The World Turned Upside Down
A Sermon
(No. 193)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, May 9, 1858, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens
"These that have turned the world upside down are come hither
also."–Acts 17:6.
THIS IS JUST an old version of an oft-repeated story. When disturbances
arise in a state, and rebellions and mutinies cause blood to be shed,
it is still the custom to cry, "The Christians have done this." In the
days of Jesus we know that it was laid to the charge of our blessed and
divine Master, that he was a stirrer of sedition, whereas he himself
had refused to be a king, when his followers would have taken him by
force to make him one, for he said, "My kingdom is not of this world;"
yet was he crucified under the two false charges of sedition and
blasphemy. The same thing occurred with the Apostles. Wherever they
went to preach the gospel, the Jews who opposed them sought to stir up
the refuse of the city to put an end to their ministry; and then, when
a great tumult had been made by the Jews themselves, who had taken unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company,
and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason,
and sought to bring him out to the people, then the Jews laid the
tumult and the uproar at the door of the Apostles, saying, "These that
have turned the world upside down are come hither also." This plan was
followed all through the Roman empire, until Christianity became the
state religion. There was never a calamity befel Rome, never a war
arose, never a famine or a plague, but the vulgar multitude cried, "The
Christians to the lions! The Christians have done this." Nero himself
imputed the burning of Rome, of which he himself doubtless was the
incendiary, to the Christians. The believers in Jesus were slandered as
if they were the common sewer, into which all the filth of sin was to
be poured; whereas, they were like Solomon's great brazen sea, which
was full of the purest water, wherein even priests themselves might
wash their robes. And you will remark that to this day the world still
lays its ills at the door of the Christians. Was it not the foolish cry
a few months ago, and are there not some weak-minded individuals who
still believe it, that the great massacre and mutiny in India was
caused by the missionaries. Forsooth; the men who turned the world
upside down had gone there also; and because men broke through all the
restraints of nature and of law, and committed deeds for which fiends
might blush, this must be laid at the door of Christ's holy gospel, and
the men of peace must bear on their shoulders the blame of war! Ah! we
need not refute this: the calumny is too idle to need a refutation. Can
it be true, that he whose gospel is love should be the fomenter of
disturbance? Can it be fair for a moment to lay mutiny and rebellion at
the door of the gospel, the very motto of which is, "Peace on earth,
good will towards men?" Did not our Master say, "Render unto Caesar the
things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's?" Did
he not himself pay tribute though he sent to the fish of the sea, to
get the shekel? And have not his followers at all times been a peaceful
generation?–save only and except where the liberty of their conscience
was touched, and then they were not the men to bow their knees to
tyrants and kings, but with brave old Oliver they did bind their kings
in chains, and their nobles in fetters of iron, as they will do again,
if their liberty ever should be infringed, so that they should not have
power to worship God as they ought.
We believe that what these Jews said of the Apostles, was just a
downright wilful lie. They knew better. The Apostles were not the
disturbers of states. It is true, they preached that which would
disturb the sinful constitution of a kingdom and which would disturb
the evil practices of false priests, but they never meant to set men in
an uproar. They did come to set men at arms with sin; they did draw the
sword against iniquity; but against men as men, against kings as kings,
they had no battle; it is with iniquity and sin, and wrong everywhere,
that they proclaimed an everlasting warfare. But still, brethren, there
is many a true word spoken in jest, we say, and surely there is many a
true word spoken in malice. They said the Apostles turned the world
upside down. They meant by that, that they were disturbers of the
peace. But they said a great true thing; for Christ's gospel does turn
the world upside down. It was the wrong way upwards before, and now
that the gospel is preached, and when it shall prevail, it will just
set the world right by turning it upside down.
And now I shall try to show how, in the world at large, Christ's gospel
turns the world upside down. and then I shall endeavor, as well as God
shall help me, to show how the little world that is within every man is
turned upside down, when he becomes a believer in the gospel of Christ.
I. First, then, the gospel of Christ turns the world upside down, WITH
REGARD TO THE POSITION OF DIFFERENT CLASSES OF MEN.
In the esteem of men, the kingdom of heaven is something like this.
High there on the summit, there sits the most grand rabbi, the right
venerable, estimable and excellent doctor of divinity, the great
philosopher, the highly learned, the deeply instructed, the immensely
intellectual man. He sits on the apex: he is the highest, because he is
the wisest. And just below him there is a class of men who are deeply
studied–not quite so skilled as the former, but still exceeding
wise,–who look down at those who stand at the basement of the pyramid,
and who say to them, "Ah, they are the ignoble multitude, they know
nothing at all." A little lower down, we come to the sober,
respectable, thinking men, not those who set up for teachers, but those
who seldom will be taught, because they already in their own opinion
know all that is to be learned. Then after them there come a still
larger number of very estimable folks, who are exceeding wise in
worldly wisdom, although not quite so exalted as the philosopher and
the rabbi. Lower still come those who have just a respectable amount of
wisdom and knowledge, and then at the very basement there come the
fool, and the little child, and the babe. When we look at these we say,
"This is the wisdom of this world. Behold how great a difference there
is between the babe at the bottom, and the learned doctor on the
summit! How wide the distinction between the ignorant simpleton who
forms the hard, rocky, stubborn basement, and the wise man of polished
marble, who there stands resplendent at the apex of the pyramid." Now,
just see how Christ turns the world upside down. There it stands. He
just reverses it. "Except ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye can in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Not
many great men after the flesh, not many mighty men are chosen; but God
hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the
kingdom." It is just turning the whole social fabric upside down; and
the wise man finds now that he has to go upstairs towards his
simplicity. He has been all his life trying as far as he could, to get
away from the simplicity of the credulous child, he has been thinking,
and judging, and weighing, and bringing his logic to cut up every truth
he heard, and now he has to begin, and go up again: he has to become a
little child, and turn back to his former simplicity. This is the world
turned upside down, with a vengeance; and therefore the wise seldom
love it.
If you wish to see the world turned upside down to perfection, just
turn to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: here you have a
whole summary of the world reversed. Jesus Christ turned the world
upside down the first sermon he preached. Look at the third verse.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Now, we like a man who has an ambitious spirit–a man who, as we say,
knows how to push his way in the world–who looks up–is not contented
with the position that he occupies, but is always for climbing higher
and higher. And we have a very fair opinion too of a man, who has a
very fair opinion of himself–a man who is not going to bow and cringe.
He will have his rights, that he will, he will not give way to anybody.
He believes himself to be somewhat, and he will stand on his own
belief, and will prove it to the world yet. He is not one of your poor,
mean-spirited fellows, who are content with poverty, and sit still. He
will not be contented. Now such a man as this the world admires. But
Christ just turns that upside down, and says, "Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." The men who have no
strength of their own, but look for all to Christ–the men who have no
spirit to run with a wicked world, but who would rather suffer an
injury than resent one–the men who are lowly and of a humble carriage,
who seek not to lift their heads above their fellows; who if they be
great have greatness thrust upon them, but never seek it–who are
content along the cool, sequestered vale of life, to keep the even
tenour of their way–who seem to have always ringing in their ears,
"Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not"–"the poor in
spirit," happy in their poverty, who are content with the Lord's
providence, and think themselves far more rich than they deserve to be.
Now, these men Christ says, are blessed. The world says, they are soft,
they are fools; but Christ puts those on the top whom the world puts at
the bottom. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for their's is the kingdom
of heaven."
Then there is another lot of people in the world; they are always
mourning. They do not let you see it often, for their Master has told
them when they fast, to anoint their face, that they appear not unto
men to fast, but still secretly before God they have to groan; they
hang their harps upon the willows; they mourn for their own sin, and
then they mourn for the sin of the times. The world says of these,
"They are a moping, melancholy set; I would not care to belong to their
number;" and the gay reveller comes in, and he almost spits upon them
in his scorn. For what are they? They love the darkness. They are the
willows of the stream, but this man, like the proud poplar, lifts his
head, and is swayed to and fro in the wind of his joy, boasting of his
greatness, and his freedom. Hear how the gay youth talks to his
mourning friend, who is under conviction of sin. "Ah! yours is a morbid
disposition; I pity you; you ought to be under the hand of a physician.
You go mourning through this world. What a miserable thing, to be
plunging through waves of tribulation! What a dismal case is yours! I
would not stand in your shoes and be in your position for all the
world." No, but Christ turns the world upside down; and so those people
whom you think to be mournful and sorrowful, are the very ones who are
to rejoice. For read the fourth verse, "Blessed are they that mourn;
for they shall be comforted." Yes, worldling, your joy is like the
crackling of thorns under a pot. It blazeth a little, and maketh a
great noise: it is soon done with. But "light is sown for the
righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." You cannot see the
light now, because it is sown. It lies under the clods of poverty, and
shame, and persecution, mayhap. But when the great harvest day shall
come, the blades of light, upstarting at the second coming, shall bring
forth "the full corn in the ear" of bliss and glory everlasting. O ye
mourning souls, be glad; for whereas the world puts you beneath it,
Christ puts you above the world's head. When he turns the world upside
down, he says you shall be comforted.
Then there is another race of people, called "the meek." You may have
met with them now and then. Let me describe the opposite. I know a man
who never feels happy unless he has a law-suit; he would never pay a
bill unless be had a writ about it. He is fond of law. The idea of
pulling another up before the court is a great delicacy to him. A
slight affront he would not easily forget. He has a very large amount
of meek dignity; and if he be never so slightly touched, if a harsh
word be spoken against him, or one slander uttered he is down upon his
enemy at once; for he is a man of a hard temper, and he casts the
debtor into prison, and verily I say unto thee, if thou gettest in
there by his writ, thou shalt never come out until thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing. Now the meek are of a very different disposition.
You may revile them, but they will not revile again; you may injure
them, but they know that their Master has said, "I say unto thee,
resist not evil." They do not put themselves into airs and passions on
a slight affront, for they know that all men are imperfect, and
therefore they think that perhaps their brother made a mistake, and did
not wish to hurt their feelings, and therefore they say, "Well, if he
did not wish to do it, then I will not be hurt by it, I dare say he
meant well, and therefore I will take the will for the deed, and though
he spoke harshly, yet he will be sorry for it to morrow; I will not
mention it to him,–I will put up with whatever he chooses to say."
There is a slander uttered against him: he says, "Well, let it alone;
it will die of itself; where no wood is, the fire goeth out." Another
speaketh exceeding ill against him in his hearing; but he justs holds
his tongue; he is dumb and openeth not his mouth. He is not like the
sons of Zeruiah, who said to David, "Let us go and take off that dead
dog's head, because he cursed the king" He says, "No, if the Lord hath
bidden him curse; let him curse." "Vengeance is mine; I will repay,
saith the Lord." He is quite content to bear and forbear, and put up
with a thousand injuries, rather than inflict one; meekly and quietly
he goes his way through the world, and people say, "Ah! such a man as
that will never get on; he will always be taken in. Why, he will be
lending money, and will never get it back again; he will be giving his
substance to the poor, and he will never receive it. How stupid he is!
He allows people to infringe on his rights; he has no strength of mind;
he does not know how to stand up for himself, fool that he is." Ay, but
Christ turns it upside down, and he says, "Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth." Is not that provoking to you graspers,
you high spirited people, you lawyers, you that are always trying to
bring your neighbor into trouble touching your rights? you do it in
order that you may inherit the earth: see how Christ spites you, and
treads your wisdom under feet. He says, "The meek shall inherit the
earth." After all, very often, the best way to get our rights is to let
them alone. I am quite certain that the safest way to defend your
character is never to say a word about it. If every person in this
place chooses to slander me and utter the most furious libels that he
pleases, he may rest quite assured he will never have a law-suit from
me. I am not quite fool enough for that. I have always noticed that
when a man defends himself in a court of law against any slander, he
just does his enemy's business with his own hand. Our enemies cannot
hurt us, unless we hurt ourselves. No man's character was ever really
injured except by himself. Be you among the meek, and you shall inherit
the earth. Bear all things, hope all things, believe all things, and it
shall be the best, even on this earth, in the end.
Do you see that very respectable gentleman yonder, who has never
omitted to attend his church or his chapel twice every Sunday ever
since he became a man. He reads his Bible too, and he has family
prayers. It is true that there are certain stories flying about, that
he is rather hard upon his laborers, and exacting at times in his
payments, but does justice to all men, although no further will he go.
This man is on very good terms with himself; when he gets up in the
morning he always shakes hands with himself, and compliments himself on
being a very excellent person. He generally lives in a front street, in
his opinion, and the first number in the street, too. If you speak to
him about his state before God, he says, that if he does not go to
heaven nobody will; for he pays twenty shillings in the pound to
everybody; he is strictly upright, and there is no one who can find any
fault with his character. Isn't he a good man? Don't you envy him?–a
man who has so excellent an opinion of himself that he thinks himself
perfect; or if he is not quite perfect, yet he is so good that he
believes that with a little help, he shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Well, now, do you see standing at the back of the church there,
a poor woman with tears running down her eyes? Come forward, ma'am; let
us hear your history. She is afraid to come forward; she dares not
speak in the presence of respectable persons; but we gather thus much
from her: She has lately found out that she is full of sin, and she
desires to know what she must do to be saved. Ask her. She tells you
she has no merits of her own. Her song is, "I the chief of sinners am.
Oh! that mercy would save me!" She never compliments herself upon her
good works, for she says she has none; all her righteousnesses are as
filthy rags; she puts her mouth in the very dust when she prays, and
she dares not lift so much as her eyes towards heaven. You pity that
poor woman. You would not like to be in her case. The other man whom I
have just mentioned, stands at the very top of the ladder, does he not?
But this poor woman stands at the bottom. Now just see the gospel
process–the world turned upside down. "Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled;" while
the man who is content with himself has this for his portion–"As many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse;" publicans and
harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before you, because you seek
not the righteousness which is of faith, but you seek it as it were by
the works of the law. So here you see again is the world turned upside
down in the first sermon Christ ever preached.
Now turn to the next beatitude–in the seventh verse–"Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Of this I have already spoken.
The merciful are not much respected in this world–at least if they are
imprudently merciful, the man who forgives too much, or who is too
generous, is not considered to be wise. But Christ declares that he who
has been merciful–merciful to supply the wants of the poor, merciful
to forgive his enemies and to pass by offenses, shall obtain mercy.
Here, again, is the world turned upside down.
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." The world
says, "Blessed is the man who indulges in a gay life." If you ask the
common run of mankind who is the happy man, they will tell you, "The
happy man is he who has abundance of money, and spends it freely, and
is freed from restraint–who leads a merry dance of life, who drinks
deep of the cup of intoxication–who revels riotously–who, like the
wild horse of the prairie, is not bitted by order, or restrained by
reason, but who dashes across the broad plains of sin, unharnessed,
unguided, unrestrained." This is the man whom the world calls happy:
the proud man, the mighty man, the Nimrod; the man who can do just as
he wishes, and who spurns to keep the narrow way of holiness. Now, the
Scripture says, Not so; "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God."
"Blest is the man who shuns the place
Where sinners love to meet;
Who fears to tread their wicked ways,
And hates the scoffer's seat,"–
the man who cannot touch one thing because that would be lascivious,
nor another because that would spoil his communion with his Master; a
man who cannot frequent this place of amusement, because he could not
pray there, and cannot go to another, because he could not hope to have
his Master's sanction upon an hour so spent. That man, pure in heart,
is said to be a Puritanical moralist, a strict Sabbatarian, a man who
has not any mind of his own; but Jesus Christ puts all straight, for he
says, these are the blessed men these are the happy ones. "Blessed are
the pure in heart: for they shall see God."
And now look at the ninth verse. What a turning of the world upside
down that is! You walk through London, and who are the men that we put
upon our columns and pillars, and upon our park gates, and so on? Read
the ninth verse, and see how that turns the world upside down. There
upon the very top of the world, high, high up, can be seen the armless
sleeve of a Nelson: there he stands, high exalted above his fellows;
and there, in another place, with a long file up his back, stands a
duke; and in another place, riding upon a war horse, is a mighty man of
war. These are the world's blest heroes. Go into the capital of what
empire you choose to select, and you shall see that the blessed men,
who are put upon pedestals, and who have statues erected to their
memory, who are put into our St. Paul's Cathedral, and our Westminster
Abbey, are not exactly the men mentioned in the ninth verse. Let us
read it. "Blessed are the peace-makers; for they shall be called the
children of God." Ah! but you do not often bless the peace-makers, do
you? The man who comes between two beligerents, and bears the stroke
himself–the man who will lie down on the earth, and plead with others
that they would cease from warfare–these are the blessed. How rarely
are they set on high. They are generally set aside, as people who
cannot be blessed, even though it seem that they try to make others so.
Here is the world turned upside down. The warrior with his garment
stained in blood, is put into the ignoble earth, to die and rot; but
the peace-maker is lifted up, and God's crown of blessing is put round
about his head, and men one day shall see it, and struck with
admiration they shall lament their own fully, that they exalted the
blood-red sword of the warrior, but that they did rend the modest
mantle of the noon who did make peace among mankind.
And to conclude our Saviour's sermon, notice once more, that we find in
this world a race of persons who have always been hated–a class of men
who have been hunted like the wild goat; persecuted, afflicted, and
tormented. As an old divine says, "The Christian has been looked upon
as if he had a wolfs head, for as the wolf was hunted for his head
everywhere, so has the Christian been hunted to the uttermost ends of
the earth." And in reading history we are apt to say, "These persecuted
persons occupy the lowest room of blessedness; these who have been sawn
asunder, who have been burned, who have seen their houses destroyed,
and have been driven as houseless exiles into every part of the
earth–these men who have wandered about in sheep's skins, and goat's
skins,–these are the very least of mankind." Not so. The gospel
reverses all this, and it says, "Blessed are they who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." I
repeat it: The whole of these beatitudes are just in conflict with the
world's opinion. and we may quote the words of the Jew, and say, "Jesus
Christ was the man who turned the world upside down.' "
And now I find I must be very brief for I have taken so much time in
endeavoring to show how Christ's gospel turned the world upside down,
in the position of its characters, that I shall have no space left for
anything else. But will you have patience with me, and I will briefly
pass through the other points?
I have next to remark, that the Christian religion turns the world
upside down in its maxims. I will just quote a few texts which show
this very clearly. "It was said by them of old time, eye for eye and
tooth for tooth; but I say unto you, resist not evil" It has generally
been held by each of us, that we are not to allow anyone to infringe
upon our rights; but the Saviour says, "Whosoever would sue thee at the
law and take thy cloak, let him take thy coat also." "If any man smite
thee on the one cheek, turn unto him the other also." If these precepts
were kept, would it not turn the world upside down? "It has been said
by them of old time, love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy;" but Jesus
Christ said, "Let love be unto all men." He commands us to love our
enemies, and to pray for them who despitefully use us. He says, "If
thine enemy hunger, feed him, and if he thirst give him drink, for in
so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." This would indeed
be turning the world upside down; for what would become of our war
ships and our warriors, if at the port-holes where now we put our
cannons, we should have sent out to some burning city of our
enemies–for instance, to burning Sebastapol,–if we had sent to the
houseless inhabitants, who had been driven from their homes, barrels of
beef, and bundles of bread and clothes, to supply their wants. That
would have been a reversal of all human policy, but yet it would have
been just the carrying out of Christ's law, after all. So shall it be
in the days that are to come, our enemies shall be loved, and our
foemen shall be fed. We are told too, in these times, that it is good
to a man to heap unto himself abundant wealth, and make himself rich,
but Jesus Christ turned the world upside down, for he said, there was a
certain rich man who was clothed in scarlet, and fared sumptuously
every day, and so on, and his fields brought forth abundantly; and he
said, "I will pull down my barns, and build greater;" but the Lord
says, "Thou fool!" That is reversing everything in this world. You
would have made an Alderman of him, or a Lord Mayor; and fathers would
have patted their boys on the head, and said, "That is all through his
frugality and taking care; see how he has got on in the world; when he
had got a good crop, he did not give it away to the poor, as that
extravagant man does who has kept on working all his life, and never be
able to retire from business; he saved it all up;–be as good a boy as
So-and-so, and get on too." But Christ said "Thou fool, this night
shall thy soul be required of thee." A turning of everything upside
down. And others of us will have it, that we ought to be very careful
every day, and always looking forward to the future, and always
fretting about what is to be. Here is a turning of the world upside
down, when Jesus Christ says, "Remember the ravens; they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them, are ye not better than they?" I do believe that at
this day the maxims of business are clean opposed to the maxims of
Christ. But I shall be answered by this, "Business is business." Yes, I
know business is business, but business has no business to be such
business as it is. Oh! that it might be altered, till every man could
make his business his religion, and make a religion of his business
I have not detained you long upon that point; and therefore I am free
to mention a third. How Christ has turned the world upside down, as to
our religious notions. Why, the mass of mankind believe, that if any
man wills to be saved, that is all which is necessary. Many of our
preachers do in effect preach this worldly maxim. They tell men that
they must make themselves willing. Now, just hear how the gospel upsets
that. "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of
God that showeth mercy." The world will have an universal religion too;
but how Christ overturns that. "I pray for them; I pray not for the
world." He hath ordained us from among men. "Elect according to the
foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief
of the truth." "The Lord knoweth them that are his." How that runs
counter to all the world's opinion of religion! The world's religion is
this–"Do, and thou shalt live." Christ's religion is–"Believe and
live." We will have it, that if a man be righteous, sober upright, he
shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but Christ says–This thou oughtest
to have done; but still, not this can ever cleanse thee. "As many as
are under the works of the law are under the curse." "By the works or
the law shall no flesh living be justified." " Believe and live," is
just the upsetting of every human notion. Cast thyself on Christ: trust
in him. Have good works afterwards; but first of all trust in him that
died upon the tree. This is the overturning of every opinion of man.
And hence mortals will always fight against it, so long as the human
heart is what it is. Oh! that we knew the gospel! Oh! that we felt the
gospel! For it would be the upsetting of all self-righteousness, and
the casting down of every high look, and of every proud thing.
II. And now, beloved, spare me a little time, while I try to show THAT
WHICH IS TRUE IN THE WORLD, IS TRUE IN THE HEART. Instead, however, of
enlarging at full length upon the different topics, I shall make my
last point the subject of examination.
Man is a little world, and what God does in the outer world, he does in
the inner. If any of you would be saved your hearts must be turned
upside down. I will now appeal to you, and ask you whether you have
ever felt this–whether you know the meaning of it?
In the first place, your judgment must be turned upside down. Cannot
many of you say, that which you now believe to be the truth of God is
very far opposed to your former carnal notions? Why, if anyone had told
you, that you should be a believer in the distinguishing doctrines of
free and sovereign grace, you would have laughed him in the face.
"What! I believe the doctrine of election? What! I ever hold the
doctrine of particular redemption, or final perseverance? Pshaw!
nonsense! It cannot be!" But now you do hold it, and the thing which
you thought unreasonable and unjust, now seems to you to be for God's
glory, and for man's eternal benefit. You can kiss the doctrine which
once you despised, and you meekly receive it as sweeter than the
droppings of honey from the honeycomb, though once you thought it to be
as the very poison of asps, and gall, and wormwood. Yes, when grace
enters the heart, there is a turning upside down of all our opinions;
and the great truth of Jesus sits reigning on our soul.
Is there not, again, a total change of all your hopes? Why, your hopes
used to be all for this world. If you could but get rich, if you could
but be great and honored, you would be happy! You looked forward to it.
All you were expecting was a paradise this side the flood. And now
where are your hopes?–not on earth; for where your treasure is, there
must your heart be also. You are looking for a city that hands have not
piled; your desires are heavenly, whereas they were gross and carnal
once. Can ye say that? Oh! all ye members of this congregation, can ye
say that your hopes and your desires are changed? Are ye looking
upward, instead of downward? Are you looking to serve God on earth, and
to enjoy him for ever? Or are you still content with thinking "What ye
shall eat, and what ye shall drink, and wherewithal ye shall be
clothed?"
Again, it is a complete upsetting of all your pleasures. You loved the
tavern once, you hate it now. You hated God's house once; it is now
your much-loved habitation. The song, the Sunday newspaper, the lewd
novel–all these were sweet to your taste; but you have burned the
books that once enchanted you, and now the dusty Bible from the back of
the shelf is taken down, and there it lies wide open upon the family
table, and it is read both morn and night, much loved, much prized and
delighted in. The Sabbath was once the dullest day of the week to you.
you either loitered outside the door in your shirt-sleeves, if you were
poor, or if you were rich you spent the day in your drawing-room, and
had company in the evening: now, instead thereof, your company you find
in the church of the living God, and you make the Lord's house the
drawing-room where you entertain your friends. Your feast is no longer
a banquet of wine, but a banquet of communion with Christ. There are
some of you who once loved nothing better than the theater, the low
concert room, or the casino: over such places you now see a great black
mark of the curse, and you never go there. You seek now the prayer
meeting, the church meeting, the gathering of the righteous, the
habitation of the Lord God of hosts.
It is marvellous how great a change the gospel makes in a man's house
too. Why, it turns his house upside down. Look over the
mantle-piece–There is a vile daub of a picture there, or a wretched
print, and the subject is worse than the style of the thing. But when
the man follows Jesus he takes that down, and he gets a print of John
Bunyan in his prison, or his wife standing before the magistrate, or a
print of the apostle Paul preaching at Athens, or some good old subject
representing something Biblical. There is a pack of cards and a
cribbage board in the cupboard; he turns them out, and instead he puts
there perhaps the monthly magazine, or mayhaps few works of old
divines, just here and there one of the publications of the Religious
Tract Society, or a volume of a Commentary. Every thing is upside down
there. The children say, "Father is so altered." They never knew such a
thing. He used to come home sometimes drunk of a night, and the
children used to run up stairs and be in bed before he came in; and now
little John and little Sarah sit at the window and watch till he comes
home; and they go toddling down the street to meet him, and he takes
one in his arms, and the other by the hand, and brings them home with
him. He used to teach them to sing "Begone dull care" or something
worse, now he tells them of "Gentle Jesus meek and mild" or puts into
their mouth some sweet song of old. A jolly set of companions he used
to have come to see him, and a roaring party there used to be of them,
on a Sunday afternoon; but that is all done with. The mother smiles
upon her husband: she is a happy woman now; she knows that he will no
longer disgrace himself by plunging into the vilest of society, and
being seduced into the worst of sins. Now, if you could take a man's
heart out, and put a new heart right into him, it would not be half so
good, if it were another natural heart, as the change that God works,
when he takes out the heart of stone, and puts in a heart of flesh–
"A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
Our dear Redeemer's throne
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone."
I put, then, the question to you again: Have you been turned upside
down? How about your companions? You loved those the best who could
swear the loudest, talk the fastest, and tell the greatest falsehoods:
now you love those who can pray the most earnestly, and tell you the
most of Jesus. Everything is changed with you. If you were to meet your
old self going down the street, you would not know him, except by
hearsay; you are no relation to him at all. Sometimes the old gentleman
comes to your house, and he begins to tempt you to go back; but you
turn him out of doors as soon as you can, and say, "Begone! I never got
on so long as I knew you; I had a ragged coat to my back then, and I
was always giving the publican all my money; I never went to God's
house, but cursed my Maker, and added sin to sin, and tied a mill-stone
round my neck. So away from me, I will have nothing to do with you; I
have been buried with Christ, and I have risen with him. I am a new man
in Christ Jesus, old things have passed away, and behold all things
have become new."
I have some here, however, who belong to a different class of society,
who could not indulge in any of these things; but ah! ladies and
gentlemen, if you are ever converted, you must have as great a sweeping
out as the poorest man that ever lived. There must be as true a turning
upside down in the salvation of an earl, or a duke, or a lord, as in
the salvation of a pauper or a peasant. There is as much sin in the
higher ranks as in the lower, and sometimes more, because they have
more light, more knowledge, more influence, and when they sin, they not
only damn themselves, but others too. O you that are rich, have you had
a change too? Have the frivolities of this world become sickening
things to you? Do you turn away with loathing from the common cant and
conventionalism of high life? Have you forsaken it? and can you now
say, "Although I am in the world, yet am I not of it; its pomps and
vanities I do eschew; its pride and its glory I trample under feet;
these are nothing to me; I would follow my Master bearing his cross,
through evil report and through good report?" If such be not the case,
if you are not changed, remember, there are no exceptions; one truth is
true for all–"Except ye be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom of
heaven." And that amounts in substance to my test: except ye be
thoroughly renewed, turned upside down, ye cannot be saved. "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;" for he that believeth
shall be sanctified and renewed–shall he saved at last–but he that
believeth not must be cast away in the great day of God's account.
The Lord bless you; for Jesus' sake!
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