A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 28, 1876,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." 1 Kings
20:40.
THE parable which the Prophet acted before Ahab was simple and natural.
A soldier in the heat of the fight was charged by an officer to take
care of an important prisoner. "Keep this man," he said, "and if you
allow him to escape, your life shall answer for it, or you shall pay a
talent of silver." The soldier's one business from that moment was to
look after his captive. He had received command to do so from his
superior officer and his first and last work was to see that the
prisoner was safely kept. However, he had other things to do belonging
to himself–his family and the like–and turning his thoughts in that
direction, he forgot his charge, and the prisoner very naturally seized
the opportunity to escape. And so the soldier exclaims, "While I was
busy here and there, he was gone."
The neglectful guard had no cause to be surprised that such was the
case, but he was not prepared to bear the penalty and, therefore, he
came before the king to ask that he might be pardoned for his neglect.
The king replied at once, "You have stated your case and decided it.
Your own carelessness has lost us the captive and you know the
penalty." This story was originally told in order to touch the
conscience of King Ahab, who had allowed Benhadad, king of Syria, to
escape when Providence had put the cruel monarch into his hands on
purpose that he might receive his doom. Ahab is no more, but this
Scripture is not, therefore, like a spent shell, there is truth and
power in it!
Its teaching is applicable to us, also. Ahab is gone to his account and
the dogs have licked his blood. We may forget the guilty monarch and
incline our own ears and hearts to hear what the parable may have to do
with us. We, too, have received a charge–have we neglected it? We have
had time and opportunity within our keeping–have they gone? Let us
search and see whether it is so or not. When the rebellious king had
received this warning he went to his house heavy and displeased and it
may be that the subject of this morning will be far from agreeable to
many–it will be well for their souls if they become heavy with the
burden of repentance and displeased with themselves.
Oh that the Spirit of God would speak home to all our hearts and save
us from a course of life which may cost us a thousand bitter regrets!
I. And first, let us think of THE OBLIGATION which the text suggests,
that we may solemnly admit that we are under a higher obligation,
still. This man, being engaged in warfare, was bound to obey the orders
of his superior officer. That officer put into his custody a prisoner,
saying, "keep this man," and from that moment he was under an
obligation from which nothing could free him. It is a law of discipline
in the army that what a man is bid to do by legitimate authority, he
must do, and, therefore, the man's chief business was to detain his
captive till he could hand him over to the officer.
Dear Friends, you and I are under personal obligation, from the moment
of our entrance upon years of responsibility, and that obligation is
this–to serve, honor and glorify God. Every man is bound to serve his
Creator and live to His Glory. That this is most just is clear as the
sun in the heavens if we will but think a little. Alas, it is a subject
upon which some men have never thought, nor will they care to think. Of
themselves they have been more than a little thoughtful. Their duty to
their neighbor, they have, also, in some measure considered. But their
obligation to God does not seem to have ever crossed their minds!
They forget God and live, in fact, as if there were none, or as if they
were not bound to serve Him. The practical language of their life is
like that of Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?"
They would not be unjust to a neighbor, but they practice constant
injustice towards their Maker! The Prophet asks, "Will a man rob God?"
But, alas, thousands of lives are one long robbery of the Almighty, one
perpetual disregard of claims founded upon eternal justice! That we are
bound to serve God is clear, because we derive our being from Him. We
would never have existed if it had not
been for His power. We would cease to exist at this instant if that
power did not sustain us in being! Surely that existence which was
originated by God should be spent to His honor and the being which
hourly depends upon Him should be used for His Glory!
Children owe obedience to their parents and much more do creatures owe
a debt to their Creator–that debt is a consecrated life–a debt which
is always due since the life is daily being maintained by fresh Divine
power. It was for this end that the Almighty made us and for nothing
short of this, that we might glorify God and enjoy Him forever. When a
man fashions a vessel or a tool, it is that it may answer the purpose
for which he designed it. And if it does not answer his design, he
casts it away. What man will keep a horse or a cow if it yields him no
benefit? And if a dog never acknowledged you as its master, who among
you would long call it your own? God has made us that we may glorify
Him and if we do not honor Him we miss the end and object of our being.
I care not what you do nor what you are–though you should be owners of
a score of counties, if you love not God your soul is poor and
degraded. Though men should set you on a column high in the air and
account you a hero, if you have not lived for God, you have lived in
vain. As the vine which yields no cluster is useless, so is a man who
has not honored God. As an arrow which falls short of the mark, as a
fig tree which yields no figs, as a candle which smokes but yields no
light, as a cloud without rain and a well without water, is a man who
has not served the Lord! He has led a wasted life–a life to which the
flower and glory of existence are lacking. Call it not life at all, but
write it down as animated death!
To the service of God a thousand voices call us all. I know not where
we can walk without hearing those impressive calls. Lift up your eyes
to the midnight sky and every star exclaims, "We shine to Jehovah's
praise–do you?" Cast your eye upon the fields bespangled with living
jewels, for each flower whispers, "I bloom to the great Maker's
praise–do you?" Listen to the birds, whose tuneful choirs are occupied
with the praises of the Lord, and they enquire of you, "Have you no
music for the Lord?" The very dust that is borne in the air moves
according to His laws! And it asks us why we disobey everything above,
beneath, around, majestic or minute! If we will but listen, they all
says to us, "We are all the servants of the Most High, why wait you not
within His courts?"
Man's obligation to serve his Maker is even greater than that of any
other of the creatures around him, for he is the Maker's masterpiece in
which Divine skill is seen to perfection. His body was curiously worked
by the fingers of Infinite Wisdom and as for his soul, it is of the
loftiest order of created things and is akin to angels, so that if any
created being ought to serve the Lord by whom it lives, man is that
creature! Moreover, standing first in the scale of visible beings,
having dominion over all the works of God's hands, man should be first
in loyalty to the great King. To him the laborious ox bows its willing
neck! For him the horse foregoes the wild freedom of the plains! To him
the sheep yield their fleece for his covering and their flesh for his
food!
For man the fish leap from the stream and the birds drop from the wing.
He has dominion over all the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air
and reigns as God's vicegerent over the brute creation–all this and
yet this exalted being forgets the Sovereign who has lent him His
authority and denies the homage which is due to his liege Lord!
Brothers and Sisters, it ought not to be so–gratitude exclaims against
the revolt of a being so highly favored! A great argument for our
obligation to glorify God is found in the fact that in this service men
find their highest honor and their truest happiness. To serve some
beings would be degrading–to be the vessel of the devil is to bring
upon yourself disgrace and sorrow. But to serve the Lord is more
honorable than to wear a prince's ermine and, as for happiness, the
angels find it Heaven and redeemed spirits acknowledge it to be their
bliss, while those on earth who most fully do the will of the Lord
confess themselves to be the happiest of men!
It is a seraph's glory that he gives glory to God and there we must
find ours. Friend, you and I are so constituted that we never can be
right unless we run in the groove of obedience to the great First
Cause! This is the orbit in which we can safely move–all else is chaos
and leads to misery. Wander out of the way of God's honor and you
stumble among the dark mountains and lose yourself amidst tangled
briers and piercing thorns. If, then, it is man's health, happiness and
honor that he should serve God, surely his duty lies in that direction
and it is the height of folly to neglect it. Let this, also, never be
far from our memories, that there is a day coming when we must, all of
us, give an account of our lives. And the account will be based upon
this enquiry–How have we served and glorified God?
In that tremendous day, whose awful splendor shall cause the pomp of
kingdoms to turn pale, the one great question will be, "How have you
lived in reference to God?" Remember our Lord's own description of the
Judgment. He makes service rendered to Himself the test and
touchstone–"I was hungry and you gave Me meat. I was thirsty and you
gave Me drink." What you did for Him, or what you did not do for Him,
will be the hinge on which Judgment shall turn. True, your actions
towards your fellow men enter into that account, for the clothing of
the naked and the giving of drink to the thirsty are introduced as
evidence of service done for the Lord. So, then, these deeds were done
as unto Him and were part and parcel of that service which is His due.
If there is nothing done unto the Lord. If to the Lord no reverence is
rendered. If to the Lord no love is returned, then there can be no
sentence for you but this, "Cast the unprofitable servant into outer
darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." I would
leave this point, but I think I hear the enquiry–"Are we, then, to
leave our business, shut up our shops, forsake our families, betake
ourselves to solitude and spend our time in prayer and devotion?" I did
not say that! I have not even hinted at such folly! I said that you are
under obligation to serve God–surely this does not imply that you are
to avoid those services? When the Lord bade Jonah serve Him in Nineveh,
was it not flat rebellion which led him to flee into Tarshish?
Certainly that was not the way to keep the command!
In your own callings, where God has placed you, you are to glorify Him.
It is not fighting a battle for a man to run out of it, to avoid the
contest and the trial which comes out of it–yet that is exactly what
it comes to when a man gets to a monastery or a woman to a nunnery!
Thus duty is shirked under the pretence of more easily fulfilling it
and God's Glory is sacrificed under the plea of promoting it! Did He
make men to be immured in cells, or women to be buried alive in
religious prisons? 'Tis an ill use to which to put an intelligent being
and a sheer waste of the Creator's revenues. You cannot win the battle
by quitting the field!
Stand where your Captain has placed you! Fight in His strength and
endure till victory crowns you. There is a way of glorifying God in
your present position whatever it may be. A merchant or a working man,
a mistress or a nurse girl, a king or a pauper has, each one, a work to
do! We are, or ought to be, all servants in the one great house, doing
this or that as the Master appoints, and all equally glorifying God as
His Grace enables us. Our service to God lies not out of the way of
daily life, but in it! See to it, then, that you are diligent therein.
"But are we not to serve our fellow men?" Who said you were not to?
There are two tables of the Law–the first contains the precepts
towards God, the second the commands towards men–but they are both
God's Law.
He that does good to his fellow men for God's sake is serving God! In
fact, this is one of the noblest ways in which men serve God–when they
pursue the good of their fellows that thereby God may be glorified.
Still, man is not our master, but our fellow servant. The Lord has an
undivided right to us, to every motion of ours, to every faculty of our
mind and every capacity of our entire nature, for, "it is He that made
us, and not we, ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His
pasture."
II. Secondly, our text contains A CONFESSION–"He was gone." The man
was under obligation to take care of his prisoner, but he had to
confess that he was gone. I anxiously desire to deal with your
consciences as I will deal with my own while I ask how many of us have
to confess that though under obligations to God we have not fulfilled
them? Alas, it may be said of many, an opportunity for glorifying God,
"It is gone." First, we have lost many opportunities for serving God
which arise out of the periods of life. We were children and when the
little child brings Jesus its, "Hosanna," its early praises are very
sweet to Him.
Ah, boys, below here, and children all around me, I hope you will not
have to say, "My childhood is gone. I cannot praise Jesus with a girl's
voice or a boy's tongue, now, for my childhood passed away in
disobedience and folly. Oh, how lovely would I have looked in Christ's
eyes if I had served Him as a child, but it is too late, now, the bud
is withered, the early dew is dried up and my morning sacrifice is not
offered." As for you, young men and women, it is a great thing to serve
God in your youth. There is a fire and vigor and elasticity of life
about our earliest manhood which we lose when we arrive at the prime of
life–and Jesus deserves to have us at our very best. It is a glorious
thing to give our brightest days to Jesus, but I know there are some
here who have already to look back upon early manhood wasted and gone–
gone forever!
Then we come upon another period in which we become heads of households
with a family of children about us. Here are golden opportunities. The
young trees can be bent, the pliant branches can be inclined this way
or that while yet
young, but they soon grow beyond our culture. Ah, men and women who
have lived without God all the time that you have had children under
your roof–and now they have all grown up without the fear of God–with
what grief must you confess your opportunities gone from your grasp!
You cannot influence your children, now. That opportunity is gone past
recall. You cannot talk to your son now, as you might have done when
you could take the fair-haired boy upon your knee and kiss him and tell
him of Jesus. Your daughter is a mother, herself, now, and you cannot
speak to her as you could have done when she was a child at home. Those
days of instruction and persuasion are gone. Perhaps I address some who
were once in business and had considerable influence over a large
number of workmen and others, but they have now retired from active
engagements, for the infirmities of age have come upon them.
It is a sad fact if, upon looking back, they are obliged to say, "A
thousand chances of doing good are gone. I am out of that condition and
position which afforded me such means of usefulness and now I mourn
that I did not avail myself of them." Ah, my dear Friend, it is sad for
you, if you have to look back so far, and to admit that your talent was
buried in the earth and brought in no interest for Jesus. Another form
of regret may arise out of the changes of our circumstances. A man had
once considerable wealth, but a turn of Providence has made him poor.
It is a very unhappy thing if he has to confess, "I did not use my
substance for God when I had it. I was an unfaithful steward and wasted
my Master's goods. And now I am no longer trusted by Him. My property
is gone."
Another may have possessed considerable ability of mind, but through
sickness or declining vigor he may not be able, now, to do what he once
did. It is grievous if he has to say, "Oh that I had spoken for Christ
when I could speak! Oh that I had used my brain for Him while yet my
thoughts were clear and my perceptions quick. But now, alas, my
capacity is gone." To rue a change and to remember that you neglected
to use your opportunity must be very painful and, yet, it falls to the
lot of very many. He is poor, indeed, who once was rich and used not
his wealth for God! And he is fallen, indeed, who, when he stood aloft,
used not his standing for his Maker's praise.
Remember also, dear Friends–I must ask each one to take it home to
himself–the time which has not been employed in Christ's service is
gone. If you have not lived unto God, how many years have now gone with
some of you? I pray you, now, to number the years which have rolled
away. Your candle is burning low in the socket and as yet your work is
not begun! Time is going and eternity approaching! Will you never
awake? As time has gone, so, also, have many persons gone to whom we
might have been useful. Thousands have passed away during our short
span of life. Have you not had to say, "I ought to have spoken to
So-and-So who was in my employment, but he died without hope before I
had warned him–and he is gone where no word of mine can ever reach
him!"
Oh, how many have passed away since I first began to address this
audience? And if I could charge myself with unfaithfulness to you in
preaching the Word of God, how would I have to regret each funeral and
to remember each tomb and say, "There lies one for whom I can render no
acceptable account at last, for I have been unfaithful and kept back
the Truth of God." I thank God that I, by His Grace, have not this to
burden my heart! Do not let it be so with any of you! Sometimes,
however, the confession of the thing gone concerns noble ideas and
resolves. You had great ideas and if they had but been embodied in
action, something good would have come of them. But where are the
ideas, now? Were they not smothered in their birth?
You resolved to do great things–the plans were thoroughly arranged and
your whole heart was eager to carry them out–but delay chilled the
goodly purposes till they all died of cold–and they lie buried in
forgetfulness. You dreamed well, but there you stopped! As for actual
work for the Lord, you had other fish to fry and, therefore, you cast
out your net for them. You suffered the season for activity to go by
and so your excellent ideas and resolutions melted into thin air and
they are gone! Yes, and there may be some here from whom a vast wealth
of opportunity has passed away. They have been blessed with great means
and large substance–and if these had been laid out for Jesus Christ
year after year–many a lagging agency would have been quickened and
many a holy enterprise which has had to be suspended for lack of means
might have gone on gloriously!
They could have supplied the sinews of war in the form of money, but
they have stinted the Lord's bank and kept the work small and
struggling. Their gold and their silver, according to their profession,
belonged to Christ, but they have kept them to themselves. What account
will they render for this? I am sure that I cannot tell! Let them look
to it! Others have possessed mental endowments. They were men of clear
thought and fluent speech–and they could have led the way
in many good works, but they have kept in the rear and lived in
indolence. How will they answer for this? I would not be in their
places for the world! O my God, if I had a hair upon my head that I had
not consecrated to You, I could not dare to live, lest I be found at
heart a traitor to You!
Yet are there hundreds but I must not judge them–their Master will
judge them at the last, who call themselves Christians–whose
consecration does not go so deep but what you might peel it off with
your fingernail. Scratch a Russian, they say, and you find a
Tartar–and so there are some professors who need but a slight brushing
and you will find unconsecrated self beneath! They have not given
themselves up in deed and of a truth unto God. It cuts me to the quick
to remember that I have met with men whose possessions have amounted to
millions. These are they who have given me an earnest grip of the hand
and thanked me for the Gospel I have preached. They have expressed the
deepest interest in the Lord's work and yet they have known its needs
and have given nothing to carry it on. And they have even passed into
eternity and left nothing of their substance to assist the cause which
they professed to love!
The smallness of the gifts of some religious rich men staggers me
beyond expression! I know not how to comprehend them! Are they
hypocrites? Or do they misunderstand their position? He who does great
wonders knows how to save, but I remember, also, that He whose fan is
in His hand and who will thoroughly purge His floor, knows how to judge
between hypocritical profession and real consecration to His service!
That barren fig tree of which we read this morning and that servant who
wrapped his talent in a napkin–those parables mean something–and they
mean much to any of you who have large talents committed to your trust,
but who are doing next to nothing in your Master's service.
Worst of all, Brothers and Sisters, what will be the cry of a man when
he comes to die, when, dying, he looks back upon his whole life and
says, "I was busy here and there and I did nothing for Christ! My life
is gone"? And then he looks into the dim future and, seeing no
brightness there, he cries, "Woe is me, my soul is lost! I tried to
gain the world and I have lost my soul! Everything that I did with so
much toil and effort now turns out to be mere trifling, for my soul is
lost forever and all is lost forever. Would God I had never been born,
for what a dreadful thing to have been born and to have lived and
missed the objective for which I was created!"
May this dreadful ruin of soul, life and everything never happen to any
one of you, and yet, it may.
III. Thirdly, we have before us THE EXCUSE which was made–"As your
servant was busy here and there, he was gone." The excuse is, "I was so
busy," which, first of all, is no excuse, because a soldier has no
business to have any business but that which his commander allots to
him. His sole duty was to watch his prisoner and the one great business
of every man here below is to glorify God. "But have we no secular
business?" you ask. I have already told you that you are to glorify God
in your daily business and by that business. You will not need to sell
a yard of calico or a pound of sugar the less because you seek God's
Glory!
You will not, probably, need to spend five minutes less in your worldly
business in order to serve God. Consecrate all that you do by doing it
unto Him and then do as much as you like. It may make a difference in
your mode of doing it–it should do so where that mode is not what it
should be–but you can serve God in and by your common calling.
Religion does not interfere with work, but sanctifies it! So, being
busy is no excuse for being ungodly. When the man said he was, "busy
here and there," he cut away the only excuse he could have had, because
that showed he had ability. If he had said, "I was sick and could not
stir. I had lost an arm and could not hold the prisoner. I was smitten
with a fit and was unconscious"–there would have been an excuse!
But no, he was "busy here and there," and if he could do one thing he
could have done another thing. If he had ability enough in one way, why
did he not turn that ability to use in the way which his duty required?
Then, again, what he had done was evidently done to please himself. He
was "busy here and there." Who told him to be "busy here and there"? He
set himself work which was not cut out for him. Very well, then, he was
serving himself instead of his Master. He was robbing his Lord of his
time and ability in order to give it to himself, making himself his own
king and casting off his allegiance to the Lord.
Still, he says he was, "busy." Now let us see what he has accomplished.
Here is a man who has been busy all his life and what has he done?
Done? He has made a good deal of money! That is something, is it not?
He has collected a great store–for himself. Not having served the
Lord, but having lived to make money, he has evidently thought more of
gold than of God and so he has been an idolater, and has thought less
of his Maker than of his own pocket! He has despised the
Lord and preferred his own gain. That is clear–and what is this but to
rebel against the Most High? What a poor thing hoarding money is!
When you are dead what can your wealth do for you? Yes, those horses
will have more plumes on their heads and there will be more men in
shabby black to get you off the empty hearse. There will be more
drinking at the public house on the way home from your funeral. No
doubt there will be more tomfoolery over you than there would have been
if you had been a poor villager and had been decently borne on men's
shoulders to your grave. And there will be more quarrelling among your
heirs and, perhaps, a longer lawsuit over your property and more
pickings for the lawyers than there would have been had you heaped up
less of the yellow earth. To have it said, "he died worth an immense
sum," is the consummation, in a great number of cases, but what is
that? Is the dead man better off for having been a millionaire?
To use money rightly is a pleasure, but to die and leave it all unused
is utter misery. To heap it up for others to squander is poor work. I
had as soon break stones on the road! To be the devil's rake that
another may be his pitchfork is a poor ambition. Yet this is the story
of many men–they are busy here and there for selfish ends–and all
hope of serving God is gone. I hear one of you say, "My departed friend
was not busy about wealth–he sought the love and honor of his fellow
citizens and aspired to honor." Yes, but if he served not the Lord it
is clear that he loved the praise of men better than the praise of God!
And what good can that do him, now that he lies in the cold grave?
There was a record of his name in The Times and many people said,
"Another eminent man is gone," but what of that? What is honor when a
man lies stark and stiff within his winding sheet?
Here is another man who says, "But I have lived for learning. I have
sought after knowledge, as for hidden treasure." But, my dear Friend,
if you have not lived for God, you have thought every knowledge worth
having but the knowledge of the Most High! You have arranged and
classified the different orders of flies and beetles, or put into
scientific order the flowers of the field and the stars of the
firmament. I do not decry your knowledge, on the contrary, I value it,
but how is it that you neglect its highest branch? Science of every
kind may wisely be sought after, but not at the expense of serving God!
The naturalist can readily serve God in his researches and discoveries.
Every science can be used for God's Glory, but if the science is
pursued apart from the glory of God, it is as insulting as if a man
should say, "Great God, Your creatures I wish to understand, but as for
Yourself, I care not to know or honor You." Is not this a grievous
fault? What has the man who has forgotten his God been doing? Well,
some men cannot give half so good an account as I have already given.
Doing? Why, some of them have lived for seeking pleasure and killing
time! Too many in this luxurious city are only clothes horses for
tailors and milliners, or shall I call them patent digesters,
dissolving daily great stores of good meat and drink, and so on. Their
one question in the morning is, "How shall we amuse ourselves today?"
A rat lives a better life than the mere gentleman about town who has
nothing to do–at least the rat does not consume so much–and having no
conscience, it has not so much to answer for. This creature, six feet
in his boots, has not the sixth part of anything good to recommend him!
His soul seems to be of no use to him but to act as salt to keep his
body from corrupting! It is an awful thing to be a man and yet no man!
There are plenty of such about. For all the good they are, you might
cut better men out of brown paper–they are all sham and show.
Alas, this is true of women as well as men, for the Scripture says,
"She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives." But what are some
busy about? Alas, they are even worse than the poor fools I have just
now described, for their pleasure is found in vice–they are busy in
indulging their vile passions and eternity, alone, will reveal the
characters ruined and the lives blasted by their wickedness! They are
gentlemen all the same, you know, and, having plenty of money, they can
marry any man's daughter. Shame that it should be so. Ah me, what a
wretched thing it will be to them to have lived a rotten life and to
have been busy only about how to indulge base passions at the cost of
others' souls!
Some who think themselves a better sort, have lived to criticize
others. They find fault with the way in which earnest men are serving
God. They tell how things ought to be done though they never do
anything themselves. They show the mistakes of the virtuous and
successful. They weave plans and projects which they never carry out.
They look into the future and see what is going to happen and into the
past and see what ought to have happened! They spin fine theories and I
know not what–where can be the good of all this? And yet in such
things many a life has been frittered away, laboriously wasted in
scheming how to do nothing at all!
Oh, may that never be your lot, to be busy here and there and thus to
let life leak away while none of its work is done! Oh that I could
speak with a voice which could reach every heart! I grudge the smiles
which I caused just now, but I only created them that they might help
me to thrust graver thoughts into your minds. Brothers and Sisters, is
it not a sad thing to have neglected that which is evidently the main
business of life? If I am God's creature, I must have been meant to
serve God! And if I have not served Him, even as a creature, I have not
done what I was meant for! But if I profess to be a Christian, then the
thing assumes a more solemn form–have I professed to be bought with
Jesus' blood and not to be my own? And have I lived as if I were my
own?
I profess to be filled with the Spirit of God by being regenerate. Have
I lived like one who has been born again? If I have been baptized upon
a profession of my faith, I gave myself up to be buried in the water
professing that I was dead to the world–have I been dead to the world?
I said that I was going to live in newness of life as one risen from
the dead– have I so lived? Oh, professing Christian men, have you been
true to your professions, or have those professions been only lies?
Conscience, answer me, I charge you! O Spirit of God, quicken
conscience in everyone here, so that none may be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin!
To serve God is the only thing worth living for and when we lie upon
the sick bed and begin to look into the future, we judge it to be so.
It makes a good man greedy to serve God when he thinks that his life
will soon be over! He condemns himself for every wasted hour and
laments that his every faculty has not been spurred to the uttermost in
the service of Him who bought him with His blood! I have never, yet,
heard regrets from dying men that they had done too much for Christ, or
lived too earnestly for Him, or won too many souls, or given too much
of their substance to the cause of God! I have heard the regrets which
all lie the other way! God save us from them for His mercy's sake!
Fourthly, there remains THE UNALTERABLE FACT, "While I was busy here
and there, he was gone." Could you not seize him again? "No, he is
gone." Is there no making up for past neglect? No recapturing the
missing one? No, he is gone, clean gone. I want you all to remember,
this morning, that if any portion of life has not been spent in God's
service, it is gone. Time past is gone. You can never have it back
again–not even the last moment which just now glided by! Go, gather
the morning dew which has been exhaled by the sun! Go, gather the
clouds which yesterday poured forth their rain! Go, gather the sunbeams
which fell upon the earth last summer! If you cannot accomplish any of
those tasks, do not even hope to recover the time which has departed.
It is gone–Omnipotence itself cannot give it back to you!
With the time, remember, your life has gone and there is no living it
over again. We have, sometimes, been foolish enough to say, "Oh if I
could live my life over again!" Why say it? You cannot live it over
again. It is gone! Whatever Omnipotent Grace may do, it cannot alter
your past life. It will be eternally what you have made it. When you
set your seal on the moments, like hot wax, the seal is there forever!
What your life has been, the truth reports it forever! Throughout
eternity it will not be possible for you to change the complexion of a
single moment in which you have lived. You cannot alter the past,
though you should forever sigh. "Oh, that I had availed myself of that
opportunity! Oh, that I had, then, been self-denying! Oh, that I had
abounded in work which glorified Christ." You cannot recall an act, nor
unsay a word, nor revoke a negligence.
Remember, also, that future diligence will not be able to recover
wasted time. You may hold your next captive, but you cannot get back
the prisoners that have already escaped you. Young man, you are not yet
25 and there is a grand time before you. Use it, use it well! But you
cannot get back the years between 15 and twenty-five. They are gone,
and if misspent, are gone forever. A man of 60 may yet do something,
but what of the long wasted years already past? I suppose Luther was
past 40 before he began his life work and yet he accomplished a
splendid result for Christ. But even Luther could not get back his
years of unregeneracy and superstition!
Time is on the wing. Use it now. Do not loiter, for you can pluck no
feather from the wing of time to make it loiter, too. It flies and if
you would use it, use it now! Awake yourself and sleep no longer! If
you would, indeed, be true to God who made you and to Christ who bought
you with His precious blood, use yourself now to the fullest
conceivable extent for the glory of your Lord and Master.
How shall we conclude? This sermon sweeps like a rough north wind right
through us all. What shall we do? I will suggest to you what to do. Let
us all fly to Jesus who can forgive the guilt of the past! Is there one
man or woman here who can say, "I have nothing to confess. No
negligence can be laid at my door"? I must plainly declare that I am
not one. I have much to mourn over. Friends, I will be chief mourner
and I will lead the way to the Cross. There let us bemoan
ourselves before our Savior. His precious blood can make us clean! We
will look to it. We will trust in its merits. We are clean if we
believe in Him. That Righteousness of His, without a flaw, can cover
us! Let us put it on and stand accepted in the Beloved.
When this is done, what next? Let us come to Christ, again, and ask Him
to heal us of the lethargy of disobedience which has taken hold on us
so long. Some of us have forgotten our God. We have lived as if we were
under no obligations to Him and even those of us who have been
quickened by His Holy Spirit have not served Him as we should. Lord,
let Your precious blood heal us now, that we may think only of You and
of Your Glory! And may we, from now on, live for You alone!
Once more, let us come to Christ that we may feel new motives and
receive new inspirations. Have you never heard of men who have had a
mighty turn? They have met with something which has given a life-long
twist to their nature so that they are new men. You knew them very well
one day, but when you met them the next time, you scarcely recognized
them! They had become so changed and so absorbed by a subject of which
they began to talk, at once, to you. You thought them strange, but I
wish we were, each one, strange in that same way! I would that my Lord
Jesus Christ would meet every one of you this afternoon and reveal
Himself to you!
I do not ask that you should see Him with your bodily eyes, but I wish
your spiritual eyes might be opened that you might see Him, and that He
would show you His hands, His feet and His side, and say to you, "I
have loved you with an everlasting love, and I have given Myself for
you. Behold, I lay upon you these, My pierced hands. You are Mine and,
therefore, I charge you live as one that is alive from the dead. From
now on, as surely as My Father sent Me into the world so I send you."
May this happen to each one of us and then we shall lead new lives–and
those lives will be so much to God's Glory that men will take knowledge
of us that we have been with Jesus in some new and strange way, and
have learned of Him! God bless you to this end, for Christ's sake Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Luke 13:1-9; Luke 19:12-26; 1
Kings20:35-43. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–196, 645, 769.
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My God