The Minister’s Plea

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 2, 1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:19.

THE Apostle was in prison, in great jeopardy of his life. He was much
troubled by many who had begun to preach Jesus Christ but did not
preach Him in a proper spirit. He was often depressed by that which
came daily upon him, the care of all the Churches. Yet, while he looked
in the face the evils which surrounded him, he was able to see beyond
them and to believe that the consequences of all his trials would be a
real and lasting good. He felt sure that it was a good thing for him to
be in prison, that it would be a good thing even if he had to die
there. He felt that it was well that many were preaching Christ–even
though some did it for the wrong reasons–for Christ was still being
preached and the result could not be evil. And he felt that the
troubles and trials of the Churches were good, for somehow or other
they would be overruled for God's Glory.

Let us learn from him to look at the end as well as at the beginning of
things. The bud of our present trouble may have no beauty in it, but
fair will be the flower which will ultimately develop from it. The
clouds hang heavily above our heads, but let us not, like little
children, be alarmed at their blackness, but remember that they are–

"Big with mercy and will break With blessings on our head."

Whatever happens to the true servant of the Lord will turn out for the
furtherance of the Gospel. Therefore will we rejoice in tribulations
and accept God's will, whatever it may be. But observe that the Apostle
did not expect that good would arise out of everything, apart from
prayer. He believed that it would be through the prayer of his beloved
friends at Philippi, and the supply of the Spirit, that everything
which happened to him would work to promote his salvation, his
spiritual advantage and his success as a minister of Christ.

He looked for the transformation of the evil into good by that sacred
alchemy of Heaven which can transmute the basest metal into purest
gold. But he did not expect this to happen apart from the ordained
methods and ordinary institutions of Grace. He counted upon the result
because he saw two great agents at work, namely, prayer and the supply
of the Spirit. Whoever else may be foolish enough to look for effects
apart from causes, the Apostle was not of their mind. This morning my
sermon will be mainly upon my own behalf and on the behalf of my
Brothers in the ministry. We ought, sometimes, to have a sermon for
ourselves, for we preach a great many for others. And we may the more
boldly become pleaders on our own account, inasmuch as what we ask for
is really intended for the profit of our people and for the good of
Christ's cause.

My real subject will be, "Brethren, pray for us." The end to which I
shall drive at will be to excite you to be much in prayer, both for
myself and all ministers of Christ Jesus, so that everything that is
occurring abroad and happening personally to any one of us may be
turned to the best account, "Through your prayer, and the supply of the
Spirit." Let us speak, first of all, upon the prayer of the Church. And
then concerning the supply of the Spirit. The two matters are closely
connected and cannot be separated.

I. THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. The Apostle evidently expected to be
prayed for. He had the fullest confidence that his Brothers and Sisters
at Philippi were praying for him. He does not ask for their prayers so
much as assumes that he is already receiving them. And truly I wish
that all pastors could always, without doubt, assume that they enjoyed
the perpetual prayers of those under their charge. Some of us are very
rich in this respect and this is our joy and comfort, the reward of our
labor and the strength of our hands. We have abundant evidence that we
live in the hearts of our people.

But I am afraid that there are many of my brother ministers who are sad
because they hear not their people's loving intercessions. They are
weak because they are not prayed for and unsuccessful because they have
not so gained their

people's affections that they are borne upon their hearts at the Mercy
Seat. Unhappy is that minister who dares not take it for granted that
his people are praying for him! Paul exceedingly valued the prayers of
the saints. He was an Apostle, but he felt he could not do without the
intercessions of the poor converts at Philippi. He valued Lydia's
prayers and the prayers of her household. He valued the jailer's
prayers and the prayers of his family. He desired the prayers of
Euodias and Syntyche, and Clement and the rest–the most of them,
probably, persons of no great social standing as the world has it–yet
he valued their supplications beyond all price–and he was as grateful
for their prayers as for those temporal gifts whereby the Philippians
had again and again ministered to his necessities.

If the Apostle thus felt indebted to the pleadings of the brethren, how
much more may we, who are so far inferior to him! He expected great
results from the prayers of the Church. That is certain from the text.
He expected evil to be turned to good and himself to be helped onward
in the Divine life. Beloved, my heart has no deeper conviction than
this, that prayer is the most efficient spiritual agency in the
universe next to the Holy Spirit. He is Omnipotent and does as He
wills. But next to the Omnipotence of the in-dwelling Spirit is the
power of prayer. "Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened to you."

This great charter of the Church of Jesus Christ confers upon her
powers which are almost, if not quite, Omnipotent. And if a Church will
but pray, it shall set in motion the second most potent agent under
Heaven. The Apostle knew the power of prayer and we know it, too, and
hope to prove it more and more. Paul expected the people at Philippi to
be praying for him all the more because his troubles were, just then,
more heavy than usual. He was sure that this would excite their
sympathy and so make them plead more eagerly. Truly, if ever there were
times when the people of God should pray for their ministers, these are
the times, for the minister of Christ is beset by legions of evils of
all kinds and has to cut his way through perpetual opposition. The
Church is sailing, now, like a vessel in the Arctic Sea when the frost
is setting in and is turning the sea into plates of iron–and each wave
into an iceberg to block up the vessel's path. These are evil days,
almost beyond any age that has gone before, and therefore we may exhort
the Church to pray more importunately, because her prayers are more
than ever needed.

Plunging into the middle of my subject, I would say, first, that
ministers may justly claim the prayers of their Brethren. Every
Christian should be prayed for. We have each a claim upon the other for
loving intercession. The members of the body of Christ should have a
care for one another, but especially should the minister receive the
prayers of his flock. I have, sometimes, heard his duties called
arduous, but that word is not expressive enough. The works in which he
is occupied lie quite out of the region of human power. The minister is
sent to be God's messenger for the quickening of the dead. What can he
do in it? He can do nothing whatever unless the Spirit of God is with
him through the prayers of his Brothers and Sisters.

He is sent to bring spiritual food to the multitude, that is to say, he
is to take the loaves and fishes and with them, few as they are, he is
to feed the thousands! An impossible commission! He cannot perform it.
Apart from Divine help, the enterprise of a Christian minister is only
worthy of ridicule. Apart from the power of the Eternal Spirit, the
things which the preacher has to do are as much beyond him as though he
had to weld the sun and moon into one, light up new stars, or turn the
Sahara into a garden of flowers. We have a work to do concerning which
we often cry, "Who is sufficient for these things?" and if we are put
to this work but have not your prayers, and in consequence have not the
supply of the Spirit, we are, of all men, the most miserable.

Remember, also, that in addition to extraordinary duties, the minister
is burdened by remarkable responsibilities. All Christians are
responsible for their gifts and opportunities, but peculiar
responsibilities cluster around the preacher of the Word. "If the
watchman warns them not, they shall perish; but their blood will I
require at the watchman's hands." When I look at Paul laboring night
and day, weeping, praying, pleading, pouring out his soul in his
ministry, I feel his example to be such that I cannot attain to it, and
yet I shall never feel satisfied with anything below that standard. The
responsibilities resting upon one minister are the same as those which
press upon another, in proportion to his sphere and capacity of
service. Oh, unhappy men, if we are found unfaithful!–of criminals,
the chief–murderers of immortal souls! If we have not preached the
pure Gospel, we shall be wholesale poisoners of the bread of men, the
bread which their souls require! We, if we are not true to God, are the
choice servants of Satan. Judas, himself, was not more the Son of
Perdition than the man who calls himself an ambassador for Christ and
yet dares to be unfaithful to the souls of men! Brothers and Sisters,
we claim your prayers by the solemnity of the responsibility which
rests upon us!

Remember, too–what I think is not often noticed–that every true
minister of Christ who is sent to men's souls, has an experience
singular and by itself. A physician who has to treat the diseases
incident to our flesh need not have personally suffered from the
sicknesses with which he deals. But a physician of souls never handles
a wound well unless he has felt a like wound himself. The true
shepherds who really feed the sheep, must, themselves, have gone
through the experiences of the flock. Did you ever read the life of
Martin Luther? Then you must have observed the mental storms and
spiritual convulsions which shook the man. He could not have been so
influential with his fellow men if he had not felt within himself a
sort of aggregation of all their sorrows and their struggles.

You can not bring forth God's living Word to others till first you have
eaten the roll and it has been in your own stomach like gall for
bitterness, and yet at times like honey for sweetness. Every successful
farmer in the Lord's vineyard must, first, have been a partaker of the
fruit. Yes, and of each kind of fruit, too. Therefore it often happens,
that to comfort yonder desponding heart, we must have been, ourselves,
despondent. To console yonder downcast, despairing spirit, we must have
been despairing, too. To direct the perplexed we must, ourselves, have
been in dilemma. To ride the whirlwind and come as God's messenger to
the help of those who are in the storm, we must have, ourselves, been
tossed with tempest and not comforted.

David could not have written his Psalms, which, as in a mirror, reflect
all changes of the human mind, if he had not, himself, been the epitome
of the lives of all men. And in proportion as God qualifies His
minister, really and effectually, to feed the souls of His people, that
minister must go through the whole of their experience. And I ask you,
whether in such a case, he does not have a claim, and should not have,
the prayers of the Church of God? Remember, too, that the temptations
of those who serve God in the public ministry are subtle, numerous and
peculiar. Do you suppose that when a man attracts thousands to listen
to him. That when he conducts large agencies successfully. That when he
wins souls to Christ and edifies the household of faith, that the
temptation to pride never crosses his soul? Have you not seen men who
have been set upon a pinnacle of eminence, and their heads have been
turned, fall, to their own disgrace and to the Church's sorrow?

Do you wonder at it? If you do, you know not what is in men. And do you
wonder that ministers are often tempted to grow formal in service?
Here, so many times in the year, must I come and speak to you, whether
I am fit to do so or not. How can I always be zealous when even the
weather has an effect upon nerves and brain? Are you always earnest in
your hearing? Do you wonder, therefore, that sometimes the preacher
does not find it easy to be earnest in his speaking? And yet he would
loathe himself if he dared speak to you what he did not feel and would
think himself accursed if he dared to preach with cold and chilly lips
those matchless Truths of God which have been bedewed by the bleeding
heart of Jesus! We, who would instruct others, must keep up our
spiritual life to a high point! And yet the temptation is, from our
familiarity with holy things, to become mechanical in our service and
to lose the freshness and ardor of our first love.

I might give many instances of temptations which are peculiar to us,
but the recital might be of no benefit to you. Suffice it to say that
there are such. And if by your choice, you place any man, in the name
of God, in a place where he is so peculiarly assailed by the enemy,
surely you will not be so ungenerous as to leave him without the
perpetual support of your extraordinary prayers! Fail not your
standard-bearer, but form around him a bodyguard of valiant
intercessors!

EOD And then, mark you, if any man shall lead the way in the Church of
God, he will be the main object of the assaults of the enemy. The
private Christian will have some persecution, but the minister must
expect far more. His words will be misrepresented and tortured into I
know not what of evil. And his actions will be the theme of slander and
falsehood. If he shall speak straight out and boldly, fearless of man,
and only fearful lest he should grieve his God, he will stir the
kennels of Hell and make all the hounds of Satan howl at his heels! And
he may count himself happy if he shall do so, for who is he that wants
to be on good terms with this evil generation which cares nothing
whatever for God's Truth, but sets up, for its own church, a church
which has made a league with Antichrist and a compromise between the
Gospel and idolatry, so that it may drag down this nation into the
deeps of Romanism?

I say, who cares to have honor from this adulterous generation? And
yet, if a man once dares to provoke its wrath by his faithfulness, he
needs the prayers of those who believe with him, that he may be
sustained. Many are the archers who sorely shoot at us and grieve us.
Pray, therefore, that our bow may abide in strength and that the arms
of our hands may be made strong by the Mighty God of Jacob! One plea
more and I will not further add to the points of my argument. Among the
worst trials of the ministry are the discouragements of it. I do not,
just now, refer to discouragements from

the outside world. We expect opposition from that quarter and are not
discouraged by it. If the world hates us, we remember that it hated the
Lord before it hated us.

But our saddest discouragements arise from within the Church and
congregation. There are those whom we hoped to see converted who go
back to their old sins and disappoint us. And others who are a little
impressed, relapse into their natural indifference. There are those who
are, we hope, right at heart, who nevertheless live inconsistently–for
many walk so far from Jesus that they pierce us with sorrow. And then
there are others who were great things and united themselves with the
Church of God, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ! They shame
us! They make the world ask, "Is this your religion?" They open the
mouths of atheists and infidels and ungodly men of all sorts against
the precious Christ, Himself, so that He is wounded in the house of His
friends and put to an open shame by those who ought rather to have laid
down their lives to promote His cause and Kingdom.

Oh, if you are called of the Lord to shepherd His flock. And if you
bear in your bosom the Church of God and the cause of Christ, and live
for it with all your heart and soul, you shall not live many days
without many heartbreaking trials! And you will greatly need the supply
of the Spirit in answer to the prayers of the people of God! Now,
having stated the case and pleaded not for myself, only, but for all my
Brothers, let me say, next, that the prayers which are needed are the
prayers of the entire Church. From some other labor some of you might
be exempted, but from this service not a single one can be excused.
"Your prayer," says the Apostle, and he means the prayer of all the
faithful. My Brothers and Sisters, my fellow worker, you of the Sunday
school, you of the Evangelistic Society, you who visit from house to
house–I need your prayers, my Brethren!

You can sympathize with us. You know something of this way. You can,
therefore, bear us up with hands that have been exercised in the same
warfare. We need your prayers, also, who are not workers in any public
capacity–you who feel you have not the ability or the opportunity. If
there are such among us, you ought to pray doubly for those who are
working, and so, in some measure, make amends for your own lack of
energy. If you feel laid aside from actual service yourselves, so that
you have to abide by the staff, let your prayers go up doubly for those
who go down to the battle. Hold up their hands, I pray you, if you can
do nothing else! We ask the prayers of all who profit by our ministry.
If you feed upon the Word, pray to God that we may feed others, also.
If your hearts are ever made glad within you by the Word of God we
speak, do plead for us that we may have the power of God resting upon
us yet further.

If you do not profit we have an equal claim upon you. We beseech you
pray that you may profit. If we are not suited to teach you, pray the
Lord to make us suitable. If you discover some lack or deficiency which
mars our ministry, do not unkindly go and speak of it everywhere, but
tell the Lord about it. You will be doing more good and acting more
after the mind of Christ. And–who knows?–the very ministry which is
flat and unprofitable to you, now, may yet become a great blessing to
you when you have prayed concerning it.

Some of you are our spiritual children, begotten unto God by us. Surely
we don't need to take you by the hand and say, "Brothers and Sisters,
children, pray for us"? There is between us and you a tie which neither
life nor death can break. We shall recognize it in eternity. When
fathers, mothers, husbands and wives will find all human relationship
forgotten, the relationship which exists between the spiritual father
and his children shall last on! Therefore, as you feel the tie, yield
to its gentle persuasions and let your pastor have a very warm place in
your prayers. You aged men and matronly women, you of experience, you
of power with God, you who are mighty in your private wrestling–we
need your prayers! And you young Christians with your new-born zeal–in
the freshness and vigor of your spiritual life–we need your
entreaties, too.

My little children, you who have been added to the Church while yet you
are boys and girls, there are no intercessions more precious than
yours! Do not forget your minister when you say, "Our Father which are
in Heaven." God will hear the petitions of little children who love
Him. As for those who are not, and could not be here this morning, my
voice will reach them through the press, and therefore let me say to
them–You cannot come up to the House of God, but are appointed to lie
tossing upon the bed of pain. And yet, from you, also, we ask
intercessory prayer. You are, especially, set to do this service for
the Church. If you cannot appear in the public assembly, you may in
secret wrestling bring down power upon that assembly. You keep the
watches of the weary night when pain forbids your eyelids to find
rest–let each weary hour be cheered for yourselves and enriched for
us–by prayers for the Church of God and prayers for us.

Perhaps to this end some among the Saints are always sick, that
pleaders for the hours of night may not be lacking. The sleepless
sufferers change guard before the Mercy Seat, lest, perhaps, there
should be an hour in the night

unhallowed by a prayer in which the world should pass away beneath the
unrestrained wrath of God. Prayer must be kept up like the quenchless
fire on Israel's altar. We must belt and girdle the world with
prayer–and the sick ones are they to whom much of the sacred work is
allotted. I believe in the efficacy of united prayer, but each one must
pray.

There would be no clouds unless the drop of dew from each blade of
grass were exhaled by the sun. Each drop ascending in vapor falls,
again, in the blessed shower which removes the drought. So the Grace
that trembles upon each one of you, my Brothers and Sisters, must
exhale in prayer, and a blessing will come down upon the Church of God.
Let me suggest for a moment, in passing on, that the prayers of God's
people ought to go up for the minister in many forms. I think it should
be daily work. I was pleased to hear one of our Brethren say, the other
day, what I am sure was true, and true of a great many beside himself,
that he never did pray for himself without praying for me. That he
never bowed his knee, morning or night, without remembering the work
carried on in this place. It ought to be so with us all.

Besides that, if we expect a blessing on our families through the
ministry, we should, as a family, ask God to bless that ministry. When
we come around the family altar, among the petitions never to be
forgotten should be this–that he who is set to feed our souls may,
himself, receive the bread of Heaven. Then there are our Prayer
Meetings, our public gatherings for intercession. Ah, Beloved! I may
well glory in our Prayer Meetings, for I know not where the like have
been found continuously, year after year!

Still, though I may glory, I am not sure that all of you could. For as
I look around upon you today I cannot help remarking that I see some
faces on the Sunday which I have never had the pleasure of seeing on
the Monday evening. Or, if ever I did, I remember it very well, because
it has not been so common an occurrence that it is likely to slip out
of my mind. I know there are some who could not come and would be
neglecting family duties if they did. Their duty and their calling keep
them from it. At the same time, there are others to whom a gentle hint
may be serviceable. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together
for earnest prayer, as the manner of some is. Beside the Prayer
Meetings, there ought to be meetings very frequently of Christian
friends who gather by appointment for this very purpose.

When they come together, professors often waste time in idle talk which
would be used to great profit if they spent it in prayer. When two
Christians meet together for united prayer, among their other
supplications should be one that the Lord would bless throughout all
England the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus. Oh, dear Friends, we
need, more than anything else, to have the Gospel preached with power!
God forbid we should criticize severely those who may be doing their
best, but how much preaching is utterly powerless? We need a telling
ministry. We need a ministry which cuts like a two-edged sword and goes
through into the very heart! O God, send us thousands of men armed with
Your Spirit's own sword, endowed with the muscle of Divine Grace and
gifted with manliness to use the celestial weapon! Pray for such,
often, not at set times only, but at all convenient seasons.

And here, let me remark, should there not be special prayer by each
Christian for his own minister before every service, before going up to
the House of the Lord, and when he arrives there? Many people have a
habit of looking into their hats to see the name of the maker whenever
they get inside a place of worship. They are, themselves, the best
judges whether it is not a piece of Pharisaic formalism or fashionable
hypocrisy. There is a formalism about it and we are the very last to
care about outward forms. Still, what can be a better beginning for a
service than secret prayer? Then, during the service, how much of
prayer there should be for the preacher–"Lord, help him to speak Your
Truth outright. Put Your power into it to send it home to the hearts
and consciences of the hearers." It is well to pick out someone in the
congregation, and pray, "Lord, bless the Word to him."

You would often find God hearing you in that respect. Then, after the
whole service is done, what can be better than to rake in with earnest
prayer the good seed which has already been sown? I must not keep you
longer on this point. Suffice it to add that the prayers of the Church
of God must always be true prayers to be good for anything, and if they
are true prayers they will be attended with consistent lives. The man
who says, "I pray for the Church and pray for the minister," and then
is a thief in his business, or is guilty of some secret vice–why, he
is pulling down, not building up! Can unclean hands ever be acceptable
in prayer? Consistent living there must be, or prayer will be a vanity
of vanities!

And there must be consistent effort, too. If I want God to bless the
Church, I must try to bless it myself, by the gift of my substance, by
the consecration of my talents, by the laying out of my time for the
glory of God. To pray one way and to act another is to be a hypocrite!
When the wheel sticks in the mire–to pray to God to help the cart out
of it–and never to put my shoulder to the wheel is to mock the Most
High. We must act as well as pray. And we must believe as well

as act. We must have faith in the Gospel and faith in prayer! And if,
beloved Friends, such prayer as this shall go up from this Church, we
shall continue to enjoy the prosperity we have had for many years! And
we may hopefully look for an increase of it, though sometimes, I must
confess, I can hardly look for an increase, for God has blessed us so
much that we have rejoiced and wondered as we have seen that His hand
is still stretched out!

II. The Apostle has put in connection with your prayer THE SUPPLY OF
THE SPIRIT. "The Spirit of Jesus Christ," does he not say? Yes, because
the Spirit we need is the Spirit that rested upon Jesus Christ, the
Spirit which gave power to His ministry, for He said, "The Spirit of
the Lord is upon Me." That same Spirit we need, even the Spirit who
represents Christ on earth, for Jesus is gone, but the Comforter abides
with us as His vicegerent. He moves at Jesus Christ's will and operates
upon human thought and heart and will, subduing all to God.

Now the Holy Spirit is essential to every true minister. We must have
Him. A preacher may save souls without being learned–it is a pity but
what he should possess a good education–but he can be useful without
it. The preacher can save souls without eloquence–it is well if he is
fluent–but even stammering lips may convey the message of life from
God. But the man of God is nothing without the Spirit of God. It is the
sine qua non of a ministry from God that it should be in the power of
the Spirit. The preacher must be, himself, first taught of the Spirit,
else how shall he speak? And being taught, he must be led as to which
shall be the proper theme for each occasion, for much of the power of
true ministry lies in the fitness of the Word to the case of the
hearer, so that the hearer perceives that his experience is known and
is met at the time by the ministry.

The Spirit of God must teach us the Truth and then guide us as to which
Truth of God is to be spoken. Then the Holy Spirit must inflame the
minister. The man who never takes fire–how is he sent of God? He who
never glows and burns–what knows he of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit,
which is also the Baptism of fire? Pray, therefore, for the supply of
the Spirit! Without the Spirit every ministry lacks that subtle–I was
about to say indescribable–something which is known by the name of
unction. Nobody here can tell what unction is. He knows that the Spirit
of God gives it and he knows when it is in a discourse and when it is
absent. Unction is, in fact, the power of God.

There is an old Romish story, that a certain famous preacher was to
preach on a certain occasion, but he missed his way and was too late.
And the devil, knowing of it, put on the appearance of the minister,
took his place and preached a sermon to the people, who supposed they
were listening to the famous Divine whom they had expected. The devil
preached upon Hell and was very much at home, so that he delivered a
marvelous sermon in which he exhorted persons to escape from the wrath
to come. As he was finishing his sermon, in came the preacher, himself,
and the devil was obliged to resume his own form. The holy man then
questioned him, "How dare you preach as you have done, learning to
escape from Hell." "Oh," said the Devil, "it will do no hurt to my
kingdom, for I have no unction."

The story is grotesque, but the truth is in it. The same sermon may be
preached and the same words uttered, but without unction there is
nothing in it. The unction of the Holy One is true pourer. Therefore,
Brothers and Sisters, we need your prayers that we may obtain the
supply of the Spirit upon our ministry–otherwise it will lack
unction–which will amount to lacking heart and soul! It will be a dead
ministry and how can a dead ministry be of any service to the people of
God? The supply of the Spirit is essential to the edification of the
Church of God!

What if the ministry should be the best that ever was produced, its
outward form and fashion orthodox and ardent? What if it should be
continued with persevering consistency? Yet the Church will never be
built up without the Holy Spirit. To build up a Church, life is
needed–we are living stones of a living temple. Where is the life to
come from but from the Breath of God? To build up a Church, there is
needed light, but where is the light to come from but from Him who
said, "Let there be light"? To build up a Church, there is needed love,
for this is the cement which binds the living stones together. But from
where comes true genuine love, but from the Spirit who sheds abroad in
the heart the love of Jesus?

To build up a Church, we must have holiness, for an unholy Church would
be a den for the devil, and not a temple for God! But from where comes
holiness but from the Holy Spirit? There must be zeal, too, for God
will not dwell in a cold house. The Church of God must be warm with
love, but from where comes the fire except it is the fire from Heaven?
We must have the Holy Spirit, for to build up a Church there must be
joy–a joyous temple God's temple must always be! But only the Spirit
of God produces the fruit of heavenly joy. There must be spirituality
in the members, but we

cannot have a spiritual people if the Spirit of God, Himself, is not
there. For the edification of the saints, then, we must have, beyond
everything else, the supply of the Spirit.

And, O Brothers and Sisters, we must have it for the salvation of
sinners! Here comes the tug of war, indeed! Who can enlighten the blind
eye? Who can bring spiritual hearing into the deaf ear? Yes, who can
quicken the dead soul but the eternal, enlightening, quickening Spirit?
There it lies before us, a vast valley full of bones. Our mission is to
raise them from the dead. Can we do it? No, by no means, of ourselves.
Yet we are to say to those dry bones, "Live." Brothers and Sisters, our
mission is absurd–it is worthy of laughter unless we have your prayers
and the supply of the Spirit with us–and if we have those, the bones
shall come to their bones, the skeleton shall be fashioned, the flesh
shall clothe the bony fabric, the Holy Spirit shall blow upon the
inanimate body and life shall be there and an army shall throng the
charnel house!

Let us but invoke the Spirit and go forth to minister in His might and
we shall do marvels! And the nation and the world, itself, shall feel
the power of the Gospel of Jesus! But we must have the Spirit. And, oh,
we must have the Spirit of God just now, I am sure! It is essential to
the progress of the Gospel and to the victory of the Truth of God. At
this moment the Gospel is on trial. It has had its trials before and
has come out of them like gold from the furnace, purified by the heat.
But just now they are telling us on all hands that the old-fashioned
Gospel is effete. I have found myself dubbed in the public prints by
the honorable title of Ultimus Puritanorum–"the Last of the
Puritans"–the last preacher of a race that is nearly extinct, the mere
echo of a departed creed, the last survivor of a race of antiquated
preachers!

Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, it is not so! They come, they come, a
mighty band, to bear on the Truth of God to future ages and even yet
there are among us men who hold the Truth of God and preach it! Yet
everywhere we encounter the sneer of the servants of error. They dress
themselves out in many colors–in blue and scarlet, and fine linen, and
I know not what– and they tell us that the day of our stern, gaunt
religion has passed. Then your wise men, the philosophers, the men of
thought, the men of culture–they sneer at us. Such preaching of the
Gospel as ours might have been fine 200 years ago– might even,
perhaps, have sufficed for Whitefield and Wesley and the Methodists who
followed at their heels. But now? In this enlightened 19th century? We
do not need any more of it!

From this insult we make our appeal to the God of Heaven. O God, the
God of Israel, avenge Your own Truth! O You whose mighty hammer can yet
break rocks in pieces, You have not changed your hammer. Strike and
make the mountains fall before You. O You whose sacred fire burns in
Your Word, forever the same flame, You have forbidden us to offer
strange fire upon Your altar. And we have not done so, but kept, by
Your Grace, the faith and held to Your Truth. Acknowledge it, we
beseech You, and prove that it is the Gospel of the blessed God! Let
the sacrifice that is now before You in the midst of this great nation
be consumed with the flame from Heaven and let the God that answers by
fire be God!

The fact is, the Church only lives in the esteem of men by what she
does. If she does not convert sinners she has not a reason for
existing. The proof of the Gospel is not to be found in theories and
problems, or propositions in catechisms or creeds, or even in
Scriptural texts alone! The proof of the Gospel lies in what it
does–and if it does not raise the depressed, if it does not save the
sinful, if it does not send light into the dark places of the earth–in
fact, if it does not make sinners into saints and transform the nature
of men–then let it be thrown on a dunghill, or cast away, for if the
salt has lost its savor it is therefore good for nothing! But we cry to
God that the savor of our salt may continue in all its pungency,
penetrating and preserving power. I ask you to pray that it may be
so–that God will bring to the front the old Gospel, the doctrines of
Whitefield and Calvin and Paul, the old Gospel of Christ, and once and
for all by a supernatural working of the Holy Spirit give an answer to
those who, in this age of blasphemy and of rebuke, are reviling the
Gospel of the living God, and would have us cast it behind our backs!

By the name of Him who never changes, our Gospel shall never change! By
the name of Christ who is gone to Heaven we have nothing to preach but
Christ and Him Crucified! By the name of the Eternal Spirit who dwells
in us, we know nothing but what the Holy Spirit has revealed. To your
knees, my Brothers and Sisters! To your knees and win for us the
victory! Feeble as we are and unable as we are to cope with our
antagonists in any other field but this, we will vanquish them by the
power of prayer through the supply of the Spirit of God! With you I
leave it, my own beloved Friends. Through your prayers and the supply
of the Spirit all will be well. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Philippians 2.
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Let Him Alone