Three Important Precepts
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 22, 1890
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. INTENDED FOR READING ON
LORD'S-DAY, JULY 13, 1890,
"Hear you, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way."
Proverbs 23:19.
THE words are very direct and personal–and that is what I wish my
sermon to be. My soul is more and more set upon immediate conversions.
I have no voice with which to play the orator–I have only enough
strength to be an earnest pleader with your souls. I want to come to
close quarters with you and to plead with each man and woman here as if
there were but one. Specially would I press my entreaties upon the
young, that they may immediately begin that blessed walk which will
lead them to the right hand of God. Here and now I desire your
salvation! I may never preach again and you may never hear me again.
"Now is the accepted time."
Solomon, in this verse, gave forth three precepts. I am not very
careful as to what limited meaning he personally attached to his words.
I am going to baptize his precepts into the faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I shall put into them a fullness of Gospel meaning and I shall
press them home upon the heart, praying the Holy Spirit to lead every
unconverted person to whom these words shall come to obey these three
precepts at once. My voice is to each one. I think I have a message
from God for you. Be not disobedient to the heavenly summons. The first
precept in my text is, "Hear." The second is, "Be wise" and the third
is, "Guideyours heart in the way."
I. We will begin with the first precept, which is contained in the
word, "HEAR." Perhaps you will say, "We are all here ready to hear and
do not, therefore, need the exhortation." That you are in this great
audience-chamber in the posture of attention is a matter in which I
rejoice. So far, so good. But let me say to you this exhortation to
hear is not only given in this verse, but it is often repeated in Holy
Scripture. "Hear, O Israel!" is the voice of the Law and of the
Prophets.
This is not optional–it is a matter of command and promise. "Incline
your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live." "Hearken
diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good." The very existence
of a Revelation is a call to hear it. You cannot find eternal life
through the eyes of the body. No actual bronze serpent is to be looked
upon. You need not now look for solemn ceremonies, bleeding sacrifices
and smoking incense. These shadows have vanished. The high road of the
Truth of God to the heart runs through the ear. "Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." The Apostolic word is, "Men,
brethren, and fathers, hearken unto me."
The exhortation to hear is a very important one. As I understand it and
use it at this time it means, hear the Gospel. "Take heed what you
hear." There is only one way of salvation. Mind that you hear the one
and only Gospel! Be very careful of your Sundays–you will not have
many of them. Do not go on the Sabbath to hear whatever comes in your
way, or you may hear to your ruin. Go to hear the Gospel. "How shall I
know where the Gospel is preached?" Well, you will not have to enquire
long–you may readily judge for yourself. Unless the name of Jesus is
sounded out often, depend upon it, you are in the wrong place. Unless
you hear the words, "Grace," "faith," "salvation," you may conclude
that you are not on Gospel ground.
It is true that mere terms may not always be a sufficient guide, but,
as a rule, as straws show which way the wind blows, so will these
terms, by their presence or absence, be a guide to you. It will not
take you long to find out whether the man preaches of works or of
Grace, ceremonies or faith, man or Christ. You can soon discover the
Gospel sermon or the moral essay, for the very temperature of them
differs. Mere morality teaches men to dance, but it does not discern
the fact that they have lost their legs. The Gospel gives the lame man
his feet and then shows him how to use them. You need
a Savior–you do not want to be deluded with some theory of saving
yourself. Go where you hear about the Lord Jesus and His redeeming
blood. If you hear no mention of "the blood," clear out of the place
and never go again.
When you have found the Gospel-house, take care that you hear with the
view of obtaining faith in the Lord Jesus. Aim at that blessed thing.
"Faith comes by hearing." It will be idle for you to stop at home and
say, "I will try to believe." This is unreasonable and not according to
the laws of mind. It is folly to attempt to try to believe–there is a
far better way. Go and listen to what it is which you are to believe
and, as you hear it, if it is faithfully proclaimed and if the preacher
is, in his own person, a witness to the Truth, you will be greatly
helped in the matter of believing. Faith comes from knowledge and
evidence–and hearing brings you these. Besides, there is a power about
the Gospel which tends to create faith–and the Holy Spirit is pleased
to use the foolishness of preaching to breed faith–and so to save them
that believe.
If the Gospel is allowed to work in its own way, the most unbelieving
mind will soon yield itself to faith. The persons who do not believe
the Bible, as a rule, have never read it. Those who do not believe in
Jesus Christ our Lord, as a rule, know nothing about Him while, for
certain, those who know His Gospel best find it easy to believe. A
frequent hearer is likely to become a fervent Believer. Do not fall
into the error of some who only patronize the house of God occasionally
and think they are doing something very meritorious. If you are often
hearing with an earnest mind you will not fail to get the blessing. He
that only eats once a month will not grow very strong. He that only
hears the Gospel now and then is not likely to be profited. Beware of
hearing sermons as a pastime–this is no trifling matter. Hear the
Gospel with the view of being saved by it.
Next, hear without prejudice. The Word of God does not please some
people. That is not at all amazing for many people ought not to be
pleased. Some have a preconceived idea of what the plan of salvation
ought to be. They are in no humor to receive with meekness the
engrafted word which is able to save their souls. Their objective is to
find fault with the preacher, to pick a hole in his doctrine or in his
manner. They must have something or other to criticize or censure. Do
you wonder that such folks are not profited? They do not hear, but they
sit in judgment. I have read that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth there
was a law made that everybody should go to his parish church, but many
sincere Romanists loathed to go and hear Protestant doctrine. Through
fear of persecution they attended the parish church–but they took care
to fill their ears with wool so that they should not hear what their
priests condemned.
It is wretched work preaching to a congregation whose ears are stopped
with prejudices! Are there not many such? The world, the flesh, the
devil, the priests, the skeptics and the down-graders have stopped
their ears and what good is likely to come of their attendance? If you
come to carp at everything, how are you likely to be blessed? Hear!
Hear! Hear what God the Lord will speak and there will be a message of
peace for your soul. I would say, like the old pleader, "Strike, but
hear!" Abuse me, but hear me! Do not shut the door of mercy against
yourself.
Next, I would say, hear for yourself. The great object of a hearer
should be to hear what God speaks to him. I am glad that God should
speak to my neighbor, but my neighbor must listen for himself and not
for me. The Roman orator began–
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." He needs the loan,
for people usually lend their ears to one another and not to the
speaker. They will sit and wonder what Mrs. So-and-So thinks of the
sermon. Leave her alone, Friend! Think about what is good for yourself.
Do you not know that in every sermon there is something for yourself
and your first duty is to give heed to that which is for you? Come with
me to a house. A will is to be read. A dozen people have come home from
the funeral and they are going to hear the will read. Perhaps they
cried a good deal at the funeral, but they will not cry now if the
person they have buried has left a decent sum among them.
They are all ears for what the lawyer has to read. They want to hear
that will much more than many want to hear a sermon! See how they
listen! There are long, ugly words about tenements and hereditaments,
and this, and that, and the other–but they set themselves to hear it
all as much as if it were a choice poem. Are they going to sleep? By no
means! John Smith over yonder, the man's brother–look how he doubles
his attention at a certain point! As for the eldest son, how eagerly he
drinks in about all the farm and stock and freehold land, and such
like, all in the parish of A, in the county of B! It takes a long time
to go through it, but each legatee loves every word which relates to
him. He listens and his ears seem to grow longer while he hears!
That poor relative who gets 19 guineas lays the codicil to heart and
can almost repeat it word for word, only wishing it had been 500
pounds! John Smith does not care so much about the rest of the
document. In fact, he hopes there are not many more items. The extract
which relates to himself he would like to copy out. Will you be wise
enough to treat a sermon in that fashion? Please listen to that which
concerns you most, take it down and carry it home. This is the
exhortation of the text–"Hear"–but especially hear that which has
most to do with you, whether it is rebuke, or promise, or command.
And then, dear Friends, hear when the sermon is done. "How can I hear
when it is all done?" This is a very important point. I went to see a
poor woman in the hospital one day and she said to me, speaking of the
sermons she had heard, "Sir, you seem to talk to me all day and all
night while I am lying here." I said, "Well, I hope I do not keep you
awake." "No," she said, "but as I am awake I hear you talking to me
through everything I see. You have used so many things as illustrations
that everywhere I am I have you in my memory." I was pleased, and
inwardly wished that I could always preach in the way which she
described–and I should do so if I always had hearers such as that sick
woman had evidently been.
Ah, dear Friends! The way to hear a sermon is to hear it when you get
home. Pray remember the Scripture verse in my sermon of this morning,
"Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long." ["All the Day Long," No.
2150.] I want you to hear that word when you are dressing tomorrow,
when you are taking down the shutters, when you are dealing across the
counter and when you are among the children. If you are tempted to do a
dishonest deed, I would have you hear a still small voice saying to
you, "Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long." A sermon ought to
be like a musical box–we wind it up when we preach it–and then it
goes on playing till its tune is through. It should be said of a good
sermon, "It being ended still speaks." Hear what you hear in such a way
that it shall be like a seed which will grow in the garden of your
heart.
Above all, hear the Gospel as the voice of God. When a man hears the
preacher, not as a man speaking on his own account but as God's
servant–and when the Truth spoken is not measured by its oratory, nor
weighed by its logic, but is judged of by the Bible as to whether it is
the very Truth of God or not–then it is that men hear to profit. Those
who compare sermons with Scripture are noble, like the Bereans of old.
If you can say, "I hear the word, not as the word of man, but as the
Word of God," it will have its effect upon your heart. Oh, that the
word may come to you with demonstration of the Spirit! You will never
lose the good effect of Gospel preaching if the Spirit of God seals it
on your mind!
Is it so, or not? Do you come here to listen to me? Yours is a poor
errand. If you come to listen to what God the Lord shall speak, however
poorly I may interpret His mind as I find it in the Scripture, yet you
will find a blessing in what you hear! A good many things are sold
nowadays by means of pretty wrappings and in the same way worthless
doctrines are spread by the fine style in which they are done up. But
as you do not want the wrappings, but the goods, so in sermons the
manner is not the main concern. If we should set a thing before you
with all the grandeur of oratory and it did not come from God, it would
be a gaudy nothing!
Though we spoke falsehood with the tongues of men and of angels, we
should not be so good as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. But
though we give you the Gospel of the blessed God in great feebleness
and trembling, yet it is what you need and through it the blessing will
come to you. He that has an ear towards God will find that God has an
ear towards him. Thus have we dwelt upon the first exhortation. Hear
often. Hear the Gospel! Hear for yourself. Hear attentively. Hear with
a holy purpose. Hear the Gospel as a message from God.
II. The next precept is, "BE WISE." What does that mean in this
connection? It means, first, try to understand what you hear. Get to
the bottom of it. Look it up; look it down; look it through. Look over
it but do not overlook it. When you have heard the words of the Gospel,
say to yourself, "I want to know what this Gospel is. With the ins and
outs of it I am going to make myself acquainted, if the Lord will teach
me. I will know what I must do to be saved and why I must do it and how
it will save me."
How much I wish that a sacred curiosity would seize upon my hearers so
that they would say, "We must know the soul and spirit of this Word of
the Lord. We want to know, each one for himself, who the Savior is and
how He can be ours!" God give you thus to be wise by getting an
understanding of the Gospel! I should not wonder, if I were to come
round the congregation, if I found many here who do not know the
Gospel, simple as it is. I will not come round, so do
not be frightened–but I sadly fear that some of you who have been for
years to places of worship are still ignorant of the elements of the
faith. Should it be so? Do try to know saving Truth. Whatever else you
do not learn, do learn the answer to that question, "What must I do to
be saved?"
"Be wise"–that is, believe the Gospel as it comes from God. You will
not be wise to doubt it, but you will be wise to believe it, for it is
true and sure. This is an age of doubt–it is in the air. No man is,
nowadays, thought to have any sense if he does not doubt even the best
established truths–and yet I do not think that it takes any great
quantity of brain to be a doubter! With a very strong effort I might
manage to doubt–to doubt my father's word (I have never done it, mark
you)! To doubt my brother's faithfulness. To doubt my wife's love to
me. By such efforts I should doubt myself into an abyss of misery and
should become a glorious fool! To turn the power of doubting upon
spiritual realities would be even more fatal–for that would take away
my hope beyond the grave and plunge me in despair.
Doubt is sterile–it produces nothing–it destroys, but it cannot
create. I have long been a Believer and I find that my joys all come to
me by the road of believing and none of them by the wretched lane of
doubting. I have believed this Bible to be God's Word and after all the
destructive criticism which I have heard, I still believe it! I have
believed Christ to be my Savior and after all the doubts of His Deity
and Atonement lately vented and invented, I still believe it! Yes, and
believe it none the less. I have believed God to be my Father and
though I have seen His Fatherhood dragged in the mire, I still believe
it. I believe Heaven to be my home–despite the insinuations of Satan I
still believe it. I have never yet gained health, joy, comfort,
holiness through doubting. No, I have never gained a piece of bread, or
a drop of water through doubting. So many are doing the doubting and
doing it very completely, that I need not trouble myself to assist
them, but may quietly go on believing and enjoying the sweet results of
faith. Our experience proves that it is wisdom to believe the Lord! He
is God that cannot lie! Why should we doubt Him?
"Be wise"–that is, be affected by what you have heard. Yield your
heart up to the Word of God. Some people are hard to move–they are
more like stone than flesh. There are congregations where you may
preach your own heart out but you cannot get at their hearts. You might
as well preach to the statues in St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster
Abbey as preach to them–they are impenetrable and immovable. He that
is wise permits the Truth to come into full contact with him. Be wise,
my Hearer! Yield yourself up to the Truth of God, for it will do you
good and no harm. Do not resist it! Do not evade it! Let the heavenly
wind blow on you, for it brings healing. If it bids you hate sin, hate
sin. If it bids you repent, repent. If it entreats you to believe,
believe. Be what the Gospel is meant to make you. You cannot make
yourself a saint, but the Holy Spirit can do it through the Word of
Truth.
And then take care that you do not wander into evil company. You say,
"Surely you are leaving your text. Why bring that in?" Solomon brought
it in. "Hear you, my son, and be wise. Be not among winebibbers, among
riotous eaters of flesh" and so on. If you are wise you will keep out
of bad company, especially out of the society of revelers, drunkards
and gluttons. This warning may be very necessary to some to whom this
sermon will come. You have lately come from the country to this wicked
city. I am sure that you must be very sorry to have come to this
horrible wilderness of bricks and mortar. Oh, for an hour or two of the
green fields and the leafy woods and the blue sky!
Alas, designing persons are surrounding you–they are trying to draw
you into evil. Be wise. "If sinners entice you, consent you not." Be
wise. Keep out of the way of their enticements. In ten years' time, if
you have gone into evil company in the interval, you will be, yourself,
the best witness of how unwise you have been! And if you are kept out
of it, kept especially from the wine cup and vice, I am sure you will
thank God that you were wise in time. Choose good companions. Make
saints your friends. Trust the true and good and quit the gay and
frivolous.
Once more, "Be wise," that is, take care to do what you hear. Have you
ever seen persons crowding into a place of worship? Do they not, in
this place, often press upon one another to hear the Word of God? Yes,
yes and when they have come and they have heard it, what have they done
with it? The great mass of them have done nothing with it! Did you ever
go to a physician? Did you ever wait in the room for an hour or two
before your turn came to see the great man? Did you give him your
guinea? Did he hand you a prescription? Tell me, did you leave it on
the table? Did you fold it up carefully and put it into your pocket?
Did you keep it there? Did you not have the medicine made up? Did you
not take
it?
Suppose that in a month's time someone should say, "Did you see the
doctor?" You say, "Yes, I went to see him." "Did you have a
prescription?" "He gave me a bit of paper with something or other upon
it, but I do not know what it
was, for I cannot read Latin." "You do not mean to say that you have
not had it made up at the chemist's?" "No," you say, "I was satisfied
with seeing the doctor." Dear Friends, you smile at this description of
folly, for it is such gross stupidity. Be wise, then–do not hear the
Gospel in vain by neglecting its commands! If you know how to be saved,
obey the command! Do not be lost in darkness with light shining upon
your eyeballs! Do not go to Hell with the gate of Heaven standing open
before you.
I pray you, hear and be wise. Turn what you hear into speedy practice.
God help you to do so, for His mercy's sake! I am talking to you in a
very feeble and commonplace manner, but what more could I say if I had
the eloquence of the greatest orator? What better could I do than in a
loving and brotherly manner plead with every one of you not to play the
fool with your souls? Hear the Gospel, but be not hearers only! Be wise
enough to be diligent in practicing what you are taught. Believe in
Jesus unto life eternal! May the good Spirit make you wise unto
salvation! Why will you perish? Why run risks with your never-dying
soul? Come, now, and seek the Lord. If you seek Him, He will be found
of you.
III. Now comes the last of the three precepts. "GUIDE YOUR HEART IN THE
WAY." There is but one way. "In the way." That is to say, in the way of
wisdom and this is one, and one only. There are not two Gods, but one
God. There are not two Christs, but one Christ. There are not two
gospels, but one Gospel. There are not two heavens, but one Heaven and
there are not two ways of life, but one way. There is "one Lord, one
faith, one baptism" and one Holy Spirit, and one life by His
indwelling–and there is no going to Heaven by any but the one way!
Some people get comparing the different ways of salvation. This is
frivolous and foolish, for he that preaches any other than the one
Gospel is accursed! Suppose a man wants to go to York and he says,
"Well, I want to go to York, but the road to London is a better road
and a wider road." What matters the character of the road if it does
not lead where you want to go? You say you want to go to York–then
what have you to do with any road but that which leads to York? There
are many ways, but what have you to do with any but the way
everlasting? There is one royal road which leads to God and eternal
life and Heaven. Never mind what the other ways are, or are not–you go
the right way!
When I go from this place, I want to go home to Norwood. The road down
the Borough is level, but my road home is up a very steep hill to
Norwood. Suppose I were to say, "I shall take the level road and cross
London Bridge, and drive into the county of Essex"–what then? Why, I
shall not get home if I take any other road than that which leads to
the top of Norwood Hill. If it is steep, I cannot help it, but I must
say, with John Bunyan at the Hill Difficulty, "This hill, though high,
I covet to ascend."
So with you, dear Friend. There is only one road to Heaven. And
although there are a dozen roads which do not lead to holiness and God,
it is idle to raise them up, for they will not serve your turn. Take
the hilly road of Self-Denial. Climb up to Heaven on your hands and
knees if it must be, but make up your mind that you are going there by
God's way. That way is often described in the Scriptures. Shall I tell
you what the Bible says about this way? Well, it calls it the way of
the Lord and you are not in the right way unless you walk with God day
by day. A religion that has not God in it is irreligion. Atheism cannot
bring you to Heaven nor can any form of deism, even though it is
baptized into the name of Christianity. If God is not Chief, Head,
King, Lord, Sovereign–you are not on the right road.
It is Christ's way, too, for Christ says, "I am the Way." You are not
on the right way unless Christ is first and last with you. His precious
blood to put away your sin, His glorious Resurrection to be your
justification, His Ascension to Heaven to take possession of a place
for you, His second coming to receive you to Himself–all these are the
way. Christ is All in All to the man who is on the right road.
Sometimes it is called the way offaith. That is the only way to Heaven.
The way of works might have taken us to Heaven if we had not fallen in
Adam and had never sinned on our own account–but having been once
defiled by iniquity we cannot be saved by future innocence. Do what we
may, we cannot mend the life which we have marred–the flaws and
fractures will appear.
Justice will demand punishment for past transgressions–"The soul that
sins, it shall die." We must be saved by Divine Grace through faith, as
it is written, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved." The way of faith is the way to Glory! This way is also called
the way of Truth. If your religion is based on a lie, it must deceive
and ruin you. If it is founded on the Truth of God, it will truly save
you and nothing else will. Alas, for many–the way of truth they have
not known. Many hate the Truth of God and go about with a thousand
inventions to get rid of it. If you love Truth and follow it and
believe in it as God has revealed it in the Person of His Son, all is
well with your soul!
It is also called the way of holiness. My dear Hearer, are you in that
way? This is the King's highway and it leads to the city of the great
King. Do you hate sin? Do you follow after righteousness? Would you
scorn a lie? Do you keep your word even when it is to your personal
loss? Do you endeavor to act fairly to your workmen, kindly to your
servants, faithfully to your masters, uprightly to all? When you feel
that you have erred, are you humbled and grieved? Do you endeavor for
the future to guard the point in which experience has proved you to be
weak? Do you watch against temptation and daily cry to God for strength
to overcome it? Depend upon it, he that would be happy hereafter must
be holy now!
The road to Heaven is also called the "way of peace." We must seek
after peace of conscience, peace with God, peace with our fellow men.
If our end is to be peace, our way must be peace–a quiet, contented
mind is a thing to cultivate. Keep in this way! Let me tell you two or
three more things which the Bible says about this way. It is the "old"
way. It bids us ask for the old paths. True religion is no new thing.
Your mother was saved–you do not doubt it. Be saved in the way which
led your mother safely. If there might be a new way, I would not try
it–one cannot afford to play experiments with the only soul he has!
That which has saved those who have gone before us is quite good enough
for me. I love to think of friends in Glory–their footprints cheer me!
I love–
"The way the holy Prophets went, The road that leads from banishment."
The moderns have struck out an altogether new path, for their road is
both new and broad. What? Were the saints of former ages all mistaken?
The martyrs–did they die for a lie and shed their blood for doctrines
which criticism explodes? The men of whom the world was not
worthy–were they all the dupes of theories which time has disproved?
Did nobody know anything till Darwin appeared? Were those who believed,
"The things which are seen were not made of things which do appear,"
downright fools? Is it quite so certain as some think it is that the
things which were made grew out of things already existing? Of course I
know that nowadays men are so wonderfully intelligent that they have
discovered that human life has been "evolved" from lower life. We are
the heirs of oysters and the near descendants of apes!
It has taken some time to compass the evolution and yet I will grant
that very hard shells are still to be met with and some men are not
much above animals–especially such men as can be duped by this
hypothesis! Were the old-fashioned Believers all wrong? No, my Brothers
and Sisters, they were not wrong–their lives and their deaths prove
that they were right! We shall be wrong if we leave the old and tried
paths for these new ruts which lead into fathomless bogs of unbelief.
It was enough to condemn the idols of Israel that they were new gods,
newly set up–and it is enough to condemn the gospels of the hour that
they are such as were never heard of in the golden ages of the Church.
"The old is
better."
Yet it is strange, but true, that the way to Heaven is in Scripture
called the "new" way–the "new and living way"–that is to say,
Christ's blood, for when Christ came men began to understand the way of
salvation more clearly and it came to them with a freshness of power
which the old ceremonial law knew nothing of. The Incarnate Savior, by
His death, has opened a new and living way to the secret pavilion of
God! We need nothing newer than the opened way which is made by the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ! That Gospel which came in with a dying
and risen Savior is the Gospel for us!
Again, we are told in the Bible that it is a "narrow" way. We are
expressly told that, "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads
to destruction, and many there are which go in there: because strait is
the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life." "Oh," says one,
"I like a man who is broad in his views." Do you? Possibly you are in
the broad road yourself and if so, "a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous
kind." How can you, in the teeth of Holy Scripture, admire the broad
way? It surely leads to destruction! "I cannot endure narrow views,"
cries one. You cannot? Then what are you going to do? Do you refuse to
follow the narrow way? Yet that way leads to life and though, "few
there are that find it," I should have thought it well worth your while
to be one of the few!
Of course great thinkers and great doubters shun it because it does not
afford room enough for their greatness. But common men should choose it
because it leads to the right place. It is curious, is it not, that our
Lord Jesus Christ should describe this heavenly way as narrow and yet
some who are themselves Christians would, if they could, make it out to
be very broad? Everything broad commends itself to their taste. Well,
well, however unpopular may be my teaching, I
exhort the young men here to follow the narrow way, to keep close to
Christ and the crimson way of His precious blood and to defy all
ridicule on that account.
Follow after holiness and let the gaieties and vanities of the world go
to those who love them. Keep you to the narrow way of secret prayer and
hallowed fellowship with God and let those who want sing-song and
theatricals go their own way. It may be you will appear to be losers by
quitting the fellowship of the worldly religious–but your loss will be
unspeakable gain to you in the long run. Dare to be as the
Puritans–conscientious, scrupulous! Venture to follow Christ, even if
you go alone, for so shall you go aright.
But I will not keep you much longer. I am still speaking upon this
third precept–you are to put your heart into your religion. In no
business can a man prosper if he is half-hearted. Religion without
heart is a wretched affair. That man who professes to fear the Lord and
yet only puts half his heart into his godliness will make a great
failure of it. He is a poor, miserable creature who has enough religion
to prevent his enjoying sin and not enough to make him enjoy holiness.
He that goes right into the heart of godliness will be made happy by
it–but no one else. I am speaking to young men and I would drive home
this Truth in their case.
They will remember that, when they were boys, they went down to the
river for a bath and certain of the lads went paddling in just above
their ankles, or their knees. How they shivered with the cold! They did
not much appreciate the bath. But one of the boys mounted the
spring-board and leaped right into the water headfirst. I see him now,
coming up all glowing and rosy–and I hear his cheery voice, shouting,
"Splendid!" Just so. If you go tight into it, you will find true
religion to be splendid–but if you go paddling about in the shallows
of it, you will become chilled with doubts and fears–and the comfort
of it will be far from you. If religion is important, it is
all-important! If it is anything, it is everything! If false, leave it
altogether–if true, love it altogether!
To show how the joy of religion is proportioned to the degree of it, I
sometimes tell a story. It is a parable most instructive and fully to
the point–and therefore I cannot help repeating it. It is a story of a
man in America who was fond of growing the choicest apples. He asked a
neighbor to come up to his orchard and taste his apples which he
greatly praised as the best in the world. This high praise he sang many
times in his friend's ears, but he could not get him to come to his
place to taste the fruit. He asked him again and again, but still the
friend did not come. He therefore hinted that there must be a reason
for his refusal. "Well," said the other, "the truth is that one day, as
I was driving by your orchard, I saw an apple or two that had dropped
into the road and I picked one up and tasted it–and it was out of
sight the sourest thing in all creation. I am very much obliged to you,
but I have had enough for one lifetime."
"Oh," said the owner, "do you know I went 40 miles to buy those sour
apples and I planted them all along the hedge, for I thought they would
be good for the boys and keep them from picking and stealing? They are
a fine sort for that particular purpose. But if you will come and see
me, I will lead you inside the orchard, past those first two or three
rows and you will find a sweetness and a flavor which will fill your
mouth with delight." "I see," said the other, "I see." Do you also see
my drift? All round the outside of religion there are sour fruits of
prohibitions, rebukes, repentances and self-denials–to keep the
hypocrites out! Have you never seen how long they pull their faces, as
if their religion did not agree with them? And that is because they
have eaten the sour apples on the outskirts.
But oh, if you would come near to the faith and joy which are in Christ
Jesus–if you would give all your heart to heavenly pursuits–you would
find it quite another thing. Then would your heart "rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory." The text says, "Guide your heart in the
way," that is, get your very soul into the way of salvation. Get every
portion of your being under holy influence. Let every fragment of your
heart and mind and soul and strength be consecrated. Your heart grows
like a luxuriant plant and you must train every tendril, every shoot in
the right direction. Nail every branch to the wall and keep it there.
Try to guide your heart into the way of Truth, life and holiness–let
none of it stray. Then will you be filled with delight. Then will you,
in very deed, know that you are saved!
The last word I have to say is, oh, that everyone here present who is
not saved would attend to these three precepts now! Hear now! Make up
your mind that if there is salvation to be had, you will have it! Be
wise at once, lest you be wise too late. Say, "It would be folly to
delay for I may soon be dead and buried. I will have Christ today, my
mother's Christ, my father's God." Be wise and cry to God to help you!
Cry for the Holy Spirit to enable you to lay hold on eternal life and
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for immediate salvation. Trust Him!
Remember what I told you of Luther the other night, when he said, "I
shall not save myself. Christ is a Savior. It is His business to save."
Put your soul into your Redeemer's hands. He is a Savior and He will
save all who trust Him. To trust Jesus is wise. It is wisest of all to
do it at once and here. How constantly do I hear of friends suddenly
falling dead, or being taken away by unobserved disease! If I were to
point tonight to the pews that have been emptied in this place since
the first of January, you would be greatly surprised. Your sitting was
lately occupied by one who is now dead and this makes the spot a solemn
one. Someone else will soon sit in your pew. Be wise! Be wise and seek
the Lord at once!
Midsummer has come upon us. Let it not pass away without your soul
being brought to Jesus. The hay-time is upon us and Death is sharpening
his weapon. I can hear the rink-a-tink of that dread scythe at this
very moment! And you, too, will soon be withered like the grass which
has fallen before the mower. Therefore now, even now, seek my Savior! I
implore you, seek Him without further delay! I wish that I were able to
speak to you with a clear and powerful voice which would keep pace with
my heart–but as I cannot do so, I do my best and use what voice I
have. I would do anything to draw you to the Lord Jesus who is the Way
of Life!
We shall soon stand at God's great judgment seat and I shall have to
answer for my preaching. Therefore I entreat you to be wise. Why should
I give my account with grief? "Seek you the Lord while He may be found!
Call you upon Him while He is near." May the Lord lead you to do so,
for Jesus' sake! Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Proverbs 23:9-35 HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–331, 545, 518.