Knowledge Commended
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 15, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"But the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.
And they that understand among the people shall instruct many." Daniel
11:32,33.
THE uninspired book of the Maccabees is perhaps the best interpreter of
this passage in Daniel. The Prophet, we think, refers to the great
persecution under Antiochus, when the followers of Judas Maccabees,
knowing their God and keeping close to Him amidst general defection,
refused to bow before the idols of Syria. These were strong, by God's
Divine Grace, and did great exploits–wonders of valor we read of in
the history of Judas and his brethren, and wonders of heroic suffering
never surpassed are recounted of the mother and sons and those other
martyrs who, under tortures of the most amazing kind, held fast their
faith even to the end. In that age there were some who were stoned, who
were sawn asunder, who felt the violence of fire and yet were not
separated from their God by all that the foe could do.
We have a lesson to learn from the text before us, and we therefore
leave the historical references and proceed to enter into the teaching
of the text. It appears that the people who did all this were a knowing
people and an understanding people. Those by whom the exploits were
performed were not ignorant, but a people who knew their God. Those who
helped to keep up the light of Israel in the midst of the thick
darkness were not uninstructed, but were a people who understood.
Our subject this morning is knowledge, and especially the knowledge of
the things of God. The matter is very urgent and important at this
season when we are receiving so many young converts into the
Church–many of whom need much teaching in the things of God. It lies
heavily on my heart that it is my bounden duty to urge these young
ones, since they know the elements of the Christian faith, to strive
with diligence to learn more and more of the higher Truths of God. And
if they have received some insight into the wondrous revelation of
Divine love, I must urge them to press forward till they comprehend
with all saints what are the heights and depths and know the love of
Christ which passes knowledge.
The question is often put to us in a very general and vague manner, "Is
knowledge a good thing or not?" We are expected to give an answer
promptly and without reserve. And if we do so we shall very likely be
caught in a trap. "Knowledge–is it a good thing in itself or not?"
That depends upon several things. You might as well ask me whether air
is a good thing. Why, of course, speaking loosely, it is! But then
there is much bad air in old wells and cellars and so on, which will
destroy life–and therefore you cannot expect me to say at once, if I
know you are trying to trick me–either "Yes," or "No."
Air is a good thing as a general rule of thumb. The lungs require it,
man must have it–it is a good thing. So is knowledge. Knowledge heaves
the intellectual lungs–it is a good thing. But then there is noxious
knowledge, which it were infinitely better for us never to receive,
just as there is pestilential air. Is food a good thing? Yes. But if
you are alluding to the decayed meat which was seized in the market, or
to adulterated drinks, I am not in such a hurry to answer you. I want
to know what sort of food you are alluding to. Food, in the abstract,
is a good thing, but not food univer-sally–for putrid meats will
engender disease and bring on ten thousand maladies and destroy the
life which food is meant to sustain.
So is it with knowledge. It is the food of the mind. And yet there is a
knowledge which is deadly, poisonous, infectious, full of all manner of
mischief and they who know nothing of it are wise. Is water a good
thing? Again I answer, "Yes," in the abstract. So many watery particles
are absolutely necessary to the building up and sustenance of the human
frame that every thirsty man knows that water is good. Yet there is bad
water. There have been poisoned wells–water stagnates and becomes
putrid and injurious to life–water is good taken abstractedly. And
there is a knowledge which, like stagnant or poisoned water, may
destroy the soul. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood in
Paradise– mark that–but it ruined Paradise, mark that, too!
A man may know much and he may still stand in his integrity–but the
chances are that while men are what they are, there will be a serpent
in the tree of knowledge, seeking the ruin of souls. If you want to
judge concerning the good or evil of knowledge, you must ask yourself,
What is its source? To have one's lips touched with a live coal is a
choice blessing if the seraph brings that coal from off the altar of
God. But there are tongues which are set on fire in Hell–and who
desires to feel such accursed flame? You must know from where the coal
comes before you may consent that it shall touch your lips.
Knowledge may be tested by considering its character. Some knowledge is
like the light of the moon–clear, cold, barren, if not injurious to
health. But heavenly knowledge is fructifying, healthful and genial,
chasing away disease like the warm rays of the sun. You may make
knowledge good or evil by the way in which you use it. If it is a
torch, you may carry it with you to kindle the flame of Tophet's fire,
or, on the other hand, by that Heaven-lit torch you may, through Divine
Grace, find your way to the gates of Paradise! Judge knowledge,
therefore, with discretion and while you seek it as in the abstract an
eminently good thing, yet be not in haste to plunge yourself into every
abyss to find its bottom, nor into every burning crater to fathom its
depth. I know enough of poison without drinking it and enough of sin
without running into it.
This much by way of introduction–we come now to the text. Here we have
knowledge of a peculiar kind referred to. Then its happy influence–it
makes men strong to do great exploits. Next, we shall consider the
means of its attainment. Fourthly, just a hint as to its danger. And
fifthly, the duty of spreading it, contained in the thirty-third verse,
"They that understand among the people shall instruct many."
I. First, then, there is A SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE REFERRED TO–"The people
that know their God." To know God is the highest and best form of
knowledge. But what can we know of God? Nothing but what He has been
pleased to reveal to us. He has revealed something of Himself in the
Book of Nature and muck more in the Book of Revelation. And He has been
pleased to cast a vivid light upon the Book of Revelation by
manifesting Himself unto His people as He does not unto the world.
Those who know the Lord should believe in the unity of His Essence and
Subsistence. "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord." There
should be no mistaken notions here–the unity of the Godhead is
fundamental and mistakes here are fatal. We should know the Lord in the
plurality of His Persons. God said, "Let Us make man in our own image."
Let not man be content until he knows something of the "Us" from whom
his being was derived. Endeavor to know the Father. Bury your head in
His bosom in deep repentance and confess that you are not worthy to be
called His son. Receive the kiss of His love. Let the ring which is the
token of His eternal faithfulness be on your finger. Sit at His table
and let your heart make merry in His Grace.
Seek to know much of the Son of God who is the brightness of His
Father's Glory and the express image of His Person and yet in
unspeakable condescension of Grace became Man for our sakes. Know Him
in the singular complexity of His Nature–eternal God and yet
suffering, finite Man. Follow Him as He walks the waters with the tread
of Deity and as He sits upon the well in the weariness of humanity. Be
not satisfied unless you know something of Jesus Christ as your Friend,
your Brother, your Husband, your All.
Forget not the Holy Spirit–endeavor to get as clear a view as you can
of His Nature and Character, His attributes and His works. Behold that
Spirit of the Lord who first of all moved upon chaos and brought forth
order–who now visits the chaos of your soul and makes order there.
Behold Him as the Lord and giver of spiritual life, the Illuminator,
the Instructor, the Comforter and the Sanctifier. Behold Him as, like
holy unction, He descends upon the head of Jesus and then afterwards
rests upon you who are as the skirts of His garments. Get a clear idea,
then, of the Trinity in Unity. Do not reason about it. Do not try to
understand it–remember, it is not your duty to comprehend, but to
apprehend such Truths of God as these–you are to believe, rather than
to reason.
One God in the Trinity of His Persons. Let us know Him and worship Him.
Remember that those who do not now this, very seldom know much else
about Divine things. It is a very remarkable fact that when the
doctrine of the Trinity is given up, the other doctrines of the
evangelical system are pretty sure to be cast to the winds. This
doctrine of the Trinity in Unity seems to be the place of standing or
falling with public teachers and private Believers. Let us study to be
well instructed in the Divine attributes and ask for Grace to know them
all. Be not like those who dream of a God who is all love, and nothing
else. These persons talk in maudlin sentences, as if they believed in
an effeminate God who winks at sin and is utterly destitute of one
single atom of integrity or holiness.
Believe God to be what He most certainly is–a God terrible as well as
benevolent who will by no means spare the guilty–and yet passes by
transgression, iniquity and sin. See God in the suffering body and soul
of Christ Jesus upon Calvary and you will understand how He is severely
just in punishing sin in Him upon whom sin was made to meet and yet
supremely gracious in providing such a way of escape for guilty souls!
Do not be content with a maimed and distorted view of God's attributes!
Feel Him to be Omnipresent–let it be your delight to know that you
have not to call upon Him as one who is afar off, but ever near at
hand. Recognize Him as Omnipotent–know that there is nothing which He
cannot do and therefore doubt Him not.
Forget not His absolute Sovereignty, but meekly submit to it. The
failure of many men in their ideas about God is that they imagine Him
to be subject to Law instead of being the Source and Fountain of all
Law. They arraign His actions at their bar and forget His terrible
reply! "No but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has
not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor?" They have not heard the solemn
voice, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion."
Although to perfection you cannot find out God, yet do not worship Him
as did the Athenians under the title of "The Unknown God." Endeavor to
understand how Love unbounded meets with Justice unlimited and
Sovereignty without control–how "holiness becomes His house," and yet
how tender-hearted affection towards His creatures ever dwells in Him.
Do not worship ignorantly! Whatever else you do not know, do know the
Character of your God. "They that know Your name will put their trust
in You."
Then labor to know God in His actions. Study well the past. Do not be
ignorant of the great work of creation! If you have the skill, look at
that creation in the light of modern science so far as that light is
really derived from facts and not from conjectures. Pry into God's
great works in Providence–begin your pilgrimage of study at the gates
of Eden and travel onward to the present time. Float safely in your
meditations with Noah in the ark! Study the wonderful justice of God in
thus sweeping away the race of men. I have not time to linger on any
one particular spot this morning–if I might, I should have selected
the Red Sea.
Remember what Jehovah did at the Red Sea and by the brooks of Arnon!
Tell how He made bare His arm and swept away His foes! Take Miriam's
timbrel and sing unto the Lord who triumphed gloriously! Or, if that
contents you not, remember Og and Sihon, or exult over Sisera in
Deborah's song–"Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song:
arise, Barak and lead your captivity captive, you son of Abinoam."
Think of the deeds of God in later times when He smote Sennacherib and
laid His hosts dead at midnight. Tell how He brought forth his People
from the land of captivity with rejoicing and built up the walls of
Jerusalem once more.
Let, especially, the actions of God concerning Christ be very dear to
you. Fly back to the eternal Council–you will not be intruding if your
faith can enter that great council chamber of eternity. Think of the
Covenant, the Suretyship, the provision, the Almighty decree! See Jesus
Christ coming forth from the bosom of the Father, amid the song of
angels, to hang upon a woman's breast. Trace the history of your
Incarnate God–make the life of Christ be with you a household
study–know every corner of it. Never let a question be asked of the
youngest of you, concerning the life of Jesus, which you cannot answer!
The rhetorician studies the classics. The old Roman orators were
familiar with Demosthenes and the Greek poets– so let the Christian
make the life of Jesus his first study and with every single passage in
it let him be familiar. Know the Savior from the weakness of the cradle
to the triumph of His ascension, when, leading captivity captive, He
mounted the Father's Throne to reign forever. If you have mastered all
this, seek to know something of the teaching of the Spirit of God
concerning the plan of salvation. Do not be content to be saved in the
dark–try to find out how it is that you are saved. You are on a
Rock–but look at the Rock and understand why it is a Rock and how you
came to be standing on it.
I believe that very much of current Arminianism is simply ignorance of
Gospel doctrine. And if people began to study their Bibles and to take
the Word of God as they find it, they must inevitably, if Believers,
rise up to rejoice in the
Doctrines of Grace. Bolingbroke was far gone in infidelity and yet when
he met Mr. Whitfield one morning, he said to him, "Sir, if the Bible is
true, Calvinistic doctrines such as you preach are most certainly
taught in it. And though I neither receive the Bible nor Calvinistic
doctrines–if you want to have these doctrines proved from the Bible at
any time– my pen is very much at your service. I am persuaded it is
so."
Dear Friends, I would not have you merely unite with the Christian
Church and say, "Yes, I believe in Christ," but I want you–and here I
speak to you who are lately added to the Church–I want you to know
where this great scheme began! I want you to know how it is that the
blood of Christ takes away sins. To know the fact is very precious, but
to understand the reason of that fact is so comforting, so
establishing, so every way to be desired that I would have you study
much the Word of God till you get a clear view of the whole scheme. I
want you to understand the reasons from election onward to final
perseverance and from final perseverance to the second advent–the
resurrection and the glories which shall follow–world without end!
I have thus brought out what I think is the idea of the text about the
people knowing their God. But we must not overlook that little word
"their"–"They that know their God." It is not, "they that know God,"
but, "their God." To know anything of Him aright, you must get a firm
hold of God–He must be your God. "There is no praying," said one old
man who used to be much in prayer, "till you come to a close grip."
There must be a blessed familiarity with God! You must know Him to be
yours because He gave Himself to you in the Eternal Covenant–yours
because He has promised Himself to you in His Word–yours because you
take Him by an act of simple faith.
You must know He is yours because you, every day, put yourself beneath
His guidance and desire to be a soldier under His command. Yours to
have and to hold through life, in death and in eternity, because He has
laid hold of you and will hold you even to the end. "The people that
know their God." Ah, that is one of the choicest things a human tongue
can ever say, "My God! My God!" Ah, Thomas, you learned a great lesson
when, with your hand in Jesus' side you could say not only, "Lord,
God," but "My Lord and my God!" O, may you all be among the people who
know their God!
II. THE HAPPY INFLUENCE OF THIS KIND OF KNOWLEDGE next requires our
notice. The text shows that it strengthens, gives courage, energy,
vigor, resolution, daring, success. They who know their God are strong
and do exploits. The Romish church thinks a great deal of implicit
faith–of the faith which cannot apprehend what it believes. Now we
agree with Romanists in this–that we are to believe what we cannot
comprehend–but we do not agree with them in the other–that we are to
believe what we cannot apprehend. You remember the faith of the coal
miner? "What do you believe?" "I believe what the church believes."
"But what does the church believe?" "Oh, the church believes as I
believe." "Well, but what do you and the church believe?" "Why, we both
believe the same thing."
Now Romanists may set great store by that kind of faith and they go the
right way to induce it very often by denying the Bible to the common
people or by neglecting education so that the masses are unable to read
the Word when they can get it. If you say, "You believe as I believe
and I believe as you believe and we both believe the same thing," I
tell you that you are no credit to your teacher, and the sooner you
give up your faith the better! A man cannot believe what he does not
apprehend. He may say, "I am prepared to believe it when I do apprehend
it," but as to believing what he has never been told, it is quite
impossible.
If there are any dogmas of Mother Church which I have not heard of, I
do not believe them and if I stand up and say I do, I am talking
nonsense! If I say I am prepared to believe when I shall have been
told, that may be–but I cannot already believe them–for belief must
be parallel with apprehension! A man must apprehend a thing or he
cannot believe it. Knowledge strengthens the spiritual man because, in
the first place, it is that on which faith has to feed. Where there is
faith, knowledge is a great gain. This will be clear to all of you who
read attentively your Bible, because the words, "to know," and, "to
believe," are frequently used in Scripture almost synonymously.
If you turn to the tenth chapter of St. John's Gospel you will find at
the thirty-eighth verse that the Savior said, "But if I do, though you
do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe
that the Father is in Me and I in Him." And then in the first Epistle
of St. John, in the second chapter, at the third verse, we have an
expression which is tantamount to the one I have already referred to.
"And hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments."
We are sure of our faith and of our knowledge by walking in obedience
to Him.
The source from which Christian faith comes proves the importance of
knowledge. How does faith come to the Christian? By sitting still and
looking at fifty or a hundred wax candles? By admiringly gazing upon a
impassive Madonna at the corner of the street? By hearing language
which I cannot comprehend repeated by men in a peculiar dress? Never,
according to Scripture! How then? "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God." There is the whole history of faith–the Word of
God gives the teaching which blesses us with knowledge and then comes
faith. The sight of the eye, religious awe, impressions of dread,
emotions of wonder–these do not give faith–but hearing something
which I can apprehend is the means of my believing!
Believers are constantly spoken of in the Scriptures as being people
who are enlightened and taught of the Lord. They are said to "have an
unction from the Holy One," and it is the Spirit's peculiar office to
lead them into all Truths of God and all this for the increase and the
fostering of their faith. They are not kept in darkness that they may
believe, but put into the light that they may believe! Here is the
difference between the religion of Christ and the religion of
antichrist.
Moreover, there is provided in the Church of God an agency which proves
that knowledge is to be the food of faith. To what end is the ministry
ordained but this–"For the edification of the saints." Are we not
called teachers? That preacher who does nothing but excite the
people–who teaches nothing and declares no definite doctrine–had
better lay aside his office and take to some honest employment where he
may do no more mischief. Teaching is what we need–a true minister is a
teacher to his people, a steward of God bringing forth things, "both
new and old." You see, then, that if knowledge is under God the Holy
Spirit, truly the food of faith, then in order to be strong–since
faith is the very sinew of human strength–we must get much knowledge
of the things of God. The people who know their God shall be strong in
faith and shall do great exploits.
Think again, dear Friends, of the influence of faith upon all the other
Graces of God. Love is the sweetest of all– but how can I love till
knowledge gives me a view of Christ? Knowledge opens the door and then
through that door I see my Savior. Or I may use another
expression–knowledge takes the portrait of Christ and when I see that
portrait, then I love Him. I cannot love a Christ I do not know, at
least, in some degree! And if I know nothing about the excellencies of
Christ–what He has done for me and what He is doing now–I cannot love
Him! In Christ's case to know is to love and the more I know the more I
shall love.
Look at hope again. How can I hope for a thing if I do not know of its
existence? Hope may be the telescope, but then. till I get knowledge of
something in front of the glass, I can see nothing whatever. Knowledge
takes away the impediment, and then when I look through the optic glass
I can see the glory to be revealed. But I cannot hope for that of which
I know nothing whatever! I must know there is a Heaven, or I cannot
hope for it. Then, take patience. How shall I have patience unless I
have heard, as James says, of the patience of Job? Unless I know
something of the sympathy of Christ and understand the good which is to
come out of the correction which my heavenly Father gives me?
Knowledge gives me reasons for patience. I cannot stop on this point,
but there is no one single grace of the Christian which, under God,
will not be fostered and brought to perfection by holy knowledge.
Knowledge becomes, then, of the highest importance. Again, from the
connection of the text, it appears that many were led astray in the
days of Antio-chus. "Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he
corrupt by flatteries: but the people that know their God shall be
strong," and so on. It seems, then, that to know God is a means of
steadfastness.
Who are the people that are greatly troubled by new systems of
philosophy and infidelity which are constantly springing up? Why, the
people who do not know their God! Certain young folks say to me, "O
Sir, I have read a new book–there is a great discovery made about
development. Animals were not created separately, but grew out of one
another by degrees of gradual improvement." Go and ask your grandmother
about it! And what does she say as she takes off her spectacles? "Why,"
she says, "I was reading 'There shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts.' "
Say to her, "Do you not feel alarmed about your faith?" "No," she says,
"if they were to discover fifty thousand things, it would not trouble
me for, 'I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.' " You
think she is a simpleton, perhaps–she might far more properly think
you the same! Every now and then there comes up a heresy–some woman
turns "prophetess" and raves! Or some lunatic gets the idea that God
has inspired him and there are always fools ready to follow any
impostor. Who are those that go after them? Those who do not know God!
Those who do know Him, say–
"Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith with treacherous art, I'd call them vanity and lies,
And bind the Gospel to my heart."
Brethren, if a truly godly minister has for six or seven years been
teaching a people and he gives them the good, solid Truth of God and
they receive it and understand it, I should not like to see the wolf
come in! I do not believe he would do much mischief–for many strong
men will be found to slay the intruder! But if there is a ministry
which only consists of preaching up moral duties and creating the
titillation of excitement, then, if the wolf comes, he may just glut
himself with the blood of professors–for there is no strength in them
to resist him! We want sound doctrine to give us stability. May God
grant that we may be rooted and grounded in Christ, and that we may
know the things which are revealed to us of God!
Only once more and then we leave the second point. Knowledge will
clearly be seen by you to be a great means for enabling you to do great
exploits if you think of its bearing upon usefulness. A Christian
without knowledge, for instance, is an admirable man in the holiness of
his life. But to what other end, to what other purpose can you put him?
He must not enter the pulpit–if he is already there, he had better
retire. He must not be a Church officer. It would be foolish to choose
the feeblest among us to be our leaders! He is scarcely of any use in
the Sunday school class–he may manage to hear the children read and to
wile away the time–but if he were a true Christian instructor, he
would open up the Scriptures and explain them.
Do not, any of you, feel grieved at what I am saying? I am speaking to
those who have been lately converted! You are Believers–I am rejoicing
in it–rejoicing that you are converted, however little your knowledge.
But I want you to feel dissatisfied with your ignorance and to seek, in
order to your usefulness, to know the ground and the reason for the
things you believe and to understand, as far as you can, the deep
things of God. Do not be content to be always chil-dren–you will never
be men unless you are children first! Do not be content to be stunted
in your understanding, but ask to grow in Divine Grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for the sake of your own
usefulness.
III. We come, in the third place, TO NOTICE HOW THIS KNOWLEDGE MAY BE
OBTAINED. Time has fled and therefore we will not enlarge, but just
give the outline. Search the Scriptures! Do not merely read
them–search them! Look at the parallel passages–collate them–try to
get the meaning of the Spirit upon any one Truth by looking at all the
texts which refer to it. Read the Bible consecutively–do not merely
read a verse here and there–that is not fair. You would never know
anything about John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress if you opened it every
morning and read six lines in any part and then shut it up again–you
must read it all through if you want to know anything about it.
Get those books–say Mark or John. Read Mark right through from
beginning to end. Do not stop with two or three verses, or a
chapter–but try to know what Mark is aiming at. It is not fair to Paul
to take his Epistle to the Romans and read one chapter–we are obliged
to do it in public service–but if you want to get at Paul's meaning,
read the whole Epistle through as you would another letter. Read the
Bible in a common-sense way. Do not read it on your knees, as I have
known some people do–it is an awkward posture–get into an easy chair
and read it in comfort.
Pray after you have read it as much as you like but do not make a
penance of what ought to be a pleasure. And when you are reading it, if
you come to a knotty point, do not skip it. You all have some Christian
friend who knows more than you do–go to him and try to get the thing
explained. Above all, when you have read any passage and understand it,
act it out and ask the Spirit of God to burn the meaning into your
conscience till it is written on the fleshy tables of your heart.
Next, use good helps to your Bible. I do not know better helps for the
common mass of people than, "The Confession of Faith," or the little
Catechism. With the little Catechism and texts of Scripture, any
Believer, however ignorant, can, in a very short time, get a good view
of the things of God. I believe that the Westminster Assembly's Shorter
Catechism has more divinity in it than nine out of ten of the modern
printings. And if any person would know and understand that, he need
not be afraid but what he will be able to give a reason for the hope
that is in him, provided the hope is in him.
Next, be sure to attend a teaching ministry. Do not be always after
sweets. Do not be running after prophesying and novelties. Try to see
the whole range of Scripture. Believe in Calvinism–but if there is a
single Truth of God which only the Arminians hold, believe that, too.
Do not put your feet into Chinese shoes to be squeezed after the
current fashion into an orthodox shape! Be willing to have a broad
understanding–receive anything which God has revealed and be content
to take the whole of God's Truth, whether you can make it into a system
or not.
Then I should say, if you want to understand much, be much in prayer.
Prayer cuts many a Gordian knot. Be much in communion with God. You
cannot know God at a distance. Get close to Him–come to Him in the
name of Jesus Christ–come very close to Him. The other night, in
prayer, I remember, by mistake, quoting an old Scripture–that we might
weep, like the priests, "between the porch and the altar"–and I was
corrected by a Brother for it. He said, "We do not want to stand
between the porch and the altar, because, in prayer, the proper place
for a Christian is beyond the altar. The sacrifice is finished and we
are to go through the court of the priests and enter into the Most Holy
Place–into that which is within the veil, where our Forerunner entered
for us."
Endeavor, therefore, to get a good view of the types of Scripture. When
you have made a mistake about them, be willing to be corrected, but try
to understand the types by getting the substance in your own
experience–that is the best way of knowing them. And, remember, there
is one school to which you can all go–where you will all learn. Our
Savior says, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it is of God or not." Practical holiness is a grammar
school in which we may learn the Doctrines of Grace.
IV. And now I want to say ONE WORD BY WAY OF CAUTION and it shall be
scarcely more than a word. Remember that knowledge of itself–with all
its excellencies and virtues when God blesses it–has a danger in it to
you. "Knowledge," says the Apostle, "puffs up." So it does. You may get
proud of what you know and then God forgive you and deliver you from
it! And, moreover, you may get so positive about what you know that you
may have made up your mind never to know any more.
I know some of that kind–they know everything–every doctrine which is
brought forward that they have not received already must be rejected
because they have made up their minds that they have the whole of
revelation by heart. They have "meted out Heaven with the span and
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure," and think they know
wisdom to perfection. Do not get into that state. Your knowledge may
even make you haughty to the people of God. You may look down with
contempt on some who do not know so much as you and yet they may have
twice your holiness and be doing more service to God. Knowledge is,
after all, but a talent and Divine Grace is always better than gifts.
Try to get Divine Grace to make the gift right, and as you grow in
knowledge which may prove to be the sails, humility will prove an
admirable ballast. To this end I ask the help of the Holy Spirit, that
what you know may be rightly known, for then it will not exalt you, but
make you lie at the foot of the Cross. O that God might thus teach and
thus instruct us all!
V. And now to close–here is THE DUTY OF SPREADING THIS KNOWLEDGE WHEN
WE HAVE IT. "They that understand among the people shall instruct
many." It is a prophecy which is fulfilled, but it is also a suggestion
of a duty which we have to carry out. Are we instructing many, those of
us who know the Lord? "Well," says one, "I am. I am endeavoring to do
my best in the Sunday school, in the catechumen class and so on." God
speed you, dear Friend! God speed you in your good work! God speed you
a thousand-fold more than you have yet learned to ask or even think!
But there must be some here who are not teaching others.
Of course our business is to begin with teaching our own children. When
the services used to be in the morning and afternoon in the olden
times, the evening was generally spent with the children in teaching
and catechizing. I do not think we in London could go back to the old
plan. But I am not sure that the present one is an improvement, whether
the children might not learn much more if the parents did give the
Sunday evening constantly to their instruction. At any rate, no mother,
no father–especially no mother–should suffer a Sunday to pass over
her head, if she knows the things of God, without having her little
ones around her and teaching them what she herself knows.
The Sunday school teacher does well, but he cannot relieve parents from
the responsibility of teaching their own children. Others might take a
wider range. Might you not get up Bible-readings at your house? If God
has taught you a Truth which others do not know, could you not find
others in your neighborhood who might be willing to come to your house
and understand the things of God from you or someone else? If they will
not come, have you not the instinct to get at them some other way?
Cannot you so weave the common events of life into a means of Christian
instruction that you are truly "all things to all men"?
Put in words edgewise, so as to instruct casual visitors. We have not a
system of class meetings as among our Wesleyan friends. It would be a
great mercy if we had something like they had. And it would be a good
thing if the elders of this Church would constantly look after the
younger ones. Get seven, eight, or nine to meet you as a class. Get a
textbook and study it by the light of the Word of God. We have some
admirable teachers here, but I believe we have some who might teach a
great deal more, who are not doing it. Some of you are living at a
distance–your work cannot be very well carried on in connection with
this place. What does that matter?
I would as soon you taught elsewhere! So long as you are working for
God, it does not matter whether it is here or there. If you are
Christian people belonging to this Church, your first duty is here. But
if from any other circumstance you cannot throw in your strength with
us, why, do it elsewhere! If you want to go elsewhere, of course we are
sorry to lose you, but, we say, go, by all means, if you can serve God
better! If you feel you must attend our ministry because it suits your
mind, then come among us and aid our efforts to do good. Do, at any
rate, teach what God has told you!
If God has lit your candle, try to shine and let other candles be lit
by you. I have said much on this point and I close with this
remark–there are some here who cannot be exhorted to learn and know
much of God because they have not yet begun to know themselves. They do
not know this simple Truth of God–"That Christ came into the world to
save sinners." They know it from theory, but that is of very little
use. May they know it in their heart by saying, "Jesus, I am a sinner!
Since You came to save sinners, I give myself to You. O save me! I
trust You to save me."
God bring you to this state and when you have received Christ, then
endeavor, as much as lies in you–
"To teach to sinners round, What a dear Savior you have found." May the
Master bless these words, for Jesus' sake. Amen.