The Story of God's Mighty Acts
A Sermon
(No. 263)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, July 17th, 1859, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what
work thou didst in their days, in the times of old."–Psalm 44:1.
PERHAPS there are no stories that stick by us so long as those which we
hear in our childhood, those tales which are told us by our fathers,
and in our nurseries. It is a sad reflection that too many of these
stories are idle and vain, so that our minds in early infancy are
tinctured with fables, and inoculated with strange and lying
narratives. Now, among the early Christians and the old believers in
the far-off times, nursery tales were far different from what they are
now, and the stories with which their children were amused were of a
far different class from those which fascinated us in the days of our
babyhood. No doubt, Abraham would talk to young children about the
flood, and tell them how the waters overspread the earth, and how Noah
alone was saved in the ark. The ancient Israelites, when they dwelt in
their own land, would all of them tell their children about the Red
Sea, and the plagues which God wrought in Egypt when he brought his
people out of the house of bondage. Among the early Christians we know
that it was the custom of parents to recount to their children
everything concerning the life of Christ, the acts of the apostles, and
the like interesting narratives. Nay, among our puritanic ancestors
such were the stories that regaled their childhood. Sitting down by the
fireside, before those old Dutch tiles with the quaint eccentric
drawings upon them of the history of Christ, mothers would teach their
children about Jesus walking on the water, or of his multiplying the
loaves of bread, or of his marvellous transfiguration, or of the
crucifixion of Jesus. Oh, how I would that the like were the tales of
the present age, that the stories of our childhood would be again the
stories of Christ, and that we would each of us believe that, after
all, there can be nothing so interesting as that which is true, and
nothing more striking than those stories which are written in sacred
writ; nothing that can more truly move the heart of a child than the
marvellous works of God which he did in the olden times. It seems that
the psalmist who wrote this most musical ode had heard from his father,
handed to him by tradition, the stories of the wondrous things which
God had done in his day; and afterwards, this sweet singer in Israel
taught it to his children, and so was one generation after another led
to call God blessed, remembering his mighty acts.
Now, my dear friends, this morning I intend to recall to your minds
some of the wondrous things which God has done in the olden time. My
aim and object will be to excite your minds to seek after the like;
that looking back upon what God has done, you may be induced to look
forward with the eye of expectation, hoping that he will again stretch
forth his potent hand and his holy arm, and repeat those mighty acts he
performed in ancient days.
First, I shall speak of the marvellous stories which our fathers have
told us, and which we have heard of the olden time; secondly, I shall
mention some disadvantages under which these old stories labour wit
regard to the effect upon our minds; and, then, I shall draw the proper
inferences from those marvellous things which we have heard, that the
Lord did in the days of yore.
I. To begin then, with THE WONDERFUL STORIES WE HAVE HEARD OF THE
LORD'S ANCIENT DOINGS.
We have heard that God has at times done very mighty acts. The plain
everyday course of the world hath been disturbed with wonders at which
men have been exceedingly amazed. God hath not always permitted his
church to go on climbing by slow degrees to victory, but he hath been
pleased at times to smite one terrible blow, and lay his enemies down
upon the earth, and bid his children march over their prostrate bodies.
Turn back then, to ancient records, and remember what God hath done.
Will ye not remember what he did at the Red Sea, how he smote Egypt and
all its chivalry, and covered Pharaoh's chariot and horse in the Red
Sea? Have ye not heard tell how God smote Og, king of Bashan, and
Sihon, king of the Amorites, because they withstood the progress of his
people? Have ye not learned how he proved that his mercy endureth for
ever, when he slew those great kings and cast the mighty ones down from
their thrones? Have you not read, too, how God smote the children of
Canaan, and drove out the inhabitants thereof, and gave the land to his
people, to be a possession by lot for ever? Have you not heard how when
the hosts of Jabin came against them, the stars in their courses fought
against Sisera? The river of Kishon swept them away, "that ancient
river, the river Kishon," and there was none of them left? Hath it not
been told you, too, how by the hand of David, God smote the
Philistines, and how by his right hand he smote the children of Ammon?
Have you not heard how Midian was put to confusion, and the myriads of
Arabia were scattered by Asa in the day of his faith? And have you not
heard, too, how the Lord sent a blast upon the hosts of Sennacherib, so
that in the morning they were all dead men? Tell–tell ye these, his
wonders! Speak of them in your streets. Teach them to your children.
Let them not be forgotten, for the right hand of the Lord hath done
marvellous things, his name is known in all the earth.
The wonders, however, which most concern us, are those of the Christian
era; and surely these are not second to those under the Old Testament.
Have you never read how God won to himself great renown on the day of
Pentecost? Turn ye to this book of the record of the wonders of the
Lord and read. Peter the fisherman stood up and preached in the name of
the Lord his God. A multitude assembled and the Spirit of God fell upon
them; and it came to pass that three thousand in one day were pricked
in their heart by the hand of God, and believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And know you not how the twelve apostles with the disciples
went everywhere preaching the Word, and the idols fell from their
thrones? The cities opened wide their gates, and the messengers of
Christ walked through the streets and preached. It is true that at
first they were driven hither and thither, and hunted like partridges
upon the mountains: but do ye not remember how the Lord did get unto
himself a victory, so that in a hundred years after the nailing of
Christ to the cross, the gospel had been preached in every nation, and
the isles of the sea had heard the sound thereof? And have you
forgotten how the heathen were baptized, thousands at a time, in every
river? What stream is there in Europe that cannot testify to the
majesty of the gospel? What city is there in the land that cannot tell
how God's truth has triumphed, and how the heathen has forsaken his
false god, and bowed his knee to Jesus the crucified? The first spread
of the gospel is a miracle never to be eclipsed. Whatever god may have
done at the Red Sea, he hath done still more within a hundred years
after the time when Christ first came into the world. It seemed as if a
fire from heaven ran along the ground. Nothing could resist its force.
The lightning shaft of truth shivered every pinnacle of the idol
temple, and Jesus was worshipped from the rising of the sun to the
going down of the same.
This is one of the things we have heard of the olden times.
And have ye never heard of the mighty things which God did by preachers
some hundreds of years from that date? Hath it not been told you
concerning Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, how, whenever he preached,
the church was thronged with attentive hearers; and there, standing and
lifting up holy hands, he spake with a majesty unparalleled, the word
of God in truth and righteousness; the people listening, hanging
forward to catch every word, and anon breaking the silence with the
clapping of their hands and the stamping of their feet; then silent
again for a while, spell-bound by the mighty orator; and again carried
away with enthusiasm, springing to their feet, clapping their hands,
and shouting for joy again? Numberless were the conversions in his day.
God was exceedingly magnified, for sinners were abundantly saved. And
have your fathers never told you of the wondrous things that were done
afterwards when the black darkness of superstition covered the earth,
when Popery sat upon her throne and stretched her iron rod across the
nations and shut the windows of heaven, and quenched the very stars of
God and made thick darkness cover the people? Have ye never heard how
Martin Luther arose and preached the gospel of the grace of God, and
how the nations trembled, and the world heard the voice of God and
lived? Have you not heard of Zwingle among the Swiss, and of Calvin in
the city of Geneva, and of the mighty works that God did by them? Nay,
as Britons have ye forgotten the mighty preacher of the truth–have
your ears ceased to tingle with the wondrous tale of the preachers that
Wickliffe sent forth into every market town and every hamlet of
England, preaching the gospel of God? Oh, doth not history tell us that
these men were like fire-brands in the midst of the dry stubble; that
their voice was as the roaring of a lion, and their going forth like
the springing of a young lion. Their glory was as the firstling of a
bullock; they did push the nation before them, and as for the enemies,
they said, "Destroy them." None could stand before them, for the Lord
their God had girded them with might.
To come down a little nearer to our own times, truly our fathers have
told us the wondrous things which God did in the days of Wesley and of
Whitefield. The churches were all asleep. Irreligion was the rule of
the day. The very streets seemed to run with iniquity, and the gutters
were filled full with the iniquity of sin. Up rose Whitefield and
Wesley, men whose hearts the Lord had touched, and they dared to preach
the gospel of the grace of God. Suddenly, as in a moment, there was
heard the rush as of wings, and the church said: "Who are these that
fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" They come! they
come! numberless as the birds of heaven, with a rushing like mighty
winds that are not to be withstood. Within a few years, from the
preaching of there two men, England was permeated with evangelical
truth. The Word of God was known in every town, and there was scarcely
a hamlet into which the Methodists had not penetrated. In those days of
the slow-coach, when Christianity seemed to have bought up the old
wagons in which our fathers once travelled–where business runs with
steam, there oftentimes religion creeps along with its belly on the
earth,–we are astonished at these tales, and we think them wonders.
Yet let us believe them; they come to us as substantial matters of
history. And the wondrous things which God did in the olden times, by
his grace he will yet do again. He that is mighty hath done great
things and holy is his name.
There is a special feature to which I would call your attention with
regard to the works of God in the olden time; they derive increasing
interest and wonder from the fact that they were all sudden things. The
old stagers in our churches believe that things must grow, gently, by
degrees; we must go step by step onward. Concentrated action and
continued labour, they say, will ultimately bring success. But the
marvel is, all God's works have been sudden. When Peter stood up to
preach, it did not take six weeks to convert the three thousand. They
were converted at once and baptized that very day; they were that hour
turned to God, and become as truly disciples of Christ as they could
have been if their conversion had taken seventy years. So was it in the
day of Martin Luther: it did not take Luther centuries to break through
the thick darkness of Rome. God lit the candle and the candle burned,
and there was the light in an instant–God works suddenly. If anyone
could have stood in Wurtemburg, and have said: "Can Popery be made to
quail, can the Vatican be made to shake?" The answer would have
been:–"No; it will take at least a thousand years to do it. Popery,
the great serpent, has so twisted itself about the nations, and bound
them so fast in its coil, that they cannot be delivered except by a
long process." "Not so," however, did God say. He smote the dragon
sorely, and the nations went free; he cut the gates of brass, and broke
in sunder the bars of iron, and the people were delivered in an hour.
Freedom came not in the course of years, but in an instant. The people
that walked in darkness saw a great light, and upon them that dwelt in
the land of the shadow of death, did the light shine. So was it in
Whitefield's day. The rebuking of a slumbering church was not the work
of ages; it was done at once. Have ye never heard of the great revival
under Whitefield? Take as an instance that at Camslang. He was
preaching in the church-yard to a great congregation, that could not
get into any edifice; and while preaching, the power of God came upon
the people, and one after another fell down as if they were smitten;
and at least it was estimated that not less than three thousand persons
were crying out at one time under the conviction of sin. He preached
on, now thundering like Boanerges, and then comforting like Barnabas,
and the work spread, and no tongue can tell the great things that God
did under that one sermon of Whitefield. Not even the sermon of Peter
on the day of Pentecost was equal to it.
So has it been in all revivals; God's work has been done suddenly. As
with a clap of thunder has God descended from on high; not slowly, but
on cherubim right royally doth he ride; on the wings of the mighty wind
does he fly. Sudden has been the work; men could scarce believe it
true, it was done in so short a space of time. Witness the great
revival which is going on in and around Belfast. After carefully
looking at the matter, and after seeing some trusty and well-beloved
brother who lived in that neighborhood, I am convinced, notwithstanding
what enemies may say, that it is a genuine work of grace, and that God
is doing wonders there. A friend who called to see me yesterday, tells
me that the lowest and vilest men, the most depraved females in
Belfast, have been visited with this extraordinary epilepsy, as the
world calls it; but with this strange rushing of the spirit, as we have
it. Men who have been drunkards have suddenly felt an impulse
compelling them to pray. They have resisted; they have sought to their
cups in order to put it out; but when they have been swearing, seeking
to quench the Spirit by their blasphemy, God has at last brought them
on their knees, and they have been compelled to cry for mercy with
piercing shrieks, and to agonize in prayer; and then after a time, the
Evil one seems to have been cast out of them, and in a quiet, holy,
happy frame of mind, they have made a profession of their faith in
Christ, and have walked in his fear and love. Roman Catholics have been
converted. I thought that an extraordinary thing; but they have been
converted very frequently indeed in Ballymena and in Belfast. In fact,
I am told the priests are now selling small bottles of holy water for
people to take, in order that they may be preserved from this desperate
contagion of the Holy Spirit. This holy water is said to have such
efficacy, that those who do not attend any of the meetings are not
likely to be meddled with by the Holy Spirit–so the priests tell them.
But if they go to the meetings, even this holy water cannot preserve
them–they are as liable to fall prey to the Divine influence. I think
they are just as likely to do so without as with it. All this has been
brought about suddenly, and although we may expect to find some portion
of natural excitement, yet I am persuaded it is in the main a real,
spiritual, and abiding work. There is a little froth on the surface,
but there is a deep running current that is not to be resisted,
sweeping underneath, and carrying everything before it. At least there
is something to awaken our interest, when we understand that in the
small town of Ballymena on market day, the publicans have always taken
one hundred pounds for whiskey, and now they cannot take a sovereign
all day long in all the public houses. Men who were once drunkards now
meet for prayer, and people after hearing one sermon will not go until
the minister has preached another, and sometimes a third; and at last
he is obliged to say: "You must go, I am exhausted." Then they will
break up into groups in their streets and in their houses, crying out
to God to let this mighty work spread, that sinners may be converted
unto him. "Well," says one, "we cannot believe it." Very likely you
cannot, but some of us can, for we have heard it with our ears, and our
fathers have told us the mighty works that God did in their days, and
we are prepared to believe that God can do the same works now.
I must here remark again, in all these old stories there is one very
plain feature. Whenever God has done a mighty work it has been by some
very insignificant instrument. When he slew Goliath it was by little
David, who was but a ruddy youth. Lay not up the sword of Goliath–I
always thought that a mistake of David–lay up, not Goliath's sword,
but lay up the stone, and treasure up the sling in God's armory for
ever. When God would slay Sisera, it was a woman that must do it with a
hammer and a nail. God has done his mightiest works by the meanest
instruments: that is a fact most true of all God's works–Peter the
fisherman at Pentecost, Luther the humble monk at the Reformation,
Whitefield the potboy of the Old Bell Inn at Gloucester in the time of
the last century's revival; and so it must be to the end. God works not
by Pharaoh's horses or chariot, but he works by Moses' rod; he doth not
his wonders with the whirlwind and the storm; he doth them by the still
small voice, that the glory may be his and the honour all his own. Doth
not this open a field of encouragement to you and to me? Why may not we
be employed in doing some mighty work for God here? Moreover, we have
noticed in all these stories of God's mighty works in the olden time,
that wherever he has done any great thing it has been by someone who
has had very great faith. I do verily believe at this moment that, if
God willed it, every soul in this hall would be converted now. If God
chose to put forth the operations of his own mighty Spirit, not the
most obdurate heart would be able to stand against it. "He will have
mercy upon whom he will have mercy." He will do as he pleases; none can
stay his hand. "Well," says one, "but I do not expect to see any great
things." Then, my dear friend, you will not be disappointed, for you
will not see them; but those that expect them shall see them. Men of
great faith do great things. It was Elijah's faith that slew the
priests of Baal. If he had the little heart that some of you have,
Baal's priests had still ruled over the people, and would never have
been smitten with the sword. It was Elijah's faith that bade him say:
"If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him." And
again: "Choose one bullock for yourselves, cut it in pieces, lay it on
wood and put no fire under, call ye on the name of your gods, and I
will call on the name of Jehovah." It was his noble faith that bade him
say: "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape"; and he
brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there–a holocaust
to God. The reason why God's name was so magnified, was because
Elijah's faith in God was so mighty and heroic. When the Pope sent his
bull to Luther, Luther burned it. Standing up in the midst of the crowd
with the blazing paper in his hand he said: "See here, this is the
Pope's bull." What cared he for all the Popes that were ever in or out
of hell? And when he went to Worms to meet the grand Diet, his
followers said: "You are in danger, stand back." "No," said Luther, "if
there were as many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the roofs of
the houses, I would not fear; I will go"–and into Worms he went,
confident in the Lord his God. It was the same with Whitefield; he
believed and he expected that God would do great things. When he went
into his pulpit he believed that God would bless the people, and God
did do so. Little faith may do little things, but great faith shall be
greatly honoured. O God! our fathers have told us this, that whenever
they had great faith Thou hast always honoured it by doing mighty
works.
I will detain you no longer on this point, except to make one
observation. All the mighty works of God have been attended with great
prayer, as well as with great faith. Have you ever heard of the
commencement of the great American revival? A man unknown and obscure,
laid it up in his heart to pray that God would bless his country. After
praying and wrestling and making the soul-stirring enquiry: "Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do? Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" he hired
a room, and put up an announcement that there would be a prayer-meeting
held there at such-and-such an hour of the day. He went at the proper
hour, and there was not a single person there; he began to pray, and
prayed for half an hour alone. One came in at the end of the half-hour,
and then two more, and I think he closed with six. The next week came
around, and there might have been fifty dropped in at different times;
at last the prayer-meeting grew to a hundred, then others began to
start prayer-meetings; at last there was scarcely a street in New York
that was without a prayer-meeting. Merchants found time to run in, in
the middle of the day, to pray. The prayer-meetings became daily ones,
lasting for about an hour; petitions and requests were sent up, these
were simply asked and offered before God, and the answers came; and
many were the happy hearts that stood up and testified that the prayer
offered last week had been already fulfilled. Then it was when they
were all earnest in prayer, suddenly the Spirit of God fell upon the
people, and it was rumored that in a certain village a preacher had
been preaching in thorough earnest, and there had been hundreds
converted in a week. The matter spread into and through the Northern
States–these revivals of religion became universal, and it has been
sometimes said that a quarter of a million people were converted to God
through the short space of two or three months. Now the same effect was
produced in Ballymena and Belfast by the same means. The brother
thought that it lay at his heart to pray, and he did pray; then he held
a regular prayer-meeting; day after day they met together to entreat
the blessing, and fire descended and the work was done. Sinners were
converted, not by ones or twos but by hundreds and thousands, and the
Lord's name was greatly magnified by the progress of his gospel.
Beloved, I am only telling you facts. Make each of you your own
estimate of them if you please.
II. Agreeable to my division,, I have now to make a few observations
upon THE DISADVANTAGES UNDER WHICH THESE OLD STORIES FREQUENTLY LABOUR.
When people hear about what God used to do, one of the things they say
is: "Oh, that was a very long while ago." They imagine that times have
altered since then. Says one: "I can believe anything about the
Reformation–the largest accounts that can possibly be given, I can
take in." "And so could I concerning Whitefield and Wesley," says
another, "all that is quite true, they did labour vigorously and
successfully, but that was many years ago. Things were in a different
state then from what they are now." Granted; but I want to know what
the things have to do with it. I thought it was God that did it. Has
God changed? Is he not an immutable God, the same yesterday, to-day and
for ever? Does not that furnish an argument to prove that what God has
done at one time he can do at another? Nay, I think I may push it a
little further, and say what he has done once, is a prophecy of what he
intends to do again–that the mighty works which have been accomplished
in the olden time shall all be repeated, and the Lord's song shall be
sung again in Zion, and he shall again be greatly glorified. Others
among you say, "Oh, well I look upon these things as great
prodigies–miracles. We are not to expect them every day." That is the
very reason why we do not get them. If we had learnt to expect them, we
should no doubt obtain them, but we put them up on the shelf, as being
out of the common order of our moderate religion, as being mere
curiosities of Scripture history. We imagine such things, however true,
to be prodigies of providence; we cannot imagine them to be according
to the ordinary working of his mighty power. I beseech you, my friends,
abjure that idea, put it out of your mind. Whatever God has done in the
way of converting sinners is to be looked upon as a precedent, for "his
arm is not shortened that He cannot save, not is his ear heavy that He
cannot hear." If we are straitened at all, we are not straitened in
ourselves, and with earnestness seek that God would restore to us the
faith of the men of old, that we may richly enjoy his grace as in the
days of old. Yet there is yet another disadvantage under which there
old stories labour. The fact is, we have not seen them. Why, I may talk
to you ever so long about revivals, but you won't believe them half so
much, nor half so truly, as if one were to occur in your very midst. If
you saw it with your own eyes, then you would see the power of it. If
you had lived in Whitefield's day, or had heard Grimshaw preach, you
would believe anything. Grimshaw would preach twenty-four times a week:
he would preach many times in the course of a sultry day, going from
place on horseback. That man did preach. It seemed as if heaven would
come down to earth to listen to him. He spoke with a real earnestness,
with all the fire of zeal that ever burned in mortal breast, and the
people trembled while they listened to him, and said, "Certainly this
is the voice of God." It was the same with Whitefield. The people would
seem to move to and fro while he spoke, even as the harvest field is
moved with the wind. So mighty was the energy of God that after hearing
such a sermon the hardest-hearted men would go away and say: "There
must be something in it, I never heard the like." Can you not realize
these as literal facts? Do they stand up in all their brightness before
your eyes? Then I think the stories you have heard with your ears
should have a true and proper effect upon your lives.
III. This brings me in the third place to the PROPER INFERENCES THAT
ARE TO BE DRAWN FROM THE OLD STORIES OF GOD'S MIGHTY DEEDS.
I would that I could speak with the fire of some of those men whose
names I have mentioned. Pray for me, that the Spirit of God may rest
upon me, that I may plead with you for a little time with all my might,
seeking to exhort and stir you up, that you may get a like revival in
your midst. My dear friends, the first effect which the reading of the
history of God's mighty works should have upon us, is that of gratitude
and praise. Have we nothing to sing about to-day?–then let us sing
concerning days of yore. If we cannot sing to our well-beloved a song
concerning what he is doing in our midst, let us, nevertheless, take
down our harps from the willows, and sing an old song, and bless and
praise his holy name for the things which he did to his ancient church,
for the wonders which he wrought in Egypt, and in all the lands wherein
he led his people, and from which he brought them out with a high hand
and with an outstretched arm. When we have thus begun to praise God for
what he has done, I think I may venture to impress upon you one other
great duty. Let what God has done suggest to you the prayer that he
would repeat the like signs and wonders among us. Oh! men and brethren,
what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some
among you who would go home and pray for a revival of religion–men
whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them
from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would
appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former
generations. Why, look you here in this present assembly what objects
there are for our compassion. Glancing round, I observe one and another
whose history I may happen to know, but how many are there still
unconverted–men who trembled and who know they have, but have shaken
off their fears, and once more are daring their destiny, determined to
be suicides to their own souls and to put away from them that grace
which once seemed as if it were striving in their hearts. They are
turning away from the gates of heaven, and running post-haste to the
doors of hell; and will not you stretch out your hands to God to stop
them in this desperate resolve? If in this congregation there were but
one unconverted man and I could point him out and say: "There he sits,
one soul that has never felt the love of God, and never has been moved
to repentance," with what anxious curiosity would every eye regard him?
I think out of thousands of Christians here, there is not one who would
refuse to go home and pray for that solitary unconverted individual.
But, oh! my brethren, it is not one that is in danger of hell fire;
here are hundreds and thousands of our fellow-creatures.
Shall I give you yet another reason why you should pray? Hitherto all
other means have been used without effect. God is my witness how often
I have striven in this pulpit to be the means of the conversion of men.
I have preached my very heart out. I could say no more than I have
said, and I hope the secrecy of my chamber is a witness to the fact
that I do not cease to feel when I cease to speak; but I have a heart
to pray for those of you who are never affected, or who, if affected,
still quench the Spirit of God. I have done my utmost. Will not you
come to the help of the Lord against the mighty? Will not you r prayers
accomplish that which my preaching fails to do? Here they are; I
commend them to you. Men and women whose hearts refuse to melt, whose
stubborn knees will not bend; I give them up to you and ask you to pray
for them. Carry their cases on your knees before God. Wife! never cease
to pray for your unconverted husband. Husband! never stop your
supplication till you see your wife converted. And, O fathers and
mothers! have you no unconverted children? have you not brought them
here many and many a Sunday, and they remain just as they have been?
You have sent them first to one chapel and then to another, and they
are just what they were. The wrath of God abideth on them. Die they
must; and should they die now, to a certainty you are aware that the
flames of hell must engulf them. And do you refuse to pray for them?
Hard hearts, brutish souls, if knowing Christ yourself ye will not pray
for those who come of your own loins–your children according to the
flesh.
Dear friends, we do not know what God may do for us if we do but pray
for a blessing. Look at the movement we have already seen; we have
witnessed Exeter Hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey,
crammed to the doors, but we have seen no effect as yet of all these
mighty gatherings. Have we not tried to preach without trying to pray?
It is not likely that the church has been putting forth its preaching
hand but not its praying hand? O dear friends! let us agonize in
prayer, and it shall come to pass that this Music Hall shall witness
the sighs and groans of the penitent and the songs of the converted. It
shall yet happen that this vast host shall not come and go as now it
does, but little the better; but men shall go out of this hall,
praising God and saying:–"It was good to be there; it was none other
than the house of God, and the very gate of heaven." Thus much to stir
you up to prayer.
Another inference we should draw is that all the stories we have heard
should correct any self-dependence which may have crept into our
treacherous hearts. Perhaps we as a congregation have begun to depend
upon our numbers and so forth. We may have thought: "Surely God must
bless us through the ministry." Now let the stories which our fathers
have told us remind you, and remind me, that God saves not by many nor
by few; that it is not in us to do this but God must do it all; it may
be that some hidden preacher, whose name has never been known, will yet
start up in this city of London and preach the Lord with greater power
than bishops or ministers have ever know before. I will welcome him;
God be with him; let him come from where he may; only let God speed
him, and let the work be done. Mayhap, however, God intends to bless
the agency used in this place for your good and for your conversion. If
so, I am thrice happy to think such should be the case. But place no
dependence upon the instrument. No, when men laughed at us and mocked
us most, God blessed us most; and now it is not a disreputable thing to
attend the Music Hall. We are not so much despised as we once were, but
I question whether we have so great a blessing as once we had. We would
be willing to endure another pelting in the pillory, to go through
another ordeal with every newspaper against us, and with every man
hissing and abusing us, if God so pleases, if he will but give us a
blessing. Only let him cast out of us any idea that our own bow and
sword will get us victory. We shall never get a revival here unless we
believe that it is the Lord, and the Lord alone, that can do it.
Having made this statement, I will endeavour to stir you up with
confidence that the result may be obtained that I have pictured, and
that the stories we have heard of the olden time, may become true in
our day. Why should not every one of my hearers be converted? Is there
any limitation in the Spirit of God? Why should not the feeblest
minister become the means of salvation to thousands? Is God's arm
shortened? My brethren, when I bid you pray that God would make the
ministry quick and powerful, like a two-edged sword, for the salvation
of sinners, I am not setting you a hard, much less an impossible, task.
We have but to ask and to get. Before we call, God will answer; and
while we are yet speaking he will hear. God alone can know what may
come of this morning's sermon, if he chooses to bless it. From this
moment you may pray more; from this moment God may bless the ministry
more. From this hour other pulpits may become more full of life and
vigour than before. From this same moment the Word of God may flow, and
run, and rush, and get to itself an amazing and boundless victory. Only
wrestle in prayer, meet together in your houses, go to your closets, be
instant, be earnest in season and out of season, agonize for souls, and
all that you have heard shall be forgotten in what you shall see; and
all that others have told you shall be as nothing compared with what
you shall hear with your ears and behold with your eyes in your own
midst. Oh ye, to whom all this is as an idle tale, who love not God,,
neither serve him, I beseech you stop and think for a moment. Oh,
Spirit of God, rest on thy servant while a few sentences are uttered,
and make them mighty. God has striven with some of you. You have had
your times of conviction. You are trying now, perhaps, to be infidels.
You are trying to say now–"There is no hell–there is no hereafter."
It will not do. You know there is a hell and all the laughter of those
who seek to ruin your souls cannot make you believe that there is not.
You sometimes try to think so, but you know that God is true. I do not
argue with you now. Conscience tells you that God will punish you for
sin. Depend upon it–you will find no happiness in trying to stifle
God's Spirit. This is not the path to bliss, to quench those thoughts
which would lead you to Christ. I beseech you, take off your hands from
God's arm; resist not still His Spirit. Bow the knee and lay hold of
Christ and believe on him. It will come to this yet. God the Holy
Spirit will have you. I do trust that in answer to many prayers he
intends to save you yet. Give way now, but oh, remember if you are
successful in quenching the Spirit, your success will be the most awful
disaster that can ever occur to you, for if the Spirit forsake you, you
are lost. It may be that this is the last warning you will ever have.
The conviction you are now trying to put down and stifle may be the
last you will have, and the angel standing with the black seal and the
wax may be now about to drop it upon your destiny, and say, "Let him
alone. He chooses drunkenness–he chooses lust–let him have them;; and
let him reap the wages in the everlasting fires of hell." Sinners,
believe on the Lord Jesus: repent and be converted every one of you. I
am bold to say what Peter did. Breaking through every bond of every
kind that could bind my lip, I exhort you in God's name–Repent and
escape from damnation. A few more months and years, and ye shall know
what damnation means, except ye repent. Oh! fly to Christ while yet the
lamp holds out and burns, and mercy is still preached to you. Grace is
still presented; accept Christ, resist him no longer; come to him now.
The gates of mercy are wide open too-day; come now, poor sinner, and
have thy sins forgiven. When the old Romans used to attack a city, it
was sometimes their custom to set up at the gate a white flag, and if
the garrison surrendered while that white flag was there, their lives
were pared. After that the black flag was put up, and then every man
was put to the sword. The white flag is up to-day; perhaps to-morrow
the black flag will be elevated upon the pole of the law; and then
there is no repentance or salvation either in this world or in that
which is to come. An old eastern conqueror when he came to a city used
to light a brazier of coals, and, setting it high upon a pole he would,
with sound of trumpet proclaim, that if they surrendered while the lamp
held out and burned he would have mercy upon them, but that when the
coals were out he would storm the city, pull it stone from stone, sow
it with salt, and put men, women, and children, to a bloody death.
To-day the thunders of God bid you to take the like warning. There is
your light, the lamp, the brazier of hot coals. Year after year the
fire is dying out, nevertheless there is coal left. Even now the wind
of death is trying to blow out the last live coal. Oh! sinner, turn
while the lamp continues to blaze. Turn now, for when the last coal is
dead thy repentance cannot avail thee. Thy everlasting yelling in
torment cannot move the heart of God; thy groans and briny tears cannot
move him to pity thee. To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not
your hearts as in the provocation. Oh, to-day lay hold on Christ, "Kiss
the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath
is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in
him."