Motives for Steadfastness

Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, May 11, 1873, by

C.H. SPURGEON,

At the [1]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord."— 1 Corinthians 15:58.

THE apostle had been putting forth all his strength to prove the
doctrine of the resurrection, yet he was not diverted from his habitual
custom of making practical use of the doctrine which he established. He
proves his point, and then he goes on to his "therefore," which is
always an inference of godliness. He is the great master of doctrine:
if you want the Christian creed elaborated, and its details laid out in
order, you must turn to the epistles of Paul; but at the same time he
is always a practical teacher. Paul was not like those who hew down
trees and square them by rule and system, but forget to build the house
therewith. True, he lifteth up a goodly axe upon the thick trees, but
he always makes use of that which he hews down, he lays the beams of
his chambers, and forgets not the carved work thereof. He brings to
light the great stones of truth, and cuts them out of the live rock of
mystery; but he is not content with being a mere quarryman, he labors
to be a wise master builder, and with the stones of truth to erect the
temple of Christian holiness. If I shift the figure I may say that our
apostle does not grope among the lower strata of truth, hunting out the
deep things and spending all his force upon them, but he ploughs the
rich upper soil, he sows, he reaps, he gathers in a harvest, and feeds
many. Thus should the practical ever flow from the doctrinal like wine
from the clusters of the grape. The Puritans were wont to call the end
of the sermon, in which they enforced the practical lessons, the
"improvement" of the subject; and, truly, the apostle Paul was a master
in the way of "improvement." Hence in this present chapter, though he
has been dealing with the fact of resurrection, and arguing with all
his might in defense of it, he cannot close till he has said,
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, umnoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord."

My brethren, this is a lesson for us; let us never reckon that we have
learned a doctrine till we have seen its bearing upon our lives.
Whatever we discover in God's word, let us pray the Holy Spirit to make
us feel the sanctifying influence of it. You know not a man because you
recognize his features, you must also know his spirit, and so the mere
acquaintance with the letter of truth is of small account—you must feel
its influence and know its tendency. There are some brethren who are so
enamored of doctrine that no preacher will content them unless he gives
them over and over again clear statements of certain favourite truths:
but the moment you come to speak of practice they fight shy of it at
once, and either denounce the preacher as being legal, or they grow
weary of that which they dare not contradict. Let it never be so with
us. Let us follow up truth to its practical "therefore." Let us love
the practice of holiness as much as the belief of the truth; and,
though we desire to know, let us take care when we know that we act
according to the knowledge, for if we do not our knowledge itself will
become mischievous to us, will involve us in responsibilities, but will
bring to us no effectual blessing. Let everyone here who knoweth aught,
now pray God to teach him float he would have him to do, as the
consequence of that knowledge.

This morning our subject will be the practical outflow of the
resurrection, the great inference which should be drawn from the fact
that death is swallowed up in victory. There should be fine flour from
the grinding of such choice wheat.

The text has in it two things: first, it mentions two great points of
Christian character—"stedfast, unmoveable," and "always abounding in
the work of the Lord;" and, secondly, it gives us a grand motive for
the cultivation of these two characteristics—inasmuch as the doctrine
of the resurrection being true, "ye know that your labor is not in vain
in the Lord."

I. First, then, let us consider THE TWO GREAT POINTS OF CHRISTIAN
CHARACTER here set before us.

1. The first one is "be ye stedfast, unmoveable." Two things are wanted
in a good soldier, steadiness under fire, and enthusiasm during a
charge. The first is the more essential in most battles, for victory
often depends upon the power of endurance which makes a battalion of
men into a wall of brass. We want the dashing courage which can carry a
position by storm—that will be used up in the second
characteristic—"always abounding in the work of the Lord;" but in the
commencement of the attack, and at critical points all through the
campaign, the most essential virtue for victory is for a soldier to
know how to keep his place, and "having done all to stand."

The apostle has given us two words descriptive of godly firmness, and
we may be sure that as Holy Scripture never uses a superfluity of
words, each word has a distinct meaning. "Stedfast" alone would not
have sufficed, but "unmoveable" must be added. Let us look at the word
"stedfast" first. Beloved, be ye stedfast. By this the apostle means,
first, be ye stedfast in the doctrines of the gospel. Know what you
know, and, knowing it cling to it. Hold fast the form of sound
doctrine. Do not be as some are, of doubtful mind, who know nothing,
and even dare to say that nothing can be known. To such the highest
wisdom is to suspect the truth of everything they once knew, and to
hang in doubt as to whether there are any fundamentals at all. I should
like an answer from the Broad Church divines to one short and plain
question. What truth is so certain and important as to justify a man in
sacrificing his life to maintain it? Is there any doctrine for which a
wise man should yield his body to be burned? According to all that I
can understand of modern liberalism, religion is a mere matter of
opinion, and no opinion is of sufficient importance to be worth
contending for. The martyrs might have saved themselves a world of loss
and pain if they had been of this school, and the Reformers might have
spared the world all this din about Popery and Protestantism. I deplore
the spread of this infidel spirit, it will eat as doth a canker. Where
is the strength of a church when its faith is held in such low esteem?
Where is conscience? Where is love of truth? Where soon will be common
honesty? In these days with some men, in religious matters, black is
white, and all things are whichever color may happen to be in your own
eye, the color being nowhere but in your eye, theology being only a set
of opinions, a bundle of views and persuasions. The Bible to these
gentry is a nose of wax which everybody may shape just as he pleases.
Beloved, beware of falling into this state of mind; for if you do so I
boldly assert that you are not Christian at all, for the Spirit which
dwells in believers hates falsehood, and clings firmly to the truth.
Our great Lord and Master taught mankind certain great truths plainly
and definitely, stamping them with his "Verily, verily;" and as to the
marrow of them he did not hesitate to say, "He that believeth shall be
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned;" a sentence very
abhorrent to modern charity, but infallible nevertheless. Jesus never
gave countenance to the baseborn charity which teaches that it is no
injury to a man's nature to believe a lie. Beloved, be firm, be
stedfast, be positive. There are certain things which are true; find
them out, grapple them to you as with hooks of steel. Buy the truth at
any price and sell it at no price.

Be ye stedfast also in the sense of not being changeable. Some have one
creed to-day and another creed to-morrow, variable as a lady's
fashions. Indeed, we once heard a notable divine assert that he had to
alter his creed every week, he was unable to tell on Monday what he
would believe on Wednesday, for so much fresh light broke in upon his
receptive intellect. There are crowds of persons nowadays of that kind
described by Mr. Whitfield when he said you might as well try to
measure the moon for a suit of clothes as to tell what they believed.
Ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Shifting as
sandbanks are their teachings and as full of danger. The apostle says
to us, "Be ye stedfast." Having learned the truth hold it, grow into
it, let the roots of your soul penetrate into its center and drink up
the nourishment which lies therein, but do not be for ever
transplanting yourselves from soil to soil. How can a tree grow when
perpetually shifted? How can a soul make progress if it is evermore
changing its course? Do not sow in Beersheba and then rush off to reap
in Dan. Jesus Christ is not yea and nay; he is not to-day one thing and
tomorrow another, but the "same to-day, yesterday, and for ever." True
religion is not a series of guesses at truth, but "we speak what we do
know, and testify what we have seen." That which your experience has
proved to you, that which you have clearly seen to be the word of God,
that which the Spirit beareth witness to in your consciousness, that
hold you with iron grasp. Skin for skin, yea, all that a man has, will
he give for his life, and to us the holding of the truth is essential
to our life. The Holy Ghost has given his unction unto the people of
God, and they know the truth, and moreover they know that no lie is of
the truth. Were it not for this anointing the very elect would have
been deceived in this age of falsehood. Brethren, be ye stedfast.

But the apostle meant much more, he intended to urge us to be stedfast
in character. Right in the middle of the chapter upon the resurrection
he speaks about character. He shows that a change of view upon the
doctrine of the resurrection would legitimately lead to a change of
action; for if the dead rise not, then it is clearly wisdom to say,
"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die:" but inasmuch as the
resurrection doctrine is true, he urges us to keep to that holy living
which is the natural inference from belief in eternal life and the
judgment to come. As ye have looked to the recompense of the reward
hereafter, and have sought to order your conversation by a sense of the
coming judgment, so do ye still, and be ye stedfast. Alas, we might
preach tearful discourses to many Christians upon stedfastness of
behavior, for they have started aside as a deceitful bow. There was a
time when their integrity was unquestioned, but now they have learned
the ways of a faithless world; truth was on their lip, but now they
have learned to flatter. They have lost the pure speech of the New
Jerusalem, and speak in the Babylonian tongue. How many professors were
once exceeding zealous, but are now careless! the fire of their love
burns dimly, its coal is all but quenched. Prayer was their delight,
but now it wearies them. The praises of God were perpetually in their
mouth, but now they forget their Benefactor. They labored abundantly in
the Redeemer's service, but now they can scarce be stirred out of their
luxurious indolence. Beloved, if God has sanctified you by his Spirit,
be ye stedfast in character. Suffer not your divinely-wrought sanctity
to be stained. Be ye not sometimes watchful, but be ye always so, by
the help of the good Spirit. Whereunto ye have attained in the things
of God, walk by that rule still. Be ye not corrupted by evil
communications. Make your private and public life of a piece. Let not
the worldling peep into your house and discover that your godliness is
an article intended for foreign consumption only. Be ye such that if ye
be watched anywhere, and at any time, your sincerity will be
manifested. O for consistency among professors! Its absence is the
weakness of the church, and its restoration will bring to us unnumbered
blessings.

In addition to being stedfast in doctrine and character, we need to be
exhorted to stedfastness in attainments. O brethren, if we were now
what we sometimes have been, how ripe for glory should we be! If we
could but keep the ground which we conquer, how soon would all Canaan
be ours! But is not Christian life with a great many very like the
condition of the sea? The sea advances, it gains gradually upon the
beach—you would think it was about to inundate the land; but after it
has reached its highest point it retires, and so it spends its force in
perpetual ebb and flow. Are not ebb-and-flow Christians common as
sea-shells? Life to them is the unprogressive change of advance and
recede: to-day all earnest, to-morrow all indifferent; to-day generous,
to-morrow mean; to-day filled with the fullness of God, to-morrow
naked, and poor, and miserable. What they build with one hand they pull
down with the other. Sad that it should be so. I must confess I find it
far easier to climb the greatest heights of grace, and especially of
communion, than to maintain the elevation. For a flight now and then
our wings are sufficient; we mount, we soar, we rise into the spiritual
regions, and we exult as we rise; but our pinion droops, we grow weary
of the heights, and we descend to earth like stones which have been
thrown into the air. Alas! that it should be so. Be ye stedfast. When
ye climb ask for grace to keep there; when your wing has borne you up
ask that there you may be poised till the Lord shall call you to your
nest in heaven. Is your faith strong? Why should it decline again? Is
your hope vivid? Why should that bright eye of yours grow dim, and look
no more within the golden gates? Is your love fervent? Why should it be
chilled? Cannot the breath of the Eternal Spirit keep the fire at full
blaze? Wherefore is it that we do run well and then are hindered? We
are short-winded, we cannot watch with our Lord one hour, we grow weary
and faint in our minds. Alexander could not thus have won a world if
after fighting the battle of Issus he had stopped short of the
Granicus: if the Macedonian hero had said, "I have done enough, I will
go back to Greece and enjoy my victories," his empire had never become
universal. Nor would Columbus have discovered a new world if he had
sailed a little way into the unknown ocean and then had turned his
timid prow towards port. "Onward!" is the motto of the earnest, all the
world over, and should it not be the watchword of the Christian? Shall
we be content with a wretched poverty of grace? Shall we be satisfied
to wear the rags of inconsistency? God forbid. Let us bestir ourselves,
and when we make headway along the river of life, may God grant us
grace to cast anchor and hold our place, lest we drift back myth the
next tide, or be blown back by the next change of wind. "Be ye
stedfast."

We shall not have brought out the full force of the text unless we say
that the apostle evidently refers to Christian work, for he says, "be
ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." So
that he means be stedfast in your work which the Lord has laid upon you
to do. Perseverance is at once the crown and the cross of service. It
is very easy to preach for a little while, but I can assure you that
preaching to a congregation year after year involves no little toil;
yet are we bound to be stedfast in this ministry. A spurt, a leap, a
bound—these are easy, but to press on continually is the difficulty.
Have you taken a class in the Sabbath-school? The novelty of it may
carry you through a month or two, but, dear friend, be stedfast and
hold on year after yea, for therein will lie your honor and success. If
you should be discouraged, because you meet with no present success,
yet persevere, yea, endure to the end. If God has given you any work to
do, it is yours to press—forward in it, whether you prosper in it or
not. The negro said, you remember, that if God bade him jump through a
wall, whether he could go through it or not was no business of his.
"Here I go," says he, "right at it." We may rest assured that the Lord
never did command us to leap through a wall without causing it to give
way when our faith brought us to the test. We have to obey the precept,
and leave the consequences. If God says, "Do it," the command is both
the warrant for our act and the security for our being aided with all
necessary help. Noah preached for one hundred and twenty years, and
when his term of warning ministry was over, where were his converts? He
may have had a great many, but they were all dead and buried, and with
the exception of himself and family, after one hundred and twenty
years' ministry, there remained not one that God would preserve alive;
and into the ark he went, the grandest unsuccessful preacher that ever
lived, faithful unto death, to be rewarded of his God as much as if he
had induced half the world to flee from the wrath to come. Let us,
therefore, remain stedfast in doctrine, in character, in attainment and
in labor. To this end help us, O Holy Ghost.

But the apostle adds, "unmoveable." He supposes that our stedfastness
will be tried, and he bills us remain unmoveable. Be "stedfast" in
times of peace, like rocks in the midst of a calm and glassy sea; be ye
unmoveable if ye are assailed like those same rocks in the midst of the
tempest when the billows dash against them. Brethren, when you are
assailed by argument, be unmoveable. I say, "argument," but I am
complimenting our adversaries, their objections do not deserve the
name. It will never be possible for any man living to answer all the
queries which others can raise, or reply to all objections which may be
brought against the most obvious facts. If any person here were
sceptical as to my standing at this present moment upon this platform,
I am not certain that I should be able to convince him that I am here.
I am quite sure of it myself, but I have no doubt a sceptic would be
able to advance objections which would require a keener wit than mine
to remove, notwithstanding that the matter would be plain enough if the
objector would throw away his logic and use his common sense. Now the
arguments against the resurrection which the apostle mentions, were
such as he could easily remove. Such a one as this, for instance: How
are the dead raised up? Paul seems to have lost his patience in
answering it, and he called the man a fool; and you may depend upon it
he was a fool, or else the apostle would not have called him so.
Granted the existence of a God, you need never ask "How?" If there be
omnipotence, there is no room for the question, "How?" God the Almighty
can do what he wills, and he is a fool who asks "How?" after once he
has believed in God. Most of the objections against the articles of our
holy faith are contemptible, yet none the less difficult to answer
because contemptible, for an argument is not always apparently strong
in proportion to its reasonableness. It may be easier to obviate an
objection which has some force in it than to overthrow another which
has positively no force at all; in fact, the most difficult arguments
to answer are thou which are insane at the core, for you must be insane
yourself before you can quite catch the thought which insanity has
uttered, and as you do not wish to qualify for controversy with fools,
by becoming a fool yourself, you may not be able to reply to your
antagonist. It will be your right course to be stedfast, unmoveable,
that your adversary may see that his sophisms are of no avail. Whatever
may be said against our faith we can afford to despise it, since we
know that our Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead: the evidence
of that fact is beyond dispute, and that being proved our faith rests
on a rock. Prove the resurrection (and we say it is proved by the best
witnesses, and plenty of them), then our faith is true, and we will
hold it in the teeth of all opposition. Do not be carried away,
therefore, by the sophistry of cunning men, neither be ye cast down.
When it is rumoured at any time that a learned man has found out some
very wonderful thing which is to put an end to the Bible, do you calmly
reply—let him find out another wonderful thing, if so it pleases him.
If our wise men have discovered a new origin for the human race, or if
they have invented a new way of making a world, we hope their new toy
will please them, but such things are not to our mind, we have other
and weightier concerns besides fiddling or philosophizing. We have no
more reverence for these profane dreamers than they have for the Bible;
they are nothing to us. Christ has risen from the dead; nothing in
physiology or geology can ever contradict that, and if he be risen from
the dead them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him, and in
that faith we abide.

We shall be met in addition to argument by what is far more powerful,
namely, by surrounding example. The world never overcame the church in
argument yet, for it has always refuted itself. When let alone the
unbelieving world has eaten its own words, like Saturn devouring his
own children. Whenever any smith in the world's armoury has forged a
weapon against the truth, there has always been another smith at work
in the same smithy preparing another weapon wherewith to break the
first in pieces: the man has done it not in the interests of the
gospel, but in his own interest, and with desire only for his own
honor, but he has done the work of the Lord, not knowing what he did.
The bad example of the world has often told upon the soldiers of Christ
with far more powerful effect. What the arms of Rome could not do
against Hannibal, his Capuan holidays are said to have accomplished;
his soldiers were conquered by luxury, though invincible by force. When
the church lies down at ease, she is apt to feel the diseases of
abundance. The current of the world runs furiously towards sin, and the
fear is lest the Lord's swimmers should not be able to stem the flood.
It is sad when professors of our holy religion do as others do. It is
folly to be singular, except when to be singular is to be right, but it
often happens that we forget the rightness of the thing in the fear of
being singular. Brethren, care nothing about custom, for custom is no
excuse for sin. Be ye stedfast, and if all men are turned to this or
that, listen not to their "Lo, heres" and "Lo, theres," but stand
inflexible for holiness, and God, and truth. "Be ye stedfast,
unmoveable."

As you are not moved by the world's custom, so take care not to be
moved by its persecutions. To-day the persecutions which we meet with
are very petty; they amount to little more than here and there the loss
of a situation, the denial of trade, the being turned out of a farm, or
more commonly they go no further than a sneer, a bad name, or a
slander. But be ye stedfast, unmoveable whatever may betide. Never let
a man, who is but a worm, frown you away from your God. Bid defiance to
his fierce looks and angry words, and like a man of God continue in the
right way whether you offend or please.

And equally be unmoveable to the world's smiles. It will put on its
sweetest looks and tempt you with its painted cheeks and artful
fascinations. Like Jezebel it will tire its head and look out of the
window, but like Jehu do you say, "Fling her down! "No peace or truce
are you to hold with this crooked and perverse generation. If God
prospers you in business let not your riches make you proud; if you
have to toil, and there should come in your way an easy escape from
hard labor by some crooked path, accept it not, be unmoveable. Let
neither the soft south wind nor the boisterous north wind stir you from
your foothold. God help you to be faithful unto death.

If ever there was a period in the Christian church when professors
needed to be exhorted to be "stedfast, unmoveable," it is just now, for
the foundations are removed and all things are out of course. Men
remove the old landmarks, they break down the pillars of the house. All
things reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and only he who
keepeth the feet of his saints can preserve our uprightness. I see the
tacklings loosed and the mast unstrengthened, and the brave vessel of
the church is in an evil case. Many have left their moorings and are
drifting hither and thither, their helmsmen all amazed. No longer does
the squadron of the Lord sail in order of battle, but the lines are
broken and the vessels yield to the tossings of winds and waves. Alas,
that it should be so. O where is he that trod the sea? The pilot of the
Galilean lake! I see him walking the waters, and he cries to us who
still stand true to the one Lord, the one faith, and the one baptism,
"Be ye stedfast, unmoveable." Whatever other denominations of
Christians do, be ye true to your Lord in all things, for those who
forsake him shall be written in the dust. Beloved, never stir away from
the truth! Some are changeable by constitution like Reuben, "unstable
as water, they shall not excel." A mind on wheels knows no rest, it is
as a rolling thing before the tempest. Struggle against the desire for
novelty, or it will lead you astray as the will-o'-the-wisp deceives
the traveler. If you desire to be useful, if you long to honor God, if
you wish to be happy, be established in the truth, and be not carried
about by every wind of doctrine in these evil days. "Be ye stedfast,
unmoveable."

2. The second characteristic of a Christian, however, we must speak
upon. He is described as "always abounding in the work of the Lord," in
which we will briefly show that there are four things.

First, dear brethren, every Christian ought to be engaged "in the work
of the Lord." We should all have work to do for our divine Master.
True, our everyday labor ought to be so done as to render honor to his
name, but in addition to that, every Christian should be laboring in
the Lord in some sphere of holy service. I shall not enlarge, but I
shall pass the question round to each one." What are you doing for
Jesus Christ?" I pray each one here who makes a profession of faith in
Jesus to answer the question, "What am I doing in the work and service
of the Lord?" If you are doing nothing, I pray you bewail your
slothfulness and escape from it, for talents wrapped in napkins will be
terrible witnesses against you.

Then the apostle says, secondly, we are not only to be "in the work of
the Lord," but we are to abound in it. Do much, very much, all you can
do, and a little more. "How is that?" says one. I do not think a man is
doing all he can do if he is not attempting more than he will complete.
Our vessels are never full till they run over. The little over proves
our zeal, tries our faith, casts us upon God and wins his help. That
which we cannot do of ourselves, leads us to call in divine strength,
and then wonders are wrought. If you are only aiming at what you feel
able to accomplish, your work will be a poor one, lacking in heroism,
deficient in the noble element of confidence in the unseen Lord.
Abound, then, and super-abound in the work of the Lord.

Next note that the apostle says, "always abounding." Some Christians
think it enough to abound on Sundays: Paul says, "always abounding."
That has reference to Mondays: to which day does it not refer? When you
are young and in your vigor, abound in service. I recommend all young
men to work for God with all their might while they can, for all too
soon our energies flag, and the sere and yellow leaf forbids any more
young shoots. I would equally urge every man of middle age to use all
his time, gifts, and energies at once for the Lord—"always abounding."
Nor should the old man retire; he is to bring forth fruit in old age.
The apostle says nothing about retiring from the work of the Lord, but
"always abounding." "Oh, but we must give the young people an
opportunity of doing something for God!" Do you mean that you will give
the young people an opportunity of doing your work, because if you do I
am in arms against so gross an error, for Christian work can never be
done by proxy. Throw such an idea away with abhorrence. This is the age
of proxy. People are not charitable, but they beg a guinea from
somebody else to be charitable with. It is said that charity nowadays
means that A finds B to be in distress, and therefore asks C to help
him. Let us not in this fashion shirk our work. Go and do your own
work, each man bearing his own burden, and not trying to pile a double
load on other men's shoulders. Brethren, from morn till night sow
beside all waters with unstinting hand.

The text calls this service "the work of the Lord," and we must ever
bear this in mind; so that if we are enabled to abound in Christian
service we may never become proud, but may remember that it is God's
work in us rather than our own work, and whatever we accomplish is
accomplished rather by God in us than by us for God. Jesus tells us,
"Without me ye can do nothing." "Always abound," my brethren, not only
in work for the Lord, but in the work of the Lord in yourselves, for
only as he works in you to will and to do will you be able to work in
his name acceptably.

Put these two things together, the man is to be stedfast, and to abound
in work. To come back to my figure of a soldier, these two things are
wanted—we want a soldier who can hold his position under a galling
fire, but we want him also to dash to the front and lead on a forlorn
hope. We need many spiritual Uhlans who can ride ahead and pioneer for
others with dauntless courage, but we cannot dispense with the heavy
armed infantry who hold their own and wait till the battle turns. It is
said that the French had courage enough on the spur of the moment to
have rushed up to the cannon's mouth, but that the German was the
victor because he could quietly abide the heat of the battle and when
affairs looked black, he doggedly kept his post. In the long run stay
is the winning virtue; he that endureth to the end the same shall be
saved. He who can wait with hope is the man to fight with courage. He
crouches down until the fit moment comes, and then he leaps like a lion
from the thicket upon the foe. God grant that we may have in this place
a body of Christian people who shall be stedfast and unmoveable, yet at
an times as diligent as they are firm, as intensely zealous as they are
obstinately conservative of the truth as it is in Jesus. "Stedfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

II. Our last point is THE MOTIVE WHICH URGES US TO THESE TWO DUTIES.
There are a great many other motives, but the one mentioned in the text
is "forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
If we derive our motives for Christian labor or stedfastness from the
things which we see, our spirit will oscillate from ardor into
coldness, it will rise and fall with the circumstances around us. It is
comparatively easy for a successful man to go on preaching or otherwise
laboring for the Lord, but I admire the perseverance of the man who
remains faithful under defeat. To get such a faithfulness we must
disentangle ourselves from the idea of being rewarded here; we must be
stedfast and unmoveable though nobody praises us, and abound in the
work of the Lord though no fruit should come from it, because we have
looked beyond this present realm of death, and have gazed into another
world where the resurrection shall bring with it our reward.

Dear brethren, let us be stedfast, for our principles are true. If
Christ has not risen from the dead, then we are the dupes of an
imposition, and let us give it up. Why should we credulously adhere to
that which is false? But if Christ hath risen from the dead, then our
doctrines are true, and let us hold them firmly and promulgate them
earnestly. Since our cause is a good one, let us seek to advance it.
Only that which is true will live, time devours the false; the
death-warrant of every false doctrine is signed. A fire is already
kindled which will consume the wood and hay and stubble of error, but
our principles are gold and silver and precious stones, and will endure
the flame. "Therefore, let us be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord." Jesus Christ is risen from the dead,
therefore what we do is not done for a dead Christ. We are not fighting
for a dead man's cause; we are not contending for an effete dynasty, or
a name to conjure by, but we have a living captain, a reigning king,
one who is able both to occupy the throne and to lead on our hosts to
battle. Oh, by the Christ in glory, I beseech you, brethren, be ye
stedfast! If it could be proved to-morrow that Napoleon still lived,
there might be some hope for his party, but with the chieftain dead the
cause faints. Now Jesus lives; as surely as he died he rose and lives
again, and his name shall endure for ever, his name shall be continued
as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him, all generations
shall call him blessed. The colors of that grand old red-cross flag, to
defend which your fathers bled, have not in any degree become faded. It
has braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze, but its history
is as yet in its infancy. Our grand cause is imaged this day, not by a
baby in the Virgin's arms, nor by a dead man in the hands of his
enemies, but by a living, reigning, triumphant, glorified Christ, full
of splendor and of majesty. Let us rally to his call; for he must reign
till he hath put all enemies under his feet. Behold, he cometh! Even
now flee angels bring forth the white horse caparisoned for the
conqueror, he who is called the faithful and True One shall ride
thereon at the head of his elect armies. Even at this moment we see the
ensign gleaming above the horizon. The Lord is on his way. Our Captain
putteth on his Gesture dipped in blood, while on his head are many
crowns. He shall smite the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron,
and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Let us continue true to him, for evil would be
our case if we were to desert his cause, and then should see him come
in the glory of his Father, attended by cohorts of angels. It would be
a dreadful thing to have deserted the army just when the shout of
"victory" was about to be raised. Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, for he is
risen, and he ever liveth to secure the victory.

Our work of faith is not in vain, because we shall rise again. If what
we do for God were to have its only reward on earth, it were a poor
prospect. Strike out the hope of the hereafter, and the Christian's
reward would be gone; but, beloved, we shall rise again. Our work is
ended when our eye is closed in death, but our life is not ended with
our work. We shall preach no more, we shall no more teach the little
children, are shall no more talk with the wayfarer about the Savior;
but we shall enjoy better things than these, for we shall sit upon our
Savior's throne even as he sits upon his Father's throne. Our heads
shall have crowns to deck them, our hands shall wave the palm of
victory; we shall put on the white robe—the victors apparel; we shall
stand around the throne in triumph, and shall behold and share the
glories of the Son of God. O brethren, shrink not, for the crown is
just within your reach. Never think of diminishing your service, rather
increase it, for the reward is close at hand. And remember that as you
will rise again, so those whom you come in contact with will also rise
again. When I have preached the gospel on a Sunday I have thought,
"Well, I shall never see many of these people again," and the
reflection has flashed across my mind, "Yes, I shall; and if I have
faithfully, as God's servant, preached the truth, I shall not need to
be afraid to see them either." It they have received benefit and found
Christ through the witness I have borne, they shall be my reward
hereafter in the land of the living, and even if they reject the
testimony, yet shall they bear their witness to my faithfulness in
having preached to them the word of God, for they shall rise again. O
beloved, what is this poor world? There, shut your eyes to it, for it
is not worth your gaze. What is there here below? What see I but
fleeting shadows and dreams, and phantoms? What shall I live for? What
is there worth living for beneath you stars? What, if I hoard up
wealth, I shall have to leave it to ungrateful heirs! What if I get
fame, yet how can the breath of man add to my comfort when I lie
tossing on the verge of eternity? What is there worth living for, I
say, beneath yon stars? But there is a something that makes it worth
while existing and makes life grand and noble. It is this: if I may
crown with praise that head which for my sake was crowned with thorns,
if I may honor him who was dishonored for my sake, if to the
manifestation of the glories of Jehovah I may have contributed a share,
if at the reading of the records of all time it may be found that I put
out my talent as a faithful servant, and gained interest for my Master,
it shall be well. Saved not of debt-far hence the thought!—but of grace
alone, yet shall it be no small thing, out of a sense of indebtedness
to grace, to have lived and loved and died for Jesus.

What more can I say? are there no ambitions among you? I know there
are. Young men, consecrate yourselves to God this day. If you have
rooked to Jesus and trusted him, serve him for ever. Preach him if you
can; go abroad into the foreign field if you may. If you cannot do
that, make money for him that you may give it to his cause. Open your
shop for his sake, let everything be done for Jesus. Take this
henceforth for your motto—All for Jesus, always for Jesus, everywhere
for Jesus. He deserves it. I should not so speak to you if you had to
live in this world only. Alas, for the love of Jesus, if thou wert all
and nought beside, O earth! But there is another life—live for it.
There is another world—live for it. There is a resurrection, there is
eternal blessedness, there is glory, there are crowns of pure
reward—live for them, by God's grace live for them. The Lord bless you,
and save you. Amen.
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Soul-satisfying Bread