The Choice Of A Leader

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 1, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And he spoke a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall
they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his
master: but everyone that is perfect shall be as his master." Luke
6:39, 40.

MAN can hardly be retained in the place of wisdom, even if brought
there. Truth lies between two extremes and man, like a pendulum, swings
either too much this way or that. He abides not long in one place, but
tosses from side to side, never, except by Divine Grace, finding rest
in the middle point of wisdom. Two extremes exist in reference to the
pilgrimage and scholarship of life. Some assert that man needs no guide
whatever. Is he not a noble creature, gifted with high intelligence?
Can he not reason and judge, and understand and discern? He can surely
find his own way without direction from without. As a learner, why does
he need a teacher? He can instruct himself! Is he not possessed of
science? Has he not already found out many inventions?

Such self-sufficient boasters will not, therefore, condescend to sit at
the feet of a master, or follow the track of a guide–and,
consequently, they frequently become erratic, singular, lawless and
unreasonable in their modes of thought and action. Into the mazes of
infidelity and atheism such pilgrims wander! Into foolishness and
strong delusion such teachers of themselves conduct their own minds.
This scheme is dangerous, but its opposite pole is not less so. Deliver
a man from rationalism and he often swings into superstition, and says,
"I see that I need a guide, I will take the one nearest to me."

Finding a guide constituted by this authority or that, the man who has
ceased to use his judgement surrenders himself, at once, to his
leadership and reckons that to question is to be guilty of wicked
unbelief. Without considering whether the guide is a seeing man or
blind, or the teacher an instructed and qualified instructor, the
credulous yield themselves up to priests or leaders and are sorely
misled. Weary of thinking, they beg others to think for them and there
they leave the matter. This is the religion of a great many and they
find much in it–the peace of slumbering stupidity! They meet with a
church which claims to be venerable for antiquity and then they believe
whatever that church chooses to teach!

They consider that they have no right any longer to judge or to use
their understanding. They hang conscience and reason in a sling, as if
they were broken arms, no longer usable, and give themselves up to be
wheeled about like invalids in the chairs of tradition and dogmatism.
They do not dare to question–that would spoil the whole thing–they
shut their eyes and let other people see for them. No, they shut their
eyes to be guided by blind men! They give up thinking, to be directed
by those who have also given up thinking, who have long ago shut their
eyes and opened their mouths to take in whatever a supreme council or a
pope may please to put into them.

Between these two extremes there is a narrow path of right, and happy
is he who finds it–namely, the honestly and sincerely judging of whom
the leader and teacher should be. This leads to the discovery that a
Leader has been appointed in the Person of the Lord Jesus and a teacher
in the Divine Spirit–and then a complete, willing and believing
submission of the whole man to this Infallible guidance! Happy is that
man who, in the pride of intellect, determines not to be a guide to
himself–and so to be guide to a fool! Happy is that man who, in the
indolence of superstition, refuses to surrender himself up to be guided
by his fellow man, call him priest, or pope, or minister, or what you
will–but who, having found that God has sent His Son into this world
of ours to be the Captain of salvation, who shall bring many sons into
Glory, follows where his Commander leads the way!

Happy is the man, having seen this same Jesus appointed to be the
Prophet of His people, delights to sit at His feet and receive of His
words, reason, affection, contemplation and will–finding perfect rest
in Him. He, with his eyes open,

follows the All-Seeing One and, with his mind illuminated, becomes a
disciple of the Eternal Light! It is clear that the most important
thing, if we are agreed that we need a guide, is to examine the claims
of those who aspire to the office. Some take a guide because, as I have
said before, he is appointed by authority–he happens to be the parson
of the parish, or the family minister–and he is at once accepted
without consideration.

He would be a very foolish person who would, in climbing the mountains
of Switzerland, take a guide merely because he professed to be one and
carried the usual certificates, if upon looking at him it was clear
that the man was stone blind! Would you say that does not matter, he
says he is appointed by authority? Would you go to the top of Mont
Blanc with him? If so, he would soon conduct you into a crevasse and
there would be an end to your folly! Yet multitudes resolve upon taking
their religion by prescription, feeling confident that what is
patronized by the great, and established and endowed by the nation,
must, of course, be right!

Whether the guide can see or not seems to be a trifle. What matters is
that he is properly ordained and duly inducted. If that is settled, the
unthinking many ask no more. For my part, I like to look at my guide's
eyes. I like to know whether he has ever traversed the country and
whether he has had experience of the way. If he cannot satisfy me on
those points I look elsewhere, to one who has all sight and has had all
experience, even the Lord Jesus! His authority I cannot question. I
take for granted all that He teaches me. I am glad to be a seeing man
following a seeing Leader, and I endeavor to be an intelligent scholar
learning of a wise and sympathetic Teacher.

Our text has much wisdom about it as to this matter, for, first, it
announces to us a great general principle, as a warning, namely, that a
disciple does not get above his Master, but becomes like he is.
Secondly, it gives a special application of the great general principle
to Christ, that as we are perfected we shall become like He is, even as
in the case of all other disciples who grow like their masters. After
these points, I shall try to use the text for the encouragement of
those who desire Christ as their Master, by saying that we may put the
facts mentioned in the text to a practical test.

I. Let us take THE GREAT GENERAL PRINCIPLE as a warning. Several Truths
of God are involved in the text, and these all illustrate the main
point. It is evident that the disciple is generally drawn to the master
who is most like himself–the blind man is led by the blind. It is not
merely that birds of a feather flock together and, therefore, men of
kindred minds form association with each other, but there is about us
all a natural tendency to admire our own image and to be willing to
submit to any who are superior to us, and yet are of our type.

A teacher who does not shock our prejudices, but shows a sympathy with
our tastes, we are at home with at once. The priest is like the people
because the people are pleased to have him so. It is true of teachers
as of idols, "they that make them are like unto them." If the blind man
could only see, he would not choose a blind man to be his guide. But as
he cannot see, he meets with one who talks as blind men talk, who
judges things as they are in the dark, and who does not know what
sighted men know and, therefore, never reminds the blind man of his
infirmity. And at once he says, "This is my ideal of a man, he is
exactly the leader I require! I will commit myself to him." So the
blind man takes the blind man to be his guide–and this is the reason
why error has been so popular.

No error would live if it did not chime in with some evil propensity of
human nature, if it did not gratify some error in man to which it is
congruous. Idolatry is a prevailing sin because man is alienated from
God who is a Spirit, and in his carnal folly demands a god whom his
senses can apprehend. When you hear of crowds going over to Popery, do
not wonder at it! Popery is the religion of depraved human nature put
into shape by Satan and, therefore, it is no marvel that the nations
are fascinated by it! What they love and what the god of this world
sweetens to their tooth must go down with them. Popery and other forms
of Sacramentarianism are a soft bed for idle limbs and as surely as a
lazy man lies down, so surely does a superstitious man take to these
systems.

Give a superstitious man the information contained in the Bible and a
pair of scissors to cut his coat according to his shape, and Popery, in
some shape or other, will be the religion which he will cut out for
himself. Consequently it is popular. You cannot, at first, understand
how the blind man who sets up for a guide could expect to find clients.
Neither would he, only there are so many other blind people about who
know nothing about his blindness and are sure to come to him! Mind you
that you are not so blind, yourself, as to follow their example. Young
man, mind who it is you choose for a guide. Your tendencies will be to
select a wrong one, because your tendencies, themselves, are wrong.
Pray that you may begin aright the journey of life, having Divine Grace
infixed into your hearts, that you may choose the Christ of God who is
"the way, the truth, and the life."

O Lord, let no soul here be so blind as to choose blind atheism, blind
skepticism, or blind superstition to be his leader! You take the blind
in the hand and lead them by a way that they know not and by paths
which they have not seen. Do these things unto them, and do not forsake
them! Having chosen his tutor, the student gradually becomes more and
more like his master, or, having taken his guide, the tendency is to
tread more closely in his footsteps and obey his rules more fully every
day. We must be all conscious that we imitate those whom we admire.
Love has a strange influence over our nature, to mold it into the form
of our beloved.

A true disciple is like clay on the wheel and his master fashions him
after his own image. We may be scarcely conscious of it, but we are
most surely being conformed to the likeness of those to whose influence
we submit ourselves. Whoever, then, your master may be, dear Friend,
you are changing into his image. If you choose to be led by the votary
of pleasure, you will become more and more frivolous. If you admire the
slave of avarice, you will become avaricious. If you feel the sway of
the minion of vice, you will, yourself, grow vicious. If a man who
despises the Word of God becomes your hero, you will, before long,
despise it, too. While you are gazing upon him with admiration, a kind
of photography is going on, and you, like a sensitive plate, receive
his image. I charge you, therefore, to be careful who becomes your
guide.

And mark, the pupil does not go beyond the tutor, nor does the man who
submits to be led go beyond his guide. Such a case is very rarely
found. Indeed, I may say, never, for when the one who is led goes
beyond his leader, he is not, in truth, led any longer–rarely enough
does it ever come to that. Men, if they outstrip their leaders,
generally do so in the wrong direction. They seldom exaggerate their
virtues–those they frequently omit–they usually exaggerate
peculiarities, follies, failings and faults. It is said that in the
court of Richard III, because the king was round-shouldered, the
courtiers gradually became humpbacked. And we have seen a whole country
idiotic enough, not in the last century, but in this century, to have
almost all its women limping because a popular princess was afflicted
with a temporary lameness.

It is the way of mankind! They imitate each other as if by instinct.
This is the only excuse I know of for Darwin's theory of our having
descended from the ape. Imitativeness is well developed in us, but if
left to itself it works with a bias the wrong way, and the imitation is
most forcible in the direction of deformity and defect. In music,
painting, poetry and literature, men of a school seldom excel their
master, or, if they do, they leave him. But the habit is to perpetrate
the master's mannerisms and weaknesses. It is even more so in the art
of living. Young men, in the task of choosing a master for your faith,
I beseech you be careful to have none but the best, for you will not
excel, but rather fall behind the master you follow. You are choosing a
leader–choose one who knows the road–for if he has made some blunders
you will make 10 times as many, and in all probability you will
exaggerate each one of his mistakes.

The most solemn truth remains to be noted. When a man chooses a bad
leader for his soul, at the end of all bad leadership there is a ditch.
A man teaches error which he declares he has drawn from Scripture, and
he backs it up with texts perverted and abused. If you follow that
error and take its teacher for a leader, you may, for a time, be very
pleased with yourself for knowing more than the poor plain people who
keep to the good old way, but, mark my word, there is a ditch at the
end of the error! You do not see it, yet, but there it is, and into it
you will fall if you continue to follow your leader. At the end of
error there is often a moral ditch and men go down, down, down–they
scarcely know why–till presently, having imbibed doctrinal error,
their moral principles are poisoned and like drunken men they find
themselves rolling in the mire of sin.

At other times the ditch beyond a lesser error may be an altogether
damnable doctrine. The first mistake was comparatively trifling, but,
as it placed the mind on an inclined plane, the man descended almost as
a matter of course, and almost before he knew it, found himself given
over to a strong delusion to believe a lie. The blind man and his
guide, whatever else they miss, will be sure to find the ditch–they
need no sight to obtain an entrance into that! Alas, to fall into the
ditch is easy, but how shall they be recovered? I would earnestly
entreat, especially professing Christians, when novelties of doctrine
come up, to be very cautious how they give heed to them. I bid you
remember the ditch!

A small turn of the switch on the railway is the means of taking the
train to the far east or to the far west. The first turn is very
little, indeed, but the points arrived at are remote. There are new
errors which have lately come up which your fathers knew not, with
which some are mightily busy! And I have noticed when men have fallen
into them, their usefulness ceased. I have seen ministers go only a
little way in speculative theories and gradually glide from
latitudinarian-ism into Socinianism or Atheism. Into these ditches
thousands fall.

Others are precipitated into an equally horrible pit, namely, the
holding nominally of all the doctrines in theory and none of them in
fact. Men hold truths nowadays with the heart taken out of then, and
the very life and meaning torn away. There are members and ministers of
evangelical denominations who do not believe evangelical doctrine, or
if they do believe it, they attach but little importance to it! Their
sermons are essays on philosophy tinged with the Gospel. They put a
quarter of a grain of Gospel into an Atlantic of talk–and poor souls
are drenched with words to no profit. God save us from ever leaving the
old Gospel, or losing its spirit and the solid comfort which it brings!

Yet into the ditch of lifeless profession and philosophic dreaming we
may soon fall if we commit ourselves to wrong readerships. All this
should prevent us, as I think, from taking any man whatever as our
leader, for if we trust to any mere man, though he may be right in 99
of the hundred, he is wrong, somewhere, and our tendency will be to be
more influenced by his one wrong point than by any of his right ones.
Depend upon it, in matters of religion, that ancient malediction is
abundantly verified, "Cursed is he that trusts in man and makes flesh
his arm."

There is one whom you may follow implicitly, and one only! There is one
whom you may trust without reserve and only one–the Man, Christ Jesus,
the Son of God! But if you do not wish to be led into errors of heart
and practice, beware of men, and follow none but Jesus! Follow no
footprints but the footprints of that flock which follows at His heel.
You will do best not even to follow the sheep, but to follow the
Shepherd, only, and to do that even if you walk alone! May the Holy
Spirit be given you to lead you into all truth. Thus much upon the
great principle–let it act as a warning.

II. ITS SPECIAL APPLICATION TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST is our
encouragement! If we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Leader we
certainly cannot go beyond our Leader, but we shall be privileged to
grow more and more like He and we shall be perfected, according to our
text, as our Leader is. First, this is what we might have expected. We
see ordinarily, as we have said, that the disciple grows like his
Master, but with such a Master the process becomes more sure!

With such a Master, of whom these lips cannot speak well enough, a
Master the laces of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, it may well
come to pass that we are melted down with love and poured out into the
mold of obedience. He is the Creator, can He not create in us His
image? From such an One as He is, we confidently expect it. For,
observe, the teaching, itself, is such that it must have power over
hearts that yield to it. His doctrine is almighty Love–all His
teaching is Divine and yet so broken down to human capacity that it
exactly suits the man who has taken the yoke of Christ upon him and
determined to learn of Him!

Other masters teach us crooked and doubtful lessons. And when learned,
too often the best wisdom is to unlearn them. But with our Lord, the
teaching is most sure, most heavenly, most potent–and we feel within
ourselves that it is so true, so noble, so grand–that it comes to us
with authority and not as the word of man. If I knew only what Jesus
teaches, I would conclude that a teacher who gives forth such doctrines
and such precepts must influence His disciples. But it is not in His
teaching, alone, that His influence lies. The most potent charm is
Himself. When He spoke here below they said, "Never man spoke like this
Man," and the reason was because, "never man lived like this Man."

His Word was with power, but then He, Himself was THE WORD. If you view
the precepts of Christ as embodied in His life, they glow with beauty
and flash with power. You can bear from such a Teacher what you could
not have endured from anybody else, for His Character gives Him a right
to speak. Many of His precepts would have seemed perfectly preposterous
had they first fallen from the lips of fallible men, for their hearers
would have cried out, "Physician, heal yourself." Coming from Him, they
come naturally as good fruit from a good tree–they are the necessary
fruit of such a Nature and such a life. Who can help being persuaded
when the arguments live before our eyes? We are overpowered by the
grandeur of the Redeemer's goodness, by the splendor of His love, the
infinity of His self-sacrifice!

Jesus commands our faith by the revelation of Himself and by that same
revelation He conforms us to Himself. Was ever such a life as His? Was
ever such a death? Was ever such an altogether lovely Person as His?
Was ever such perfection as His? In life He was so outspoken and yet so
gentle, so courageous and yet so kind, so unflinching and yet so
tender, wearing His heart upon His sleeve in the transparency of truth,
but prudent and guarding Himself with Infallible Wisdom! He was a match
for all, however they might assail Him, and yet apparently never on His
guard at all, but as a child among them, the Holy Child Jesus. Oh, if
you sit at Jesus' feet you will not only learn of Him and His teaching
will have power over you, but you will learn Him, for He, Himself, is
His own best lesson!

Never did eyes look up into those dear eyes of Jesus, which are "as the
eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly set,"
but they were, themselves, cleansed and purified till they became "like
the fish pools in Heshbon,

by the gate of Beth-rabbim." Who could bear the Lord Jesus on his
heart, like a cluster of myrrh, and not be perfumed by His Presence?
Who could be with Him and not be like He is? We feel quite sure that
the disciples will grow like their Master in the case of Jesus because
He inspires them with an intense love to Himself which flames forth in
enthusiasm for Him! Get a teacher whom all the scholars love and
admire, and they will soon learn. Make them enthusiastic for him, and
no lesson will be too hard. This, our dear and blessed Lord, of whom
these lips cannot speak as they should, has done.

We admire, we love, no, we adore Him! He is our God, our All in All,
and therefore we desire to be molded at His will. Live for Him? Yes, we
find it to be our joy, for the love of Christ empowers us! Die for Him?
Yes, His saints in all ages have rejoiced to lay down their lives for
Him. Full of fervor and fired with enthusiasm, they have suffered
losses and reproaches for His name's sake. If the Teacher inspires such
enthusiasm, doubtless He will fashion the disciples in His likeness.
Best of all, our Great Teacher has a Spirit with Him, a mighty Spirit,
God, Himself, the Holy Spirit! And when He teaches, He teaches not with
words alone, but with a power which goes beyond the ear into the heart
itself!

Other teachers, except as they follow Christ, must depend upon the
charms of eloquence, or the force of argument. But our Lord, though
most eloquent of all, for His lips are like lilies dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh–though full of arguments, for His is the Wisdom
of God–relies upon the energy which He felt when He said, "the Spirit
of the Lord is upon Me, for the Lord has anointed Me." The Divine
Spirit casts a light into the soul of such a brilliance that things not
seen stand out in clearest evidence! And things hoped for are grasped
in their very substance! With that Light there comes, also, Life to
feel, power to realize and discernment to judge. And so the soul is led
into all Truth and the scholar receives the lessons of his lord in
their life and energy.

Who else can give this Spirit? By what other teacher can the Holy
Spirit be breathed into us? Who would not sit at the feet of a Master
so transcendently above all others in possessing such an infinite gift?
I would to God, while I am speaking thus, that some here present would
say, "Gladly would I commit myself to that great Teacher." Remember,
Beloved, if you want Him to be your Master, He equally longs for you to
be His disciple! I think I have now shown that it was to be expected
that with such a Master, disciples should become like He is.

Now let me observe that this was virtually promised. It is promised to
us, in effect, in the great decree of predestination, "for whom He did
foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son." This is the great purpose of God, that Christ may be the
First-Born among many Brethren, and that the Brethren may be a company
in whose faces the Lord shall discern the image of the Only Begotten.
What God predestinates we may confidently expect. It is promised to us
in the very name of Jesus Christ, for that name is Jesus, "for He shall
save His people from their sins."

But saving men from their sins is the bringing of them back into a
condition of purity and holiness. This, indeed, is the salvation which
we preach–not the mere forgiveness of sin, as some think–but the
conquering of sin, the driving out of sin, the making of men like the
Lord Jesus by the Spirit of God! The very name of Jesus tells us that
He means to make His disciples as free from sin as He is. We know,
also, that this was our Lord's objective, for the design of Christ's
life is clearly seen in His last prayer when He prayed, "Sanctify them
through Your truth; Your word is truth. And for their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they, also, might be sanctified through the truth."

You can see that His one objective is to make His people holy, as He is
holy, to keep them from evil even as He was kept, and to make them
conquerors over sin even as He conquered. All His life He labored at
this with the 12 and with others who followed with Him and His last
prayer breathes this, "I pray not that You should take them out of the
World, but that You should keep them from the Evil One." Everywhere
this is seen to be true. The relationships which He assumes suppose it,
for brethren are like their brother, and friends are like their friend.
The metaphors which He uses imply the same thing, for the engrafted
branch drinks in the nature of the stem, the spouse grows like her
husband and the members of the body are of the same nature as the head.

The mystical Christ it not like the image of the Babylonian monarch's
dream with head of gold, and feet of clay, but Christ is one
throughout. The Grace which dwells in the Head, transforms the whole
body. It is our delightful expectation that "we shall be like He is,
for we shall see Him as He is," and then we shall be satisfied, for we
shall wake up in His likeness.

Well, Brothers and Sisters, what we might have expected, and what God
has thus virtually promised, has been actually seen, for the disciples
have been like their Lord, and this is where I want to lay the most
stress. Have not the disciples been like their Lord in points of
character? It would be very absurd for me to say that the Old Testament
saints were dis-

ciples of Christ in a literal sense, and yet in spirit they all were
not, for the Gospel is the same in all ages, and it is the same light
which lightens every man that comes into the world. The inner teaching
of the Spirit was the same to Abel and to Noah as it was to John and
Paul. And while Apostles looked back to Jesus and were enlightened,
Patriarchs looked forward and had light, too.

Now each of the saints in the olden time had some likeness to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Think of a few of them and you will see some of His
beauties. Abel reveals His righteousness and Enoch His walking with
God. Job shows His patience and Abraham His faith. Moses His meekness
and Samuel His power of intercession. Daniel is like He in His
integrity and Jeremiah in His weeping. Like drops of morning dew, all
these reflected the light of the Sun of Righteousness. In the New
Testament we see the transforming power of His teaching in many
instances. Peter and John were like their Master, for we read that when
their enemies "saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that
they were unlearned and ignorant men, they took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus." The likeness was so striking that they were
obliged to confess it!

Take John alone, for a minute, and who can read his Epistles without
saying, "Even thus his Master spoke?" John was far behind his Lord, but
yet how marvelously like He! You have smiled at your children,
sometimes, when you have seen your own ways repeated in them. You have
beheld your own peculiarities as in a mirror! Almost unconsciously they
have been yourself in miniature. So was it evidently with John. If it
is true, as tradition says, that he was carried into the assembly when
he was too old to walk, and was in the habit of saying to them, "Little
children, love one another: little children, love one another"–it was
so like our Lord Jesus Christ, you might have thought the Master had
returned to earth!

As for Paul, in many aspects he is the counterpart of his Lord, and as
I read that strange passage in Romans which staggers some, where he
says, "I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren,
according to the flesh," I am led to say, "Herein he resembles that
Blessed One who was actually made a curse for us, as it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." Now, all the saints of God,
more or less, according as they have fully been disciples of Jesus,
display His characteristics. I cannot stop, this morning, to tell you
what characteristics I see in you which are like my Lord. I rejoice
that I do know Brothers and Sisters here of whom I have often said to
myself, "I can see their Master in them." I wish I could say so of all
of you, but still, I am glad to see in so many the points of true
likeness to Jesus, the family characteristics which mark all the
children of God.

There are little touches of their Father in all the heirs of salvation
which make us feel that they belong to the same family as Jesus. They
could not have learned those ways–they must have been imparted by a
birth from above. It is a very noteworthy thing that those who are
disciples of Christ, each become like He as to their life story. Going
back to the old saints as being really disciples of the doctrine of the
Redeemer, there is Melchizedek bringing forth bread and wine to refresh
Abraham–would you not have thought it was Christ Himself? There is
Isaac gently submitting to his father while he draws the knife to slay
him–could you not have said that it was Jesus? There is Joseph making
himself known to his brethren and ruling all Egypt for their
good–might we not have thought that it was our Lord come on earth
before His time to bless His chosen ones?

Yonder is David coming back with Goliath's head, while all the maidens
of Israel rejoice around him–could you not have thought it was our
Master returning from Edom with dyed garments from Bosra? The saints
are types of Him because they are of the same type as He is. As for the
disciples after Christ came, you will often find them in positions
which set forth Jesus Christ most evidently. See Stephen boldly
declaring the Gospel until his enemies stone him. Have you not read of
his Master many times, "They would have stoned Him, but He conveyed
himself out of their sight"? Look at Paul at Lystra. They are about to
sacrifice to him–it makes you think of days when the crowd cried,
"Hosanna, Ho-sanna." Lo, the Apostle rebukes the throng, and now are
they stoning him–and it recalls to your memory the time when the crowd
shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him! Away with such a Fellow from the
earth."

Read the story of Paul in the shipwreck, when he says to the captain of
the ship, and to the officer of the troops, "Be of good cheer, for
there shall be no loss of any man's life among you." You might almost
have thought it was the Savior, Himself, saying to the winds and waves,
"Peace, be still." Indeed, Christ is in all His members! His life is
written out again in their lives. Beloved, I could mention many saints
of modern times in whose lives we may see Jesus. That poor

woman who dropped into the treasury her two mites, which were all her
living–is she not very much like Jesus who gave up all for us, and
became poor that we, through His poverty, might be rich?

Others are like the woman who broke the alabaster box of precious
ointment, to give their best things to her Lord. Do they not remind you
of the lover of our souls, who broke the precious alabaster box of His
body and filled all earth and Heaven with the perfume? Everyone who
gives up self for God's Glory is Jesus in miniature! Look at John
Howard going about among the dungeons of Europe, spying out poor
prisoners to do them good. Is not that Christ all over again, with glad
tidings for the captives? Or John Williams landing at Erromanga with
his life in his hands, to convert cannibals–was not that laying down
his life for the sheep?

Now, dear Friends do you think if we had your life before us we could
make out anything like Jesus Christ in it? If you are His disciple it
will be so. There will it be in your biography as your children will
read it–for they will read it better than anybody else. There it will
be as your wife will read it and as those you work with will read
it–something which looks as if it were extracted from the life of
Jesus. Students in Christ's College must be like their Tutor, and they
are! I dare say the Brother is present, here, of whom I am about to
speak. And if so, he will be sorry to hear me tell the story and would
stop my mouth if he could!

I will, however, make bold to go on. I know a house painter who was
working with other men over the top of the Great Northern Railway, at a
great height. One of his fellow workmen had been drinking very heavily
and was unsteady on the lofty scaffold. He said to himself, "That man
will never get down alive," and rather than he should perish, he
actually offered to carry him down on his back. I believe it would have
been death to them both if the attempt had been made, but he cheerfully
offered. He said, "My soul is safe. I am a Christian. I am afraid you
will be killed and, if you are, your soul will be lost. I will carry
you down if you will only keep quiet."

The man rejected the kind offer, though persuaded again and again, and
alas, in trying to descend he fell into the middle of the railway, from
a dreadful height, and was taken up dead. When I heard of my good
Brother, a humble member of this Church, doing that, I thought, "There
is our Master, revealed in His disciple!" Our life is a painting, and
if we are in Christ's Studio, there will be traces of His hand, and men
will exclaim, "That was no common Painter! That stroke, that line, is
just the line that the great Master used to make! I am sure He has put
in those touches." O Brothers and Sisters, we need none of us wish to
be originals–let us plagiarize Christ–and that will be the grandest
original! God help us in this.

Now I was going to say, but time has fled, that Christ's disciples grow
like He in their struggles and in their temptations. They are met by
Satan as Christ was. They are tried by the world as Christ was. They
are assailed by Sadducee unbelief and Pharisaic superstition as Christ
was. They have to go through the same fight and, blessed be God, they
win the same victories! Christ's disciples overcome sin. By their
Master's help they rise above doubt, they vanquish the world and they
stand in purity and faith. By-and-by they shall be like He in their
rewards. "To him that overcomes," He says, "I will give to sit upon My
throne, even as I have overcome and have sat down with My Father upon
His throne."

It is a beautiful subject! I wish I had the power to work it out, the
way in which the disciple of Jesus thus, by sure steps, becomes
perfected into the image of Christ, till the likeness is so near and so
close that even the clear eyes of this wicked world in the dim
atmosphere of its ignorance cannot help seeing that the man is like the
Master!

III. Now, lastly, we will dwell for two or three minutes upon this
encouraging fact, that WE MAY PUT ALL THIS TO THE TEST this morning if
we will. Brothers and Sisters, if you are not disciples of Jesus
Christ, remember, He will receive you! He will receive you though you
have been to other masters and learned a great deal under them, all of
which you will have to unlearn. It is a very easy thing to take a man
and teach him if his mind is clear and clean. But you have learned a
great deal that you will have to forget.

O you of 40, 50, or 60, what a world of mischief there is in you that
will have to come out! Well, my Master will take you for pupils, though
you have been with other masters all this while. And, though you do not
know even the rudiments of what He is going to teach, He will take you.
My Lord Jesus keeps an A B C school–He begins with the infants. What a
mercy it is that He takes such poor, stupid heads as ours, who know
nothing except what we ought not to know! And I will add, if you have
but very little capacity, or none at all, it does not matter–

"He takes the fool, and makes him know The wonders of His dying love."

Not many great men, not many mighty are chosen, but God has chosen the
poor of this world, and things that are not, and things that are
despised, yes, and weak things and foolish things, has God chosen. Come
to Him, for if you are incapable, He is not, and His capacity will soon
overcome your incapacity. You say, "I cannot learn." Ah, but you do not
know how well He can teach, for He can teach so well that even those
who think they cannot learn are soon instructed in His school!

Stand not back, dear Friend, because you cannot pay the fee, for my
Master's is a free school! He takes nothing from us, but He gives
everything to us. The only admission ticket that you need is simply to
be willing to be taught, to be conscious that you need teaching and
guiding, and to submit yourself to His guidance and instruction. Are
you willing to do so? "Oh," you say, "I shall grieve Him till He gives
me up." Well, I have often thought so. I do not wonder that you are
troubled with that thought–it has often come across me when I see what
little progress I have made after being so many years in His school.

If I had a human master, he would have been out of patience with me
long ago. But the Lord Jesus Christ never gives up a scholar–having
once commenced to teach, He continues His Divine lessons till they are
fully learned–and the more difficult it is for Him to teach, the more
honor it will be when He gets all His scholars educated for the skies!
He will not allow a defeat in this matter–He will overcome ignorance,
sin, hardness of heart, infirmity and incapacity till He shall have
instructed us in the lore of Heaven and made us meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light!

Come, dear Brothers and Sisters, you that are scholars of Christ, let
us sit at His feet! Let us follow in His ways more closely than ever!
And you, dear Friends, who as yet are not in His school, He says to
you, "Who is simple let him turn in here. As for him that needs
understanding let him eat of My bread and drink of the wine which I
have mingled." May the good Lord incline your hearts to learn of Him,
for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Luke 6:20-40. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–852, 262, 705.