The Philosophy of Promise

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 29, 1879,

BY C.H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"New things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them."
Isaiah 42:9.

GOD has often foretold things to come by the lips of His Prophets. I
need not give you even a single specimen of the multitudes of instances
in which events which could not have been guessed at–which, indeed,
were highly improbable and unlikely–were nevertheless foretold by the
Spirit of God through the Prophets and actually came to pass. The Lord
claims this as a proof of His Godhead. It is His special prerogative to
possess Omniscience, the knowledge of everything and, therefore,
Prescience, or the knowledge of that which will happen in years to
come. These are attributes of God, alone, and often He challenges idols
to produce instances in which they have exercised foresight and
predicted things to come. They had their oracles, which were the
mimicry of prophecy, but they continually failed, whereas Jehovah's
Word stood fast even in jots and tittles and thus His eternal Godhead
was proven.

The imitation of this attribute by the magicians and prophets of the
false gods proved that they saw this to be an exclusive attribute of
Deity and their perpetual confusion in their attempts proved, with
equal clearness, that their mock deities did not possess it. I think it
most admirable and it seems another instance of the foresight of the
Holy Spirit, that the words of my text should stand where they do, for
it may not be unknown to some of you that the modern critics, who
always try, if they can, to tear the heart out of every text and are
never satisfied until, like swine, they trample beneath their feet
every cluster of Eshcol–these modern critics, I say, have dared to
ascribe one part of the Book of Isaiah to a second Isaiah, as they call
him, who wrote after the times of Christ.

They do this, you see, because the Prophecy so plainly describes our
Lord Jesus Christ that men who will not believe in God, or in the
Inspiration of His Holy Bible, are driven to invent the notion that a
prophecy was written after the event. Truly, it might as well have been
written afterwards, as before, for it is so accurate. But here, as if
the Lord foresaw that there would come, in the last days, scoffers, He
bids His servant, in these express words, claim that He speaks things
before they come to pass–"Behold, the former things are come to pass,
and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of
them."

It remains, therefore, for these sham Christian critics either to
accept the fact that Isaiah's book contains actual Prophecies, or else
to reject it altogether. Their specious pretense of believing the book
to be authentic while they deny its prophetic character is exposed by
the words before us. It is not, however, about Prophecy that I am going
to speak at this time. I wish to bring forth a general principle–the
principle that our gracious Lord usually gives a promise of that which
He means to bestow. Before His favors come into our hands, the sound of
them falls upon our ears! Since God is full of mercy and Grace, He has
resolved to give great blessings to the sons of men, but He gives not
without prudent arrangement and, therefore, His wisdom fixes times for
the bestowal of His gifts.

A certain fullness of time of which He often speaks was necessary
before the coming of Christ. Our Lord could not appear in human flesh
until that appointed time had come. But while His wisdom bade Him stay,
the fulfillment of His love was so great that He must begin to speak of
the grand Covenant blessing! Before the Lord Jesus came, the Father was
continually speaking of His coming! Before He had given Him from His
bosom to die, He so delighted in what He was going to do and He took
such pleasure in the result of His glorious gift that He must speak
about it! And so in countless promises He spoke with the sons of men
concerning the great deed of love. This seems to me a clear proof of
how heartily He went about the great work of our redemption–because He
dwelt so much upon the prospect of it that He revealed His thoughts in
Prophecy and promise.

If you are going to do some kindness to a friend and the time has not
quite come for it, yet you cannot keep your purpose a secret. If you
think it will minister to his comfort to receive a promise of it, you
are sure to give him some

cheering hint or comforting intimation. The thought is pleasant to
yourself and you wish him to share your anticipation. You wish him to
get a sight of the good thing before he gets a taste of it. Before he
actually obtains the help, itself, you wish to see him cheered with the
prospect and so you turn his mind hopefully in the kindly direction.
Love is so fond of its object that it is not content with blessing it
by a solitary act–before the time comes for the actual blessing, love
casts forth a fragrance, as a forecast of the flower which is yet in
bloom and not fully opened.

It is for this reason that the Lord antedates His mercy and informs His
people of things to come before they actually spring forth. Wisdom
waits its time to fulfill, as we have said, but Grace gives the promise
beforehand that it may ease its own soul of the load of its beneficence
and give comfort to those who are to receive the blessing. Hence almost
everything that God gives to His people is made a matter of promise. He
not only means to bestow the favor, but He tells us He means to bestow
it and He has a practical purpose in this information. The philosophy
of promise is my topic at this time. Why are Covenant blessings the
subject of promises? Why does not the Lord give us the blessing without
previous intimation? It would be as effectual. Why does He, before it
comes, promise it again and again? I shall give five answers to a
question which might admit of fifty.

I. And the first is this. GOD SPEAKS THESE THINGS BEFORE THE BLESSING
COMES IN ORDER TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE. First, to display the freeness of
His Grace. You will notice that the promise to which He specially
alludes is this, "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners
from the prison house." Now these blind and captive persons had not
sought Grace. They had not pleaded for eyes, nor asked for liberty. In
fact, they were not even born in the days of Isaiah! It is a case like
that of Jacob quoted by Paul, "The children not being yet born," the
promise was made irrespectively of them. Unsought, unbought, unthought
of, the promise came that He would open the blind eyes and bring the
prisoners out of the prison house.

This, I say, proves the freeness of God's Grace, that He makes a
promise before we know our need or seek His face. When He makes a
promise of pure Grace, He does not come to us and say, "If this," and,
"if that," and, "if the other." No, He comes with, "I will," and, "I
will," and, "I will," and, "I will," before we seek Him, before we have
any desire towards Him, yes, and before we have any sense of need of
Him. There are many conditional promises for which we ought to be very
thankful, but the foundation of them all is an absolute, unconditioned
Covenant of Grace. A redemption was provided for me before I lived and,
consequently, before I could have known that I was a slave. The Spirit
of God was given that I might live before I knew that I was dead and,
consequently, before I could have made an appeal for spiritual

life.

The blessings of the Covenant of Grace, my dear Hearers, were laid up
in store for God's chosen people ages ago. Before the Fall actually
took place, the Covenant had arranged for the recovery of the Church of
Christ. These blessings have been in existence and provided for many of
you, albeit that even now, perhaps you do not know your need of them
and have not yet begun to seek the Lord that you may find Him, for the
Lord, in mighty Grace, comes to men long before they come to Him. Their
first sincere thought towards Him is caused by His having thought of
them!–

"No sinner can be beforehand with Thee. Your Grace is most sovereign,
most rich, and most free." The promise of the Covenant runs thus–"I
will call them My people that were not My people, and her Beloved that
was not beloved." The Grace of God comes thus spontaneously from the
heart of God and He foretells its working and declares that He will
save His chosen in order that it may be seen beyond all dispute to be
the outcome of His own deliberate purpose and the act of His sacred
Sovereignty and boundless lave.

I think the Lord also tells us what He is going to do before He does it
that we may see the fullness of His Grace. The Lord says that He will
come, not to men who are looking for Him, but to those who have blind
eyes and, therefore, cannot look! He says that He will come, not to
those who are coming to Him, though He will do that, but to those who
cannot come to Him because they are shut up as in a prison. Notice the
passage–they are blind prisoners and cannot come forth–and yet the
Lord comes to take the film from their eyes and to tear the iron bar
from the window and set the captive free, not because there is any
goodness in the poor blind prisoner at the present moment, nor because
there ever will be any, but simply because the Lord is full of mercy
and delights to display His Grace.

Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus came to seek and to save that which
was lost. He is a Physician and, therefore, comes not to seek the
whole, but the sick. To make us know this glorious fairness of His
Grace, He informs us beforehand

of what He is about to do. Moreover, I think it is not only to show the
freeness and the fullness of His Grace, but the power of it, for He
speaks very positively. He says that He will open the blind eyes and He
will bring out the prisoners from the prison. Can He do this? Yes, that
He can. There can be no question about His ability! When the Lord
resolves to save, save He can! Some people believe in a great god in
Nature, but in a very little God in Grace. The god of Nature can do
everything, they say, and they believe in physical miracles–but
according to their notions, the God of Grace has to consult the will of
man and He has to halt and hesitate until the dead man will arise and
give himself life and unwilling man will change his own will!

I believe in the Omnipotence of God in the kingdom of Grace and that He
can change a heart of stone to flesh and break the iron sinew of the
stubborn will and bow men before Him. To me the Almighty is as supreme
in the realm of mind as in the world of matter. I do not doubt the free
agency of man–on the contrary, I see daily evidence of it! I believe
man to be a free agent and yet he is not and cannot be more powerful in
any respect than the Lord of All! The Lord knows how to be master in
the kingdom of the human will and, without violating that will in any
degree, He can achieve the eternal purpose of His love. To triumph over
mere dead matter is nothing compared with the glory of the Lord's rule
over mind, thought, intellect and will! He will have mercy on whom He
will have mercy and He will have compassion on whom He will have
compassion, and yet he that comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out.

The Lord's Grace is irresistible–His purpose shall stand and He will
do all His pleasure. "This is taking high ground," says one. It is
ground blessedly high for sinking sinners! It is such ground as we need
who are utterly lost and ruined and undone! You that can help
yourselves may go and do it, but we who cannot do so are glad to find
that God knows what He is going to do and speaks with the tone of a
Sovereign and with the voice of One who has not to ask help from
others, but who can work all things according to the counsel of His own
will. "Before they spring forth I tell you of them," He says. Because
His Grace is mighty, He thus speaks of what is going to be done. Oh
listen to me, you blind ones who cannot open your own eyes! Christ has
come to open them!

O you lost sinners who cannot save yourselves, Christ has come to save
you! Oh, you that are all but damned and lie at Hell's gate expecting
the flame, have hope, for Christ has come to save that which was lost!
O you firebrands that almost smoke in the burning, He comes to pluck
you out of the fire! He does not come to help you to save yourselves,
but to save you! He does not approach you with measured steps in order
that you may come half way to meet Him, but He comes all the way to you
in your death, your ruin, your poverty, your misery, your blindness,
your captivity! He comes to achieve salvation and He proclaims what He
is about to do in order that He may have the Glory of it.

That is our first head, then. The Lord announces His purposes of love
to display His Grace.

II. Secondly, Brothers and Sisters, I think the Lord announces the
Covenant blessings He is about to bestow IN ORDER TO AWAKEN OUR HOPES.
Many poor souls would actually die before they were saved if they did
not get some little hope, every now and then, while they are in a
seeking state. I am not speaking haphazardly, now, I am speaking of
cases that I know–poor tempted, troubled ones–to whom the promises
are as a brook by the way of which they drink and lift up their heads.
Some of you come to Christ apparently very easily. Thank God for it!
But I know others who cannot get at the Lord Jesus for the press. They
even try to look to Him, but they are blinded by their tears. I cannot
excuse their unbelief, but I pity their poor trembling spirits. They
are coming to Christ, but they are like the child of whom we read that,
"when he was a coming the devil threw him down and tore him." They are
sadly torn and cannot get to Christ.

Now, when the Lord tells His people what He will do, they are cheered
with expectation. When they read such texts as these, "A new heart also
will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within you," and, "I
will put My Law in your hearts, and you shall not depart from Me," and,
"Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more forever."
"Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool"– poor souls
catch at such words of promise and learn how to hope. "Oh!" they say,
"if that promise might be true for me, then I would not perish! Perhaps
the Lord will look in mercy upon me." Every now and then the Lord saves
a great big sinner–an unusually black sinner–and what does He do with
him? He makes him a walking advertisement of His mercy so that others
see the infinite Grace of God!

Men cry out in wonder," What? Has So-and-So found Christ? Then why
should not we?" Perhaps the man may have been guilty of great
iniquities. He may have been a ringleader in wickedness. But the Lord
takes him and washes him

from his sin and opens his mouth to praise His name! When such an one
begins to speak of Divine love, poor tormented spirits catch at the
words and they say, "Why should not I find mercy? Why should not I be
saved?" When such a man becomes a living proof of what God can do, the
promise stands out to the life before the poor sinner's eyes and he
says, "Ah, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps there is salvation for me!"

John Bunyan, who had been a drunken tinker, went about preaching the
everlasting Gospel like a man who had been in the condemned cell and
had received a pardon! And I tell you the villagers gathered to listen
to such a one as he because they wondered at God's mighty Grace! They
said, one to another, "Has Mr. Bad-Man become a pilgrim? Then why
should we not start our pilgrimage, also? Has infinite Mercy changed
his heart? Then why should it not change ours?" I would have you pluck
up courage, any sinners among you who are here at this time! Supposing
you to be the very worst persons that ever lived and supposing you to
have the worst temper, the worst disposition, the worst besetting sins
and the worst habits that any men have ever had, I tell you the Lord,
in great mercy, has saved just such as you and He has promised, still,
to deal with great sinners in a way of great love!

Seize hold of this blessed fact! Weave a hope out of it and say, "I
need not despair–not even I. I need not plunge into great sin under
the notion that I cannot be saved. 'He is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him.' He can save me! He has said, 'Him
that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out,' and if I come to Him, He
will not cast me out. I will not despair, then, or sit down and say
there is no hope! I deserve to be with the devils in Hell, but why
should I not be among the saints in Heaven? I deserve to be banished
forever, but why should there not be a crown in Heaven for me?

"Ah, will not the saints wonder when they see me come in? The angels
will look down from their harps and say, 'What? Is he here?' Then I
will tell the story of what the Lord has done and set them wondering
over again, till even they shall say, 'It has never been so before!
Here comes the biggest, blackest, most Hell-deserving wretch that ever
did enter Heaven! Lift up a loftier song than ever! Louder and louder
yet! Let the song ring through the heavenly arches, for Love has
out-loved itself and Grace has out-graced itself above all it has ever
done before!"

I pray God that some despairing soul may grasp these cheering facts and
be comforted. I am trying to throw the big net to catch a whale of a
sinner if he is floating anywhere near my boat. I know if the Gospel
net once encloses him, it will hold him, for not a single mesh of it
will give way despite his size and his struggling. I would like to put
the Gospel so wide and so broad that the sheep which is hunted by the
dog of Hell farthest away from the fold may, nevertheless, come back to
the great and gracious Shepherd of Souls. Why, Beloved, even God's own
believing people need to be told, at times, of what God will do in
order to encourage their hope.

Look how the Lord deals with His persecuted ones. When they are hunted,
slandered, despoiled of their goods, what does He do? He makes them
know that they have a richer inheritance in Heaven! He sets before them
the joys which He has prepared for them that love Him. Now, He might,
if He liked, have kept all about Heaven to Himself and so have made it
a surprise to us and, indeed, some seem to think that He has done so,
but in this they are ill advised. We know much about Heaven even now.
"Why," says one, "the Scripture says, 'Eye has not seen, neither has
ear heard.'" I know it does, but why do you stop in the middle of a
text? You make it say the reverse of what it intends to say! Hear the
whole of it. "Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love
Him; but He has revealed them unto us by His Spirit."

By chopping it in halves you made the passage say the very opposite of
what it intended! Your eyes have not seen and your ears have not heard,
but His Spirit has told you concerning the things which He has prepared
for you–and this is no little privilege. I need not stay to tell you
how much the Lord has told us about the eternal state, as to our being
with Jesus where He is, that we may behold His Glory and may be sharers
in that Glory forever. He has told us this to cheer us up while on the
road, to encourage us that we may never sink in despair. Going to lie
down and die, Brother? Do you know how near you are to Heaven? Perhaps
you will be there in a month! Going to give it all up now? Will you be
so foolish as to leave the battle just as the victory is won? Brother,
does the devil tell you to turn back? He knows how near you are to
Glory!

You are something like Columbus when he was within three days sail of
America and the sailors bade him stay his course. He could not, would
not reverse his venturous ship, but pushed on and found the new world!
Some of us may be within a very few days' sail of Heaven and yet do not
know it–and the devil has the impudence to persuade us to go

back. Shall we listen to the impudent fiend? No, by the Grace of God,
never! If the journey is long, the end will repay us for it. If the
voyage is rough, the brave country will make amends for all the
tempests which have wreaked their vengeance upon us. Onward, onward, be
our course! To help us to persevere even to the end, the Lord has made
the new things known to us and has told us of them before they spring
forth.

Two good answers to the question are now before us and each one is an
argument for adoration.

III. But now, thirdly, why has the Lord told us about the mercies He
intends to give? To EXERCISE OUR FAITH. The Gospel of God is a Gospel
for Believers and one of God's great objectives in the whole
arrangement of the Gospel system is to educate our confidence in Him. I
remember speaking, once, with a Brother upon the room which God has
left for faith to work. We were speaking about the various defenses
which have been used to prove the veracity of the Christian religion
against infidel assaults and I was remarking upon the manifest failure
of certain of them which appeared exceedingly strong, at one time, but
are now abandoned because under new attacks they have manifestly
failed.

My friend was deploring that this book and the other, which had once
been considered as standard works, seemed to have lost power over this
generation. It came to the minds of both of us that if God had made the
Christian religion so clear that you could make an axiom of it, or
prove it as easily as you show that twice two make four, there would
have been no room for faith at all–and then the Divine system of
salvation would have taken another course, for faith would have
occupied a very narrow space in it. The Lord intends that men should
exercise faith in His Word, for He knows that faith is necessary to us
if we are to be delivered from sin. A man cannot be saved if He does
not trust His God. And when a man is brought to trust His God, he is
practically saved.

You ask, "How is that?" If a man has a servant and that servant has
fallen out with his master, if it is desirable to bring that servant to
obedience, the first thing to do is to make him believe in his master.
If he believes his master to be good, true, kind and noble, you have
gained the servant's obedience. He will be reconciled to his master and
will be right well content to serve him. So that faith and trust,
though they appear to be such minor things that we wonder why they
should be the great requirement of the Gospel, are not small matters
after all! They are the pivot upon which character turns. When I bring
my mind down to this, that I believe God and accept the Bible as His
Revelation, I am getting right. If when I cannot understand the Word of
God I believe it as much as if I did understand it, then I have in
heart become obedient to God. I have taken up the place which a
creature ought to occupy towards His Creator and the act of trusting
and believing has become the pivot upon which I turn as my mind seeks
the Lord. And by its means I get into a right condition with Him.

Therefore does the Lord, before He gives us a mercy, say to us,
"Believe in Me and you shall have it. Believe in the Atonement made by
My dear Son and you shall have pardon. Believe in My willingness to
forgive you and submit yourself and cast yourself at My feet and I will
forgive and bless you." It is not a hard thing that He requires. It is
not a wrong thing. It is an act of the heart which is good for us all
round and, becomes the instrument in the hand of the Spirit of
reconciling us to God. The Lord has told us what great things He is
going to do for sinners and I want you to answer the question–Do you
believe that He can do this? Come now, you that are ungodly and
graceless, do you believe that God can save you? Can He make you holy?
Can He make you gracious?

You have many sins, but do you believe that Christ can blot them all
out in a moment and make you to be as though you had never committed
them, casting them behind the back of God, Himself, so that they shall
never be mentioned against you any more? Can you believe all this? If
you can believe it, can you also believe another thing, namely, that He
is willing to do this deed of love? Can you believe that the great
Father does not will that you should perish and has no joy that you
should be lost? Can you believe that it will give Him delight to
receive you? That He will be glad to press you to His bosom and make
you His child and that you should be reconciled to Him? Can you believe
this? By the wounds of God, by the blood of the Son of God on Calvary,
I say you ought to believe it, for He that loved sinners well enough to
die cannot be unwilling that they should be saved!

You can believe His power and His willingness, you say. Well, the only
thing that you have to do, now, in order to be saved this moment is to
act out your belief upon these two points. He can and He is
willing–throw yourself upon that power and will. Trust yourself with
Jesus, now! That is the one demand of the Gospel–"Believe and live."
Rest in the knowledge that He has reconciled you to Himself in Christ
and that He forgives you now because you trust alone in His

Son for your eternal salvation. Will you do this at once? Will you rest
on Christ Jesus? Then, "Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven."
You are a saved man!

"Oh, but how," you ask, "do I know that I am saved?" You shall feel and
know that you are saved if you believe, for you shall find yourself,
from this time, loving the things which you did before hate and hating
the things which you did once love–and that simple act of trusting
which seems so insignificant will transform you and will become the
hinge on which your life shall turn. Believing in Christ, you shall go
out of this house saying, "I am a forgiven man and I love the God who
has forgiven me. I am washed in the blood of Christ and from now on
will I serve Him–

'Lord, in the strength of Grace,

With a glad heart and free,

Myself, my residue of days,

I consecrate to Thee.'

I am Christ's man forever! I will not grieve Him, by the help of His
Holy Spirit. I will live to His praise. I will tell others what He has
done for me and my entire life shall be a life of obedience if He will
but help me and keep me and sustain me by His gracious power."

You see now why the blessings of Grace are foretold–that they may
become objects of faith. God give you faith to exercise upon them now.

IV. Fourthly, and very briefly, these things are told us before they
come to pass THAT THEY MAY EXCITE OUR PRAYER. After hope and faith,
prayer is quite sure to follow. Note the order–the Lord says that
Christ shall come to open the eyes of the blind–here is Grace. I
pictured the blind man just now as saying, "Jesus is come to open the
blind eyes; why should He not open mine?" Here is hope. Next the blind
man goes on to say, "He says that He will do it if I trust in Him. I
know He can. I believe He will. I will trust Him." Here is faith. What
is the very next thing that the blind man does? Why he begins to pray
to Him. "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Here is prayer.

As soon as the first little drop of faith falls into a man's soul, he
begins to pray, "Lord, You have promised pardon to Believers. Give that
pardon to me. You have promised a new heart. Give a new heart to me.
You have promised eternal salvation to as many as obey Christ. Lord,
give me eternal salvation." Oh that blessed gift of faith! It soon
brings a man to his knees. When he hopes that he may gain the blessing.
When he believes that he may have it–then he begins to cry for it–and
if he cries with real faith, he has already obtained the blessing for
which he is seeking! While he is pleading, God is hearing!

Think of those poor people in the prisons. There they sit in darkness
and they make no sound but groans. But suddenly a Voice is heard. Jesus
comes to set the captives free! It is repeated, "He comes, He comes to
loose the ones in bondage." Inside the prison there shines a Light in
the midst of the darkness and the prisoners say, "If He comes, why
should not He come to us? Blessed be His name, we hope He will come to
us." And now you can hear them cry, "Come! Come! Come, Lord! Come
quickly! Break these chains! Dispel this darkness. Set us free." And it
is not long after the prisoner of hope begins to pray, before the walls
totter and the captive is free as a bird of the air. The Lord thus, as
it were, holds out the mercy so that His dear ones may ask for it, cry
for it, struggle for it! And that so they may get the double blessing
of being taught to pray as well as to receive the answer of their
prayers!

O you that are the people of God, I want you to learn this lesson, that
all God's promises which are not fulfilled are meant to stimulate you
to pray! We read a chapter just now in which the Lord says that the
isles shall wait for God. Pray for it! He has promised to give His Son
the heathen for His inheritance. Pray that the heathen may be the
heritage of your Prince! Every promise should be turned into prayer! I
believe that the whole earth will yet be "filled with the knowledge of
the Lord as the waters cover the sea," but not without prayer. Even
Christ must pray. Is it not written, "Ask of Me and I shall give you
the heathen for Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for Your possession"? Christ is to come, but He has taught His Church
to say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

There is no picture of the princely reign of Christ but what should at
once awaken our desires and those desires should be set on fire with
prayer. Thus says the Lord, "For this will I be enquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them." And yet if the Lord does not do
some great thing before His Church prays greatly, the good thing is not
coming just yet. We do have good Prayer Meetings in this Tabernacle,
thank God. It is the joy of my heart to see so many assemble to pray,
though some of you do not come as I wish you did. You do not know what
you lose, you who do not come to our delightful Prayer Meetings. You
are more losers by being away than we are by losing your company. We
are

sorry to miss you, but our sorrow is on your account, for you do not
know what you lose. We ought to meet for prayer– we cannot expect the
blessing unless we do!

I have little to say on that score, by way of rebuke, to you who
compose my regular congregation, for you do not, many of you, sin in
that direction. But I know some churches where the Prayer Meeting is a
mere form. It is such a little affair that they might put it in a dish,
cover it up, lock it up in the pantry and say nothing about it. It is a
miniature concern, a very sick dwarf! If God blessed some Churches in
London in proportion to their prayers, He would not bless them much,
for the Prayer Meetings are held in the vestry and that is not full,
nor one-half full at the best. A Prayer Meeting in the Chapel, itself,
would look like a drop in a bucket and so they hide the nakedness of
the land by holding a hole-and-corner meeting in the vestry. Such
things as Prayer Meetings in the Chapel are not expected–a snug little
room is quite large enough. Alas, there are not many Brethren to pray!
Two or three prose so long and so drearily that they fill up the
evening and then they ask the Lord to forgive their shortcomings–they
would do better to ask forgiveness for their longcomings which are the
death of all fervency.

There is not much prayer in their long sermonizing and the whole
business is far more formal than real. Scant will be the blessing if
the Lord is going to bless them in proportion to their prayers. Do you
wonder that the minister cannot preach when the people do not pray? I
see some of you up from the country. Perhaps you are deacons and yet do
not attend the Prayer Meetings yourselves! I have known such things and
I cry shame upon you! And then you find fault with the minister. Have
you never heard of the minister who suddenly seemed to fail and, when
the people complained, he said, "Ah, I may well fail, for I have lost
my prayer book!" Someone said, "I did not know you used a prayer book,
Sir." "Oh!" said he, "my prayer book used to be written on the hearts
of my people and while they prayed for me, God blessed me and I had
success. But they have given up praying for me so what can I do?"

Do you want the man to make bricks without straw? Surely the least
thing you can do is to find him straw for the bricks and you can only
find that by means of earnest, united prayer! The sinew of the
minister's strength under God is the supplication of his Church. We can
do anything and everything if we have a praying people around us! But,
when our dear friends and fellow helpers cease to pray, the Holy Spirit
hastens to depart and "Ichabod," is written upon the place of assembly.
Promises of the mercy of the Lord, dear Friends, are sent to you on
purpose that you may pray for the covenanted gifts and you shall not
have them unless you seek His face for them.

V. Last of all, the Lord tells you what He is going to do and in this
He has yet another objective in view, namely, TO

FOSTER GRATITUDE AND ASSURANCE WHEN THE MERCY HAS BEEN RECEIVED. When
the blessing comes,

the man who has received it declares, "I know that this came from God
because He promised to give it. I know that God was in all this because
I can see He has acted according to His own declaration. His Word has
not returned to Him void. He has done what He said, when He said, and
as He said–surely this thing is of the Lord!" Then comes the
inference– "If He has done all this for me in the past, He will do as
much for me in the future. He told me that He would help me and He has
helped me. He assures me that He will still be my Helper and I am sure
He will, for He changes not–

"Each sweetEbenezer I ha ve in review, Confirms His good pleasure to
help me quite through."

This is God's way of breeding assurance in the minds of His people. If
you notice in the next chapter, the one argument which God seems to
use, there, is, "I will because I have." I will read it to you. "Thus
says the Lord that created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O
Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your
name; you are Mine." What then? "When you pass through the waters I
will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you."
Do you think that I have redeemed you to drown you? "When you walk
through the fire you shall not be burned." Do you think that I created
you to be destroyed and redeemed you that the flames should consume
you? I have loved you. I have redeemed you. Therefore I will help you
and keep you even to the end." This is God's argument of consolation.
Do you not see the force of it?

Look in the third verse, "I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and
Seba for you. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been
honorable, and I have loved you: therefore will I give men for you, and
people for your life." If I paid a full ransom once, I will stick at no
expense to gain My precious purchase. If I gave Egypt and Ethiopia
once, I will give the same, again, and I will have My redeemed ones set
free. You are Mine, and I will not lose you. I will spend all Heaven
but what I will bring you safely home to Myself. See, He says, "I have
created him; I have formed him, yes, I have

made him," and therefore He says, "/ will bring your seed from the east
and gather you from the west." I know of nothing except the sure
promise and oath of the glorious Jehovah which is worthy to be the
ultimate foundation of our hope!

Beyond that, I know of nothing that is so firm a foundation for our
hope as our past experience of the faithfulness of God. If the Lord had
meant to be unfaithful, He would have been unfaithful long ago. If it
had been possible for Him to cast away His people, He would have cast
you and me away years ago. Does a man bestow much care and labor and
expense on that which he intends to leave unfinished? Does a wise man
begin to build a house and then leave the structure unroofed and
incomplete? Will God begin the work of Grace in you and not complete
it? Will He bring you so far on the road to the Golden City and then
leave you and put you to shame? Shall it be said in eternity, "This man
trusted in God and God failed him. This poor sinner rested in the blood
of Christ, but Christ could not save him"?

Never, oh never! The Lord has given you many promises and He has
fulfilled them in order that, today, in your present difficulties and
tomorrow in your new troubles, you may stand firm as a rock and feel,
"He will help me. Yes, He will uphold me! Yes, He will deliver me!
Therefore my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, trusting in the
Lord."–

"I know thatsafe with Him remains

Protected by His power,

What I've committed to His hands

Till the decisive hour.

Then will He own His servant's name

Before His Father's face,

And in the New Jerusalem

Appoint my soul a place."

Such faith as this is God's due. He deserves nothing less than
unmingled confidence! He has never lied to any of you– never doubt Him
till He gives you cause for suspicion! Rest–quietly wait and patiently
hope–and you shall see the salvation of God! As surely as the Lord
lives, He will not forsake your believing soul, but will be always at
your side till He has done that which He has spoken to you and brought
you Home to dwell at His right hand with His dear Son forever and ever.
Amen.
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