Good News for the Aged

Good News for the Aged

(No. 2602)

A SERMON

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, DECEMBER
30, 1855.

"And about the eleventh home he went out and found others standing
idle." Matthew 20:6.

WE have come to the end of another year. Better is the end of a year
than the beginning thereof. A year is begun with fear and trembling–it
closes with joy and thankfulness. In the beginning of the year, we are
like the sailor when he leaves port, hoists his sails and goes out on
the broad sea toward a distant country. At the end of the year, we are
sometimes like that mariner when he casts his anchor overboard and lies
still in the haven. We have come into harbor, now, at the end of the
year and here we rest and gratefully review our voyage.

But, in coming to the end of another year, we have some solemn things
to talk about, as well as some on which to congratulate ourselves. This
is to be our subject and may God make it both solemn and profitable for
the winding-up of the old year. "And about the eleventh hour he went
out and found others standing idle." These words are taken from the
parable of the householder who went out early and hired laborers into
his vineyard. And who went out again at the third hour, and the sixth
hour, and the ninth hour and, at last, went out at the eleventh hour
and did the same. And when the laborers came to be paid, he gave to
those who were hired at the eleventh hour the same pay as to those whom
he had hired at the beginning of the day. We shall note, in our text,
first, the Sovereignty of Divine Grace. Secondly, the mercy of God. And
afterwards we will endeavor to make a solemn application of the passage
to both old and young.

I. First, in our text, we have DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY VERY PROMINENT.

When we say Divine Sovereignty, we mean that God has the same rights
which an absolute monarch has, that, just as a sovereign, under the old
Jewish laws, or under the Medes and Persians, had a right to do
entirely as he willed with his subjects, and there were none that could
stop his hand, or say, "What are you doing?" even so, God, only in an
infinitely higher and much more righteous sense, is absolute Monarch in
this world and has undoubted right to do with everyone of us just
whatever He pleases. The Apostle Paul wisely asked, "Has not the potter
power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor,
and another unto dishonor?" That Doctrine of Divine Sovereignty–alas,
too much dis-carded–must be proclaimed, however men may bite their
lips, and however angry they may be to hear themselves humbled in the
dust and Jehovah God exalted as their Master!

This parable shows the Sovereignty of God with regard to the calling of
certain persons. The householder went out early in the morning and
called so many. He went out at the third hour and called more. He went
out at the sixth, the ninth and the eleventh hours and still he found
more persons unemployed. Did he find them expecting or seeking work?
No. He found them "standing idle in the marketplace." They were not
working, nor doing anything. He found them standing idle and so, just
as he pleased, he said to some of them, "Go and work in my vineyard."
There is such a thing as Divine Sovereignty with regard to the choice
of persons who are to be saved. If one man is saved and not another,
God has made the difference and God has the rightto make the
difference. If my brother shall enter Heaven and I shall be sent to
Hell, God has a right to save my brother and He would be righteous in
my damnation, for I deserve it. And if my brother does not deserve to
be saved–as he does not–yet God has a right to give salvation to him
and to withhold it from me, if so it pleases Him. My soul falls down in
abject submission at His feet! I have no rights when I come before the
Almighty. I have no claims on Him. I have so sinned and so erred that
if He had sent my soul to Hell, I should have richly deserved it. God
has a right to do as He wills with His creatures and He exhibits this
right in His choice of those whom He calls to work in His vineyard.

But, again, Divine Sovereignty is exhibited in the time when the
householder called his people. Some were called early in the morning.
Some at the third hour, some at the sixth, some at the ninth, some at
the eleventh. The man who was called at the eleventh hour did not
grumble and say, "Why did you not call me in the morning?" The man who
was called in the morning, though it is said that he afterwards
murmured because he did not have more pay than the last who were hired,
yet, if he had been in his right mind, would have been thankful to the
householder that he had given him the honor of working in his vineyard
and had called him so early into it. It is a mercy to be effectually
called by Grace at any time and we must not dictate to God when He
shall give us His Grace. God exercises His Sovereignty in calling and
converting sinners when He pleases. We have some in our churches who
have been Christians ever since they were four or five years of age.
And we have others who were not converted until they were 60 or
seventy. God calls His people out of the world and from the service of
sin and Satan at all periods of life–and thus He exhibits His Divine
Sovereignty in saving men when He pleases.

How often have I heard legal preachers assert that if a man is not
saved before he is thirty, it is not likely that he will be saved at
all! And that if a man has attended the House of God for 30 years and
is not saved, there is just a possibility, but hardly a probability,
that He ever will be saved. That is all nonsense, or something worse,
because God is God–He saves whom He wills and He saves them when He
wills! Our Lord said to Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it wills, and
you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell from where it comes, and to
here it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." God is just
as able to convert a man with gray hairs on his head as He is to
convert a man of thirty–there is no difference. We all stand before
Him as sinners and if He pleases to save a gray-headed man, He can do
so. Men talk in the way I mentioned just now in order to stir up the
young to seek Christ, but they little know that while such language has
little or no effect upon the young, on the other hand it often
depresses the spirits of the old and makes them think, "Surely, then,
our hour of mercy is passed and we cannot be saved." And yet these same
preachers quote Dr. Watts and say–

"Life is the time to serve the Lord,

The time to insure the great reward!

And while the lamp holds out to burn,

The vilest sinner may return.

Life is the hour that God has given

To escape from Hell and fly to Heaven!

The day of Grace, and mortals may

Secure the blessings of the day." Yes, Beloved, as long as a man is
living in this world, and I also am living, I will preach the Gospel to
him! And if I could find "the wandering Jew"–if such a being ever
existed–and he were nearly 2,000 years of age, I would still preach
the Gospel even to him–and if he trusted Christ as his Savior, he
would find mercy and salvation!

So Divine Sovereignty shows itself, first, in the calling of certain
persons, and, next, in the time when those persons are called.

And, once again, there will be Divine Sovereignty in the ultimate
reward of those who are called. The householder gave to every man a
penny. The one who was hired at the eleventh hour came in fresh to his
work and did just a little hoeing, or digging, or pruning, or something
of that sort–and there was a penny for him. In comes another man, who
wipes the sweat from his brow, and says, "Ah, I have been hard at work
these 12 hours"–and there was a penny for him! Neither more nor less
for one or the other–a penny for each one who came to work in the
vineyard. Thus God shows His Sovereignty in His distribution of
rewards. When some of the laborers murmured against the good man of the
house, he answered one of them, and said, "Friend, I do you no wrong.
Did you not agree with me for a penny? Take what is yours and go your
way. I will give unto this last, even as unto you. Is it not lawful for
me to do what I will with my own? Is your eye evil because I am good?
So the last shall be first, and the first last, for many are called,
but few chosen." Those who came last received just as much as those who
came first.

I am not quite sure whether that doctrine is true, which is called the
Doctrine of Degrees of Glory. I have heard it preached very frequently,
but I never yet saw any Scripture warrant to back it up. The text that
the advocates of this doctrine usually bring forward is the passage,
"One star differs from another star in glory." But anyone who can read
English and who turns to that passage, will see that the Apostle is not
speaking of degrees of glory in Heaven, but of different kinds of
glories in the stellar heavens. And besides, stars may differ without
varying in degree of glory, for one may be red, another green, a third
yellow and yet all may be alike bright. Even so, though all the saints
will differ in some respects, I do not see why there should necessarily
be degrees of glory. There may be degrees of glory, but, so far as I
can judge by reading the Scripture, I cannot see the slightest evidence
to prove the doctrine to be true.

What is the glory of a saint? Is it not Christ's righteousness? And
shall I, the least of all saints, have less of Christ's righteousness
than the greatest? Is not the glory of the saint the love of his
Master? And will my Master love a poor old woman who lived up three
pairs of stairs and died without ever having been heard of, less than
He loves the most popular minister? Ah, Beloved, there are degrees of
Grace, here, but we know not that there will be any degrees of glory!
Why should a poor creature, lying on a sick bed, who for years has
trusted in her Savior, have less glory than another who has been
allowed to toil in His service? Why, it is an honor for us to be busy
in good works here–we do not need to be honored for honor and, because
God has given us a little more honor, here, to have an eternal
difference made between us and others of His people. No, Beloved, every
man who worked in the vineyard had a penny, and every saint will, in
God's own time, be in Heaven! He will be with Christ and like Christ.
How can he be more one with Christ than another is? All Believers are
blood-washed, all are equally justified, all shall be equally
sanctified! And as their persons shall be all pure, so do we believe
that their Heaven will be equal, or, if not, Scripture certainly gives
no countenance to the idea of degrees of glory.

In this matter of eternal rewards, God will display His Sovereignty.
There shall be some old man who has lived to be ninety and who was
saved only in the last year of his life–and when he enters Heaven, he
will sit as much beside Christ as one like Timothy, who was called in
his early youth, preached the Gospel during a long course of
usefulness, and died with honors on his head! There shall be a poor
wretched sinner, like the thief who was saved when he hung upon a
cross, and he will sing as sweet, and as loud, and as strong as the
Apostle Paul, or the Apostle Peter, "for there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek"–between one man and another–"for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." Thus He displays His
Sovereignty in choosing the persons who shall be saved, in selecting
the time when they shall be saved and in their ultimate reward.

II. This brings us to consider THE GREAT MERCY OF GOD EXHIBITED IN HIS
SOVEREIGNTY.

This householder went out to hire men for his vineyard because he
needed them, didn't he? Yes, but God does not go to hire men and bring
them into His vineyard because He needs them. There is not a man in
this world that God could not do without. "Oh," you hear persons say,
sometimes, "suppose Mr. So-and-So were to die? What would the Church
do?" Why, do as it did before–live on its God! For–

"When all created streams are dry, His fullness is the same."

And when He calls any of His servants away, He can work out His eternal
purposes quite as well without us as He does with us! The householder
in the parable needed men, but God is altogether independent of them
and herein is the mercy of God manifested–that He goes out to find men
to come into His vineyard when He positively can do without them! Does
He need any of us? What? He who guides the stars and keeps them
revolving in their orbits by the motions of His fingers–does He need
an insignificant atom like one of ourselves to serve Him? What? He whom
all the hosts of angels worship and before whose Throne the cherubim do
veil their faces with their wings–does He need a tiny creature like
man to give Him homage and reverence? If He did need men, He could soon
create as many mighty kings and princes as He pleased to wait upon
Him–and He could have crowned heads to bow before His footstool and
emperors to conduct Him through the world in triumph.

But He needs not men. He can do without them if He pleases. O you
stars! You are bright, but you are not the lamps which light the way of
God–He needs you not. O sun! You are bright, but your heat warms not
Jehovah. O earth! You are beautiful, but your beauty is not needed to
gladden His heart! God is glad enough without you. O lightning! Though
you write His name in fire upon the midnight darkness, He needs not
your brightness! And wild ocean! You are mighty, but though you sing
His deep praise in your solemn chorus, your storms do not add to His
Glory. Winds! Though you attend the march of God across the pathless
ocean. Thunders, though you utter God's voice in terrible majesty and
track the onward progress of the God of armies, He needs you not! He is
great without you–great beyond you, great above you and, as He needs
you not, He needs us not!

Then look at the mercy of God, to come after any of us. To come after
me, to come after you, my Sister, my Brother. Admire His Grace. Look at
the householder in this parable. He comes early in the morning. He
comes late in the evening and he comes many times between. In like
manner, God is untiring in His mercy. The householder rose up early to
go out and find some men to work in his vineyard. So does God. How
early He goes to some! Blessed be His dear name, there were some of us
who were lit to our slumbers while we were young, by the lamps of the
sanctuary. We can recollect when, in our midnight watches, like young
Samuel of old, the Lord called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and we answered.
"Here am I, Lord." Oh, we can remember when our grandmother Lois, and
our mother Eunice taught us out of the Scriptures! When we were dandled
on the lap of piety, when the breath of sacred song was breathed by us
and an atmosphere laden with the perfume of Heaven was always around
us! We inhaled it even from our infancy. Ah, hear this, you sons of
Grace, God came to some of you very early, but, Beloved, He does not
get tired. He came for some early in the morning and they would not go.
He came after them in the preaching of the Gospel and they spurned all
that the minister said. But when God is determined to save, He does not
tire, but continues seeking even to the eleventh hour!

And now, O you gray-headed men, God has come after some of you! All
your coming to God's sanctuary from your earliest days have been of
little or no use up to now. Yet now, I beseech you, consider that He
comes to you even at this eleventh hour, for the Lord's mercy is
untiring, His Grace is immutable! Having set His heart upon a man, if
He does not come at the first hour, He shall come, some time or other.
Divine Mercy will sweetly dispose Him to come. Blessed be the name of
our God, there have been some who have come into our churches who would
not have been taken into any army in the whole world, for they were
made, by old age, too feeble to fight. Their eyes had begun to be dim.
Father Time had written his name on their brows, their hair had become
whitened and they came leaning on their staff to tell us what they knew
of the Lord's redeeming love. Some of the sweetest tales I have ever
heard have been told me by gray-headed sinners, saved in their last
days, just when they were trembling on the borders of the grave! Do you
think you see such a scene? The poor old sinner is tottering
along–another minute he will be in Hell! Hear the voice of God,
"Gabriel, stop that man! One more step and he will be in the Pit!" Down
flies Gabriel, catches him in his arms and stops him for a moment,
while the Holy Spirit whispers to him, "Flee from the wrath to come!"
And, starting backward, he looks at the Pit wherein he had almost
fallen and he hears hollow Time sinking down into eternity–yet he is
saved!

Surely, there will not be any man in Heaven who will bless God more
than the gray-headed man who is called at the eleventh hour! Blessed be
the name of God that such sinners are brought in–poor decrepit old
creatures past labor and good for nothing–yet they are saved. Yes,
even those who have worn themselves out in the service of Satan, God is
willing to receive! The devil's hacks, Christ will not cast away! They
who have nothing left that is of any use in the world, Jesus Christ
graciously receives at the eleventh hour! He says to them, as the
householder said to the men in the marketplace, "Why stand you here all
the day, idle?"

Do you not, Beloved, admire the stupendous, amazing, astonishing Grace
of God which thus reclaims men at the eleventh hour? There is a young
man in a very poor position in life. You come to him and say, "Come to
my house and be my son. I will wash you clean, I will give you warm
clothes, I will make you rich." But he turns away and does despite to
your invitations. He insults you to your face, mocks at your friends,
breaks your holy days and thoroughly despises you. When you look at
him, again, he is beginning to enter middle age. You go to him and say,
"Will you come to me, now, and be my son?" "No," he says, "I will not."
Do you not think that by the time he was 40 or 50 years old, you would
be quite tired of him? And suppose it possible that, when he was 70 or
80 years of age, he should come and knock at your door and ask to be
adopted as your son–would you not go to him and say, "What? You have
the impudence to come now, while these forty, fifty, sixty years you
have refused to accept my invitation! You vile ingrate, I will have
nothing to do with you! Do you think I am going to have you, now, when
there is nothing left of you that is worth having? Go back to where you
have been all these years! Those you served when you were young, you
may serve now that you are old! You had the pleasures of sin when you
were young, go and have it now! It is a fine thing to make an almshouse
of your religion, coming to me to take care of you when you are so old
that you cannot take care of yourself! Be off with you!"

You and I might act like that, but the Lord does not. He not only does
not turn a gray-headed old sinner away, but He goes after him, Himself,
or else he would not come! Though He has sent His servants, and the man
has rejected them time after time, He says, "He will not come unless I
go after him Myself." So He goes to the poor palsied man, who can be of
no service to Him, and says, "Come unto Me! Even you have I loved with
an everlasting love, and I will save even you!

You shall be delivered from going down to the Pit, your eyes shall be
saved from tears and your feet from falling." There is Divine
Sovereignty! There is unparalleled mercy!

III. Now may God help us while we ENDEAVOR TO MAKE A SOLEMN APPLICATION
OF THIS SUBJECT, first, TO THE OLD!

It would be presumption in a young man to speak to the aged if he spoke
to them simply as a young man. But, as a preacher, I am God's
ambassador, and if God has sent me, no man may despise my youth, nor is
it to be considered in the least degree, nor do I consider it, myself.
I speak with the same authority that the most aged minister can
command, for I have the same commission that he has and he has no
better message than mine. [This sermon was preached in Brother
Spurgeon's first full calendar year as a preacher in London. He was 21
years of age.–EOD.] Old man, come here and let me give you a solemn
address, to warn you of the wrath to come!

Gray-headed man, I beseech you, first of all, remember how many years
you have wasted. Look back upon your misspent life and count your years
over and over again. What do you say of your sixty, seventy, perhaps
eighty years? Your harvest is past, your summer is ended and you are
not saved! In your youth, oh, how much you might have done, then! In
your middle age, oh, how your vigor might have been spent in doing good
to your fellows! Even some of your old age, how has it been misspent
and misused! Weep, I beseech you, weep bitterly! Let your cheeks,
furrowed with the ravages of time, feel, for a moment, the solemn
scalding tears of regret, because you have wasted all those years!

Remember, also, that you can never get them back again. Long as you may
live, you can never get one of them back! They have winged their way
behind you, they are with the years beyond the flood and though you
toil now, you can never recover the time you have lost–it is gone
beyond the hope of rescue. Could you count out at once the price of a
kingly ransom, you could not have back again even an hour! Consider
then, my aged Friend, how much of your time has already run to waste
and how many years have rolled away and you are still unsaved.

Consider, next, suppose you are saved now, what a very little you can
do for God! At the most, you can have but a few short years in which to
serve the Lord. Death is at your gates–those gates are tottering
beneath the battering-ram of age. Death is already besieging you! The
walls of your town of Mansoul are shaking beneath the devastating
engines of decay. In all probability you have not more than a few years
to live and, perhaps, not more than a few months, or weeks, or even
days–and then you must be gone the way of all flesh.

Consider, too, O aged man, if you are put into the vineyard at this
eleventh hour, how little you can do for others! You cannot preach the
Gospel now–your eyes are, perhaps, too dim even to read God's Word to
others. Your voice has lost melody. The windows out of which lust once
looked have become darkened and you cannot hope that the fire of life
shall light them up again. Consider how little you can do, even if you
are saved, now–how much less, if your salvation is still postponed and
you are not delivered from sin for years to come! Consider what is
gone, you hoary heads, and turn unto the Lord even now!

O aged Sinner, consider how much trouble has been lost upon you! The
vinedresser said of the barren fig tree, "I will dig about it and
fertilize it." How have you been dug about and fed! Another 104 sermons
you have heard during the past year and yet you are unsaved! For 50
years, for 60 years you have attended the sanctuary every Sabbath, yet,
as oil from a slab of marble, the Word has run off you! Thousands of
sermons have left you as dead as ever and myriads of warnings have all
sunk, as it were, into the sea like a pebble hurled into it, which is
lost and gone. In all your Sabbaths, you have secured no merchandise
for Heaven! You have toiled hard enough for this world and now where is
all that you have gained? You have put your treasures into a bag full
of holes! You have, "sown the wind," and you shall, "reap the
whirlwind," unless you speedily repent and seek the Lord.

Consider, once more, old man, how long and how much you have provoked
your God. Call to remembrance the sins of your youth. How often has
that hand of yours which now is quivering with death's touch, grasped
the wineglass of the drunk in your youth! Look back upon your
manhood–has it not been devoted to Satan and blackened with enormities
of guilt? And now, up to this time, you have still provoked your God to
smite you! His long-suffering arm has not crushed you and His mercy has
kept back the sword of Justice, but can you expect such gracious
treatment as that much longer? Will God be merciful forever? Will He be
kind throughout eternity? And if His mercy should fail, will not His
justice make short work with your soul?

And yet, if that thought does not stir you up to repentance, consider,
once more, if you should be unsaved, how horrible is the place
appointed for you!How fearful must be the doom which you shall receive!
You are not a young sinner– he would be damned. You are an old
sinner–how increasingly awful must be your doom! You are not one who
has sinned because of mere youthful passion, but you have sinned when
passion has died away and when prudence has taken possession of your
soul. You have sinned when the heat and passion of youth have died. You
have sinned, therefore, worse than a young man can have done! O old
man, may a child warn you? I am sure I love you with all my heart and
even now my young eyes weep for you. Have you never seen an old man led
by a little child when he was blind? It may be that, though you are
blind, a little child shall lead you to the Savior. It is a child who
now speaks to you. O gray-headed man! Would it not be to you an eternal
source of misery if I, a youth, were saved and you, who are aged, wert
lost? Oh, when you see a young Christian, do not the tears run down
your cheeks? When you see a child in Grace, does the penitential sigh
never start from your bosom? I think if I were old like you and saw
some young child saved, I would wring my hands in misery, and say, "O
Lord, is such a child a Christian and yet I am unsaved, I am
unforgiven, I am still unpardoned?" Quake, quake, quake, O aged sinner!
Be afraid, be afraid, be afraid, O unregenerate old man! Let your knees
knock together, let your blood curdle in your veins, let your heart
quiver, let your flesh be ready to creep at the thought that you will
be lost and that, as the Lord God lives, there is but a step between
you and death–between you and Hell!

But there are THE YOUNG and they are, perhaps, smiling, and saying,
"Ah, all that is good advice for old age! It is quite right that old
people should be religious, but why should we think about such things?
We have not come to our 11th hour." What did you say, young man? "I
said, I had not come to my 11th hour yet." What did you say? Will you
repeat that sentence?No, you dare not, for you do not know when your
11th hour may be. Does any man know which will be his 11th hour? Do any
of you know how many more days you may have to live? I do not and nor
do you. Do any of my friends conceive that the time of his death is a
long way off? No, Beloved, there is such a thing as death in the Chapel
pew! The angel of death may be, this moment, coming in at that door and
flapping his black wings across this place to find someone who is
marked for destruction–and before you shall have entered your house,
your soul may have departed and you may have gone from this stage of
existence!

Consider then, I say, for you are all, if you are uncalled by Grace,
like the man in the 11th hour, standing idle in the marketplace.
Consider, if you are ever so young, have you not already given too much
time to Satan and the world? I do not like the devil well enough to
think that he ought to have the first 20 years of a man's life.
Consider, young man–has not Satan had more than enough service from
you? Will not the time past of your life suffice you to have worked the
will of the Gentiles in serving divers lusts and passions? Do you think
it will give you any comfort, on your deathbed, to reflect that you
were, for many years, living in sin and not saved early? And do you not
know that religion is so sweet that we might well seek it, even for its
sweetness, if it were not necessary for our souls security? Ah, you men
of the 11th hour, for such you all are–may our Master come to you even
at this moment! And if He finds you idle, may He say, "Go you, also,
and work in My vineyard"!

I will conclude with just a few words of encouragement to the eldest
man and the oldest woman among us. Think not that you are beyond the
pale of hope because you are aged. Do not believe Satan when he says to
you, "Oh, you are too old a sinner to be saved." Tell him that he is a
liar and that he does not know anything about it, for there are none
too old to be saved! God will have mercy on all those that come to Him.
He takes no objection to youth. He takes no objection to old age. Hear
this, you aged sinners! If you are now under a sense of sin, if you are
desirous of being saved, there is mercy in the Lord Jesus even for you!
And O beloved Friends, one and all of you, are you this night crying
out for mercy? Are you desirous of pardon? Do you feel that life is
short and death is sure? Do you know that, in a few short days, or
months, or years, a few narrow boards shall hold your body and your
soul shall have gone from it into eternity? Do you wish for a Guide
across the trackless desert which leads to Heaven or to Hell? Do you
desire a Conductor to lead you into Paradise? Do you desire angelic
wings to lift you up to the Celestial City? Do you seek for Christ's
blood to cleanse you, for God's Grace to sanctify you? Then there is
mercy for you! There is mercy for all who feel their need of it and ask
the Lord for it! The viler the wretch, the more welcome he is! The
worse the character, the more reason he should go to the Lord Jesus! It
is Free Grace that we preach–and the vilest, most guilty, oldest,
youngest sinner–anybody who feels his need of a Savior is welcome to
that Savior now! The Lord give you Grace to seek Him! Remember that the
least prayer will be heard, the weakest desire, the feeblest groan will
be acknowledged in Heaven–and little as you may think that you shall
ever find mercy, you most assuredly shall if you seek it through
Christ!

Farewell! Adieu, old man! I know not who you are, but it was laid on my
heart to seek you, and I have sought you. O poor old man, you are like
one who once lost himself in a pine forest! The snow fell thickly
around him. It was dark, damp, cold. The howling of the wolf could be
heard by him in the distance and he feared that during the darkness of
the night, he would be consumed. There remained but one protection for
him and that was that he should light a fire, by which he might warm
himself and frighten away the wild beasts. He gathered together the
pinewood and the dry, sere leaves, wherever he could find them, and he
took out his matchbox. He tried to strike one match, but it was good
for nothing. He tried another, and another, and another! Once he
thought he had a light and carefully held it in his fingers, seeking to
bring it to the little kindling he had laid beneath his pile of
wood–but it died out, to his bitter disappointment. For some time he
kept on striking his matches. He did so carelessly at first, but, as
the number diminished, he struck each one more carefully, till he came
to the last two.

He struck the first of the two–he put it under his pinewood–it flamed
a moment and then a gust of wind blew it out. And now he came to his
last match. The wolf was howling, the wild wind was whistling, the snow
was falling, the night was darkening! He feared that he must be there
all night without a fire! Already his stiff joints began to freeze. His
fingers were well-nigh frozen! You may guess how that man cowered on
the earth, to strike, within the circle his frame might make, his last
match. You may imagine how earnestly he put up his prayer to God that
he might succeed the last time. "O Lord, let this last match succeed,"
he cried! And anxiously did he look at it time after time, lest it,
too, might fail.

So, there is the gray-headed old man–he has his last match in the box.
He has struck 69 of them all to no effect and now he has got to the
seventieth. O God, if You do not strike the 70th for him, he is lost
forever! If You do not give him the light from Heaven, fire from above,
he must perish forever!

He strikes that match. On it depends his life–it is his last one–yet
he strikes it. Ah, glorious! The flame has caught! It blazes! He sits
down and cheers himself. He is saved! He is saved! God grant that that
last match may succeed with you, too, O old man!

God bless you, dear Friends! A happy new year to everyone of you! Many
of them to those of you who are bound for Heaven–and a new year in
Heaven to those whom God may take away before another year comes round!
Adieu!

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 20:1-7.

(This Exposition is reprinted from Mr. Spurgeon's last literary work,
The Gospel of the Kingdom. The Sermon and Exposition combined show the
harmony between almost his earliest and his very latest proclamation of
the Gospel).

Verses 1, 2. For the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an
householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into
his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a
day, he sent them into his vineyard. The Kingdom of Heaven is all of
Grace and so is the service connected with it. Let this be remembered
in the exposition of this parable. The call to work, the ability and
the reward–are all on the principle of Grace and not upon that of
merit. This was no common man that is an householder–and his going out
to hire laborers into his vineyard was not after the usual manner of
men–for they will have a full day's work for a full day's wage. This
householder considered the laborers rather than himself. He was up
before the dew was gone from the grass and found laborers and sent them
into the vineyard. It was a choice privilege to be allowed to begin
holy service so early in the morning. They agreed with the householder
and went to work on his terms. They might well be content, since they
were promised a full day's hire and were sure to get it. A penny a day
represented the usual and accepted wage. The householder and the
laborers agreed upon the amount–this is the point which has to be
noted further on. Young Believers have a blessed pros-pect–they may
well be happy to do good work, in a good place, for a good Master, and
on good terms.

3, 4. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing
idle in the marketplace, and said unto them; Go you, also, into the
vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went their
way. Hating indolence, and grieving that he saw others standing idle in
the marketplace, he hired more workers about the third hour. They would
work only three-quarters of a day, but it was for their good to cease
from loafing at the street corner. These are like persons whose
childhood is past, but who are not yet old. They are favored to have a
good part of their day of life available for hallowed service. To
these, the good householder said, "Go you, also, into the vineyard, and
whatever is right I will give you." He pointed to those already in the
field and said, "Go you, also," and he promised them not a definite
sum, as he did those whom he first hired, but he said, "Whatever is
right I will give you." They went their way to their labor, for they
did not wish to remain idlers and, as right-minded men, they could not
quarrel with the householder's agreement to give them whatever was
right. Oh, that those around us, who are in their rising manhood, would
at once take up their tools and begin to serve the great Lord!

5. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
Had it been altogether and alone a business transaction, the
householder would have waited to begin a new day and would not have
given a whole day's wage for a fraction of a day's work. The entire
matter was alone of Divine Grace and, therefore, when half the day was
gone, about the sixth hour, he called in laborers. Men of forty and
fifty are bid to enter the vineyard. Yes, and about the ninth hour, men
were engaged. At sixty, the Lord calls a number by His Grace! It is
wrong to assert that men are not saved after forty–we know to the
contrary and could mention instances. God, in the greatness of His
love, calls into His service men from whom the exuberance of useful
vigor has departed–He accepts the waning hours of their day. He has
work for the weak as well as for the strong. He allows none to labor
for Him without the reward of Grace, even though they have spent their
best days in sin. This is no encouragement to procrastination, but it
should induce old sinners to seek the Lord at once.

6, 7. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing
idle, andsaid unto them, Why stand you here all the day idle? They said
unto him, Because no man has hired us. He said unto them, Go you, also,
into the vineyard and whatever is right, that shall you receive. The
day was nearly over–only a single hour remained–yet about the 11th
hour he went out. The generous householder was willing to take on more
workmen and give them hire, though the sun was going down. He found a
group lingering at the loafers' corner–standing idle. He wished to
clear the whole town of sluggards, so he said to them, "Why stand you
here all the day idle?" His question to them may be read by making each
word in its turn emphatic–then it yields a fullness of meaning. Why
are you idle? What is the good of it? Why stand you here i dle where
all are busy? Why all the day i dle? Will not a shorter space suffice?
Why are you idle? You have need to work, you are able to do it and you
should set about it at once. Why is any one of us remaining idle
towards God? Has nothing yet had power to engage us in sacred service?
Can we dare to say, "No man has hired us"? Nearly 70 years of age and
yet unsaved? Let us bestir ourselves. It is time that we went, without
delay, to till the weeds, prune the vines–do somethingfor our Lord in
His vineyard! What but rich Grace could lead Him to take on the eleven
o'clock lingerers? Yet He invites them as earnestly as those who came
in the morning and He will as surely give them their reward!