The Great Itinerant
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 22, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Who went about doing good." Acts 10:38.
You will observe, if you read the chapter before us, that Peter's
sermon was short and much to the point. He preached Jesus Christ to
Cornelius immediately and unmistakably. He gave a very admirable sketch
of the life of Jesus of which he affirmed himself to have been an
eyewitness and he brought forward, in his closing sentence, just that
simple Gospel which it is our joy to preach. "To Him all the Prophets
witness, that through His name whoever believes in Him shall receive
remission of sins."
This should be an instructive example to all professed ministers of the
Gospel. We might say less about other matters without loss if we would
say more about the Lord Jesus. If we should omit some other teaching,
if there were more of a savor of the name and of the Person of Jesus
Christ in our ministry, the omissions might be tolerated. It is a
strange thing that men should profess to be sent of God and yet talk
about everything except the great message which they are sent to
deliver!
My errand as a minister is to preach Christ and it will avail me little
to have been clear and earnest upon other points if I have neglected to
set forth Christ Crucified. To put my own views of doctrine or moral
practice in the place of Jesus is to put out the sun and supply its
place with a farthing rush light–to take away the children's bread and
offer them a stone. We commend Peter as an example to all who preach or
teach, either in the street, the sick chamber, or the House of
Prayer–do as Peter did–come at once to the soul of your ministry, and
set forth Christ Crucified in plain and simple language.
If any should plead that the subject should be adapted to the audience,
we see from the narrative that there is sure to be something in the
history of Christ applicable to the case before us. Peter purposely
gave prominence to certain points in the history of the Master which
would be most likely to enlist the sympathy of Cornelius. He says of
Him, "He is Lord of all," as much as to say, "He is not Lord of the
Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, and therefore, O Cornelius, His
dominion reaches to you. He is to be worshipped and adored and He is to
become a blessing and a propitiatory sacrifice, not only to Israel's
hosts, but even to Italians. And therefore you, O Centurion, may take
heart."
Perhaps the words of our text were uttered by Peter concerning Christ
because they also would be sure to attract the notice of a man who was
"A devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave
much alms to the people and prayed to God always." He did as much as
say, "You go about doing good, Cornelius. It is the very soul of your
life to help the needy, to feed the hungry and to clothe the
naked–Jesus also went about doing good in a higher sense and I hold
Him up to you as one to be beloved by every devout and generous heart."
Other points are to be noticed in Peter's address which were evidently
adapted to the case before him, but we have said enough to prove that
there is something in the story of Jesus suitable to win the attention
and to gain the heart of any congregation, large or small. Only let the
Holy Spirit help us to dilate upon the Gospel of the Lord Jesus and we
have no need to wander abroad for foreign themes. We can sit at the
foot of the Cross and find a perpetually profitable subject there. No
need to gather the sheaves of science, or the sweet flowers of
prose–Christ Jesus is both our science and our poetry and as ministers
we are complete in Him!
When we come forth to preach Him and to lift Him up, we are armed from
head to foot and rich with weapons for our spiritual warfare. Though
learning and art have had no hand in fashioning our panoply, we need
not fear that we shall meet a single foe who can withstand the terror
of those celestial arms. God grant us Grace in all our teachings to
keep close to Jesus Christ–for His love is a theme most fit for all
cases and most sweet at all times.
The few words which we have taken for our text are an exquisite
miniature of the Lord Jesus Christ. "He went about doing good." There
are not many touches, but they are the strokes of a master's pencil.
The portrait cannot be mistaken for anyone else. The mightiest
conquerors may gaze upon its beauties but they cannot claim that it is
intended to portray their lives. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon–these
went about conquering, burning, destroying, murdering. They went about
not doing good. Prophets too, who professed to have been sent of God,
have compassed sea and land to make proselytes, but the good which they
accomplished none could see.
Mahomet's career was fraught with incalculable evil. The few good men
and true, who, like Howard, have perambulated the world seeking to
minister to the necessities of mankind, have wept over the heavenly
portrait and sighed that they are not more like it. This is what they
sought to be and so far as they copied this portrait, this is what they
were. But they fall short of the original and are not slow to confess
their shortcomings. What Peter here draws in words, God's Divine Grace
drew, in some measure, in lines of real life in the case of Howard and
some other followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Still, in the highest and fullest sense, these words are applicable to
none but the Master, for His followers could not do such good as He
achieved. His is the model and theirs the humble copy. His the classic
type and theirs the modest imitation. He did good and good only–but
the best of men, being men at the best–sow mingled seed. And if they
scatter handfuls of wheat, there is here and there a grain of rye.
However carefully they may select the grains, yet the cockle and the
hemlock will fall from their hands as well as the good seed of the
kingdom. Of the Master and only of the Master is it true in the fullest
and the broadest and most unguarded sense, "He went about doing good."
Two things this morning–first I shall want you, dear Brethren, to
consider Him. And then, in the second place, to consider yourselves.
I. The first occupation will be pleasing, as well as profitable. Let us
CONSIDER HIM.
1. Consider first, His object. He went about, but His travel was no
listless motion, no purposeless wandering here and there–"He went
about doing good." O Man of God, have a purpose and devote your whole
life to it! Be not an arrow shot at random, as in child's play! Choose
your target, and swift as the bullet whizzes to the mark, so fly
onwards towards the great aim and object of your life. Christ's object
is described in these words, "doing good." Of this we may say that this
was His only purpose.
Long before He took upon Himself the nature of man, or even before man
was formed of the dust of the earth, the heart of Jesus Christ was set
upon doing good. In the Eternal Council in which the sacred Three
entered into stipulations of the Everlasting Covenant, Christ Jesus
became the Surety of that Covenant in order that He might do good–good
in the highest sense–good in snatching His people from the misery
which sin would bring upon them and good in manifesting the glorious
attributes of God in a splendor which could not otherwise have
surrounded them.
His delights of old were with the sons of men, because they afforded
Him an opportunity, such as He could find nowhere else, of doing good.
He did good, it is true, among the angels, for the heavenly harps owe
all their music to His Presence. Among the devils there was no room for
positive good. They were given over to evil–but even there restraining
goodness found work for itself in binding them down in iron bands lest
their mischief should grow too rampant. On earth, however, was the
widest scope and amplest room for goodness in its largest sense–not
merely the goodness which restrains evil and the goodness which rewards
virtue–but that greater goodness which descends to sin-stricken
mortals and lifts them up from the dunghill of their miserable
degradation to set them upon the Throne of Glory.
It was the eternal purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ, before the lamps
of Heaven were kindled or stars began to glitter in the vault of night,
that He would do good. This was His practical object, when He made His
ever-memorable descent from the Throne of His splendor to the manger of
His poverty. Angels might well sing at Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the
highest and on earth peace, good will toward men," for Jesus Christ
came not condemning the world, but doing good.
His Presence in the manger did good. As it cheered both rich magi and
poor shepherd, both learned and illiterate, both Simeon and Anna, with
the knowledge that God had come down to men. His childhood afterwards
did good, for though it was so unobtrusive and obscure that a few words
suffice to set it forth, yet He has become the very mirror of
childhood's dutiful obedience to this day. His adult life was one
practical carrying-out of the solitary object which brought Him from
the Throne of Glory to the abodes of sinful men. He "went about doing
good."
Nor was this His purpose merely and the object of His errand, but His
official prerogative. He received the name of
Jesus at His birth, "For He shall save His people from their sins." He
was named "Christ," because the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and He
was anointed to preach good tidings to the meek and to open the prisons
to them that were bound. Jesus Christ is the title which bespeaks One
whose office it is to do good. Mention any name you please which
belongs to the Savior and you will see that it is incumbent upon Him,
ex officio, to go about doing good.
Is He a Shepherd? He must do good to His sheep. Is He a Husband? He
must love His Church and give Himself for her, that He may cleanse and
perfect her. Is He a Friend? He "sticks closer than a brother" and does
good. Is He "the Lion of the tribe of Judah?" It is not to do damage or
mischief to innocence and weakness, but that, strong as a lion when he
tears his prey, He may rend in pieces the foe of truth and goodness. Is
he a Lamb? Here His goodness shows itself most completely, for He lays
down His life that His Israel may go free when the destroying angel
smites Egypt. Everywhere it was His peculiar prerogative and His
special business to go about doing good.
But more, it was not only His intention and the object of His errand
and His prerogative, but His actual performance. He did good in all
senses. Jesus Christ worked physical benefit among the sons of men. How
many blind eyes first saw the light through the touch of His fingers!
How many silent ears heard the charming voice of affection after He had
said, "Be open"! Even the gates of death were no barrier to the errands
of His goodness. The widow at the gate of Nain felt her heart leap
within her for joy when her son was restored. And Mary and Martha were
glad when Lazarus came forth from his grave. Jesus Christ did good
physically.
We have thought that our Lord did this not merely to show His power and
universality of His benevolence and to teach spiritual Truth by acted
parables, but also to say to us in these days, "Followers of Jesus, do
good in all sorts of ways. You may think it is your special calling to
feed souls, but remember that your Master broke loaves and fishes to
hungry bodies. You may deem it your chief object to instruct the
ignorant, but remember that He healed the sick. You may make it your
chiefjoy to pray for the healing of sick spirits, but remember that He
rescued many bodies from incurable disease."
As much as lies in us, let us do good unto all men, and good of all
kinds, too, though it is specially to the household of faith, and
specially in a spiritual sense. Let no act of mercy seem beneath him
who is a follower of the Man that went about doing good. There is a
spirit springing up among us which is very dangerous though it wears
the garb of excessive spirituality. It is impractical and
unchristlike–a spirit which talks in this fashion–"The sons of men
tried to improve the world and make it better, but as for Enoch, the
man of God, he knew that the world was so bad that it was of no avail
to attempt to better it and therefore he left it alone and walked with
God."
It may be well, they say, for such carnal-minded Christians as some of
us to try and improve society and to give a better tone to morals, but
these dear spiritual Brethren are so taken up with Divine things and so
assured that the mission is of a supercelestial character that they
will have nothing to do with blessing mankind, being quite sufficiently
occupied with blessing themselves and one another. I pray God that we
may never fall into the impractical speculations and separations of
certain Brethren whose superior sanctity they must allow us to suspect.
The large-heartedness of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most
glorious traits in His Character. He scattered good of all sorts on all
sides. Let us, if we profess to be His followers, never be straitened
even by pretended spirituality. Do good "as much as lies in you," to
the utmost extent of your power and let that be of every sort.
It strikes me that the Lord Jesus also did much moral good. Where He
did not save spiritually, yet He elevated. I am not sure that that poor
adulteress was ever truly converted and yet I know that He said,
"Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more." And I can well believe
that in this respect, at least, she would sin no more. I do not know
that the Pharisees ever became followers of the Man of Nazareth, and
yet I cannot conceive that they could have listened to His stern
rebukes against their hypocrisy without being in some measure humbled,
if not enlightened. Or if they were not better, at any rate, their
professions would not be so readily allowed.
Society would receive, as it were, a tonic from those sharp and bitter
words of the Master and become too strong and masculine to receive any
longer the lofty boastings of those mere pretenders. Jesus Christ, when
He sat down on the mount, did not deliver a spiritual sermon of the
style commonly classed under that head. That sermon on the mount is,
for the most part, morality–good high, heavenly morality–higher than
any teacher ever reached before. But there is very little in it about
justification by faith or concerning Atonement! Very little about the
doctrine of election, the work of the Holy Spirit, or final
perseverance.
The fact is the Master was doing moral as well as spiritual good. And
coming among a degraded people who had set darkness for light and light
for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, He thought it a
part of His vocation to preach to them truth on that subject as well as
upon the higher themes concerning His advent and His salvation. Dear
Friends, this admonishes us to seek the moral good of the people among
whom we dwell! The Christian minister must not lay aside his ministry
to become the mere moralist lecturer, but he may and should lecture
upon morals–and he can say some things in lectures which he could not
say in sermons. Let him, by all means, occasionally leave the pulpit
for the platform if he can do service to society!
Let him do good in every possible shape and way. I think that it is the
Christian minister's place not simply to preach the high and glorious
doctrine of the Cross, but also to deal with the current sins of
mankind as did the Prophets of old–and to inculcate those virtues most
needed in the State–as did men God sent in the ages which are past.
Jesus Christ went about doing good, we say, of a moral kind as well as
of a spiritual order, but still the Savior's great good was spiritual.
This was the great end that He was driving at–the bringing out of a
people prepared to receive Himself and His salvation–He came preaching
Divine Grace and peace.
His great object was the spiritual emancipation of the bondaged souls
of men. Beloved, how He sought after this! What tears and cries went up
to God from the mountain's bleak summit! With what earnest intercession
did He plead with men when He addressed them concerning repentance and
faith! "Woe unto you, Bethsaida! Woe unto you, Chorazin!" were not
words spoken by One who had a tearless eye. "Woe unto you, Capernaum!"
was not the desolating curse of One who had a hard, unsympathetic
heart.
The Savior, when He wept over Jerusalem, was only doing once before men
what He did all His life before God. He wept over sinners! He longed
for their salvation! "Never man spoke like that Man." Having the
highest Truth, He spoke it after the highest fashion. Never the
ostentation of eloquence, never the affectation of oratory–but ever
the earnest, still, small pleading voice which "does not break the
bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." He went about in His daily
preaching instructing the people because He found them as sheep without
a shepherd, and therefore "He taught them many things."
Physical, moral, spiritual good, good of all sorts the Savior did–and
while I close this point as to His object of life, let me say that He
did something more than all this–He worked enduring good which abides
with us now. The good that holy men do is imperishable. The Scripture
says, "Their works do follow them," but not to the grave–their works
ascend upward. If our works followed our bodies, they would rot in the
tomb. But they follow our souls and therefore mount up to immortality.
Look upon the world and see whether Jesus Christ is not still in Spirit
going about doing good! He has gone up to Glory, but the Spirit of His
life and of His teaching is still among us.
And what is His religion doing? Ask of our sires and they will tell you
how this land was translated from a region of savages into the abode of
peace and joy! Look yourselves, in your own day, to the far off islands
of the south and see how they have been transformed from dens of the
wild blood-loving cannibals into abodes of civilized men! Jesus
Christ's Gospel flies like an angel through the midst of Heaven
proclaiming good news to men! And wherever its foot rests but for an
hour, it transforms the desert into an Eden and makes the wilderness
blossom as the rose! May the Savior help us so to live that when we die
we may have sown some seeds which shall blossom over our tomb.
Thus we have given an outline of the Savior's doing good. May we add
this sentence as a comfort to any here who are seeking Jesus. If it
were His eternal purpose and His life's mission to do good, and He went
about to find out the objects of it, why should He not do good to you?
If He healed the blind. If He gave spiritual sight, why should He not
give it to you? O may the desire be breathed by you, poor seeking Soul,
breathed solemnly but hopefully to Him–"O You who in the days of Your
flesh did take pity upon misery and wretchedness in every shape, take
pity upon me! Save me with Your great salvation!"
Rest assured, beloved Hearer, that prayer will not go up to Heaven in
vain! His ears are still open to hear the cry of woe and His hands are
still ready to giving the healing touch and the voice to say, "I will,
be you clean." May He do good in you this morning!
2. A short time may be profitably spent in considering the mode in
which this object was accomplished. We are told that He "went about
doing good," which seems to suggest several points. First of all He did
the good Personally. He "went about doing good." He might, if He had
chosen, have selected His place and having seated Himself, He might
have sent out His Apostles as ambassadors to do good in His place. But
you will recollect that when He sent them out, it was not that they
might be proxies, but that they might be heralds. He sent them two and
two unto every place where He Himself would go.
They were to be to Him what John the Baptist had been at His first
coming. Jesus Christ entered the field of labor in Person. It is
remarkable how the evangelists constantly tell us that He touched the
leper with His own finger. That He visited the bedside of those sick
with fever and in cases where He was asked to speak the word only at a
distance, He did not usually comply with such a request, but went
Himself to the sick bed and there Personally worked the cure. A lesson
to us if we would do good well–do it ourselves.
There are some things which we cannot do ourselves. We cannot remain
among our families in England, for instance, and preach the Gospel in
Hindustan. We cannot be engaged this morning in listening to the Word
and at the same time visiting the lodging house or den of iniquity in
some back street. There are some works of mercy which are best
performed by others–but we can make these more personal by looking
after the worker and taking a deeper interest in him–and by attending
him with our prayers. I wish that much more benevolence were performed
by men themselves.
I do not care to speak against Societies! But it is such an odd thing
that if I have twenty-one shillings to give away, I cannot give them to
a deserving family myself. I must make it into about fifteen shillings
before it goes at all by paying it into a royal something or other
Society! And then it proceeds by a roundabout method and at last is
delivered to the poor by a mere hand without a soul. And it is received
by the poor, not as a gift of charity, but rather as a contribution
from an unknown something with a secretary which needs a place in which
to drop its funds.
Why should you not go and give away the twenty-one shillings yourself,
lovingly and tenderly? It will be better than letting somebody else
pare it down to fifteen and give it away coldly and officially. So much
depends upon the way of doing good. The look, the word, the prayer, the
tear will often be more valuable to the widow than that half-crown
which you have given her. I heard a poor person once say, "Sir, I went
to So-and-So for help and he refused me. But I would sooner be refused
by him than I would have money given to me by So-and-So," mentioning
another who gave it with a sort of, "Well, you know I do not approve of
giving anything to such as you are, but here it is–you must have it I
suppose, so be off with you."
Give your alms away yourselves and you will learn, by so doing, it will
enable you to exercise Christian virtues. You will win a joy which it
were not worthwhile to lose, and you will confer, in addition to the
benevolence that you bestow, a blessing which cannot be conferred by
the person who is your substitute. He went about doing good. He did it
Himself. Oh, some of you–preach yourselves, I pray you! Talk to the
Sunday school children yourselves! Give away tracts–that is well
enough if you cannot speak–but do try and talk yourselves. The
influence of that hand laid upon your friend's shoulder, those eyes of
yours looking into his eyes as you say, "Friend, I wish you were
converted, my soul longs for your salvation"–there is more in that
influence than in a whole library of tracts!
Seek souls yourselves! Fish with your own hooks. You cannot help being
successful if you imitate your Master and do good yourselves in the
power of the Holy Spirit. The Savior not only "went about doing good"
Personally, but His very Presence did good. The Presence of the Savior
is, in itself, a good, apart from the blessings which He bestowed. At
the sight of Him courage revived! Drooping faith grew strong! Hope
brushed a tear from her eye and smiled! The sight of Jesus Christ as
once it calmed the waves and hushed the winds, did so a thousand times
in men souls.
Even devils, when they saw Him, cried out and trembled. Sinners wept at
the sight of His pitying goodness. The woman who broke the alabaster
box of precious ointment felt that the only fit place to break it was
near to Him. His Presence made her sacred action yet more sweet. What
cannot men do when Christ is there? And, O Beloved, if we are anything
like our Master, our presence will be of some value. There are some of
my Brethren, when I see them, I feel strong. You go into a little
Prayer Meeting and numbers are not there–but such a saint is there and
you feel, "Well, if he is there, there is a Prayer Meeting at once."
You have work to do. It is very hard and toilsome, and you cannot
prosper in it. But a Brother drops into your little Sunday school, or
into your class and looks at it and you feel, "Well, if I have that
man's sympathy, I can go on again." Therefore be careful to give your
presence as much as you can to every good work and do not isolate
yourself from those actually engaged in labors of love. Does not our
Lord's going about doing good set forth His incessant activity? He did
not only the good which was round about Him, which came close to
hand–He did not only the good which was brought to Him as when men
were brought on their beds and laid at His feet–he "went about." He
could not be satisfied to be still. Throughout the whole land of Judea,
from Dan to Beersheba, He trod its weary acres. There was scarcely a
village or a hamlet which had not been gladdened by the sight of Him.
Even Jericho, accursed of old, had been blessed by His Presence and a
great sinner had been made a great saint. He went everywhere casting
salt into the bitter waters and sowing with sunshine the abodes of
sadness. He was ever active in God s service!
Oh, the creeping, crawling manner in which some people serve the Lord!
The very way in which some people mumble through religious exercises is
enough to make one sick at heart, to think that the solemn offices of
religion should be entrusted to such inanimate beings! If God of old
said of Laodicea that He would spew that Church out of His mouth, what
will He do with those professors in modern times who are the very pink
of propriety, but who were never touched with fire from Heaven and know
not what the word "zeal" means? Our Master was here and there, and
everywhere! Let us gird up the loins of our mind and be not weary in
doing well, but be "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord."
Does not the text also imply that Jesus Christ went out of His way to
do good? "He went about doing good." There were short cuts which He
would not take because there were persons dwelling in the roundabout
way who must be met with. "He must needs go through Samaria." It is
said that that city lay in the straightest way to Jerusalem. So it was,
but it was not the right way, because the Samaritans so hated those
whose faces were towards Jerusalem, that they maltreated them whenever
they could. Yet the Master did not care for perils of waylaying
enemies. He did not select the smoothest or the safest road, but He
selected that in which there was a woman to whom He could do good.
He sits down on the well. I know it was not merely weariness that made
Him sit there. And when He said, "I thirst: give Me to drink," it was
not merely that He was thirsty! He had another weariness–He was
patient over that woman's sin and longed to reveal Himself to her! He
had another thirst–He did not mean merely, "Give me water out of that
well." When He said, "Give me to drink," He meant, "Give Me your
heart's love. My soul pants for it. I want to see you–a poor
adulterous sinner–saved from sin."
How else do we understand the words which He said to His disciples,
when they wondered that He spoke with the woman? He said, "I have meat
to eat that you know not of, for it is My meat and My drink to do the
will of Him that sent Me." He had received meat and drink in seeing
that woman leave her water pot and go away to tell her fellow sinners,
"Come, see a Man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this
the Christ?" He went round about after the objects of His gracious
desires. So must the Christian. You must not be content to do good in
the regular circle of your move-ments–that is so far so good, but go
beyond your old line! Break through the bounds of propriety every now
and then and do an odd thing.
I believe that sometimes these odd expedients achieve more than regular
methods. That was a quaint expedient of those who broke up the roof to
let down a palsied man that Jesus might heal him. There has been a good
deal said about that roof. According to some people it was not a roof
at all but a sort of awning! But this morning we will stick to our old
version which tells us, "they broke up the tiling." This must have made
it a very bad predicament for those down below! but I dare say those up
top argued–"Well, the Savior is there and if anybody shall be hurt by
a tile or two He can easily heal them. Anyhow we will get this man
before Him, for this is the case in which we feel most concerned." Ah,
dear Friends, many people are so particular about making a little dust
or breaking up a few tiles! But our mind is, "never care about that,"
there will be time to clean the repair after souls are saved and for so
great an end as salvation we may neglect some few niceties and
punctilios and be most of all vehemently desirous that we may do good.
We have not quite done with the text yet. It means, too, that Jesus
Christ went far in doing good. The district of Palestine was not very
large, but you will observe that He went to the limit of it. He was, as
it were, the bishop of the Holy Land and He never went out of the
diocese, for He said He was not sent except to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. But He went to the outer limits of it. He went to the
coasts of Tyre and Sidon. If He might not go over the mark, yet He will
go up to the edge. So if there should happen to be any limit to your
doing good in any particular place, at least go to the end of the
limit.
However, I rather like Rowland Hill's thought–when he was blamed for
preaching out of his parish, he claimed that he never did so, for the
whole world was his parish. Make the world the sphere of your
occupation, according to the parable, "the field is the world." I
admire the Lord's going about not simply for the miles He traveled, but
for the space of character over which He passed. He "went about." It is
nothing wonderful that He went as far as Tyre and Sidon, but it is much
that He went as far as publicans and sinners! I do not wonder that He
went from Dan to Beersheba, but I have wondered often that He went so
far as to save harlots by His Grace.
We may in this sense go about doing good without traveling across the
sea. A minister once announced to his congregation one Sunday morning,
"I am going on a mission to the heathen." Now he had not told his
deacons about it and they looked at one another. The good people in the
congregation, some of them, began to take out their pocket
handkerchiefs. They thought their minister was going to leave them–he
was so useful and necessary to them that they felt sad at the bare idea
of loosing him. "But" he added, "I shall not be out of town."
So you may go on a mission to the heathen without going out of this
huge town of ours. You might almost preach to every sort of literal
heathen within the bounds of London–to Parthians, Medes and
Elamites–and the dwellers of Mesopotamia. There are men of every
color, speaking every language under Heaven, now living in London. And
if you want to convert Mahometans, Turks, Chinese, men from Bengal,
Java, or Borneo, you may find them all here! There are always
representatives of every nation close at our door. If you want men who
have gone far in sin, great foreigners in that respect, you need not
certainly leave London for that! You shall find men and women rotten
with sin and reeking in the nostrils of God with their abominations.
You may go about doing good and your railway ticket need not cost you
one farthing!
No doubt Christ's perseverance is intended in our text, for when
rejected in one place, He goes to another. If one will not hear,
another will. The unity of His purpose is also hinted at. He does not
go about with two aims, but this one absorbs all His heart–"doing
good." And the success, too, of His purpose is here intended. He went
about and not only tried to do good, but He did it–He left the world
better than He found it when He ascended to His Father God.
3. One moment concerning the motive of Christ's doing good. It is not
far to seek. He did good partly because He could not help it. It was
His Nature to do good. He was all goodness and as the clouds which are
full of rain empty themselves upon the earth, even so must He. You will
have observed that all the good things which God has made are
diffusive. There is light– you cannot confine light within narrow
limits. Suppose we were to grow so bigoted and conceited as to conceive
that we had all the light in the world inside this Tabernacle. We might
have iron shutters made to keep the light in–yet it is very probable
that the light would not agree with our bigotry and would not come in
at all–but leave us in the dark for wanting to confine it.
With splendid mirrors, Turkish carpets, jewelry, fine pictures and rare
statuary you may court the light to come into palatial halls. It comes,
it is true, but as it enters it whispers, "And I passed through the
iron grating of a prison, just now. I shone upon the poor cottager
beneath the rude thatched roof. I streamed through the window out of
which half the glass was gone and gleamed as cheerily and willingly
upon the rags of poverty as in these marble halls." You cannot clip the
wings of the morning, or monopolize the golden rays of the sun! What a
space the light has traversed doing good! Millions of miles it has come
streaming from the sun and yet further from yonder fixed star.
Light! Why could you not be contented with your own sphere? Why journey
so far from home? Missionary rays come to us from so vast a distance
that they must have been hundreds of years in reaching us and yet their
mission is not over, for they flash on to yet remoter worlds. So with
the air–as far as the world is concerned the air will throw itself
down the shaft of the deepest coal pit, climb the loftiest Alp–and
although men madly strive to shut it out–it will thrust itself into
the fever lair and cool the brow of cholera.
So with water. Here it comes dropping from every inch of the cloudy
sky, flooding the streets, flushing the foul sewers and soaking into
the dry soil. Everywhere it will come, for water claims to have its
influence felt everywhere. Fire, too! Who can bind its giant hands? The
King cannot claim it as a royal perquisite. Among those few sticks
which the widow woman with the red cloak has been gathering in the
woods, it burns as readily as in Her Majesty's palace. It is the Nature
of Jesus to diffuse Himself–it is His life to do good. His grand
motive, no doubt, is the display of the glorious attributes of God.
He went about doing good in order that Jehovah might be revealed in His
splendor to the eyes of adoring men. He is the manifestation of
Godhead. He is the express image of His Father's Person. "In Him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." And through Heaven and earth,
and sky and sun and stars, all show forth something of the goodness of
God, yet the life of Jesus is the fullest and clearest manifestation of
the beneficence of Deity that ever will be accorded to the sons of men.
This is an object worthy of God, to manifest Himself and such an object
Christ set before Him when He came to do good among the sons of men.
1 have not said enough about the Savior, but still as much as time
allows us and I will close this point with this one thing–if Jesus
Christ went about doing good and if His motive was simply God's
Glory–poor troubled Sinner–cannot He glorify God in you? You need
pardon–you will be an illustrious instance of God's Grace if He should
ever save you! Have hope. If Jesus Christ goes about, you are not too
far off. If He looks upon the most forlorn, you are not in too
desperate a plight. Cry to Him when your spirit is overwhelmed! Look to
the Rock that is higher than you! "From the ends of the earth have I
cried unto You, O God and You heard me." May it be your joy today to
find Him your Friend, who "went about doing good."
II. We were in the second place to CONSIDER OURSELVES. This is the
application of the subject. Consider ourselves, then, as to the past,
with sorrow and shamefacedness. Have we gone about doing good? I fear
there are some here who never did any spiritual good! The tree is
corrupt and it cannot bring forth good fruit. The fountain is bitter
and it cannot yield sweet water. You must be born again before you can
go about doing good! While your nature is as father Adam left it, good
cannot come from you. "There is none that does good, no not one."
How clearly this is true in some persons, as proved by their very
profession. The profession of some men is one in which they cannot hope
to do good. There are some in all callings who either do positive harm,
or at any rate cannot imagine that they are doing any good. Let them
repent! "Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire." God grant that neither our character nor our
vocation may stand in the way of our doing good!
But you who have new hearts and rights spirits and are saved by faith
in the precious blood of Jesus, have you done all the good you could? I
dare not say yes–I wish I could dare it! No, Master, there must have
been many times when I might have served You when I have not done it. I
have been an unprofitable servant. I have not done what was my duty to
have done.
Ah, some of you have missed a world of joy in having done so little
good. You have not given, therefore you are not increased. You never
gave to others much, and so they have not given back to you full
measure, pressed down and running over. You have not borne the burdens
of others and so your own burden has become heavy and intolerable.
Christians, in looking back upon the past, must you not drop tears of
regret? And do you not bless that preserving love which still follows
you? Yes, which will never let you go! And in spite of your barrenness
and unfruitfulness, it will not cease to work upon you till it has made
you meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light–who
day without night serve God in His Temple!
As to the future. The old question comes up–if any man today says, "I
am resolved to go about doing good"–is he able to do it? And again,
the reply comes–we must first be good, or else we cannot do good. The
only way to be good is to seek to the good One, the good Master! If you
have a new heart and a right spirit, then go your way and serve Him!
But if not, pause awhile. Unto the wicked, God says, "What have you to
do to declare My statutes?" He will have clean-handed men to do His
work! Wash first in the bronze laver if you would be a priest. God will
not have men for His servants who would defile the sacred place. "Be
you clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."
God give us to rest implicitly upon the Lord Jesus Christ by a living
faith and so to be cleansed in His precious blood. And then we may
resolve to go forth and live for Him. Have we any work to do now that
we can set about at once? If we have, whatever our hands find to do,
let us do it. Let us not be asking for greater abilities than we have.
If we can get them, let us do so–but meanwhile let us use what we
have. Go, Housewife, to your house, and from the lowest chamber to the
top go about doing good–here is range enough for you!
Go, Teacher, to your little school and among those boys or girls, let
your example imitate Christ, and there is range enough for you! Go,
Worker, to your shop and among your fellow workmen. Let fall here and
there a word for Christ! Above all, let your example shine, and there
is work for you. You domestic servants, the kitchen is sphere enough
for you. You shall go about doing good from the dresser to the
fireplace and you shall have width enough and breadth enough to make it
a kingdom consecrated to God!
Without leaving your position, any one of you–without giving up the
plow, or the cobbler's lap stone, or the needle, or the plane, or the
saw, any business–without any of you good sisters wanting to be nuns,
or any of us putting on the serge and becoming monks–in our own
calling let us go about doing good! The best preparation for it will be
to renew our dedication to Christ, be much in earnest prayer, seek the
sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit and then go forth in our
Master's strength with this as our resolve–that as imitators of Jesus
Christ it shall be said of us, "He went about doing good."
May God add His blessing for the Savior's sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Acts 10.