Untrodden Ways

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 23, 1872,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For you have not passed this way before." Joshua 3:4.

THEY had come out of Egypt. They had gone up and down in the
wilderness, but they had never before crossed the Jordan. It was new
ground to them, a new difficulty, and a new series of events lay before
them. As a fresh emergency had arisen, they had new orders direct from
the Lord, their leader, and Joshua and his officers were busy going
throughout the host to communicate the Divine directions. Beloved, when
it shall be our lot to come into new positions we shall always obtain
renewed guidance from the Spirit of God if we will but wait upon Him
for it and cry, "Show me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain
path."

It is a most important matter with all of us who are Believers in
Christ that our faith should be in a thoroughly sound condition. It is
not only grievous to ourselves, but dishonoring to God when our faith
falls to a low ebb. To see a distrustful Christian is to see a man who
is robbing God of His Glory. Since the Holy Spirit so vehemently cries,
"Comfort you, comfort you My people; speak comfortably to Jerusalem,"
we may safely come to the conclusion that it is solemnly important that
the saints should be comforted, and that for them to lose their comfort
is a very grievous thing. He glorifies God most whose faith staggers
least. To maintain faith in full vigor is, therefore, a most important
matter.

Now there is one very severe trial of faith which will happen to us
all, and probably has already occurred to most of us. It is that of a
change of trials, a passing into new territory, an entrance into novel
circumstances. There is a conservative tendency about most of us so
that we build our nest and would gladly live and die in it. Even if we
are ill at ease in our present circumstances, this feeling–

"Makes us rather bear the ills we have Than fly to others that we kno w
not of." Some spirits are given to change and would almost leap from
the pan into the fire, but others of us take root deeply and dread
transplanting. We know the present and we dread the unknown tomorrow.
We are familiar with wilderness tribulations, but we shudder at the
Jordan which lies before us and the giants and the chariots of iron
which are yet to be encountered.

We are not given to change, but are far more likely to settle upon our
lees. We would gladly abide where we are and make no experiment of
novel circumstances. This principle is so strongly developed in certain
minds that they have even been afraid to learn Truths of God which are
new to them! From the milk diet of their spiritual infancy they are
unwilling to be weaned even though strong meat awaits them. They were
not taught certain sublime Truths in their early days, and therefore
they wish not to be instructed now. Like the aged man in Solomon's
proverb, they are afraid of that which is high.

The doctrine of Election–they see how full of comfort it is, but not
having heard it preached before, they feel afraid to hear it and accept
it. That "wine on the lees well refined" they will not drink, because
up to now it has not been poured into their cup. We have known such
persons to be suspicious of spiritual attainments–they have been
victims of doubts and fears so long that they are now afraid to
believe! As for full Assurance, they are as much alarmed at it as if it
were a crime rather than a Divine Grace! They regard it as dangerous
presumption, and put it far from them. Holy courage, brave reliance
upon God, fervent zeal, confidence in prayer, unspeakable joy–these
and such like blessings are to their timorous souls perilous things
which had better be let alone.

The high attainments which some of God's people have possessed of
access to the Throne of Grace, of close communion with God, of insight
into the secrets of the Lord–those things our dear Brothers and
Sisters have thought to be too good for them, too precious for present
enjoyment–and they have even suspected that those who profess to

enjoy them were likely to have been deceived, or were carried away by
carnal excitement! Because they have not yet gathered the grapes of
Eshcol, they will not believe that such clusters exist! Because they
have not passed this way before, they doubt whether there is, indeed, a
highway of holiness undisturbed by ravenous beasts.

This fear of that which is new is more powerful, still, when we are
called to enter upon new labors. We become accustomed to our present
service, which at first was difficult–continual exercise in it has
made it easy to us–and, therefore, when the Lord calls us to something
else, we are afraid to venture. We feel as if we were quite competent
for the work we are now doing, whereas we ought to know that even
there, "our sufficiency is of God," and we are not able, even in that,
to do anything of ourselves. But we are afraid to sail upon seas which
we have never navigated before, even though our unerring Pilot steers
the ship in that direction! Like Jonah, we would sooner go to Tarshish
than bear testimony for God in the streets of Nineveh. And, like the
man of God at Horeb, we complain that we stammer and are slow of
speech, and we are ready to forego the honor of the Lord's service if
we may escape its responsibilities.

Ah, dear Brethren, this is of the flesh! It is altogether contrary to
the course of faith! Yet how frequent a temptation it is with the
people of God! And, Beloved, when this fear takes the shape of a
foreboding of coming trial it is even more common and crushing. We have
sometimes to look forward to a period of sickness. Already it may be
the disease has commenced to prey upon us–already consumption has
weakened our strength by the way. Or a more acutely painful disease is
tearing at our vitals, and therefore we naturally expect that month
after month our pain will greatly increase and come to an alarming
height.

When death appears to be near we persist in imagining that there is
something terrible about departure out of this world unto the Father.
Though tens of thousands of Christians have passed away with songs upon
their lips, yet we are still afraid to ford the stream–though Jordan's
banks have been made to ring ten thousands of times with triumphant
shouts–yet still we linger shivering there and think it a dreadful
thing to die! Forebodings, then, of pain, decay, and death too often
haunt us because we have not passed that way before. To many the fear
of poverty is very bitter, they dread the infirmities of old age. They
are dismayed in prospect of the desertion of friends, or the loss of
beloved relatives in whom their heart is wrapped up.

All these things, because as yet we are new to them, are apt to
exercise an influence over our faith of the saddest kind. To help those
who are so exercised shall be my aim this morning, hoping that the Lord
may have sent by me comfort for His mourners to make the faces of His
afflicted to shine. First, we shall utter certain words by way of
consolation. Then, others by way of instruction. And, lastly, a few
more by way of exciting expectation.

I. First, let us consider thoughts suggestive of CONSOLATION. Let us
turn first to the case of the children of Israel. They were certainly
where they had never been before. With the exception of Joshua and
Caleb, none of them had even passed the Red Sea. They were a fresh
generation, born in the wilderness, so that they had not the
recollections of the Red Sea as a preparation for their present
circumstances.

They saw before them, now, a river which was full to the brim, owing to
the melting of the snows of Lebanon. It was both deep and broad–how
were they to cross it? They had no apparatus, there was not a boat in
all their tents. Suppose they did cross it–there was a walled city
within view frowning upon them on the other side–and behind the walls
were many powerful and ferocious enemies. Suppose they should conquer
the men of Jericho–the whole land was full of cities equally strong,
"walled up to Heaven" they said, and therefore, apparently impregnable.
Their case was one that might naturally excite a thousand fears–but
faith drove all fears away.

God sent them His consoling Word at the time when their faith was about
to be tried, and, sustained by its power, they did not show the
slightest sign of wishing to turn back–they advanced straight on at
God's bidding, and the Lord came to their rescue by drying up the
river, casting down the walls of Jericho, routing their adversaries,
and ultimately giving them the whole of the land from Dan to Beersheba
as their inheritance! Now, are you in such a case as that? Are you just
now where you have never been before as to trial? Are the demands upon
your strength heavier than at any former period of your life?

Is there now a tax upon your faith such as never exercised it before?
Come, then, let us talk together, and may the words be words of
comfort! Remember, whether your way in Providence is new or old, it is
not a way of your own appointing. A higher power than yours has led you
to your present place! The people of Israel could have said, "We
removed from this place to that, and from that to the next, but we
never went without being led on by the fiery cloudy

pillar. And here we are just at the brink of Jordan, but we did not
come here in a willful spirit–we were guided here– Jehovah Himself
went before us!"

Feeling this they felt secure, and we may unite with them. Surely the
Lord cannot make mistakes! Eternal Wisdom cannot err! Your path, my
dear Brother, and the path of all the saints has ever been directed by
the unerring skill of the great Father and therefore it must be right!
Providence cannot have placed us in a wrong position–it must be right
for us to be just where we are! Yes, though armed men were binding us
to cast us into Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, heated seven times hotter
than before, we are in the right place if God has brought us there! He
has never erred yet–either in guiding a star in its orbit, or in
directing the chaff from the winnower's hand–and He cannot err in
steering the course of one of His people!

"Say you unto the righteous it shall be well with him," for, "the steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He delights in his way." "My
times are in Your hands." Desperate, therefore, though your position
may appear to the eye of fear, yet faith knows that God has put you in
the best possible position for you to be in at this moment. If it were
better, taking everything into account, for you to be in Heaven today
than where you are, you would be there! God will do the best possible
thing for His people. If it were better for them that there should be
no devil and no death, there should be neither devil nor death, but to
Heaven should they be caught up at once! Infinite, unspeakable,
boundless love arranges all our pathways, and infinite wisdom joins in
the decree.

Note, again, your present pathway is new to you, but it is not new to
your God. Everything that happens today, or will happen tomorrow is new
to us because we can only live in the present moment. And even though
we endeavor to project ourselves a little forward, yet it is generally
in a wrong fashion, so that we do not see the truth of coming events,
seeing not, but only imagining that we see. But all things are present
to the eye of God. Tomorrow–there is no such thing with Jehovah.
Yesterday–there is no such thing! Past, present, future–these are
human words! "Now" is God's word, and it comprehends all!

He who should look upon a country from a star, taking a bird's-eye
view, would have all parts equally before him while he who traverses it
with a slow step leaves a portion of the territory behind him, and
another part is yet before him. So is it with man. Creeping like an
insect from leaf to leaf, he leaves something behind, and has something
yet before– but God looking down upon all things at once, serenely
fills His own eternal "NOW," and sees our ages pass! The peculiar
troubles of today, which are exercising you, dear child of God, your
heavenly Father was cognizant of 10,000 years ago! And nothing about
them comes upon Him by surprise!

The Lord has no emergencies. He is never at the end of His resources. O
Beloved, it makes my heart smile while I mention such a notion! It is a
childish folly, indeed, to think that the infinite God who fills all,
and sustains all, can ever meet with anything that to Him shall be
difficult! Rest, then, O fellow Pilgrim, in this confidence, that the
new road to you is an old road to God!

Moreover, there is one view of this thought which ought to be very
encouraging to the sorrowful, namely, that He who is at your Father's
side, the Man of Love, the Crucified, has, in His practical sympathy
with you, actually walked this pathway of yours. That God has seen it
is consoling, but that Christ has walked it is richest comfort!–

"In every pang that rends the heart The Man of Sorrows bears His part."
You may see all along the way the blood-stained footsteps of Him who
gave His feet to the nails. Right down to Jordan's brink, and through
the flood and up the far shore there are the marks of the goings of Him
who loved the sons of men and bore their sorrows in His own Person for
their sakes! Courage, my Brothers and Sisters–where Jesus has been we
may go.

He leads us through no darker places than He went through before, and
His having gone through them has sown them with light. We thought them
novel places of trial, but they are no longer so since our Covenant
Head has traversed them. Remember, also, the trials which seem new to
us are not new to God's people. Joshua said to the tribes, "You have
not passed this way before"–but their forefathers had gone through the
Red Sea, which was much the same thing–and perhaps on a greater scale
still. Do not, therefore, say or imagine that your woes are peculiar.
Others have suffered as much as you are enduring. Ask your fathers, the
elders of the Christian Church, whether these griefs of yours are new,
and they will smile and tell you that they have done business in the
same deep waters and that the waves and billows

which go over you have also covered their heads. Dream not that a
strange thing has happened to you. If it is strange to you it is only
to you strange, for the rest of God's saints have suffered the same.

But suppose our position should be new, the labor new, the affliction
new–it is no sort of reason why it should be any more dangerous. It is
folly to be alarmed at new things because they are new. There may be
less danger, my dear Brother, after all, in the trial you dread than in
that which you are bearing today. You dread poverty, do you? It is an
evil, but it may not be such an evil as that which at this present
moment bows your spirit down. Care to keep abundance is more gnawing to
the heart than the scantiness of penury. Poverty in the experience of
God's people has proved to be an evil in the midst of which men are
capable of great rejoicing!

You tremble at approaching sickness. But perhaps there will come with
the sickness such joy unspeakable to your soul, that the spiritual joy
will far outweigh the increased bodily infirmity. It is clear, then,
that a change is not always for the worse, and altered circumstances do
not necessarily involve more burdens. Your trial is new, but not,
therefore, the more perilous. Go on, and be not alarmed! And suppose
that being new, it were dangerous–one thing is very clear, namely,
that fear will not diminish the danger! To fret, and worry, and
mistrust–will that prepare you for what is coming? Will it help you to
lie on the sick bed and be patient if you now begin to fret because you
are going to be bedridden? Will it aid you to die to begin this day to
"feel a thousand deaths in fearing one?"

No, Brothers and Sisters, if the worst comes to the worst, nothing can
sharpen your sword so well for battle as faith in the ever-living God.
What if I must weep tomorrow? Yet will I sing today, and perhaps my
song will gather such force that some of its stanzas will carry over to
tomorrow, and I may sweeten my sighs with my Psalms. While we may, let
us rejoice in the Lord and not begin to exercise ourselves about unborn
troubles.

I saw in the monastery of the monks of La Trappe a few days ago, a
grave which they had dug in their garden. Not that any one of them was
dead, but it was a profitable and amusing exercise to take a turn at
digging the grave of some friend who might die. A happy family, truly,
in which the brothers have a grave in readiness for the next who shall
depart! I would like to have filled the hole up at once, for surely it
is time enough to dig graves when our friends are dead, and even so it
is time enough to prepare for troubles when troubles come. "Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof is the voice of Inspiration. Let us
not import from tomorrow the miseries which God has mercifully screened
us from today.

Further considerations may also console us. In the past and up to this
moment we have found our God to be faithful to us. These present
crosses which are now upon our shoulders, we say we would rather always
bear them than have new crosses, but is this wise? Do you not remember
when these very crosses were, themselves, new? They fit our shoulders
now–somehow or other we have adapted our back to the burden, or God
has adapted the burden to our back, and we do not like changing the
load–though a few years ago we were just as reluctant to bear it! Our
present crosses were new once, and God gave us strength to carry them.

Today's grief will only be new for today and for a little time to come.
It will soon grow old, if we live long enough, and we shall become as
used to the new trial as to the old. As today we have learned to wing
our way joyously under the broiling sun of summer, so by-and-by we
shall sit upon the bare bough in the desolate winter and cheerfully
sing of the coming of spring. Press on, press on, you warriors of the
Cross! The new foes shall be as the old. The novelty of sorrow is but
of the hour–the hour will wear it out as it wears out itself–and we
shall receive strength to bear up under all.

Moreover, beloved Friends, should we become distrustful while passing
by a way which we have never trod before if we remembered that progress
implies a change of difficulties and trials? Who wants to be like a
blind horse going round a mill forever and ever, feeling the lash of
the same whip at the same place, and dragging the same machinery round
without advancing? No, let us advance! And what if in going on we meet
with sterner trials? Then so let it be, for we shall receive richer
Grace! Towards the Heaven of God we vehemently desire to make progress
by His Grace.

The trials of manhood are not at all the same as those of a child.
There are diseases of childhood from which we are quite free when we
come to manhood–and there are difficulties and trials both of the body
and of the mind which will come upon us in riper years which children
know not–yet we are very glad to get out of childhood and into
manhood! When a stroke means knighthood no one wishes to avoid it, and
if trial brings higher degrees of Grace, who desires to shirk it?
Perhaps I would weary you were I to continue much longer in this
strain, but let me remind you that if there come new trials they
generally end the old ones.

It is quite certain that if we are troubled with a west wind, if a
rough east wind should blow, we shall not be troubled with the west
wind any longer. Heat and cold will not both torment us at the same
moment. When the children of Israel were in the desert they had one set
of trials–there was the hot sand beneath their feet, and the
Amalekites pursuing them and attacking them. And, therefore, at any
rate whatever there might be in Canaan, they would be out of the desert
and away from desert inconveniences. If they had the Gergashites to
fight with there would be no Amalekites. So there is something of gain
to be set over against any possible loss. Let every child of God
remember that.

When the Lord calls us to a change of position and brings out a new
burden, He removes the older one. We shall not, tomorrow, be pressed
with the weight of today. I do not know what my trials may be seven
years from now, but I do know that the trials of the month of June,
1872, will not, then, disturb me. When we bow beneath the infirmities
of age, we may rest assured that we shall not be annoyed by the
temptations of boyhood, nor molested by the vexations of middle life.
In advancing there are prospects of gain as well as of loss.

Moreover, although we have not passed this way before, the path runs in
the right direction. The children of Israel had their faces set towards
the Promised Land. If they had been called to cross a Jordan which led
them into the bondage of Egypt, there would have been something to
distress them–but they were traveling to the land of brooks and rivers
which flowed with milk and honey! Men of faith among them would say,
one to another, "We pitched our tent each night all through the
wilderness a day's march nearer to our rest, and now there is only one
more day between us and the land of promise, therefore let us not
fear."

How brave they must have felt when Canaan was just in view. Courage,
Brothers and Sisters! The way may be rough to us, but it is the King's
highway, leading to the New Jerusalem–

"Yet the dear path to Your abode

Lies through this horrid land,

Lord, we would keep the heavenly road,

And run at Your command.

Our souls shall tread the desert through

With undiverted feet,

And faith and flaming zeal subdue

The terrors that we meet.

Our journey is a thorny maze,

But we march upward still.

Forget the troubles of the way,

And reach at Zion's hill."

II. In the second place a few sentences of INSTRUCTION. How shall a man
be guided when he comes to a way which he has not passed before? When
our way is devoid of familiar footprints, what shall we do? The first
instruction is this– be most concerned to hear the Word of the Lord
and obey it. Notice that this chapter seems taken up with, "The Lord
said unto Joshua," and, "Joshua said unto the people of Israel." It
must have struck you, in reading it, that it is full of

commands.

The only details are the taking up of the stones of memorial, heaping
them on the shore, and the setting up of other stones in the
Jordan–otherwise, all the verses are repeated commands from the Lord,
and the record of the nation's obedience to them, from which we may
gather that in time of trouble our chief enquiry ought not to be–"How
should we get through this?" but, "What is our duty while we are in
it?" "How would God have us act under these circumstances?" Depend upon
it, there is no temptation more perilous than that of supposing that
self-preservation screens us from duty, and that obedience may be
suspended while we provide for ourselves.

Remember the words of the hymn–

"'Tis mine to obey; 'tis His to provide." Would you take the Lord's
work into your own hands? You cannot do it! Attend to your own. If you
were at this very moment in the worst trouble that ever befell a son of
Adam, I do not believe wiser advice could be given to you than
this–"Trust in the Lord and do good, so shall you dwell in the land,
and verily you shall be fed." Be it yours to hear what God, the Lord,
shall speak, and to do what He bids you–all will come right, then. The
chief point in every dilemma is to wait till you hear the Master's
voice.

The next instruction is to distinctly recognize the Presence of the
Covenant God of Israel with you. The Ark which went before the people
had three-fourths of a mile of distance between it and the people in
order that they might see it, because had they been nearer to it the
front rank might have seen it, but the rest would not. But now there
was a space put between it and the people that they all might see it
before them as they went on their march. We never travel so sweetly
over the rough ways of this life as when we see that God, the living
God, the God of the Covenant, the God of the Mercy Seat, the God of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the God of the reconciliation by blood is
with us and fulfilling His promise, "I will never leave you nor forsake
you."

Is God with us? What more do we need? Omniscience, Omnipotence, and
infinite Love–are all these leading the van? Then we will not fear to
follow, though it were into Hades itself–for if Jehovah led the way
His saints would be safe, even there. Treasure that up! Do not think so
much of the presence of friends in trouble as the Presence of God in
trouble. "Fear not"–what is the next word?–"I am with you: be not
dismayed." What is the next sentence? "I am your God." The richest
consolation you can have is that which is derived from the Presence of
the Lord God of the Covenant!

Note the third instruction. Dismiss from your soul the anxiety which
arises from the idea that you are the keeper of the Divine life within
your soul. "Strange instruction," you say. Yes, but let me explain it.
When the children of Israel marched through the wilderness, some tribes
were before and some were behind the Ark, as if they were guarding it.
But on this occasion the Ark went far ahead of them, as though God had
said, "You, My people, are no protection to Me! I guard you." Now in
the time of danger the priests who carry the Ark advance into the very
teeth of the enemy and into the bed of the Jordan–and there they
stand, as though the eternal God threw down the gauntlet to all the
hosts of Canaan and said, "Come and contest it with Me if you can. I
have left My people behind. I alone will meet you. I have come up
alone, unattended, and I defy you all."

It will often happen that in the time of trouble our worst fear is
this–"I am so afraid that I shall not be able to preserve the Grace of
God in my heart." Get rid of that, dear Brother, for the right question
is not will you preserve the Grace of God, but will the Grace of God
preserve you! Man, be assured of this–God's Grace will take care of
him upon whom it lights. There may be a sense in which we are to
preserve the Divine life, for there is a watchfulness which each man
must render to his own soul–but far higher, and above that, is the
truth that the Lord is our Keeper, the Lord is our Shield upon our
right hand. The Lord Himself will go before you! He shall cover you
with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust! And instead of
saying in such a trial, "Shall I be able to keep the Grace I have?"
rather say, "I have received the Grace of God, and it will sustain me
and make me more than conqueror."

As further instructions let me briefly say, Beloved, if you are now
about to enter into a great trouble, do not hurry, make no rash haste.
We often, when we are afraid of a thing, dash into it like a moth
dazzled by the candle's flame. We become so disturbed in our minds that
we do not act wisely and prudently, but fall into that haste which
brings no good speed. The children of Israel did not rush pell-mell to
Jordan to swim across, but they waited while the priests went on before
and tarried till the Ark stood still in the midst of Jordan. Everything
was done deliberately. Ask Grace to do the same. Be calm. If the Grace
of God does not make us calm in the time of peril and suffering, we
have some reason to question whether it is healthily operating upon our
spirits at all.

But next, while you do not hurry, do not hesitate. Not one man of all
the tribes said, "I must wait and see others cross and know whether the
road is really open." At the moment the trumpets sounded the advance
they all went on, asking no questions. A brave man, that first priest
must have been who went right up to the brink of Jordan and put down
his foot! It must have been a noble sight to see the water suddenly
roll right away in curling waves till it made a great wall of sparkling
crystal up towards the right. He was a brave man who stepped there,
first, and passed along the novel way which God had newly fashioned!
His was the first foot which had trodden the bottom of that ancient
river, the river Jordan. Be brave, also, my dear Brothers and Sisters,
and go straight on, though it were a river of fire instead of water. If
Jehovah bids you, the way is right–hesitate not!

There is one instruction which we must not omit, because it is put by
itself for special observance–it is this, "sanctify yourselves."
Whenever we are in new trials a voice speaks out of them, saying,
"Sanctify yourselves." I suppose the Israelites washed themselves with
water and practiced the ceremonial rights which made them clean. So the
child of God should come afresh in time of trouble to the precious
blood of Christ. He should also ask for Grace that he may purge out the
old leaven. Our trials are not punishments–for all the punishment of
sin was laid on Christ–and God

will not punish us for whom Jesus was a Substitute. But they are sent
as paternal chastisements and also as loving hints and indications to
us that there is something in us to be put away. What is the voice of
your present trial, Beloved? What is the voice of the trial that you
are dreading?

I cannot interpret its special note, but I know that its general
meaning is this, "Sanctify yourselves." Do we expect, soon, to be laid
aside from active service? Then let us work for Jesus while we can! Do
we reckon upon a speedy death? Then let us, with both hands, serve the
Master in the vineyard while life remains in us. May we be more than
ever set apart unto God? If we expect poverty or desertion of men, we
may feel that the Lord is weaning us from the poor dainties of earth
that He may fill us with the ineffable delights of Heaven. "Sanctify
yourselves." That is the voice of God to every man who is led by a way
which he has not passed before.

III. Lastly, a few sentences by way of exciting EXPECTATION. Before us
rolls this river, full to its brim. Beyond the river, contention and
strife await us. Let us lift up our hearts to God and trust Him, and
what shall then happen? Why, first, we shall discern the Presence of
the living God! Did you notice in this chapter how Joshua puts it in
the 10th verse? "Hereby shall you know that the living God is among
you." The men of this world have no living God. They will hardly endure
the name of God!

They talk of nature, the forces of nature, the laws of nature, and so
on. They have banished the Lord from their philosophy. I am afraid
there are some professing Christians with whom things go so smoothly
that they seldom recognize the hand of the living God. Now, O tried
Believer, that you are coming into a new trouble, will you know that
there is a God, a God who acts, a God who interposes for His people and
actually works for them! We have not a God who will hear and then
refuse to put out His hand to help us–who will look upon us–but will
not come to our succor. You might have continued in your present
circumstances without discovering what you know now, namely, that the
Lord whom you serve will deliver you with a high hand and with an
outstretched arm! Anything which gives us an opportunity to see our God
is worth having! Even the light of the fiery furnace, if no other light
can reveal that Fourth who is like the Son of God, is a precious light!
It is worth while treading the blazing coals to have a visit and a
sight of that mysterious but beloved Personage! Thank God that trouble
is coming, for now, as through a glass, shall you behold the Glory of
the Lord!

What next will happen? Why, in all probability the difficulty in your
way will cease to be–for while the children of Israel saw the living
God, they also saw a totally new and wonderful phenomenon. The Red Sea,
it is true, had been dried up, but that generation had not seen it! It
was a new thing to them when the river Jordan was made dry for them to
march through it. I have seen in my short life some very singular and
remarkable things, but I cannot now narrate them. I have often heard
persons say, in reading, "Huntington's Bank of Faith," that it was a
Bank of Nonsense. I do not believe it. I think there is much in that
that any Christian man could have written, and I believe that if many
of us were to detail our experiences, they would be quite as wonderful,
even though many would say of them, "We cannot believe it, there must
be some coloring about it."

The writings of novelists are not one half as interesting as the actual
lives of Christians would be if they were written out at length. God
does interfere in ways which could not have been prognosticated by
those who best understand the science of probabilities. You do not know
what is going to happen–a trouble is coming, it will come–but there
will come with it a mercy which will swallow it up. "The flood," you
say, "the flood is before me, it overflows its banks." It is there and
yet it is not there, for lo, when you shall come to it, it shall have
disappeared–

"You fearful saints, fresh courage take,

The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head."

It has been well up till now. It shall be well to the end. You have not
a changing God to deal with–remember that! Shall the God of our
childhood, who nursed us when we could not help ourselves, leave us
when we come to second childhood? God forbid! Shall He who loved us
before the world was leave us when we come into peril? It cannot be!
"Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not
forget you." Rest assured of this, that God has resources you have
never dreamed of and difficulties shall only put you into a position to
see new displays of Jehovah's power and Grace!

God flings down the challenge every day to Satan and to sin, and says,
"Here is My child. I put him in a new position today–see if you can
overcome him now." Tomorrow God will issue the same challenge, and so
on to the end. Perhaps this new trouble has come because Satan has
said, "Put forth now, Your hand and touch his bone, and his flesh, and
he will curse You to Your face." But God is saying, "Try him, try him,"
only with this view, that He may get glory by causing our weakness to
overcome all the strength of Hell through Divine Grace!

Is this all that we have to expect? No, Beloved, we shall see such
deliverances that we shall be prepared for future trials. Observe
this–Joshua said, "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among
you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the
Canaanites and the Hittites." Sometimes a trouble, when we are
marvelously brought through it, becomes a kind of stock-in-trade for
us. We look back upon it when the next affliction comes and we say,
"No, I am not afraid. The God who helped me on that occasion can help
me now." How we may bless God for great afflictions, for now all that
are coming will be little troubles in comparison!

He has brought us through the Jordan! Come on, you Hivites! Come on,
you Jebusites! Come on, you Gergashites! Behold how God has given you
as driven stubble to our bow! He will drive you before us and say,
Destroy them, for He who divides the Jordan is a God with whom nothing
is impossible! Be glad then, Beloved, if the Lord strangely exercises
you. He is trying your muscles and bracing them up for greater feats.
As sacred athletes you shall do marvelously in the presence of that
crowd of witnesses who compass you about. Rejoice and be glad that thus
the Lord prepares you more fully to glorify His name!

Lastly, and this is best of all, and will please the children of God
most–all that is coming to you will magnify Jesus in your eyes! On
that day when Israel went through the river, God began to magnify
Joshua–and oh, when we pass through deep waters of affliction, how the
Lord magnifies His Son Jesus in our souls! Jesus is very dear to every
child of God, but to the most tried He is the most precious. You who
have had Him with you when everyone else has left you know what a dear
Friend He is! You who have been nursed by Him when your bones have come
through your skin know what a beloved Physician He is!

You who have been succored, and fed, and led and guided by Him when all
around has been a wilderness to you know what a good Shepherd He is!
And you who have been upon the brink of death and have seen all things
melt away know how blessedly He is Immortality and Life, and what a
fullness dwells in Him sufficient to fill the soul when all created
joys are gone! O Lord God, if it will magnify Jesus, do what You will
with Your people! Not one of us would flinch and try to make provision
for the flesh if Jesus can be made great! For any other reason less
than this we would not say as much–but for Jesus' Glory, for the
magnifying of His name–if only You will give us strength we will not
dread martyrdom though it is by fire!

Anything for Jesus! Everything for Jesus! Does not your heart say so,
my Brothers and Sisters? I know it does if you are loyal to your
Savior, and, therefore, today you will shoulder the new cross–you will
grasp the fresh weapons of the changed warfare–you will take up the
new tools in a fresh corner of the vineyard, though "you have not gone
this way before." If it is for Jesus' honor for us to advance, who
desires to loiter? "Forward," then, is the message of today to all the
soldiers of Christ. Great Joshua, lead the way! Amen.
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No Quarter