DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 18, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"You crown the year with Your goodness." Psalm 65:11.
(The second Sermon in commemoration of the completion of 25 years of
his Ministry in the midst of the Church assembling in the Tabernacle).
GODLY men in olden times felt God to be very near them and they
attributed everything they saw in Nature to the direct operation of His
hand. They were not accustomed to speak of "the laws of matter," "the
operation of natural forces" and "the outcome of different causes."
They thought more of the First Cause, the foundation and pillar of all
existence–and they saw Him at work on all sides. Hear how the Psalmist
sings, "You make the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
You visit the earth and water it. You prepare them corn when you have
so provided for it. You water the ridges thereof abundantly; you settle
the furrows thereof: you make it soft with showers; you bless the
springing thereof. You crown the year with Your goodness."
God was very near in those days. As Herbert says–
"One might ha ve sought and found You presently At some fair oak, or
bush, or cave, or well." If the result of our philosophy has been to
put God farther off from the consciousness of His creatures, God save
us from such philosophy and let us get back, again, into the simple
state in which we were children at home and God, our great Father,
worked all things for us! Let us note the distinct mention of God
throughout the Psalm, for it is well worthy of notice. And let our
speech be more after the olden sort–with less of our supposed
knowledge in it and a good deal more concerning the Presence and the
goodness of God.
I am not about to use our text in reference to the outside world and to
the husbandry of man, but we shall see how true it is within the
Church, which is the husbandry of God. The language was meant to
describe the field of Nature. but it is equally true of the garden of
the Church. I am going to use the text in this way because of the
peculiar circumstances under which we meet, celebrating, as we do, the
25th year of our happy union together as pastor and flock–a period
which has, to the fullest extent been crowned with the goodness of the
Lord! If I use the text for spiritual purposes I shall not err, for
there is always a most striking analogy between the world of Grace and
the world of Nature so that it would be hard to find anything said by
Inspiration concerning the visible world which might not be correctly
spoken with regard to the spiritual world.
But I do not depend upon that fact for my justification–I refer you to
the Psalm itself. It is clear that it was written to praise God, not
alone for His works in the harvest field and abroad upon the sea, but
for His wonderful goodness towards His people, for thus the Psalm
begins, "Praise waits for You, O God, in Sion." It is Zion's hymn which
lies before us and, therefore, the Church which Zion represented may
well appropriate the language and use it for herself! She may well say,
concerning all the Lord's mercy to her in her plowing, her sowing, her
watching and the glad harvest of her spiritual husbandry, "You crown
the year with Your goodness."
The spirit of the text is joyful gratitude and my soul is so filled
with it that I do not need so much to preach to you as to lead you in
holy adoration of God for the great mercies with which He has
surrounded us as a Church and congregation from the first day even
until now!
I. And so our first head is DIVINE GOODNESS ADORED. "You crown the year
with Your goodness." Whatever of acceptable service we have rendered
and whatever of real success we have achieved has come from the Lord of
Hosts who has worked all our works in us! Whatever holy results may
have followed from earnest efforts and whatever honor
has redounded unto God from them is the Lord's doings and it is
marvelous in our eyes! "Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto Your
name be glory for Your mercy and for Your Truth's sake." Your goodness,
not ours, has crowned the work! Your goodness, indeed, makes every good
work good and gives to every good its crown. From its first conception,
even to its ultimate conclusion, all virtue is of You. From blade to
full corn all the harvest is of You, O Lord, and to You let it be
ascribed! Let us, therefore, praise the Lord with all our hearts for 25
years of prayer and effort, of planning and working, of believing and
rejoicing which He has crowned with His goodness!
We will try to follow the run of the Psalm and our first note shall be
this–praise must be for God alone. "Praise waits for You, O God, in
Sion." Not for men, nor for priests, nor for pastors, presbyters,
bishops, ministers, or whatever you choose to call them–"Praise waits
for YOU, O God, in Sion." Whoever shall have done well in the midst of
the Church, let him have the love of his Brethren, but let all the
praise be unto You, O Most High! Far be it for the axe to exalt itself
and forget him that fells therewith, or for the sword to deprive the
conqueror of his glory. Praise is silent while the best of men are
passing by–it lays its finger on its lips till the Lord approaches and
then bursts forth in gladsome song because He appears!
Whatever else you do, my Brothers and Sisters, be sure that your soul
magnifies the Lord and abhors the very idea of self-glorification. If
the Lord has blessed you, shake off, as Paul shook off the viper from
his hand, any idea of ascribing praise to yourself! We are mere vanity
and to us belong shame and confusion of face–these are, so to speak,
our belongings–the only dowry our fathers have left to us. What are we
that the Lord should bless us? Did you bring a soul to Christ the other
day? Bless the Holy Spirit who helped you, by His power, to do so
Divine a deed! Did you bear bold testimony for the Truth of God but
yesterday? Bless Him who is the faithful and true Witness, that at His
feet you learned how to be true–and by His Spirit were enabled to be
brave! "Not unto us! Not unto us!" With vehemence we deprecate the idea
of honoring ourselves!
Again and again we put away the usurper's crown which Satan proffers
us. How can we endure the base proposal? Shall we rob God of His Glory?
Even He from whom we derive our very existence? Perish, O pride,
abhorred of God and man! O Lord, keep me from the approach of that
shameful evil! Brothers and Sisters, if you have any esteem among men,
cast your crown at Jehovah's feet and there let it be for the honor of
God only! In this spirit every action of the Christian Church ought to
be done, for what says the second clause of the Psalm? "Unto You shall
the vow be performed." Brothers and Sisters, we ought to praise God in
all that we do by doing it to His praise! There must be no motive of
this kind–"I must give because others give. I must attend
such-and-such a meeting because otherwise I should be missed." Cast
away from you, I pray you, the service of any master but your Lord in
Heaven, for you cannot serve two masters!
Honor the Lord in all that you do. Whether you teach the classes of the
school, or preach at the corner of the street, or hand a tract to a
passerby, or preach to the multitude, let the vow be performed as unto
the Lord. It is wonderful how sweet it is to do service when it is
expressly done for Him. I do not marvel that the woman broke the
alabaster box over Him. Breaking precious boxes and spilling priceless
nard may be hard work of itself to selfish flesh and blood, but it
becomes a self-gratifying luxury to do it unto Him. When our whole life
shall be doing service unto the Well-Beloved whom to serve is honor and
delight and for whom to die were an unspeakable bliss –then shall we
have learned how to live! Lord, You crown the year with Your goodness
and, therefore, we would do all things as unto You, expecting Your
Grace to assist our service; Your love to accept it; Your pity to
forgive it and Your power to make it effectual to Your own Glory! Oh,
that I had but power–and God the Holy Spirit has that power–first to
take away from each of us all thought of self-glorification! And then
to consecrate our entire being, even to our pulse and breath, to His
praise whose love has made us what we are!
Further, Brothers and Sisters, in praising God we may be helped to do
so and to see how He crowns the year with His goodness when we remember
our answered prayers as a Church. What says the second verse? "O You
that hears prayer, unto You shall all flesh come." I say it and there
is no boasting in the saying of it, but there is a glorying in God that
prayers have been heard which have been put up by this Church in ways
and manners which have not been less than marvelous! Such of you as
have been with us from the beginning will remember times when, in our
weakness and in our poverty, we cried to the Lord for help because of
our need–and He heard us! Especially was this the case concerning the
building of the house in which we are now assembled. Ah, how speedily
He helped us! How liberally! How like a God!
When we have needed means to feed the children of our Orphanage, the
Prayer Meeting on Monday night has been followed by a response before
the week has gone round! When two or three of us have met together,
unknown to all the rest, to lay special siege to Heaven upon the
appearance of troubles which we did not wish to tell to others, we have
seen the arm of God made bare among us and we could no more doubt it
than we could doubt our own existence! Oh, you that have had your
prayers answered, praise the Lord who crowns your supplications with
His acceptance! Remember that it is because of prayer that, as a
Church, we have continued to advance from strength to strength–and
shall not our praises balance our prayers? If the Lord gives goodness,
shall not we give gratitude? Our prayers confessed our dependence–we
felt that our years could never be crowned unless the Lord drowned
them–and now that the blessing has come, let our praises prove our
thankfulness while we cry, "You crown the years with your goodness."
And, beloved Friends, it may greatly increase our praise of God for all
His goodness if we think of our many sins. Have we tried to serve Him?
Alas, how often have we failed! The iniquities of our holy things might
long ago have provoked the Lord to wrath. Among us has there not been
much that His pure and holy eyes must have grieved over? The watchers
of the Church have sometimes come together in sore dismay over this and
that which they have seen among the brotherhood and they have cried to
God that He would put away the evil thing from among us, or help us to
overcome the Evil One and reclaim the wandering. Nobody knows but God
all the cares and anxieties which surround those that watch over such a
flock as this! Who is sufficient for these things? Have we been made
sufficient? Then infinite Grace has done the deed!
The best of us, whoever they may be, will be the first to bow before
the Lord. And those among us who have exhibited a Christly character
and have served the cause of Christ heartily will the most deeply feel
that if the Lord had taken the candlestick out of its place and left us
in the darkness, we had well deserved it. Eternally blessed be the name
of the Ever Merciful! When we have sinned, we have always had an
Advocate before the Throne of God and the blood of sprinkling has ever
been upon us to make us clean in the sight of the Lord! Blessed be His
name! Though iniquities prevail against us, yet, as for our
transgressions, He has purged them away and still does His Church lift
up her face and live in the smile of His love, rejoicing and
triumphant! Beloved, this ought to make us praise God with all our
hearts and the Psalmist manifested the wisdom of Inspiration in
reminding us of it.
And once more, the sacred privileges which infinite mercy has bestowed
upon us should compel us with glad alacrity to magnify the name of God!
See how the Psalm proceeds–"Blessed is the man whom You choose, and
cause to approach unto You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall
be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, even of Your holy
temple." Many now present first learned in this house their election of
God, for here they were called by almighty Grace and enabled to
approach their heavenly Father! Blessed be the choosing and calling
Lord who now gives us access to Himself and nearness to His Person! Do
you remember when you first drew near to Him with weeping eyes and
melting hearts because His love had broken down your rebellious wills?
Oh, it was a sorrowful coming, but it was a true coming, for God was
calling you!
And do you remember, afterwards, when you came to Him with glad hearts
and rejoicing eyes, for the Lord had put away your sin and you stood
"accepted in the Beloved"? Oh, that glad day! Last Sunday we
sang–"Happy day, happy day." And we may sing it every day and every
morning and evening of our lives and not sing it too often! The Lord
who chose us and called us and made us to approach Him has not, since
that day, become our enemy, for He has allowed us ever since to dwell
in His house! We are His children! We have not called upon Him like
strangers, but we have dwelt in His house as sons and daughters! He has
been abiding with us and we have been made to abide in Him! Shall we
not praise Him for this? This very house of prayer has been, to some of
you, a quiet resting place. You have been more at home here than when
you have been at home.
I am bound to say that you remember more happy times you have had here
than anywhere else–and these have put out of your memory the sad
records of your hard battling in the world even for a livelihood! I
know that many of you live by your Sabbaths. You step over the
intervening space from Lord's-Day to Lord's-Day as if the Lord had made
a ladder of Sabbaths for you to climb to Heaven! And you have been fed
in the Lord's house as well as rested. I know you have, for he who
deals out the meat has been fed himself and when he is fed, he knows
that others have like appetites and need like food and know when they
get it! You have clapped your hands for very joy when redeeming Grace
and dying love have been the theme and infinite, sovereign, changeless
mercy has been the subject of the discourse!
You have been blessed every happy Sabbath you have had, my Brothers and
Sisters–every holy Monday evening's Prayer Meeting–every occasion on
which God has met with you in any of the rooms of this building when a
few of you, at early morning or late in the evening have met together
for prayer! Every time, the visits of Jesus' love have charmed your
soul up to Heaven's gate! By all of these bless and magnify His name
who has crowned the years with His goodness! There had been no food for
us if the Lord had not given us manna from Heaven! There had been no
comfortable rest for us if He had not breathed peace upon us! There had
been no coming in of new converts, nor going out with rapturous joy of
the perfected ones up to the seats above if the Lord had not been with
us and, therefore, to Him be all the praise!
I do not suppose that any stranger here will understand this matter. It
may even be that such will judge that we are indulging in
self-acclamation under a thin disguise–but this evil we must endure
for once! You, my Brothers and Sisters, who have been together these
many years, know what is meant and you know that it is not within the
compass of an angel's tongue to express the gratitude which many of us
feel who, for these 25 years, have been banded together in closest and
heartiest Christian brotherhood in the service of our Lord and Master!
Strangers cannot guess how happy has been our fellowship, or how true
our love! Only eternity shall reveal the multitude of mercies with
which God has visited us by means of our association in this Church! It
is to some of us friend, nurse, mother, home all in one!
If we sing more heartily about ourselves as recipients of Divine Mercy
than some might think comely, we can only say that we cannot help it.
If you drop in at a marriage and there is much said at the wedding
feast about the family and its history, you need not go and put it in
the papers, nor even criticize the family greetings too closely. Very
likely they do seem to look too exclusively at home affairs, but pardon
them for once. Well, whether men forgive me or not, I must and will
speak! But all I have to say is to ascribe every good thing unto the
Lord, alone, even to the God of Abraham, "the God of the whole earth
shall He be called."
II. Now we will turn to a second point. In the second place, THE
ENCIRCLING BLESSING OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS IS TO BE CONFESSED. The
Psalmist sings–"You crown the year with Your goodness." As though God
circled the year and put a coronet about its head–a gem for every
month, a pearl for every day–a matchless crown of unceasing goodness
which surrounds the whole year! Now I venture to say that the period of
25 years, or a whole quarter of a century, wears its royal crown even
more conspicuously than any single year! From the first day even until
now God has enclosed the whole time with His goodness. I make no
exceptions! We had a dark day, once, when we were scattered with
sorrow, but as I read the fifth verse of the Psalm, it is easy to work
it into our praise–"By terrible things in righteousness will you
answer us, O God of our salvation."
Standing happily among you, addressing you in this calm and quiet
manner, recall that night in which the multitude seemed to be taken
with sudden panic and to rush madly from the house–and then we heard
of dead and wounded in our congregation–and the preacher's heart was
broken till he felt it would be well to die! Yet out of that calamity,
with all its unspeakable grief, there sprang a blessing, the fruit of
which we still continue to reap. Yes, I make no exception to anything!
Sick and ill, oftentimes, has the preacher been, but valued lessons
have thus been taught to him and through him taught to the people.
Sickness has fallen here and there and sometimes affliction and
poverty–but you have, all of you, learned something under the rod and
you have blessed God for His fatherly discipline filled with eternal
benefits! Yes, Lord, it is true in our case, "You crown the year with
Your goodness."
Now, let us just look at this all-encircling goodness of the Lord which
we have seen from the first day till now. I saw it, first of all, in
inspiring the few Brethren that met together as a Church with
confidence in God at the very outset. Our first meeting for prayer was,
I think, more largely attended than our first sermon. The Church was
diminished and brought low, but the Brethren prayed with great reliance
upon God and showed no sign of distrust. They did not say, "Die." They
did not believe in becoming extinct, but every man seemed resolved to
set his face like a flint to win prosperity at the hands of God–and
for this I thank Him! Is He not said in our Psalm to be the confidence
of the ends of the earth? This confidence was the beginning of an
endless chain of goodness!
Then the Lord was pleased in infinite mercy to prepare men's hearts to
hear the Gospel. It was not possible, they said, that great places
could be filled with crowds to hear the old-fashioned Gospel! The
pulpit had lost its power, so unbelievers told us, and yet no sooner
did we begin to preach in simple strains, the Gospel of Christ, than
the people flew as a cloud and as doves to their windows! And what
listening there was at Park Street, where we scarcely had air enough to
breathe! And when we got into the larger place, what attention was
manifest! What power seemed to go with every
word that was spoken! I say it, though I was the preacher, it was not
I, but the Grace of God which was with me! There were stricken down
among us some of the most unlikely ones! There were brought into the
Church and added to God's people some of those that had wandered far
away from the path of Truth and Righteousness–and these, by their
penitent love, quickened our life and increased our zeal!
The Lord gave the people, more and more, a willingness to hear and
there was no pause in the flowing stream of hearers, nor in the
incoming of converts. The Holy Spirit came down like showers which
saturate the soil till the clods are ready for the breaking! And then
it was not long before we heard on the right and on the left the cry,
"What must we do to be saved?" We were busy enough in those days in
seeing converts and thank God we have been ever since! We had some
among us who gave themselves up to watch for the souls of men and we
have a goodly number of such helpers now, perhaps more than we ever had
and, thank God, these found and still find many souls to watch over!
Still the arrows fly and still the smitten cry out for help and ask
that they may be guided to the great healing Lord. Blessed be God's
name for this! He went with us all those early days and gave us sheaves
even at the first sowing, so that we began with mercy and He has been
with us even until now–till our life has become one long harvest-home!
I am bound to acknowledge with deep thankfulness that during these 25
years the Word has been given me to speak when the time has come for
preaching. It may look to you a small thing that I should be able to
come before you in due time, but it will not seem so to my Brothers in
the ministry who remember that for 25 years my sermons have been
printed as they have been delivered. It must be an easy thing to go and
buy discourses at sixpence or a shilling–each ready lithographed–and
read them off as hirelings do. But to speak your heart out every time
and yet to have something fresh for 25 years is no child's play! Who
shall do it unless he cries to God for help? I read but the other day a
newspaper criticism of myself in which the writer wondered that a man
should keep on, year after year, with so few themes and such a narrow
groove to travel in!
But, my Brothers and Sisters, it is not so! Our themes are infinite for
number and fullness! Every text of Scripture is boundless in its
meaning! We could preach from the Bible throughout eternity and not
exhaust it! A narrow groove? The thoughts of God narrow? The Divine
Word narrow? They know it not, for His commandments are exceedingly
broad. Had we to speak of politics or philosophy, we had run dry long
ago–but when we have to preach the Savior's everlasting love–the
theme is always fresh, always new! The Incarnate God, the atoning
blood, the risen Lord, the coming Glory–these are subjects which defy
exhaustion! Yet we bless the Eternal Spirit who gives both seed to the
sower and bread to the eater, that we have had spiritual food for our
people as often as the season has come round! I must render my special
praise and if at any time you have been blessed by the Word of God I
have spoken, you must render your tribute, too.
All these years He has crowned us with His goodness by giving us the
good Word to preach in His name. But, dear Brothers and Sisters, I am
most happy to thank God for crowning the years with His goodness by
helping us in the reaping and gathering in of souls. I say, "us,"
advisedly. Here we have had a Church which from the first began to seek
the souls of men. If any of you do not work for Christ, I should think
you have a hard time of it among us, for one or another is pretty sure
to use the ox-goad upon you! Both by example and by precept and by the
general spirit of the brotherhood, idlers stand rebuked! Our Brothers
and Sisters from the first began working for the good of men as best
they could. Not in a fine, artistic manner–I do not think we ever
tried that–we did it in a very bland manner, but we went at it with
all our hearts.
Our young Brothers tried their hands at teaching and preaching–very
likely it was intellectually very poor preaching–but it was full of
heart and it did good in spite of its many imperfections. The teaching
and the looking after converts; the trying to form new churches; the
opening of Prayer Meetings and all sorts of holy works were not done
after any set fashion–but somehow they were done and often done with a
desperate valor and a simple faith which surprised and cheered me!
Often and often have I brushed the tears from my eyes when I have
received from some here present offerings for the Master's work which
utterly surpassed all my ideas of giving. The consecration of your
substance by some among you has been Apostolic! I have known those who
have so given from their poverty that they have sometimes given all
that they had–and when I have even hinted at their exceeding the
bounds of prudence, they have seemed hurt and pressed the gift, again,
for some other work of the Master whom they love.
The Lord knows every one of your hearts–where you have come short He
knows and may His Grace forgive–but where, as I most honestly bear
witness, many here have gone up to the measure of their ability and
even beyond it, He knows and will reward! For your zeal, industry and
consecration I must bless the Lord who crowns the years with His
goodness! There are few among you, I should think, who have worked for
the Master who have not seen most encouraging results in the
conversions of those for whom you have cared. Certainly there are many
among you between whom and myself there might pass a telegraphic glance
awakening glad memories. You have brought to me one after another souls
that you have won. You wanted me to speak to them personally because
you have an idea that I might be more tender than anybody else. I am
afraid you think too highly of me in this respect. Still I have been
right glad to see those you brought to me because they were your
children.
How glad I have been that, inasmuch as I brought you to Christ through
His Grace, when you have brought others to Christ I have seemed to be a
sort of grandfather in your midst, rejoicing in your joy, triumphing in
your success! And I mean it sincerely when I say that I look upon many
of you with an intense love and satisfaction because God has made you
great winners of souls. You have not sat here to listen to me and to
enjoy your Sundays, but you have been sowers of the good Seed. You have
many times denied yourselves the privileges of God's house that you
might go and look after others–and the Lord has given you your wages!
How many you have brought back whose feet had almost gone! How many you
have helped by sweet encouragement when they have been depressed! I
know not all your labors of love, but God knows!
This much I do know, that the pastorate of this Church is practically
carried out by the Church itself! Beloved elders labor with a diligence
which I cannot commend too highly, still it were impossible with 5,000
persons to care for, that a few men should fulfill the service. You
watch over one another in the Lord and for this I bless Him, to whom
must be rendered all the praise. I feel the more free to speak about
what He has worked by you and in you because you will not take any
glory to yourselves but lay it at His feet. Lord, You have blessed us
exceedingly beyond what we asked or even thought–and in return we
bless You!
When I remember how, as a boy, I stood among you, Brothers and Sisters,
and feebly began to preach of Jesus Christ and how these 25 years
without dissension, yes, without the dream of dissension, in perfect
love compacted as one man, you have gone on from one work of God to
another and have never halted, hesitated or drawn back, I must and will
bless and magnify Him who has crowned these years with His goodness!
III. Now I come to my closing point. It is this–THE CROWNING BLESSING
IS CONFESSED TO BE OF God– not only the encircling blessing but the
crowning blessing. What is the crown of a Church? Well, some Churches
have one crown and some another. I have heard of a church whose crown
was its organ–the biggest organ, the finest organ ever played–and the
choir the most wonderful choir that ever was. Everybody in the district
said, "Now, if you want to go to a place where you will have fine
music, that is the spot." Our musical friends may wear that crown if
they please. I will never pluck at it or decry it–I feel no temptation
in that direction!
I have heard of others whose crown has been their intellect. There are
very few hearers. Indeed, not as many people by one-tenth as there are
seats, but then they are such a select people, the elite, the
thoughtful and intelligent! The ministry is such that only one in a
hundred can possibly understand what is said and the one in the hundred
who does understand it is, therefore, a most remarkable person! That is
their crown! Again I say I will not envy it. Whatever there may be that
is desirable about it, the Brother who wears it shall wear it all his
days for me. I have heard of other crowns–among the rest, that of
being "a most respectable church." All the people are respectable. The
minister, of course, is respectable. I believe he is, "Reverend," or,
"Very Reverend," and everybody and thing about him is, to the last
degree, "respectable."
Fustian jackets and cotton gowns are warned off by the surpassing
dignity of everything in and around the place. As for a working man,
such a creature is never seen on the premises and could not be supposed
to be–if he were to come he would say–"The preacher preaches double
Dutch or Greek, or something of the sort." He would not hear language
which he could understand! This is not a very brilliant crown, this
crown of respectability–it certainly never flashed ambition into my
soul.
Our crown under God has been this–the poor have the Gospel preached to
them, souls are saved and Christ is glorified! O my beloved Church,
hold fast what you have, that no man take this crown away from you! As
for me, by
God's help, the first and last thing that I long for is to bring men to
Christ! I care nothing about fine language, or about the pretty
speculations of prophecy, or a hundred dainty things! I desire only to
break the heart and bind it up–to lay hold of a sheep of Christ and
bring it back into the fold is the one thing I live for! You, also, are
of the same mind, are you not? Well, we have had this crowning blessing
that, as nearly as I can estimate, more than 9,000 persons have joined
this Church. If they were all alive now, or all with us now, what a
company they would be! Some have fallen asleep and many are members
with other churches, working for the Master where they are probably
more influential than they could have been at home. Some of our members
we were glad to lose because our loss was the gain of the universal
Church. We sent them out to colonize and so to increase the Master's
kingdom. For these 9,000 and more let God be praised! It is a crown in
which we must and will rejoice.
But another crown to any Church, I think, is when its members are
maintained in their profession. If many are added and then they are
scattered again–if they do but come to go, if they are found and then
straightway lost–what is the benefit of it? But this has been our
crown of rejoicing, that we have seen the young converts matured in
Divine Grace. The blade has become the ear and the ear has become the
full corn in the ear for which God is thanked! And there has been this
about it, that as we built together as living stones, so we have
remained together! I have a great many faults and I often wonder how it
is you put up with me, but we have not thought of parting–the mortar
which holds us together in the building is very binding. I am not so
much surprised that I put up with you, for it is my duty and office to
bear with all and none of you have caused me grief except such as have
walked unworthy and grieved the Spirit of God. We have gone on well
together, under God's blessings, these many years and have no
hesitation about continuing in the same loving unity.
During these 25 years I have had to attend to the quarrels and
differences of scores of little Churches where their weakness should
have been the strongest argument for union. Men usually divide when
they are already too few for the work and this is a most grievous evil
under the sun. Churches torn apart with contention have laid the
wretched differences before me and I have had many a heavy burden to
carry while trying to set things right. But I have not had to spend one
five minutes in seeking to heal a breach in this Church or maintain its
unity! The Lord has given us brotherly love and unto His name be
praise! Brothers and Sisters who have been members of other Churches
where you have seen trouble, you know what a comfort it is to be
connected with a Church where we endeavor to walk in love to one
another and where the noise of war has not disturbed our gates.
Truly I must say and I do say it, "O Lord, You give peace in our
borders and You fill us with the finest of the wheat. You crown the
years with Your goodness." But is this all? We ought to bless God for
the fruit-bearing ones that have been among us. Workers of all sorts
are found for the different agencies of the Church as they are required
and God has given us some whom He has honored exceedingly who are our
strength for home work. But, besides that, this Church has, this day,
an army of above 400 ministers trained at her side who are now
scattered all over the globe preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
while as a militia we have some 80 or more disseminating godly books!
Best of all, we have a growing band of missionaries! My heart leaped
within me on Monday night when I heard the young people and saw how one
and another of our Brothers were devoting themselves to mission work.
This I reckon to be the brightest crown of all! If the Lord will but
infuse the missionary spirit into us and force out many to go abroad to
preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ our cup will run over and we shall
again have to say, "Praise waits for You, O God, in Sion, for You crown
the years with your goodness."
Last of all, and never to be forgotten, during these 25 years there
have gone from us to the upper realms about 800 who had named the name
of Jesus. Professing their faith in Christ, living in His fear, dying
in the faith they gave us no cause to doubt their sincerity and,
therefore, we may not question their eternal safety. Many of them gave
us in life and in death all the tokens we could ask for of their being
in Christ and, therefore, we sorrow not as those that are without hope.
Why, when I think of them, many of them my sons and daughters now
before the Throne of God, they fill me with solemn exultation! Do you
not see them in their white robes? Eight hundred souls redeemed by
blood! These are only what we know of and had enrolled. How many there
may have been converted here who never joined our earthly fellowship,
but, nevertheless, have gone Home, I cannot tell.
There probably have been more than those whose names we know, if we
consider the wide area over which the printed sermons circulate. They
are gathering Home, one by one, one by one, but they make a goodly
company! Our
name is Gad, for "a troop comes." Happy shall we be to overtake those
who have marched out ahead of us and entered into the Promised Land!
Let us remember them and by faith join our hands with them. Flash a
thought to unite the broken family, for we are not far from them, nor
are they far from us, since we are one in Christ! This, too, is our
crown.
And now I want one thing more. There is such a thing as a greed that is
never satisfied and I have a great greed upon me now. I frankly confess
my covetousness. Whenever the Lord gives us any great spiritual gift we
want more, nor are we blamed for this, but bid to covet earnestly the
best gifts! This, then, is my further desire. I should be rejoiced
beyond measure if, on this night and during the next two or three days
in which we keep holy day and bless the Lord for His goodness, some
Brothers and Sisters were moved by the Holy Spirit to undertake some
new work for Christ which they had not thought of before. Come, my
Brother, may the Lord crown this year this day with His goodness by
putting it into your heart to break up new soil and sow a fresh field
for Jesus! Have you been an idler? Buckle up! Today join the laborers
and leave the loiterers! Get to the Master's work!
Have you already been diligent? I have more hope in appealing to you!
Brother, Sister, try something more– something more tonight! Roll over
in your mind what there is that is left undone in the branch of holy
service for which you are fitted, or for which you might get to be
fitted and engage in it at once! Come now! Consecrate yourself to the
Lord anew tonight and pray Him to lift you to a higher platform and
into a nobler state of consecration! That would be a blessed crowning
of the years with His goodness! And what if some young men here were to
say, "We shall prosper in business, no doubt, for we feel up to the
mark for it. God has given us brain and skill and a fair opening, but
inasmuch as we have capacity we will consecrate it"?
I hear the sorrows of China borne on the wailing of the wind and the
sighing of the sea! Millions upon millions are perishing for lack of
knowledge–will no one pity them? The need of India's teeming
population cries to us in voices which pierce the heart–will no one
listen and help? A voice comes forth from the excellent Glory, "Whom
shall I send, and who will go for Us?" It were a crown to end the year
with if there came from this and that set of useful, earnest Christian
men the reply of individual hearts, "Here am I! Here am I! Send me!"
The Lord give us this crown!
One thing more. Oh, if some hearts would yield themselves to the Savior
tonight! If some were converted tonight, what a crown that would be to
finish up these years with! Testimonial, Sirs? No testimonial can ever
be given to the preacher which can equal a soul converted! These are
the seals of our ministry and the wages of our hire! Socrates, on his
birthday, had a present given him by each of his students. Some brought
less and some brought more. Among the rest there was one who had
nothing in the world to bring and so he came to Socrates and said,
"Master, I give you myself. I love you with all my heart." The sage
judged this to be the most precious of all the tributes.
Will not some of you cry, "I do not know that I could be a missionary,
or that I have any gifts, or talents, or substance that I could
contribute, but, Lord, I give my heart to You to be renewed by Grace"?
God bring you, poor sinner, to Jesus' feet to surrender your whole
nature to His sway that He may wash it in His blood, fill it with His
Spirit and use it for His Glory! He says, "My son, give me your heart,"
and when the heart is yielded, He accepts the gift! May the Eternal
Spirit lead many to give themselves thus to Jesus this night and it
will be the crowning joy of all the years! Amen and amen!
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Jesus, the Judge