loaves"–they were five
loaves only when we had them in our hands. But now they are in Your
hands, they are food for five thousand men. "Lord, there are two
fishes"–they were paltry to insignificance while they were ours, but
Your touch has ennobled them and those little fishes shall become food
for that vast multitude. Blessed is that man who, feeling that he has
truly consecrated all to God, can say, "There is enough. I do not want
more talent. I do not need more substance. I would not wish to have
more. There is enough for my work. I know it is utterly insufficient in
itself, but our sufficiency is of God."
Oh, do not tell me, Sirs, that we, as a denomination, are too feeble to
do much good! Do not tell me that the Christianity of England is too
weak for the evangelization of the whole world. No such thing–there is
enough, there is plenty, if the Master pleases. If there were only six
good men living and these six were thoroughly consecrated to God, they
would be enough for the world's conversion. It is not the
multiplication of your means. It is not the complication of your
machinery. It is not the organization of your societies. It is not the
qualification of your secretaries for which God cares a whit–it is
your consecrated men who are wholly His and only His.
Let them believe that He can make them mighty and they shall be mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds. I hesitate not to say
that there are some pulpits that would be better empty than occupied.
There are some congregations to whom it would be far better if they had
no preacher at all–for, having a minister who is not ordained of God,
and not speaking by faith–they content themselves with things as they
are and grow listless. Were the sham taken away, they might cry out for
a real ministry. God would bestow on them one taught of the Holy
Spirit, who would speak with a tongue of fire, with inward witness and
with spiritual energy, resting his confidence in God's promises and
His Word.
Oh, dear Friends, we ought to believe that there is enough means if
Christ does but bless them, enough to bring in God's chosen ones.
"Bring them to Me," once more, in active service. That which is
dedicated to Christ in solemn covenant and in earnest prayer and in
humble faith, must be dedicated in active service. Are you all at work
for Christ? Members of this Church, I speak to you first–it is but
incidentally that I address other Believers here. Are you all doing
something for Christ? I think there should not be a single member of
this Church who is not somehow occupied for the Master.
Shall I except any? Except the weak upon their beds–but they can speak
a good word for Him when they are visited! Except the dying upon their
couches–but they can bear a blessed testimony to His faithfulness when
they are going through the river! Except the dumb–but they can act
religion, when they cannot speak it! Except the blind–but they can
sing His praises! Except the utterly incapacitated–but even these can
magnify the Lord by their patience. We ought, everyone of us, if we are
Christ's, to be serving Him.
Am I a son, and have I no duty to my father? Am I a husband and have I
no duties of kindness to the wife? Am I a servant and shall I be idle,
careless and disobedient? Is the Christian's the only name that is
merely nominal? Is this a barren title? Is this a medal to be worn? Is
this a kind of cross which Christians shall take when they have done no
deeds of arms, no valorous conflicts for Christ? Is the Christian only
a thing and not a living reality? The Lord have mercy upon such
Christians!
NOW, dear Friends, if you want any inducements to lead you to bring all
that you have to Christ, let me urge this. In bringing it to Him, put
your talent into His hands, whose hands were pierced for you. You give
to Him who is your dearest Friend. You give to Him who spared not the
blood of His heart that He might redeem you. Do you not love Him? Is it
not an honor to be permitted to show your love to so notable and noble
a Personage? We have heard of women that have worked, and all but
starved themselves, to bring food for their children. And as they put
the precious morsels into the little ones' mouths, they felt their toil
to be nothing, because they were giving it to those they loved. And so
with the Believer–we should feel that he most blesses himself when he
blesses Christ. And, indeed, when the Christian does anything for
Jesus, it more blesses him that gives than Him that receives.
Besides, when you give to Him, you have another inducement–that you
are thus giving to the multitudes. I know people think, when they are
doing something for the Church, that they are pleasing the minister. Or
pleasing the deacons. Oh, dear Friends, it is not so! What interest
have I in all the world but the love of poor souls? I pray that God,
who reads the heart, shall say at the Day of Judgment that there lives
not one who desires more disinterestedly the salvation of this world
than the minister who addresses you now! And I trust I can speak the
same of my Brethren in Christ, who long to see the world brought in.
Look at that hungry world and when you give the bread, let those eyes
that stare upon you, let those who eat so abundantly, thank you and let
that be a sufficient recompense for what you have done. There is a man,
I think, present now, who I remember, some two or three winters ago,
came to me to join the Church. And when I sat down in the room to talk
to him, I saw by the look of the poor man's face he wanted bread
natural as well as bread spiritual. So I said, "Before I talk to you, I
should like to see you a little refreshed." And we fetched him
something to eat. I looked at him for a minute, for I saw his eyes
glisten and I left the room, for fear he should not eat so much as if I
were there.
This, though I can tell you, when I saw the great pleasure with which
he ate, it would have been sufficient compensation to me if that little
had cost ten thousand pounds. And when you see the poor sinner lay hold
of Christ so greedily and yet so joyfully–hen you see his gleaming
eyes and the tears as they run down his cheeks–you will say, I am too
well paid to have done good to such a poor heart as this. Lord, it is
enough, I have fed these hungry souls.
Once again, bring your loaves and fishes to Christ instead of following
Christ to get loaves and fishes. Is it no inducement that you should,
yourself, be the distributor? When we were children and our father cut
off a small piece from the joint and sent it to a sick woman over the
road, do we not remember how Thomas, Mary, and Ann used to quarrel for
turns to take the basin over with the slice of meat? We always liked to
knock at the good women's door and say, "Please, we have brought
something for your dinner today." Children are always glad if there is
something to give away. If you put a penny into their hands, to give to
a poor blind man, how cheerfully they run! Just such a feeling as that
the Christian has, when out of his talent, which he has consecrated to
God, he does something for the world. He is going about among the ranks
and feeding them, and he has joy in the deed.
Then to close this point. "Bring them to Me and you shall have as much
left as you had when you brought them." They took up of the fragments
more than ever they gave. Christ will never let any man die in His
debt. What you have done unto Him is abundantly repaid, if not in
temporals, yet in spirituals. The fragments shall fill the baskets that
are so liberally emptied. You shall find that while watering others you
are yourself watered. The joy you impart shall be mutual. To do good is
to get good, and to distribute to others for Christ is the surest way
of enriching one's self.
The rest of the Believer's duty I will briefly sum up. When you have
brought your talents to Christ and have a conscientiousness of your
great mission, your next duty is to look up. Thank God for what you
have got–look up! Say– "There is nothing in what I do. There is
nothing in my prayers, my preaching, my goings, my doings, except You
bless the whole. Lord, bless it!" Then, when you have blessed, break.
Remember the multiplication never came till after the division and the
addition did not begin till the subtraction took place.
So, then, begin to break, do good, and communicate. Go abroad and
actively serve the Master, and when you have thus broken and have thus
distributed to others, mind that you only distribute from Christ's own
hand. You are to put your talents and abilities into Christ's hand. He
gives the blessing on it. Then He gives it back to you–afterwards, you
give it to the people. If I give you bread from this pulpit to eat,
that is my own–it will be of no use to you. But if, having gotten it
in my study, I put it in the hand of Christ, and come up here and
Christ hands it back to me and I give it to you, you shall be fed to
the full.
This is Christ's way of blessing men. He does not give the blessing
first to the world–it is to His disciples and then the disciples to
the multitude. We get in private what we distribute in public. We have
access to God as His chosen favorites. We come near to Him. He gives to
us, we give to others.
Dear Friends, I began by setting before you a great and high mission.
First, I made you say, "We cannot." Then I tried to make you say, "We
must." And now I want to end by making you say "We can." Yes! Christ is
with us, and we can! God is for us and we can! The Holy Spirit is in us
and we can! God the Holy Spirit calls us, Jesus Christ the Son of God
cheers us, God the Father smiles upon us. We can! We must! We will! The
kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ.
But have we believed in Christ ourselves? If not, we can do nothing.
Come to Jesus first, then work for Jesus. Give Him your own heart
first, then give Him all that you have. So shall He accept your
offering and bless your soul for His name's sake.