The Unbroken Line Of True Nobles

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 17, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Instead of your fathers shall be your children, whom you may make
princes in all the earth." Psalm 45:16.

WERE you ever perplexed by being drawn with almost equal force in two
directions? I have been so. There is a bond which reaches from the
cemetery which holds me very fast and, therefore, I desired again, this
morning, to have made use of the solemn visitation which so suddenly
removed one of our friends from us. But this is the beginning of the
week set apart for prayer for the young, and I have felt duty bound to
take a part in the celebration and to assist to stir up Sunday school
teachers and the members of the Church in general to pray for the
blessing of God upon the rising generation.

Now these mourning friends expect a consoling word from me–and these
children demand that I plead for them, also! I realized the scene in my
study. What was I to do? Between two subjects I might arrive at none
and that was not a desirable conclusion. I watched, looked and prayed,
and at last I resolved to yield myself to both influences, and I have
as nearly as possible done so by selecting this text–"Instead of your
fathers shall be your children, whom you may make princes in all the
earth."

The text begins with, "Instead." It is a sad word. I do not enjoy the
sound of it. "In stead"–well, then, we must expect to lose some if
others are to come in their stead. Alas, these funerals will be
repeated, new graves must be dug! New friends will arise, but we dread
the exchange. Would it not be more pleasant to keep the old workers?
Would it not be safer to have the same comrades in the day of battle?
What a grand Old Guard the veterans would make! "Instead"! It is a
prophecy that some must go that others may come! That some must decay,
that others may flourish! That some must die that others may succeed
them!

Our trembling faith hardly likes the change here hinted at, for we are
apt to think that those who are to stand "instead" will be very slow in
coming. Where are we to find men to fill the vacant places? By whom
shall Jacob arise, for he is small? Indeed, there are some saints so
eminently blessed of God that we ask ourselves the question, "Who can
stand in their stead?" Moses! May Moses live forever, for who but he
can rule and guide so great a multitude and, with mingled meekness and
authority, conduct so great an army through the wilderness? Who but he
can have such power with God as to stand between Israel and the Divine
anger?

We hear a whisper of Joshua as his successor, but good as Joshua may
be, we can hardly endure to see the leadership change hands. And
Elijah, too, that bold iron Prophet, that man of fire and thunder. "I,
only," said he, "am left." Shall we lose him? From where shall there
come another? No, if it pleases the Lord, we would rather keep Elijah.
We do not like that word, "instead," even though we hear that there is
an Elisha to follow Elijah. Too frequent is the fear that the one who
comes instead will be a poor substitute and succeed only in name! After
high hills come deep valleys, the second crop seldom equals the first
and so great Grace and ability seldom continue long either in a family
or in an office.

We know that Solomon died and was succeeded by Rehoboam–a wise man by
a fool! We know, also, that Eli, good man and true priest of God, had
most ungodly Phineas to succeed him. We would, therefore, keep Eli, if
possible, and see Solomon forever on the throne. But it cannot be so
and, therefore, it is of no use sitting down idly to fret over the
future and lament the past! All our sorrow over changes caused by the
mortality of our race will not alter it, for God has ordained that one
must depart and another come in his place.

But, listen, I think that the word instead, if we listen to it with
another ear, will sound out a note of gladness! If one falls, there is
another to fill up the gap in our ranks. Comrades, is not this good
news? If one laborer is taken from the vineyard, there is still a man
in reserve to supply his place–does not this cheer you? We are
encouraged by the belief that when the Lord supplants one set of
servants by others He does not, after all, diminish the display of His
love and Grace

and power! No, rather He shows His independence of any one company of
men and His power to use whom He pleases! After all, He puts the same
spirit upon the newcomers and the power remains the same though the
weapon wielded differs.

Sometimes the change is manifestly for good. Eli was followed by
Samuel, a great improvement upon Eli, after all. We remember, too, that
Moses, albeit there was never a man born of woman greater than he, was
yet followed by a hero more fitted for the new phase of Israel's
history than Moses would have been. I can hardly conceive of Moses,
sword in hand, slaying Canaanites at his advanced age! That was fitter
work for Joshua and though, in some respects, Joshua was an inferior
man to Moses, yet he was more suitable for his times and more adapted
for the peculiar work which the armies of the living God had to do.

Courage, my Brothers and Sisters, our sons may be superior to
ourselves! There is room for them and let us hope they will be. Our
sons, at any rate, may be fitter for the work which they will have to
do than we should be if our lives could be extended into another age. I
doubt not we may say without personal vanity that we have been better
men for this age than our grandchildren would have been had their lives
been protracted into this present time–and so shall our children and
grandchildren go beyond us, if the Lord enable them–in fulfilling the
growing demands of the ripening ages. God knows best and when He puts
one man instead of another, I have no doubt that His infinite wisdom
perceives that there is abundant cause for the change.

For life to display fresh developments instead of the old is the law
both of nature and of Grace–whether we are glad or sad, it must be so.
Therefore let us accept the Divine arrangement and act accordingly. To
help us in this matter, let us consider the promise before us–"Instead
of your fathers shall be your children." This may be viewed in a light
which will reveal its gracious recompense. Secondly, we shall regard
its eminent fulfillment. Thirdly, we shall look at its happy
encouragement, for it has a very bright side. And fourthly, we shall
remember its practical requirements. Into this last we shall throw our
strength, in the hope that, by the Divine blessing, holy effort for the
coming generation may be awakened.

I. First, in the promise of our text let us observe ITS GRACIOUS
RECOMPENSE. I read you the Psalm just now. Now, in this sweet song you
noticed that the bride is commanded to forget her own people and her
father's house. Very naturally this would be painful to her and,
therefore, the rest of the Psalm is occupied with cheering her by a
sight of the recompenses which she may expect. Instead of your fathers,
whom you, O bride of Christ are to forget and to forsake, shall be your
children, equally dear to you, who shall occupy that place in your
heart which has been left empty by your forgetting your father's house.

Do you not see that her husband's heart is so full of love to her that
while he takes her right away from old connections and makes it a
condition of his desiring her beauty, that all these shall be
forgotten? Yet he assures her that new associations shall be formed
which shall yield more than equal solace to her. "Instead of your
fathers shall be your children." The practical lesson is this–many
Christians, when they are converted to God, are members of irreligious
fami-lies–and from the moment of their conversion they cease to have
any real heart-fellowship with their relatives, who in many cases treat
them unkindly and give them the cold shoulder or worse.

Dwelling with them after the flesh, they have to come out from among
them after the Spirit and be separate, and no longer touch the unclean
thing. However kindly disposed they may be, and Grace will make them
more so, and induce in them a double affection to their kin, yet they
feel that the possession of Grace by them and the non-possession of it
by their friends, sets a great gulf between them. Let them not lament
nor sigh, though their foes should be the men of their own household,
for there are abundant recompenses available. You are to be introduced,
my Friend, into another household and you are there to form other
acquaintances and other intimate connections, for to you shall be
fulfilled the promise of the Savior, "No man has left father or mother
or children that shall not receive in this life a hundredfold, and in
the world to come life everlasting."

Do not look back to those evil companionships and ensnaring loves!
Forget the fleshpots of Egypt and the associations of Goshen. Let them
go, they will do you no good! And now throw yourself into the work of
Christ. In the converts whom you shall lead to Jesus, in the desponding
saints whom you shall cheer, in the disciples whom you shall instruct
and in the brotherhood of which you shall become a member–you will
find ample room for all the affections of your soul, till you shall be
able to say of the Church of God–

"My soul shall pray for Zion still, While life or breath remains, There
my best friends, my kindred dwell, There God my Savior reigns."

The law of recompense works, also, in another quarter and comes in to
compensate for the separations caused by death. As the fathers die, one
after another, those of like years feel that they are left almost
alone. To them, then, shall it be true, "instead of your fathers shall
be your children." Do not give way to idle regrets and say, "All who
joined the Church with me are gone, all those who were the companions
of my manhood are now taken away. I am left alone and the cause is
weakened." No, my Brothers and Sisters, keep your hearts young and make
yourselves indispensable to the young people around you! The old
soldier must let his heart go out towards the recruits and he must make
friends of the young warriors. Instead of lamenting that you are
lonely, as I have known some do, and looking down upon everything that
is of the present time as though it could not possibly be so good as in
your own days, throw yourself into the present, project yourself into
the future and love the children for the fathers' sake!

I know when I was much younger than I am now, I used to think the men
in office were such marvelous saints, but then I did not mix with them,
I only looked up to them from a distance. At Prayer Meetings and
communions I thought there never were such excellent people in the
world as those pillars of the Church. Somebody said to me the other day
that he did not meet with such good old men now as we used to know in
our youth, and I told him that the men were quite as good, but we were
in among them and, therefore, had less of the superstitious awe of our
youth. And I added that I was, myself, surprised to find them as good
as they now are since our view of them is so much nearer and so much
more daring.

No Prophet has honor in his own country, nor among men of his own age!
Distance lends enchantment in many cases. We have as good men among us
now as ever lived, but we know more about them than of those who have
departed, and we criticize them more severely. We are, none of us, able
to fully compare the past generations with this present one, because we
were not in those generations as we are in this. Men at a great
distance may appear to be absolutely perfect, but when we get close to
them, spots are manifest and our judgement changes. Never let us fall
into that silly state of mind in which we say, "the dear good men are
all gone. The faithful are all dead." There are dear good men still
alive and there are more coming!

Do not let us fear that the Almighty will run short of servants! Let us
not dream that He with whom is the residue of the Spirit will allow His
cause to droop for lack of qualified ministers, elders, deacons, or
other workers. On the contrary, let us say, "Bless the Lord, whose
mercy endures forever!" We have learned that instead of the fathers
shall be the children. And we will take as much delight in the young
saints who are growing up as in former years we took in those mature,
judicious, well-instructed saints whom the Lord, our heavenly Father,
has taken Home. Let this suffice to show that the text promises a
recompense!

II. Secondly, let us view our text historically in ITS EMINENT
FULFILMENT. Brothers and Sisters, as long as God has had a people in
the world there have been changes. In God's garden as in ours, plants
of this year have been succeeded by those of the next. "As the days of
a tree are the days of My people, says the Lord." As soon as the leaf
is formed in the spring, if you watch it, there is a new leaf beneath
it for the next spring. This year's leaf opened gradually, grew, came
to perfection and then it began to decay. And there is now on the
branch a new leaf-bud which is pushing it off and that is what our sons
are doing with us. We must drop off from the tree of mortal existence
and it is right we should– and we need not complain–for God has
provided some better things for us.

It has been the law in the world and the law in the Church that one set
of laborers should follow the other–and they have done so without
fail. It is with the Church as with the sea–each wave dies, but there
is another wave behind it. Sometimes the wave appears to retreat rather
than advance, but frequently the next wave rolls up gloriously. So must
it always be and we must not despair that the waves die, for the sea
does not die and the tide is still advancing. You may, perhaps, have
seen an olive tree in growth. I have studied it carefully, for it has
the charm of Gethsemane about it. It looks like an embodiment of sorrow
and fruitfulness.

An olive is twisted like a thousand snakes. It seems as if in an agony,
yet it has a cheerfulness about it, too, for when the tree grows old
the young shoots spring up from its roots, keeping it always young. I
have no doubt it is to this that the Psalmist refers when he says,
"Your children round your table like olive plants." The shoots spring
up around the old olive and so it lives again! And when these die,
fresh shoots appear and the tree still brings forth fruit in old age!
The

Church of God never dies, for when one, after another, we finish our
course, others spring out of the ever-living root and so the blessed
succession of Grace is kept up in the world.

Now, look back a moment. That was a grand age when Patriarchs walked
through the earth, when Abraham and Isaac and Jacob towered above the
sons of men. They died and the Church was in captivity in Egypt,
downtrodden and afflicted, yet were there among them those who sighed
and cried unto the Lord and, therefore, He looked down upon the tribes
with pitying eyes. Then there came great rulers like Moses and Joshua
to deliver the chosen Seed–and when these departed the Judges were
raised up! Time would fail us to tell of Gideon, Barak and Samson, who
each one, in his turn, delivered Israel.

When the judges passed away, God exalted the man after his own heart to
lead His people and the kings ruled in righteousness. When these turned
aside, the light of Israel was not quenched, for the Prophets bore
witness and when the lamp of Prophecy burned dim, there were confessors
who, all through the period between the Old and the New Testament,
still remained faithful to the commands of God. Then blazed forth the
light of our Lord Jesus and His Apostles! And before the last Apostle
had been taken away, the martyr flames lit up the world. When
persecution had ceased and heathenism had conquered Christianity by
debasing her doctrines, the Reformers shone out with their gracious
brilliance and these have been succeeded constantly by Evangelists, one
after the other, who have moved the people and maintained, through the
Divine Spirit, the Gospel testimony to this day.

Brethren, I believe that the history of the Church in modern times is
like that of olden times. The Apostles were our Patriarchs, the
Reformers were our Moses and Joshua and the great preachers since have
been as judges! And now we look for the King, Himself, even He that
shall sit upon the throne of David and shall reign forever and ever!
View history as you will, there is a continuity in it. In the darkest
times there has shone forth some bright, particular star, yes, and in
secret places, in holy hearts and gracious families there has remained
more of the Divine life and light than the pages of historians have
recorded.

There has always been a remnant according to the election of Grace.
When the Church moaned and said, "God has forsaken me, my God has
forgotten me. The fathers, where are they?" God had not forsaken
her–He had kept for Himself His thousands who have not bowed the knee
to Baal. And there has arisen a leader just in the nick of time to
seize the banner and to rally the wavering host, for as God lives and
the Spirit still abides in the Church, and Jesus is with us always,
even to the world's end, the succession of Grace shall never cease!
Glory be to the name of the Most High!

III. Thirdly, having seen, concerning our text, its eminent
fulfillment, let us for a second or so view it in ITS HAPPY
ENCOURAGEMENT. Brothers and Sisters, God's promise is the ultimate hope
of the Christian and of the Church at large, and here we have
it–"Instead of your fathers shall be your children." Lean on the
Divine shall, for it is as sure as the Everlasting Covenant. As you
have to leave the Ark of the Lord behind you and you can no longer
carry it upon your shoulder, God will provide successors.
"Jehovahjireh, the Lord Will Provide."

You have believed that word in reference to your family and your own
livelihood–believe it in reference to God's family and His cause. God
has provided, already, for Himself a Lamb for His Passover–you may
depend upon it He will provide what is a vastly smaller thing–a line
of men who shall ever keep that Passover Lamb before the eyes of His
people! We are sure, O Lord, that You will do as You have said–

"Fathers to sons shall teach Your name, And children learn Your ways;
Ages to come Your truth proclaim, And nations sound Your praise." Do
not give way to distrust about the present or the future, for Jesus
lives and walks among the golden candlesticks, trimming all the lamps
and shining through them! The stars are in His right hand, by Him
kindled and by Him renewed with immortal flame. You have the Spirit of
God still dwelling in the Church to call whomever Jesus wills and to
anoint them with holy oil that they may go forth in the Master's name.

My Brethren, to have doubt about this would be unpardonable because we
are coming towards an epoch where all the promises declare a victory.
Do they not all travail with a glorious day of Grace? We are bound to
exert ourselves for the spread of the Gospel, for we know that Christ
must have the pre-eminence everywhere. "As truly as I live, says the
Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord." We
have received the Word from God's mouth, "He must reign till He has put
all enemies under His feet." We are not taking a leap into the dark! We
are not "shooting Niag-

ara"–we are marching into light–the day has broken, the shadows are
fleeing, the brightness is increasing, the noontide is at hand and,
perhaps, before this century ends, we may have passed into the supreme
brilliance of that millennial period in which Christ Jesus shall reign
gloriously among His ancients!

If He bids us wait and wait we may, we would cheerfully march on, for
our faces are to the sunrise and every hour brings Glory nearer. At any
rate, in such an hour as we think not, behold, the Bridegroom comes!
And when He comes our victory has come with Him. Let us not yield to
despondency. If the line of battle wavers, or our ranks are broken by
the enemy, remember the reserves, the grand reserves which our Captain
is holding back! And remember the King, Himself, is coming who never
fights but to conquer! He, whose Presence means triumph, is on His way!
Mark the signal and "Hold the fort, for He is coming," whose coming
shall close your warfare and commence your triumph!

IV. I must now come to view the text, as to ITS PRACTICAL REQUIREMENTS.
"Instead of your fathers shall be your children." Well then, if we
stand instead of our fathers, what manner ofpersons ought we to be? I
will not call to mind your immediate sires, though it were no dishonor
to many of you if I did so. I will not recount the family ancestry with
which God has blessed us. No imperial blood is in our veins nor blue
blood of nobility. Descended from the King of kings, each saint
possesses a nobler pedigree than earthly princes! To be the child of
godly parents is one of the greatest honors in the world.

But I ask you to look back to your spiritual ancestry, your fathers
after the spirit, your predecessors in the faith of the Lord Jesus. Oh,
my Brothers and Sisters, what manner of people ought we to be, who as
Christian men and women have succeeded the heritage of martyrs? Who
have taken up a cause pleaded by Apostolic lips? Who have followed upon
men of whom the world was not worthy? Our ancestors were made what they
were by the Grace of God and the Church of God may well glorify God in
them! Their sufferings and heroic fortitude, their labors and their
dauntless courage have left us under solemn obligations. Shall we be
coward sons of heroic sires? Shall we be sluggards and slovenly in a
work which they carried out so well?

They built with gold, silver and precious stones–shall we degrade
their work by heaping thereon wood, hay and stubble? I charge you,
Brethren, take good heed unto your ways by the remembrance of where you
came. Thus would I speak to all Believers, for the Church is one and
indivisible. Each tribe of the one Seed has its own history and I leave
my Brethren of various denominations to speak to their own. I will now
address myself specially to those who are known as Baptists. As for us,
the baptized followers of Christ, our ancestry as a body of Christian
men is not to be despised. Albeit that the name of Anabaptist has been
made the football of reproach because it was wrongfully associated with
fanatical opinions, we may rest assured that the more history is
understood, the more apparent will it be that those who were the most
humiliated were thus treated because they were before their times. They
bore the brunt of battle because they led the way!

God forbid that I should induce you to glory in them and so to wear
borrowed laurels! Of all pride, I think that to be the most idle which
hides its own nakedness beneath the tattered banners of ancestry. I do
but dwell for a moment upon our past history to excite you to yet more
earnest deeds! Prove yourselves to be these men's sons by doing their
deeds! Otherwise you are bastards and not sons. In every effort for
civil and religious liberty, our fathers were at the front! In the
utterance of those Divine Truths of God which have made tyrants and
priests quake for fear, they have been among the boldest! Our fathers,
for holding to Baptism as the Lord ordained it, suffered at the hands
of men who knew no mercy. Their beliefs were misrepresented and
themselves regarded as monsters rather than men.

In this country they were, in the matter of time, both first and last
at the stake! On this very spot where you now sit, long before there
were any Lutherans or Calvinists, we read that, "three Anabaptists were
burnt at the Butts at Newing-ton." Our sires were Protestants before
the Protestants! They were part of a long line of men who stood firm
when the mass of the Church turned this way and that! They were, in
fact, the most bold and thoroughgoing of all the adherents of the
Apostolic and Scriptural Church and, therefore, they were persecuted by
prelates and abhorred by priests. When I hear Ritualists talking of
their ancient Church, I blush to think that Englishmen should claim
kinship with the Roman Antichrist, whose yoke our fathers tore from off
their necks!

The pedigree of every Anglican priest must, of necessity, have flowed
through the Dead Sea of Popery. Our limpid streamlet runs not through
that slough of filthiness, but comes down pure from earliest ages! Our
doctrines and ordinances remain as they were delivered unto us by our
Lord! Neither have we desired to add the traditions of men to them.

"Hold fast, therefore, your confidence which has great recompense of
reward." Do not give up your principles, my Brothers and Sisters, for
the Church and the world will need them. Nobody can fight the battle
against Sacramentarian-ism like the man who puts the ordinances in
their Scriptural position as belonging to Believers and to Believers
only. As long as Baptism is given to those who are unregenerate, the
figment of baptismal regeneration will find a foothold!

We must unflinchingly keep to our testimony that religion is a personal
thing and that only those who have faith in Jesus can partake in the
privileges of His House. Birthright membership and vows of sponsors
must, alike, be the subjects of our protest. By your sires who were
drowned by the hundreds for refusing homage to a superstitious rite,
men who neither feared Luther nor the Pope, and were hated of all men
and even by Reformers because they occupied a standpoint still bolder,
clearer, and more advanced than all others, I beseech you, Brothers and
Sisters, hold fast your Christian liberty and never cease to testify to
all the Truth which God has taught you!

May our Brothers and Sisters who differ from us, come to us in this
matter, for we cannot go to them–we are spellbound by the plain
teaching of Scripture and dare not move so much as a hair's breadth.
May the Lord yet give to all His saints to know the "one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism." If we are instead of our fathers, let us
endeavor to continue their testimony undiminished in force and
untarnished in clearness. Our Brethren of other denominations must bear
their testimony to what truth they know and we are the last to deny
them this liberty or to despise their cooperation. But, after all, our
own duty is that which we must look to–that we may be found faithful
"in that day."

The next practical point is this–if others are to come instead of us,
what are we doing for them? Looking at ourselves as occupying the
present time, how far are we good links between the present and the
future? Others are to come instead of us–are we taking care as much as
lies in us that those who come in the place of us shall be fit men to
maintain the interests of God's Truth? Oh, Brethren, let us, as a
Church, love the young! Let us labor, by God's Grace, to gather in a
multitude of young converts! Let us pray God to bless our schools of
every sort and the teaching among the rising youth, as far as that
teaching is according to His mind and will! A Church which does not
believe in the conversion of children, a Church that, in fact, scarcely
believes in the conversion of anybody, is likely to die out! But a
Church that lives for converts, even as parents live for their
children, will be the joyous mother of a numerous progeny and become
stronger and stronger.

I would to God we were all stirred up, not merely the teachers in the
school, but all of us, to seek the conversion of the young and to aim
by every means in our power to set God's Truth before them and lead
them in His way. The Church ought to look to the tuition, the training
and the culture of her children. All those who are brought to Christ in
youth should be peculiarly watched over by us. It is said that
Alexander gathered together his valiant army principally through
training children from their very birth to the pursuits of war. He took
little children as soon as they could run alone and placed them in a
camp where their playthings were swords and their amusements were found
among armor, spears and shields.

These born soldiers grew up knowing of nothing and caring for nothing
but for Alexander, Macedon and fighting. Thus would we, by God's Grace,
train our sons to live alone for Christ, His Truth and the souls whom
He has redeemed. O that our sons might be men of war from their youth
for Jesus! We need workers who have been in the vineyard from the first
hour of the day–these are the backbone of successful Christian
husbandry. There is necessity for far more attention to training and
Christian edification than has, until this time, been usual–and the
sooner this is felt, the better. We need men whose earliest feats of
mental strength are shown in the gymnasium of the Church, young
athletes trained for war, ready for exploits and waiting to take their
place in the Lord's battles at their fathers' side! We shall have a
grand era when the Church learns to train her youth in holy enterprises
and to employ them early for the Lord.

We know, too, that if we are to have good successors, our young friends
must acquire a noble carriage from their childhood. That is a great
word–"whom you may make princes in all the earth," and we must not be
content to come short of it. What? Make our young converts princes?
Yes, so says the text–and it is to be done, by God's Grace, if they
are imbued with heavenly principles by the Holy Spirit–and if we set
before them the example of our princely Savior and if each one of us
shall try to make his own life right royal in dignity of purpose and
aim.

The nobility of the text is of a rare sort–"princes in all the earth."
Why, a man may be a prince in his own country, and have no power out of
it–but a man of high Christian character is a prince in all the earth
and we would have all our children such! That ancient schoolmaster,
Jacob Treboniue, whenever he went into his school, was accustomed to
take off

his hat to his boys. When asked why he did so, he replied, "Because,
Sir, I do not know what learned doctors and great men I may be
teaching." He was quite right, for Martin Luther was one of the boys in
his school and I would have taken off my hat to Martin Luther if I had
been his schoolmaster! I, perhaps, would have chastised him as well,
but taken off my hat, at any rate, out of respect to the man concealed
in such a boy!

Who knows but among those whom we teach for Jesus, right royal spirits
may be concealed? And it is ours to try, by the Grace of God, to train
those choice spirits that they may be yet more noble. I have read a
story which shows how poor, ragged children may be nobles. A minister
was once called in to examine a school. The master said to him,
"Question the boys all through the Catechism, for they know it
thoroughly." "But," he said, "do you think they understand it?" The
schoolmaster smiled and bowed his head in assent. "Try them, Sir." The
minister asked one of the shoeless little boys to repeat the
commandment, "Honor your father and your mother," and he did so
promptly. "Do you understand it, my lad?" said the minister.

"Yes, Sir, I think I do." "What does it mean?" "Well, Sir, last week I
went over the mountain with some gentlemen to show them the way and I
had no shoes. And the stones were so sharp that they made my feet bleed
and the gentlemen gave me some money to buy a pair of shoes. When I
went home I recollected that mother needed shoes, too, and so I gave
her the money to buy a pair for herself." That lad was surely one of
the princes in all the earth! And if children, by the Grace of God, are
taught to do the same and if we, ourselves, shall each one cultivate a
noble spirit of disinterested love, we shall give proof that the Holy
Spirit has made us princes in all the earth!

Oh, Brothers and Sisters, when I think of what the Church of God can do
for her young converts when God helps her, I am amazed and full of
delight! She is a mother whose sons are, each one, born in king's
palaces and each one joint heirs with the Prince Emanuel! All her
children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be their peace. To
make a man a prince you ought to give him not only a noble carriage but
a rich endowment. He will be wretched unless he has some means with
which to exercise the liberality which dwells in his heart. If I were
addressing the young man who has lately been converted, I would say,
"My Son, take this Bible in your hands. It is the best treasure and you
will be a prince if you will make it your own by the teaching of the
Holy Spirit. Here is an endowment for you which shall make you richer
than Croesus of old!

"Give to your children the Gospel, the glorious Doctrines of Grace.
Give to them the Precepts of Christ and the blessed inspiring example
which He has left behind Him. Give them a hallowed example in your own
life and you have done infinitely more for them than if you had left
them an annual income to be measured by millions. You shall make them
princes in all the earth if, by God's Grace, you lead them to Jesus and
He endows them with the Spirit of all Grace, so that they are rich in
faith and zealous for good works."

I was so glad last Monday that I do not know whenever I have been as
glad–there were two young sisters and two young brothers of this
Church, two of them connected with this Sunday school, who were going
abroad as missionaries! The Prince of Wales set out on his journey on
Monday and so did two princes and two princesses out of this Church! I
felt more confidence in sending my princes out, I am bound to say, than
the Royal mother did in sending her son! Perhaps in the last day of
account India will have more to say of our princes than even of our
future king. It is a grand thing for a Church to have missionaries bred
and born in her! We aspire to it and already the blessing is coming!
Young men, young women in the Tabernacle, we are looking for more of
you to be our princes in all the earth!

We have some in India, we have some in Spain, we have some in other
lands who are preaching Christ, but we want to have princes in all the
earth! I shall never be completely satisfied till, looking over a map,
I shall recollect, "Brother So-and-So is there. Sister So-and-So is
there turning the heathen to Christ and conquering the land for Jesus!"
To the utmost bounds of the habitable globe may a princely offspring go
forth from all the Churches of the living God! And may we take our full
share of the blessed privilege!

The last word is this–looking to my young friends who may be present
this morning, as I have already looked back to our sires and down upon
ourselves, I say to them, are you prepared to take your fathers'
places? It was with great joy that, at the cemetery last Friday, when I
buried my beloved Brother, Henry Olney, I saw so many of our young men
present. The hope of the Church–honorable men, too–I believe worthy
to succeed their sires. I thanked God and I took courage as I came out
of the cemetery gate as I saw many of them walking together in
Christian brotherhood. Younger

Brothers and Sisters, I trust you will be worthy of your sires, even if
you do not excel them. I beseech you, since you are the Church's hope,
do not disappoint us!

Young men and young women, consecrate yourselves early to God and let
it be thorough, out-and-out consecration–you will never regret it.
There sits behind me a Brother who could tell you, if he were well
enough, how his early days were happy in his Master's service and how,
now, when he speaks with somewhat trembling accents, his heart rejoices
in the Lord whom he has loved so long. Young men, follow in his
footsteps! Young women, be you, also, fully devoted to Christ! By way
of warning, I must add, let none of you suppose that because you come
of pious parents you will be saved. Remember Abraham had for his son an
Ishmael.

The line does not run according to blood and natural descent, but
according to the will of God. Alas, there are some, too–I met one the
other day, I feel the arrow in my heart at this moment–there are some
who utterly forsake the Lord God of their fathers and turn aside to
skepticism and sin. When a young man glories in infidelity and chooses
for his companions loose fellows of the baser sort, his descent from
saintly fathers will bring upon him sevenfold guilt. It were better for
him that he had never been born, than leave an ancestry which God has
blessed, to turn aside to be an enemy of the Cross of Christ!

Perhaps someone may say, "Ah, but Ishmael had not a good mother–she
was Hagar, the bondwoman." My solemn answer is–Esau had the same
mother as Jacob and was born at the same birth–yet Esau shared not in
spiritual privileges as Jacob did. Trust not in your descent! Rely not
upon a mother's tears or a father's piety. Seek the Lord, my sons, my
daughters, or you will not taste His love. "My son, give Me your
heart," says Jesus–not your father's heart, but your own! Yield
yourselves as living sacrifices unto God and then, instead of the
fathers, shall be the children! I stand among you like an officer in
the midst of his regiment and, as one and another falls, I entreat you
to close up your ranks!

My Brothers and Sisters, my Children! Do not permit the good cause at
the Tabernacle to fail! You will not, I am sure. I am persuaded better
things of you though I thus speak. Whoever dies, stand ready, you
younger men, to take their places! As you get older, ask for more Grace
to qualify you, not merely to be private members, but to be leaders
among us, that to this Church may be fulfilled forevermore the promise
of the text, "Instead of your fathers shall be your children, whom you
may make princes in all the earth." God bless you, my beloved
companions in the army of the Lord, young and old, for Christ's sake!
Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 45. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–45, 422, 145.