The Arrows Of The Lord'S Deliverance
DELIVERED ON TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1864, BY THE REV. C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE OPENING OF UPTON CHAPEL, LAMBETH.
"You should have struck five or six times. Then had you struck Syria
till you had consumed it: whereas now you shall strike Syria but
thrice.
2 Kings 13:19.
THAT deathbed scene speaks volumes for the power of holiness. Elisha
was the Prophet of God–a man of no honorable station except that he is
always honorable whom God calls to serve Him. Joash the king of
Israel–who has often rejected Elisha's admonitions and continued to
worship in the groves of Baal though Elisha had denounced them and had
proclaimed that Jehovah, alone, was their God. Now the Prophet is about
to die at the good old age of ninety and Joash comes to weep at his
bedside. It was something remarkable for the king to come there at all.
Kings do not often visit deathbed scenes, especially the deathbeds of
God's servants!
But it was something more remarkable for that king to stand and look
upon the decaying form of the aged Prophet and to weep over his face.
More notable still was the language in which the king expressed his
sense of the value of the Prophet to the State–"O my Father, my
Father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." He felt as if
now all his strength was cut off. The king had trusted in his cavalry,
though he had but a slender force, and he compares the Prophet to that
which he looked upon as being the strongest arm of his military
service. Or he looks upon the State now as being a chariot with wild
horses and no stately Prophet to stand erect and hold the reins. Now
have the reins dropped and where will the chariot go? It will soon be
overturned and the mad coursers will drag it here and there. So the
king, out of a sort of selfish respect for the Prophet–for it was
respect and yet it was selfishness–stands and weeps over Elisha's
dying bed.
Dear Friends, let us seek to live so that even ungodly men may miss us
when we are gone! It is possible for us in a quiet, unobtrusive manner
to so adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things that when we
die many shall say, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my
last end be like his." And men shall drop a tear and close the shutters
and be silent and solemn for an hour or two when they hear that the
servant of the Lord is dead. They laughed at him while he lived, but
they weep for him when he dies. They could despise him while he was
here, but now that he is gone they say, "We could have better missed a
less-known man, for he and such as he, are the pillars of the
commonweal. They bring down showers of blessing upon us all."
I would covet this earnestly as a gift, not for the honor and esteem of
men, but for the honor and glory of God, that even the despisers of
Christ may be compelled to see that there is a dignity, a respect about
the walk of an upright man. Yet the scene at the deathbed of Elisha,
fragrant as it is with the tribute of respect paid to the Prophet by an
ungodly and unprincipled monarch, is memorable for the lessons then and
there taught the king. And not less suggestive is it of profitable
instructions to us. I propose, therefore, first of all to consider the
significant sign. Then I want you to join with me in censuring the
slack-handed king. After which we shall have no difficulty, I think, in
unanimously justifying the righteous wrath of the Prophet.
I. VERY SIGNIFICANT WAS THE SIGN. Israel was at that time engaged in
warfare against Syria. As a sign that God intended to give victory to
His people, the king is bid to take the bow and arrows. Elisha, as
God's representative, puts his hand upon the king's hands. The window
is opened and the arrow is shot. As it flies through the air, the
Prophet says that that arrow is the arrow of the Lord's deliverance of
His people out of the hand of Syria. The interpretation of this
symbolic act is simple enough. God will save.
Deliverance is of the Lord but it must be accomplished by human
instrumentality. Joash must take the bow and arrows, but the hands of
Joash cannot make the arrow speed unless Elisha, the representative of
God, puts his hands there. So the man, Divinely strengthened by God,
shoots the arrow and the deliverance comes. Such, from the beginning of
time even until now, has been God's ordinary way of blessing His people
and of gathering in His chosen. He works. The instrumentality is
nothing without Him. He takes care to elect means which, from their
very feebleness, convince the most skeptical that the power cannot be
in the creature! While, at the same time He rarely effects any great
thing for His people apart from human agency.
God, who created all things, is the Agent. But He uses the creatures as
tools and weapons in the hand of the skillful and the mighty. He works
in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. It is His pleasure.
It is He who works in us. But then it is for us to will and to do,
because He works in us. Review the whole history of the Church as you
find it in Scripture and you will see that this has ever been the fact.
When God would save an elect company out of the mass of corruption
grown, at last, too fetid for even His patience to endure, He saves the
chosen eight–how? By a miracle?
Call it a miracle if you will, but it was mechanical enough when Noah
begun to lay timber upon timber, fastened them with nails and
constructed the ark. It was a simple act of faith and a very rational
act, too, to build a ship! Yet in that ship God's chosen eight were
preserved. You see the Grace of God and the obedience of Noah. You know
that the Almighty devised the ark and human hands fashioned it
according to the pattern He had given.
Go further on, to a yet more stupendous work of Divine power when God
brought up His people out of Egypt with a high hand and with an
outstretched arm. When He led them through the sea as through the
wilderness and made the depths stand upright as a heap as though they
were congealed in the heart of the sea. Here was God gloriously
manifested so that the whole song was unto Jehovah and to Jehovah
alone–"Sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse
and his rider has He thrown into the sea"!
Still, still, see you not that calm, meek man, rod outstretched, the
symbol of abiding human instrumentality in the midst of Jehovah's
wonders? God divides the sea, not Moses. But God divides not the sea
without Moses' rod. So, too, when the Rock gave water in the
wilderness, Moses' voice, and afterwards Moses' rod, must fetch the
water out of that Rock. And when Jordan was divided, the feet of the
priests went first down to the river's edge and then–"What ailed you,
O Jordan, that you were driven back?" Did the priests speak to it? Who
dreams of such a thing? And yet God did it not without the priests.
So was it with the capture of the various cities under Joshua. In that
first and memorable one, the taking of Jericho, they did but little
when the walls fell flat to the ground on the seventh day. But you will
remember that those walls did not fall until the people had compassed
the city the seven days! Nor did they fall without the sound of the
rams' horns and the shouts of the multitude. So again, turn to the time
of the Judges and how did God deliver His people then? Why, my Friends,
you find at one time it is the ox-goad of Shamgar, and at another time
it is the jawbone in the hand of Samson! Sometimes it is Gideon's lamp
and pitcher and then it is Jephthah's good and true sword.
Ever is it true that God has means, selecting for His purposes things
of earth to execute the fiats of Heaven. But I might, perhaps, weary
you with mentioning the history of the kings and running on through the
Prophets. Therefore let us come at once to Apostolic times. Old Rome
was to be subdued. The deep-seated idolatries of ages were to be rooted
up and the fabulous deities were to be shaken from their pedestals. The
Spirit of the Lord could do it in a moment–He might have convinced all
men of the folly of idolatry–silently breathing upon human minds they
might have been convicted of sin and turned to the great Father of
Spirits.
A Revelation of Christ might have been given to every man without a
single minister. But did He choose to do it? No, my Brethren, He did
not. The twelve fishermen must first proclaim the Word and afterwards
such men as Timothy and those who were the true "successors of the
Apostles," must in every region preach the Words of Truth. Or, point me
to a single period in the history of the Church where God has worked
without instrumentality and I will tell you that I suspect whether God
has worked at all if I do not see the instruments He has employed.
Take the Reformation. Can you think of it without thinking of God? At
the same time can you mention it without the names of Luther, and
Calvin, Zwingle and Melancthon? Then in the later Reformation in
England, when our slumbering Churches were suddenly started from their
sleep–who did it? The Holy Spirit Himself–but you cannot talk of the
revival without mentioning the names of Whitfield and Wesley–for God
worked by means then, and He works by means still.
I used to notice a remark which was made concerning the revival in the
north of Ireland, that there seemed to be no prominent instrumentality.
The moment I saw that, I mistrusted it. Had it been God's work more
fully developed through instrumentality, I believe it had not so
speedily come to a close. We grant you that God can work without means
and even when He uses means He still takes the Glory to Himself, for it
is all His own. Yet it has been the rule, and will be the rule till the
day of means shall come to an end, that just as God saved man by taking
upon Himself man's flesh, so everywhere in the world He calls men by
speaking to them through men of their own flesh and blood.
God Incarnates Himself–if I may use so strong an expression in a
restricted sense–in His Spirit Incarnates Himself in the chosen men,
especially in His Church, in which He dwells as in a temple. And then
through that Church He is pleased to bless the world. Now we must hold
this forever. We are not to let the arrows lie still and say, "God will
do His own work. Elisha will shoot the arrows." This is idleness. We
have had enough of this! Look at those Churches which say, "God will do
His own work." You will find that the more these people talk about
God's doing His own work, the more they sink into a fatal apathy.
No Sunday school. No care for the conversion of souls. Just bigotry,
bitterness of spirit, carping and backbiting against all those who are
willing to labor in the Master's vineyard. And when they have entangled
Brethren whose conversion was effected under other ministries than
their own, they talk as if they had been re-converted and did not know
the Truth of God till they heard the particular, excellent, superfine,
hot pressed Gospel which they deliver! There is all that sort of thing
among them. You see a spirit the reverse of amiable. A mind palpably
contrary to that which was in Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, it is an equally dangerous error to suppose that we
are to take the arrows and shoot without God. This is, in fact, the
more dangerous of the two. Although, if I have to compare two devils
together, I know not which is the worst of these evil spirits–the
spirit that idly says–"Leave it to God"–or the spirit which goes
about God's work without depending on Him. O Lord of Hosts, it is not
by might, nor by power, but by Your Spirit! Nevertheless the love of
Christ constrains us to spend and be spent in His cause.
II. And now, secondly, let us CENSURE THE SLACK-HANDED KING. The
Prophet gave him the bow and the arrows and bade him shoot down upon
the ground. It was left to him. God foreknew and had predestinated how
many victories he should win. But still, at the same time, it is
marvelous how our free actions tally exactly with God's predestination!
He is bid to shoot and he shoots once. He draws his bow and shoots
again. A third time he draws the bow and then throws it down slack upon
the ground.
The Prophet is angry with him for he will only have three victories. If
he had struck the ground six times he would have had six victories. But
inasmuch as he only shot the three times, he is only to have three
triumphs. The king is to be censured and censured severely. But as he
is dead and gone and our censure cannot much affect him, let us censure
those who now imitate him. And we think that we can find very many of
the same sort!
How many Believers have but little faith and seem quite content to have
but that little? They cannot grasp the promise of God and believingly
expect to have it fulfilled. They scarcely know their own interest in
Christ. They are safe enough, but they are generally wretched enough.
They cannot take God at His Word and therefore their temporal troubles
and their spiritual cares press very heavily upon them. Oh that they
had Grace to strike the ground six times! Oh that they knew how to cast
all their burdens on Him who cares for them! Oh that the Lord would
give them new faith so that they would trust Him implicitly and leave
their souls in the hands of Him who shed His heart's blood that He
might redeem them from wrath!
Why, I do not know, dear Friends, that there is any necessity for us to
be always doubting and fearing and trembling! Some think there is. But
this is because they have not a high idea of the standing of the child
of God and of the position which God would have him attain. They shoot
the three arrows and they say–"I am saved, that is enough. I shall get
to Heaven." Oh that they would go on shooting till they could get a
Heaven below, till they could begin by strong faith to–
"Read their title clear, To mansions in the sky," and rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory!
Then you see another class of people who are just the same as to their
knowledge. They do not understand the deep things of God. They are
content to know that which saves the soul from ruin and the remedy
which is provided in Christ, but they do not know, and perhaps do not
care to know, the doctrine of God's electing love. They never dive into
the doctrine of God's immutable faithfulness to His chosen people. They
let the deep things of God lie still for strong men, but they,
themselves, are content to be babes.
Oh, dear Friends, how much you miss who neglect to study God's Word.
And what blessings do you cast away from yourselves who are willing to
be ignorant of the most sublime Truths of Revelation! I would that
instead of shooting three times, you would have Grace to shoot more and
more and more till you comprehend with all saints what are the heights
and depths and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ which passes
knowledge. You will see, perhaps, these same people, or others like
them, who are very content about their daily walk and conversation.
They are not drunkards. They do not swear. They are scrupulously
truthful. They commit no breach of Sunday–but when you have said this,
you have said about as much as you can say of them.
Their religion seems to have made them moral, but it would be difficult
to perceive that it has made them holy. There is very little family
prayer–not much interest taken in the conversion of the children.
There is an angry temper, perhaps, which is somewhat curbed but still
the Brother thinks that it is impossible to curb it any more and so he
tolerates himself in the occasional indulgence of it. There is much
which is not inconsistent, perhaps, in the eye of the world, but which
is most certainly not consistent in the mind of the Spirit of God.
These Brethren have, in fact, shot three times and they have struck the
ground once or twice, but they have not made a clean sweep of their
besetting sins. They still tolerate some of them. They have not reached
to a high point of holiness.
Now I am as far as anybody from believing that a man ever will be
perfect in this life, but I will never be satisfied till I am! And if I
cannot be perfect, I will seek, by God's Grace, to get as near to it as
possible. And this should be the labor of every Christian. Not in order
to save himself, but because he is saved he should labor after the very
highest degrees of holiness and seek that God might shine through him
as through a lamp and that men may take knowledge of him that he has
been with Jesus and learned of Him. High faith, high knowledge, high
living–oh what blessed Christians should we have if these three went
together!
So, too, there are many Christians who do not shoot more than three
times, inasmuch as they are content with very low enjoyments. Oh the
many, the many professors who all their days are subject to bondage!
Now Christ came to deliver such from the fear of death. And yet though
Christ came to do it, it is not done in their case. They do not receive
the Spirit of Adoption, but they seem to have received the spirit of
bondage again to fear, and they think that this is the rule with God's
people. When they read of some saints who have climbed the mountains
and have had sweet fellowship with Christ, they say, "Ah, such men are
uncommon and such experiences are like angels' visits, few and far
between. We cannot get up to this."
I do believe, dear Friends, that this spirit creeps over us all. We
read the biography of such a man as Brainerd and we shut up the book
and sigh and say, "Oh I could never be so devoted as he was!" We have
turned over the life of Whitfield and when we have read it, we have
said, "Ah, a very extraordinary man–a very extraordinary man! It is
not likely that I shall ever get his zeal." And when we turn to the Old
Testament and read of Abraham, we say, "Yes, Abraham's faith was very
wonderful. But we do not look upon him as a pattern which we are to
imitate–we believe that his faith is something set up high in a
niche–to which we can never get."
My Brethren, this is all wrong! I believe that the Christian man ought
not to be content to be equal with Abraham, because Abraham lived in
the dark, before the Sun had risen. It was, at least, but twilight in
Abraham's day. And yet if he had so much faith when he could only see
through the dim smoke of sacrificial rams and bulls, how much more
faith and confidence in God ought you and I to have when we see Christ
Himself, and when God speaks to us through His Son? Shame on us that we
are content to be such dwarfs when we might grow into giants–that we
are here frittering away our time when we might immortalize ourselves
and glorify our Lord.
How is it that we are content to bring forth a lean ear, and then a
scanty ear, when there should be seven ears upon one stalk, like the
plenty of Egypt? How is it that we have here and there a cluster, when
instead, if we did but shoot more, if we had more faith and more
confidence in God, we might be like the grapes of Eshcol, whose
clusters were too heavy for one man to carry? Yes, I am afraid there is
in this Christian land very, very much of this stopping short of what
we might be. We do not press on and reach to that which is before, but
saying, "I am saved," we are content and sit down before we reach the
goal, or have apprehended that for which we were apprehended of Christ
Jesus.
Now I want your attention for just a moment while I try to show some of
the reasons why the king did not shoot more. I cannot tell certainly,
but I think some of the reasons which I am going to give you may be
correct. Perhaps he felt rather tender towards the Syrians. It is just
possible that he felt he did not want to hurt them too much. He would
be victorious–he would get his enemy under his feet. But if he did
more he would crush him outright and he hardly wanted to do that.
So I think that some professors do not want to be too hard with their
sins–they have a sort of hidden tenderness towards their own
corruptions. O, dear Friends, how very angry we get when somebody tells
us a little too plainly about our faults! And how angry we are with
anything which seeks to cut the throat of our favorite sin! Ah, we do
not know how tender we are to our sins, any of us, whereas the viper's
brood should be crushed in the nest! We are often saying as we wound
them, "Yes, keep them under. But no–I could not give them all up–I
could not–no, I must have just a little indulgence. There must be this
and that."
The laying of the axe to the root of the tree is not pleasant work. Lop
the big boughs off if you like, but laying the axe to the root–no, we
do not quite like that. There is in us, after all, through our natural
corruptions, a hankering attachment to our sins. The old man says,
"Spare them," and it needs much Grace and triumphant Grace, too, to
say, "No! Hew them to pieces before the Lord and let not even the best
of the sheep or of the cattle be spared." Tenderness to sin will always
check us in any great growth in Grace. We shall not use God's bow as
much as we should if we once begin to pamper self-indulgence, to
cultivate our own ease and make provision for the flesh.
Again, perhaps the king did not go on to shoot because he thought it
was hardly his business to be employed as a bowman. "Why should I stay
here forever," says he, "shooting arrows? I did not object when the
Prophet's hand was upon me, to shoot. But to stand here and keep
striking the ground is hardly the occupation for a king!" And then the
thought, perhaps, that he should have three victories and that would be
enough. "Why, it will be something wonderful! Three victories, one
after another, will be quite enough to crown me with everlasting renown
and I do not want more than that." And so he did shoot but three times.
And how many a Believer seems to say, "Can I always be keeping watch
over my corruptions? Am I to be so precise and to live so near to God?
What? Am I to be so much in prayer? Am I to be such a Bible student,
and to be so much occupied? No, if I can overcome some of my sins and
be a respectable Church member and do a little in the Sunday school,
and get to Heaven–that is enough." You do not want, you see, to be
made good. You do not want to be made Christlike. You do not want to be
able to triumph over your sins. You mistake your high calling–you
think you are called to be a slave, when you are called to reign! You
fancy that you are called to wear sackcloth, when you are bid to put on
scarlet and fine linen! You think that God has called you to a
dunghill, whereas He has called you to a throne! You imagine that you
are to be but here and there–the skirmishers in the battle–when He
has called you to stand in the front rank and to fight constantly for
His cause.
I think, also, that the king may have begun to doubt whether the
victories would really come. He knew very well that he had not many
soldiers and that Syria was very strong, so he thought, "Well, it takes
some faith to think that I shall beat them three times, but it is not
likely I shall do it the fourth." He doubted the Divine power and the
Divine promise because of his own weakness. And many a Christian does
that. I think, Brethren, that we who are in the ministry might do
vastly more for God than we do, if, remembering our own weakness, we
did not let that overshadow God's strength.
Why, what cannot a man do when he has faith in God? Without Christ we
can do nothing. But remember the converse of that proposition–that
with Him we can do all things. If He will be with me I can do all
things, or can bear all sufferings. Let us not forget this. And never
let a sense of human weakness mar our clear perception of the might and
majesty of God. Let us shoot often, for as often as we shoot, God will
answer our faith.
And do you not think, too, that it is very likely that the king
despised the Prophet's plans? Why, he seemed to say, this was absurd,
striking the ground in this way! If there were any men to be shot at,
he would not spare the arrows. But to strike the ground in this
way–absurd! Ridiculous! So, too often, we miss a blessing because we
do not like God's plans. We have got some new scheme of our own. It is
not preaching the Gospel–that is old-fashioned. We will try something
else. It is better than going out into the highways and hedges and
compelling them to come in. No, we want a shorter cut than that! We
keep fancying that if we were to give up some ordinance–perhaps if we
held our tongues about Baptism–or if we were to cut about this
doctrine and that, we should get on better.
Ah, this is all wrong, dear Friends. Carnal policy may take its place
in the cabinet and in the government of the land, but never in the
House of God! If right is right, pursue it. If God commands it, do it
and leave the consequences to Him! If He bids you shoot on the ground,
you shoot on the ground. You may see no Assyrian there. But every time
you shoot, that arrow finds the heart of your enemy and shall lay him
low.
I would, dear Friends, that I could so speak tonight as to give the
members of this Church a very high and noble ambition to do much and to
get much for God–to get much Grace–to have much holiness–to do much
work. In fact, I wish I could bring you into such a state of heart as
the Prophet wished to see in Joash–that you would take the arrows and
shoot them off.
III. THE RIGHTEOUS WRATH OF THE PROPHET is our third point. And we
think WE CAN WELL JUSTIFY HIS ANGER. We do not like to see either an
old man, or a dying man angry. But I think the Prophet here did well to
be angry, even though at the hour of his death. Oh how he loved the
people and how he wept to think that their king was standing in their
light and was robbing them of precious privileges!
Now when I look, dear Friends, upon many Church members and see how
utterly idle and careless they are about Christ's cause and how many
professors seem to be as dead as the seats they sit upon and to have no
more Grace than worldlings, I think if my soul were warmed with
something like a holy passion against them, I might say, with more
truth than Jonah, "I do well to be angry." How much Israel suffers from
the slack-handedness of the king! Oh, Christians, you suffer
yourselves! You miss a thousand comforts! What you might do for God you
are unable to do! What you might sit down and feed upon yourselves you
utterly miss because you will not go on farther and seek higher
attainments!
And all your Brethren suffer, too. Your prayers at the Prayer Meeting
have not that fervor and unction which they would have if you lived
nearer to God. Your experience is not so profitable to them as it would
be if you walked nearer to Christ. The whole Church treasury is robbed
by you. Church membership is a sort of joint-stock company. We, each
one of us, take out of that stock and put into it. There is a prayer
treasury–we all want to be prayed for. There is taking out of it. We
must all put prayers into the treasury and those members who do not
pray–and are there such? And those members who do not yearn over
souls–and are there not such? Those members who have no zeal for
God–and are there such?–rob the treasury of God! And I know not why I
might not compare them to Ananias and Sapphira, for they keep back a
part of the price. God have mercy upon them for this!
The Church has greatly suffered on this account. Why, if this king had
shot more arrows, Syria would have been quite overcome and cut in
pieces. But because he was slack in this, Syria waves her proud banner
over captive maids and sorrowing widows whose husbands have been slain
in battle and weep in the streets of Samaria. The devil rejoices when
he sees slumbering Christians! The world laughs in its sleeve at
professors nowadays because it says, "In the old Puritan times, when we
saw a Christian we were afraid of him. Ah, when a man joined the Church
in those days, he was a man who meant what he said. But ah, there are
so many of them now who only join the Church to be respectable. And
they only go to a place of worship because of custom that the people
may trade with them and be cheated–that they may talk with them and
hear such idle talk as they would not hear from men in the streets, who
never profess anything! Ah, we have almost overcome and destroyed the
Church when we see her members behaving so."
It is these people, who may be Christians, but who are only half
Christians. These people who are not altogether cold, but who still are
not hot. These people whom I would not shovel away with the dross, but
who nevertheless are so adulterated with base metal that you can
scarcely call them pure gold. It is these people who make the daughter
of Philis-tia to rejoice and the sons of the adversary to triumph. How
Jehovah's name was dishonored! In Assyria's streets they laughed at
Jehovah. They said that their gods were greater than He. Oh what a
shame it is that you and I should ever put Christ to more shame than He
endured for our sakes!
My Brothers and Sisters, what do we think of ourselves if we have ever
in any measure crucified the Lord afresh and put Him to open shame? It
is not only inconsistent Christians who do this but those Christians
who do not seek to come up to the standard–who are contented to be
poor in Grace when they might be rich. I believe that such persons
bring much dishonor to Christ by their doubting, by their hard thoughts
of Christ, by their miserable countenances and often, too, by their
want of zeal, their want of prayer and their shallowness in the ways of
God.
Look abroad and see how busy men are in the world! When a man wants to
make money, see how he rises early and sits up late and eats the bread
of carefulness! It is wonderful what ingenuity men put forth to get a
fortune, what desper- ate attempts they make! How they will go to India
and sweat under the burning sky and brave the fever there. Why, there
are thousands of England's sons who do this year by year. See how at
the North Pole bold and brave men have sacrificed their lives to force
a passage. Men have been willing, in scientific experiments, to
sacrifice social comforts, risk their health and forfeit their lives!
It seems to me that everybody is enthusiastic except Christians, and
that men can get their blood hot on any subject except religion! In
these days the ice has been given to the Church of God and the fire has
been cast upon the world. Look at the devil's advocates, how they
compass sea and land to make one proselyte. If you are dead and dull,
they will not be so here at your next-door neighbors–St. George's
Cathedral! You may be careless about the poor, but they will not be!
You may, perhaps, cease to be much in prayer and much in action, but
you will find that they will not cease their incantations!
Why, when the devil comes to a man he will say to him, "Come with me! I
want you to leave your wife and children tonight! Come with me," and
away the man goes to some low pot-house. "I want you to go in here,"
says the devil, and the man goes in–perhaps a respectable man, as the
world has it. "Now," says the devil, "I want you to drink ale and
stout. It will make your brain reel. It will make your eyes red
tomorrow morning and perhaps send you into delirium tremors." "I will
do it," says the man and he drinks it pleasantly and sweetly as though
he were drinking draughts of Heaven's own nectar.
It may be that he goes reeling home, or has to be carried there, but he
is quite ready to go again and again, though he may beggar his children
and see his weeping wife and his starving family. He does it all so
cheerfully and thinks, in fact, that he is a very fine fellow and is
only enjoying himself, though he brings untold miseries unto his
family. You will sometimes see a man go into vice and bring his own
body to the verge of the grave and make himself a mass of rottenness at
the command of the devil and yet he never grumbles at his master, never
thinks of running away from him!
And here is my Lord, whose service is perfect freedom, who gives us to
eat and to drink of better food than angels ever tasted! Who the more
we do for Him the more He rewards us and the more strength He gives us
to work with. And yet we are cold and dull and dead! And if we are
asked to do something, we say we have so many calls. Or if we are asked
to go upon some enterprise which has a little dishonor or discomfort
connected with it, we go back–would lie in bed and take our ease! Oh
what a shame, what a shame this is!
Prophet, you did well to be angry! I would that some burning spirits
would come among us and speak even bitterly to us, if they could but
make us feel that–
"Life is real, life is earnest," and that the cause of Christ demands
that spirit, soul and body should be at the highest tension, at the
very sternest stretch, spending and being spent, even unto
blood–resisting sin and contending for the mastery of Christ!
Well now, I took this text because it seemed to me–I do not know how
it seems to you–as if it were a lesson to your minister and to you
tonight. Here you are, come into this new Chapel and into a
neighborhood new to you. We who are come here from other Churches, as
the old Prayer Book version puts it, "Wish you good luck in the name of
the Lord." We wish for you the highest and the best prosperity that we
desire for ourselves. But we do want to impress upon you that while God
will help you and stand by you, always remember that the Church must be
active.
Every single individual must take his portion in this sacred fight, in
this grand crusade against sin. I pray Brother Evans never to stay his
hand from the shooting of the arrows. If God shall bless him in one
effort, let him go on to another. If he sees seven souls converted, let
him mourn that it is not eight. If he sees the place filled, let him,
even then, not rest satisfied but let his cry still be for something
beyond. And, as the eagle rests not, but flies upward, ever facing the
sun, such may his course be–onward and upward and true to the
line–until the Master shall take him into His Glory in the rest which
remains for the people of God.
And you who are here, do you sit still? Do not say, "Well, if we get
these seats comfortably filled we shall be content." I hope you may
have them filled, but I hope you will not, then be content! No, let it
be your aim, then, to pray that God will convert the seat-holders, that
the congregation shall become the Church. And do not be content, then!
Ask that the aisles may be filled, that God will convert the standers
and that your Church may burst the walls of the house in which you
meet. Do not think that your standard of a Prayer Meeting is to be a
low one. Do not begin to say, "If we have twenty or thirty at a Prayer
Meeting that will do."
Why, many of our Churches are below even that standard! Do not be
content even with fifty, but go on shooting. Yes, Brother Evans, go on.
And you members of this Church–go on shooting your arrows! Do not ask
God for a little, but open your mouth wide and God will fill it! Take
care that you open it as wide as ever you can. Ask Him for great things
and when you ask do not ask as though you thought you were very
venturesome. No, but ask because He is sure to give! Believe that God
can and will give you a gracious justification for believing in Him.
Ask, too, because He knows what your hearts cannot even conceive of,
for He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond what you can ask!
Do not be content, I pray you, at Upton Chapel, with being a nice,
respectable, strong Church in the denomination! Do not be content with
that! I say it very sorrowfully, but we have known some Churches which
did run well. They have got a good place of worship, a very handsome
building with little bits of colored glass and the people's faces on
Sundays are all sorts of colors. And when they have got to this pitch
they have said, "Well, we are very respectable people. We do not want
the poor people. We do not want to go into the lanes and highways and
hedges and fetch them in." In fact, they get sometimes to be like some
of your old servants–you hardly know which is master and which is
servant. And so the Lord may hardly know which is master in the
Church–these people, or Himself–for they will not do what He tells
them. They have got too big for that. They could do it once, but they
cannot do it now.
Now that will not be the case here for years to come. I hope it may
never be the case here. But may you ever be a faithful Church! May you
ever be a working Church till the Lord Himself shall come. May God
grant that you may keep on shooting your arrows, that you may expect
great things and do great things. And now, you members of the Church
and all of us who are here present, let us consecrate ourselves anew
unto God. Let us ask ourselves tonight whether we have not been
shooting too few arrows. Whether we have not thought too much of the
little we have been doing. Whether we might not have done more. Whether
we must not do more. Whether now, for the future, we will not believe
God's promises more firmly. Preach His Word more boldly. Tell it to
others more frequently. Give to God more liberally. Pray to God more
earnestly, consecrate and devote ourselves to the Lord more perfectly.
I am sure there is room for great improvement in the best of us. O
Lord, what a spark is my love to You! Oh that You would blow it into a
flame, till it were as coals ofjuniper! To use the words of an old
minister–"David said, 'The zeal of Your house has eaten me up,' but it
will be a long time before some people are eaten up. It has not begun
to nibble at them yet and there is no fear of their being eaten up."
Now I would like to see a man "eaten up" with his religion! I would
that the Christian would give himself up so completely to the mighty
whirlwind of Divine Grace that it might carry him away and make him but
as a particle of straw in its tremendous course! The Lord grant you
power and Grace thus to be given up to Him and thus to serve Him! May
God now add His own blessing, for Christ Jesus' sake. Amen.