DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great hea viness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I were accursed from Christ
for my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh, who are Israelites,
to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and
the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose
are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who
is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." Romans 9:1-5.
WHAT an intense man Paul was! Once convince him and his whole nature
moved in the direction which he judged to be right. He was
whole-hearted when he persecuted the Church of God and he was equally
whole-hearted when, afterwards, he labored with all his might to build
up the Church which he had sought to destroy! I would to God we were
all as thorough-going in the service of our Lord! The pity is that so
many professing Christians appear to have no heart, while others borrow
a heart for some occasions but do not seem to keep one permanently
beating in their own bosoms. O for a warm, engine-like heart all
consecrated and forever pulsing mightily!
What a change was worked in Saul of Tarsus, that he who was so ardent a
persecutor should become so fervent a preacher! His conversion is one
of the proofs of the Divinity of Christianity. The study of the story
of Paul was the means of the conversion of Lord Lyttleton who read it
with the design of exposing it as a hoax. His friend, Gilbert West,
was, at the same time, considering the resurrection of our Lord in a
similar spirit and, happily, with the same result–the friends met to
unite in the joint conviction that the Bible is the Word of God! Dr.
Johnson says of Lyttleton's, "Observations upon the Conversion and
Apostleship of St. Paul," "it is a treatise to which infidelity has
never been able to fabricate a specious answer."
Consider for a moment the renowned conversion of Paul. It was
singularly Providential that just at that period when the Church needed
such a man, the Apostle with his remarkable education, his noble
purpose and his acquaintance with Jewish and Greek literature, should
have been called out from the world and placed in the very forefront of
the battle for Christ! Truly might he say that he was not a whit behind
the very chief of the Apostles, though in his humility, he felt himself
to be nothing. No name in the Christian Church can be pronounced with
greater honor after that of our glorious Master than the name of Paul
who was, indeed, a wise master builder.
When you remember what he was by nature, you will marvel at the
extraordinary change of thought and feeling which was worked in him! He
who was cruel to the saints, who gave his voice against Stephen and
held the garments of those that stoned him, became tenderhearted as a
nurse towards her child! Though his Jewish brethren terribly persecuted
him and pursued him from city to city, there is not a trace of
resentment in any word he writes! Rather, he is full of gentleness. The
lion had become a lamb and he that breathed out threats breathed out
prayers! He who seemed to burn with enmity became a flame of love!
Dear Friends, before we go any further, pause and answer this
question–has such a change as this been worked in you? Perhaps you
have never been conspicuously a blasphemer or a persecutor as Paul was,
but still, if converted, there will have been a very wonderful change
in you. Old things will have passed away and all things will have
become new. Do you feel that and do you recognize the change both in
your inner and outer life? If not, you must be born again! Unless you
are converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the
kingdom of God!
Our first thought, after reading this passage, is, what a wonderfully
tender and loving preacher Paul must have been. One of the early
fathers was known to say that he wished he could have seen Solomon's
temple in its glory, Rome in its prosperity and Paul preaching! I think
the last the grandest sight of the three! Oh, to have heard him speak!
It might have shamed us into deeper tones of earnestness. Though, I
suppose, his oratory was not very astonishing as mere rhetoric, for
some said his speech was contemptible, yet it must have been
wonderfully powerful upon the heart, for it abounded in sighs and tears
and other tokens of evident emotion! Besides, his awful intensity of
look and tone must have made his discourses irresistible!
He would never have written as he has done in his Epistles if he had
been one who could speak with icicles hanging about his lips. He must
have spoken from a burning heart which shot forth red-hot bolts of
fiery words! He poured his language out like lava from a volcano from
the flaming furnace of his soul! His sentences burned their way into
the hearts of those who heard him! Brother, if you are called to preach
the Gospel, let Paul be your model! I reckon that we never preach
aright unless we pour out our inmost soul! And unless we long and
hunger and thirst for the conversion of our hearers, we might as well
be in bed and asleep! We shall teach them to be indifferent if we,
ourselves, are indifferent.
If it will satisfy us to read through a little essay or to speak a few
godly words without heart and life, we are not called to the
ministry–we are not sent, for we feel no woe upon us! We have not the
anointing, for the live coal from off the altar has never blistered our
lips! John Bunyan says that he often felt, while preaching, that he
would give up his own salvation for the salvation of his hearers–and I
pity the man who has not felt the same. To preach with the harps of
angels ringing in your ears, anxious that all your hearers should
stand, at last, among the elect company above, or to preach with the
groans of Hell rising in your ears and piercing your heart, anxious
beyond all things that no man who listens to your voice should ever
come into that place of torment–this is the Pauline style! The style
of Demosthenes, the manner of Cicero, the method of the forum–these
are nothing! Commend me to the eloquence of Paul and to the oratory of
his Master, for Paul was a great preacher because he caught his
Master's spirit and spoke in the manner of Him of whom they said of
old, "Never man spoke like this Man."
Now, coming to the text and dwelling upon it, I shall want to notice
first, the persons about whom Paul felt the anxiety which he expresses.
Then, secondly, we shall look further into the character of that
anxiety. And, lastly, we shall dwell awhile upon the excellence of each
one of us feeling just as Paul did, for a thousand good results would
follow if God the Spirit would bring us to the same condition of heart!
I. First, then, WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE FOR WHOM PAUL WAS ANXIOUS BEYOND
MEASURE? To begin with, they were his worst enemies! The name of Paul
brought the blood into the face of a Jew. He spat in rage. More than 40
of them had bound themselves with an oath that they would slay him and
the whole company of the circumcised seemed, wherever he went, to be
moved by the same impulse. He frequently gathered large congregations
of Gentiles who attended to him earnestly, but the Jews stirred up
riots and mobs and, frequently, he was in danger of his life from them.
They detested him, regarding him as an accursed apostate from the faith
of his fathers.
Remembering how earnest he had been against Christ, they could not
believe in his sincerity when he became a Christian, or, if they did,
they hated him as a fanatic whose delusion was mischievous beyond
measure. His generous retaliation was to pray for them–no, more–to
carry the whole nation on his heart as a burden. "I have great
heaviness," says he, "and continual sorrow of heart for my kinsmen
according to the flesh." Now, if any of you, in following Christ,
should meet with opposition, avenge it in the same way! Love most the
man who treats you worst! If any man would kill you in his anger, kill
him with your loving prayers. If he strikes you on one cheek, turn to
him the other, also, in submission and lift both hands and eyes to
Heaven and cry, "Father forgive them, for they know not what
they do!"
Never let oppressors see your anger. They will observe your emotion and
your grief and they will perceive that you are naturally vexed and
troubled, but let them also see that you bear them no malice and only
desire their welfare. I commend this to those who have a hard fight for
Christ in the workroom, in the midst of sneers and jests. Never use the
devil's weapons, though they lie very handy and look very suitable.
Only use Christ's Omnipotent weapon of love and so shall you be His
disciples.
Next, these people for whom Paul was in so much concern were his
kinsfolk according to the flesh. It is well said that charity must
begin at home, for he that does not care for his own household is worse
than a heathen and a publican. He
who does not desire the salvation of those who are his own kin, "how
dwells the love of God in him?" Christianity is expansive–it makes the
bosom glow with love to all that God has made–but, at the same time,
our love does not expand so as to lose force and this is seen when it
turns its power towards those who are nearest home. Is your husband
unsaved? O Woman, love him to Christ! Is your child unconverted? O
Parent, pray that child to Christ! Are your neighbors still out of
Christ? Lay them on your heart as an intercessor before God on their
account–and cease not to plead till they are saved!
Think much of the heathen–by all means regard India and China and the
like–but do not forget Newington, Butts, Lambeth and Southwark, or
wherever else it is your lot to live! Next to your homes let your own
neighborhoods be first of all considered and then your country, for all
Englishmen are kin! Wherever we wander we are proud of our common
country and, like the Romans of old, we are somewhat quick to make
known our citizenship. Therefore, let us never cease to plead for this
beloved island and our kinsmen according to the flesh! Paul prayed for
his countrymen and never let us bear within our bones a soul so dead as
to forget our native land!
We may regard those for whom he prayed, in the next light, as persons
of great privileges–a very important point. They had privileges by
birth–"who are Israelites." Many of you are highly favored. You are
not Israelites, but you are the children of godly parents which is much
the same thing. Almost the first sound you ever heard from your
mother's lips was the voice of prayer for you. You can remember when
you were taken, for the first time, to the House of Prayer, when,
perhaps, you did not understand anything, but still, your godly friends
thought it well that you should sit, in your earliest days, in the
courts of the Lord's house! In that sense you are like the Jews. You
have the privilege of being born in the midst of holy and gracious
influences–an advantage not to be despised.
Those poor gutter children, born, we scarcely know where, who pine in
poverty and breathe an atmosphere of vice–their young ears are from
the first so much acquainted with the voice of blasphemy that they will
never tingle should the profanity of Hell be let loose around them.
Those, I say, start in the race of life under terrible disadvantages!
But you, some of you, have had everything in your favor! For you, the
path of right is smooth and there are many beckoning you to walk in it.
And yet we tremble for you, lest you, with other children of the
kingdom, should be cast out while many come from the east and from the
west and sit down at the banquet of Grace! If there are any people we
ought to pray for above others, it seems to me they are the unconverted
who live in the light but will not see–who have the bread of Heaven
upon the table before them but will not eat–who have Free Grace and
dying love sounding in their ears, but yet refuse the wondrous message
of Grace! Beloved, let us not rest unless we feel a deep concern for
those who stand on a par with Israelites, since they have the privilege
of being born under a Christian roof.
The objects of Paul's prayer had yet a higher privilege, for it is
said, "to whom pertains the adoption." There was an outward adoption.
"Israel is my first-born," says God. Israel enjoyed national advantages
and we, also, living in such a land as this, possess innumerable Gospel
privileges. England is, as it were, the favorite of Heaven! God has
been pleased to adopt the nation as His child, giving it special
liberty, an open Bible, the free proclamation of the Gospel and the
Church of God in the midst of it to be its light. To Israel belonged
the glory, too. That is to say, God had revealed Himself in their midst
from the Mercy Seat in the bright light of the Shekinah.
And, oh, in this very House of Prayer, I am sure I may say it, the Lord
has manifested His Glory very wonderfully! How many hundreds have been
turned from darkness to light in this place! At times the power of God
has been gloriously revealed. It was so last Sunday evening! We felt
it, we distinctly recognized it and we are looking for many to come
forward to declare what God did for souls on that occasion! Well, then,
if you have seen this Glory, if you have heard the glorious Gospel, if
you have felt, in some degree the working of the gracious Spirit and
have had some longings, some wishes towards salvation, what a sad thing
will it be if, after all, you should be cast away! I fear that this
will be true of many of you and I have great heaviness in my heart at
the thought!
And then they had the first hold of all the spiritual gifts which the
Lord bestowed upon the sons of men. They had, as it were, a monopoly of
Light and Truth among them. The Jewish people had been singularly
favored–they had seen God revealing His Son to them by types, by
priests, by sacrifices, by the temple, by a thousand signs and marks.
Verily the kingdom of God had come very near to them. But the
privileges of the Jews were not greater than the privileges of men and
women who hear the Gospel in these days, for Christ is not so well seen
in bleeding bulls and rams and hyssop
and scarlet wool as He is seen in the preaching of the Gospel! In the
Gospel, God has torn the veil and made bare His heart to us in the
Person of His dying Son.
You have no longer to search for the mind of God by mysterious
hieroglyphs–it is written in plain letters and the wayfaring man,
though a fool, need not err therein! You have but to hear it and with
the exercise of an ordinary understanding, the letter of its meaning
may be comprehended. And if there is a willing heart, no matter how
small the capacity of the mind, there is intellect enough to receive
the saving Truth of God! You do not now live in the moonlight of the
Jewish dispensation, but you bask in the noontide sunlight of the Truth
of God! God, who spoke to our fathers by the Prophets, has, in these
last days, spoken to us by His Son who is the express image of His
Person and the brightness of His Glory! "See that you refuse not Him
that speaks."
Because we fear you may do so, our heart is heavy and we have sorrow of
heart for some of you. We are distressed for you whose feeling comes
and goes like the midnight meteor. Your case is one of such peril that
we are deeply concerned about you. O God, help all Your servants to
feel what a dreadful thing it will be for persons so highly privileged
to be lost forever! I should not have completed the subject if I did
not say that Paul had a great concern for these people because he saw
them living in the commission of great sin. Some of them were
exceedingly moral and the bulk of them extremely religious, yet they
were living in gross sin! Do you know what is the greatest of sins? It
is to be at enmity with God! The most damning of iniquities is to
refuse Christ!
Did God send out of His bosom His only-begotten Son to die for men and
do men reject Him? Ah, this is worse than rejecting the Law! This is
worse than rejecting the Gospel! It is a direct personal insult to the
loving God–this rejecting the Son of God, His only Son, His bleeding,
dying Son! Here sin reaches its climax and surpasses itself in infamy!
These men rejected Christ and set up their phylacteries, their paying
of tithes of anise and mint and cumin, their fasting thrice in the week
and I know not what trifles besides, in insulting competition with the
Savior! In the same manner at this hour, many persons value their
external religiousness above faith in Jesus. They attend to the
ceremonies of this Church or of the other and refuse the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ! The greatest of sins lies there!
You may as easily be lost religiously as irreligiously unless your
religion is God's religion and is based upon faith in His dear Son!
This grieved the Apostle, that they were mad against Him whom they
ought to have loved, and were violent against Him in whom they should
have believed, so that they had become a race anathematized from
Christ! I know he means that, because he says he could wish that he
himself could stand in their place and take that anathema upon himself
which he felt was upon them. They had said, "His blood be on us and on
our children" and Paul knew that it would be! He remembered the
Master's words when He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I
have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings and you would not! Behold your house is left unto you
desolate." He could see in spirit the siege of Jerusalem–the most
tremendous of all human slaughters–the most fearful of all scenes of
blood enacted on the face of the earth! And His heart sank within him
and his spirit quailed at the thought of the tremendous judgment!
Some in these days describe the penalty of sin as though it were a
trifle. I beseech you, do not regard it such! If I had one dying before
me whom I loved, if I was in any fear about the salvation of that dying
person, I would not say, "Perhaps when you go out of this world you may
be unsaved, but there is a larger hope, and I would not have you
distress yourself about immediate repentance, for mercy may come to you
in another state." Sirs, I dare no more talk that way than administer a
draught of poison to one I love! No, rather would I say. "My Brother,
my Sister, it is now or never with you. Seek the Lord while He may be
found! Call upon Him while He is near! For when once the Master of the
house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and
knock and to say, 'Lord, Lord, open unto me,' He will not say, 'Wait a
while. I will open by-and-by,' but His final reply will be, 'Verily I
say unto you, I know you not.'"
There is no hope of blessing for those who die impenitent anyhow or
anywhere! They must depart, depart, depart, and that forever! O my
Hearer, I beseech you, do not run the risk of the everlasting wrath of
God! May God help you, by His infinite mercy, to feel how terrible a
thing it is to be out of Christ, for our God is a consuming fire and it
is written, "Beware you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and
there be none to deliver."
Now the thought of all this made the Apostle feel great heaviness and
continual sorrow in his heart for his brethren, his kinsfolk according
to the flesh. If he had thought that they would be annihilated when
they died, he would have had no heaviness about them. If men and women
are nothing, after all, but cats and dogs and have no immortal souls,
I, for
one, will never bother my head about them. If they can die, let them
die–it is nothing to me that they should be immortal! It is because I
know that they are immortal and if they die unsaved they will have
forever to endure the wrath of God that my soul feels and desires to
feel more than ever, a continual heaviness of heart concerning every
unsaved soul that still lives! May God grant us more of this heaviness
of spirit! May we be deeply pained by that dread, awful,
overwhelming–I will even dare to add–horrifying thought of souls
being lost forever!
II. I have spoken enough, then, as to the persons for whom Paul was
anxious. Now let us notice, secondly, HIS DESCRIPTION OF THIS ANXIETY,
which was very truthful. There was no sham about it. It is pretty easy
to work yourself up into a state of feeling, but it was not passing
emotion with Paul, it was deep, true, constant grief. He says, "I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness
in the Holy Spirit." He did not fancy that he felt, but he really was
heart-broken for guilty souls. He did not sometimes get up into that
condition or down into it, but he lived in it. "I lie not," he says, "I
do not speak more than the truth. I do not exaggerate." For fear he
should not be believed he asserts as strongly as is allowed to a
Christian man–"I say the truth in Christ. I lie not."
His was true heaviness, real sorrow. Do we feel the same, or is it only
a little excitement at a revival meeting, a chance feeling which passes
over us through sympathy with other people who are earnest? May the
Lord plow your soul deep, dear Friend! If He means you to be a
soul-winner, He will. May the plowers make deep furrows upon your
heart, as once they did upon your Master's back! You are not fit to
carry souls on your heart till it has been bruised with grief for them.
You must feel deeply for the souls of men if you are to bless them.
Paul's feeling was very gracious. It was not an animal feeling, or a
natural feeling–it was a gracious feeling, for He says–"I say the
truth in Christ." When he was nearest to his Lord. When he felt most
his union with Christ and communion with Him, then he felt that he did
mourn over men's souls.
It was truth in Christ that he was expressing because he was one with
Christ! He had a love for sinners because his very soul was knit to
Christ. He had a heaviness such as his Master knew when He, also, was
very heavy and sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, in the day of
His passion. O Beloved, we need the Spirit of God to work this feeling
in us! It is of no use to try to get it by reading books, or to pump
yourself up to it in private–this feeling is the work of God! A
soul-winner is a creation. As a Christian has to be created, so out of
a Christian the soul-winner has to be fashioned. There has to be a
careful preparation, a softening of the soul to make the worker know
how naturally to care for the welfare of others. Paul had been trained
and qualified for soul-saving work. He says that his conscience bore
him witness that he spoke the truth and then he says the Holy Spirit
bore witness with his conscience. May we have such a manifest love for
sinners that we can ask the Holy Spirit to bear witness that we have
it!
Brothers, Sisters, I am sometimes afraid that our zeal for conversion
would not stand the test of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we want to
increase our denomination, or enlarge our Church for our own honor. Or
we want to get credit for doing good, or to feel that we have power and
influence over others. None of these motives can be tolerated! Our
concern for souls must be worked in us by the Holy Spirit. It must come
irresistibly upon us and become a master passion. Just as the birds,
when the eggs are in the nest, have upon them what the Greeks call an
oropyn–a natural feeling that they must sit on those eggs and that
they must feed those little fledglings which will come from the
eggs–so if God calls you to win souls, you will have a natural love
for them, a longing worked in you by the Holy Spirit so that the whole
of your being will run out in that direction, seeking the salvation of
men!
Then the Apostle goes on to say that he had great heaviness–not only
heaviness, but great heaviness. Was he, therefore, an unhappy man? By
no means! He had great joy in other things, though he had great
heaviness on this point. We are not to imagine that Paul went about
publicly groaning and sighing because Israel was not saved. Oh, no! He
rejoiced in the Lord and bade others rejoice. But still there was the
skeleton in the closet–a silent, heartbreaking grief was on him. We
are many men in one and each man is a very complicated piece of mental
machinery. We can be in great heaviness and in great exultation at the
same time! Whenever Paul's thoughts turned towards his Jewish brethren,
a great heaviness came upon him. It bore him down and he would have
sunk under it if it had not been for sustaining Grace. "O God," he
said, "shall my nation perish? Shall my people die? Shall my kinsmen be
anathema? Shall it come to this, that they shall hear the Gospel in
vain and perish, after all?"
He had great heaviness and he tells us that this did not come on him at
times, but that he always felt it whenever his thoughts turned that
way–I have "continual sorrow in my heart." In his very heart, for it
was not a superficial desire. A
continual sorrow, for it was no fitful emotion. It always grieved him
to think that his kinsmen should reject Christ. He thought of Jerusalem
and of its doom. He thought of his brethren and their unbelief–and
then he thought of how they had been the enemies of Christ and,
therefore, sorrow filled his heart. I could wish that in full many a
professor the same sorrow reigned, for then there would be much more
holy work done for souls! The strongest expression which Paul uses is
that which is contained in the third verse, "For I could wish that I
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the
flesh."
The margin reads, "separated from Christ." Now this text has so puzzled
the expositors that they have done their very best to kill it and tear
out its heart–to get rid of its obvious meaning. They have invented
all kinds of interpretations, such as that he did once wish himself
separated from Christ. Now, do you think the Apostle Paul would have
begun by saying, "I say the truth in Christ. I lie not," and so on, if,
after all that mountain of expression, he was going to bring out this
little insignificant sense, that once upon a time he also wished to be
separated from Christ? Besides, the Greek does not bear such a
preposterous rendering! Our version has given, as fully as it could,
the meaning of the Apostle. The gentlemen who like to dissect texts and
pull them to pieces say, "Well, but he could not have wished to be an
enemy to Christ, an enemy to God and to be lost–and yet he could not
be lost without being an enemy to Jesus."
My dear Friends, if you take passionate expressions to pieces with icy
hands, you will never understand anything which comes from the heart!
Of course the Apostle never thought of wishing that he could be an
enemy to Christ! But he did, sometimes, look at the misery which comes
upon those who are separated from Christ until he felt that if he could
save his kinsmen by his own destruction, yes–by himself enduring their
heavy punishment–he could wish to stand in their place. He did not say
that he ever did wish it, but he felt as if he could wish it when his
heart was warm. His case was parallel with that of Moses when he prayed
the Lord to spare the people and said, "If not, blot my name out of the
Book
of Life."
Do you think He wished it done? No! It was because that blotting out
would have been, to him, the most horrible thing supposable that,
therefore, he went even to that length for the good of his people!
Because the last of all things the Apostle could have thought of was
being separated from Christ, therefore he says there were times when he
could even have borne that most horrible, unthinkable thing if he could
but have saved the people! Is there a minister of Christ who has not,
sometimes, used expressions which cool logic could never justify? Why,
Sirs, love knows nothing of grammar even in its common talk! A true
passion grinds words to dust. When the heart is full of love, even the
boldest hyperboles are simple truths! Extravagances are the natural
expression of warm hearts even in ordinary things and, when a man's
whole soul gets to seething like a caldron and boiling like a pot with
sympathy and pity for men that are being lost, he speaks what, in cold
blood, he never would have said.
What the cool doctrinalist pulls to pieces and the critic of words
regards as being altogether absurd, true zeal, nevertheless, feels!
Some of us have felt, at times, that our lives would have been cheaply
spent a thousand times over by the bloodiest and most cruel deaths if
we could save our hearers! And there have been moments of passion when
we have been ready to say, "Ah, if even my destruction could save them,
I could almost go that length." Why this is Christ's method! This is
Christ's method! "He saved others, Himself He could not save." It may
be an extravagance in us, since we are not able to redeem our Brothers
and Sisters or give God a ransom, but it is a blessed extravagance! Men
are extravagantly prudent, nowadays, extravagantly dubious,
extravagantly profane–and some of them extravagantly able to deny what
their conscience must know is true!
They may, therefore, well permit the minister of Christ to be
extravagant in his love for others. I like a bit of hyperbole in our
hymns. For instance, I admire the extravagance of that verse of
Addison's–
"But, oh, eternity's too short To utter half Hispraise."
A gentleman said to me," That cannot be, because eternity cannot be
short and, therefore, it cannot be too short!" If the Lord had put a
drop of poetry into that critic's nature, he would not have dealt so
harshly with the poet's language! And if the same Lord had put a little
of the fire of Grace into the nature of some hard-headed commentators,
they would have understood that this passage is not meant to be cut to
pieces and discussed–but it is intended to be taken boiling hot and
poured upon the enemy after the fashion of the olden times, when they
poured melted lead or boiling pitch upon the besiegers who wished to
take a tower or city!
Such a text as this must be fired off red-hot! It spoils if it cools!
It is a heart business, not a head business! The Apostle means us to
understand that there was nothing which he would not suffer if he might
save his kindred according to the
flesh.
III. Well, now, I close my sermon by speaking upon THE EXCELLENCIES OF
THIS SPIRIT, because I pray the Lord to work it in each of you. I wish
all felt it, but there are generally some in every Church who will
never warm up to the right point. If we could once get the whole Church
up to blood heat, we might be content. I never want you to get to fever
heat, but to blood heat–the heat of the blood of Christ–to love as He
loved! Oh, to get there and to stay there! Well, what would be the
result, if we all felt as Paul did? The first effect would be likeness
to Christ! After that manner He loved–He did become a curse for us! He
entered under the awful shadow of Jehovah's wrath for us. He did what
Paul could wish but could not do. He passed under the awful sword that
we might be delivered from its edge forever!
Brethren, I want you to feel that you would pass under poverty if you
could save souls better by being poor! That you would gladly endure
sickness if from your sick bed you could speak better for Christ than
now! Yes, and that you would be ready to die if your death might give
life to those dear to you! I heard of a dear girl, the other day, who
said to her pastor, "I could never bring my father to hear you, but I
have prayed for him long and God will answer my request. Now, dear
pastor," she said, "you will bury me, won't you? My father must come
and hear you speak at my grave. Do speak to him, then. God will bless
him." And he did and her father was converted! The death of his child
brought him to
Christ!
Oh to be willing to die if others may be saved from the eternal death!
God give us just such a spirit as that! This should be our constant
feeling–how else can we become like Christ? If we have this spirit it
will save us from selfishness. They say–but it is a great
falsehood–that we teach people to look after their own salvation and
then, being saved, we bid them wrap themselves up in self-content. Was
anything ever spoken more contrary to fact? We do urge men to seek to
be saved from sin! How can they bear to abide in it? But the first
instinct of a saved soul, to which we continually appeal, is a longing
to bring others to Christ! Yet, Brothers and Sisters, lest there should
grow up in your spirit any of that Pharisaic selfishness which was seen
in the elder brother in the parable, ask to feel a heaviness for your
prodigal younger brother who is still feeding swine!
Pray for him that he may come to his father's house. It will keep your
soul sweet if you open the window of sympathy and let the heavenly air
of love blow through you. This will save you from any difficulty about
forgiving other people. I do not suppose that Paul forgave the Jews for
what they did to him, because he never went the length of thinking that
he had anything to forgive–he loved them so much that he took their
ill usage without anger or resentment! He loved them and, therefore, he
bore with them. You will bear with those who scoff at you and you will
put up with the idleness of the boys and girls in your class if you
love them! Love mankind with all your soul and you will feel no
difficulty in exercising patience, forbearance and forgiveness.
This spirit will also keep you from very many other griefs. Some people
are always fretting for need of something to fret about. No people are
more uneasy than those who have nothing to do and nothing to think
about! Such persons keep a little growlery in the house and use it as a
trouble factory where they invent grievances. There are people that I
know of who ought to be as merry as the birds of the morning and yet
they are always worrying and stewing about nothing at all. Now, the
best way to kill one grief is to introduce another. John Foster wrote
of the expulsive power of a new affection and I want you to experience
it. Get love for the souls of men–then you will not be whining about a
dead dog, or a sick cat, or about the conceits of a family and the
little disturbances that John and Mary may make by their idle talk. You
will be delivered from petty worries (I need not further describe them)
if you are concerned about the souls of men!
When certain persons come to me with their sentimental sorrows, I wish
the Lord would fill them with the love of souls and make their hearts
break with anxiety for their conversion–then would their griefs be of
a nobler sort. You would no longer weep over a mole hill if you began
to move mountains! Get your soul full of a great grief and your little
griefs will be driven out. These thoughts of Paul about his brethren
cause us to feel that we, too, may make our lives sublime if in our
hearts there shall burn the same ardent affection towards our fellow
men. If you are moved by this feeling, it will put you much upon
prayer. You will bring one and another before God, because you cannot
help it. That is the right style of praying–when a man does not pray
at a set time because it is his rule, but prays because he has an awful
weight upon him and pray he must!
You cannot force yourself to this, but when the Spirit of God has
brought you to it, you will pray day and night for those whom you love!
As you go down the road, something will suggest your praying for them.
The very oaths and blasphemies so common in our streets will make you
pray for sinners. A gracious meeting where some are saved will move you
to prayer. A thousand things will lead you to pray and that prayer will
lead you to effort–to proper and fitting effort. It is wonderful how a
man can talk to souls when he loves them! If any one of you should say,
"I do not feel any particular concern about other people's souls, but
still, I will look out for somebody and speak to him," you will fail in
it, Brothers and Sisters. You must love before you can plead! You must
have such a concern for a man that you feel even if you could not say
anything, still, you could put your hand on his shoulder and blurt out,
"Friend, I am concerned about your salvation." The evident concern of
your spirit will be one of God's ways of touching the hearts of others.
I suppose His Spirit has used deep emotion more than almost any other
instrument in arousing careless minds.
Now, tonight, a good many of our friends are away, for the lawful
claims of business detain them at this season. I hope that you who have
come here on such a week evening are among those who aspire to the
highest things in the kingdom of God. Do so, I pray you–they are all
before you and within reach–and among them, aspire after great
sensitiveness as to others. Let other men's sins grieve you! Let their
eternal destiny be often on your mind! No better spur can be needed.
You will labor for their good in proportion as you feel for them. I do
not think that I can ask a better thing for the unconverted than that
the converted may be in heaviness over them!
We long to see many enquirers coming forward. Very well. Enquiring
saints always bring enquiring sinners. "For this will I be enquired of
by the house of Israel"–not by the sinners first of all–but "by the
house of Israel, to do it for them." My Brethren, go and enquire at the
Lord's hands and then you will soon prove a blessing to others!