DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 11, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5.
THIS chapter presents the remarkable spectacle of a minister of the
Gospel of Peace going forth to war! At first sight we wonder how the
meek and gentle Paul should speak about warring and talk of pulling
down strongholds and "having a readiness to revenge all disobedience."
The surprise is all the greater because he is going to war in the
Church–a shepherd entering the fold with a sword! One would not so
much marvel that he carried his weapons against the outside world, but
on this occasion it is within the Church at Corinth that he is about to
commence a campaign! Yet observe how earnestly he deprecates the
conflict; how he beseeches them by the meekness and gentleness of
Christ to spare him a task which was so unpleasant to his feelings as
to deal sternly with those whom he would far rather have commended.
But the wonder ceases when we find that the shepherd fights only with
grievous wolves and even in that conflict declares, "though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." Note, moreover, that his
weapons are of a peculiar kind, "The weapons of our warfare are not
carnal." He is not about to assault his antagonists in the Church with
bitter words of railing such as they used against him–he is not about
to meet the philosophers with such philosophies and sophisms as those
with which they assailed the Gospel! And neither is he coming forth
with any kind of temporal weapon to inflict anything of injury upon the
leaders in error–his weapons are of a very different sort. They are
not carnal, but spiritual.
Trials under a Public Worship Act he knew nothing of. An appeal to
Caesar upon Church matters never crossed his mind. For the Church of
God ever to avail itself of force or compulsion in order to propagate
its doctrines would be contrary to the spirit of Christianity! For the
Christian bishop to become a soldier, or employ the secular arm would
seem to be the very climax of contradiction! A warrior ambassador is a
dream of folly! I remember a story which illustrates that absurdity.
When a certain bishop-prince in the olden times went forth personally
to battle and was taken prisoner, the Pope sent word to the king who
had captured him that he was to set him at liberty at once, for he was
a son of the Church.
The king, with considerable wit, sent back to the Pope the coat of
armor which the bishop had worn on the field with this message, "This
have we found–know now whether it is your son's coat or not." And so
we might send back, I think, to the nominal Church, the black and
blood-stained gown of the Inquisition, the garb of the headsman and the
hangman, the smoke-browned raiment of those who lit the Smithfield
fires and even the parchments on which are written the Test and
Corporation Acts and the Act of Uniformity and say, "Know now whether
these are your sons' coats or not." Is the raiment of a man of war the
vestment of a servant of the Lord? Are robes of legal authority the
adornments of heralds of peace?
Jesus Christ did not thus array His Apostles when He sent them forth to
war and not with such weapons did Paul arm himself when he entered the
conflict. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." Yet the
spiritual weapons which can be wielded by the Christian minister and,
indeed, by every Christian, are not to be despised, for while not
fleshy, they are mighty through God! God is in them! God is with those
who use them! The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; the
arrows of the Truths of God which pierce the consciences of men; the
weapon of all-prayer; the influence of the Holy Spirit–that Divine
Power–such weapons as these are, by God's power, made mighty to the
overthrow of spiritual principalities and powers!
The Truth of God and holiness are the appointed engines for the pulling
down of the castles of evil! Blessed is he who in every conflict for
God takes heed to use no other weapons than those which the Lord has
hung up in the tower of
David built for an armory–where hang a thousand bucklers, all shields
of mighty men! Those only can fight the Lord's battles successfully who
come to Him to be armed for the fight and reject all fleshy force. The
spiritual shall be victorious, but others must fail!
The passage, if I were to confine it to its immediate connection, would
represent Paul as dealing with those lofty ones who had usurped
authority in the Church at Corinth; who denied his Apostleship and set
themselves up as superior to him while they, themselves, preached error
and led the people astray. Paul declared that when he came among them
armed with the power with which God had clothed him, he would overthrow
every proud opposition and convince them all of the Truth of God to
their conversion or to their confusion. But I shall speak rather of a
warfare carried on in individuals–a warfare in our own souls–for what
is true of the triumphs of the Gospel in the masses is true because it
gains the same conquest over individuals.
While I am speaking of the war of the Gospel against sin within the
heart of man, may you who have never felt its power be praying that it
may conquer even you. and may those who have experienced its sacred
Omnipotence be pleading to be yet more completely subjugated to its
sway–
"Great King of Grace, our hearts subdue, May we be led in triumph, too,
As willing captives to our Lord, To sing the victories of His Word."
There are three things in the text worthy of our observation. The first
is fortresses demolished, "casting down imaginations and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God."
Secondly,prisoners seized, "bringing into captivity every thought." and
thirdly, prisoners led away captive–for such is the force of the
Greek, "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ"–as if the captured ones were taken away and put under new
service to the anointed Prince.
I. First, let us look at FORTRESSES DEMOLISHED. When the Gospel
endeavors to penetrate the human heart it meets with earthworks of
prejudice which men have cast up to screen their minds from the force
of the Truth of God. Many things are opposed to the knowledge of God.
The objective sought is that men may be brought to know God–to know
who He is and what He is. To know their relation to Him as fallen men.
To know His plan of restoration. To know Him in Christ Jesus and to
know as to love Him, to obey Him and to become like He. This is the
great objective for which the Gospel is sent into the world–that the
knowledge of the Glory of God may cover the earth as the waters cover
the sea.
But men desire not the knowledge of God's ways and shut up their hearts
against the entrance of Divine Light by much evil reasoning and
imaginations. Some are garrisoned against the knowledge of God by the
feeling that they do not need to know God. The masses of our fellow
countrymen are not so much opposed to the Gospel as indifferent to it.
They pass by our places of worship and they see their neighbors
entering and sometimes they say, "Who preaches there?" But, "What is
preached there?" is a question seldom asked. Religious enquiry seems to
be very dull at the present time. Time was when the announcement of
evangelical doctrine excited universal attention, though at the same
time almost universal opposition–that opposition was better than a
state of stagnation like the present.
Men nowadays pass by the Cross as if a dying Savior were nothing to
them. Graceless zealots, as they call them, may fight about their
creeds–as for them–they have something more practical to think about.
"What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And how shall we be clothed?"
are far more important questions to them, than, "What must we do to be
saved?" This entrenchment has to be carried and the Gospel does carry
it by the power of the Holy Spirit, for it flashes conviction on the
soul, creates alarm, awakens apprehension and so storms the stronghold
of indifference and utterly demolishes it! When the Holy Spirit
convicts a man of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come, he is
indifferent no longer!
We call him an, "enquirer," and the name is correct, for he does
enquire about the weightiest matters which concern eternity, God,
Heaven, Hell and his own immortal destiny. He desires to know, at
first, more than he is, at that time, capable of learning! He questions
about high mysteries which are for men in Christ rather than for
babies! But most of all, he wants to know, "How can I be at peace with
God?" If the Holy Spirit does but apply to a man's heart such a Truth
of God as this–that he is already condemned because he has not
believed in Christ–then indifference is as a bulging wall and as a
tottering fence! Even If a man had no other sin, it is quite sufficient
to condemn him forever, that he
neglects his God and turns away from his Savior, for unbelief is an act
of high treason against the Divine Majesty, plucking at the crown jewel
of Jehovah's truthfulness. Hence "the wicked shall be turned into Hell
with all the nations that forget God." Lay this gun in a proper
position and let it be fired by the Eternal Spirit against the
indifference of the human heart and it soon casts down the wall of
carelessness!
Then the sinner discovers that if he does not know his God, it were
better for him that he had never been born! He finds out that if he
does not know his Savior, he is doomed to endless woe and this makes
him cry out in anguish of heart, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Among the other, "imaginations," with which man fortifies himself is
the idea of many that they know already. Trained from their childhood
in false doctrine, they hold fast to it and defy the Gospel to reach
them. They are Christians by birth, they say, forgetting the Inspired
Declaration, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit." Others make up their minds as to what
the knowledge of God ought to be and, of course, they quarrel with
God's view of things. They fashion a god and a gospel after their own
fond notions and then they dream that they have reached the summit of
wisdom! They refuse to go to school to learn Christ and when He says,
"Except you are converted and become as little children, you shall in
no wise enter into the kingdom of God," they turn from Him with
disdain! They know quite enough and are resolved to learn no more.
A large proportion of our fellow men are in this condition and are
perfectly content and satisfied to remain as they are. Graduates in the
university of self-importance–full of ignorance and equally full of
pride–they scarcely deign to give Christ a hearing and hardly go as
far as the Athenians who said, "What will this babbler say?" Nothing
shuts the heart more completely against the knowledge of God than the
conceit that we already know and need no teaching from above! It is
written of the true Church, "All your children shall be taught of the
Lord," but many are not such children, for they are wise in their own
eyes and refuse instruction!
But, O Sirs, how the Holy Spirit casts down this imagination when He
makes men feel that they are blind by nature and lets them know that
the natural man understands not the things which are of God, for they
are spiritual and must be spiritually discerned! A little heavenly
Light suffices to reveal to men their darkness, for if they will but
think, they must admit that if God deigns to teach us in the
Scriptures, it must be because apart from them we are ignorant! There
is no need of Revelation and the Bible is worthless; there is no need
of an Incarnate Deity and Calvary is a superfluity if men already know
God apart from the Lord Jesus and the Word by which He is pleased to
reveal Himself! But let the Holy Spirit bring this home to a man's
heart and he begins to cry out against his own pride! He bemoans his
own blindness and he is quite willing to become a fool that he may be
wise, a child that he may sit at Jesus' feet!
Another entrenchment, behind which many are securely hiding, is the
idea that if they do not know God they can find Him out without His
help. This is a very general notion, nowadays. Scientific thought is
supposed to be the way for finding out God and the old Scripture is out
of date which says," Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your
soul shall live." Plain truth is, in this wonderful century, of small
account–men crave to be mystified by their own cogitations. Many glory
in being too intellectual to receive anything as absolute
certainty–they are not at all inclined to submit to the authority of a
positive Revelation! God's Word is not accepted by them as final, but
they judge it and believe what they like of it.
This is madness! I speak to those who believe in the Scriptures and I
say if, indeed, there is a Revelation, it becomes us to be silent
before it and accept it without dispute! The Lord knows what is better
than we can ever know and if He has been pleased to speak plainly and
solemnly His Word, it is ours to believe what He says because He says
it! It may be all very well to prove that such-and-such a Revelation of
God is consistent with reason, consistent with analogy, consistent with
a thousand things–but the attitude which needs such argument is a
spirit of rebellion against God! If there is a Revelation, every part
of it is of authority and must be believed. Human thought is not the
arbiter of Truth, but the Infallible Word is the end of all strife.
It is not ours to say what the Truth of God must be, or what we think
it should be, or what we would like it to be– but reverently to sit
down with open ears and willing heart to receive what God has spoken.
If an astronomer were to refuse to examine the stars and teach an
astronomy invented in his own brain, he would be an idiot! And those
who treat theology in the same fashion are not much better! "Surely,"
says one, "we ought to modify our beliefs by public opinion and the
current of thought." I say, "NO," a thousand times! The Incorruptible
Word of God lives and abides forever and
is incapable of modification! To modify is to adulterate, nullify and
render it of no effect, so that it becomes another gospel and, indeed,
no Gospel.
The thought of tampering with the revealed Truth of God is vicious and
ought not to be tolerated by any Christian for a second! The Gospel of
Jesus Christ is not a thing which is to be molded according to the
fashion of the period–it is "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today,
and forever." Whether the Greek philosophy rules or is exploded.
Whether some more modern theory blazes up or smolders down is small
concern of ours, for we are set to preach the one unvarying Gospel of
Jesus Christ sent down with the Holy Spirit from Heaven! No man was
ever led to a saving faith by our meeting him half way and consenting
to his unbelief! No real faith was ever worked in man by his own
thoughts and imaginations–he must receive the Gospel as a Revelation
from God, or he cannot receive it at all.
Faith is a supernatural work wherever it is found and if we think that
we can beget faith in ourselves or others by the use of the fleshy
weapons of philosophy, we shall certainly be foiled! The Scriptures
pressed home by the Holy Spirit are God's power unto salvation–not
men's cogitations and imaginations! There is the Revealed
Gospel–reject it at your own peril! There is Jehovah's Revelation of
Himself to men–receive it or be damned! This is the ground to go upon
if we would speak as the oracles of God. God grant that proud thinkers
may come upon this ground and become Believers.
Here we are boldly met by some who say, "We do not need this doctrine
which you call the 'knowledge of God.' We already know of something
better. We tell you that your Gospel, about which you make such a fuss,
is outworn and done with." Treat it so, Sirs, and perish, if you will,
but as for us, we will mourn day and night over your unbelief. You will
surely destroy your souls in rejecting the Divine Testimony, but in so
doing you will prove that Word to be true which says that the Gospel is
a savor of death unto death as well as of life unto life.
You know better, you say, but how can this be? Do you know God better
than God knows Himself? Do you know more about His way of reconciling
men to Himself than His own Messenger, the Lord Jesus Christ, knows? Do
you profess to know better than the Eternal Spirit who inspired the
Scriptures? It is to those Scriptures that we crave your reverent
attention and not to any assertions of ours–we pray you will not
reject them! I heard one say the other day that he never felt any
desire to pray and never had prayed in all his life. And though I
looked at him with sorrow, I could only say to him, "Dead men never
cry. You are dead in sin and so have not the Divine breath. You have
not been born again. You have not a new nature or a right spirit–if
you had, you could not help praying and believing."
To me his statements were confirmations of Bible teaching concerning
the real state of all unregenerate men. The Gospel, as we have said
before, wherever it creates faith, begets it by its own power and by
the power of the Eternal Spirit convincing men of the Truth of God and
enlightening those whom the Lord our God has chosen. Now, where the
Gospel comes, it undermines and overturns everything which opposes the
Truth of God and makes a man feel that of God he knows nothing until
the Lord reveals it to him.
Find a sinner made conscious of sin and you have found a man who does
not know better than his God! Find a man with an awakened conscience
and you have found a man who does not know better than his God! Find
one who believes in Christ, sits at Jesus' feet and the more he learns
the more surely have you found in him a man who does not know better
than his God, but who still cries out to be taught more that he may
possess to the fullest the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.
There is yet another entrenchment behind which some hide themselves
from the knowledge of God and that is, "I never can know. I do not know
and I never can know. I despair of ever being able to know the Lord."
In this despair the rebel entrenches himself as in a very cannon and
becomes desperate in his resistance to the Gospel. Yet even this
rampart is cast down by mighty Grace! When the Holy Spirit comes with
the Word of reconciliation, the sinner catches at the idea of Atonement
by a Substitute. He is charmed by the Truth of God, "I am lost in
myself, but saved in Christ. I am in myselfjudged and condemned for
sin, but in Christ I see my sin laid on Another and put away." He
catches at that Truth, so simple, so sublime and as he believes it, he
begins to know Him whom to know is eternal life!
The Spirit of God, as He shines with Divine Light into the soul, soon
sweeps away the Egyptian darkness of despair and in the Light of God
the man sees light! You see what my drift is? It is just this, that
there are certain walls of reasoning, reckoning, thinking–our version
calls them "imaginations"–which are to be cast down and the Gospel
does this when used by the Holy Spirit! Nor is this all, for with the
walls, the battlements fall. Man, having devised the
fortress of reasoning, erects towers of pride on them which the Apostle
calls, "high things," of which he says that the power of God casts down
"every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God."
These lofty castles are such as the following–"I have a noble nature
within me. My instincts are towards right. I have not done much amiss.
I am as good as my neighbor. I can overcome any temptation. I am
persuaded that I can fight my own way into eternal happiness," and all
such vain ideas. Let but the Gospel come with power and all these
citadels are laid low! Away they go, like Jericho's old bulwarks,
rocking and reeling till, in a cloud of dust, they thunder to their
fall! In how many cases we have seen this to be so! Fine men have come
into this place–men that knew a great deal better than anything they
could find in the Bible–they have come in quite confident that nothing
would ever change them!
These have sat down like ancient knights, mailed from head to foot,
invulnerable to any shafts of ours–but the Blessed Spirit has found an
arrow in some simple saying that we have gathered from God's blessed
Word, and, lo, the proud warriors have fallen in the dust! Convinced
that they were ignorant and foolish, the formerly proud boasters have
begun to cry, "What must we do to be saved?" And before long, being
made champions of the faith, it has been their delight to humbly yield
judgment, will and heart to the obedience of Christ! O that the Lord
would thus storm the prejudices and self-conceits of all my unconverted
hearers and sweep them away by His mighty love!
II. After a breach has been made and the city has been taken, PRISONERS
ARE TAKEN. This is our second point. The text runs thus, "Bringing into
captivity every thought." The word translated, "thought," has a very
broad meaning, but its best explanation is that which is placed first
in the lexicon, "everything which comes from the mind." The mind is
like a city and when it is captured, the inhabitants which swarm its
streets are the thoughts–and these are taken prisoners. Look at the
process which I will rapidly describe.
The Gospel comes with power to the heart of a man and he begins to fear
the wrath of God and the judgment to come. Look how he trembles! Christ
has captured his thoughts of self-security. He no more says, "Though I
add drunkenness to thirst, it shall surely be well with me." On the
contrary, he cries, "I am guilty! I have broken God's Law and I am
condemned." The Lord has captured his thoughts of self-righteousness.
This is the man who yesterday boasted in himself that he was righteous!
The pure and holy Law of God has come near his conscience and he feels
guilty and, therefore, cries for mercy!
Now he begins to pray, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" And it is
clear that his thoughts of independence; his ideas that he could do
without God are made prisoners! His thoughts of pleasure in alienation
from the Great Father are now slain, for he desires to draw near to the
Most High. Look! A little hope begins to dawn! He hopes that there may
be salvation for him. His thoughts of rebellious despair are led
captive in fetters of iron. Praise the Lord! Watch him further. The
Spirit of God encourages him and he comes to believe in Jesus–his
self-trust is a prisoner. That Jesus died for sinners is a Truth of God
which now he accepts and he casts himself upon it–his proud intellect
is a captive and he gladly bows at the Redeemer's feet!
Listen to him as he sings, "I am forgiven! God assures me of it! I am
justified because I have believed in Jesus! Oh, how I love His precious
name." His inmost heart is captured–all the thoughts of his love are
now subdued and the Savior whom he once despised, he now adores! Look
how, with gratitude, he brings his alabaster box to break it and pour
the sweet perfume on the Savior's feet! Jesus has won his heart! And
Jesus holds it in a willing captivity and, therefore, the man
consecrates himself to Christ–to live and to die for Him!
Thus the whole mind of the man, yes, the whole man, has thrown down its
rebellious weapons and surrendered unconditionally to the conquering
arm of the Lord Jesus! I dwell very briefly upon this point because I
wish to enlarge upon the last.
III. These prisoners are to be LED AWAY INTO CAPTIVITY–"Bringing every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Monarchs of the
olden times, such as the kings of Assyria and Babylon, when they
subdued a country, removed the people a far distance away from their
old haunts to find new homes. Now, when the Lord captivates the
thoughts of our mind, He leads them away, conducting them to another
reason altogether. The offspring of the mind He guides into the
spiritual realm where they delight in the Lord and bow themselves
before Him.
Let us look at this procession of captives led away to Grace, the
triumph of the Conqueror to settle them down in another region under
another King! From the highest to the lowest, all the faculties of the
soul are made to pass under the yoke–I shall not attempt a list
according to mental science, but mention them as they occur to me. He
who, being
made conscious of his sin, believes in Jesus Christ submits all the
thoughts of his judgment and understanding to the obedience of Christ
and this is a great point gained. Before, he put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for darkness–but now,
when he is in difficulty about a moral question he asks his Lord!
Now, if pleasure tempts him, he judges whether it is sweet by the
question whether it would be sweet to his Lord! Now, if a certain
doctrine is stated, he weighs it not in the balances of his own
thoughts, much less in the scales of popular opinion, but he asks,
"What did my Master say? What would the Lord Jesus think of this?" He
suspends his own judgment upon his Master's judgment. He does not say,
"I am a law unto myself," but he says, "Christ is the Way and in His
steps I desire to follow." Thus his reason is led into captivity to the
higher reason and understanding of his supreme
Lord!
If there is a Truth of God which he does not know, he tries to learn
it. If his Lord sets it before him as a lesson and if it is hidden from
him, he is content not to know. His prayer is, "Lord, teach me, or else
I shall never learn. I wish to have my understanding developed to the
fullest, but let it be under Your sweet Light. Let my mind blossom and
open all its flowers beneath the sunlight of Your Divine instruction."
I know it is not so with some professed Christians, for they too often
invent their own doctrines and think out their opinions apart from
their Master. To think is admirable, but not if we mean, thereby, to
supplement the teachings of Christ, or to improve upon them, or to
accommodate them to popular theories in science and philosophy!
For my part, true science may say what it will and never lack for an
attentive listener while I live–the more loudly it shall speak the
better–if it will speak facts and not theories–if it will tell me
what God has done and not what man has dreamed! All that true science
ever can discover must tally with the Word of Revelation, for God
speaks in Nature nothing but the same Truth as He has written in the
Holy Scriptures. Let our wise men ransack earth to its center and climb
to Heaven and make inquisition through every star–the testimony of
universal Nature, if heard aright, shall never contradict the Inspired
utterances of the Holy Spirit!
The evil is that the wise men add their own inferences to the facts as
if they were of equal authority. What, then, is to be done? Shall we
alter the deductions of the fallible or try to shape the declarations
of the Infallible? The question is not difficult to answer! We are not
to revise the statements of the Bible, but the inferences of the
philosophers! When philosophy contradicts Revelation, what do I say? So
much the worse for philosophy! In spite of the perpetual restlessness
which I see in many who are forever mending that which is perfect in
itself, my understanding is happy to delight in the Infallible
testimonies of Jehovah! Let those fellows change–we shall not! Let
them come up to us–verily, believers in God's Revelation will never go
down to them, for that would be to be disloyal to our Master, Christ,
whose teachings are too sacred for us to knowingly alter a letter of
them!
Whatever others may do, it is the delight of those who have felt the
overwhelming power of the Divine Spirit to find in Christ the wisdom
with which their intellect is more than content. The same power of the
Truth of God and of the Holy Spirit leads captive the will. My Lord
Will-be-Will, as Bunyan describes him, is a very stout fellow. Some men
think he is exceedingly obstinate, "I will and I will, and I will," and
by no means can they be made to yield. In truth, the will has a
wonderful power over all the faculties and rules them like a despot. It
is boasted that the will of man is free, yet Luther was quite correct
when he called it a slave! Never is it so much a slave as when it brags
of its own liberty! Let the Spirit of God come into the heart and apply
with power the Gospel of Jesus Christ–and the human will no longer
glories in its freedom, but surrenders and is subjugated!
It still remains a will, but the will of God is supreme over it. Hear
it describe itself–"Lord, this is my will, or what I want to be my
will. 'Not as I will, but as You will.'" Look how the will wears its
golden fetters and kisses them with happy lips, so glad to find true
freedom in being subdued to the obedience of Christ! It is also very
beautiful to see how human hopes are spell-bound by Divine Grace. These
winged things were known to flutter no higher than the tainted
atmosphere of this poor world–but now they find stronger pinions and
soar aloft to things not seen as yet, eternal in the heavens! The man's
fears, too, all nestled in the ruins of his sinful joys, were awakened
by the voices of his fellow man. But now, ennobled by Divine Grace,
they ascend into another sphere! They cover their faces with their
wings before the Throne of God, while the man fears to grieve the Holy
Spirit, fears to offend against the Father's love, fears to do anything
which would dishonor the Savior. His joys and sorrows are now found
where they never went before–he rejoices in the Lord and he sorrows
after a godly sort.
His memory also now retains the precious things of Divine Truth, which
once it rejected for the trifles of time! His powers of meditation and
consideration keep within the circle of the Truth of God and holiness,
finding green pastures there. This done, you shall see the same
enthrallment cast over the Christian man's desires and aspirations. He
has flung away his old ambitions and aspires to nobler things. He is
not without his longings, but he longs for heavenly blessings. His
wishes and desires to fly to Christ as doves to their windows. His
affection, which is no longer set upon things upon the earth, but on
things above, draws his desires upward. He pines for holiness, for
usefulness, for the Glory of God! His own glory he discards and is
willing to be of no repute so long as he may but make the name of Jesus
famous among the sons of men!
I would to God, dear Brothers and Sisters, that this sacred vassalage
would be more fully felt by every motion of the mind so that no desire
would dare to wander even for a moment! The same blessed servitude
binds the man's plots and designs. He still plans, but it is not for
his own aggrandizement–his grandest design is to bring jewels to the
crown of Christ! He now arranges his life with circumspection and with
diligence–not with cunning and craftiness–for holiness is his policy
and his scheme of life is sanctity. Does not this talk of mine sound
rather like sarcasm to some who profess to be Christians? If it does,
stand convicted, for it is not I that am wrong in this, but you–for
every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ! And even when we are thinking about common things or matters
that have to do with business, we are to be serving our Lord, for,
"every thought," not some thought, is to be bowed unto the obedience of
Christ.
It is a wicked error to conceive that so much of our life ought to be
religious and so much to be secular. A Christian's whole life is to be
his religion and his religion is to saturate his whole life! You are as
religiously to eat your meals as you eat at the Lord's Table! You are
as religiously to speak the Truth of God in your parlor as you would in
the pulpit! Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, it is all to
be done to the Glory of God! The great thought you are to have in
opening your shops, in trading, in toiling, in furnishing your houses,
in nursing your children and even in taking recreation, is still to be,
"How can I glorify God in all this?" All, ALL, must be brought into
captivity to Christ!
When a man yields himself to Jesus, he should comprehend his house, his
money, his body, his time, his wife, his children–everything in the
deed of surrender–for He who bought us with His precious blood did not
buy us with a reserve and leave the devil a mortgage upon us! We are
our Lord's unencumbered freehold forever! We are His own conquered
portion which He took out of the hand of the Amorite with His sword and
with His bow and, therefore, over the whole of our being He has an
absolute and undivided right of property!
The renewed man's love and hate are both held captive by the power of
Divine Grace. He loves Jesus truly and intensely. He hates sin with his
whole soul. Indignation is a hard thing to tame, but to my mind it is a
grand thing to see a man's anger made the servitor of Christ so that he
only grows indignant when he wars with that which is mean, cruel,
unjust, un-Christlike! Then he does well to be angry, for his anger is
but virtue on fire! It is a fair sight to see Christ's sacred bands
worn by our tastes which are so volatile and hard to constrain.
Concerning tastes, it is never wise to dispute, but Jesus' love creates
a delicacy of mind, a discernment of that which is tender and gentle,
pure and heavenly– an abhorrence of that which is evil so that the
Lord's redeemed become very connoisseurs in things moral and Divine.
The fancy, too–that impalpable cloud painted as by the setting sun,
that will-of-the-wisp of the spirit–even this is impressed into royal
service and made to wear the colors of Christ so that men even dream
eternal life! When godly men give their imagination rein, even Pegasus
bears a royal burden and in his flight from the actual to the
imaginative he feels the golden bridle of the King's rule restraining
and directing all his airy motions. Yes, the Holy Spirit wins an
undisputed sway, "bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ." Do you not wish for this complete subjection, you
to whom Jesus is God and Lord? I know you do and, what is more, I am
sure you wish for the time when that which is worked in yourselves
shall be accomplished in all mankind!
Christ's Gospel has not come into the world to be co-equal with other
faiths and share a divided kingdom with differing creeds. False gods
may stand face to face to each other in one Pantheon and be at peace,
for they are all false together, but where Christ comes, Dagon must go
down–not even the stump of him must stand! Truth is of necessity
intolerant of falsehood! Love wars with hate and justice battles with
wrong. Christ Jesus will be All in All and sit upon the Throne alone.
May the day come in which obedience to Christ shall be universal! What
a scene would present itself if every thought of every human being were
in holy subjection to Christ! Not a poor woman would sing beneath her
lowly
roof of thatch without rendering holy adoration–while on the throne,
neither queen nor prince would plan anything but what should be for the
Glory of Jesus Christ!
No council chamber would know a policy which would be contrary to the
Prince of Love, nor would the freest thinker think anything contrary to
the thoughts of Jesus. The wild men of the plain would cease to forget
the Lord and the civilized dwellers in cities would no longer cast off
His fear. The common people, in multitudes, would seek Him and the
nobles would study how to honor Him. How happy will the time be when
all inventive genius shall own the sway of Jesus and man shall desire
no more to fashion weapons of war, but only to design that which shall
minister to the well-being of mankind! When art with pencil and chisel
shall refrain from all which excites lascivious thoughts and
perpetuates the memory of blood and slaughter, but shall bow at Jesus'
feet to honor God by setting Nature's beauties before reverent eyes!
How glorious will it be when Learning, poring over its classic books,
shall find in human wisdom trophies for the surer wisdom of Jesus! And
when Study, searching by the midnight lamp, shall seek out the heights
and depths of Divine Love! It charms me to think of every poet singing
Divine songs for earth's great King, drinking no more from the
Castellan fountain, but finding all their springs in God alone! Then,
too, shall Music compose her most harmonious symphonies and pour forth
her richest notes in worship of the redeeming Lord, while Eloquence, no
longer declaiming in the defense of wrong, shall spend her force in the
maintenance of peace and righteousness and in the extolling of the
Lord! Dawn even now, auspicious day! Why does the night hang so heavy?
Why bides the darkness around us for so many ages?
Great Captain of Salvation, You can achieve the victory! We have
compassed this Jericho these many days, but still the walls have not
fallen! Up, You mighty man of war, for You are such, and come to the
battle and then the battlements of sin will fall. "The Lord is a man of
war: Jehovah is His name." Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the
Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old! Are You
not He that has cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? Because of truth and
righteousness, ride forth in Your majesty! For peace on earth and glory
to God in the highest, come forth in the glory of Your might with the
everlasting Gospel, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
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The Middle Passage