The Real Presence, the Great Want of the Church

Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 11th, 1872, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

'It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my
soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought
him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived
me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the
hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he
please.''Song of Solomon 3:4-5.

IS IT NECESSARY to say that the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer
corporeally present in his church? It ought not to be needful to assert
so evident a truth; and yet it is important to do so, since there are
some who teach that in what they are pleased to call 'the Holy
Sacrament.' Christ is actually present in his flesh and blood. Such
persons unwittingly deny the real humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for if he has indeed assumed our humanity, and is in all points made
like unto his brethren, his flesh and blood cannot be in two places at
one time. Our bodily humanity could not be present in more places than
one at one time, and if Christ's humanity be like ours it cannot be in
an unlimited number of places at once; in fact, it can only be in one
place. Where that place is we know from Scripture, for he sitteth at
the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Unless you are to suppose that the humanity of Christ is
something altogether different from ours, it cannot be here and there
and everywhere; but to suppose that it is a different humanity from
ours is to deny that he is Incarnate in our nature. Our Lord Jesus told
his disciples that he would go away, and he has gone away. He ascended
into heaven, bearing humanity up to the throne of God. 'He is not here,
for he is risen.'

Remember, also, that because the Lord Jesus is absent corporeally, the
Holy Spirit the Comforter is with us, for he especially said, 'If I go
not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I depart, I will
send him unto you.' Those who believe that Christ's flesh and blood are
or can be present on earth, deny the presence of the Holy Spirit; for
the Scripture is plain enough upon that point'that the bodily absence
of our Lord is the cause and condition of the presence of the
Comforter. If Jesus dwells still corporeally upon the earth, then the
Spirit of God is not upon the earth. Many other most serious errors
follow from the supposition that the humanity of the Redeemer is
present anywhere except at the right hand of God, even the Father; yet
it is an imagination which lies at the basis of the sacramental system,
and thousands are greatly enamoured of it.

No word of mine this morning is intended to have the remotest
connection with any sacramental presence of the corporeal nature of our
Lord; our mind has a far other matter before it. Let us, therefore,
having guarded ourselves so as not to be misunderstood, proceed to
speak of another presence of our blessed Lord. The fact is, that Christ
Jesus, the Lord, is present in his church by the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is this day the representative of Christ in the midst of the
church, and it is in the power and the energy of the Holy Ghost that
Christ is with us always, and will be even to the end of the world. As
God, Jesus is everywhere; as man, he is only in heaven; as God and man
in one person, Mediator and Head of the Church, he is present with us
by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom the Father has sent in his name.
It is by the working of the Spirit of God that Christ's presence in the
church is manifested; and we are to expect no other presence than that:
we have the spiritual divine presence of the second person of the
blessed Trinity, and the presence of Christ Jesus also in the power of
his representative on earth, the Holy Ghost. This presence, not a
bodily but a spiritual presence, is the glory of the church of God.
When she is without it she is shorn of her strength; when she possesses
it all good things ensue. Brethren, if a church be without the Spirit
of God in it, it may have a name to live, but it is dead, and, you
know, that after death there follows corruption, corruption which
breeds foulness and disease. Hence, those churches which have turned
aside unto error, have not only lost all power to do good, but they
have become obnoxious and the causes of great evil in the midst of the
world. If any professing church abides not in Christ it is cast forth
as a branch and is withered; and while it is decaying, it is injurious,
and there is need for the world's welfare that it be utterly destroyed.
We must have Christ in the church, or the body which was meant to be
the medium of the greatest good becomes the source of the grossest
evil. Let the Spirit of God be in the church, then there is power given
to all her ministries; whether they be ministries of public testimony
in the preaching of the word, or ministries of holy love amongst the
brethren, or ministries of individual earnestness to the outside world,
they will all be clothed with energy, in the fullness of the power of
the Lord Jesus. Then her ordinances become truly profitable, then
baptism is burial with the Lord, and the sacred supper is a feast of
love; then the communion of the brethren in their solemn prayer and
praise becomes deep and joyful, and their whole life and walk are
bright with the glow of heaven. In the presence of the Lord the graces
of the saints are developed; the church grows rich in all spiritual
gifts; her warfare becomes victorious, and her continual worship sweet
as the incense of the golden censor. What the moon is to the night, or
the sun to the day, or the Nile to Egypt, or the dew to the tender
herb, or the soul to the human frame, that is the presence of Jesus to
his church. Give us the Spirit of God and we will ask no endowments
from the State, nor sigh for the prestige of princely patronage. Endow
us, O God, with the Holy Ghost, and we have all we need. The poverty of
the members, their want of learning, their want of rank, all these
shall be as nothing. The Holy Ghost can make amends for all
deficiencies, and clothe his poor and obscure people with an energy at
which the world shall tremble. This made the apostolic church mighty,
she had the Holy Ghost outpoured upon her: the lack of this made the
medieval ages dark as midnight, for men contended about words and
letters, but forgot the Spirit: the return of this inestimable blessing
has given us every true revival: the working of the eternal Spirit, the
presence of Christ in the midst of his people is the Sun of
Righteousness arising with healing beneath his wings. This has been our
confidence, as a church, these eighteen years, and if we are yet to see
greater and better things, we must still rely on this same strength,
the divine presence of Jesus Christ by the wonder-working Spirit. 'Not
by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.'

It becomes then the great desire of every earnest Christian who loves
the church of God, that Christ should be in the church, and that by his
Spirit he should work wonders there, and I have selected this text with
the view of stirring up the spiritual-minded among you to seek so great
a blessing. Let me endeavor, in opening up this blessed text, to show
the means and the course of action necessary if we would see the church
revived by her Lord's presence.

I. And first, we learn from the text that before ever we can bring the
Well-Beloved into our mother's house, the church, WE MUST FIND HIM
PERSONALLY FOR OURSELVES.

We begin with that. 'It was but a little that I passed from them, but I
found him whom my soul loveth.' How can we bring into the chamber of
the church him whom we have not yet met with ourselves? How can we
communicate grace to others instrumentally, unless, first of all, we
have received it into our own hearts? I am not now about to speak of
the need of conversion; we all know that no spiritual act can be
performed until we become spiritual men; but I am now speaking about
something higher than bare conversion. If we would bless the church, we
must ourselves occupy a higher platform than that of being merely
saved; we must be believers, walking in fellowship with Christ, and
having, in that respect, found him whom our soul loveth. There are many
believers who have only just enough grace to enable us to hope that
they are alive; they have no strength with which to work for God's
cause, they have not an arm to lend to the help of others, neither can
they even see that which would comfort others, for they are blind, and
cannot see afar off, they want all their sight, and all their strength,
for themselves. Those who are to bring the Well-Beloved into our
mother's house, must be of another kind. They must get beyond the
feebleness which is full of doubting and fearing, into the assurance
which grasps the Savior, and the fellowship which lives in daily
communion with him. I know there are some such in this church, and I
would single them out, and speak to them thus: 'Brother, if thou
wouldst bring Christ into the church which thou lovest, then, first of
all, thine inmost soul must so love Christ, that thou canst not live
without his company. This must be thy cry: 'Saw ye him whom my soul
loveth?' and this must be the goal of thine aspirations: 'I have found
him whom my soul loveth.' It must not be talk, it must be soul-love; it
must not be a profession of affection for Jesus, but the inmost bowels
of our being must be moved by his name. The words are very strong, 'him
whom my soul loveth;' as if though the spouse might love the daughters
of Jerusalem, might love the watchmen of the city, might love them all
in their place, yet her soul's love, the essence of her love, her
deepest, fondest, purest, and most real love, was all for him. Are
there not such hearts here, virgin minds in whom Christ is first, last,
midst, chief, and all in all? Oh, if there be, ye are the men, ye are
the women, who, finding your Beloved, can bring him into the church.
May God multiply your number, and may each of you have compassion on
the languishing church of this chill age, and labor to restore to her
the glory which has faded from her brow. Pray ye for Laodicea in her
lukewarmness, and Sardis in her spiritual death; but you will only
prevail in proportion as your inmost soul loves the Redeemer and abides
in his love.

These ardent lovers of Jesus must diligently seek him. The chapter
before us says that the spouse sought him, sought him on her bed,
sought him in the streets, sought him in the broadways, sought him at
last at the lips of the watchmen, sought him everywhere where he was
likely to be found. We must enjoy the perpetual fellowship of Jesus. We
who love him in our souls cannot rest until we know that he is with us.
I fear that with some of us our sins have grieved him, and he has
betaken himself to the far-off 'mountains of myrrh and hills of
frankincense.' It may be our lax living, our neglect of prayer, or some
other fault, has taken from us the light of his countenance. Let us
resolve this morning that there shall be no rest unto our souls until
once again he has returned unto us in the fullness of his manifested
love, to abide in our hearts. Seek him, brother, seek him, sister. He
is not far from any of you, but do seek him with an intense longing for
him, for until thou dost thou art not the man to bring him into the
assembly of the brethren. Labor to bring Jesus into the chambers of the
church, but first be sure that thou hast him thyself, or thy zeal will
be hypocrisy.

In seeking our Lord we must use all ministries. The spouse enquired of
the watchmen. We are not to despise God's servants, for he is usually
pleased to bless us through them, and it would be ungrateful both to
him and to them to pass them by as useless. But, while we use the
ministries, we must go beyond them. The spouse did not find her Lord
through the watchmen; but she says, 'it was but a little that I passed
from them, that I found him whom my soul loveth.' I charge you, my dear
hearers, never rest content with listening to me. Do not imagine that
hearing the truth preached simply and earnestly will of itself be a
blessing to your souls. Far, far beyond the servant, pass to the
Master. Be this the longing of each heart, each Sabbath-day, 'Lord,
give me fellowship with thyself.' True, we are led to see Jesus
sometimes, and I hope often, through listening to the truth proclaimed,
but, O Lord, it is no outer court worship that will satisfy us we want
to come into the holy of holies and stand at the mercy-seat itself. It
is no seeing thee afar off and hearing about thee that will content our
spirits, we must draw nigh unto thee, and behold thee as the world
cannot. Like Simeon, we must take thee into our arms or we cannot say
that we have seen God's salvation: like John, we must lean our heads
upon the bosom or we cannot rest. Thine apostles are well enough, thy
prophets well enough, thy evangelists well enough; but oh, we feel
constrained to go beyond them all, for we thirst after fellowship with
thee, our Savior. Those who feel thus will bless the church, but only
such.

Note, that we must search to the very utmost till we find our Beloved.
The Christian must leave no stone unturned till he gets back his
fellowship with Christ. If any sin obstructs the way, it must be
rigorously given up; if there be any neglected duty, it must be
earnestly discharged; if there be any higher walk of grace, which is
necessary to continuous fellowship, we must ascend it, fearing no hill
of difficulty. We must not say, 'there is a lion in the way''if there
be lions we must slay them; if the way be rough we must tread it; we
must go on hands and knees if we cannot run; but we must reach to
fellowship with Jesus; we must have Christ or pine till we do.
Sacrifices we must make and penalties we must endure, but to Christ we
must come, for we are feeble when we are absent from him, and quite
incapable of rendering any great service to the church, till once for
all we can say, 'I found him, I held him, and I would not let him go.'
O dear brethren and sisters, I know there are some of you who can enter
into what I mean; but I would to God there were many more to whom the
first thought of life was Christ Jesus. Oh, for more Enochs, men who
walk with God, whose habitual spirit is that of close communion with
Jesus, meditating upon him, yea, more than that, sympathizing with him,
drinking into his spirit, changed into his likeness, living over again
his life, because he is in them the monarch of their souls. O that we
had a chosen band of elect spirits of this race, for surely the whole
church would be revived through their influence; God, even our own God,
would bless us; and we should see bright, halcyon days dawning for the
bride of Christ. Here, then, is the first point: we must find the Lord
Jesus for ourselves, or we cannot bring him into our mother's house.

I would beg every believer here to ask himself a few questions, such as
these: 'Am I walking in constant fellowship with Christ? If I am not,
why not? Is it that I am worldly? Is it that I am proud, or indolent,
or envious, or careless? Am I indulging myself in any sin? Is there
anything whatever that divides me from Christ my Lord?' Let this be the
resolution of every one of the Lord's people: 'From this time forth I
will seek unto the Lord my Savior, and I will not be satisfied until I
can say, 'I am coming up from the wilderness leaning upon the
Beloved.''

II. This brings us to the second point of the subject. If we would be a
blessing to the church, and have already found Christ, WE MUST TAKE
CARE TO RETAIN HIM. 'I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and I
would not let him go.' From this I learn that in order to be of great
use to the church of God, it is needful for those who commune with
Christ to continue in that communion. How comparatively easy it is to
climb to the top of Pisgah! It needs but a little effort; many bold and
gracious spirits are fully equal to it. But to keep there, to abide in
that mountain, this is the difficulty. To come to Christ, and to sit
down at his feet, is a simple thing enough for believers, and many of
us have attained to it; but to sit day after day at the Master's feet
is quite another matter. Oh, could I always be as I sometimes am! Could
I not only rise above but remain there! But, alas, our spiritual nature
is too much like this weather'it is balmy to-day; one would think that
spring or summer had come; but, perhaps, to-night we may be chilled
with frost and tomorrow drenched with rain. Ah, how fickle are our
spirits. We are walking with Christ, rejoicing, leaping for joy; and
anon the cold frosts of worldliness come over us, and we depart from
him. Ye will never be strong to impart great blessings to others till
you cease to wander, and learn the meaning of that text: 'Abide in me.'
Note well, it is not 'Look at me;' nor 'Come near to me, and then go
away from me,' but 'Abide in me.' The branch does not leave the vine
and then leap back again to the stock; you never saw a living branch of
the vine roaming into the corners of the vineyard, or rambling over the
wall; it abides in connection with the parent stem at all times, and
even so should it be with the Christian.

Mark, that according to the text, it is very apparent that Jesus will
go away if he is not held. 'I held him and I would not let him go;' as
if he would have gone if he had not been firmly retained. When he met
with Jacob that night at the Jabbok, he said, 'Let me go.' He would not
go without Jacob's letting him, but he would have gone if Jacob had
loosed his hold. The patriarch replied, 'I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me.' This is one of Christ's ways and manners; it is one of
the peculiarities of his character. When he walked to Emmaus with the
two disciples, 'he made as if he would have gone further:' they might
have known it was none other than the Angel of the Covenant by that
very habit. He would have gone further, but they constrained him,
saying, 'Abide with us for the day is far spent.' If you are willing to
lose Christ's company he is never intrusive, he will go away from you,
and leave you till you know his value and begin to pine for him. 'I
will go,' says he, 'and return to my place, till they acknowledge their
offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me
early.' He will go unless you hold him.

But note, next, he is very willing to be held. Who could hold him if he
were not? He is the omnipotent Savior, and if he willed to withdraw he
could do so: let us hold him as we might. But, mark his condescension.
When his spouse said, 'I held him, and I would not let him go,' he did
not go, he could not go, for his love held him as well as her hands.
Christ is willing to be held. He loves that sacred violence which takes
him by force, that holy diligence which leaves not a gap open by which
he may escape, but shuts every door, bars every bolt, and saith, 'I
have thee now and I will take care that if I lose thee it shall be
through no fault of mine.' Jesus is willing enough to be retained by
hearts which are full of his love.

And, brethren, whenever you have Christ, please to remember that you
are able to hold him. She who held him in the Song was no stronger than
you are; she was but a feeble woman, poorly fed under the Old Testament
dispensation; you have drunk the new wine of the new covenant, and you
are stronger than she. You can hold him, and he will not be able to go
from you. 'How,' say you, 'shall I be able to hold him?' Oh, have you
grasped him? Is he with you? Now, then, hold him fast by your faith;
trust him implicitly, rest in him for every day's cares, for every
moments. Walk by faith and he will walk with you. Hold him also with
the grasp of love. Let your whole heart go out towards him. Embrace him
with the arms of mighty affection, enchain him with ardent admiration.
Lay hold upon him by faith, and clasp him with love. Be also much in
prayer. Prayer casts a chain about him. He never leaves the heart that
prays. There is a sweet perfume about prayer that always attracts the
Lord; wherever he perceives it rising up to heaven there will he be.
Hold him, too, by your obedience to him. Never quarrel with him. Let
him have his way. He will stop in any house where he can be master; he
will stay nowhere where some other will lords it over his. Watch his
words; be careful to obey them all. Be very tender in your conduct, so
that nothing grieves him. Show to him that you are ready to suffer for
his sake. I believe that where there is a prayerful, careful, holy,
loving, believing walk towards Jesus, the fellowship of the saint with
his Lord will not be broken, but it may continue for months and years.
There is no reason, except in ourselves, why fellowship with Jesus
should not continue throughout an entire life and oh, if it did, it
would make earth into heaven, and lift us up to the condition of
angels, if not beyond them, and we should be the men who would bring
Christ into the church, and through the church into the world. The
church would be blest, and God would be glorified, and souls would be
saved, if there were some among us who thus held him, and would not let
him go.

I want to call your attention to one thought before I leave this, and
that is, the spouse says, 'I held him.' Now, a great many persons in
the world are holding their creed, and if it is a correct one I hope
they will hold it; but that is the main business of their religious
life; they do nothing else but hold this doctrine or that. Hold it,
brother, hold it: it would be a pity you should let it go if it be the
truth, but still it is more important to hold your Lord. Certain others
are engrossed in holding scriptural ordinances, and saying, 'I hold
this and I hold that.' Well, hold it brother; if it is God's ordinance
do not let it go. But, after all, if there be anything I hold above all
else, I hold him. Is not that the best grip a soul ever gets, when she
lays hold of Christ? 'I held him and I would not let him go.' Ah, Lord,
I may be mistaken about doctrine, but I am not mistaken about thee. I
may, perhaps, be staggered in my belief of some dogma which I thought
was truth, but I am not staggered about thee. Thou Son of God made
flesh for me, thou art all my salvation and all my desire: I rest on
thee only, without a shadow of mixture of any other hope, and I love
thee supremely, desiring to honor thee and to obey thee in life and
until death. I hold thee, thou Covenant Angel, and I will not let thee
go.

Dear friends! make this the mark of your life, that you hold him and
will not let him go. You will be the kind of men to bless the church by
leading the Well-Beloved into her chambers, if you know how to abide in
him yourselves.

III. It appears from the text that, after the spouse had thus found
Christ for herself and held him, SHE BROUGHT HIM INTO THE CHURCH''I
brought him to my mother's house.' We ought lovingly to remember the
church of God. By the Holy Spirit we were begotten unto newness of
life, but it was in the church, and through the preaching of the word
there that we were brought into the light of life. We owe our
conversion, the most of us, to some earnest teacher of the truth in the
church of God, or to some of those godly works which were written by
Christian men. Through the church's instrumentality the Bible itself
has been preserved to us, and by her the gospel has been preached to
every age. She is our mother and we love her. I know that many of you,
dear friends, the members of this church, love the church, and you can
say, 'If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning.' When you
are away from this place, and cannot mix in our solemn assemblies, your
heart mourns like one in banishment. Have not I heard you cry, 'Ziona,
Ziona, our holy and beautiful house, wherein we have worshipped our
God, the house which is built of living stones, among whom Christ
himself is the corner-stone, even thy church, O Jesus: would God I were
in her midst again, and could once more unite my praises with those
that dwell within her.' Yes, and because we love our mother's house and
the chamber of her that conceived us, we desire to bring Christ into
the church more and more. Did I hear a harsh but honest voice exclaim,
'But, I find much fault with the church?' Brother, if thou lovest her,
thou wilt go backward and cast a mantle over all. But, suppose thy
candour is compelled to see faults in her; then there is so much the
more need of her Lord's presence in her to cure those faults. The more
sickly she is, the more she wants him to be her strength and her
physician. I say, therefore, to thee, dear friend, above all things,
seek to bring Christ into an imperfect church, and a weak church, and
an erring church, that she may become strong in the Lord and in the
power of his might.

I have shown you by whom it must he'by those who have found him, and
who hold him; and now we will mention the methods by which our blessed
Lord can be brought into his church. The saints can bring him in by
their testimony. I hope that often Christ is here when I have borne
testimony to you of his power to save, of his atoning blood, of his
exaltation in heaven, of the perfection of his character, and of his
willingness to save. Many a Sabbath day his name has been like ointment
poured forth in this place. Is there any subject that so delights you
as that which touches upon Christ? Is not that the rarest string in all
the harp of scriptural truth? Well, every true minister, by bearing
witness for Christ, helps to bring him into the church.

But, others can do it by their prayers. There is a mysterious efficacy
in the prayers of men who dwell near to God. Even if they were
compelled to keep their beds, and do nothing but pray, they would pour
benedictions upon the church. We want our dear sick friends to get well
and come among us at once in full health; but I do not know, I do not
know; they may be of more service to the church where they are. 'Ye
that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give him no rest
day nor night, till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the
earth.' Now, there were not some saints kept awake at night by sickness
to pray, we should not so fully realize that word, 'Give him no rest
day nor night.' Some of those dear ones, whose faces we miss from among
us, keep up the perpetual ministry of intercession. Their incense of
prayer goes up at all hours; when the most of us are rightly enough at
sleep they are compelled to wake, and therefore are led still to pray.
How many blessings come down upon the church of God through the prayers
of his feeble saints it is not possible for us to tell; but I believe
if all of us were to set apart a special time for praying and pleading
with Christ that he would come into his church, we should not be long
before we saw a wonderful effect resulting from those pleadings.
Wrestling prayers bring Christ into the innermost chambers of the
church of God. Let us try the power of prayer.

And, there is no doubt, dear brethren, that Christ is often brought
into the church by the example of those eminent saints who abide in
Christ. You know what I mean. There is a very manner and air about some
Christian men which honors Christ, and benefits his people. They may
not be gifted in speech, but their very spirit speaks, they are so
gentle, loving, tender, earnest, truthful, upright, gracious. Their
paths, like the paths of God himself, drop fatness. They are the
anointed of the Lord, and you perceive it. Perhaps you could not say
that this virtue or that is very prominent, but it is the altogether;
it is their life at home, their life in public, their church life,
their private life, their entire conduct makes you see that the Holy
Ghost is in them, and when they come into the church they bring the
Spirit of God with them, and are thus a great means of blessing to all
with whom they associate. I do pray, brethren, that in some way or
other, each one of us may try to bring Jesus Christ into the midst of
his own people. I am afraid there are some who on the contrary are
driving him away'church members that, instead of blessing the church,
are a curse to it. I see a great heap before me'a vast heap that God
has gathered through my instrumentality; but the winnowing fan is
going, and the chaff is flying. Are you, dear friends, among the chaff
or the wheat? Are you seed for the sower, or fuel for the flame
unquenchable? Oh! live near to Christ; live in Christ; may Christ live
in you; then will you enrich the church of God; but if you do not, but
only make a profession of love with your lips, what shall I say unto
you? I mourn over you. Take heed of living a weak life'a life without
God in it'a life without Christ in it'a life which a Pharisee might
live. Seek to live the life of a trueborn child of God, lest you hinder
the church's usefulness, and deprive her of her Lord's presence.

IV. This leads me to the last point, which is this, to CHARGE THE
CHURCH THAT SHE BE CAREFUL NOT TO DISTURB THE LORD'S REPOSE, if we have
been enabled by divine grace to bring the Lord into the chambers of our
mother's house. 'I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes
and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
till he please.' Observe, then, that the Lord Jesus in his church is
not indifferent to the conduct of his people. We are not to suppose
that because the sin of all God's elect is pardoned, therefore it is of
small consequence how they live. By no manner of means. The Master of
this great house is not blind nor deaf, neither is he a person who is
utterly careless as to how the house is managed; on the contrary, as
God is a jealous God, so is Christ a jealous husband to his church. He
will not tolerate in her what he would tolerate in the world. She lies
near his heart, and she must be chaste to him. What a solemn work the
Lord did in the early church. That story of Ananias and Sapphira'it is
often used most properly to illustrate the danger of lying; but that is
not the point of the narrative. Ananias and Sapphira were members of
the church at Jerusalem, and they lied not unto men, which would have
been sin enough, but in lying to the church officers they lied unto
God, and the result was their sudden death. Now, you are not to suppose
that this was a solitary case. Wherever there is a true church of God,
the judgments of God are always going on in it. I speak now not only
what I have read, but what I have known and seen with mine eyes; what I
am as sure of as I am sure of any fact in history. The apostle Paul,
speaking of the same in his day, said that in a certain church there
was so much sin that many were weak and sickly among them, and many
slept; that is to say, there was great sickness in the church, and many
died. Judgments are begun in the house of God and are always going on
there. I have seen men in the church who have walked at a distance from
God, who have been visited with severe chastisements; others who have
been of hot and proud spirit, have been terribly humbled; and some who
have arrogantly touched God's ark, and the doom of Uzzah has befallen
them. I have seen it and do know it. And so it always will be. The Lord
Jesus Christ looking around his church, if he sees anything evil in it,
will do one of two things; either he will go right away from his church
because the evil is tolerated there, and he will leave that church to
be like Laodicea, to go on from bad to worse, till it becomes no church
at all; or else he will come and he will trim the lamp, or to use the
figure of the fifteenth of John, he will prune the vinebranch and with
his knife will cut off this member, and the other, and cast them into
the fire; while, as for the rest, he will cut them till they bleed
again, because they are fruit-bearing members, but they have too much
wood, and he wants them to bring forth more fruit. It is not a trifling
matter to be in the church of God. God's fire is in Zion and his
furnace in Jerusalem. 'His fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly
purge''what? The world. O no, 'his floor,' the church. And then, again,
'he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall
purify''what? The heathen nations. No, 'the sons of Levi''his own
people. So that Christ is not indifferent to what is going on in the
church, and it is needful that when he comes to the church to take his
repose, and solace himself there, we should not stir him up nor awake
him till he please.

But many things will drive our Lord away, and these shall have our
closing words. Dear fellow members of this church, may we each one be
more watchful lest the Bridegroom should withdraw from us. He will go
away if we grow proud. If we are boastful, and say, 'There is some
reason why God should bless us,' and should begin to speak hectoringly
towards weaker brethren, the Lord will let us know that 'not unto us,
not unto us, but unto his name shall be all the glory.'

Again, if there be a want of love among us, the Lord of love will be
offended. The holy dove loves not scenes of strife; he frequents the
calm still waters of brotherly love. There the Lord commanded the
blessing, even life for evermore, where brethren dwelt together in
unity. If any of you have half a hard thought towards another, get rid
of it; if there be the beginnings of anything like jealousy, quench the
sparks. 'Leave off strife,' says Solomon, 'before it be meddled with,'
as if he said, 'End it before you begin it,' which, though it seems
strangely paradoxical, is most wise advice. 'Little children love one
another.' 'Walk in love as Christ also has loved us.' May discord be
far from us.

Notice the beautiful imagery of the text. 'I charge you by the roes and
the hinds of the field.' In ancient times gazelles were often tamed,
and were the favourite companions of Eastern ladies: the gazelle might
be standing near its mistress, fixing its loving eyes upon her, but if
a stranger clapped his hands it would hasten away. The roes and hinds
'of the field' are even yet more jealous things, a sound will startle
them, even the breath of the hunter tainting the gale puts them to
speedy flight. Even thus is it with Jesus. A little thing, a very
little thing, will drive him from us, and it may be many a day before
our repentance shall be able to find him again. He has suffered so much
from sin that he cannot endure the approach of it. His pure and holy
soul abhors the least taint of iniquity.

Let us gather from the text that there are some things in the true
church which give our Lord rest. He is represented here as though he
slept in the church, 'That ye stir not up nor awake my love till he
please.' Wherever he sees true repentance, real faith, holy
consecration, purity of life, chastity of love, there Christ rests. I
believe he finds no sweeter happiness even in heaven than the happiness
of accepting his people's prayers and praises. Our love is very sweet
to him; our deeds of gratitude are very precious, the broken alabaster
boxes of self-sacrifices done for him are very fair in his esteem. He
finds no rest in the world, he never did; but he finds sweet rest on
the bosoms of his faithful ones. He loves to come into a pure church,
and there to say, 'I am at home. I will declare thy name unto my
brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.'

Let us be very watchful, too, against all impurity. Anything like
uncleanness in a Christian will soon send the Master away from the
church. You know what it was that brought the evil upon the house of
Eli. It was because his sons made themselves vile even at the
tabernacle door. The young people in that case were the immediate cause
of the mischief, but it was the fault of the elder ones that they
restrained them not. Watch against all evil passions and corrupt
desires. Be ye holy even as your Father which is in heaven is holy.

And then, again, a want of prayer will send him away. There are members
of some churches who never come to the prayer-meetings, and I should be
afraid that their private prayers cannot be any too earnest. Of course
we speak not of those who have good excuse; but there are some who
habitually and wilfully neglect the assembling of themselves together;
these are worthy of condemnation. Oh, let us continue a prayerful
church as we have hitherto been, otherwise the Master may say, 'They do
not value the blessing, for they will not even ask for it; they
evidently do not care about my Spirit, for they will not meet together
and cry for him.' Do not grieve him by any such negligence of prayer.

So, too, we may grieve the Spirit by worldliness. If any of you who are
rich get to imitate the fashions of the world and act as worldlings do,
you cannot expect the Lord to bless us. You are Achans in the camp, if
such is the case. And if you who are poor get to be envious of others
and speak harshly of others to whom God has given more substance than
to you, that again will grieve the Lord. You know how the children of
Israel in the wilderness provoked him, and their provocation mostly
took the form of murmuring; they complained of this and of that: if
they had the manna they wanted flesh, and if they had water gushing
from the rock they must needs have more. I pray you by the bowels of
mercies that are in Christ Jesus, by all the compassion he has
manifested towards us, by the high love he deserves of us, since he
laid down his life for us, by your allegiance to him as your King, by
your trust in him as your Savior, by your love to him as the Bridegroom
of your souls, 'stir not up nor awake my love till he please.'

Let me ask you to be more in prayer; let me pray you to live nearer to
him; let me entreat you for the church's sake, and for the world's
sake, to be more thoroughly Christ's than you ever have been and may
the power of the Holy Spirit enable you in this. I do not fear lest I
should lose that which I have wrought, for God will establish the work
of our hands upon us, but yet I do put up to him daily the prayer that
this church may not be found in years to come to be a building of wood,
and hay, and stubble, that shall be consumed in the fire of heresy or
discord, or some other testing flame which God may suffer to come upon
it; but oh, may you, my beloved brethren and sisters, be gold, and
silver, and precious stones, that the workman at the last, saved
himself, may not have to suffer loss, nor the Master be dishonored in
the eyes of men. May you stand as a sparkling pile of precious gems,
inhabited by the eternal Spirit, to the praise and the glory of his
grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'John 15; Solomon's Song 3.
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Precious Deaths

A Sermon