DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 9, 1878,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is
your life." Proverbs 4:13.
FAITH may be well described as taking hold upon Divine instruction. God
has condescended to teach us and it is ours to hear with attention and
receive His words. And while we are hearing, faith comes, even that
faith which saves the soul. To take "fast hold" is an exhortation which
concerns the strength, the reality, the heartiness and the truthfulness
of faith–and the more of these the better. If to take hold is good, to
take fast hold is better! Even a touch of the hem of Christ's garment
causes healing to come to us, but if we want the full riches which are
treasured up in Christ, we must not only touch but take hold. And if we
would know from day to day the very uttermost of the fullness of His
Grace, we must take fast hold and so maintain a constant and close
connection between our souls and the eternal Fountain of Life.
It were well to give such a grip as a man gives to a plank when he
seizes hold of it for his very life–that is a fast hold, indeed! We
are to take fast hold of instruction and the best of instruction is
that which comes from God. The truest wisdom is the Revelation of God
in Christ Jesus–of that, therefore, we are to take fast hold. The best
understanding is obedience to the will of God and a diligent learning
of those saving Truths which God has set before us in His Word so that,
in effect, we are exhorted to take hold of Christ Jesus our Lord, the
Incarnate Wisdom in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. We are not to let Him go, but to keep Him and hold Him, for
He is our life.
Does not John, in his Gospel, tell us that the Word is our light or
instruction and at the same time our life? "In Him was life, and the
life was the light of men." The more we abide in the Lord Jesus and the
more firmly we take hold upon Him, the better will it be for us in a
thousand ways. I intend at this time to speak, as the Holy Spirit shall
enable me, upon this fast hold and I reckon that the subject is one of
the most important which can occupy your attention at this particular
crisis in the history of the Church.
Many there are around us who believe in Christ, but it is with a very
trembling faith. Their hold is unsteady! We need to have among us men
of tighter grip who really believe what they profess to believe. We
need men who know the Truth in its living power and are persuaded of
its certainty so that they cannot, by any means, be moved from their
steadfastness. Among the vacillating crowd we long to see fast-holders
who are pillars in the House of our God, whose grasp of Divine Truth is
not that of babies or boys, but of men full grown and vigorous! We
shall handle our subject by speaking, first, upon the method by which
we may take fast hold. Then upon the difficulties which will lie in our
way in so doing. Thirdly, upon the benefits of such a firm grasp. And,
lastly, upon the arguments for our holding fast mentioned in the text.
I. First, then, THE METHOD of taking fast hold upon true religion, upon
the Gospel–in fact–upon Christ. At the outset, my Brothers and
Sisters, much must depend upon the intense decision which a man feels
in his soul with regard to eternal things. If he intends trifling, he
will trifle, but if he means taking fast hold he will, by God's Grace,
do so. Under God, this, in many cases, depends very much upon a man's
individuality and force of character. Some men are naturally thorough
and whole-hearted in all things upon which they enter, whether of this
world or the next. When they serve the devil they are among his
lifeguards and they rush to the front in all kinds of iniquity. Among
sinners they become the chief, for they have no fear and no
hesitancy–they are daredevils, defying both God and man–sinning
greedily with both hands.
Such men, when converted, often become eminent saints, being just as
thorough and resolute in their following after God as they were in the
pursuit of evil! They are determined to vindicate His holy cause and
spread abroad the knowledge of His love. I must confess an earnest
longing that many such may be brought into the Church of Christ at this
time to
brace her up and inspire her with new energy. Many in our Churches
appear to have no depth of earth. With joy they receive the Word of
God, from the very fact that they are so shallow, but as soon as the
sun rises with burning heat, it is discovered that they have no root,
for they wither away. Others are truly religious and probably will
remain so, but they are not zealous. In fact, they are not intense
about anything, but are lukewarm, weak and unstable. These are mere
chips in the porridge, neither sour nor sweet–they give forth no
flavor–they take the flavor of that which surrounds them.
They are the creatures of circumstances, not helmsmen who avail
themselves of stream and tide, but mere driftwood carried along by any
and every current which may take hold of them. They have no fullness of
manhood about them, they are mere children. They resemble the sapling
which can be bent and twisted and not the oak which defies the storm.
There are certain persons of this sort who in other matters have
purpose enough and strength of mind enough, but when they touch the
things of God, they are loose, flimsy, superficial, half-hearted. You
see them earnest enough in hunting after wealth, but they show no such
zeal in the pursuit of godliness! The force of their character comes
out in a political debate, in the making of a bargain, in the
arrangement of a social gathering–but you never see it in the work of
the Lord. The young man comes to the front as a volunteer, or as a
member of a club, or in the house of business–but who ever hears of
him in Sunday school, the Prayer Meeting, or the home mission? In the
things of God such persons owe any measure of progress which they make
to the influence of their fellows who bear them along as so much dead
weight! They, themselves, never throw enough weight into the matter to
add a single half-ounce of spiritual power to the Church!
Now, all this is mischievous and wrong. My dear Friends, we must all
confess that if the religion of Christ is true, it deserves that we
should give our whole selves to it. If it is a lie, let it be
eradicated from creation! But if it is true, it is a matter concerning
which we cannot be neutral or lukewarm, for it demands our soul, our
life, our all–and its claim cannot be denied. There must be a
determination worked in our souls by the Holy Spirit to be upright and
downright in the work of the Lord or else we shall be of little worth.
We come, however, to closer matters of fact when we observe, next, that
our taking fast hold of the things of God must depend upon the
thoroughness of our conversion. In this Church we try, as far as we
can, in receiving Church members, to receive none but those who give
clear evidence of a change of heart.
But this evidence can be imitated so skillfully that the best
examination and the most earnest judgment cannot prevent self-deceived
persons from making a profession of religion. This we cannot help, but
woe to those who willfully deceive! Many exhibit flowers and fruits
which never grew in their own gardens. Their experience is borrowed and
does not spring from the essential root of the Holy Spirit's work
within their souls. This is sad, indeed. Our condition before God is a
personal matter and can never be settled by the judgment of our
fellows, for what can others know of the workings of our hearts? Each
man must judge himself and examine himself, for whatever a Church may
attempt in its zeal for purity, it can never take the responsibility of
his own sincerity from any man. We do not pretend to give certificates
of salvation! If we did, they would be worthless–you must, yourselves,
know the Lord and be really converted or else your profession is a
forgery and you are counterfeits.
If a man shall, in later life, hold fast to the things of God, he must
be soundly converted at first. Very much of his later life depends upon
the thoroughness of his beginning. There must at the very first be a
deep sense of sin, a consciousness of guilt, a holy horror of evil, or
he will never make much of a Christian. I do not say that all or even
any of those doubts and temptations and Satanic suggestions which some
have had to struggle with are necessary to make a true conversion. But
I must confess that I am not at all displeased when I meet with a good
deal of battling and struggling in the experience of the newly
awakened. It is not pleasant for them, but we hope it will be
profitable. Those whose souls are plowed and plowed and plowed again
before the seed is sown upon them often yield the best crop.
John Bunyan's, "Grace Abounding," very much accounts for John Bunyan's,
"Pilgrim's Progress." If it had not been for his terrible conflicts of
soul, he might not have known how to hold fast to his confidence when
shut up for 12 years in prison. Nor would he have seen visions of the
Celestial City, when all around him was as the valley of the shadow of
death! I do not wish to see seeking souls distressed by Satan, but I do
press for this–that there shall be an end of self-trust, a total
destruction of self- righteousness, a complete giving up of all legal
and carnal hopes. If not, the conversion will be a mere show and he who
is the subject of it will be like Ephraim–a silly dove without a
heart. Unless repentance of sin is real in you, you will never take
fast hold of the Truth of God.
And there must be, dear Friends, a very sincere laying hold upon Christ
Jesus. If you have any doubt about the doctrine of Atonement, I am not
surprised if your religion soon wears into shreds. No, you must,
without question, accept the Substitutionary Sacrifice. Your soul must
feel that the precious blood is her only hope–that this, and this
alone–can make her clean before the living God! You must fly to Christ
in desperation and cling to Him as all your salvation and all your
desire–there can be no hesitancy here. At the very outset of the
Christian life these two things should be very distinct with you–sin
which has ruined you and Christ who has saved you! Make a muddle at
first and your life will be a tangle.
Some tradesmen never carry on their business well. They evidently do
not more than half understand it and are mere bunglers. Now, if you
come to enquire, you will find that they were never thoroughly grounded
in their calling. Either they never served an apprenticeship, or else
they were lazy lads and never became masters of their trade. This bad
commencement sticks to them all their lives. It is the same with the
higher learning. A man may go a long way in the classics, but if he is
not grounded in the grammar, he will be everlastingly making mistakes
which a sound scholar will soon discover. Every teacher must work hard
at the elements if his pupils are to succeed. Whatever you do with the
higher forms, do teach that little boy his grammar and ground him in
the rudiments or he will be injured for life.
To borrow another illustration, we have heard of a bridge which spanned
a stream and for some years stood well enough, but, by-and- by, through
the force of the current, it began to show signs of giving way. When it
came to be examined it was soon seen that the builders never went deep
enough with the foundations. There is the mischief of thousands of
other things besides bridges! We must have good and deep foundations,
or otherwise the higher we build, the sooner the fabric will fall. Look
at many of the wretched houses in the streets around us–they are the
disgrace of the city–you will see settlements and cracks everywhere
because of bad foundations and bad materials. The same is true in the
characters of many professed Christians–for lack of a good
commencement you can see innumerable flaws and cracks–and you wonder
that they do not come down in sudden ruin!
So indeed they would, but, like those wretched houses, they hold one
another up! Many professors only keep upright because they stand in a
row and derive support from their associations. I wish we could see
more Christian men of the sort who dare to stand alone, like those old
family mansions which stand, each one in its own garden, so well built
that when we begin to take them down, each brick is found to be solid
as granite and the mortar is as hard as a rock. Such buildings and such
men become more rare every day–we must come back to the old style–and
the sooner the better! Those of you who are yet in the early days of
your piety should see to this. See that you are right, sound and
thorough–and take fast hold of the Truth of God in the days of your
first love, or yours will be but a sickly life in years to come.
This being taken for granted, the next help to a fast hold of Christ is
hearty discipleship. Brothers and Sisters, as soon as you are
converted, you become the disciples of Jesus! And if you are to become
fast-holding Christians you must acknowledge Him to be your Master,
Teacher and Lord in all things! You must resolve to be good scholars in
His school. He will be the best Christian who has Christ for His Master
and truly follows Him. Some are disciples of the Church, others are
disciples of the minister and a third sort are disciples of their own
thoughts. He is the wise man who sits at Jesus' feet and learns of Him
with the resolve to follow His teaching and imitate His example. He who
tries to learn of Jesus, Himself, taking the very words from our Lord's
own lips, binding himself to believe whatever the Lord has taught and
to do whatever He has commanded–he, I say, is the stable Christian!
Follow Jesus, my Brothers and Sisters, and not the Church, for our Lord
has never said to His disciples, "Follow your Brethren," but He has
said, "Follow Me." He has not said, "Abide by the denominational
confession," but He has said, "Abide in Me." Nothing must come between
our souls and our Lord! What if fidelity to Jesus should sometimes lead
us to differ from our Brethren? What does it matter so long as we do
not differ from our Master? Crochets and quibbles are evil things, but
a keenly sensitive conscientiousness is invaluable. Be true disciples
of Christ and let His least Word be precious to you! Remember that if a
man loves Him, he will keep His Commandments. He has said, "He that
shall break one of the least of these, My Commandments, and shall teach
men so, the same shall be least in the kingdom of Heaven." Shun all
compromises and abatements of the Truth! Be thorough and determined,
holding fast your Savior's Words! Follow the Lamb where ever He goes!
If such is your resolve, by the Grace of God, you will take fast hold
of instruction and will never let it go.
It will help you to do this if, in the next place, you have a studious
consideration of the Word of God and meditate much upon the Truth which
you have received. I am persuaded there is too little studying of the
Scriptures nowadays. Books, magazines, papers and the like, bury the
Bible under heaps of rubbish, but he who means to be a man of God to
the fullness of his manhood will feed upon the Word of God at first
hand. Like the Bereans, he will be of a noble spirit and he will search
the Scriptures daily. "I want," says he, "to obtain my creed, not
secondhand from others, but directly for myself from the very Word of
God itself–the pure well of undefiled Gospel." This is a very
important point. I have heard often, of late, a misused expression–"I
do my own thinking." Let us correct it and then adopt it by saying, "I
do my own searching of the Word of God."
Remember, we are not called to think out a new Gospel, as some imagine,
but we are called to be thinkers upon the old Gospel, that we may know
and understand its principles and its bearings and become confirmed in
the belief of it. We need to think over the Word of God till we are
thoroughly permeated with it. The silk of certain insects takes its
color from the leaves on which they feed–and a Christian's life will
always take its color from that which his soul feeds upon. Oh, to live
upon the Word of God, even upon the deep things of God, for so shall we
be rooted and grounded in the faith and shall take fast hold of eternal
wisdom! An established Christian is one who not only knows the
doctrines, but who also knows the authority for it, having looked
around it and pondered it in his heart. By careful meditation he is
taught in the Truth of God and is able to give a reason for the hope
that is in him with meekness and fear.
Nor is he merely a man of the letter–his study in the power of the
Holy Spirit has carried him into the essence of the Word. He has asked
the Spirit of God to make him acquainted with Divine Truth so that he
has not only read it, but he has communed with it and now lives upon
it, eats it, drinks it, receives it into the inward parts of his soul
and retains it there as a living and incorruptible seed! A man who does
this year after year is the kind of man who, by God's Grace, will take
fast hold of instruction and will prove a faithful witness for his
Lord. Add to this, also, an earnest seriousness of character and you go
a long way towards maintaining a fast hold of Christ. We do not mean,
by this, that we are to dismiss cheerfulness–may the Lord give us more
of it, for it is as oil to wheels and is a high recommendation of
religion to the unconverted. There are some who are a deal too gloomy
in their religion and seem to think that the Grace of God is never
displayed by them unless they are sullen and doleful.
But at the same time there is a flippancy which is not commendable and
a levity which is far from the mind of Christ! Christian life is not
child's play. We, above all men, ought to make our lives sublime and
not ridiculous. We are not called into this world to trifle away the
hours and kill time in doing nothing, for this life links itself to
eternity and that eternity, in spite of all that is said to the
contrary, will be one of endless misery or of endless joy! It is,
therefore, no small thing to possess an immortal mind and to be
responsible before God. Sin is no trifle, pardon is no trifle and
condemnation is no trifle! Eternal life is precious beyond all things,
but to lie under the wrath of God is dreadful beyond conception! I love
to see, especially in young Christians, with regard to the things of
God, deep seriousness of purpose and spirit, showing that they feel it
to be a weighty thing to be a Christian and that they cannot afford to
have their Christianity put under the shadow of suspicion, nor dare
they appear to be mere players upon a stage, for they fear and tremble
at His Word.
Now, if all these things are in you and abound, there will grow around
them an experimental verification of the things of God. I mean that you
will not only read of the love of God, but you will feel it from day to
day and so be assured of it. You read in the Scriptures of the power of
sin and you believe what you read–but to this will be added the
confirmatory fact that you feel it in your members and, therefore,
cannot doubt it! You read of the efficacy of the precious blood of
Jesus–but you do more, for you feel its cleansing power upon your
heart and its consoling influence over your conscience–and so you are
established in the blessed Truth of God! We hardly know anything till
we have lived it! You must get the Truth of God burnt into you with the
hot iron of experience, or you will forget it.
I believe that the pains and grief and afflictions of many of God's
children have been absolutely necessary to establish them in the faith.
And I can only hope that you who are the children of joy may derive as
much benefit from your gladness as mourners have found in their
sorrows–it might be so and should be so–but I fear it seldom is. The
whole of our life should be a daily testing of the Gospel and a
continuous verification of the eternal Truth thereof. Our life should
agree with this Book of Life–just as the book of Nature, being written
by the same Author as the Book of Revelation, shows the same hand and
style–so the book of the new creation within us, being inscribed by
the same Spirit who has
written these Scriptures, will display the same style and manner. And
we shall thus be growingly assured of the things which are verily
revealed to us by God.
Go on, dear Friends, and may the Lord grant that whatever your
experience may be, whether it shall abound in bitterness or in
sweetness, the testimony of God may be confirmed in you and your grip
of it may be intensified by every year's experience. I must add one
other word. I believe that in the mode of taking fast hold upon the
Gospel, practical Christianity has a great influence. I refer
especially to practical usefulness. Some members enter the Church and
never do a hand's turn. We have the distinguished privilege of seeing
them sit in their pews and that is all we know about them. We cannot
bring them under Church censure, for they are punctual in religious
observances–but they are barren limbs. Give me the young man who, when
he joins the Church, says, "I shall take a little time to study the
Gospel till I know more of it by the teaching of God's Spirit." And
then, having done so, says, "I have not learned this for myself. There
is something for me to do in connection with the Church of God and I am
determined to find out what it is and to do it."
You see such a young Believer teaching in Sunday school, or you find
him beginning to speak in a cottage, or becoming a visitor and seeking
to speak personally to individuals about their souls. If he is a man of
the right kind, his work will be another holdfast to his mind. Look at
him, how he keeps to the Gospel–how he clings to the old, old Truth of
God! He is not the man to run after new theories and modern doubts, for
he is helped to keep right by his practical connection with spiritual
disease and its remedy. Go into the back slums of London and see if you
will doubt the doctrine of Human Depravity! Oh no, it is your ladies
and gentlemen that wear lavender kid gloves who doubt that doctrine!
Try to rescue a harlot from her sin and if you are enabled to lead her
to Jesus, you cannot doubt the power of the precious blood of Jesus to
cleanse the heart!
Not those who battle with vice, but those who practice it, themselves,
are the ones who quibble at the doctrine of the Atonement. Those who
are busy plucking brands out of the fire are little given to
speculation, but are firm abiders in the Gospel. I think there are few
exceptions to the rule that the "advanced thought" gentlemen are not
engaged in practical work for the salvation of souls. They are grand
talkers, but very poor workers. I am not hypercritical when I say that
if you will mention a "modern thought" professor, it will generally
turn out that he is not worth his salt as to practical usefulness–not
he–he has the parrot faculty of pulling things to pieces, but what
positive work has he ever done? He may be a distinguished dignitary or
a noble scholar, but as to actually grappling with the hearts and
consciences of men and entering into the dark and troublous experience
of tempted souls, he is quite at sea, for he knows nothing about it!
He would talk after another fashion if his hands had ever been laid to
hard work among sinful men and afflicted consciences! I tell you, Sirs,
that to argue with a poor distressed conscience and to try to bring it
to peace in Christ soon lets you know the truth of the Gospel! To stand
by a dying bed and hear the holy triumph of even the most illiterate of
the children of God, or what is equally efficacious, to watch the last
sad hours of an impenitent sinner dying without hope–will make you
know that there is a world to come, joyful or terrible as the case may
be–and you will also learn that sin is a great evil and that the
Atonement is a great reality!
Young convert, if you want to be one of the firm holders of the Gospel,
you must get to work as well as to study, for this, by the overruling
power of the Holy Spirit, will strengthen you in the faith of God's
elect! Thus I have brought forward the method, may it prove to be
instructive.
II. Very briefly, I want, now, to show THE DIFFICULTIES of taking fast
hold of instruction. And every difficulty I mention will tend to show,
all the more clearly, the necessity of it. The first difficulty is that
this is the age of questioning. Everybody questions! Our friends over
in Germany have pushed the questioning business to the furthest point
and in their thorough way they have produced its legitimate fruit in
cold-blooded attempts to murder a venerable monarch. Professed
ministers of the Gospel have taught the German mind to doubt
everything–and now the basis of society is shaken and law and order
are undermined. What could they expect otherwise? He who does not fear
God is not likely to honor their king!
When men give up their Bibles, they will care but little for human
laws. We have plenty of the same evil here in England and certain
clergymen and dissenting divines are spreading it with hideous
industry! Young gentlemen, whose whiskers have not yet developed, are
authoritatively deciding that nothing can be decided and dogmatically
denouncing all dogmas! We meet them every day and we notice that in
proportion to their ignorance is their confidence in sneering at every
holy thing! According to them, nobody is sincere, nothing is sacred.
These great men, who would never have been
heard of if they had not been heretical, know better by far than God
Himself! As for Apostles and Prophets, they are just nothing at all to
these infallibles! Their own "thought" is more precious than
Inspiration itself! This conceited skepticism is in the air–it seems
to be everywhere and you cannot help encountering it–therefore let us
be the more earnest to hold fast the faith!
Worse than this, this is an age of worldliness. Everybody wants to be
rich and nobody is rich now at the point at which his forefathers were
content to stop! Our good old deacons and respected Church members were
content with very moderate incomes. They were satisfied and happy with
thrift and prudence and would have been deeply grieved with the
extravagance which is seen on all sides at this time. They not only
considered their shops and their fields, but they planned to have time
to look after the Sunday schools in which they were proud to serve and
the Prayer Meetings which they delighted to attend. But, dear me,
Prayer Meetings, lectures, sermons, Sunday schools–these are all
despised, now! If a man can make an extra guinea or two by putting
himself where they are out of the question, he jumps at the chance!
We must be rich, we must cut a dash, we must spend more than our
neighbors and for this the work of the Church may go to the dogs! Oh
for a few simple, earnest Christians who will judge their Lord and His
cause to be worth some consideration and will lay themselves out to
serve His Church! When worldliness is so predominant, it becomes so
much the harder to take fast hold of eternal things! One needs to hear
the Word of God, "Seek you, first, the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Unless we
hear it, we shall be tempted to take fast hold on the world and let the
things of eternity slip by us!
Then, besides this, there is and always has been a great desire for
novelty. We are all the subjects of it. We all like something fresh.
But there are some who are sick of the changeable disease–you see them
zealots for a creed today, but all of a sudden you find them deeply
immersed in the opposite teaching! Ah, now they have discovered
something very wonderful–just as the idiot who saw the rainbow and
believed that there was a pot of gold at the end of it and ran for
miles to seize a glittering sapphire and grasped a piece of glass
bottle–so they forever pursue and never attain! We have a few of these
gentlemen in most of our Churches, but you will find them nowhere very
long! Another inventor starts a new system and away they go–pining
always to be the first disciples of each new prophet! May God save us
from the Athenian spirit which forever hungers for something new!
Another difficulty, and the worst of all, is the corruption of our own
hearts. "Take fast hold of instruction," says the text. "Why," I hear a
Brother say, "my dear Sir, sometimes it is as much as I can do to take
hold of it at all. I have to question whether I have been converted! I
go down into such depths of despondency that unless the Truth of God
holds me, I shall never hold it." Well, but I hope this is all a means
of helping you to hold it all the more firmly! You now see that
salvation must be by Grace from first to last! By this very process you
will be compelled to hold the Doctrines of Grace the more intensely,
because you are made to see how utterly unable you are, in and of
yourself, to think a good thought, much less to remain steadfast in the
whole Truth of Christ!
And then there is Satan, too–how busy he is in trying to undermine the
fundamentals of the faith! Has he not suggested to some of us all kind
of doubts? Yes. I said to a man, one day, who had uttered some
blasphemy in my presence against a certain Truth of God, "You think you
stagger me? My dear Man, I have had more doubts pass through my
thoughts than you could tell me, or 50 like you!" The doubts which the
devil insinuates into the minds of the people of God are at times quite
as horrible as any which a Voltaire or a Tom Paine was ever able to
invent! And yet, by God's Grace, we have not given up the Gospel, nor
shall we though Heaven and earth shall pass away! Because we are one
with Christ we shall live in the Truth of Christ, for He will keep and
preserve us even to the end.
III. Thirdly, let us consider THE BENEFITS of taking fast hold. I wish
I had an hour in which to dilate upon the benefit of so doing, but I
must briefly say that it gives stability to the Christian character to
have a firm grip of the Gospel. Men who take fast hold are the backbone
of a Church. All through the dark reign of moderates in Scotland, who
kept up the testimony for the Truth of God? Why, those solid Christians
who were known as, "the men," who held the faith and walked with God in
the power of it. These were men much in prayer and much in meditation.
They lived on when all sound teaching had left the pulpits! Their souls
were sustained by secret communion with God on the hillside. When the
time came for the pure Truth of God to revive in Scotland, these men
came to the front and were honored as the men who had kept the flame
alive in the land.
What was it that delivered our country, in still earlier times, from
being altogether under the hoof of Rome? When prelates forsook Christ
and preachers by the hundreds in Mary's day turned from Protestantism
to Popery, the true faith lived on in the hearts of poor men and
women–weavers and cobblers who believed what they did believe and
could not deny the Truth of God. Everybody in the parish knew them as
the, "stubborn heretics," who could not be frightened or argued down!
They knew. They were sure. They were confident and, therefore, they
spoke. It did not matter to them that they were in a minority, for they
knew that a minority of one, on God's side, is a majority!
"I, Athanasius, against the world," said that grand old confessor when
they told him everybody had gone over to Arianism and that nobody
believed in the Deity of Christ! "The earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars of it," said one of
old–and happy is that man to whom such an office is given! A firm grip
of the Gospel will give you strength for service. The man who can "hold
the fort," at one time, is the very man who can capture a fort at
another! He who can stand well can march well! The hands of the Church
are made of the same material as its backbone! It is of no use sending
poor hesitating professors into the field of holy labor. If you hardly
know what you believe, how can you teach other people? But when the
Truth of God is written upon your very soul and engraved as with the
point of a diamond upon your heart–you will speak with confidence and
there will be a power about your utterances which none shall be able to
withstand or deny!
For the sake, then, of your spiritual strength, I press the exhortation
of the text, "Take fast hold of instruction." And this, too, will bring
you joy. The outskirts of our Jerusalem are dreary–her Glory lies
within. Where shines the brightest light? It is in the Holy of Holies
in the innermost shrine! The skin and husks of religion are poor
things, but the juice, the life, the vital power of religion–therein
lies the sweetness! You must not be satisfied with the "name to
live"–it will never comfort you–it will even distress you. The life
of Christ mightily developed in you must be the joy of your heart!
Multitudes of Christian professors get next to nothing out of
Christianity. How can they? They hold their religion as some rich
farmers hold "off-hand farms." Nobody ever makes anything out of
off-hand farms–the man who makes farming pay lives on the spot and
gives his whole time and energy to it!
So is it in the things of God! If you make your minister your bailiff
in religion, you will get nothing out of it. You must live in it and
upon it–and then you will prosper! I want you to say, "If there is
anything in godliness I am going to know it. If prayer has power I am
going to pray. If there is such a thing as communion with God I will
enjoy it! If there is such a thing as likeness to Christ I will obtain
it. Godliness shall not be an addition to my life, but it shall be my
life itself." Ah, Brothers and Sisters, then you are the man of the
shining countenance, you are the man of the sparkling eyes! You drink
deep and you find that the deeper you drink the sweeter the draught
becomes!
Lastly, with regard to this summary of benefits–persons of this kind
are the very Glory of the Church–they are the persons in whom true
religion displays its brightest beams! They may be humble cottagers, or
obscure members of a large Church who are scarcely known. But those who
live with them–those who are at all acquainted with them, say of
them–"These men and women are a credit to the Church and an honor to
the name of Christianity." Not your frothy talkers, not your flimsy
professors, but your deep taught, Grace-instructed men and women–these
are they who are the beauty of the Church and the Glory of Christ!
I would to God we had many more! I look around and see that the cause
does not prosper as I would wish throughout the land. And then I
remember in one spot an earnest village preacher–in another a holy
laborious deacon, in a third a gracious woman, zealous in every good
work–and I am comforted! Thank God there is life in the old Church
yet! There is still hope for her because of her fast-holding people! If
I study the statistics of the Churches, I have to say, "What is the
good of these figures? Probably a Church of 200 members might be cut
down to 20 earnest effectives." For my part, I would sooner stand on
this platform with 12 holy men and women to back me up than with 12,000
mere pretenders to religion such as can be found in crowds anywhere!
No, it is the fast grip of faith–it is vital godliness which makes a
man to be a real power in the Church!
IV. Now, lastly, I have to mention THE ARGUMENTS of the text, which are
three. All through the sermon I have been using arguments, therefore I
shall be the more brief and draw to a close. The first argument is,
take fast hold of true religion because it is your best friend. Read
the text–"Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go." You cannot
find your way to Heaven without this guide, therefore do not suffer it
to leave you. Do as Moses did, who, when his father-in-law, Hobab, was
with him, would not suffer him to depart, "for," he said, "you shall be
to us instead of eyes, for you
know where to encamp in the wilderness." As Moses kept Hobab, so you
keep the faith, for you cannot find your road except by holding the
true Gospel with a true heart.
What a sweet companion the Gospel is! How often it has cheered you! How
easy has the road become while you have been in communion with it! Do
what the disciples at Emmaus did when Jesus talked with them–they
constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us." Do not let Him go! You will
be a lonely pilgrim if you do. No, if you could be led by an angel, but
must lose the Presence of your God, you would be wise to cry out
against such an evil and, like Moses, plead–"If Your Spirit go not
with us, carry us not up hence."
The next argument is that true godliness should be held fast, for it is
your treasure. "Keep it," says our text. It is your best inheritance at
the present moment and it is to be your eternal inheritance–keep it,
then! Let everything else go, but do not part with a particle of the
Truth of God. The slightest fragment of Truth is more valuable than a
diamond! Hold it, then, with all firmness. You are so much the richer
by every Truth of God you know–you will be so much the poorer by every
Truth of God you forget! Hold it then and hide it in your heart. A
certain king who had a rare diamond sent it to a foreign court,
entrusting it to a very faithful servant. This servant was attacked,
however, on the road by a band of robbers and, as they could not find
the diamond, they drew their swords and killed him. He was found dead,
but his master exclaimed, "He has not lost the diamond, I am sure!" He
judged rightly, for the trusty servant had swallowed the gem and so
preserved it with his life.
We, also, should thus place the Truth of God in our inward parts and
then we shall never be deprived of it. A priest took a Testament from
an Irish boy. "But," cried the boy, "you cannot take away those six
chapters of Matthew that I learned by heart." They may take away our
books, but they cannot take away what we have fed upon and made our
own! "His flesh is meat, indeed. His blood is drink, indeed," for when
we have fed upon Him, our Lord Jesus remains in us the hope of Glory.
Hold fast the truth, O believers in Jesus, for it is your treasure!
Lastly, it is your "lift." Mr. Arnot, in His very beautiful book upon
the Proverbs, tells a story to illustrate this text. He says that in
the Southern seas an American vessel was attacked by a wounded whale.
The huge monster ran out for the length of a mile from the ship and
then turned round. And with the whole force of its acquired speed
struck the ship and made it leak at every timber, so as to begin to go
down. The sailors got out all their boats, filled them as quickly as
they could with the necessaries of life and began to pull away from the
ship. Just then two strong men were seen leaping into the water who
swam to the vessel, scrambled on board, disappeared for a moment and
then came up, bringing something in their hands. Just as they sprang
into the sea down went the vessel, and they were carried round in the
vortex, but they were observed to be both of them swimming, not as if
struggling to get away, but as if looking for something, which at last
they both seized and carried to the boats.
What was this treasure? What article could be so valued as to lead them
to risk their lives? It was the ship's compass which had been left
behind–without which they could not have found their way out of those
lonely southern seas into the high road of commerce! That compass was
life to them and the Gospel of the living God is the same to us! You
and I must venture all for the Gospel! This Infallible Word of God must
be guarded to the death! Men may tell us what they please and say what
they will, but we will risk everything sooner than give up those
eternal principles by which we have been saved! The Lord give all of us
His abundant Grace that we may take fast hold of Divine instruction.
Amen.