Faith Illustrated
A Sermon
(No. 271)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, August 21st, 1859, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not
ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."–2
Timothy, 1:12.
AN ASSURANCE of our safety in Christ will be found useful to us in all
states of experience. When Jesus sent forth his seventy chosen
disciples, endowed with miraculous powers, they performed great
wonders, and naturally enough they were somewhat elated when they
returned to tell him of their deeds. Jesus marked their tendency to
pride; he saw that in the utterance–"Behold even devils were subject
to us," there was mingled much of self-congratulation and boasting.
What cure, think you, did he administer; or what was the sacred lesson
that he taught them which might prevent their being exalted above
measure? "Nevertheless," said he, "rejoice not in this, but rather
rejoice because your names are written in heaven." The assurance of our
eternal interest in Christ may help to keep us humble in the day of our
prosperity; for when God multiplies our wealth, when he blesses our
endeavors, when he speeds the plough; when he wafts the good ship
swiftly onward, this may act as a sacred ballast to us, that we have
something better than these things, and therefore we must not set our
affections upon the things of earth, but upon things above; and let our
heart be where our greatest treasure is. I say, better than any lancet
to spill the superfluous blood of our boasting, better than any bitter
medicine to chase the burning fever of our pride; better than any
mixture of the most pungent ingredients is this most precious and
hallowed wine of the covenant–a remembrance of our safety in Christ.
This, this alone, opened up to us by the Spirit, will suffice to keep
us in that happy lowliness which is the true position of the full-grown
man in Christ Jesus. But note this, when at any time we are cast down
with multiplied afflictions, and oppressed with sorrow, the very same
fact which kept us humble in prosperity may preserve us from despair in
adversity. For mark you here, the apostle was surrounded by a great
fight of affliction; he was compassed about with troubles, he suffered
within and without; and yet he says, "Nevertheless I am not ashamed."
But what is that which preserves him from sinking? It is the same truth
which kept the ancient disciples from overweening pride. It is the
sweet persuasion of his interest in Christ. "For I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day." Get then, Christian brethren and
friends, get assurance; be not content with hope, get confidence; rest
not in faith, labor after the full assurance of faith; and never be
content, my hearer, till thou canst say thou knowest thy election, thou
art sure of thy redemption, and thou art certain of thy preservation
unto that day.
I propose this morning in preaching upon this text to labor both for
the edification of the saint and the conversion of the sinner. I shall
divide the text very amply thus: First, we have in it the grandest
action of the Christian's life, namely, the committing of our eternal
interests into the hand of Christ. Secondly, we have the justification
of this grand act of trust–"I know in whom I have trusted." I have not
trusted one whose character is unknown to me, I am not foolish, I have
sure grounds for what I have done. And then we have, thirdly, the most
blessed effect of this confidence–"I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him."
I. First, then I am to describe THE GRANDEST ACTION OF THE CHRISTIAN'S
LIFE.
With all our preaching, I am afraid that we too much omit the simple
explanation of the essential act in salvation. I have feared that the
anxious enquirer might visit many of our churches and chapels, month
after month, and yet he would not get a clear idea of what he must do
to be saved. He would come away with an indistinct notion that he was
to believe, but what he was to believe he would not know. He would,
perhaps, obtain some glimmering of the fact that he must be saved
through the merits of Christ, but how those merits can become available
to him, he would still be left to guess. I know at least that this was
my case–that when sincere and anxious to do or be anything which might
save my soul, I was utterly in the dark as to the way in which my
salvation might be rendered thoroughly secure. Now, this morning. I
hope I shall be able to put it into such a light that he who runs may
read, and that the wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein.
The apostle says, he committed himself into the hands of Christ. His
soul with all its eternal interests; his soul with all its sins, with
all its hopes, and all its fears, he had put into the hands of Christ,
as the grandest and most precious deposit which man could ever make. He
had taken himself just as he was and had surrendered himself to Christ,
saying–"Lord save me, for I cannot save myself; I give myself up to
thee, freely relying upon thy power, and believing in thy love. I give
my soul up to thee to be washed, cleansed, saved, and preserved, and at
last brought home to heaven." This act of committing himself to Christ
was the first act which ever brought real comfort to his spirit; it was
the act which he must continue to perform whenever he would escape from
a painful sense of sin; the act with which he must enter heaven itself,
if he would die in peace and see God's face with acceptance. He must
still continue to commit himself into the keeping of Christ. I take it
that when the apostle committed himself to Christ, he meant these three
things. He meant first, that from that good hour he renounced all
dependence upon his own efforts to save himself. The apostle had done
very much, after a fashion, towards his own salvation. He commenced
with all the advantages of ancestry. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of
the tribe of Benjamin, as touching the law a Pharisee. He was one of
the very straightest of the straightest sect of his religion. So
anxious was he to obtain salvation by his own efforts, that he left no
stone unturned. Whatever Pharisee might be a hypocrite, Paul was none.
Though he tithed his anise, and his mint, and his cummin, he did not
neglect the weighter matters of the law. He might have united with
truth, in the affirmation of the young man, "All these things have I
kept from my youth up." Hear ye his own testimony: "Though I might also
have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath
whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more." Being exceedingly
desirous to serve God, he sought to put down what he thought was the
pestilent heresy of Christ. Being exceeding hot in his endeavors
against every thing that he thought to be wrong, he persecuted the
professors of the new religion, hunted them in every city, brought them
into the synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; when he had
emptied his own country, he must needs take a journey to another, that
he might there show his zeal in the cause of his God, by bringing out
those whom he thought to be the deluded followers of' an impostor. But
suddenly Paul's mind is changed. Almighty grace leads him to see that
he is working in a wrong direction, that his toil is lost, that as well
might Sisyphus seek to roll his stone up hill, as for him to find a
road to heaven up the steeps of Sinai; that as well might the daughters
of Danaus hope to fill the bottomless cauldron with a bucket full of
holes, as Paul indulge the idea that he could fill up the measure of
the laws' demands. Consequently he feels that all he has done is
nothing worth, and coming to Christ he cries, "But what things were
gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
And now, my dear friends, if you would be saved, this is what you must
do. I hope many of you have already performed the solemn act, you have
said to Jesus in the privacy of your closet, "O Lord, I have tried to
save myself, but I renounce all my endeavors. Once I said, I am no
worse than my neighbors; my goodness shall preserve me.' Once I said, I
have been baptized, I have taken the sacrament, in these things will I
trust,' and now, Lord, I cast all this false confidence to the winds.
'No more, my God, I beset no more
Of all the duties I have done;
I quit the hopes I held before
To trust the merits of thy Son.
The best obedience of my hands
Dares not appear before thy throne:
But faith can answer thy demands
By pleading what my Lord has done.'"
You cannot be saved if you have one hand on self and the other hand on
Christ. Let go, cannier, renounce all dependence in anything thou canst
do. Cease to be thine own keeper, give up the futile attempt to be thy
own Saviour, and then thou wilt have taken the first step to heaven.
There are but two, the first is–out of self, the next is–into Christ.
When Christ is thy all, then art thou safe.
But again, when the apostle says he committed his soul to the keeping
of Christ, he means that he had implicit confidence that Christ would
save him now that he had relinquished all trust in self. Some men have
gone far enough to feel that the best performance of their hands cannot
be accepted before the bar of God. They have learned that their most
holy acts are full of sin, that their most faithful service falls short
of the demands of the law; they have relinquished self, but they are
not able yet to see that Christ can and will save them. They are
waiting for some great revelation; they think, perhaps, that by some
marvellous electric shock, or some miraculous feeling within them, they
will be led to place their confidence in Christ. They want to see an
angel or a vision, or to hear a voice. Their cry is, "How could I think
that Jesus would save such an one as I am. I am too vile, or else I am
too hardened; I am the odd man; it is not likely that Christ would ever
save me." Now, I doubt not that the apostle had felt all this, but he
overcame all this attacking of sin, and he came to at last Christ and
said, "Jesus, I feel that thou art worthy of my confidence. Behold, I
the chief of sinners am, I have nothing in myself that can assist thee
in taking me to heaven; I shall kick and struggle against thee rather
than assist thee. But behold, I feel that such is thy power, and such
thy love, that I commit myself to thee. Take me as I am, and make me
what thou wouldst have me be. I am vile, but thou art worthy; I am
lost, but thou art the Saviour; I am dead, but thou art the quickener;
take me; I beseech thee; I put my trust in thee, and though I perish, I
will perish relying on thy blood. If I must die, I will die with my
arms about thy cross, for thou art worthy of confidence, and on thee do
I rely."
And now, my friends, if you will be safe, you must, in the strength of
the Holy Ghost, do this also. You say you have given up all trust in
self–well and good; now place your trust in Christ, repose your all on
him; drop into his arms; cast yourself into his power; lay hold on him.
You know how Joab, when he fled from the sword of Solomon, laid hold on
the horns of the altar, thinking that surely when he had laid hold on
the altar he was safe. His was vain confidence, for he was dragged from
the horns of the altar and slain. But if thou canst lay hold on the
horns of the altar of God, even Christ, thou art most surely safe, and
no sword of vengeance can ever reach thee.
I saw the other day a remarkable picture, which I shall use as an
illustration of the way of salvation by faith in Jesus. An offender had
committed a crime for which he must die, but it was in the olden time
when churches were considered to be sanctuaries in which criminals
might hide themselves and so escape. See the transgressor–he rushes
towards the church, the guards pursue him with their drawn swords, all
athirst for his blood, they pursue him even to the church door. He
rushes up the steps, and just as they are about to overtake him and hew
him in pieces on the threshhold of the church, out comes the Bishop,
and holding up the crucifix he cries, "Back, back! stain not the
precincts of God's house with blood! stand back!" and the guards at
once respect the emblem and stand back, while the poor fugitive hides
himself behind the robes of the priest. It is even so with Christ. The
guilty sinner flies to the cross–flies straight away to Jesus, and
though Justice pursues him, Christ lifts up his wounded hands and cries
to Justice, "Stand back! stand back! I shelter this sinner; in the
secret place of my tabernacle do I hide him; I will not suffer him to
perish, for he puts his trust in me." Sinner, fly to Christ! But thou
sayest, "I am too vile." The viler thou art, the more wilt thou honor
him by believing that he is able to make thee clean. "But I am too
great a sinner." Then the more honor shall be given to him that thou
art able to confide in him, great sinner though thou art. If you have a
little sickness, and you tell your physician–"Sir! I am quite
confident in your skill to heal," there is no great compliment, but if
you are sore sick with a complication of diseases, and you say–"Sir! I
seek no better skill, I will ask no more excellent advice, I trust
alone in you," what an honor have you conferred on him, that you could
trust your life in his hands when it was in extreme danger. Do the like
with Christ; put your soul in his care, dare it, venture it; cast
thyself simply on him; let nothing but faith be in thy soul; believe
him, and thou shalt never be mistaken in thy trust.
But I think I have not completely stated all the apostle meant, when he
said that he committed himself to Christ. He certainly meant those two
things–self-renunciation, and implicit belief in Christ's power and
willingness to save, but in the third place, the apostle meant that he
did make a full and free surrender of himself to Christ, to be Christ's
property, and Christ's servant for ever. If you would be saved you must
not be your own. Salvation is through being bought with a price; and if
you be bought with a price, and thus saved, remember, from that day
forward you will not be your own. To-day, as an ungodly sinner, you are
your own master, free to follow the lusts of the flesh; or, rather
Satan is your great tyrant, and you are under bondage to him. If you
would be saved you must by the aid of the Holy Spirit now renounce the
bondage of Satan and come to Christ, saying, "Lord I am willing to give
up all sin, it is not in my power to be perfect but I wish it were,
make me perfect. There is not a sin I wish to keep; take all away; I
present myself before thee. Wash me, make me clean. Do what thou wilt
in me. I make no reserve, I make a full surrender of all to thee." And
then you must give up to Christ all you are, and all you have by solemn
indenture, signed and sealed by your own heart. You must say in the
words of the sweet Moravian hymn–
"Take thou my soul and all my powers;
O take my memory, mind, and will,
Take all my goods, and all my hours,
Take all I know and all I feel;
Take all I think and speak, and do;
O take my heart, but make it new."
Accept the sacrifice,–I am worthless, but receive me through thy owe
merits. Take and keep me, I am, I hope I ever shall be thine.
I have now explained that act which is after all the only one which
marks the day of salvation to the soul. I will give one or two figures
however to set it in a clearer light. When a man hath gold and silver
in his house, he fears lest some thief may break through and steal, and
therefore if he be a wise man he seeks out a bank in which to store his
money. He makes a deposit of his gold and his silver; he says in
effect, "Take that, sir, keep it for me. To-night I shall sleep
securely; I shall have no thought of thieves; my treasure is in your
hands. Take care of that for me, when I need it, at your hands shall I
require it." Now in faith we do just the same with our blessed
Redeemer. We bring our soul just as it is and give it up to him. "Lord,
I cannot keep it; sin and Satan will be sure to ruin it–take it and
keep it for me, and in that day when God shall require the treasure,
stand my sponsor, and on my behalf return my soul to my Maker kept and
preserved to the end." Or take another figure. When your adventurous
spirit hath sought to climb some lofty mountain, delighted with the
prospect you scale many and many a steep; onward you climb up the rocky
crags until at last you arrive at the verge of the snow and ice. There
in the midst of precipices that scarcely know a bottom and of summits
that seem inaccessible, you are suddenly surrounded with a fog. Perhaps
it becomes worse and worse until a snow-storm completes your
bewilderment. You cannot see a step before you: your track is lost. A
guide appears: "I know this mountain," says he. "In my early days have
I climbed it with my father. O'er each of these crags have I leaped in
pursuit of the chamois; I know every chasm and cavern. If you will
follow me even through the darkness I will find the path and bring you
down; but mark, before I undertake to guide you in safety, I demand of
you implicit trust. You must not plant your feet where you think it
safest, but where I shall bid you. Wherever I bid you climb or descend
you must implicitly obey, and I undertake on my part to bring you
safely down to your house again." You do so–you have many temptations
to prefer your own judgment to his but you resist them–and you are
safe. Even so must you do with Christ. Lost to-day and utterly
bewildered Christ appears. "Let me guide you, let me be an eye to thee
through the thick darkness; let me be thy foot, lean on me in the
slippery place, let me be thy very life; let me wrap thee in my crimson
vest to keep thee from the tempest and the storm." Will you now trust
him; rely entirely, simply, and implicitly upon him? If so, the grand
act of your life is done and you are a saved man, and on the terra
firma of heaven you shall one day plant your delighted feet and praise
the name of him who saved you from your sins.
I must add, however, that this act of faith must not be performed once
only, but it must be continued as long as you live. As long as you you
must have no other confidence but "Jesus only." You must take him now
to-day, to have and to hold through life and in death, in tempest and
in sunshine, in poverty and in wealth, never to part or sunder from
him. You must take him to be your only prop, your only pillar from this
day forth and for ever. What sayest thou sinner? Does God the Holy
Ghost lead thee to say "Ay?" Does thy heart now confide in Jesus? If
so, let the angels sing, for a soul is born to God, and a brand is
plucked from the eternal fire. I have thus described faith in
Christ–the committing of the soul to him.
II. This brings us to our second point–THE JUSTIFICATION OF THIS GRAND
ACT OF TRUST.
Confidence is sometimes folly; trusting in man is always so. When I
exhort you, then, to put your entire confidence in Christ, am I
justified in so doing? and when the apostle could say that he trusted
alone in Jesus, and had committed himself to him, was he a wise man or
a fool? What saith the apostle? "I am no fool," said he, "for I know
whom I have believed. I have not trusted to an unknown and untried
pretender. I have not relied upon one whose character I could suspect.
I have confidence in one whose power, whose willingness, whose love,
whose truthfulness I know. I know whom I have believed." When silly
women put their trust in yet more silly and wicked priests, they may
say possibly that they know whom they have believed. But we may tell
them that their knowledge must be ignorance indeed–that they are
greatly deluded in imagining that any man, be he who he may, or what he
may, can have any power in the salvation of his fellow's soul. You come
sneaking up to me and ask me to repose my soul in you; and who are you?
"I am an ordained priest of the Church of Rome." And who ordained you?
"I was ordained by such a one." And who ordained him? "It cometh after
all," saith he, "from the Pope." And who is he, and what is he more
than any other man, or any other imposter? What ordination can he
confer? "He obtained it directly from Peter." Did he? Let the link be
proved; and if he did, what was Peter, and where has God given Peter
power to forgive sin–a power which he should transmit to all
generations? Begone! The thick pollutions of thine abominable church
forbid the idea of descent from any apostle but the traitor Judas. Upon
the Papal throne men worse than devils have had their seat, and even a
woman big with her adulteries once reigned as head of thine accursed
church. Go purge the filthiness of thy priesthood, the debauchery of
thy nunneries and the stygian filth of thy mother city, the old harlot
Rome. Talk not of pardoning others, while fornication is licensed in
Rome itself, and her ministers are steeped to the throat in iniquity.
But to return. I rest no more on Peter than Peter could rest in
himself, Peter must rest on Christ as a poor guilty sinner himself, an
imperfect man who denied his Master with oaths and curses. He must rest
where I must rest, and we must stand together on the same great rock on
which Christ doth build his church, even his blood and his ever-lasting
merits. I marvel that any should be found to have such confidence in
men, that they should put their souls in their hands. If however any of
you wish to trust in a priest, let me advise you if you do trust him,
to do it wholly and fully. Trust him with your cash-box, trust him with
your gold and silver. Perhaps you object to that. You don't feel at all
inclined to go that length. But, my friend, if you cannot trust the man
with your gold and silver, pray don't trust him with your soul. I only
suggested this because I thought you might smile and at once detect
your error. If you could not trust such a fox with your business; if
you would as soon commit your flocks to the custody of a wolf, why will
you be fool enough to lay your soul at the feet of some base priest
who, likely enough, is ten thousand times more wicked than your self.
Was Paul then justified in his confidence in Christ? He says he was
because he knew Christ. And what did he know? Paul knew, first of all,
Christ's Godhead. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, co-equal and
co-eternal with the Father. If my soul be in his hand,
"Where is the power can reach it there,
Or what can pluck it thence."
If the wings of Omnipotence do cover it, if the eye of Omnipotence is
fixed upon it, and if the heart of eternal love doth cherish it, how
can it be destroyed? Trust not thy soul my fellow-man anywhere but with
thy God. But Jesus is thy God rely thou fully in him, and think not
that thou canst place a confidence too great in him who made the
heavens, and bears the world upon his shoulders. Paul knew too that
Christ was the Redeemer. Paul had seen in vision Christ in the garden.
He had beheld him sweat as it were great drops of blood. By faith Paul
had seen Jesus hanging on the cross. He had marked his agonies on the
tree of doom. He had listened to his death shriek, of "It is finished,"
and he felt that the atonement which Jesus offered, was more than
enough to recompense for the sin of man. Paul might have said, "I am
not foolish in confiding my soul in the pierced and blood-stained hand
of him whose sacrifice hath satisfied the Father and opened the gates
of heaven to all believers." Further, Paul knew that Christ was risen
from the dead. By faith he saw Christ at the right hand of God,
pleading with his Father for all those who commit themselves to his
hand. Paul knew Christ to be the all-prevailing intercessor. He said to
himself "I am not wrong in believing him, for I know whom I have
trusted, that when he pleads, the Father will not deny him, and when he
asks, sooner might he even die than he become deaf to Jesus' prayer."
This was again, another reason why Paul dared to trust in Christ. He
knew his Godhead, he knew his redemption, he knew his resurrection, he
knew his ascension, and intercession, and I may add, Paul knew the love
of Christ, that love which passeth kindness; higher than thought, and
deeper than conception. He knew Christ's power, that he was Omnipotent,
the lying of kings. He knew Christ's faithfulness; that he was the God,
and could not lie. He knew his immutability, that he was "Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday today and for ever," and having known Christ in
every glorious office, in every divine attribute, and in all the beauty
of his complex character, Paul said, "I can with confidence repose in
him, for I know him, I have trusted, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to him."
But Paul not only knew these things by faith, but he knew much of them
by experience. Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of
our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little, the
mountain itself appears to be but one half as high as it really is.
Confined in a little valley you discover scarcely anything but the
rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the base of the
mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and
widens beneath your feet. Go up higher, and higher still, till you
stand upon the summit of one of the great roots that start out as spurs
from the sides of the mountain you see the country for some four or
five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. But
go onward, and onward, and onward, and how the scene enlarges, till at
last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and
south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest
in some distant country, perhaps two hundred miles away, and yonder the
sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a
manufacturing town, or there the masts of the ships in some well known
port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, "I could
not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation." Now,
the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in
Christ we see but little of him. The higher we climb the more we
discover of his excellencies and his beauties. But who has ever gained
the summit? Who has ever known all the fullness of the heights, and
depths, and lengths, and breadths of the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge. Paul now grown old, sitting, grey hair'd, shivering in a
dungeon in Rome–he could say, with greater power than we can, "I know
whom I have believed?"–for each experience had been like the climbing
of a hill, each trial had been like the ascending to another summit,
and his death seemed like the gaining of the very top of the mountain
from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of
him to whom he had committed his soul.
III. And now, I close by noticing THE APOSTLE'S CONFIDENCE. The apostle
said, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed to him." See this man. He is sure he shall be saved. But why?
Paul! art thou sure that thou canst keep thyself? "No," says he, "I
have nothing to do with that:" and yet thou art sure of thy salvation!
"Yes," saith he, "I am!" How is it, then? "Why, I am persuaded that he
is able to keep me. Christ, to whom I commit myself, I know hath power
enough to hold me to the end." Martin Luther was bold enough to exclaim
"Let him that died for my soul, see to the salvation of it." Let us
catechise the apostle for a few minutes, and see if we cannot shake his
confidence. Paul! Thou hast had many trials, and thou wilt have many
more. What if thou shouldst be subject to the pangs of hunger, combined
with those of thirst. If not a mouthful of bread should pass thy mouth
to nourish thy body, or a drop of water should comfort thee, will not
thy faith fail thee then? If provisions be offered thee, on condition
of the denial of thy faith, dost thou not imagine that thou wilt be
vane, quashed, and that the pangs of nature will overpower thee? "No,"
says Paul, "famine shall not quench my faith; for the keeping of my
faith is in the hands of Christ." But what if, combined with this, the
whole world should rise against thee, and scoff thee? What if hunger
within should echo to the shout of scorn without? wouldst thou not then
deny thy faith? If, like Demas, every other Christian should turn to
the silver of this world, and deny the Master, wouldst not thou go with
them? "No," saith the apostle, "my soul is not in my keeping, else
might it soon apostatize; it is in the hand of Christ. though all men
should leave me, vet will he keep me." But what, O apostle, if thou
shouldst be chained to the stake, and the flames should kindle, and thy
flesh should begin to burn; when thy beard is singed, and thy cheeks
are black, wilt thou then hold him fast! "Yea," saith the apostle, "he
will then hold me fast;" and I think I hear him, as he stops us in the
midst of our catechising, and replies, "Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul, Paul, suppose the world
should tempt you in another way. If a kingdom were offered you–if the
pomps and pleasures of this world should be laid at your feet, provided
you would deny your Master, would your faith maintain its hold then?
"Yea," saith the apostle, "Jesus would even then uphold my faith for my
soul is not in my keeping, but in his, and empires upon empires could
not tempt him to renounce that soul of which he has become the guardian
and the keeper. Temptation might soon overcome me, but it could not
overcome him. The world's blandishments might soon move me to renounce
my own soul; but they could not for one moment move Jesus to give me
up." And so the apostle continues his confidence. But Paul, when thou
shalt come to die, will thou not then fear and tremble? "Nay," saith
he, "he will be with me there, for my soul shall not die, that will be
still in the hand of him who is immortality and life." But what will
become of thee when thy soul is separated from thy body? Canst thou
trust him in a separate state, in the unknown world which visions
cannot paint? In the time of God's mighty thunder, when earth shall
shake and heaven shall reel. Canst thou trust him then? "Yea," saith
the apostle, "until that day when all these tempests shall die away
into eternal calm, and when the moving earth shall settle into a stable
land in which there shall be no more sea, even then can I trust him.
"I know that safe with him remains,
Protected by his power,
What I've committed to his hands
Till the decisive hour."
O poor sinner! come and put thy soul into the hands of Jesus. Attempt
not to take care of it thyself; and then thy life shall be hidden in
heaven, and kept there by the Almighty power of God, where none can
destroy it and none can rob thee of it. "Whosoever believeth on the
Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved."