Have You Forgotten Him?
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 11, 1866,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"I do remember my faults this day." Genesis 41:9.
No single power or faculty of man escaped damage at the Fall–while the
affections were polluted, the will was made perverse, the judgment was
shifted from its proper balance, and the memory lost much of its power
and more of its integrity. Every observing mind will have noticed that
naturally we have a greater power for remembering evil than good. Very
plain is this in your children. If you mention anything good in their
hearing you had need to say it many times and very plainly before they
are likely to remember it. But if one ill word shall casually meet
their ear in the street, it will not be long before you have the pain
of hearing them repeat it.
Our memory is like theirs, only in proportion as it is developed this
peculiarity is more manifest. We have a most convenient warehouse for
storing the merchandise of evil, but the priceless jewels of goodness
are readily stolen from their case. We have a fireproof safe for
worthless matters, and enclose the rarest gems in mere pasteboard
cases. Our memory, like a strainer, often suffers the good wine to pass
through but retains all the dregs. It holds the bad in an iron grasp
and plays with good till it slips through the fingers. Our memories,
like ourselves, have done the things which they ought not to have done,
and have left undone the things which they ought to have done–and
there is no health in them.
Among other things, it is not always easy to remember our faults. We
have special and particular reasons for not wishing to be too often
reminded of them. Few men care to keep their faults in the front room
of the house. Underground, in the darkest cellar, and, if possible with
the door locked and the key lost–it is there we would like to conceal
our faults from ourselves. If, however, the Grace of God has entered
into a man he will pray that he may remember his faults and he will ask
Divine Grace that if he should forget any excellences which he once
supposed he had, he may not forget his defects, his sins, his
infirmities and his transgressions. He would have them constantly
before him that he may be humbled by them and led to seek pardon for
them and help to overcome them.
I do not say that the butler in this case had any work of Divine Grace
in his heart, but I shall use him as an illustration and hope by using
my watchman's rattle, to wake up some of your sleepy memories, for
there are thieves about, and you are being robbed without knowing it!
It will be a healthy result to us all if we shall be compelled to say
at the end of this sermon, "I do remember my faults this day."
In the first place this morning, using the butler as our illustration,
we shall state his faults. Secondly, we shall consider the
circumstances which refreshed his memory. And, thirdly we shall show
the good points in his remembrance.
I. We shall first call your attention to the BUTLER'S FAULTS, for his
faults are ours, only ours are on a larger scale. "I do remember my
faults this day." His particular fault was that he had forgotten
Joseph–having promised to remember him when it should be well with
him–he had altogether overlooked the circumstances which occurred in
the prison. Instead he had been enjoying himself and leaving his friend
to pine in obscurity.
Here, then, is the first fault–the butler had forgotten a friend. That
is never a thing to be said to a man's praise. We ought to write the
deeds of friendship as much as possible in marble–and that man is
unworthy of esteem who can readily forget favors received. Joseph had
done all that he could to make the butler's sojourn in prison
comfortable. It was hard, that so soon as the butler had escaped from
prison his friend Joseph had escaped his memory. Save us from men who
can so easily forget!
But you and I have a Friend! We call Him very dear. We are accustomed
to speak of Him in very rapturous terms. We declare that no others have
such a Friend as we have. We have made our boast that there is none
other that deserves the name in comparison with Him whom we call our
best Beloved. And yet how many of us have forgotten Him?! His name we
know, His nature we understand, His blessings we sometimes rejoice
in–but frequently His Divine Person, His blessed self–alas, how cold
our love to Him! This fault will not strike the carnal mind as being a
great one, but in proportion as our hearts are spiritual and under the
influence of the Holy Spirit, we shall feel it a great and grievous sin
to have in any measure forgotten our best Friend.
The circumstances were these–the butler was in prison, and then this
friend came to him and spoke comfortably to him. Do you remember when
you were in prison? I never can forget when I was bound in fetters far
harder, heavier, and more painful to wear than fetters of iron. It was
a dark dungeon, without a ray of light. There was no rest in it neither
night nor day. A certain fearful looking for judgment and of fiery
indignation haunted that gloomy cell. I struggled to be free, but the
more I struggled the more hard did my bondage become. I was as one in
the deep mire, who, by every struggle only sinks himself the more
hopelessly in it.
Do you not remember? Oh, Believers, you have passed through the same
experience! Your feet were in the stocks, you laid in the innermost
prison while the whip of the Law frequently fell upon your backs. The
sentence of execution thundered in your ears and you trembled lest you
should be dragged forth to your doom! Do you not remember it, the
wormwood and the gall? Joseph came to the butler and said, "Why do you
look so sadly today?" In our case we have not forgotten how Jesus came
to us and enquired into our state. With what tender accents of sympathy
did He address our hearts!
He told us–and we could readily believe it–that He would not quench
the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed. We had not been
accustomed to be addressed in this fashion, for the voice of Moses is
far from musical, and his tones are very grating to the ear. But when
Jesus spoke it was all soft and sweet. "Poor Sinner!" He said, as
though He pitied rather than blamed. He looked upon us not with an eye
searching for iniquity, but with a heart which saw our calamity and
which looked for the means to deliver us! Have you forgotten those
times of brokenness of spirit when the only comfort which you knew was
the name of Jesus? When the only stay for the hunger and thirst which
were in your spirits was a morsel or two of His sweet love which He
graciously cast to you to keep you by the way?
Do you remember your dream? The butler had a dream. Do you remember
yours? It was more than a night dream– it was a day dream with a
terrible interpretation appended to it in your mind. You dreamed of a
vine, too, and you were the cluster, and you dreamed of the time when
you should be cast into the winepress, and trod beneath the feet of
almighty Wrath until your blood should fill the cup of Divine vengeance
even to the brim! Do you remember that dream? How it haunted you, and
seemed like some huge bird of prey with black wings and horrid cries,
fluttering over you as though about to tear you in pieces?
I remember when day was night to me, and night was worse than night.
"Then You scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions," was
the cry of Job, and such has been the lament of many and many a heart
under the weight of sin. Oh, how guilt can thunder in our ears! How the
Word of God can grow terrible and stern! "God is angry with you! God is
angry with the wicked every day! It is appointed unto all men once to
die, and after death the judgment." In our terror we could see the
rider on the pale horse and feel ourselves overtaken by him and struck
down by the horses' hoofs! We saw ourselves cast into the pit of Hell
and seemed to be falling, falling, falling, ever sinking from the angry
glance of God and still as dreadfully near to it as before! That was
our dream, and the interpretation, the only interpretation which seemed
to fit it was this, "You will be banished from His Presence into
eternal misery."
Beloved, do you remember when Jesus came with the interpretation of a
very different kind, just as Joseph did to the butler? He interpreted
to the butler that Pharaoh would lift him up and put him in his place
again. And so Jesus came to us and told us that we were condemned in
ourselves but that we might not be condemned at the last. He told us
that we had a sentence of death in ourselves because God intended never
to pass that sentence in the Court of Heaven and had, instead, passed
it in the Court of our conscience.
He told us that God never kills with His Law in the heart without
intending to make alive! That when He wounds He heals! That when He
strips He means to clothe. We did not understand this. We thought that
all this terrible dealing within our heart was the prelude of
everlasting judgment! But He showed us that as many as God loves He
rebukes and chastens. That it is the way with Him to break up the clods
with the plow before He casts in the golden seed–and to dig out deep
foundations before He piles polished stones one upon another to make a
temple to His praise. Ah, I never shall forget when, at the foot of the
Cross, I saw the interpretation of all my inward griefs when I looked
up and saw the flowing of my Savior's precious blood–and had the great
riddle all solved.
My Brothers and Sisters, what a discovery was that when we learned the
secret that we were to be saved not by what we were or were to be, but
saved by what Christ had done for us! The simplicity of the Cross is
the grandest of all revelations. "Look unto Me and be you saved, all
you ends of the earth." Why it is as simple as the interpretation which
Joseph gave to the dream! But in its simplicity lies a great part of
its sweetness. How was it that I was such a fool as not to understand
it before–that for every sinner who was truly a sinner, and had no
righteousness of his own– Jesus Christ is made righteousness and
salvation? And that every sinner who confesses with a broken heart that
he deserves God's wrath, he may know that Jesus has suffered all God's
wrath for him, and that therefore God is no longer angry with him–for
all His anger has been spent upon the Person of Jesus Christ?!
How sweet it is to understand that all our soul's terrors and alarms
are only meant to bring us to the Cross! That they are not intended to
make us look at ourselves, to search for comfort there–nor intended to
set us upon paving a way to Heaven by our own exertions–but to lead us
to Jesus! Happy day! We see Jesus as the cluster crushed until the
heart's blood flows and can, by faith, go in unto the King, with Jesus
Christ's own precious blood and offer that, just as the butler stood
before Pharaoh with the wine cup in his hand. I bear a cup filled not
with my blood but His blood! Not the blood from me as a cluster of the
vine of earth, but the blood of Jesus as a cluster of Heaven's own
vintage, pouring out its precious floods to make glad the heart of God
and man. Here lies our fault–that we have forgotten all this–not
forgotten the fact, but forgotten to love Him who gave us that
soul-comforting, heart-cheering interpretation!
Beloved, when Jesus revealed Himself at first, our hearts were ready to
leap out of our bodies for joy! Do you remember the time you thought
you could sing always and never stop? Nothing was too hard, no burden
was too heavy for you then–for your soul was all on fire with love.
But ah, since then, what a sad declension! You forgot your Joseph. You
forgot your Friend who gave you this kind interpretation of your dream!
Dear Friends, there was something which ought to have made the butler
remember Joseph. When I read the story just now, it came very vividly
to my own mind. It was this–that there was another in prison at the
same time with him–and what had become of him? The baker had been
hanged! And if the butler had chosen to walk out, he might have seen
the relics of the body of his poor miserable companion–gibbeted to be
fed upon by kites and carrion crows. That poor wretch had dreamed a
dream, too, but the interpretation had been very different.
When some of us look back to the time when we were in sin with others,
and recollect that although we are here, the living, to praise the
Redeemer's name, some of our old companions are–we shudder to think of
it, but it is so–at this moment in Hell! How shall we praise the
electing Grace which has made us to differ? It is a solemn thought that
such differences should occur–
"Why were we made to hear His voice, And enter while there's room, When
thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?"
Some of you used to spend hour after hour in the public house, and you
could blaspheme God's name. And while those whom you once drank with
are now drinking the cup of God's wrath, you, who were not one whit
better than they–in some points even worse–are now saved by Sovereign
Grace.
Discriminating Grace should always give a high tone to our gratitude.
He has not dealt thus with every people. Praise the Lord! If you whom
God has chosen, and whom Christ has specially and effectually called by
Divine Grace from among others–if you do not remember Him, what shall
I say to you? Oh, dear Friends, how it should humble you and bow you
down in the dust that after such remarkable, peculiar, distinguishing
love as that of which you have been the subjects, you should still
forget your dear Friend, and fail in point of duty where you ought to
have been faithful to Him!
We have not, however, quite done with the case of the butler and
Joseph. The request which Joseph made of the butler was a very natural
one. He said, "Think of me when it is well with you." He asked no hard,
difficult, exacting favor, but simply, "Think of me, and speak to
Pharaoh. You will have his ear in moments when kings are most likely to
be in good humor. You will wait upon him at his feasts–then, when it
is well with you and the time is come–put in a word for your poor
friend who will be pining away in the damps of the dungeon." It was a
very simple thing, and I will be bound to say the butler said to him,
"Oh, my dear fellow, I will not only do that, but I do not know what I
will not do for you! You shall be out of prison within a week and I
will take good care that you have the fat of all the land of Egypt, and
I will see that that Potiphar and his wife shall be severely punished
for all the wrong they have done you."
But he did nothing of the kind. What the Savior asks of us, His
servants, is most natural and most simple, and quite as much for our
good as it is for His Glory. Among other things, He has said to all of
you who love Him, "This do in remembrance of Me." He has asked you to
gather around His table, and break bread with His servants, and feast
with Him. Some of you have never obeyed His command yet–you say you
love Him–but you forget Him. It was kind of Him to institute that
blessed ordinance to help your memory.
It is doubly unkind of you that you not only forget Him but are not
willing to use the means to have that frail memory of yours refreshed.
Moreover, of you who come to His Table He asks the favor to speak a
good word for Him wherever you have an opportunity. During the last
week have you spoken for Jesus? He asks you to spread abroad the savor
of His name–have you done so during the last month or not? He requests
of you that as you are an heir with Him and a partaker of His kingdom,
you will help Him to spread it–not by word of mouth only–but by your
gifts and by your labors. What have you done?
Suppose that now the Lord Jesus Christ should occupy this pulpit
instead of me, and stand here and spread His hands and show you His
wounds? Could you dare to look at Him? Might not some of you have
crimsoned cheeks as you would have to confess, "Ah, Master, we have
forgotten You. As to much practical service and honor of Your name, we
have been quite as negligent as the butler was concerning Joseph."
Well, He is here in spirit, and He will soon be here in Person.
Servants of the Master, be faithful to your Master! But oh, all you who
lean upon His bosom, and have familiar union with Him–I will not
merely speak of faithfulness to you, but I charge you by your love, by
the lilies, and by the animals of the field–see to it that you not
forget your Beloved! Day by day, and hour by hour, feast Him with your
wine, with your milk, with the choicest of your gifts, and the richest
products of your souls! Labor for Him, live for Him, and be ready to
die for Him who has done so much for you!
I have thus stated the butler's case, but I shall want to pause a
minute or two over this head just to go into the reason of his fault.
Why was it that he did not remember Joseph? There is always a reason
for everything, if we but try to find it out. He must have been swayed
by one of three reasons. Perhaps the butler was naturally ungrateful.
We do not know, but that may have been the case. He may have been a
person who could receive unbounded favors without a due sense of
obligation. I trust that is not our case in the fullest and most
unmitigated sense–but I am afraid we must all plead guilty in a
measure. Were there ever such ungrateful ones as the saints of God? We
treat no other friend so badly as we treat our Lord!
We love our parents. We feel gratitude towards friends who have
assisted us in times of need. We are bound by very strong ties to
certain persons who were very greatly an assistance to us in a pinch.
But our dear Savior–better than father and mother, fonder than the
fondest friend, closer than the most loving spouse–how ill we use Him!
I am afraid, Brethren, we had better all of us say it is ingratitude
here–we are basely ungrateful to Him. But let us not confess it as a
matter of course–let us be ashamed to have such a thing to say! Let us
feel that it lowers us more than anything else could lower us–that it
proves how total, how abject, how degrading must have been the Fall of
Adam, that even the love of Jesus Christ shed abroad in hearts like
ours in such a remarkable and plenteous manner cannot cure us of the
base and detestable vice of ingratitude!
Oh You dear One, can I look upon Your face, all covered with Your
bloody sweat? Can I view You again all covered with the spittle from
the mouths of Your enemies? Can I see You in Your thirst and anguish on
the Cross and know that every pang was for me, and every woe for
me–and not a groan or spasm of pain for Yourself, but all for love of
me who was Your enemy–and can I, after that, forget You? Oh my Soul,
loathe yourself that you should be ungrateful to Him!
Perhaps, however, worldly care choked the memory. The chief butler had
a great deal to do–he had many under-servants, and having to wait in a
palace much care was required. He who serves a despot like the king of
Egypt must be very particular in his service. It is very possible that
the butler was so busy with his work and his gains, and looking after
his fellow servants and all that, that he forgot poor Joseph. Is it not
very possible that this may be the case with us? We forget the Lord
Jesus to whom we are bound by such ties because our business is so
large, our family so numerous, our cares so pressing, our bills and
bonds so urgent–and even, perhaps, our gains are so large!
There is as much power to divide the heart from Christ in gain as there
is in loss. In fact, the sharpest edge of the world's sword is
prosperity. The back cut of adversity very seldom wounds as prosperity
does. And yet, dear Friends, what are all these cares that they should
make us forget our Lord? I know not to what to compare us. Unto what
shall I compare our folly? We are like children in the marketplace who
have their little plays and games, their pieces of broken crock and
stick and stone and these take up all their thoughts. And they forget
their dear mother who is calling them. She has nourished these
children, and day by day her heart cares for them, but they forget her.
They cannot live without her–they must go to her for all their
necessities–the very garments on their backs are her workmanship, and
the food that keeps life in their bodies she must find. But they are
too busy, too busy with these little plays and toys and mere dirt and
such things as children in the market will play with–too busy to think
of her. Oh, it is base that it should be so, but we are sadly worldly.
I am afraid John Bunyan's picture of the man with the muck-rake is not
altogether unlike some of God's own children. Here we are with the rake
groping over the dunghill, although above us stands the angel with the
golden crown calling to us to look up from the dunghill and remember
our lasting and enduring portion! But no, not we–that dunghill takes
up so much of our time and thoughts that the crown is forgotten!
Do not misunderstand me, I would not have you be negligent in
business–neither reason nor Revelation require that–but oh, if you
could remember the Savior in it all, and if you traded for His sake and
worked for Him, and in the ordinary deeds of life did all as unto the
Lord ("whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus")–then, truly, everything might remind you of
Him and both gain and loss, mercy and misery might only drive you
nearer to His blessed bosom!
I am half ashamed to have to say one thing more. I am afraid that the
butler forgot Joseph out ofpride because he had grown to be such a
great man and Joseph was in prison. He was butler to the king. Now when
he was in prison Joseph was his equal, and in some sense his superior
for he waited on him. But now my lord, the butler, has great interest
at court and he wears splendid garments, and he is very great among his
fellow servants. Joseph–Joseph smells of the dungeon! He is a
jailbird, and quite beneath him. He knows not what Joseph is to
become–that all the glories of the land of Egypt are to be at Joseph's
feet–but he is ashamed of Joseph.
I do not suppose this operates with many of you, but I have known it
with some professed Believers. When they were little in Israel, when
they first professed to have found peace, oh, how they acknowledged
Jesus! But they got on in the world and prospered–and then they could
not worship among those poor people who were good enough for them
once–they now drive to a more fashionable place of worship where the
Lord Jesus is seldom heard of. They feel themselves bound to get into a
higher class of society, as they call it, and the poor despised cause
of Jesus is beneath them, forgetting, as they foolishly do, that the
day will come when Christ's cause shall be uppermost!
They forget that the world shall go down and the faithful followers of
the Lord Jesus shall be peers and princes even in this world, and reign
with Him–He being King of kings and Lord of lords–and they sitting
upon His Throne and sharing in His royal dignity. I hope none of you
have forgotten Christ because of that. I do not know, though–I have my
fears of some of you. I do know this, that many a working man thinks
more of Christ while he is so than he does when he rises above his
fellows. We have heard of one who used to give much when he was poor,
but when he grew rich he gave less, and he said, "when I had a shilling
purse I had a guinea heart, and wished I could do much more for Christ.
But now I have a guinea purse I find I have only a shilling heart, and
I am for stinting and doing less."
Oh let it not be so! Shall it be that the more He gives the less we
give, and the more He shows his love, the less we show our love? God
forbid that we should do this, but by every tie of gratitude let us
serve Him more and more each day! There was very great heinousness in
this forgetfulness on the part of the butler and he ought to have felt
it. Perhaps the way for us to see our own fault is this. Suppose the
butler had put himself in Joseph's place and said, "Now I wonder what
Joseph thinks of my conduct? Suppose I were Joseph in prison, and I had
done this favor to someone else? How should I feel with regard to his
forgetfulness?"
My dear Friends, can you suppose yourselves in Jesus Christ's place?
Suppose it possible that you could have died for another, and by your
death could have saved him and made him the partaker of everlasting
joys? What would you think of him if he treated you as you treat Jesus
Christ? You would say, "I am ashamed of him. I regret that ever I spent
so much love on such a thankless person." Judge, then–judge your own
case! Again, he might have judged of the heinousness of his
forgetfulness by considering his conduct as he would have considered it
at the first. Suppose a prophet had told you, when you were first
converted, that you would live as you have done? Could you have
believed it? You would have said "Never! If the Lord Jesus Christ does
but take my burden off my back and set me free, there is nothing which
I will not do for Him. I will be none of your cold, dead professors,
not I."
But you have been, dear Friends! You have been just as lukewarm as
others. Judge of your sin as you would have judged of it at the first.
Again, will you please to judge of it as you judge of other people?
What do you think of other cold hearts? What do you think of other
chilly professors, whose lives are lukewarm, and whose love knows no
fervency? Judge yourselves by the same judgment. Put your spirit in the
same scale and be humbled! Yes, let every one of us lay his mouth in
the dust as we confess this day that we are verily guilty concerning
the Lord Jesus. Let us all remember our faults this day.
II. The second point is this–WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES BROUGHT THE FAULT TO
THE BUTLER'S MIND? The same circumstances which surround us this
morning. First, he met with a person in the same condition as that in
which he once was. King Pharaoh had dreamed a dream and wished for an
interpretation. Joseph could interpret–and the butler remembered his
fault.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there are those in the world who are in
the same state of mind as you were once in. They once loved sin and
hated God and were strangers and aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel. But in some of them there has been the mysterious working of
the Holy Spirit and they have dreamed a dream. They are awakened,
although not yet enlightened. Salvation is a riddle to them at present,
and they want the interpretation. Do you not remember how the Gospel
was blessed to you? Do you not desire to send it to others? If you
cannot preach yourself, will you not help me in my life-work of
training others to preach Jesus?
If I could bring before you this morning a score or two of anxious
persons up from country villages and remote parts of our own land, you
would say, "Oh, let me tell them about the Savior, or let me help to
send someone to them who will do so." That is just the effect I want to
produce without using that means. I want to make you remember your Lord
Jesus–practically remember Him–by reminding you that there are
persons who are now seeking Him, who are now panting after Him who have
not yet heard the Gospel! They are longing for some herald of peace to
come to them and proclaim the good news. By the love of souls, aid me
in my great anxiety to supply the needs of the age with a ministry
called of God to preach His Truth.
The next thing that recalled the butler's thought was this–he saw that
many means had been used to interpret Pharaoh's dream, but they had all
failed. We read that Pharaoh sent for his wise men but they could not
interpret his dream. You are in a similar case. There are thousands in
England who are trying to minister to spiritual necessities– above all
we have Popery in its double form–Romish and Anglican–doing its best
to interpret the dream of the human heart. You know what a sad mess it
makes of it–it gives a stone instead of bread–brings to poor, needy,
guilty man, anything but the Savior he wants.
Now, as you hear these foolish wise men all blundering over the dream,
do you not think of the Joseph who could interpret it? And as you hear
these men holding up baptismal regeneration and sacramental salvation,
does not your tongue long to say, "O fools! O generation of simpletons!
It is Christ Jesus who is the great Interpreter–He alone can supply
human necessities." Do you not feel a need, if you cannot go and preach
yourselves, to help others to do so? Will you remember Jesus Christ as
you remember how many are perverting the Gospel and preaching anything
rather than the merit of His Cross? Remember your Lord today and your
faults concerning Him, but let your remembrance lead to future
diligence in His cause.
Then, again, if the butler could have known it, he had other motives
for remembering Joseph. It was through Joseph that the whole land of
Egypt was blessed. Joseph comes out of prison, interprets the dream
which God had given to the head of the State, and that interpretation
preserved all Egypt, yes, and all other nations during seven years of
drought! Only Joseph could do it. Oh Brothers and Sisters, you know
that it is only Jesus who is the balm of Gilead for the wounds of this
poor dying world! You know that there is nothing which can bless our
land, and all other lands, like the Cross of Jesus Christ! Have you
forgotten your Savior? Have you allowed His Gospel to be by without
preaching it yourselves or helping others to preach it? Have you
suffered the precious Truth of God to be like Joseph, hidden in prison,
when you might have helped to bring it out into open court that others
might hear and know the sound which has made glad your own heart? Then,
as you remember England, the country of your love. As you remember
other lands, which in proportion are dear to you, will you not think of
Jesus today and do something for the promotion of His cause?
Once more, surely the butler would have remembered Joseph had he known
to what an exaltation Joseph would be brought. Under God it was all
through the butler saying, "I remember Joseph," that Joseph came out of
prison, that he stood before Pharaoh, that he rode in the second
chariot, that the heralds cried before him, "Bow the knee!" and that
Joseph, the poor prisoner, became governor over the land of Egypt!
Christian, would you like to lift up the name of Jesus from obscurity
into the throne of the human heart?
At this present moment throughout this world Jesus Christ is still the
despised and rejected of men! He is still a root out of a dry ground to
the mass of mankind, and the only way in which He can be exalted is by
loving hearts telling of Him and helping others to tell of Him. Think
of the splendor which yet will surround our Lord Jesus! He shall come,
Beloved, He shall come in the chariots of salvation! The day draws near
when all things shall be put under Him. Kings shall yield their crowns
to His superior sway and whole sheaves of scepters, plucked from
tyrants' hands, shall be gathered beneath His arms–
"Look, you saints, the sight is glorious, See the 'Man of Sorrows' now?
From the fight returned victorious, Every knee to Him shall bow."
You by testifying of Him are promoting the extension of His kingdom and
doing the best that lies in you to gather together the scattered who
are to be the jewels of His crown. Surely the thought of His exaltation
fires you with delight! The prospect of magnifying Him, of setting Him
on high and helping to adorn His head–or even to strew the path
beneath His feet–must fill your soul with a celestial ardor! Do not
forget Him, then, but let the fact that you are in this position
today–that you can glorify Jesus, that you can bless the world–let
this encourage you to remember your faults this day.
III. In the last place, I have a few things to say by way of
COMMENDATION OF THE BUTLER'S REMEMBRANCE. It is a pity he forgot
Joseph, but it is a great blessing that he did not always forget him.
It is a sad thing that you and I should have done so little–it is a
mercy that there is time left for us to do more!
One of our dear friends said this morning–one of our beloved
deacons–when I was asking him about some of the Churches he has been
to visit–places where we are forming new Churches–what he thought of
the work which was going on. "Oh," he said, "it is such a glorious
work, and God is so marvelous in it that I wish I were younger that I
might live to see more of it." He is not old, but he wished he were
much younger that he might see God's gracious work going on for many
years as it is now progressing through God's Grace in our midst. Our
College is a mighty lever with which the Lord is working and if God's
people knew more of it they would help it more.
I like the butler's remembrance, first of all, because it was very
humbling to him. He had to say it to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was angry and put
his servant in prison. That was not a very pleasant thing for the
butler to say to the king, "My Lord, you were angry with me and put me
in prison." But though it was a humbling thing, it was very necessary
that he should say it and be reminded of it. Let us go before God with
the confession, "Lord, I was as base and vile as any. Your Cross saved
me. I was an heir of wrath even as others. Jesus did all this for me,
blessed be His name, and I humble myself to think that I should so
treacherously have forgotten Him who was so kind to me."
I commend his remembrance for another thing, namely, that it was so
personal. "I do remember my faults this day." What capital memories we
have for treasuring up other people's faults, for once, let us keep to
ourselves. Let the confession begin with the minister. "I do remember
my faults this day." This is not the place for me to tell you of them,
though I dare say you see them without any telling of mine, but I do
remember them. They make a long list. My Brethren in office–the
deacons and elders–I have no charge against them, but I have no doubt
they can all say, "I do remember my faults this day."
You members of this Church, some old and gray, some young beginners,
many of you parents and people in middle life–I suppose there is not
one of you but what might say–"Yes, I do remember my faults this day."
Let it go round. Do not let there be an exception to the case–let each
Christian, instead of thinking about others, make it a personal matter,
"I do remember my faults this day." I could wish that the unconverted
here would join with us. Your fault–the great fault with you–is that
you do not believe in Jesus Christ. You do not trust Him with your
souls, but are still strangers to Him. I wish you could say, now, you
up in that gallery there, each one of you, "I do remember my faults
this day." And the whole body of you down below the stairs, and you
around the pulpit, "I do remember my faults this day."
It is a good sign of true repentance when it is personal repentance.
Every man must mourn apart, and every woman apart–the husband apart,
and the wife apart–the brother apart, and the sister apart. "I do
remember my faults this day." The best part of it, perhaps, was the
practical nature of the confession. The moment he remembered his fault,
he redressed it as far as he could. He could not make up to his poor
friend for the days he had been lying in prison, but he spoke to
Pharaoh directly. That action was the means of bringing Joseph out.
Now, dear Friends, if you remember your faults to the Lord Jesus, may
you have Grace not to fall into them again! If you have not spoken for
Him, speak today! If you have not given to His cause, give now! If you
have not devoted yourselves as you ought to have done to the promotion
of His kingdom, do it now! Oh, Sinner, if you have not believed in
Christ, may God the Holy Spirit lead you to believe now! It is of no
use remembering a debt if you do not pay it. And it is of no avail to
remember a fault if you do not repent of it.
I have little by way of urging you as a congregation to do more in the
service of the Master. Often I feel held back by the thought that you
are doing so much, but oh, if we could do as much as possible, if every
one of us felt pledged, for the Lord's cause and the Redeemer's
kingdom, that there should be nothing within the range of possibility
to mortal man that we would not attempt for such a King, for such a
Lord, oh, then we should see blessed days!! You have had a zealous
spirit. You still have it–but you need still more of it, and may God
send it to you!
We are helping to send the Gospel throughout all this country, and to
different countries abroad as well. Do not hold back when God is
blessing! Your parts help is still required–be not slow to render it.
Do come forward with us and help us to magnify the Savior's name till
the ends of the earth shall know it, and all nations shall call Him
blessed! The Lord bless these words for the sake of Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.