A Sermon
(No. 56)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 16th, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit;
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."–1
Corinthians 2:9-10.
HOW very frequently verses of Scripture are misquoted! Instead of
turning to the Bible, to see how it is written, and saying, "How
readest thou?" we quote from one another; and thus a passage of
Scripture is handed down misquoted, by a king of tradition, from father
to son, and passes as current among a great number of Christian
persons. How very frequently at our prayer meetings do we hear our
brethren describing heaven as a place of which we cannot conceive! They
say, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him;" and there they stop, not seeing that the very marrow of the whole
passage lies in this–"But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit." So that the joys of heaven (if this passage alludes to heaven,
which, I take it, is not quite so clear as some would suppose), are,
after all, not things of which we cannot conceive; for "God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit."
I have hinted that this passage is most commonly applied to heaven, and
I shall myself also so apply it in some measure, this morning. But any
one who reads the connexion will discover that the apostle is not
talking about heaven at all. He is only speaking of this–that the
wisdom of this world is not able to discover the things of God–that
the merely carnal mind is not able to know the deep spiritual things of
our most holy religion. He says, "We speak the wisdom of God in a
mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world
unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had
they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as
it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." And then he
goes on lower down to say, "But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I take it,
that this text is a great general fact, capable of specific application
to certain cases; and that the great fact is this–that the things of
God cannot be perceived by eye, and ear, and heart, but must be
revealed by the Spirit of God; as they are unto all true believers. We
shall take that thought, and endeavour to expand it this morning,
explaining it concerning heaven, as well as regards other heavenly
matters.
Every prophet who has stood upon the borders of a new dispensation
might have uttered these words with peculiar force. He might have said,
as he looked forward to the future, God having touched his eye with the
anointing eye-salve of the Holy Spirit, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God
hath prepared for them that love him; but God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit." We will divide the economy of free grace into
different dispensations. We commence with the patriarchal. A patriarch,
who like Abraham was gifted with foresight, might have looked forward
to the Levitical dispensation, glorious with its tabernacle, its
Shekinah, its gorgeous veil, its blazing altars; he might have caught a
glimpse of Solomon's magnificent temple, and even by anticipation heard
the sacred song ascending from the assembled thousands of Jerusalem; he
might have seen king Solomon upon his throne, surrounded with all his
riches, and the people resting in peace and tranquillity in the
promised land; and he might have turned to his brethren who lived in
the patriarchal age, and said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him' in the next dispensation. Ye know not
how clearly God will reveal himself in the Paschal Lamb–how sweetly
the people will be led, and fed, and guided, and directed all the way
through the wilderness–what a sweet and fair country it is that they
shall inhabit; Eye hath not seen the brooks that gush with milk, nor
the rivers that run with honey; ear hath not heard the melodious voices
of the daughters of Shiloh, nor have entered into the heart of man the
joys of the men of Zion, but God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit.'"
And so, moreover, at the close of the Levitical dispensation, the
prophets might have thus foretold the coming glories. Old Isaiah,
standing in the midst of the temple, beholding its sacrifices, and the
dim smoke that went up from them, when his eyes were opened by the
Spirit of God, said–"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for him
that love him." He saw by faith Christ crucified upon the cross; he
beheld him weltering in his own blood in Gethsemane's garden; he saw
the disciples going out of Jerusalem, to preach everywhere the Word of
God; he marked the progress of Messiah's kingdom, and he looked down to
these latter days, when every man under his own vine and fig tree doth
worship God, none daring to make him afraid; and he could well have
cheered the captives in Babylon in words like these,–"Now ye sit down
and weep, and ye will not sing in a strange land the songs of Zion; but
lift up your heads, for your salvation draweth nigh. Your eye hath not
seen, nor your ear heard, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him; but he hath revealed them unto me by his Spirit." And
now, beloved, we stand on the borders of a new era. The mediatorial
dispensation is almost finished. In a few more years, if prophecy be
not thoroughly misinterpreted, we shall enter upon another condition.
This poor earth of ours, which has been swathed in darkness, shall put
on her garments of light. She hath toiled a long while in travail and
sorrow. Soon shall her groanings end. Her surface, which has been
stained with blood, is soon to be purified by love, and a religion of
peace is to be established. The hour is coming, when storms shall be
hushed, when tempests shall be unknown, when whirlwind and hurricane
shall stay their mighty force, and when "the kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." But you ask
me what sort of kingdom that is to be, and whether I can show you any
likeness thereof. I answer, no; "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him,' in the next, the millenial
dispensation; "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit."
Sometimes, when we climb upwards, there are moments of contemplation
when we can understand that verse, "From whence we look for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be revealed from heaven," and can
anticipate that thrice blessed hour, when the King of kings shall put
on his head the crown of the universe, when he shall gather up sheaves
of sceptres, and put them beneath his arm–when he shall take the
crowns from the heads of all monarchs, and welding them into one, shall
put them on his own head, admist the shouts of ten thousand times ten
thousand who shall chaunt his high praises. But it is little enough
that we can guess of its wonders.
But persons are curious to know what kind of dispensation the
Millennial one is to be. Will the temple, they ask, be erected in
Jerusalem? Will the Jews be positively restored to their own land? Will
the different nations all speak one language? Will they all resort to
one temple? and ten thousand other questions. Beloved, we cannot answer
you. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." We
do not profess to understand the minutiae of these things. It is enough
for us to believe that a latter-day glory is approaching. Our eyes
glisten with joy, in the full belief that it is coming; and our hearts
swell big at the thought that our Master is to reign over the wide,
wide world, and to win it for himself. But if you begin questioning us,
we tell you that we cannot explain it. Just as under the legal
dispensation there were types and shadows, but the mass of the people
never saw Christ in them, so there are a great many different things in
this dispensation which are types of the next, which will never be
explained till we have more wisdom, more light, and more instruction.
Just as the enlightened Jew partially foresaw what the Gospel was to be
by the law, so may we guess the Millennium by the present, but we have
not light enough: there are few who are taught enough in the deep
things of God to explain them fully. Therefore we still say of the mass
of mankind–"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered the
heart of man, things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit," in some measure, and
he will do so more and more, by-and-bye.
And this brings us to make the application of the subject to heaven
itself. You see, while it does not expressly mean heaven here, you may
very easily bring it to bear upon it; for concerning heaven, unto which
believers are all fast going, we may say "Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by
his Spirit."
Now, beloved, I am about to talk of heaven for this reason: you know, I
never preach any funeral sermons for anybody, and never intend. I have
passed by many persons who have died in our church, without having made
any parade of funeral sermons; but, nevertheless, three or four of our
friends having departed recently, I think I may speak a little to you
about heaven, in order to cheer you, and God may thus bless their
departure. It is to be no funeral sermon, however–no eulogium on the
dead, and no oration pronounced over the departed. Frequent funeral
sermons I utterly abhor, and I believe they are not under God's
sanction and approval. Of the dead we should say nothing but that which
is good: and in the pulpit we should say very little of that, except,
perhaps, in the case of some very eminent saint; and then we should say
very little of the man; but let the "honour be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever."
Heaven–then, what is it? First, what is it not? It is not a heaven of
the SENSES–"Eye hath not seen it." What glorious things the eye hath
seen! Have we not seen the gaudy pageantry of pomp crowding the gay
streets. We have seen the procession of kings and princes; our eyes
have been feasted with the display of glittering uniforms, of lavished
gold and jewels, of chariots and of horses; and we have perhaps thought
that the procession of the saints of God may be dimly shadowed forth
thereby. But, oh it was but the thought of our poor infant mind, and
far enough from the great reality. We may hear of the magnificence of
the old Persian princes, of palaces covered with gold and silver, and
floors inlaid with jewels; but we cannot thence gather a thought of
heaven, for "eye hath not seen" it. We have thought, however, when we
have come to the works of God, and our eye hath rested on them: surely
we can get some glimpse of what heaven is here. By night we have turned
our eye up to the blue azure, and we have seen the stars–those
golden-fleeced sheep of God, feeding on the blue meadow of the sky, and
we have said, "See! those are the nails in the floor of heaven up
yonder;" and if this earth has such a glorious covering, what must that
of the kingdom of heaven be? And when our eye has wandered from star to
star, we have thought, "Now I can tell what heaven is by the beauty of
its floor." But it is all a mistake. All that we can see can never help
us to understand heaven. At another time we have seen some glorious
landscape; we have seen the white river winding among the verdant
fields like a stream silver, covered on either side with emerald; we
have seen the mountain towering to the sky, the mist rising on it, or
the golden sunrise covering all the east with glory; or we have seen
the west, again, reddened with the light of the sun as it departed; and
we have said, "Surely, these grandeurs must be something like heaven;
we have clapped our hands, and exclaimed–
"Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green."
We have imagined that there really were fields in heaven, and that
things of earth were patterns of things in heaven. It was all a
mistake:–"Eye hath not seen" it.
Equally does our text assert that "the ear hath not heard" it. Oh! have
we not on the Sabbath day sometimes heard the sweet voice of the
messenger of God, when he has by the Spirit spoken to our souls! We
knew something of heaven then, we thought. At other times we have been
entranced with the voice of the preacher, and with the remarkable
sayings which he has uttered; we have been charmed by his eloquence;
some of us have known what it is to sit and weep and smile alternately,
under the power of some mighty man who played with us as skilfully as
David could have played on his harp; and we have said, "How sweet to
hear those sounds! how glorious his eloquence! how wonderful his power
of oratory! Now I think I know something of what heaven is, for my mind
is so carried away, my passions are so excited, my imagination is so
elevated, all the powers of my mind are stirred upon so that I can
think of nothing but of what the preacher is speaking about!" But the
ear is not the medium by which you can guess anything of heaven. The
"ear hath not heard" it. At other times perhaps you have heard sweet
music; and hath not music poured from the lungs of man–that noblest
instrument in the world–or from some manufacture of harmony, and we
have thought, "Oh! how glorious this is!" and fancied, "This is what
John meant in the Revelation–'I heard a voice like many waters, and
like exceeding great thunders, and I heard the voice of harpers harping
with their harps;' and this must be something like heaven, something
like the hallelujahs of the glorified." But ah! beloved, we made a
mistake. "Ear hath not heard" it.
Here has been the very ground of that error into which many persons
have fallen concerning heaven. They have said that they would like to
go to heaven. What for? For this reason: they looked upon it as a place
where they should be free from bodily pain. They should not have the
head-ache or the tooth-ache there, nor any of those diseases which
flesh is heir to, and whenever God laid his hand upon them they began
to wish themselves in heaven, because they regarded it as a heaven of
the senses–a heaven which the eye hath seen or the ear heard. A great
mistake; for although we shall have a body free from pain, yet it is
not a heaven where our senses shall indulge themselves. The labourer
will have it, that heaven is a place,
Where on a green and flowery mount
His weary soul shall sit.
Another will have it that heaven is a place where he shall eat to the
full, and his body shall be satisfied. We may use these as figures; but
we are so degenerate that we are apt to build a fine Mahometan heaven,
and to think, there shall we have all the delights of the flesh; there
shall we drink from bowls of nectared wine; there shall we lavishly
indulge ourselves, and our body shall enjoy every delight of which it
is capable. What a mistake for us to conceive such a thing! Heaven is
not a place for the delight of mere sense; we shall be raised not a
sensual body, but a spiritual body. We can get no conceptions of heaven
through the senses; they must always come through the Spirit. That is
our first thought. It is not a heaven to be grasped by the senses.
But, secondly, it is not a heaven of the IMAGINATION. Poets let their
imaginations fly with loosened wings, when they commence speaking of
heaven. And how glorious are their descriptions of it! When we have
read them, we say, "And is that heaven? I wish I was there." And we
think we have some idea of heaven by reading books of poetry. Perhaps
the preacher weaves the filigree work of fancy, and builds up in a
moment by his words charming palaces, the tops of which are covered
with gold, and the walls are ivory. He pictures to you lights brighter
than the sun; a place where spirits flap their bright wings, where
comets flash through the sky. He tells you of fields where you may feed
on ambrosia, where no henbane groweth, but where sweet flowers cover
the meads. And then you think you have some idea of heaven: and you sit
down and say, "It is sweet to hear that man speak; he carried me so
away; he made me think I was there; he gave me such conceptions as I
never head before; he worked on my imagination." And do you know, there
is not a greater power than imagination. I would not give a farthing
for a man who has not imagination; he is of no use, if he wishes to
move the multitude. If you were to take away my imagination I must die.
It's a little heaven below, to imagine sweet things. But never think
that imagination can picture heaven. When it is most sublime when it is
freest from the dust of earth, when it is carried up by he greatest
knowledge, and kept steady by the most extreme caution, imagination
cannot picture heaven. "It hath not entered the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Imagination is
good, but not to picture to us heaven. Your imaginary heaven you will
find by-and-by to be all a mistake; though you may have piled up fine
castles, you will find them to be castles in the air, and they will
vanish like thin clouds before the gale. For imagination cannot make a
heaven. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered the
heart of man to conceive" it.
Our next point is, that it is not a heaven of the INTELLECT. Men who
take to themselves the title of intelligent, and who very humbly and
modestly call themselves philosophers, generally describe heaven as a
place where we shall know all things; and their grandest idea of heaven
is, that they shall discover all secrets there. There the rock which
would not tell its origin shall bubble forth its history; there the
star which would not tell its date, and could not be made to whisper of
its inhabitants, shall at once unravel all its secrets; there the
animal, the fashion of which could scarcely be guessed at, so long had
it been buried amongst other fossils in the earth, shall start up
again, and it shall be seen of what form and shape it really
was:–there the rocky secrets of this our earth that they never could
discover will be opened to them; and they conceive that they shall
travel from one star to another star, from planet to planet, and fill
their enobled intellect, as they now delight to call it, with all kinds
of human knowledge. They reckon that heaven will be to understand the
works of the Creator: and concerning such men as Bacon and other great
philosophers, of whose piety we generally have very little evidence, we
read at the end of their biographies–"He has now departed, that noble
spirit which taught us such glorious things here, to sip at the
fountain of knowledge, and have all his mistakes rectified, and his
doubts cleared up." But we do not believe anything of the kind.
Intellect! thou knowest it now! "It hath not entered into the heart of
man." It is high; what canst thou know? It is deep; what canst thou
understand? It is only the Spirit that can give you a guess of heaven.
Now we come to the point–"He hath revealed it unto us by his Spirit."
I think this means, that it was revealed unto the apostles by the
Spirit, so that they wrote something of it in the Holy Word; but as you
all believe that, we will only hint at it, and pass on. We think also
that it refers to every believer, and that every believer does have
glimpses of heaven below, and that God does reveal heaven to him, even
whilst on earth, so that he understands what heaven is, in some
measure. I love to talk of the Spirit's influence on man. I am a firm
believer in the doctrine of impulse, in the doctrine of influence, in
the doctrine of direction, in the doctrine of instruction by the Holy
Spirit; and I believe him to be an interpreter, one of a thousand, who
reveals unto man his own sinfulness, and afterwards teaches him his
righteousness in Christ Jesus. I know there are some who abuse that
doctrine, and ascribe every text that comes into their heart as given
by the Spirit. We have heard of a man who, passing by his neighbour's
wood, and having none in his own house, fancied he should like to take
some. The text crossed his mind–"In all these things Job sinned not."
He said, "There is an influence from the Spirit; I must take that man's
wood." Presently, however, conscience whispered, "Thou shalt not
steal;" and he remembered then that no text could have been put into
his heart by the Spirit, if it excused sin or led him into it. However
we do not discard the doctrine of impulse, because some people make a
mistake; and we shall have a little of it this morning–a little of the
teaching of God's gracious Spirit, whereby he reveals unto us what
heaven is.
First of all, we think a Christian gets a gaze of what heaven is, when
in the midst of trials and troubles he is able to cast all his care
upon the Lord, because he careth for him. When waves of distress, and
billows of affliction pass over the Christian, there are times when his
faith is so strong that he lies down and sleeps, though the hurricane
is thundering in his ears, and though billows are rocking him like a
child in its cradle, though the earth is removed, and the mountains are
carried into the midst of the sea, he says, "God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble." Famine and desolation come;
but he says, "Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
there be fruit on the vine, though the labour of the olive shall fail,
and the field shall yield no increase, yet will I trust in the Lord,
and stay myself on the God of Jacob." Affliction smites him to the
ground; he looks up, and says, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in
him." The blows that are given to him are like the lashing of a whip
upon the water, covered up immediately, and he seems to feel nothing.
It is not stoicism; it is the peculiar sleep of the beloved. "So he
giveth his beloved sleep." Persecution surrounds him; but he is
unmoved. Heaven is something like that–a place of holy calm and
trust–
"That holy calm, that sweet repose,
Which none but he who feels it knows.
This heavenly calm within the breast
Is the dear pledge of glorious rest,
Which for the church of God remains,
The end of cares, the end of pains."
But there is another season in which the Christian has heaven revealed
to him; and that is, the season of quiet contemplation. There are
precious hours, blessed be God, when we forget the world–times and
seasons when we get quite away from it, when our weary spirit wings its
way far, far, from scenes of toil and strife. There are precious
moments when the angel of contemplation gives us a vision. He comes and
puts his finger on the lip of the noisy world; he bids the wheels that
are continually rattling in our ears be still; and we sit down, and
there is a solemn silence of the mind. We find our heaven and our God;
we engage ourselves in contemplating the glories of Jesus, or mounting
upwards towards the bliss of heaven–in going backward to the great
secrets of electing love, in considering the immutability of the
blessed covenant, in thinking of what wind which "bloweth where it
listeth," in remembering our own participation of that life which
cometh from God, in thinking of our blood-bought union with the Lamb,
of the consummation of our marriage with him in realms of light and
bliss, or any such kindred topics. Then it is that we know a little
about heaven. Have ye never found, O ye sons and daughters of gaiety, a
holy calm come over you at times, in reading the thoughts of your
fellowmen? But oh! how blessed to come and read the thoughts of God,
and work, and weave them out in contemplation. Then we have a web of
contemplation that we wrap around us like an enchanted garment, and we
open our eyes and see heaven. Christian! when you are enabled by the
Spirit to hold a season of sweet contemplation, then you can say–"But
he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit;" for the joys of heaven
are akin to the joys of contemplation, and the joys of a holy calm in
God. But there are times with me–I dare say there may be with some of
you–when we do something more than contemplate–when we arise by
meditation above thought itself, and when our soul, after having
touched the Pisgah of contemplation by the way, flies positively into
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There are seasons when the Spirit
not only stands and flaps his wings o'er the gulf, but positively
crosses the Jordan and dwells with Christ, holds fellowship with
angels, and talks with spirits–gets up there with Jesus, clasps him in
his arms, and cries, "My beloved is mine, and I am his; I will hold
him, and will not let him go." I know what it is at times to lay my
beating head on the bosom of Christ with something more than
faith–actually and positively to get hold of him; not only to take him
by faith, but actually and positively to feed on him; to feel a vital
union with him, to grasp his arm, and feel his very pulse beating. You
say. "Tell it not to unbelievers; they will laugh!" Laugh ye may; but
when we are there we care not for your laughter, if ye should laugh as
loud as devils; for one moment's fellowship with Jesus would recompense
us for it all. Picture not fairy lands; this is heaven, this is bliss.
"He hath revealed it unto us by his Spirit."
And let not the Christian, who says he has very little of this
enjoyment be discouraged. Do not think you cannot have heaven revealed
to you by the Spirit; I tell you, you can, if you are one of the Lord's
people. And let me tell some of you, that one of the places where you
may most of all expect to see heaven is at the Lord's table. There are
some of you, my dearly beloved, who absent yourselves from the supper
of the Lord on earth; let me tell you in God's name, that you are not
only sinning against God, but robbing yourselves of a most inestimable
privilege. If there is one season in which the soul gets into closer
communion with Christ than another, it is at the Lord's table. How
often have we sang there,
"Can I Gethesemane forget?
Or there thy conflicts see,
Thine agony and bloody sweat,
And not remember thee?
Remember thee and all thy pains,
And all thy love to me,–
Yes, while a pulse, or breath remains,
I will remember thee."
And then you see what an easy transition it is to heaven:–
"And when these failing lips grow dumb,
And thought and memory flee;
When thou shalt in thy kingdom come,
Jesus, remember me."
O my erring brethren, ye who live on, unbaptized, and who receive not
this sacred supper, I tell you not that they will save you–most
assuredly they will not, and if you are not saved before you receive
them they will be an injury to you;–but if you are the Lord's people,
why need you stay away? I tell you, the Lord's table is so high a place
that you can see heaven from it very often. You get so near the cross
there, you breathe so near the cross, that your sight becomes clearer,
and the air brighter, and you see more of heaven there than anywhere
else. Christian, do not neglect the supper of thy Lord; for it thou
dost, he will hide heaven from thee, in a measure.
Again, how sweetly do we realize heaven, when we assemble in our
meetings for prayer. I do not know how my brethren feel at prayer
meetings; but they are so much akin to what heaven is, as a place of
devotion, that I really think we get more ideas of heaven by the Spirit
there, than in hearing a sermon preached, because the sermon
necessarily appeals somewhat to the intellect and the imagination. But
if we enter into the vitality of prayer at our prayer meetings, then it
is the Spirit that reveals heaven to us. I remember two texts that I
preached from lately at our Monday evening meeting, which were very
sweet to some of our souls. "Abide with us, for the day is far spent,"
and another, "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I
sought him and found him." Then indeed we held some foretaste of
heaven. Master Thomas would not believe that his Lord was risen. Why?
Because he was not at the last prayer-meeting; for we are told that
Thomas was not there. And those who are often away from devotional
meetings are very apt to have doubting frames; they do not get sights
of heaven, for they get their eye-sight spoiled by stopping away.
Another time when we get sights of heaven is in extraordinary closet
seasons. Ordinary closet prayer will only make ordinary Christians of
us. It is in extraordinary seasons, when we are led by God to devote,
say an hour, to earnest prayer–when we feel an impulse, we scarce know
why, to cut off a portion of our time during the day to go alone. Then,
beloved, we kneel down, and begin to pray in earnest. It may be that we
are attacked by the devil; for when the enemy knows we are going to
have a great blessing, he always makes a great noise to drive us away;
but if we keep at it, we shall soon get into a quiet frame of mind, and
hear him roaring at a distance. Presently you get hold of the angel,
and say, "Lord, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." He asks
your name. You begin to tell him what you name was:
"Once a sinner, near despair,
Sought thy mercy-seat by prayer;
Mercy heard and set him free;
Lord, that mercy came to me."
You say, "What is thy name, Lord?" He will not tell you. You hold him
fast still; at last he deigns to bless you. That is certainly some
foretaste of heaven, when you feel alone with Jesus. Let no man know
your prayers; they are between God and yourselves; but if you want to
know much of heaven, spend some extra time in prayer; for God then
reveals it to us by his Spirit.
"Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish." You have been saying in
your hearts, "The prophet is a fool, and this spiritual man is mad." Go
away and say these things; but be it known unto you, that what ye style
madness is to us wisdom and what ye count folly "is the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom." And if there is a poor penitent
here this morning, saying, "Ah! sir, I get visions enough of hell, but
I do not get visions of heaven;" poor penitent sinner, thou canst not
have any visions of heaven, unless thou lookest through the hands of
Christ. The only glass through which a poor sinner can see bliss is
that formed by the holes in Jesus' hands. Dost thou not know, that all
grace and mercy was put into the hand of Christ, and that it never
could have run out to thee unless his hand had been bored through in
crucifixion. He cannot hold it from thee, for it will run through; and
he cannot hold it in his heart, for he has got a rent in it made by the
spear. Go and confess your sin to him, and he will wash you, and make
you whiter than snow. If you feel you cannot repent, go to him and tell
him so, for he is exalted to give repentance, as well as remission of
sins. Oh! that the spirit of God might give you true repentance and
true faith; and then saint and sinner shall meet together, and both
shall not only know what "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard;" but
"Then shall we see, and hear, and know
All we desired or wished below,
And every power find sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy."
Till that time we can only have these things revealed to us by the
Spirit; and we will seek more of that, each day we live.