Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms."–Hosea 11:3.
IF you note well the opening part of this chapter, you will find that
it consists of a wonderful chain of mercies; every one single line is a
rare jewel, and the whole passage is a casket unspeakably precious. The
chapter begins with love; ancient, sovereign, electing love. "When
Israel was a child, then I loved him." When the Israelitish nation was
in a very low and poor estate, and was brought into slavery and
subjection in Egypt, God had set his love upon it, and called it his
own inheritance. Not for their numbers or greatness as a nation were
they chosen, but when they were little and despised they were yet
beloved of God. Distinguishing grace had written the name of Israel
upon Jehovah's heart. Spiritually we who have believed are in the same
favored condition, and our hearts rejoice this day at the memory of
"His great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins." This is the river-head, from which all the
streams of after-mercy flow,–"I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Like the
golden-sanded river which had its rise in Eden, electing love branches
off into many streams, and waters all the garden of the Lord. This is
the root from which the tree of blessing springs. "He hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world." Ephesians 1:3, 4. Let others say what they will, electing love
will always be most precious to us; for it is the foundation blessing,
the first of all favors, the mother of mercies. We nail to our mast the
old flag of free grace, and believe with the apostle (Ephesians 1:11)
that we were "predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will."
The next sweet word in the chapter is sonship; "When Israel was a
child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." We are,
according to the inspired apostle, "predestinated unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of
his will." Ephesians 1:5. Adoption follows hard upon the heels of
election, and is another messenger of good tidings. Innumerable
blessings come to us by this door. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son." "Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God." "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we
shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." Sonship with God is
a dignity unspeakable, and yet it is reserved for such poor dust and
ashes as we are: what shall we say concerning this? Are we not
swallowed up with adoring gratitude? Unto which of the angels hath he
said at any time, "Thou art my son"? but this hath been said to us; and
we are thus favored above all creatures that the Lord God has made.
Boundless blessings are included in sonship: it is no light thing to be
a child of the Lord of Hosts, the Prince of the kings of the earth. "If
a son, then an heir of God through Christ." This opens up before us
far-reaching views of present covenant provision, and of future
infinite bliss. To be, indeed, born into the family of God is a dignity
to which the descent of an imperial prince bears no more comparison
than a spark in the tinder to the sun in the heavens.
And, because we have in this chapter love and sonship, we see
immediately after, in the same verse, calling, salvation, and
deliverance: "I called my son out of Egypt." The Lord doth not leave
his chosen people for ever in the bondage of sin; when the day of their
jubilee dawns, they go forth without price or reward, with a high hand
and an outstretched arm. They cannot remain for ever under guilt, nor
abide heirs of wrath, even as others; out of Egypt they must come when
the years are accomplished. They are his, and he will call them by his
effectual grace, and separate them to himself. Their calling is
something more than the common and universal gospel invitation: it is a
persuasive, convincing, conquering call. They only know it whom the
Lord has set apart for himself: "Whom he did predestinate them he also
called." This call is like Joseph's invitation to his venerable father
to come and see him: it was accompanied by the waggons in which the old
man could ride. It was not only an entreating call, but an enabling
call. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me," says the
Saviour; and he speaks to purpose, because he helps them to come–nay,
he brings them himself, carrying them, like lost sheep, "upon his
shoulders rejoicing." There is no violence done to the will, but it is
set free, and then, being acted upon by a graciously enlightened
understanding, it yields to the call, and follows Jesus. "My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Israel would never have
come out of Pharaoh's country, if the Lord had not fetched them; but
none can say that he drove them out –nay, rather, "as for his people,
he led them forth like sheep." Every step of their exodus from bondage
under the divine call was the result of divine leading and influence.
Even thus spiritually a peculiar but delightful stress is put upon the
chosen of God, and, therefore, they come out of the Egypt of sin. The
grace to eat the paschal lamb, to strike the blood upon the lintel, and
to gird up the loins, and leave the land of leeks, and garlic, and
onions, is given only to the heirs of the promised possession.
Then we come upon the blessing of holy rearing and education, which we
have in our text: "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their
arms," as they do who have to teach little children to walk, supporting
their tottering footsteps, and instructing them how to put one foot
before the other, until they are able, at last, to run alone. Calvin
says it means, "I have led him on foot. As a child who cannot yet walk
with a firm foot is, by degrees, accustomed to do so, and the nurse, or
the father, or the mother, who leads him, has a regard for his infancy;
so, also, have I led Israel, as much as his feet could bear." And, as
if this mercy and condescension of God, in thus comparing himself to a
woman with her babe, were not sufficient, in addition to this he
becomes a physician too, and grants healing; he says, "I healed them."
They had not only weakness that needed to be supported, and ignorance
that needed to be tutored; but they had, in addition, sickness and
infirmity that needed medicine. "I healed them." He who had carried
them as Shaddai–the Lord All-sufficient, became to them Jehovah Rophi
–the Lord that healeth them. Who shall tell how much we all owe to
heavenly pharmacy? Our diseases are deep-seated and most dangerous; how
happy are we in having an omnipotent Physician, whose word alone is
more than a match for all our maladies. Surely we have a sickness for
every day in the year, but the Beloved Physician has a remedy for every
complaint. Glory be unto him who forgiveth all our iniquities, and
healeth all our diseases. Then, as if all this were not enough, we find
him drawing them on in the paths of obedience and holiness–not with
ropes and chains, that would compel against their will, overhauling
them roughly– but with forces suited for minds and hearts. "I drew
them with cords of a man, with bands of love." Thus does the gracious
Spirit of God work in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure.
"The love of Christ constraineth us:" "As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God:" "The Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities."
Thus we have in a few lines unostentatiously opened up before us a
cabinet of covenant gems, rivalling those which adorned the high priest
of old. Here is a holy education for the nursling that was taunt to
walk; here is exercise of the strength which the physician had
restored.
As if this had not completed it, there come unburdening and
rest-giving: "I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their
jaws." They had been like oxen, with a heavy yoke upon them, and God
had come and taken the yoke away; and there they stood, as we see
horses stand when they are made to rest, when the bearing-rein is
loosened, and they stand at ease. And this God has as surely done for
us as for his ancient people. He has fulfilled that word unto us, "Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your
souls." We enjoy the peace of God, which passeth all understanding: it
keeps our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. Nor is this all for the
gracious Redeemer takes care to fill his people's mouths with good
things; hence, he does not forget the feeding, and it is added, "I laid
meat unto them." The Lord refreshed his weary people with "food
convenient for them." As the oxen, after the yoke was removed, were
fed, so God, when had removed our yoke of guilty bondage, fed us with
the finest of the wheat, as he made us understand the gospel of his
Son. The doctrines and promises of his word are substantial meat for
hungry souls. "My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and fatness, and
my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips." Certain under-shepherds
are afraid of laying too much doctrinal food before the Lord's people,
but it is a great mistake. Truth never surfeits, though it always
satisfies. The Good Shepherd does not stint his sheep, but he gives
them so much, that they lie down amid the exceeding plenty of the green
pastures. They cannot eat it all, and they lie down in the midst of a
superabundance, which infinite mercy has provided. See, then, how God's
boundless love piles mountain upon mountain, as the old classics used
to say, Pelion upon Ossa, that we, up from the depths of our distress,
may climb to the heights of his blessedness, and enjoy the fullness of
the glory which God has treasured up for us in the person of Christ
Jesus our Lord. One is tempted, with such a preface to our text, to
linger in it, and to be like the man who made the porch of his house
larger than the house itself. You can but be fed, and it matters not
whether the barley loaves and fishes are in my basket, or whether I
carry them loosely in my hand: so long as you are refreshed by them you
will not quarrel with my disorderly serving. However, I restrain my
loitering heart, and proceed to the text.
Here is the figure of a nurse and a child. "I taught Ephraim to go,
taking them by their arms." Let us look at this in reference to the
children of Israel; then let us view it in reference to ourselves.
Take Israel's case first. They were in Egypt, and God was about to
bring them forth, and make them a nation, and give them a country of
their own. He began to deal with them as little children, for he
selected as his ambassador and as the mediator between him and them,
not a man of imperious disposition, not an Elijah with fire at his
beck, or a John the Baptist with an axe in his hand, but "the man
Moses, who was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the
earth." They were childish, vain, foolish, and their leader must be
very gentle and full of pity. It requires a patient disposition to deal
with such grownup children, for what you could bear from children, who
are children in years, you cannot so well endure from those who, though
they have reached the age of maturity, have not reached the age of
discretion, and seem as if they never would. You can teach a child of
six; but who shall be tutor to a child of sixty? The great God, the
Father of Israel, selected as a tutor for these grown up children, the
meekest man that lived, and, in so doing, he dealt tenderly with them,
as a mother with her child. Then, though he meant them ultimately and
finally to come out of Egypt, he did not uproot them from their adopted
land all at once, roughly and without previous loosening. No unexpected
command was given them that they were at once to sever all the ties
that connected them with the people of Egypt. They were not forced in
an unlooked-for moment to leave the leeks, and garlic, and onions, and
to go forth into the desert; but a long series of miracles was
exhibited before their eyes, not only that Pharaoh's power might be
broken, but that they might be encouraged to venture themselves upon
the providence of God, and trust themselves with him. They ought to
have been strong enough have marched out of Egypt at once, at the first
word of their leader. Had they forgotten the old covenant which had
been made with their fathers, that, the Lord would give them a land
that flowed with milk and honey? But they were little children and
could not perform manly exploits; they needed to be taught courage, and
manliness, and faith in the unseen God of their father Abraham. All
those plagues which God wrought in the fields of Zoan, while they had a
dark side to Egypt, had a bright side to Israel; it was a "teaching
them to go;" a gently persuading them to trust in God, and go forth at
his call. Yet, after having seen all Jehovah's wonders, when at last
they did take the first step, and found themselves at Succoth, and
by-and-by came to Pi-hahiroth by the sea, they trembled like babes who
totter and are ready to fall. Was it not tender mercy on the part of
God that he put forth his hand, and held them up, and drowned all their
fears at once? They had been alarmed, when they heard the whip of their
taskmasters, and the rattling of the war chariots behind them; but God
made, as it were with one sweep, an end of every thing that need give
them distress. I do not find, whatever were their foolish fears, that
the children of Israel in the wilderness were ever again afraid of the
Egyptians pursuing them and attempting to drive them back as slaves.
The old fear was slain at once; they had been slaves, and dreaded their
masters, but the strength of Egypt had been so terribly broken at the
Red Sea, that Israel, who before tottered, even began to dance to the
music of the triumphant timbrel. Infinite tenderness removed the
stumbling block out of their way, lest their infant faith should be
tripped up.
When they were fairly in the wilderness they were still treated as
children, and they needed it. They had many sensible manifestations of
the presence of God with them. A truly spiritual faith does not expect
any manifestation to the senses. God treats us to-day as men, compared
with the way in which he nursed the Israelites. We have no pillar of
glory shining over a visible tabernacle; no shekinah above a material
mercy-seat. We have now no holy places whatsoever; and no symbolic
worship:–
"Where'er we seek Him He is found,
And every place is hallowed ground."
Our service of the spiritual God is spiritual; we walk by faith and not
by sight; we worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh. The tribes of Israel, as being in their religious childhood, had
manifestations of different kinds. They saw not God, for who shall
behold the invisible? but the bright light shone between the wings of
the cherubim, the glory of the Lord at times burst forth from the
tabernacle, and on an ever memorable occasion they heard a voice
speaking out of the thick darkness from the top of Sinai, when the Lord
came from Paran with ten thousand of his holy ones. We have not heard
the voice, neither have we seen the glory, nor need are wish for
either, since we have a sure word of testimony, and the abiding of the
Holy Ghost: but the Lord treated the tribes in the wilderness as
children–their faith and spirituality were so feeble that, like the
young church of Christ in the upper room, which needed the rushing
wind, and cloven tongues, and miraculous power, they were favored with
signs and wonders to confirm their faith: "He taught them to go, taking
them by their arms."
Another part of this spiritual nursing, which the Lord condescendingly
gave to his people, was their instruction by symbols. He did not give
to them, as he gives to us, the clear vision of the glorious gospel in
the face of Jesus Christ, but as they were not capable of reading the
plain sense, and they needed pictures in their books, he gave them many
and most instructive symbols. They saw the morning and the evening
lamb. How full of instruction must that double offering have been. They
ate the passover; they saw the doors besprinkled with blood; here was a
sort of kinder-garten infant school teaching for them. The high priest
in his white garments, or in his glorious robes of beauty, with the
Urim and Thummim glistening on his breast, the altar, the censor, the
candlestick, the table of the shewbread, the laver–all these were
pictures in the first A B C book for children. The gentle Father was
teaching them to go. There are some childish lovers of the first
covenant who would like to get the child's books back again: like big
babies they cry for the horn-books of infancy, and would put aside the
glory book which God has given to his children to read in the day of
the open manifestation of his Holy Spirit. We need not imitate their
example. We desire not go back to the rudiments, when the Lord hath
revealed himself in the person of the Only-begotten. Yet to Israel type
and symbol was the main instruction, and in that respect the Lord
taught them to go. Yea, and it was not only instruction by a few chosen
symbols, but everything was a symbol to them. They were always being
instructed and helped. The bread they ate was food from heaven, and the
water they drank leaped from the living rock; they were covered from
the heat by the cloud; they were lighted at night in their encampment
by the fiery pillar; everything about them was fitted for a people that
needed something tangible, something to be felt, something to be seen
and perceived of the senses, a people in childhood who required to have
everything represented to the eye as well as spoken to the ear.
The whole of that forty years' journey in the wilderness was a long
"teaching them to go." They were not a people able to have formed a
well-regulated state. They were no better than a mob of slaves, they
were not fit for self-government; and, therefore, they were led about,
trained, taught, educated by the space of forty years, before they were
able to go, as they did at last, when the Lord settled them in Canaan.
And note–and here I will not continue the story longer, because there
are ten thousand various ways in which we can illustrate the truth–how
he treated them as children even in the conquest of Canaan. Before they
came up to the country to conquer it, a pestilence had destroyed many
of the people. The spies said, "It is a land that eateth up the
inhabitants thereof". The Lord had also sent the hornet before
them–some terrible and deadly insect which had distressed and driven
out the Canaanites, and, in addition to these two scourges, the fear of
them and the dread of them had very much weakened their adversaries,
and prepared the whole land to submit to them. That marvellous passage
of the Jordan, and that miraculous falling, down of the walls of
Jericho without their needing to strike a blow–were not these all the
means of teaching them to go?–were they not thus gently led on till at
last they became men enough to drive out the Canaanites and to settle
in the land, and sit every man beneath his own vine and figtree?
We will now leave the seed of Israel, and think of ourselves a while.
How very graciously has the meaning of our text been fulfilled in us.
The Lord has treated us as a nurse treats a little child.
To begin with, the first step the child takes–its first introduction
to the art of locomotion–is caused by the nurse's holding it up. Do we
not remember the first uplifting that the Lord gave to some of us? We
were grovelling in the dust, and should have been content to be there
still, but, under a gracious word that he sent to us, through the
ministry, or by some other means, he lifted us up, and we began to feel
that there was something better for us than to be always creeping about
on the earth, or lying still in supine worldliness. The nurse's hand is
first put out before the child thinks of walking, and the divine power
of the Holy Ghost was first exerted upon us (we being then passive
under it for a while) before we felt a desire for better things. We
crawled upon the earth like beasts till God taught us to stand erect in
uprightness like grace-born men. We owe all to him who has taught us
from our youth.
The nurse, when the child begins to walk, soon teaches it to know its
own weakness. It has a fall or two, and a few bruises and tears; but
the falls are necessary to its learning to walk. We, also, had many
slips and falls. Oh, how often did we resolve in the most admirable
manner, but our resolutions ended in smoke! How frequently did we make
attempts in our own strength, and these were failures, till at last we
said, "We must give it up," and we were compelled to lean wholly upon
our Lord. We became more active in the right way after we were weaned
from our natural self-reliant activities, which had been so dear to us;
but we were very long in the weaning. Falls into sin are terrible
things, and these are not what I speak of here, but I mean those broken
resolutions, and those aspirations to which we did not attain, those
many disappointing tumbles which we encountered when we tried to walk.
It is a part of the nurse's art to let the child feel its weakness: and
it is a part of our heavenly Father's wisdom to let us know how feeble
we are. We are never wise, till we discover that we are fools: we are
never strong, till we confess that we are weak. True enough are the
Apostle's words, "When I am weak, then am I strong."
The nurse regulates the child's exertions, and allows it to take a step
or two at first, and only a step or two. Do we remember how tottering
were our first steps? We limped very sadly. Our walking was comparable
to the seeing of the man to whom men looked like trees. Our state of
mind was a mixture of light and darkness. We cried, "Lord, I believe;
help thou mine unbelief." There were only one or two promises in God's
word which I could get any hold of when I first came to him. My soul
was stayed a little while on that word, "Whosoever calleth upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." Only that could I grasp. I have known
some who could get consolation from nothing but this sweet word, "Him
that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." They could believe
only a little; it hardly amounted to believing: they reached as far as
hoping and trusting, intermittently mixed up with a world of doubting
and fearing, but they could stir no further. Very delightful to the
Christian pastor is it to see a young convert begin to take the first
step or two. We have seen them fall down with doubts and fears, but we
have been so pleased that they could walls even a little in the way of
faith, and believe even a portion of the word of God. What a mercy it
is that the Lord reveals to us his own truth by slow degrees! We ought
never to expect our young converts to understand the doctrine of
election, and to be able to split hairs in orthodoxy. It is vain to
overload them with such a precious truth as union with Christ, or so
deep a doctrine as predestination. Do they know Christ as the Saviour,
and themselves as sinners? Well, then, do not try to make a child run;
it will never walk if you do. Do not try to teach the babe gymnastics;
first let it totter on and tremble forward a little way. "I have many
things to say unto you," said the Saviour, "but ye cannot hear them
now." Now, had certain reputedly wise men been there they would have
said, "Lord, let us hear it all; make full proof of it all; bring it
all out: we can hear it–only try us." But our Lord knew what was in
man, and, therefore, he only little by little, line upon line, precept
upon precept, brought out the truth, and he does so experimentally with
his children still. We do not know our own depraved hearts so well at
first as we do afterwards. The disease and the remedy have both of them
to be more fully revealed to us by-and-by. Did we know at the first all
we shall know hereafter, we should be so overwhelmed with the abundance
of the revelation that we should not be able to endure it; the Lord,
therefore, lets in the light by degrees. If a person had been long
famished, and you were to find him hungry, and faint, and ready to die,
your instincts would say, "Put food before him at once, and let him
have all he wants." Yet this would be a ready enough way to kill him.
If you are wise, you will give him nutriment slowly, as he is able to
bear it. If you have been long in the dark, and come into the light at
once, your eyes smart, and you cannot bear it, you need to come to it
by degrees, and thus is it with the Lord's children. By little and by
little he introduces them into the glory of his kingdom, preparing them
for its fullness as children are prepared for their manhood. Have you
not seen how the nurse will tempt the child to take a little longer
walk, by holding out a pleasant thing to allure it? And how often has
our blessed Lord tempted us to some bolder deed of service, to
something that required more faith than we had before, by giving us
choice signs of his presence, and ravishing our hearts with his love.
Some of us know what it is to have seen such sweet results from our
little faith, that we could not but desire to try what stronger faith
would do. God so rewarded the weak faith we had, that we felt we must
rely upon him, and venture still further. Kindly hath the Lord
conducted us onward in this respect.
The nurse does not let the child put too much weight upon its little
legs at first, for it might be to its lasting injury. It shall have a
little trial of walking: but she will put her hands under its arms, and
hold it up that it shall not be tried too long, lest it be strained and
injured; so does our heavenly Father try our faith by little and by
little. When we shall have become men in Christ Jesus, we shall be
tested by stronger trials, for the Lord loveth to put stress upon
faith; he sends forth his knights of the cross upon desperate battles,
knowing that he intends to glorify himself in their natural weakness,
by granting them strength: but to the little babe, he sets no such
stern tasks. He tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb, and deals
tenderly with those that are but tender. "He carrieth the lambs in his
bosom, and doth gently lead those that are with young." Can you not
look back, beloved brethren and sisters, to your own experience, and
confirm all I have said, only feeling that you could say very much more
about it if you could speak out your own heart?
The Lord has dealt with us, in other respects as children, as, for
instance, in not chiding us for our many mistakes. If the nurse were to
scold the child for not walking as she does; if she were to be angry
with it because it is not as strong as she is; the poor thing might be
long before it came to walk at all. God sometimes does with his people
as Apelles did with Alexander when he painted him–he did not draw the
scar on Alexander's face, but placed his finger over it. Note how the
Holy Spirit describes Sarah. There was not much good in what Sarah said
on that day when she lied; but she called her husband "lord," and the
Holy Spirit lights on that, and mentions it to her honor. He has often
accepted our poor service, and given us sweetly to feel that it was so,
though now we look back upon it, we wonder how it could have been
accepted at all.
Many of us who preach the gospel, had God's blessing on our early
preachings. Our knowledge was dreadfully scant, and our ability
slender. We wonder how God could have blessed us, but he did. If he
were to let us know how badly we do his work even now, we should
despair, and do no more; but in his great mercy, he lets the light
thine on the brighter spots, and lets us see what his Spirit is doing;
and so we take courage and go on, and learn to walk after all. With all
our tremblings, and tumblings, and failings down, we do at length learn
to stand upright, and even to run in his ways.
Dear brethren and sisters, do you not feel that God has had great
patience with you? Do you not wonder that he has endured you? Could you
have had so much patience with another as God has had with you?
Impossible. You can hardly run alone yet, can scarcely take a step
without slipping or sliding, you need still to be carried in the
everlasting arms like babes, and yet you are persuaded that his
patience will hold out till there shall be no more need of it. He will
bear us as on eagle's wings, that is, with unwearied perseverance and
strength of love he will uphold us even to the end.
We must remind you, however, before we leave this, that there are some
respects in which the figure before us does not come up to the full
point. God has been very gracious to us, beyond what a nurse is to a
child. Let us unfold this fact for a moment or two. The nurse, with the
child, has not the disadvantages that God has with us, for we are full
of the notion that we can walk, and thus there are two battles in our
case–the first, is to get us out of our bad walking, and the next is,
to teach us to walk rightly. It is sometimes more difficult to instruct
a man who has been educated wrongly, than it would have been if he knew
nothing. He has both to learn and to unlearn. So with us: we have a
notion that we can do so much, until the Lord shows us thee without him
we can do nothing. We are very strong in our own opinion: we are blown
out with pride and self-sufficiency, and that has to be taken from us;
so that there is a double task for infinite mercy to perform–not
merely to plant a tree, but to cut down the old tree and root it up–to
get rid of our former way of walking, and then to teach us to walk in
the Spirit, and not in the fancied energy of the flesh.
Moreover, you never found a babe anxious to use stilts; but every one
of us, when God's Spirit has begun to teach us to walk, have been
seeking to use crutches. "Cursed is he that trusteth in man. And how
many of us must have deserved that curse; for trusting in man is very
very common. Resting on an arm of flesh seems to be the hereditary
disease of God's people. They fly first to this and then to that, but
forget their true and only resting-place. The simple walk of faith,
trusting and leaning alone upon the Invisible, how difficult it into
bring ourselves to it! We would have some favourite child to lean upon,
or husband, or wife, or friend. Our abilities, or something or other
that we can see and handle, shall be the golden calf which we set up
and say, "These be thy gods, O Israel!" Here is a great difficulty,
then, to wean us from crutches, which are promoters of spiritual
lameness.
I have never met with a child that had any fear about the nurse's power
to hold it up. She puts her arms about it, and it trusts itself with
her, leaning wholly upon her. But we appear to be afraid of leaning
hard upon God: we cannot leave ourselves with him: we don't throw
ourselves right back on the divine bosom. Yet is there no true rest to
ourselves till we do. As long as we are trying to support ourselves in
some measure or degree, we have not yet come to the rest of faith. I
have known people who went in the sea to learn to swim, but they never
dare take their feet off the bottom, and I do not see how they can swim
while they also endeavor to stand on their feet. Standing and swimming
cannot be managed at the same time. So there am souls that would fain
trust themselves to the goodness of God, but they cannot be content
without an earthly prop. They cannot quite cast themselves upon God and
trust in the stream of his abundant faithfulness. This, then, is
another difficulty which is not with the nurse, but which is with our
God in reference to us.
One more remark let us make, and that is, that we are, many of us, most
unwilling to try to walk. Though we are believers, after a fashion, it
may be said of us at this day as of those in the Saviour's time: "If
the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Why, entire
portions of the Christian church are afraid to trust God with the
maintenance of their ministers and the support of their worship; they
enter into an adulterous alliance with the State sooner than trust in
God and rely upon the faithfulness of his people. And as it is with
large masses of the people, so is it with separate Christians.; they
cannot walk by faith; they must have some way or other of clinging to
the flesh. Oh, for grace to be willing to believe in God! Oh, for power
to cut the moorings, and have done with the signs, and the evidences,
and the marks, and come to look upon Christ and his finished work; upon
the covenant, and upon the faithful God, who breaketh not his promise
and cannot turn away from his decree. May he who teacheth us to profit
make us to walk in his ways. Our prayer is like that of quaint old
Quarles:–
Great ALL IN ALL, that art my rest, my home;
My way is tedious, and my steps are slow:
Reach forth thy helping hand: or bid me come;
I am thy child, O teach thy child to go:
Conjoin thy sweet commands to my desire,
And I will venture, though I fall or tire."
Now, why is it that mothers take so much pains in teaching their
children to walk? I suppose the reason is, because they are their own
offspring. And the reason why the Lord has been so patient with us, and
will be so still, is because we are his children, still his children,
still, his children! Ah there is wondrous power in that–still his
children! I was sitting at table once, and I heard a mother expatiating
upon her son. She said a very great deal about him; and some one
sitting near me said, "I wish that good woman would be quiet." I said,
"What's the matter? May she not speak of her son?" "Why," he said,
"he's been transported. He was as bad a fellow as ever fired, and yet
she always sees something wonderful in him." So I ventured, some little
time after, when I had gained her acquaintance, to say something about
this son; and I remember her remark: "If there is nobody else to speak
up for him his mother always will." Just so; she loved him so that if
she could not be altogether blind to his faults, yet she would also see
all that was hopeful in him, Our blessed God does not bring into the
foreground what we are, so much as what he means to make us. "Their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more for ever." He puts
our blackness away; and he sees us as we shall be when we shall bear
the image of the heavenly, and shall be like our Lord. For Christ's
sake, beholding our shield and looking upon the face of his anointed,
he loves us and goes on to instruct us still. It seems at times as if
there were a conflict in the divine bosom, and he felt he must surely
give us up, but then his love rushes to the rescue, and it comes to
this: "How shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim?
mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together." He
returns to us with such a word as this: "I have betrothed thee unto me
in righteousness, and in mercy, and in judgment." He declares that he
hates putting away: "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for
I am married unto you." We are his own children. Oh! I have found it
such a blessed thing, in my own experience, to plead before God that I
am his child. When I was racked some months ado with pain, to an
extreme degree, so that I could no longer bear it without crying out, I
asked all to go from the room, and leave me alone; and then I had
nothing I could say to God but this, "Thou art my Father and I am thy
child; and thou, as a Father, art tender and full of mercy. I could not
bear to see my child suffer as thou makest me suffer, and if I saw him
tormented as I am now, I would do what I could to help him, and put my
arms under him to sustain him. Wilt thou hide thy face from me, my
Father? Wilt thou still lay on a heavy hand, and not give me a smile
from thy countenance?" I held the Lord to that. I talked to him as
Luther would have done, and pleaded his Fatherhood in right down
earnest. "Like as a father pitieth his children, even so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him." If he be a Father, let him show himself a
Father–so I pleaded, and I ventured to say, when I was quiet, and they
came back who watched me: "I shall never have such pain again from this
moment, for God has heard my prayer." I bless God that ease came and
the racking pain never returned. Faith mastered the pain by laying hold
upon God in his own revealed character, that character in which in our
darkest hour we are best able to appreciate him. I think that is why
that prayer, "Our Father which art in heaven," is given to us, because,
when we are lowest, we can still say, "Our Father," and when it is very
dark, and we are very weak, our childlike appeal can go up, "Father,
help me! Father rescue me!" He teacheth us still to go, taking us by
the arms, because he is our parent still. If any one fears God may
leave him, let him enquire whether a mother can forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb, for
even if it be so, God will not forget his people. He has graven you
upon the palms of his hands. There is a relationship between you and
him so familiar that it never can be forgotten, so firm that it can
never be dissolved. Be of good confidence; he will teach you to go,
till you shall run without weariness, and walk without fainting. I
would that all here had committed themselves to this good Father's
hand; I pray that they may do so. The Holy Spirit grant it, for
whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hosea 11.
SOME of our sermon readers may not be aware that MR. SPURGEON issues a
monthly magazine, price 3d. entitled, The Sword and the Trowel. It is
full of interesting matter, and commands a large circulation. The
volume for 1871 will be reedy a few days after the First of December.
Early orders for next year are requested. Messrs. Passmore and
Alabaster are the Publishers.