The Waterer Watered
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 23, 1865, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He that waters shall be watered also himself." Proverbs 11:25.
THE general principle is that in living for the good of others we shall
be profited ourselves. We must not isolate our own interests but feel
that we live for others. This teaching is sustained by the analogy of
nature, for in nature there is a law that no one thing can be
independent of the rest of creation, but there is a mutual action and
reaction of all upon all. All the constituent parts of the universe are
bound to one another by invisible chains and there is not a single
creature in it which springs up, or flourishes, or decays itself alone.
The very planets, though they float far from one another, exercise
attraction. And the fixed stars, though they seem to be infinitely
remote, are still linked to one another by mysterious bonds. God has so
constituted this universe that selfishness is the greatest possible
offense against His Law and living for others and ministering to others
is the strictest obedience to His will. Our surest road to our own
happiness is to seek the good of our fellows. We store up in God's own
bank what we generously expend on the behalf of our race. The little
spring bubbling forth from the ancient pipe on the hillside overflows
the stone basin and liberally supplies all the villagers with pure and
cooling drink. In its flowing it does not waste itself, for the deep
fountains in the heart of the earth continue unceasingly to supply it
and both in winter's frost and summer's drought the springhead yields
its crystal stream.
The little brook which babbles through the woods, hiding among stones,
leaping down the moss-grown rocks and soon deepening and swelling its
stream, pours all its gatherings into the river hoarding not a drop.
And though its treasure is constantly being lavished with unstinting
liberality, yet Heaven and earth see to it that the brook shall never
fail to sing its joyous song–
"Men may come and go But I go on forever."
The river hastens with its greater floods towards the all-receiving
ocean–pouring itself out every hour with happy plenteousness, as
though it only existed to empty itself. Yet the abundant tributaries
which come streaming from the hills and draining the valleys are
careful that the river shall know no lack, but shall be kept constantly
brimming, a joyous and bounding river forevermore!
The ocean perpetually sends up its steaming exhalations to the sky,
grudging nothing. It puts no doors to its rolling waves, but uncovers
all its treasure to the sun and the sun makes large draughts upon the
royal treasury of the deep. Nevertheless the ocean is not diminished,
for all the rivers are constantly conspiring to keep the sea full to
the shore. The clouds of Heaven, when they are full of rain, empty
themselves upon the earth and yet the clouds cease not to be, for,
"they return after the rain," and the ocean down below seems but to be
too glad to be continually feeding its sister ocean on the other side
of the firmament.
So, as wheels with bands are made to work together–as wheels with cogs
working upon one an-other–the whole watery machinery is kept in motion
by each part acting upon its neighbor and the next upon the next. Each
wheel expends its force upon its fellow and the whole find a recompense
in their mutual action upon one another. The same truth might be
illustrated from other departments of nature. If we view this
microcosm, the human body, we shall find that the heart does not
receive the blood to store it up, but while it pumps it in at one
valve, it sends it forth at another. The blood is always circulating
everywhere and is stagnant nowhere.
The same is true of all the fluids in a healthy body–they are in a
constant state of expenditure. If one cell stores for a few moments its
peculiar secretion, it only retains it till it is perfectly fitted for
its appointed use in the body, for if any cell in the body should begin
to store up its secretion, its store would soon become the cause of
inveterate disease. No, the organ would soon lose the power to secrete
at all if it did not give forth its products. The whole of the human
system lives by giving. The eye cannot say to the foot, I have no need
of you and will not guide you, for if it does not perform its watchful
office, the whole man will be in the ditch and the eye will be covered
with mire.
If the members refuse to contribute to the general stock, the whole
body will become poverty-stricken and be given up to the bankruptcy of
death. Let us learn, then, from the analogy of Nature, the great lesson
that to get, we must give! That to accumulate, we must scatter! That to
make ourselves happy, we must make others happy! And that to get good
and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good and seek the spiritual
good of others. This is the general principle.
The text suggests a particular personal application of the general
principle. We shall consider it, first, in its narrowest sense–as
belonging to ourselves personally. Secondly, in a wider sense–as it
may refer to us as a Church. Then, thirdly, in its widest sense–as it
may be referred to the entire body of Christ, showing that still it is
true that as it waters, so it shall be watered itself.
I. First, then, IN REFERENCE TO OURSELVES. There are some works, my
Brothers and Sisters, in which we cannot all engage. Peculiar men are
called to be God's great woodmen–to clear the way with the axe, to go
before His army like our sappers and miners. Such men as Martin Luther
and Calvin and Zwingli–that glorious trio of heroes marching in front
of reformation and evangelization. They are cutting down the tall
trees, tunneling the hills and bridging the rivers. And we smaller men
feel that there is little of this work for us to do. But when the
backwoodsmen have cleared the forest, after all the roots are grubbed
and the soil is burned and plowed, then comes the sowing and the
planting, and in this, all the household can take a place.
And when the plants have sprung up and need water, it is not only the
stalwart man with the axe who can now apply himself to watering, but
even the little children can take a share in this lighter work.
Watering is work for persons of all grades and all sorts. If I cannot
carry about me some ponderous load as the Eastern water-bearer can, yet
I will take my little water pot, my little jug or pitcher, and go to
the well. If I cannot water the forest tree, I may water the tiny plant
which grows at its root. Watering is work for all sorts of people. So,
then, we will make a personal application to every Christian here this
morning–you can all do something in watering–and this promise can
therefore be realized by you all, "He that waters shall be watered also
himself."
All God's plants, more or less, want watering. You and I do. We cannot
live long without fresh supplies of Divine Grace. Therefore the value
of the promise, "I, the Lord, do keep it. I will water it every
moment." There are no brooks at our roots as we grow in the soil of
nature–it is only in the garden of Grace that we are "like trees
planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth our fruit in our
season." If the Lord Jesus, who is the stem of the vine, should cease
to supply us with the fresh sap of Grace, would we not be like the
withered branch which is cast over the wall to be burned in the fire?
The Lord's people usually get this watering through instrumentality.
God does not speak to us out of Heaven with His own voice–perhaps the
thunder might appall us– He does not write texts of Scripture with His
own finger in letters of fire across the sky. But He waters us by
instrumentality, by His Word written and His Word preached, or
otherwise uttered by His servants. His Holy Spirit waters us by the
admonitions of parents, by the kind suggestions of friends, by the
teaching of His ministers, by the example of all His saints. The Holy
Spirit waters us, but He takes care to do it by our fellow workers,
putting an honor upon His own servants by using them in
instrumentality.
This being fully believed by us all, we may proceed to another Truth of
God, namely, that some of His servants especially need watering and
should therefore be the objects of our constant care. Some plants need
watering from their peculiar nature. A gardener will tell you that
certain flowers require very little water, perhaps for months they will
grow in a stony soil. But others must be watered regularly and
plenteously or they will soon droop. Some of you, my dear Brothers and
Sisters, are so desponding that if you did not receive much comfort you
would hardly hold up your heads at all. You are so weak in the faith
that if you were not fed with milk continually you would scarcely be
alive.
"Comfort you, comfort you, My people, says your God"–is especially
applicable to the mourners in Zion. Their constitutional temperament is
such that to maintain the lamp of their joy they require much oil of
comfort. Perhaps, too, they are ignorant, and the ignorant need much
watering. If they knew the Doctrines of Grace more fully, they might go
to the wells themselves–but not knowing where the water is, or
feeling, like the woman at the well, that the well is deep and that
there is nothing to draw with– they cannot get the water. And we who
are instructed in the way of God must take care that we bring up the
water for them with our longer length of the line of knowledge so that
they may not fail to be watered.
It may be the need is not so much caused by the nature of the plant as
by the position in which it is placed. Many of you, dear Brethren, are
very happily situated where you can constantly attend the means of
Grace–where the family altar smokes with sweet perfume–where you
cannot help growing. You are like plants in a hothouse. But there are
others, on the contrary, who live in houses where the jeer is far more
frequently heard than the voice of praise. Where, instead of being
helped in your devotions, you are hindered. Your spirit is driven to
and fro with distractions–from the very closet where you wanted to
commune with God you are forced out by cruel mocking.
We ought to be very tender about your condition. You are planted on no
fruitful hill, but on a very thirsty land where there is no water. Your
position should lead God's people to watch you with deepest interest
and see to it that you are well watered. I may also mention the sick.
When our dear friends are tried with bodily pain–when they are shut up
week after week from public gatherings–then they need watering. Their
position is such that we ought to be especially mindful of them. It is
written, "He carries the lambs in His bosom and gently leads those that
are with young." And we must note the peculiar condition of the saints
of God, being most careful of those who most need our tenderness.
Let me also suggest the young to you. These need watering, both, let me
say, from their character and from their position. With little
experience and little knowledge they are prone to wander or to be
seized by the wolf. Tend them with parental affection. When
transplanted flowers are first put into the ground they need more water
than they will later. When they have sent out more roots and these
roots have abundant fibers searching through the soil for moisture they
may not require much of the gardener's care, but just now they must
have it or die. Therefore, I say, let the feeble, the weak, the young,
the sick, the persecuted be watered most anxiously and lovingly by you
all.
Certain dear friends need watering, not so much from their position and
character as from the present trials through which they are passing.
Certain plants, after long standing in the sun, droop their leaves and
look as if they must wither and die. But as soon as water is poured to
their roots, it has sometimes perfectly surprised me to see how they
recover! I could scarcely think that they were the same plants, their
recovery was so sudden. The little roots beneath sent the message up to
the main roots and said, "We have found out moisture. A friendly hand
has given us a supply," and the root talked to the stem and the stem
rejoiced and the great leaves drank up their share and the little
leaves sucked up their drops till the whole plant to the very summit
was verdant once more and rejoiced.
Times will come to all of us when we need water. I, myself, get very
desponding at seasons and I suppose you do, too. Unbelief dries us up.
Oh that devil of unbelief! Why if that demon were dead, the other
devils we might very well contend with. Personal affliction, losses,
crosses, burdens make us just like the withering shrub and then we need
to have the consolations of some kind friend to water us. Dear Friends,
sometimes there are those in the Church who particularly need watering
because they are actually withering. It is not to maintain verdure in
their case but to restore it. Those backsliding ones–those who have
slipped with their feet–do not cast them off, for God casts not off
the backsliding one.
When they begin to forsake the House of God, do not forsake them.
Follow them with your tears. In such a Church as this, if you do not
exercise mutual oversight over one another we shall simply become a
mass of corruption instead of being a mountain of holiness. Watch over
your Brethren as soon as you see the first signs of declension. When
they forsake Prayer Meetings, gently give them a hint of the evil of
lukewarmness and the danger of falling by little and little. When you
mark the first sign in their outward carriage of laxity with regard to
Divine things. When you see coldness where there was formerly zeal, be
sure to give a gentle word of earnest, pathetic admonition.
As I look around this Tabernacle I can but compare these rising seats
to shelves in the conservatory and you are the plants which must all be
watered or you will languish and wither. And I, who have to be my
Master's under gardener, am very anxious to say to all of you who have
any water in your watering pots–help me water these plants–that, by
the gracious operations of God, the Holy Spirit, they may be kept
fruitful, green, verdant in spiritual things even to the end!
We now enter more thoroughly into our text and observe that all
Believers have power to water others. You may not have much ability or
influence, but you all have some power in this matter. In thinking over
what Solomon meant, it struck me that he had in his mind's eye the plan
of irrigation which is followed in some Eastern countries. The rivers
at certain seasons overflow their banks. The careful farmers whose
farms are close along the sides of the bank have large tanks and
reservoirs in which they store up the water.
After the flood the river is comparatively empty and the little farms,
the vineyards and pastures on the banks begin to cry out for water.
Then the careful farmer lets out the water from his tank or reservoir
by slow degrees and uses it with great economy. It would sometimes
happen that one of these farmers would have his reservoirs filled and
his neighbor, perhaps through the bursting of a tank, or the falling
down of the bank of earth, might have little or no water. At such times
a greedy man would say, "I shall need all my water for myself. I will
not lend or give so much as a drop of it. I have none to spare." But
the generous man says, "I do not know whether God may be pleased to
send a drought or not, but I cannot let my neighbor lose all his crops
for the want of a little water while I have a good stock in hand." So
he pulls up the sluice and lets such a stream as he thinks he can spare
flow into his neighbor's channel so that he may water his fields.
Now Solomon says that those who water others shall be watered. Next
season it may happen that this good man may have no water himself.
Well, then, all the farmers round about will say, "Why, he helped us
when his tank was full and we will return his kindness into his bosom."
"Ah," says one, "he saved me from ruin. I should not have had a crop at
all last season if it had not been for him." So they all lend a
portion, till he finds no difficulty whatever–even in a season of
drought. When men cannot get water for love or money–he is sure to
have it. The common feeling of men, as a usual rule, recognizes the law
of gratitude and men say, "He watered others, he shall be watered
himself."
My dear Brother, you may be a man of talent. You may be a man of
wealth–just turn on the big tap and let your ignorant or poor
neighbors benefit a little by your abundance. Pull up the floodgates
and let the more needy brethren be enriched by your fullness–open that
mouth of yours that your wisdom may feed many! Tell of what God has
done for your soul that the humble may hear and be glad. Do not be a
reservoir brimmed up till the banks are ready to burst out through the
weight which presses upon them– let some of the treasure run out! And
when your need shall come–and who knows when it may overtake any of
us?–you shall find willing friends who shall run with swift feet to
cheer your adversity.
This simile needs to be supplemented by another–many true saints are
unable to do much. See, then, the gardeners going down to the pond and
dipping in their watering pots to carry the refreshing liquid to the
flowers. A child comes into the garden and wishes to help. And yonder
is a little watering pot for him. Now, see that little water pot?
Though it does not carry so much, yet carries the same water. And it
does not make any difference to the half-dozen flowers which get that
water, whether it came out of the big pot or the little pot, so long as
it is the same water and they get it!
You who are like children in God's Church. You who do not know
much–try and tell others what you do know–and if it is the same
Gospel Truth, and it is blest by the same Spirit–it will not matter to
the souls who get blessed by you whether they were blessed by a man of
one or ten talents! What differ- ence will it make to me whether I was
converted to God by means of a poor woman who was never made a blessing
to anybody else, or by one who had brought his thousands to the
Savior's feet? Go, my dear Brothers and Sisters, and exercise the holy
art of watering!
You say "How?" Why, a word may do it! A look may do it! An action may
do it! Only zealously desire to offer sympathy, to afford instruction,
to give needed help, to impart what you may be favored with to others
and you shall be watered yourselves! The main point is that in so
watering others we shall be watered ourselves. I am sure we shall, for
God promises it and He always keeps His promise. If I need to get
water, I must give water. Though that seems a strange way of
self-serving I pray you try it. Was not that a very singular thing that
when the poor woman of Sarepta had nearly exhausted all her meal, the
Prophet asked for a cake for himself? She had been saving it. I dare
say she had eaten only a mouthful or two every day. She and her poor
boy were looking very thin. They had come to the last handful.
She thought, "I will make one cake for my son and myself and then we
will die." She is outside picking up sticks that she may bake this
cake. God intends to bless her. How does He do it? There comes His
Prophet, the hairy man. And the first word he says to her is, "Fetch
me, I pray you, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." She is
quite ready to serve anyone and away she hastens for the water when
Elijah cries aloud, "Bring me, I pray you, a morsel of bread in your
hand." What? Out of that little handful– barely enough for one? "Yes,"
he says, "make me a little cake first and after make for you and your
son."
"After that?" she might have said, "what will be left after that? When
there is only a handful of meal and a little oil in a cruse, not enough
for one, am I to give that to you and afterwards see to myself and
child?" Faith enabled her to obey and from that very moment neither she
nor her son ever knew what need was. She gave from her little and her
little multiplied. The case of the woman of Zarephath is but one of
thousands establishing the rule of God's mode of action with His
Church–a rule which shall not be broken ever. Let me show you how you
will get watered yourself. In the first place, if you try to do good to
others it will do you good by waking up your powers. Thousands of men
do not know what they are made of. You have no idea what a fine fellow
you are, young man, till you begin to shake yourself a little and go
forth to fight the Lord's battles!
We do not know what sinews we have till we climb the mountains! We do
not know what strength there may be in our backs and arms till we have
to carry a ponderous load and then we find it out. You have latent
talents, dormant faculties which would work wonders if you would call
them forth. Some people are not awake more than skin deep. All
underneath the skin is sound asleep. They are like the great candle
which I showed you one night with a small wick, which was only melted a
little in the middle while all the outside was still cold, hard tallow
and did not contribute to the light. You have not become warm through
and through yet–your whole souls have not been wound up to the right
pitch for serving God–you have only a little earnestness, a little
zeal. But if you ventured upon holy enterprises you would bestir
yourself so thoroughly that you would scarcely know yourself again!
That would be a blessing, indeed.
But next, you would often find that in trying to water others you
gained instruction. Go talk to some poor saint to comfort her and she
will tell you what will comfort you. Oh, what gracious lessons some of
us have learned at sick beds! We went to teach the Scriptures. We came
away blushing that we knew so little of them. We went to talk
experimental truth and we found we were only up to the ankles, while
here were God's poor saints chest deep in the river of Divine Love. We
learn by teaching and our pupils often teach us.
You will also get comfort in your work. Rest assured that working for
others is very happy exercise. Like the two men in the snow–one chafed
the other's limbs to keep him from dying and in so doing he kept his
own blood in circulation and his own life was preserved. Comfort God's
people and the comfort will return into your own soul! Watering others
will make you humble. You will find better people in the world than
yourself. You will be astonished to find how much Divine Grace there is
where you thought there was none–and how much knowledge some have
gained–while you, as yet, have made little progress with far greater
opportunities.
You will also win many prayers. Those who work for others get prayed
for and that is a swift way of growing rich in Grace. Let me have your
prayers and I can do anything! Let me be without my people's prayers
and I can do nothing. You Sunday school teachers, if you are blessed to
the conversion of the children, will get your children's prayers. You
that conduct the larger classes, in the conversion of your young people
you will be sure to have a wealth of love come back into your own
bosoms, swimming upon the stream of supplication. You will thus be a
blessing to yourselves. In watering others you will get honor to
yourselves and that will help to water you by stimulating your future
exertions.
The Romans appointed censors in their State–not only to censure men
for gross immoralities–but to require every man to give an account of
what he was doing for the good of the Republic. We have deacons and
elders–would it not be an additional blessing to have censors in the
Church to go round and ask the members, all of them, what they are
doing for the good of the Christian Church? A Greek historian desired
very intensely to say a word about the people of the city where he was
born. He felt he could not write his history without saying something
of his own native place and accordingly he wrote this: "While Athens
was building temples and Sparta was waging war, my countrymen were
doing nothing."
I am afraid there are too many Christians of whom, if the book were
written as to what they are doing in the Church, it would have to be
said they have been doing nothing all their lives. You would be
delivered from that reproach if you began to water others. Let me cease
from this subject by saying while you are watering others you will be
manifesting and showing your love to Christ–and that will make you
more like He–and so you will be watered while you are seeking to
benefit your neighbors. To serve Jesus! What need I say of that? Look
into that face bedewed with bloody sweat for you! Can you not sweat for
Him? Look at those hands pierced for you! Shall your hands hang idly
down and not be used for Him?
Look at those feet fastened to the wood with nails for you! Can I ask
of you any pilgrimage too long to repay the toil which those feet
endured for your sake? My Brothers and Sisters, remember what Christ
Jesus has done for you! Remember from where He came! Remember the
riches which He left! Remember to what He came–the poverty and shame
which He endured and how He went down into the depths that He might
take us up to the heights!
If you will think of these, you will have the best motive, I think, for
beginning to look after His lambs and fighting with those lions which
seek to devour His flock. And in that moving motive will be the main
means by which you shall be conformed to His image and shall become
like He–self-sacrificing–doing your Father's business. I wish I could
speak more powerfully this morning, but the matter ought to speak for
itself with Christians. If we love Jesus we shall not need any pleading
with to water His plants. If you really love Him, it will not be a
question of whether you shall do something. The only question will be,
"What can I do?" And you will say in your pew this morning, "What shall
I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?"
He has spared your lives. He has given you health and strength. He has
provided you with spirituals and temporals. He has made your heart leap
for joy at the sound of His name. He has plucked you out of the
horrible pit and out of the miry clay. He has taken you out of the
black bondage of the Prince of Darkness and made you His sons and
daughters. He has put the ring of His eternal love upon your finger.
Your feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace–
"This world is yours and worlds to come, Earth is your lodge and Heaven
your home."
There is a crown for your head and a palm branch for your hand. There
are pavements of gold for your feet and felicities forever for your
entire soul! And even your body is to be raised again from the dust and
fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body. "Eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have en- tered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for you." Now what will you do for Him? Will you not
win the promise that your soul shall be watered by seeking to water the
souls of others?
II. A BRIEF EXHORTATION shall suffice for the second point. This
general principle is worthy of a wider application. We, as a Church,
dear Friends, have enjoyed singular prosperity. While many churches
have been depressed and decreased in numbers, we have increased. While
other churches have had the hectic flush of a spurious revival, we have
had one perpetual revival lasting for nearly twelve years. I do not
know that we have increased at a more or a less rapid rate. We could
not increase more quickly, for we have not officers enough or time
enough to see the converts as it is.
We have never, I think, increased less, for the work seems to have ever
the same prosperity about it. I praise God that I can say of my
ministry in this place and elsewhere, that to this day it has the dew
of its youth upon it and there are as many rejoicing to find Christ
through the agencies employed in this Church today as in the first day
when we came among you in the freshness and vigor of our youth. We have
had no schism. We have had no division. We have not been vexed with
heresy. We have been blessed with something like persecution, but this
has only bound us the closer to one another till we are like a
three-fold cord which cannot be broken. And like iron bars made red hot
in the furnace and hammered together, we are not soon to be separated
from one another.
Now, dear Friends, up to this time the policy which we have pursued has
been this–if members of other churches want to know, we tell them! We
have endeavored to water others. Your minister has journeyed all over
the three kingdoms preaching the Word and you have not grumbled at his
absence. We have undertaken many enterprises for Christ. We hope to
undertake a great many more. We have never hindered our strength–we
have undertaken enterprises that were enough to exhaust us–to which,
by God's Grace, we became accustomed in due season and then we have
gone on to something more.
We have never sought to hinder the planting of other churches from our
midst or in our neighborhood. It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss
our twelves, our twenties, our fifties to form other churches. We
encourage our members to leave us to found other churches–no–we seek
to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land
to become the goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long
as we do this we shall prosper. I have marked other churches that have
adopted the other way and they have not succeeded. This is what I have
heard from some ministers–"I do not encourage village stations or, if
I do, I do not encourage their becoming distinct churches and breaking
bread together. I do not encourage too many young men going out to
preach, for to have a knot of people who can preach a little may very
soon cause dissatisfaction with my own preaching."
I have marked those who have followed this course and I have seen that
the effect of trying to keep all the blood in the heart is to bring on
congestion. And very soon the whole body has been out of health. My
Brethren, if you can do more good elsewhere than you can do here, for
God's sake, go! And happy shall I be that you have gone. If you can
serve my Master in the little rooms in the neighborhood–if by forming
yourselves into smaller churches you can increase the honor of my
Master's name I shall love you none the less for going–and I shall
delight to think that you have Christ's spirit in you and can do and
dare for His name's sake!
At the present moment we rejoice to know that many a Sunday school in
this neighborhood is indebted to the members of this Church for
teachers. It is right. We do not want you at home and are therefore
glad to see you at work elsewhere. No matter, so long as Christ is
preached, whether you throw your strength into that Church or into this
Church. Here, as being members with us, we have the first claim upon
you. But when we do not need you by reason of our abundance of men, go
and give your strength to any other part of Christ's Church that may
desire you. While I speak thus much in your praise, my Brothers and
Sisters, let me say we must keep this up.
We must not say, "We have the College to support and we do as much as
other churches for various societies and we can be content to sit
still." This Church will begin to go rotten at the core the moment we
are not working for God with might and main. Sometimes I get a pull at
my coattail by very kind, judicious friends who think I shall ask you
to do too much. My Brethren are welcome to pull my coat- tail, but it
will come off before I shall stand back for a moment! As long as I live
I must serve my Master with my whole soul and when you think I go too
fast, you can stand back if you dare, for mark–you will be responsible
to God if you do.
You may start back if you will and if you dare! But I must go on, must
go, MUST go on! You and I that are worthy of the day in which we live
will follow, step by step, in any good project. And though I should
seem too rash, you will redeem me from the charge of rashness by the
enthusiasm and the earnestness with which you carry out my plans. Here
is this great city! Was there ever such spiritual desti-tution–a
million people who could not go to a place of worship if they had the
heart to go there! And here we have the priest-craft of the Church of
England increasing the spiritual destitution by building fresh
churches–not providing for it, but increasing it, I say–for I reckon
that wherever Puseyism is preached, there is an increase of spiritual
destitution!
Wherever broad Churchism comes there is an increase of spiritual
destitution–and it is little better where they go who preach the
Gospel in the pulpit and read Popery at the font, the grave, and the
bedside. In this last case public morality is shocked by the perjury of
those who swear to a Prayer Book in which they do not believe! Much as
I respect and even love Believers in the Anglican Establishment, I can
only feel that their presence in so corrupt a body is the reason why it
exists. And I therefore think them to be doing mischief by buttressing
a falling and ruinous cause.
True Protestants, we must take upon ourselves to work for London as if
there were no other agencies at work except those of the Free churches!
The Hagar church, the church which has a mortal for its head–the
harlot church which lives in alliance with the State–has too many sins
of her own to repent of to be of much use in this hour of peril. The
good she can do is so insignificant that it is not worth while to
compute it–the monstrous evil which she fosters and perpetrates is a
more than sufficient set-off against it.
We must work and toil and labor to scatter in every lane, alley and
court of London the pure Gospel of the blessed God. We must let men
know that Sacramentarianism is a lie and that there is no salvation but
in the uplifted Cross of Christ, and no salvation through ceremonies
but only through a simple faith in Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. If you, among others, are come to the kingdom for such a time
as this it shall be well with you! But if not, you shall be put away as
things abhorred and this place shall be a hissing and a by-word in
generations yet to come. And it shall be said of you–"There lived a
people who were led by a man, who, with all his faults, was in earnest
and was honest and they would not follow him. They proved unworthy of
him and they have passed away and their names were written in water.
"They had opportunities which they did not use. Work was allotted them
which they were not worthy to take up. God said to them in answer to
their request to be excused, 'You shall be excused.' And they went
back–
'To the vile dust from where they sprung,
Unwept, unhonored and unsung.' "
But it shall not be so with you, my Brethren! Though I thus speak, I
know your zeal and love and earnestness and that you will continue to
water others and then you shall be watered yourselves! We will pray and
strive together for the faith once delivered to the saints! We will
cleave closer and closer to one another and foot to foot and shoulder
to shoulder we will march to battle for God and for His Truth! And come
what may, whoever else may prove a coward in these days of charity and
compromise–we will be found, in God's name, by the help of God's
Spirit–faithful and true.
III. And now, dear Friends, another sentence or two will close the
sermon. On the widest scale this is true. This is true of our
denomination and of every church. If we will water others, we shall be
watered. From the very day when Carey and Fuller and Pearce went forth
to preach the Gospel to the heathen, a blessing rested upon our
denomination. I believe if we had done more for the heathen, we should
have been stronger to do more at home. You may rest assured, though
some may not think it, that our missionary operations are an infinite
blessing to the churches at home.
Relinquishing them, giving them up, stopping them would bring such a
blight and a curse that we had need to go down on our knees and pray,
"God send the missionary work back again! Give us an outlet for our
liberality and our zeal, for without it we become like a pool dammed up
that is full of filth and toads and frogs and all sorts of foul things.
Lord, open the river for our zeal and let us once again have an
opportunity to serve You for the nations that are far away!"
But I must leave you to preach on that point, for my time has gone and
you can do so more practically than I can. My sermon is reported and I
will undertake that what you preach shall not be forgotten–it shall
all be taken down in those boxes which shall be passed round. Say each
of you as much as ever you can upon this subject by your contributions
and remember, "He that waters others, shall himself be watered."