A Root Out Of A Dry Ground

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 13, 1872,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"A root out of a dry ground." Isaiah 53:2.

THE Prophet is speaking of the Messiah. He declares of Him, "He shall
grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty that we should desire Him." It is marvelous that with such
plain prophecies concerning the Messiah the Jews should have made such
a fatal mistake in reference to Him. They looked for a temporal prince
who would come in splendor, notwithstanding that this and other
Scriptures speak of His humiliation in express terms. Every
unprejudiced person might have seen from this passage that the Messiah,
when He came, was not to be surrounded with pomp but would come as "a
Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," to be, "despised and
rejected of men."

Yet, though the Truth of God was written as with a sunbeam and the
Jewish people were pretty generally acquainted with their own
Scriptures so that they had the opportunity of knowing it, yet when the
Messiah came unto His own, His own received Him not. And though favored
with the clearest prophecies concerning Him, they rejected His claims
and cried, "Let Him be crucified!" Does not this teach us that the most
plain instruction, earnestly and forcibly delivered, will not be
understood by the unregenerate mind? The carnal mind discerns not
spiritual things–its eyes are darkened, its ears are heavy.
Inspiration itself cannot put a spiritual Truth of God so clearly that
men will see it unless their eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit. Vain
is the best light to blind men!

Beloved, remember that what was true of the Jews is equally true of the
Gentiles. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the simplest thing in the
world, but no man truly understands it until he is taught of God. There
are preachers who labor after simple words and seek out instructive
similitudes by which to make the Gospel clear to every
apprehension–but still, of the unregenerate it may be said, "Their
foolish heart is darkened." Sin has brought upon the human race a
mental incapacity with regard to spiritual subjects. They rush on in
darkness, though the Gospel creates a noonday around them–they grope
for the wall like the blind, though the Sun of Righteousness shines
with infinite brightness!

Alas, to what has our nature fallen! How is the image of God marred
within us! How ardently should we adore the Holy Spirit, that He stoops
to us even in this, our blindness, and is pleased to remove the scales
and pour light into our souls! Whatever we have rightly discerned has
been revealed to us by His teaching, for apart from His illumination we
should have been as obstinately unbelieving as the Jews. Dear Hearers,
how is it with you? Are you, also, blind? Though living in the Gospel
day, it may be you have never seen the Savior with the eyes of faith.
Are you blind, also? Oh, if you are, may He who alone can teach you to
profit, instruct you in the faith of Jesus and in His light may you see
light!

Now, turning to the text itself, you will observe that Isaiah describes
our Lord Jesus as growing up like "a tender plant," a weak branch, a
suckling, a sapling, a plant that very readily might be destroyed. We
cannot pass over that comparison without a note or two, though we
intend to dwell mainly upon the next clause. Our Lord Jesus Christ in
His humiliation appeared in great feebleness. He was born a helpless
Babe. He was, in His infancy, in great danger from the hand of Herod,
and though preserved, it was not by a powerful army, but by flight into
another land.

His early days were not spent amid the martial music of camps, or in
the grandeur of courts, but in the retirement of a carpenter's
shop–fit place for "a tender plant." His life was gentleness–He was
harmless as a lamb. At any time it seemed easy to destroy both Him and
His system. When He was nailed to the Cross to die, did it not appear
as if His whole work had utterly collapsed and His religion would be
forever stamped out? The Cross threatened to be the death of
Christianity as well as of Christ–but it was not so, for in a few days
the power of the Divine Spirit came upon the

Church!

At its first setting up, how feeble was the kingdom of our Lord! When
Herod stretched out his hand to vex certain of the Church, unbelief
might have said, "there will be an utter end before long." When, in
later years, the Roman Emperors turned the whole imperial power against
the Gospel, stretching forth an arm long enough to encompass the entire
globe and uplifting a hand more heavy than an iron hammer–how could it
be supposed that the Christian Church would still live on? It bowed
before the storm like a tender shoot but it was not uprooted by the
tempest–it survives to this day–and although we do not rejoice at
this moment in all the success which we could desire, yet still that
tender shoot is full of vitality!

We perceive the blossoms of hope upon it and expect soon to gather
goodly clusters of success. Christianity in our own hearts–the Christ
within us–is also a "tender plant." In its springing up it is as the
green blade of corn which any beast that goes by may tread upon or
devour. Oftentimes to our apprehension it has seemed that our spiritual
life would soon die. It was no better than a lily with a stalk bruised
and all but snapped in two. The mower's scythe of temptation has cut
down the outgrowth of our spiritual life, but, blessed be God, He who
comes down like rain upon the mown grass has restored our verdure and
maintained our vigor to this day! Tender as our religion is, it is
beyond the power of Satan to destroy it! Weak as we are, we have not
utterly fallen, nor shall we–for the feeble shall be victorious and
the "lame shall take the prey."

Though Grace is often like the hyssop for its weakness, it is ever as
the oak for endurance. Man threatens to crush the Church, or hopes to
uproot true Grace from the heart of the timid Believers, but it shall
not be done–the "tender plant" shall become a goodly cedar and the
weakness of God shall baffle the power of man!

Now let us turn to the similitude which we have selected for our
text–"A root out of a dry ground." First, we will explain the meaning
of the metaphor. Then, secondly, we will speak of our experimental
knowledge of its truth. Thirdly, we will dwell, for a while, upon the
encouragements which it affords. And, fourthly, upon the glory which it
displays.

I. First, then, this morning, our Lord Jesus is said to be "a root out
of a dry ground." What is THE HISTORICAL MEANING OF THIS METAPHOR? We
believe that it applies to the Person of the Lord and also to His cause
and kingdom–to Himselfpersonally and to Himself mystically. He is "a
root out of a dry ground."

A root which springs up in a fat and fertile field owes very much to
the soil in which it grows. We do not wonder that some plants thrive
abundantly, for the earth in which they are planted is peculiarly
congenial to their growth. But if we see a root or a tree luxuriating
upon a flinty rock, or in the midst of arid sand, we are astonished and
admire the handiwork of God. Our Savior is a root that derives nothing
from the soil in which it grows, but puts everything into the soil.
Christ does not live because of His surroundings, but He makes those to
live who are around Him–and Christianity in this world derives nothing
from the world except that which alloys and injures it, but it imparts
every blessing to the place where it comes.

Note, then, this Truth of God–that Christ is always "a root out of a
dry ground"–He derives nothing from without, but is self-contained and
self-sustained in all the strength and excellence which He displays.
Let us dwell on that Truth. It is quite certain that our Lord derived
nothing whatever from His natural descent. He was the Son of David and
lawful heir to the royal dignities of the tribe of Judah, but His
family had fallen into obscurity, had lost position, wealth, and
repute. Joseph, His nominal father, was only a carpenter. Mary, His
mother, but a humble village maiden. The glory had altogether departed
from Judah when Shiloh came. No crown was treasured amid the heirlooms
of Joseph, and no scepter was comprehended in the scanty portion of
Mary. He who was born King of the Jews inherited nothing from His
parents by way of honor and dignity–His only portion was the danger of
being sought out by the cunning and cruelty of Herod.

Now, had our Lord been descended from the Pharaohs; had He come into
the world as the scion of a long line of Caesars, or as the heir to a
wide-spread monarchy, it would have been said, "Every man respects
pedigree and descent, and hence the triumphs of His teaching." But who
shall do otherwise than magnify the Lord alone, when the blessed and
only Potentate is born in lowliest poverty?–

"Lo God bedews old Jesse's root

With blessings from the skies;

He makes the Branch of promise shoot,

The promised Prince arise."

Nor did our Lord derive assistance from His nationality. It was no
general recommendation to His teaching that He was of the seed of
Abraham. Why, to this day, to many minds, it is almost shameful to
mention that our Savior was a Jew. Though certainly the Jew is of an
honorable race, ancient and venerable–having been chosen of God of
old–yet among the sons of men the name of Jew has not yet lost the
opprobrium which long ages of cruel oppression and superstitious hate
have cast upon it.

It is said that there was no nation, immediately after the time of our
Savior, that the Romans ardently hated except the Jews. The Romans were
peculiarly tolerant of all religions and customs–by conquest their
empire had absorbed men of all languages and creeds and they usually
left them undisturbed. But the Jewish faith was too peculiar and
intolerant to escape derision and hatred. After the siege of Jerusalem
by Titus, the Jews were hunted down and the connection of Christianity
with Judaism so far from being an advantage to it, became a serious
hindrance to its growth. Christianity was confused with Judaism and
made to share the political disgrace of the Jewish nation as well as
its own reproach.

Had our Savior been born in Greece, there is no doubt that as a
religious teacher He would have commanded far more attention than as
coming forward from Jerusalem or Nazareth. He owed nothing to His
Jewish birth, for if anything good could have come out of Israel in
former days, behold into what a state it had fallen–it was dead
politically, religiously, and mentally! Look at Phariseeism–what shall
I say of it but that it had perverted the noblest into the basest? Look
at the Sadducees with their profession of superior wisdom, their
intense unbelief, and, I may add, their consequent folly. Whatever
power the Jewish Monotheism may have had in the world had perished
beneath the destructive influences of a ritualistic Phariseeism and a
broad church of the Sadducees. Our Savior, could He have disowned all
connection with Israel, might have been rather strengthened than
weakened by so doing. He was, in this respect, "a root out of a dry
ground."

Mentally, among the Jews nothing was left. No harp resounded with
Psalms like those of David. No Prophet mourned in plaintive tones like
Jeremy or sang in the rich organ tones of Isaiah. There remained not
even a Jonah to startle, or a Haggai to rebuke! No wise man gave forth
his proverbs, nor preacher took up his parable. The nation had mentally
reached its dregs. Its scribes were dreaming over the letters of
Scripture, insensible to its inner sense–and its elders were driveling
forth traditions of the fathers–and so sinking lower and lower in an
empty superstition. It was a "dry ground" out of which Jesus sprang.

Nor did the Savior owe anything to His followers. He might have
selected, had He pleased, certain eminent persons as His first
converts. Casting His eyes upon the reigning Caesar and his royal
subordinates, He might have turned their hearts to serve Him and so
have surrounded Himself with a discipleship culled from men of renown.
But He did not do so, else would men have said, "His religion might
well spread with such powerful men at its head." The Man chosen out of
the people passed by the noble and elected the base. He might have
journeyed at once to Athens and have collected from the remnant of the
old philosophic schools the choice thinkers of the age. There still
survived the sects of the Stoics and the Epicureans–and the old
learning of Socrates and Plato was not quite forgotten.

He might have called to His feet the leaders in the more potent schools
of thought, but He did not so, else they would have said that
Christianity might well triumph with such master minds to propagate it.
He might have gone to the Forum at Rome and there have selected men of
mighty eloquence. He might have converted the orators of the tribune,
or the persuasive speakers of the senate and have set such men to lead
the van of the new faith–but He did not do so, else they would have
said that rhetoric achieved the victory and eloquence, with her charms,
had spell-bound the world.

See you not how He hastens to the fisher boats on the Lake of
Gennesaret and calls men of the roughest exterior and the least
cultured intellect? Shall a world-subduing religion be disseminated by
peasants and mariners? So did He ordain it! He selected men commonly
known to be unlearned and ignorant, and made them Apostles of the
faith! Whatever they became in later life, He made them that. Peter did
not make Christianity, but Christianity made Peter what he was. Paul
brought nothing to Christ, but Christ gave everything to Paul. I admit
that the Apostles became great men–they were eloquent and learned in
the truest sense of the term, being taught of God. But Jesus, as "the
root," bore them, they did not bear the root! This wondrous root
fertilized the soil in which it grew! It derived nothing from the men,
but gave the men all they possessed. But we will pass on.

Our Savior is "a root out of a dry ground" as to the means which He
chose for the propagation of His faith. Nobody wonders that
Mohammedanism spread. After the Arab prophet had for a little while
himself personally borne the brunt

of persecution, he gathered to his side certain brave spirits who were
ready to fight for him at all odds. You marvel not that the sharp
arguments of scimitars made many converts. Any religion will win assent
when the alternative is either conversion or instant death! Give a man
a strong right hand and a sharp saber and he is a fit missionary of
Mohamed's doctrine! Our Savior gave to His soldiers neither spears nor
swords, but said, "Put up again your sword into his place: for all they
that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

He asked no aid from governments, He disowned the temporal arm
altogether as His ally. Had our Savior been a State-churchman, and not,
as He was, the grandest of Nonconformists, it would have been said that
under the wings of the State His Church was fostered into power. If
Caesar had said, "I will gather your children together as a hen gathers
her chickens under her wings," it would not have been surprising if the
brood of Christians had multiplied indefinitely. But our Savior sought
no succor from potentates and rested not upon an arm of flesh. The
people would make Him a king, but He hid Himself, for His kingdom is
not of this world, and therefore His servants did not fight. Our
Savior, as He used no force, so neither did He use any means which
might enlist man's lower nature on His side.

When I have heard of large congregations gathered together by the music
of a fine choir, I have remembered that the same thing is done at the
opera house and the music hall and I have felt no joy. When we have
heard of crowds enchanted by the sublime music of the pealing organ, I
have seen in the fact rather a glorification of St. Cecilia than of
Jesus Christ. Our Lord trusted in no measure or degree to the charms of
music for the establishing His Throne. He has not given to His
disciples the slightest intimation that they are to employ the
attractions of the concert room to promote the kingdom of Heaven. I
find no rubric in Scripture commanding Paul to clothe himself in robes
of blue, scarlet, or violet–neither do I find Peter commanded to wear
a surplice, an alb, or a chasuble.

The Holy Spirit has not cared even to hint at a surpliced choir, or at
banners, processions and processional hymns. Now, if our Lord had
arranged a religion of fine shows and pompous ceremonies, and gorgeous
architecture, and enchanting music, and bewitching incense and the
like, we could have comprehended its growth–but He is "a root out of a
dry ground," for He owes nothing to any of these. Christianity has been
infinitely hindered by the musical, the aesthetic and the ceremonial
devices of men, but it has never been advantaged by them, no, not a
jot! The sensuous delights of sound and sight have always been enlisted
on the side of error, but Christ has employed nobler and more spiritual
agencies.

Things which fascinate the senses are left to be the chosen instruments
of Antichrist, but the Gospel, disdaining Saul's armor, goes forth in
the natural simplicity of its own might, like David, with sling and
stone. Our holy religion owes nothing whatever to any carnal means–so
far as they are concerned, it is "a root out of a dry ground." Neither
did the Savior owe anything to the times in which He lived.
Christianity, it is said by some, came upon the field at a time when it
was likely to succeed. I utterly deny it! It was born at a period of
history when the world, by wisdom, knew not God and men were most
effectually alienated from Him. The more thinking part of the world's
inhabitants at the time of Christ's coming were atheistic and made
ridicule of the gods–while the masses blindly worshipped whatever was
set before them.

The whole set and current of thought at the advent of our Lord was in
direct opposition to such a religion as He came to inculcate. It was an
age of luxury–Rome was full of wealth and the desire for
self-indulgence. Wherever Romans settled, they built magnificent villas
and used all the arts for the gratification of the flesh–was this a
preparation for the doctrines of the Cross? It was an age of universal
vice. It is a great mercy that most of the ancient cities have been
destroyed and their works of art dashed to shivers–for many of them
were unutterably vicious–and such as remain are doing not a little to
degrade humanity.

Vices which now we dare not speak of were then perpetrated in public!
Things that are now detested were performed as a part of sacred
worship! The world was rotten through and through. If darkness is a
preparation for light, I grant you the world did prepare itself for
Christ. If an Augean stable, poisoned with a putridity which supersedes
all common rottenness, is in readiness for the coming of Him who shall
cleanse it, the world was prepared for Jesus, but not else. I deny that
He owed anything to His times. He came when the times could not help
Him in any degree whatever, and His religion was "a root out of a dry
ground."

Neither, again, let me say, did the religion of Jesus owe anything to
human nature! It is sometimes said that it commends itself to human
nature. It is false–the religion of Jesus opposes unrenewed human
nature. In Christ's day

revenge was one of the most glorious things known–it was sung of, it
was preached upon, it was the joy of men–and what religion but
Christianity ever taught men never to retaliate? Christ said, "Love
your enemies, and pray for them that despitefully use you." Is this in
human nature? Is there anything in the commands of Christ that at all
flatters pride or conciliates lust? He judges our thoughts as well as
our actions. "He that looks upon a woman to lust after her has
committed adultery with her already in his heart." Is that agreeable to
human nature? Do you think that runs in the same vein as our passions?

Mohammed prospered because his religion pandered to human weakness! But
there is in the religion of Christ no yielding to what are called the
natural passions, no providing for sensual desires. "Take up," He says,
"not your scimitar but your cross." He says not, "Increase your harem."
No, but, "Crucify the flesh." Is there any glorification of human
intellect in the religion of Jesus? Is not its invariable command,
"Believe, and live"? If Christianity spreads, it spreads in opposition
to human nature by changing human nature, by making it what it never
was and never could have been had not the incorruptible Truth of God
been planted in it like "a root in a dry ground." Thus much, and
perhaps too much, upon the historical meaning of the metaphor.

II. Now, briefly, but earnestly, OUR KNOWLEDGE OF ITS TRUTH
EXPERIMENTALLY. Beloved, you remember your own conversion? When Jesus
Christ came to you to save you, did He find any fertile soil in your
heart for the growth of His Grace? I must bear witness that to convince
me of sin and humble me, He had need of all the mighty hammers of His
power to break my rocky heart. Conviction of sin was no natural product
of my mind. Repentance was a plant of the Lord's right hand planting
and not a native of the soil. Remorse we might have had by nature, but
repentance, never!

And, Brothers and Sisters, if now we have believed in Christ Jesus and
are resting in Him, I am sure we must admit that faith never sprang up
naturally in the garden of our hearts–the Holy Spirit taught us how to
believe in Jesus and led us to look unto Him that we might be saved. So
far from helping Christ, my whole soul was opposed to Him. If now I bow
before His feet and delight to call Him my Master and my Lord, it is
because I am subdued by His power, not because I have educated myself
to it, or was at all inclined thereto. Religion, true religion, in the
heart at conversion is "a root out of a dry ground."

Let me ask you who look into your own hearts–how have you found them
since? Has there been anything in your natural humanity congenial with
the new life which Grace has begotten within you? You have the higher
life in your souls, has it found sustenance in your flesh? Ah, it is
sadly the reverse. Christ's life has come into us like Israel into the
wilderness and it finds in us no food. If manna does not drop from
Heaven and water leap from the smitten rock, it must die in the desert
of our soul. "In me, that is, in my flesh," said the Apostle, "there
dwells no good thing." Our carnal nature is still as evil as ever it
was–"The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not reconciled to
God, neither, indeed, can it be."

If you have Divine Grace in your hearts today, Beloved, you have been
made to feel that it is "a root out of a dry ground." I bless the Lord
that we have felt this at peculiar seasons. When you have had great joy
in God, great exhilaration and delight, has it not usually been at
times when you might least have expected it? When the body is gradually
pining away with sickness we have seen the spirit more triumphant than
it was in health, deriving none of its joy from the strength of Nature,
but flourishing upon a secret provender of which the world knows
nothing–it has been "a root out of a dry ground." Sometimes we have
been desponding in spirit. Our animal spirits, as they are called, have
been quite dried up and yet, before we knew it, our souls have been
made like the chariots of Amminadab and we have flashed and glowed with
sacred delight! "A root out of a dry ground" again.

Children have died and perhaps a beloved wife has been taken away.
Possibly business has been against us, trials have multiplied and yet
at that very season we have walked nearer to God than ever we did
before, and had more delight in His company, and have known more of the
power of the Holy Spirit in our souls than ever we did in days of
prosperity–all to show us that the Grace within us lives by its own
inward vigor and by supernatural help–and owes nothing to bodily
health, nothing to outward circumstances–but is still a root
flourishing best in a dry ground! There is much that is painful about
this experience of the dryness of the ground, but there is something
delightful in the experience of the growing of the root under such
circumstances, for then all the glory is given to the Lord alone, and
we dare not touch it, no, not so much as with one of our fingers.

III. But I will pass on. This whole subject appears to me to afford
much ENCOURAGEMENT to many. And first, let me speak, as earnestly as I
can, a word to those of you who are seeking after the Savior but are
very conscious of your own sinfulness. You are depressed under a sense
of being unworthy to be saved, and what is perhaps worse, you feel that
though the Gospel is preached to you, you are unable to receive it of
yourself. Deadness and powerlessness are the main thoughts upon your
mind.

Now, Beloved, let this console you. Christ Jesus, when He saves a
sinner, borrows no help whatever from the sinner himself. "It pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." If there is all
fullness in Him, He does not need any contribution from us, and,
blessed be His name, He never waits for any. We can give none and He
will receive none. Christ is all–does not that cheer you? Do you say,
"I need power"? In Him is strength. "I need wisdom" you say –He is
"made of God unto us wisdom." "I need a tender heart"–who can give it
to you but Christ? "But, ah, I need to repent"–is He not "exalted on
high to give repentance?" "But I long for faith." Well, and have you
never read, "it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God"? He is "a
root out of a dry ground," and your ground is very, very dry. He will
come and put fertility into it, but remember He does not first need
fertility in you.

Poor, helpless, hopeless, stripped, and emptied one, you need not look
for, nor desire anything in yourself to prepare you for Jesus! He
delights to come into empty hearts to fill them with His love–into
cold hearts to warm them with His sacred flame–and into dead hearts to
give them life. Now, the same thought which may thus comfort the
seeker, and I pray it may, ought also to encourage any Christian who
has been making discoveries of his own barrenness. It is not every
child of God that knows himself thoroughly. We may go on a long time
after our first conversion without any very deep understanding of what
poor things we are.

Have you begun to see yourself in the looking glass of the Word and
does the sight alarm and distress you? Are you crying, "My barrenness!
My barrenness"? Beloved Brothers and Sisters, Christ "is a root out of
a dry ground," and though you are thus barren now, you are not one whit
more barren than you always have been! Your sin alarms you, but it was
always there! Your natural death disgusts you, but it is no new thing.
"Oh, but I seem to be less, now, than I was!" You never were anything
and if you had begun by understanding you were nothing, you would have
begun in a wiser and happier state than you are now.

Whenever the child of God says, "I find my total of natural strength is
getting smaller," he is only approximating to the truth, for his
strength is "perfect weakness." Beloved, when we get to realize the
lesson taught us in our Baptism, we are drawing near to the Truth of
God. What is that? you ask. Why, it is the burial of the creature in
Christ's tomb! Circumcision signifies the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but Baptism teaches us the burial of it altogether, as an
incorrigible and utterly corrupt thing, not to be reformed and mended
but to be reckoned as dead and buried. "Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth." Be nothing at all, and let Jesus be All in
All. When at any time you are cast down by a sense of your nothingness,
remember that your Lord is "a root out of a dry ground."

The same comfort avails for every Christian worker. You who work for
Jesus in the pulpit, or in the Sunday school, or elsewhere, I am quite
sure, if God blesses you, you do not always feel the same. Those
machines that preach regularly in the same way accomplish very little.
God means to use men, and while men are men they will be sensitive and
changeable. Flesh and blood are not like marble–they change–and God
means to use the feelings of His ministers and His servants for Divine
ends and purposes. If God ever honors a man in public, He will whip him
every now and then behind the door, and make him cry out, "Who is
sufficient for these things?"

Now, Brother, when you feel you are barren, do not fret or despair
about it, but rather say, "Lord, here is a dry tree, come and make it
bear fruit and then I shall joyfully confess, 'from You is my fruit
found.' Lord, I am a withered branch by nature, come and put sap into
me and make me bud and blossom like Aaron's rod–so shall men see a
miracle of Grace and You shall have all the praise of it!" Do not think
that your unfitness to be used is really a disqualification with God!
The last thing a man might choose to fight with would be the jawbone of
a donkey, and yet Samson found it handy enough and it made his victory
the more famous!

The last instrument God might choose to use might be yourself, and yet
if He pleases, there is a fitness in your unfitness and a qualification
in your disqualification! A man's conceit that he is well prepared for
God to use him will prove fatal to him. If a man is possessed of
polished diction–very learned, a man of high family, a man of great
repute,

and so on–the likelihood is that he will be esteemed by his fellows so
much that the Lord will say, "I cannot use this man lest men glorify
him."

Therefore God often uses young men because people know they are fools!
He honors illiterate men that people may know that it is not by their
learning. He chooses home-spun people who speak without the polish
which others have gained, and He uses them because the world says, "He
is an unlearned man, and a rough vulgar fellow." Do you not see that
thus all the glory goes to God? The man's disqualifications are his
fitness! "The rather, therefore," says the Apostle, "will I glory in
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Go on, dear
Worker, for Jesus is "a root out of a dry ground," and in your dryness
He will flourish!

Don't you think that this also ought to comfort all of us with regard
to the times in which we live? They are said to be very horrible
times–they always were ever since I have known anything of the
world–and I suppose they always were in our fathers' time. We are
always at a crisis according to some people. I am not about to defend
the times–they are, no doubt, very bad–for the innumerable spirits of
evil are bold and active, while good men seem to have lost their
courage. We find amalgamations and compromises ad infinitum, and the
precious Truth of God is trodden as the mire of the streets.

What about all this? Are we discouraged? Far from it! Bad times are
famous times for Christ! When Wycliffe came the times were dark enough
in England and therefore the morning star was the more welcome. When
Luther came into the world the times were almost as black as they could
be and therefore good times for reformation! The times were dead enough
when Wesley and Whitfield came–but they proved glorious days for the
Lord to work in! And if you discern now that there is not much
prayerfulness, nor much spirituality, nor much truthful doctrine, nor
much zeal–do not fret–it is thoroughly dry soil and now the root of
Grace will grow!

John Bunyan once said that when he heard the young fellows swear so
profanely in his parish, he used to think what men God would make of
them when he converted them! Let us think like that! Suppose He saves
those wretched priests who are trying to swallow down England? Suppose
He converts these profane rationalists who almost deny God's
existence–what penitent sinners they will make when He once breaks
their hearts–and what preachers of the Word they will be when He
renews them! Let us have good hope! Our faith does not rise when people
say the times are improving, nor do we despond when men denounce the
times as bad.

Eternity is the lifetime of God and He will work out His purposes. Time
may ebb and flow, God is in no hurry. But if the world goes on for
millions of years, God will triumph in the end and the poem of human
history will not wind up with a dirge, but will end with a triumphant
hymn after all. Let us be of good courage about that. And thus we may
be encouraged concerning any particularly wicked place. Do not say, "It
is useless to preach down there, or to send missionaries to that
uncivilized country." How do you know? Is it very dry ground? Ah, well,
that is hopeful soil! Christ is a "root out of a dry ground," and the
more there is to discourage, the more you should be encouraged.

Read it the other way. Is it dark? Then all is fair for a grand show of
light! The light will never seem so bright as when the night is very
very dark. Come with the salt of Christ where there is most rottenness.
Where is the scene for the triumph of the physician but where disease
has reigned supreme? Go with Christ's Gospel in your hands where it is
most required. The same is true of individual men–you should never
say, "Well, such a man as that will never be converted." You parents do
not say, "Now, there is Mary, she has a sweet temper. I expect to see
her brought to Christ. And there is John, an open-hearted lad. He seems
very attentive in the House of God, I expect to see him saved. But, as
for Tom, he is such a wild daredevil fellow, I shall never see him
saved."

I should not wonder that he is just the very one whom God will bring to
Himself and make him to be the joy and gladness of your old age! Who
are you that you should set up to elect God's people? He has done that
years ago and He has often elected the very ones whom you would have
cast out. Seek the conversion of all persons and all classes, all men,
and all your relatives, and all your children for you do not know
whether any shall be saved. He is "a root out of a dry ground." Look
for the dry ground and rather rejoice when you see it is dry ground,
with the comfortable hope that the root will spring up there.

IV. I must close with a few words upon THE GLORY WHICH ALL THIS
DISPLAYS. Christ's laurels, Beloved, at

this day are none of them borrowed. When He shall come in His glory
there will be none among His friends who will say, "O King, You owe
that jewel in Your crown to me." None will whisper among themselves
that if the honor is given to

the Captain yet it was a soldiers' battle, after all. No, but everyone
will admit that Jesus was the Author and the Finisher of the whole work
and therefore He must have all the glory of it, since we who were with
Him were dry ground, and He gave life to us and borrowed nothing from
us.

In the end of the world it will be seen how Christ has sedulously
shaken off from Him everything that could have marred His victory. This
is most prominent in history. The Church of God went on gloriously and
subdued the nations till that unbaptized heathen Constantine thought,
as a piece of State policy, that he would get the Christians on his
side to secure for him a throne which else he would have lost. And that
old sinner made Christianity a national religion and from that day
Christianity was pure no more. You could not find pure religion except
you went to the valleys of Piedmont, among the persecuted Waldenses,
where it was maintained. Religion, as far as real, true, pure holiness
was concerned, almost ceased to exist from the day when the royal hand
inflicted a spiritual cancer upon the Church by its touch.

The Dark Ages were a chastisement to the Church for leaning upon an arm
of flesh. Then came the Reformation and as long as men preached the
Gospel and depended upon spiritual power only, even persecution made it
spread. But those sinners, Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth, must needs
extend the royal wing over it and it sickened almost to death. The
despised Puritans became the representatives of the Crucified Lord. And
then there came a time when these Puritans were multiplied, but they
erred–they took the sword, (and if Puritans take the sword they can
fight, mark you), and they got the upper hand by the arm of flesh–and
then down went the spirituality of Puritanism because whoever it is
that thinks to bring glory to God in that way, God will have nothing to
do with him.

And now, at this day the Lord may bless His dissenting people in this
country, but if they seek political power and lean upon the education
of their ministers, or any other earthly thing, God will cast them off
as He has all the others. History shows that Christ blesses a humble,
believing, trustful, spiritually-minded people. And history shows that
when they cringe before the king, or use sword or bayonet–from that
moment the Master puts them down and begins again at the first
foundation–for it is "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,
says the Lord of Hosts." And so it shall be. When at the last the
entire Church shall rise in all its splendor, not a single stone shall
bear the mark of the carver's tool of human workmanship–from basement
to pinnacle there shall be no token of human masonry!

No king shall be able to say, "I gave that glorious window of
chrysolite." No prince shall say, "I contributed that pinnacle of
sapphire or chrysoprasus." No minister shall be able to say, "My
eloquence made yonder gate of agate and opened those windows of
carbuncle." No angel, even, shall be able to say, "I spread the sacred
pavement of transparent gold like unto pure glass." But it shall be to
God, to God, to God alone–the foundations laid in the Divine decree,
the stones cemented with the fair vermillion of the Savior's atoning
blood, each gem fashioned and placed by the mysterious Spirit of the
living God and the whole temple fitly framed together–glowing with the
Glory of God, bright with the Presence of God, from foundation to
pinnacle, it shall speak of God, God, God alone!

When that palace shall be complete, then from the ends of the earth
shall be heard the shout, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, the Lord
God Omnipotent reigns!" Hushed will be every other acclamation! This
anthem will drown them all. Let it in our hearts drown them all. "The
Lord, the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, for He is God and
beside Him there is none else!" Amen and Amen!
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The Great Assize

A Sermon