The Minstrelsy of Hope
A Sermon
(No. 819)
Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, July 5, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [29]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us." Psalm
67:6, 7.
"GOD, even our own God." What an exceedingly sweet title! What a
loveliness and liveliness of heart must have been in the man who first
applied that endearing name to the God of Jacob! Though it is thousands
of years ago since the sweet singer of Israel thus spoke of the Lord of
Hosts, the name has a freshness and even a novelty about it to
believing ears, "God, even our own God." I cannot resist touching that
string again, the note is so enchanting to my soul! That word, "own,"
or "our own," seems always to throw an atmosphere of delicious
fragrance about anything with which it is connected. If it is our
country–
"Lives there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
'This is my own, my native land?'"
Whether it is a land of brown heath and shaggy wood, or a far extended
plain, all men love their own fatherland and in exile they are smitten
with homesickness for their own country. It is so with regard to the
house in which we were reared. That old roof tree, that ancient
homestead–it may have been covered with thatch and have been one of a
group of poor cottages, but still it was our own home and a thousand
kindly thoughts gather around the fireside where we, in childhood,
nestled beneath a parent's wing. "Our own!" Why, all our relatives are
endeared to us by the fact that they are our own!
"Father" is a silver word at all times. But, "our father," "our own
father"–how the name grows richer and turns to a golden word! "Our own
child." "Our own brother." "Our own husband." "Our own wife"–the words
are most melodious. We even feel the Bible to be all the dearer to us
because we can speak of it as "our own old English Bible." As the Jew's
book, coming from God in Hebrew. As a book for the Greek, coming in its
latter half to the Gentile in the Greek tongue, it was a priceless
treasure. But translated into our own familiar Saxon tongue, and, on
the whole, translated so well, our own English Bible is doubly dear to
us.
The sweetness of the words, "our own" led me to call the hymn-book from
which you sing, "Our Own Hymn-Book," hoping that, perchance, the very
name might help to weave your affections round about it. But what shall
I say of "our own God"? Words fail to express the depth of joy and
delight which is contained within these three monosyllables, "Our own
God." "Our own" by the Everlasting Covenant in which He gave Himself to
us with all His attributes, with all that He is and has, to be our
portion forever and ever!
"The Lord is my portion, says my soul." "Our own God," by our own
choice of Him, a choice most free, but guided by His Holy Spirit so
that we who should have chosen our own ruin were sweetly led to make
our election of the Lord, because He had made His election of us. "Our
own God"–ours to trust, ours to love, ours to fly to in every dark and
troublous night–ours to commune with in every bright and balmy day,
ours to be our Guide in life, our Help in death, and our Glory in
immortality! "Our own God," affording us His wisdom to guide our path,
His power to sustain our steps, His love to comfort our lives, His
every attribute to enrich with more than royal wealth!
The man who can truthfully, out of a pure heart, look up to the Throne
of the infinite Jehovah, and call Him, "My own God," has said a more
eloquent thing than ever flowed from the lips of Demosthenes, or fell
from the tongue of Cicero! You are favored beyond all men, you to whom
this is a household word, "our own God."–
"Our God! How pleasant is the sound! How charming to repeat! Well
may those hearts with pleasure bound, Who thus their Lord can
greet!"
I think the Psalmist used this expression in this sublime ode as a kind
of argument and assurance of the blessing which he foretold. "God shall
bless us"–that is true, it is to be believed, but, "our own God shall
bless us"–that sentence flashes conviction upon the most timorous! It
wears assurance as a frontlet between his eyes! It bears upon its
surface its own evidence! If the Lord has been gracious enough to make
Himself our own God, He did not do this for nothing–there is a loving
intention in it. If in the tenderness of His compassion He has said, "I
will be their God, and they shall be My people," it must be with a
design to bless us with unspeakable blessings in Christ Jesus!
Covertly, there is a powerful reason urged in the delightful title and
the more we think upon it the more we shall see it. This morning I
intend simply to keep to the words, "God shall bless us. God shall
bless us." They have been sounding in my ears like far-off bells,
ringing their way with a march of music into the deeps of my soul. May
the same angelic melody charm the ears of all my Brothers and Sisters
in Christ Jesus. "God shall bless us. God shall bless us."
Three personified passions I shall introduce into the pulpit this
morning, and we shall discourse with them a little, or let them speak
with us.
I. The first is FEAR. Pale-faced Fear will be found everywhere. She
meddles with every matter, intruding into the bedchamber of Faith, and
disturbing the banquets of Hope. Fear lodges with some as an abiding
guest and is entertained as though she were a dear, familiar friend.
What does Fear say to us, this morning, in reply to our cheering text?
Fear enquires, "Will God, indeed, bless us–for of late He has withheld
His hand? There have been many hopeful signs, but they have
disappointed us. We have expected the blessing for a long time. We have
thought we have seen the signs of it, but it has not come. We have
heard of revivals and rumors of revivals–men have risen up who have
preached the Word with power, and in some districts there have been
many conversions, but still, to a great extent, we have not received
the blessing. God has not visited us as of old. We have seen the early
cloud and expected rain. We have watched the morning dew and hoped for
moisture, but all these have vanished and we are still left without the
blessing. A thousand past disappointments lead us to fear that the
blessing may not come."
Listen, O Fear, and be comforted! What if you, too hasty and rash, have
misjudged the will of the Lord? Is this any reason why He should forget
His promise and refuse to hear the voice of prayer? Clouds have passed
over the sky every day these many weeks and we have said full often,
"Surely it must rain, and the thirsty fields must be refreshed," but
not a drop as yet has fallen. Yet rain it must before long!
Even so is it with God's mercy. It may not come today, and tomorrow we
may not see it, but still God is not slack concerning His promise as
some men count slackness. He has His own appointed time and He will be
punctual, for while He never is before it, He never is behind it! In
due season–in answer to the entreaties of His people–He will give
them a shower of liberality. All manner of gracious blessings shall
descend from His right hand! He will rend the heavens and in majesty
come down–for, "God shall bless us."
"Yes," says Fear, "But we have seen so many counterfeits of the
blessing. We have seen revivals in which intense excitement has seemed,
for a season, to produce great results. But the excitement has subsided
and the results have disappeared. Have we not, again and again, heard
the sound of trumpets, and the loud boastings of men, but glory was not
the sum of it?" This is most sorrowfully true. There is no doubt that
much of revivalism has been a sham–that there has been a
windbag-filling–a bladder-blowing in the Christian Church which has
been terribly mischievous. The very name, "revival," has been made to
stink in some places by reason of the mischiefs associated with it!
But this is no reason why there should not yet come a glorious and real
revival from the Presence of the Lord! And such, my Brethren, I
earnestly hope for and vehemently pray for! Remember the revival which
passed over New England in the days of Jonathan Edwards? No one could
call that spurious–it was as true and real as any work of God on the
face of the earth could be! Nor could anyone describe the work of
Whitfield, and of Wesley, as a mere spasm or a thing of transient
existence–it was God's right hand made bare and put to the work of
Divine Grace in a marvelous manner! And it was a work done which exists
in England to this day and shall remain even to the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ!
We may expect, then, since it has been already given at other times,
that God will bless His people with real and substantial advances–and
will yet come to the front and make His enemies see that there is an
irresistible power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ! O Fear, remember, if
you will, the delusions of the past and be counseled by them–do not
recall them as reasons for being dispirited and cast down, for God,
even our own God, shall bless us!
But Fear replies, "See how much there is in the present which is unlike
a blessing, and which, instead of prophesying good, pretends evil! How
few there are," says Fear, "who are proclaiming the Gospel boldly and
simply! And how many, on the other hand, oppose the Gospel with their
philosophies or with their superstitions." But listen, O Fear, "God
shall bless us," few though we are, for He saves not by many nor by
few! Remember His servant, Gideon, and how he went up to fight against
the Midianites, not with the thousands, for they were too many for the
Lord of Hosts, but with the few hundred men that lapped! And with
these–with no other weapons than their broken pitchers, and uncovered
lamps, and sounding trumpets–with these did he put to rout the
multitudes of Midian!
Say not that Omnipotence can be short of instruments! He could quicken
the very sand by the seashore into preachers of the Gospel if He
pleased! And if He wanted tongues to tell of His love, He could make
each stone a preacher, or each twinkling leaf upon the trees a witness
for Jesus! It is not instrumentality that is necessary first and
foremost–we need most the power which moves the instrumentality, which
makes the weakest strong–and without which even the strongest are but
weak!
We heard it said, the other day, that the religion of Jesus Christ
could not be expected to prosper in some places unless it had a fair
start. Did that remark come from an infidel, or from a bishop? If I
were asked and knew not, I know what my answer would be! A fair start,
indeed! Put the religion of Jesus Christ into any arena and it asks but
liberty to use its weapons–and even where that is denied it, it
triumphs still! It only needs its own innate strength to be developed,
and to be let alone by the kings and princes of this world, and it will
work its own way. To be let alone, I said–let them oppose it if they
like–yet still our faith will overcome the regal opposition! Only let
them withdraw their patronage– that deadly thing which paralyzes all
spiritual life–and the unshackled Truth of God will most surely
prevail!
We do not tremble, then! We must not, because the servants of God may
be poor, or may not be gifted, or may be but few. God shall, even our
own God, shall bless us! And if we are as few as the 12 fishermen, and
as unlettered as they, yet as the 12 fishermen made old Rome's empire
shake from end to end, and laid colossal systems of idolatry even with
the ground–even so will the Christianity of today! If God does but
return in power unto her, in the midst of her weakness she will wax
valiant in fight and turn to flight the armies of the aliens!
But Fear always finds room for murmuring, and therefore she says, "The
future, the black and gloomy future! What have we to expect from this
wicked generation, this perverse people, but that we shall be given up,
once more, to be devoured by the jaws of Antichrist, or to be lost in
the mists of infidelity? Our prospects are, indeed, appalling," so Fear
says, though I confess, not using her telescope I discern no such signs
of the times. Yet Fear says so, and there may be reason in it. Yet
whatever that reason may be, it is counterbalanced in our mind by the
belief that God, even our own God, will bless us!
Why should He change? He has helped His Church before, why not now? Is
she undeserving? She was always so! Does she backslide? She has done so
oftentimes before, yet has He visited her, and restored her–and why
not now? Instead of forebodings and fears, there seems to me cause for
the brightest expectations if we can only fall back upon the Divine
promise and believe that God, even our own God, shall yet, in this very
age, bless us as He did in days of old!
Remember the ship tossed with tempest on the Galilean lake? There was,
indeed, a dreary outlook for the steersman of the boat! She must,
before long, be driven on the rocky headland and she and her cargo must
sink beneath the waves. Not so, not so, for can't you see, walking upon
the billows which congeal to glass beneath His feet, the Man who loves
the company within the vessel and will not let them die? It is Jesus
walking on the waves of the sea! He comes into the vessel and
immediately the calm is as profound as if waves had not lifted their
head, nor wind had blown!
So in the darkest times of His Church's history Jesus has always, in
due time, appeared walking upon the waves of her troubles–and then her
rest has been glorious! Let us not, therefore, be afraid–but casting
fear away let us rejoice with glad expectation! What can there be to
fear? "God is with us." Is not that the battle cry before which devils
fly, and all the hosts of evil turn their backs? "Immanuel, God with
us!"
Who dares to stand against that? Who will defy the Lion of the tribe of
Judah? Ah, bring your might and come to push or pike, you mighty ones,
but if God is for us, who can be against us, or if against us, who can
stand? God is our own God–will He let His own Church be trampled in
the mire? Shall the bride of Christ be led into captivity? Shall His
Beloved, whom He bought with His blood, be delivered into the hands of
her enemies? God forbid! Because He is God. Because He is for us.
Because He is our own God, therefore we set up our banners and each man
among us cheerily sings–
"For yet I know I shall Him praise,
Who graciously to me
The health is of my countenance,
Yes, my own God is He."
II. We shall change the strain altogether when we introduce a second
character, namely, DESIRE. Quick of step, bright of eye, warm of heart,
Desire says, "Ah, God shall bless us, but O that we had the blessing!
We hunger and we thirst after it. We are covetous for it as the miser
after gold." Therefore Desire says, "But what blessing will come, and
after what fashion shall our own God bless us?" The reply to Desire is
this–when God comes to bless His people, He brings all Grace with Him,
for in the treasures of the Covenant there are not some things, but all
things–not a few supplies for some of the Church's necessities–but a
redundant store from which all her needs shall be replenished!
When the Lord shall bless His Church, He will give to all her members
the Divine Grace of revival! They will begin to live after a higher,
nobler, happier sort than they have done before. To bestir the Church
and make it active is one of the highest gifts of the Holy Spirit, and
this is greatly needed. I believe it is needed among us. Some of the
most earnest Christians out of Heaven are members of this Church–but
some are a very long way off from that and need to be brought into a
sounder spiritual state.
What is true of this one Church is true of all the Churches of Jesus
Christ. They are too much like the virgins who slept because the
bridegroom came not–too much apathy, too little love to God, too
little consecration to His cause, too little pining and panting after
the souls of men. When the Lord shall visit His Church, the first
effect will be the quickening of the life of His own Beloved. Then will
the blessing come in the next shape, namely, conversions in her
borders, and additions to her membership. I hope that we shall never
think that God is blessing us unless we see sinners saved. It is a very
solemn delusion when ministers think they are prospering and yet do not
hear of conversions.
We, I trust, will be most uneasy if conversions should slacken in
number among us. If God returns to us, and to all His Churches, the cry
will be heard on the right hand and on the left, "What must we do to be
saved?" The astonished Church will see such a multitude of children
born to her that she will cry in amazement, "Who has begotten these?
Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?"
When these two blessings come–a quickened Church and souls
converted–then will the Word of the Lord be fulfilled, "The Lord will
give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His people with
peace."
Then the Church will be strong. She will have wherewithal to refute her
adversaries by pointing to her converts. She will become bold because
she sees the result of her work. She will cease to doubt, for faith
will be replenished with evidences. Then peace will reign. The young
converts shall bring in a flood of new joy. Their fresh blood shall
make the old blood of the Church to leap in its veins, and old and
young, rejoicing together, shall rejoice in the abundance of peace!
Brethren, I would if I had time this morning, paint you a picture of a
Church blessed of God! But we must not– you know what it is–many of
you have been members of such a Church. May the blessing continue. May
it be increased–and may all the Churches throughout Christendom
receive the benediction from the God of Israel such as shall make them
rejoice with joy unspeakable!
But Desire says, "I see what the blessing is, but in what degree will
God give it, and in what measure may we expect it?" We say to Desire,
"O you large-hearted one, God will give you according to the measure of
your confidence in Him." We are all too soon satisfied when the
blessing begins to drop from above. We stop, like the king of old, when
we have shot but one or two arrows, and deserve to be rebuked in the
language of the Prophet, "You should have smitten five or six times,
then had you smitten Syria till you had consumed it." We are content
with drops when we might have the cup full to the brim! We are
childishly satisfied with a mere trace of water when we might have
flagons, barrels, rivers, oceans if we had but faith enough to receive
them!
If there should be half-a-dozen persons converted today in this house,
we should all be jubilant with thanksgiving– but ought we not to be
sorry if there are not half-a-dozen hundred? Who are we that, by our
narrow expectations, we limit the Holy One of Israel? Can we draw a
line around Omnipotence and say, "To here shall You go, but no
further"? Were it not wiser to extend our desires, and expand our hopes
since we have to deal with One who knows neither limit nor boundary?
Why not look for years of plenty, eclipsing the famous seven of Egypt?
Why not expect clusters excelling those of Eshcol? Why are we so mean,
so dwarfed, so straitened in our expectancies? Let us grasp at greater
things–for it is reasonable, with the Lord to trust in–to look for
greater things!
I reckon upon days in which every sermon shall shake the house with its
power, in which the hearers shall be converted to God by thousands as
in the day of Pentecost! Was that to be the greatest trophy of God's
power, the Pentecost? Is the first sheaf to be greater than the
harvest? How can it be? We believe that if God will again visit His
Church, and I trust He is going to do so, we shall see nations born in
a day, and the Gospel of Jesus, which has painfully limped like a
wounded hind, will suddenly take to itself wings as of a mighty angel
and fly throughout the midst of Heaven, proclaiming Jesus Christ both
Lord and God!
Why not? Who can justify the absence of the liveliest hope, since He is
able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or even think? I
hear Desire say, "Yes, I understand what the blessing is, and that it
can be had in any measure, but how is it to be obtained and when will
it come?" Follow me in a very brief review of the Psalm before us,
because that will help us to answer the question. When is it that,
"God, even our own God, shall bless us?" The Psalm begins with "God be
merciful unto us." That is the voice of a penitent people confessing
their past misdeeds. God will bless His Church when she acknowledges
her faults and humbles herself. When, with an evangelical repentance,
she stands before the Mercy Seat, and cries, "God be merciful unto us!"
We must never expect that the Lord will bless a proud and conceited
Church–a hard-hearted and indifferent Church. When humbled and laid in
the dust under a sense of her own shortcomings, then shall God be
pleased to look upon her in mercy. I gather from the tenor of the first
verse that God blesses His people when they begin to pray as well as
when they confess their sins. The prayer is urgent, humble and
believing, and therefore it must speed. "God be merciful unto us, and
bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us." These agonizing desires
are a part of the wailing of a Church conscious of having somewhat lost
the blessing, and ill at ease until it is restored.
We are sure to receive the benediction from God when the entire Church
is instant and constant in intercession. Prayer is the best resort of
an earnest people. Are we not witnesses of it? We have had Prayer
Meetings in this house in which we have all been stirred as the trees
of the woods are moved in the wind–and then we have always had the
Presence of God afterwards in the conversion of souls. Our best praying
times have always been followed by joyful harvest homes. The Churches
everywhere must be prayerful–intensely so–or else they cannot expect
that the sound of abundance of rain should be heard throughout their
land.
Awake to confess sin, O Zion, awake to soul-travail for the souls of
men and then shall God, your Lord, visit you from on high! Come, Holy
Spirit, and arouse Your slumbering people! Bestir Your sluggard host,
for when Your power is felt, then has the bright day of triumph dawned
upon us! As the Psalm runs, it speaks not so much of prayer as of
praise, "Let the people praise You, O God. Let all the people praise
You. Then shall the earth yield her increase." The Church of God needs
to get into a better state with regard to her praising her God. When
mercy is received, if we accept it silently and without gratitude, we
cannot expect to have more. But when every drop of favor makes us bless
the Lord who gives to such undeserving ones, we shall soon have more,
and yet more, and more!
The praise ought to be universal. "Let all the people praise You." It
ought to be joyful and hearty, each man rejoicing in the exercise and
casting all his strength into it. When shall we all wake up to this?
When shall all the Lord's elect magnify His glorious name as they
should? When shall we sing at our work, sing in our households, sing
everywhere the praises of God? If prayer and praise are sacredly
blended and the Church becomes thoroughly anxious for the Divine
blessing, then God, even our God, will bless us!
If I were asked, now, to give some indications as to when a blessing
may be expected, I should have to run somewhat in the same vein as we
did last Thursday evening, and that I cannot avoid. I believe that when
a great visitation of mercy is coming upon the Church there are certain
signs which are given to the more spiritual, which assure them that it
is coming. Elijah could hear "a sound of abundance of rain" before a
single drop had fallen–and many a saint of God has had the conviction
that a time of refreshing is coming long before it has come. Some souls
are especially sensitive to Divine workings, just as some men's bodies
are peculiarly sensitive to changes of weather before they arrive.
As Columbus was sure that he was coming to land because he saw strange
land birds and floating pieces of seaweed and broken wood, so
oftentimes the Christian minister feels sure that he is drawing near to
a time of amazing blessing. He can scarcely tell another why he feels
so sure, and yet the indications to him are sure. There are doves that
come flying into our hands that tell us that the waters of indifference
and worldliness are receding. They bring us olive branches of hopeful
Graces flourishing among our people which let us know that the time to
favor Zion is surely coming.
Have you ever seen the ancient seer arise, take his harp down from the
wall and begin to tune it? He puts every string in order. He lays his
fingers among the unaccustomed strings and commences to sweep the
strings with unusual energy of delight. Have you not enquired of him,
"Gray Harper, minstrel consecrated to the Lord, why do you strike your
song so full of cheer?" He replies, "Because I see afar the silken
banners of a triumphant host returning victorious from the fray. It is
the Church, made more than conqueror through Him who loved her! I hear
the moving of the wings of angels. They are rejoicing over penitents
and the Church is glad, for her glory returns seeing that her sons are
many."
Men enlightened with the light of Heaven feel the shadow of the coming
mercy and hear the far-off wheels of the chariot of mercy! These
tokens, of course, will only be appreciable by the few, but there are
others, tokens which are instructive to the many. It is a very certain
sign that the Lord will bless His people when they feel in themselves
an unusual and insatiable craving for the Divine visitation–when they
feel as if the Church could not go on longer as she now is doing–when
they begin to fret, and pant, and sigh, and hunger and thirst after
something better.
I would to God that all the members of this Church were gloriously
dissatisfied without more conversions! And when this dissatisfaction
arises in the Christian mind, it is pretty generally a sure indication
that God is enlarging the hearts of His people that they may receive a
larger blessing! Then there will come into prepared minds a sacred
heaving of intense excitement and throes of awful purpose–mysterious
longings to which they were strangers before! These will gravitate into
impulses which they will be unable to resist! Men who had been dumb
before will suddenly find a tongue! Others will become mighty in prayer
who never were known as master suppliants up to that moment! There will
be tears in eyes long dry before! We shall find professors talking to
sinners and winning converts who kept in the rear in days now past and
were never zealous until now!
These stirrings of God's hand–these sacred and mysterious motions of
His ever blessed Spirit–are signs that He intends to bless His Church
and that to a large degree. And, Brothers and Sisters, when every man
begins to search himself, to see whether there is any obstacle in him
to the blessing–when every single member of the Church exposes his
heart to the search of God and cries, "Take away from me everything
that hinders Your work! Fit me for greater usefulness! Put me where You
will win glory by me, for I am consecrated to You," then we shall hear
the sound as of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, as David of
old!
Then shall we see the flowers spring up and we shall know that the time
of the singing of birds is drawing near, and that spring and summer are
close at hand! May God send us more and more of these gracious signs! I
think I see them even now. Perhaps my wish is father to my thought, but
I think I see comfortable signs that God intends to visit His Zion even
now! And if we will but believe it, will but accept it and work in
accordance with such expectation, unitedly praying and praising, and
laboring and striving–rest assured this year, 1868, will not come to
its close without such a display of the Divine power as shall make it
an annus mirabilis, a year of our Lord, a year of Divine Grace, a year
whose days shall be as the days of Heaven upon the earth!
III. Lastly, I introduce to you a far fairer being than either of the
other two–the sweet bright-eyed maiden HOPE. Have you ever heard the
story of her matchless song? She learned in her youth a song which she
sings evermore to the accompaniment of a well-tuned harp. Here are the
words of her enchanting lay: "God will bless us. God will bless us."
She has often been heard singing this in the night, and, lo! stars have
suddenly shone out of the black sky. "God will bless us." She has been
known to sing this in the midst of tempests and calms have followed the
soothing song.
Once upon a time certain strong laborers were sent forth by the great
king to level a primeval forest–to plow it, to sow it–and to bring
the harvest to him. They were stout-hearted and strong, and willing
enough for labor, and well they needed all their strength and more. One
stalwart laborer was named Industry–consecrated work was his! His
brother Patience, with muscles of steel, went with him and tired not in
the longest days, under the heaviest labors. To help them they had
Zeal, clothed with ardent and indomitable energy. Side by side, there
stood his kinsman Self-Denial, and his friend, Importunity.
These went forth to their labor and they took with them, to cheer their
toils, their well-beloved sister, Hope–and well it was they did, for
the forest trees were huge and needed many sturdy blows of the axe
before they would fall prone upon the ground. One by one they yielded,
but the labor was immense and incessant. At night when they went to
their rest, the day's work always seemed so light, for as they crossed
the threshold, Patience, wiping the sweat from his brow, would be
encouraged and Self-denial would be strengthened, for they heard a
sweet voice within sing, "God will bless us. God, even our own God,
will bless us."
They felled the giant trees to the music of that strain! They cleared
the acres one by one. They tore from their sockets the huge roots. They
leveled the soil. They sowed the corn and waited for the harvest–often
much discouraged, but still in silver chains and golden fetters by the
sweet sound of the voice which chanted so constantly–"God, even our
own God, will bless us." They never could refrain from service for she
never could refrain from song! They were ashamed to be discouraged!
They were shocked to be despairing, for still the voice rang clearly
out at morn and eventide, "God will bless us. God, even our own God,
will bless us."
You know the parable, you recognize the voice–may you hear it in your
souls today! God will bless us! We are few, too few for this great
work, but God will bless us and therefore we are enough! We are feeble
and little taught–with little experience and slender wisdom–but God
will bless us, and we shall be wise enough and strong enough! We are
undeserving, full of sin, fickle and frail–but God will bless us and
our undeservingness shall be a foil in which to set the precious
diamond of His mercy! God will bless us–there are glorious promises
which guarantee the blessing! They must be kept, for they are yes and
amen in Christ Jesus!
The nations must bow down before Messiah! Ethiopia must stretch out her
arms to receive her King. God will bless us! He has blessed His people.
Let Egypt tell how God overthrew His Israel's enemies. Let Canaan
witness how He slew kings and overthrew mighty kings, and gave their
land for a heritage, even a heritage unto His people. God will bless
us! He has given us His Son–how shall He not, with Him, also freely
give us all things? He has given us His Holy Spirit to abide with us
forever! How can He deny us any necessary aid or requisite benediction?
Here is a song for each Christian man and woman engaged in holy work!
Here is a song for your Sunday school classes this afternoon, you
diligent teachers of our youth! If you have seen no good come of your
work and you grow somewhat dispirited, here is a Psalm to raise your
sinking spirits, "God will bless us." Go on and teach the Gospel to the
youngsters with redoubled zeal! Here is a sweet note for the minister
who has been plowing a thankless soil and seen no harvest. "God will
bless us." Cease not from your energetic labors! Go back to your work,
for you have such a blessing yet to come that you may well rejoice even
in the prospect of its coming! Let each worker go forth to that form of
Christian service which his Master has appointed him, hearing this bird
of paradise warbling in his ears, "God will bless us."
Like David's minstrelsy before Saul, it charms away despair! Like the
silver trumpets of the priests, it proclaims a jubilee! O that like the
rams' horns of Israel it may level Jericho! Why, if just once this
morning I could address with the eloquence of Peter the Hermit, when
preaching the Crusade–when he made his hearers shout aloud, "Deus
vult!" I, too, would stir your blood with the war-note of my text! I
think this, "God will bless us," might just as much stir you, and move
you, and make you dash along like a mighty host of warriors as did the,
"God wills it," of the Hermit! God is with us! He will bless us!
Why do you hesitate? Why do you grow weary? Why do you look to a human
arm for strength? Why do you fear your enemies? Why do you seek
slothful ease? Why do you get to your beds of rest? God will bless us!
Up, you men-at-arms, and snatch the victory! Grasp your sickles, you
farmers, and gather in the harvest! Hoist your sails, you mariners, for
the favoring winds are coming! "God will bless us!" O for fire from off
the altar to touch our lips! And what can be a better instrument with
which to carry the flaming coal than the golden tongs of the text, "God
will bless us"?
One word of warning and we have done. Suppose the Lord should bless
"us" in the plural, and not "you," dear Hearer, in the singular! What
if there should be showers of mercy and they should not drop on you?
What if He should bestow a token for good upon His people but you
should be left out? It may be so, for it has been so–and if such is
the dreary fact, it will make you worse instead of better–for none is
so dry as the fleece which remains dry when the floor is wet! None is
so lost as those who are lost where others are saved. Tremble lest that
should be your case!
Yet it need not be so! Oh, blessed be God, I hope I can say it shall
not be so! "Seek you the Lord while He may be found! Call upon Him
while He is near." He has abundant pardons to bestow and He will give
them freely to all who ask! All He asks of you is that you trust His
Son and this faith His Holy Spirit gives. Do trust Him! Rest upon the
merit of His precious blood and you will not be left out when He
dispenses His favors, but you shall sing as cheerfully as all the rest,
"God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us."
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Working Out What is Worked In
A Sermon