The Man of One Subject

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 31, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2.

Paul was a very determined man and whatever he undertook he carried out
with all his heart. Once let him say, "I determined," and you might be
sure of a vigorous course of action! "This one thing I do" was always
his motto. The unity of his soul and its mighty resoluteness were the
main features of his character. He had once been a great opposer of
Christ and His Cross and had shown his opposition by furious
persecutions. It was not so very much to be wondered at that when he
became a disciple of this same Jesus, whom he had persecuted, he should
become a very ardent one and bring all his faculties to bear upon the
preaching of Christ crucified.

His conversion was so marked, so complete, so thorough, that you expect
to see him as energetic for the Truth of God as once he had been
violent against it. A man so whole-hearted as Paul, so thoroughly
capable of concentrating all his forces as the Apostle was–and so
entirely won over to the faith of Jesus–was likely to enter into his
cause with all his heart and soul. And thus he was determined to know
nothing else but his crucified Lord. Yet do not think that the Apostle
was a man easily absorbed in one thought. He was, above the most of
men, a reasoner, calm, judicious, candid and prudent.

He looked at things in their bearings and relations and was not a
stickler for minor matters. Perhaps even more than might perfectly be
justified, he made himself all things to all men that he might by all
means win some and, therefore, any determination which he came to was
only arrived at after taking counsel with wisdom. He was not a zealot
of that class which may be likened to a bull which shuts its eyes and
runs straight forward, seeing nothing which may lie to the right or to
the left–he looked all round him, calmly, quietly and though he did,
in the end, push forward in a direct line at his one objective, yet it
was with his eyes wide open, knowing perfectly what he was doing and
believing that he was doing the best and wisest thing for the cause
which he desired to promote.

If, for instance, to have opened his ministry at Corinth by proclaiming
the unity of the Godhead, or by philosophically working out the
possibilities of God's becoming Incarnate–if these had been the wisest
plans for spreading the Redeemer's kingdom–Paul would have adopted
them. But he looked at them all and having examined them with all care,
he could not see that anything was to be gained by indirect preaching,
or by keeping back a part of the Truth. Therefore he determined to go
straight forward and promote the Gospel by proclaiming the Gospel!
Whether men would hear or whether they would forbear, he resolved to
come to the point at once and preach the Cross in its naked simplicity.

Instead of knowing a great many things which might have led up to the
main subject, he would not know anything in Corinth save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Paul might have said, "I had better beat about the
bush and educate the people up to a certain point before I come to my
main point. To lay bare my ultimate intent at the first might be to
spread the net in the sight of the birds and frighten them away. I will
be cautious and reticent and will take them with guile, enticing them
on in pursuit of the Truths of God." But Paul did not do that! Looking
at the matter all round as a prudent man should, he comes to this
resolve, that he will know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.

I would to God that the "culture" we hear of in these days, and all
this boasted "modern thought" would come to the same conclusion! This
most renowned and scholarly Divine, after reading, marking, learning
and inwardly digesting everything as few men could do, yet came to this
as to the issue of it all–"I determined not to know anything among
you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." May God grant that the
critical skill of our contemporaries and their laborious consideration
may land them on the same shore by the blessing of the Holy Spirit!

I. Our first consideration, this morning, will be, WHAT WAS THIS
SUBJECT TO WHICH PAUL DETERMINED TO SHUT HIMSELF UP WHILE PREACHING TO
THE CHURCH AT CORINTH? That subject was one, though it may also be
divided into two–it was the Person and the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ–laying special stress upon that part of His work which is
always the most objected to, namely, His substitutionary Sacrifice, His
redeeming death. Paul preached Christ in all His positions, but he
especially dwelt upon Him as the Crucified One.

The Apostle first preached his great Master's Person–Jesus Christ.
There was no equivocation about Paul when he spoke of Jesus of
Nazareth. He held Him up as a real Man, no phantom, but one who was
crucified, dead and buried– and rose again from the dead in actual
bodily existence. There was no hesitation about His Godhead, either.
Paul preached Jesus as the Son of the Highest, as the wisdom and the
power of God, as One, "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily." You never doubted when you heard Paul, but that he believed in
the Divinity and the Humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ–and worshipped
and adored Him as very God of very God. He preached His Person with all
clearness of language and warmth of love. The Christ of God was All in
All to Paul.

The Apostle spoke equally clearly upon the Redeemer's work, especially
laying stress upon His death. "Horrible!" said the Jew, "How can you
boast in a Man who died a felon's death and was cursed because He was
hanged on a tree?" "Ah," said the Greek, "tell us no more about your
God that died! Babble no longer about resurrection. We never shall
believe such unmitigated foolishness." But Paul did not, therefore, put
these things into the background and say, "Gentlemen, I will begin with
telling you of the life of Christ and of the excellency of His
example–and by these means I shall hope to tempt you onward to the
conclusion that there was something Divine in Him and then, afterwards,
to the further conclusion that He made an atonement for sin."

No, he began with His blessed Person and distinctly described Him as he
had been taught by the Holy Spirit! And as to His crucifixion, he put
it in the front and made it the main point. He did not say, "Well, we
will leave the matter of His death for a time," or, "We will consider
it under the aspect of a martyrdom by which He completed His
testimony." No! Paul gloried in the crucified Redeemer, the dead and
buried Christ, the sin-bearing Christ, the Christ made a curse for us,
as it is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." This was
the subject to which he confined himself at Corinth–beyond this he
would not stir an inch. He does not merely determine to keep his
preaching to that point, but he resolves not even to know any other
subject! He would keep his mind fast closed among them to any thought
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified!

Very unwise this must have seemed. Call in a council of worldly wise
men and they will condemn such a rash course, for, in the first place,
such preaching would drive away all the Jews. Holding, as the Jews did,
the Old Testament Scriptures and receiving, therefore, a great deal of
teaching about the Messiah and holding very firmly to the unity of the
Godhead, the Jews had gone a long way towards the light–and if Paul
had kept back the objectionable points a little while, might he not
have drawn them a little further–and so by degrees have landed them at
the Cross? Wise men would have remarked upon the hopefulness of the
Israelites, if handled with discretion, and their advice would have
been, "We do not say, renounce your sentiments, Paul, but disguise them
for a little while! Do not say what is untrue, but at the same time be
a little reticent about what is true, or else you will drive away these
hopeful Jews."

The Apostle yielded to no such policy! He would not win either Jew or
Gentile by keeping back the Truth of God, for he knew that such
converts are worthless. If the man who is near the kingdom will be
driven right away from the Gospel by hearing the unvarnished Truth,
that is no guide as to Paul's duty. He knows that the Gospel must be a
"savor of death unto death" to some as well as, of "life unto life"
unto others and, therefore, whichever may occur he must deliver his own
soul. Consequences are not for Paul, but for the Lord! It is ours to
speak the Truth boldly and in every case we shall be a sweet savor unto
God. But to compromise, in the hope of making converts, is to do evil
that good may come–and this is never to be thought of for an instant!

Another would say, "But, Paul, if you do this, you cause opposition. Do
you not know that Christ crucified is a byword and a reproach to all
thinking men? Why, at Corinth there are a number of philosophers and, I
tell you, it will create unbounded ridicule if you so much as open your
mouth about the Crucified One and His Resurrection. Do not you remember
on Mars' Hill how they mocked you when you spoke upon that theme? Do
not provoke their contempt! Argue with their Gnosticism and show them
that you, too, are a philosopher! Be all things to all men. Be learned
among the

learned and rhetorical among the orators. By these means you will make
many friends and, by degrees, your conciliatory conduct will bring them
to accept the Gospel."

The Apostle shakes his head, puts down his foot and with firm voice
utters his decision, "I have determined," he says, "I have already made
up my mind. Your counsels and advice are lost upon me. I have
determined to know nothing among the Corinthians–however learned the
Gentile portion of them may be, or however fond of rhetoric–save Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified." He stands to that. It is further worthy of
note that the Apostle had resolved that his subject should so engross
the attention of his hearers that he would not even speak it with
excellency of speech or garnish it with man's wisdom!

You have heard, perhaps, of the famous painter who drew the likeness of
James I. He represented him sitting in a bower with all the flowers of
the season blooming around him–and nobody ever took the smallest
notice of the king's visage for all eyes were charmed by the excellency
of the flowers! Paul resolved that he would have no flowers at all! The
portrait which he sketched would be Christ crucified, the bare facts
and doctrine of the Cross without so much as a single flower from the
poets or the philosophers! Some of us need not be very loud in our
resolution to avoid fine speech, for we may have but slender gifts in
that direction. But the Apostle was a man of fine natural powers and of
vast attainments–a man whom the Corinthian critics could not have
despised–and yet he threw away all ornaments to let the unadorned
beauty of the Cross win its own way!

As he would not add flowers, so he would not darken the Cross with
smoke, for there is a way of preaching the Gospel amid a smother of
mystification and doubt so that men cannot receive it. A numerous band
of men are always boiling and stirring up a huge philosophic caldron
which steams with dense vapor, beclouding the Cross of Christ most
horribly. Alas for that wisdom which conceals the Wisdom of God! It is
the most guilty form of folly. Some people preach Christ as I have seen
representations of a man-of-war in battle. The painter painted nothing
but the smoke and you have said, "Where is the ship?" Well, if you
looked long you might discern a fragment of the top of one of the masts
and, perhaps, a portion of the boom. The ship was there, no doubt, but
the smoke concealed it! So there may be Christ in some men's preaching,
but there is such a cloud of thinking, such a dense pall of profundity,
such a horrid smoke of philosophy that you cannot see the Lord!

Paul painted beneath a clear sky. He would have no learned obscurity.
He determined not to know how to speak after the manner of the orators,
not to know how to think deeply according to the mode of the
philosophers, but only to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified–and just
to set Him forth in His own natural beauties. He dispensed with those
accessories which are so apt to attract the eyes of the mind from the
central point–Christ crucified. "A rash experiment," says one. Ah,
Brethren, it is the experiment of faith and faith is justified of all
her children! If we rely upon the power of mere persuasion, we rely
upon that which is born of the flesh! If we depend upon the power of
logical argument, we, again, rely upon that which is born of men's
reason! If we trust to poetic expressions and attractive turns of
speech, we look to carnal means.

But if we rest upon the naked Omnipotence of a crucified Savior, upon
the innate power of the wondrous deed of love which was consummated
upon Calvary–and if we believe that the Spirit of God will make this
the instrument for the conversion of men, the experiment cannot
possibly end in failure! But oh, my Brothers and Sisters, what a task
this must have been for Paul! He was not like many of us who are
neither familiar with philosophy, nor capable of oratory. He was so
great a master of both that he must have found it necessary to keep
himself constantly in check. I think I can see him, every now and
then–when a deeply intellectual thought has come across his mind and a
beautiful mode of utterance has suggested itself–reining himself up
and saying to his mind, "I will leave these deep thoughts for the
letter to the Romans.

"I will give them all this in the eighth chapter. But as for these
Corinthians, they shall have nothing but Christ crucified, for they are
so carnal, so grossly slavish before men that they will run away with
the idea that my excellent way of putting the Truth of God was the
power of it. They shall have Christ only–and only Christ. They are
children, and I must speak to them as such. They are mere babes in
Christ and have need of milk–and milk, alone, must I give them. They
claim to be clever and learned but they are conceited, high-minded,
full of divisions and controversies. I will give then nothing but 'the
old, old story of Jesus and His love,' and I will tell them that story
simply as to a little child."

Boundless love to their souls thus made him concentrate his testimony
upon the one central point of Jesus crucified! And thus I have shown
you what his subject was.

II. Now, secondly, ALTHOUGH PAUL THUS CONCENTRATED HIS ENERGIES UPON
ONE POINT OF TESTIMONY, IT WAS QUITE SUFFICIENT FOR HIS PURPOSE. If the
Apostle had aimed at pleasing an intelligent audience, Christ and Him
crucified would not have done at all. If, again, he had designed to set
himself up as a profound teacher, he would naturally have looked out
for something new, something a little more dazzling than the Person and
work of the Redeemer. And if Paul had desired, as I am afraid some of
my Brothers do, to collect together a class of highly independent minds
which is, I believe, the euphemism for free-thinkers–to draw together
a select Church of the "men of culture and intellect," which generally
means a club of men who despise the Gospel–he certainly would not have
kept to preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

This order of men would deny him all hope of success with such a theme.
They would assure him that such preaching would only attract the poorer
sort and the less educated–the servant maids and the old women. But
Paul would not have been discouraged by such observations, for he loved
the poorest and feeblest souls and, besides, he knew that what had
exercised power over his own educated mind was likely to have power
over other intelligent people, and so he kept to the doctrine of the
Cross, believing that he had, therein, an instrument which would
effectually accomplish his one desire with all classes of men.

Brethren, what did Paul wish to do? Paul desired, first of all, to
awaken sinners to a sense of sin–and what has ever accomplished this
so perfectly as the doctrine that sin was laid upon Christ and caused
His death? The sinner, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, sees at once
that sin is not a trifle, that it is not to be forgiven without an
Atonement, but must be followed by penalty, borne by someone or other.
When the guilty one has seen the Son of God bleeding to death in pangs
unutterable in consequence of his sin, he has learned that sin is an
enormous and crushing burden! If even the Son of God cries out beneath
it! If His death agony rends the heavens and shakes earth, what an
awful evil sin must be! What must it involve upon my soul if in my own
person I shall be doomed to bear its consequences? Thus the sinner
rightly argues and thus is he aroused to a sense of guilt.

But Paul wanted, also, to awaken in the minds of the guilty that humble
hope which is the great instrument of leading men to Jesus. He desired
to make them hope that forgiveness might be given consistently with
justice. Oh, Brethren, Christ crucified is the one ray of light that
can penetrate the thick darkness of despair and make a penitent heart
hope for pardon from the righteous Judge! Need a sinner ever doubt when
he has once seen Jesus crucified? When he understands that there is
pardon for every transgression through the bleeding wounds of Jesus, is
not the best form of hope at once kindled in his bosom and is he not
led to say, "I will arise and go unto my Father, and will say unto him,
Father, I have

sinned"?

Paul longed, yet further, to lead men to actual faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, faith in Jesus Christ can only come by preaching Jesus Christ.
Faith comes by hearing, but the hearing must be upon the subject
concerning which the faith is to deal. Would you make believers in
Christ, preach Christ! The things of Christ, applied by the Spirit,
lead men to put their reliance upon Christ. Nor was that all. Paul
wanted men to forsake their sins and what should lead them to hate evil
as much as seeing the sufferings of Jesus on account of it? You and I
know the power of a bleeding Savior to make us take revenge upon sin.
What indignation, what searching of heart, what stern resolve, what
bitterness of regret, what deep repentance have we felt when we have
seen that our sins became the nails, the hammer, the spear, yes, the
executioners of the Well-Beloved?

And Paul longed to train up in Corinth a Church of consecrated men,
full of love, full of self-denial, a holy people, zealous for good
works. And let me ask you, what is more necessary to preach to any man
to promote his sanctification and his consecration than Jesus Christ
who has redeemed us and so made us forever His servants? What argument
is stronger than the fact that we are not our own, for we are bought
with a price? I say that Paul had, in Christ crucified, a subject equal
to his objective! He had a Subject that would meet the case of every
man, however degraded or however cultured, and a subject which would be
useful to men in the first hours of the new birth and equally useful
when they were made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light. He had a subject for today and tomorrow, and a subject
for next year, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and
forever!

He had in the crucified Jesus a subject for the prince's palace and a
subject for the peasant's hut, a subject for the market place and a
subject for the academy, for the heathen temple and for the synagogue!
Wherever he might go, Christ would be both to Jew and Gentile, to bond
and free, the wisdom of God and the power of God–and that not to one
form of beneficial influence, alone–but unto full salvation to
everyone that believes.

III. But I must pass on to a third remark, that THE APOSTLE'S CONFINING
HIMSELF TO THIS SUBJECT COULD NOT POSSIBLY DO HARM. You know, Brothers
and Sisters, that when men dwell exclusively upon one thing they get
pretty strong, there, but they generally become very weak in other
points. Hence a man of one thought, only, is generally described as
riding a hobby. Well, this was Paul's hobby, but it was a sort of hobby
which a man may ride without any injury to himself or his neighbor! He
will be, none the less, a complete man if he surrenders himself wholly
and only to this one theme.

But let me remark that Christ crucified is the only subject of which
this can be said. Let me show you that it is so. You know a class of
ministers who preach doctrine–and doctrine only. Their mode of
preaching resembles the counting of your fingers–"one, two, three,
four, five," and for a variety, "five, four, three, two, one"–always a
certain set of great Truths of God and no others. What is the effect of
this ministry? Well, generally to breed a generation of men who think
they know everything, but really do not know much–very decided and so
far, so good–but very narrow, very exclusive, very bigoted and, so
far, so bad! You cannot preach doctrine, alone, without contracting
your own mind and that of your hearers.

There are others who preach experience only. They are very good people.
I am not condemning either them or their doctrinal friends, but they,
also, fall into mischief. Some of them take the lower scale of
experience and they tell us that nobody can be a child of God unless he
feels the horrible character of his inbred sin and groans daily. We
used to hear a good deal of that some years ago, there is less of it
now. Am I wrong in saying that this teaching trains up a race of men
who show their humility by sitting in judgement upon all who cannot
groan down to as deep a note as they can? Another class has lately
arisen who preach experience, but theirs is always upon the high key.

They soar aloft, as I think, a little in the balloon line. They own
only the bright side of experience. They have nothing to do with its
darkness and death. For them there are no nights and they sing through
perpetual summer days. They have conquered sin and they have ignored
themselves. So they say, but we should not have thought so if they had
not told us so! On the contrary, we might have fancied that they had a
very vivid idea of themselves and their own attainments. I hope I am
mistaken, but it has appeared to some of us poor fallible beings that
in some beloved Brethren, self has grown marvelously big of late!
Certainly their conversations and preaching largely consist of very
wonderful declarations of their own admirable condition.

I should be pleased to learn of their progress in Grace if it is real.
But I had sooner have made the discovery myself, or have heard it from
somebody besides themselves, for there is an Inspired Proverb which
says, "Let another praise you, and not your own lips," and, for my
part, if any other man thought it right to praise me, I would rather
that he held his tongue, for man-magnifying is a poor business. Let the
Lord, alone, be magnified! I think it is clear that grave faults arise
from exclusively preaching an inner life instead of preaching Christ,
who is Life itself!

Another class of ministers have preached the precepts and little else.
We need these men as we need the others–they are all useful and act as
antidotes to each other–but their ministries are not complete. If you
hear preaching about duty and command, it is very proper. But if it is
the only theme, the teaching becomes very legal in the long run. And
after a while the true Gospel, which has the power to make us keep the
precepts gets flung into the background–and the precepts are not kept,
after all! Do, do, do, generally ends in nothing being done! If a
Brother were to undertake to preach the ordinances only, like those who
are always extolling what they are pleased to call the holy
sacraments–well, you know where that teaching goes–it has a tendency
towards the southeast–and its chosen line runs across the city of
Rome.

Moreover, beloved Brother, even if you preach Jesus Christ, you must
not keep to any other phase of Him but that which Paul took, namely,
"Him crucified," for under no other aspect may you exclusively regard
Him. For instance, the preaching of the Second Advent, which, in its
place and proportion, is admirable, has been, by some, taken out of its
place, and made the end-all and be-all of their ministry. That, you
see, is not what Paul had selected and it is not a safe selection. In
many cases sheer fanaticism has been the result of exclusively dwelling
upon prophecy and probably more

men have gone mad on that subject than on any other religious question!
Whether any man could ever become fanatical about Christ crucified I
cannot say, I have never heard of such an instance. Whether a man ever
went insane with love to the crucified Redeemer I do not know, but I
have never met such a case.

If I should ever go crazy, I should like it to be in that direction,
and I should like to incite a great many more, for what a blessed
subject it would be for one to be carried away with–to become
unreasonably absorbed in Christ crucified–to have gone out of your
senses with faith in Jesus! The fact is, it never can injure the mind,
it is a doctrine which may be heard forever and will be always fresh,
new and suitable to the whole of our manhood. I say that the keeping to
this doctrine cannot do hurt and the reason is this–it contains all
that is vital within itself. Keep within the limits of Christ, and Him
crucified, and you have brought before men all the essentials for this
life and for the life to come! You have given them the root out of
which may grow both branch and flower and fruit of holy thought, word
and deed.

Let a man know Christ crucified, and he knows Him who to know is Life
Eternal! This is a subject which does not awaken one part of the man
and send the other part to sleep. It does not kindle his imagination
and leave his judgement uninstructed, nor feed his intellect and starve
his heart. There is not a faculty of our nature but what Christ
crucified affects for good! The perfect Manhood of Christ crucified
affects mind, heart, memory, imagination, thought, everything! As in
milk there are all the ingredients necessary for sustaining life, so in
Christ crucified there is everything that is needed to nurture the
soul. Even as the hand of David's chief minstrel touched every chord of
his ten-stringed harp, so Jesus brings sweet music out of our entire
manhood.

There is also this to be said about preaching Christ exclusively, that
it will never produce animosities. It will not impregnate men's minds
with questions and contentions as those nice points do which some are
so fond of dealing with. When certain questions are settled by my
judgement and by your judgement, and by a third and a fourth man's
judgement, a contest is sure to ensue. But he who stands at Christ's
Cross and stays there. He stands where he may embrace the whole
brotherhood of true Christians, for we are perfectly joined together in
one mind and judgement there! There is no vaunting of man's judgement
at the Cross. "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Christ," comes
from not keeping to Jesus crucified! But if we keep to the Cross as
guilty sinners needing cleansing through the precious blood and finding
all our salvation there, we shall not have time to set ourselves up as
religious leaders and to cause divisions in the Church of Christ.

Was there ever, yet, a sect created in Christendom by the preaching of
Christ crucified? No, my Brothers and Sisters, sects are created by the
preaching of something over and above this, but this is the soul and
marrow of Christianity and, consequently, the perfect bond of love
which holds Christians together!

IV. I shall not say more, but pass on to my last reflection, which is
this–Because, then, Paul made this his one sole subject among the
Corinthians and he did no hurt by doing so, which cannot be said of any
other subject, I COMMEND

TO YOU THAT WE SHOULD, ALL OF US, MAKE THIS THE MAIN SUBJECT OF OUR
THOUGHTS, PREACHING AND EFFORTS. Unconverted men and women, to you I
speak first. To you I have nothing else to preach but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified.

Paul knew there were great sinners at Corinth, for it was common all
over the then world to call a licentious man a Corinthian. They were a
people who pushed laxity and lasciviousness of manners to the greatest
possible excess, yet among them Paul knew nothing but Christ and Him
crucified, because all that the greatest sinner can possibly need is to
be found there! You have nothing in yourself, Sinner, and you need not
wish for anything to carry to Jesus. You tell me you know nothing about
the profound doctrines of the Gospel–you need not know them when
coming to Christ. The one thing you need to know is this–Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, came into the world to save sinners and whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life!

I shall be glad for you to be further instructed in the faith and to
know the heights and depths of that love which passes knowledge, but
just now the one thing you need to know is Jesus Christ crucified! If
you never get beyond that. If your mind should be of so feeble a cast
that anything deeper than this you would never be able to grasp, I, for
one, shall feel no distress whatever–for you will have found that
which will deliver you from the power of sin and from the punishment of
it–and that which will take you up to Heaven to dwell where that same
Jesus who was crucified sits enthroned at the right band of God! Oh,
dear broken Heart, if you will ever find healing, it is in those
wounds! If you ever find rest, you must have it from those pierced
hands! If you ever hear absolution, it must be spoken from those same
lips which said

so sweetly, "It is finished." God forbid that we should know anything
among sinners except Christ and Him crucified! Look to Him and Him
only, and you shall find rest unto your souls!

As for you, my Brothers and Sisters who know Christ, I have this to say
to you–keep this to the front and nothing else but this, for it is
against this that the enemy rages. That part of the line of battle
which is most fiercely assailed by the enemy is sure to be that which
he knows to be most important to carry. Men hate those they fear. The
antagonism of the enemies of the Gospel is mainly against the Cross.
From the very first it was so. They cried, "Let Him come down from the
Cross and we will believe in Him." They will write us pretty lines of
Christ and tell us what an excellent man He was, and do our Lord such
homage as their Judas' lips can afford Him. They will also take His
Sermon on the Mount and say what a wonderful insight He had into the
human heart, and what a splendid code of morals He taught, and so on.
"We will be Christians" they say, "but the dogma of Atonement we
utterly reject."

Our answer is, we do not care one farthing what they have to say about
our Master if they deny His substitutionary sacrifice! Whether they
give Him wine or vinegar is a small question so long as they reject the
claims of the Crucified. The praises of unbelievers are sickening! Who
needs to hear polluted lips lauding Him? Such sugared words are very
like those which came out of the mouth of the devil when he said, "You
Son of the Highest," and Jesus rebuked him and said "Hold your peace
and come out of him." Even thus would we say to unbelievers who extol
Christ's life–"Hold your peace! We know your enmity, disguise it as
you may! Jesus is the Savior of men or He is nothing. If you will not
have Christ crucified you cannot have Him at all."

My Brothers and Sisters in Jesus, let us glory in the blood of Jesus!
Let it be conspicuous as though it were sprinkled upon the lintel and
the two side posts of our doors! And let the world know that redemption
by blood is written upon the innermost tablets of our hearts! Brethren,
this is the test point of every teacher. When a fish goes bad they say
it first stinks at the head and, certainly when a preacher becomes
heretical it is always about Christ. If he is not clear about Jesus
crucified and you hear one sermon from him–that is your misfortune.
But if you go and hear him again, and hear another like the first, it
will be your fault. Go a third time, and it will be your crime! If any
man is doubtful about Christ crucified, recollect Hart's couplet, for
it is a truth–

"You cannot be right in the rest. Unless you think rightly of Him."

I do not need to examine men upon all the doctrines of the Westminster
Assembly's Confession. I begin here, "What do you think of Christ?" If
you cannot answer that question, go and publish your own views where
you like, but you and I are wide as the poles asunder! Neither do I
wish to have fellowship with you. We must have plain speaking here. It
is "Christ crucified" which God blesses to conversion. God blessed
William Huntingdon to the conversion of souls–I am sure of that,
though I am no Huntingdonian. He blessed John Wesley to the conversion
of souls. I am quite as clear about that, though I am not a Wesleyan.
The point upon which the Lord blessed them, both, was that in which
they bore testimony to Christ–and you shall find that in proportion as
Jesus Christ's Atonement is in a sermon, it is the lifeblood of that
sermon–and is that which God sanctifies to the conversion of the souls
of men. Therefore keep it always prominent!

And I ask you now, my Brethren, one thing more. Is not Christ and Him
crucified the thing to live on and the thing to die on? Worldlings can
live upon their flimsies. They can delight themselves under their
Jonah's gourds while they last. But when a man is depressed in spirit
and tortured in body, where does he look? If he is a Christian, where
does he fly? Where, indeed, but to Jesus crucified? How often have I
been glad to creep into the temple and stand in the poor publican's
shoes and say, "God be merciful to me a sinner," looking only to that
Mercy Seat which Jesus sprinkled with His precious blood? This will do
to die with! I do not believe we shall die seeking consolation from our
peculiar Church organizations. Nor shall we die grasping with a dying
clutch either ordinance or doctrine by itself. Our soul must live and
die on Jesus crucified!

Notice all the saints, when they die, whether they do not get back to
Calvary's great Sacrifice. They believed a great many things. Some of
them had many crotchets and whims and oddities, but the main point
comes uppermost in death. "Jesus died for me, Jesus died for me"–they
all come to that! Well, where they get at last, do you not think it
would be well to go at first? And if that is the bottom of it all and
it certainly is, would it not be as well for us to keep to that? While
some are glorying in this and some in that, some have this form of
worship and some that, let us say, "God forbid

that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified to me and I unto the world."

Brethren, I commend to you more and more the bringing of the Cross of
Christ into prominence, because it is this which will weld us more and
more closely to one another and will keep us in blessed unity. We
cannot all understand those peculiar Truths which depend, very much,
upon nice points and shades of meaning in the Greek which only critics
can bring out. If you are going in for these pretty things, Brother,
you must leave behind many of us poor fools, for we cannot go in for
these things–they puzzle us. I know you have got that dainty point
very beautifully in your own mind and you think a great deal of it, and
I do not wonder, for it has cost you a good deal of thinking and it
shows your powerful discernment. At the same time, do you not think you
ought to condescend to some of us who never will, as long as ever we
live, take up with these knotty points?

Some of our brains are of an ordinary sort. We have to earn our bread
and we mingle with ordinary people. We know that two times two will
make four, but we are not acquainted with all the ambiguous principles
which lie concealed in the lofty philosophy to which you have climbed.
I do not know much about it. I do not climb to such elevations, myself,
and I shall never get up there along with you–might it not be better
for the unity of the faith that you would kindly leave some of these
things alone, agree better with your friends at home, show more love to
your fellow Christians and attend a little more to commonplace duties?
I do not know but what it might do you good, and bring a little of your
humility to the front, if you get down there with Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.

Personally I might know a host of things–I specially might, for
everybody tries to teach me something! I get advice by the
wagonload–one pulls this ear and one pulls that. Well, I might know a
great deal, but I find I should have to leave some of you behind if I
went off to these things–and I love you too well for that. I am
determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. If any man will keep to that, I will say, "Give me your
hand, my Brother! Jesus washed it with His blood as He did mine. Come,
Brother, let us look up together at the same Cross. What do you make of
it?"

There are tears in your eyes and in mine, but yet there is a flush of
joy upon both our faces because of the dear love that nailed Jesus
there. "What shall we do in the sight of this Cross?" My Brother says,
"I will go and win souls," and I say, "So will I." He says, "I have one
way of speaking," and I reply, "I have another, for our gifts differ,
but we will never clash, for we are serving one Lord and one Master and
we will not be divided, either in this world or in that which is to
come." Let Apollos say what he likes, or Paul or Peter–we will learn
from them all and be very glad to do so–but still, from the Cross we
will not move, but stand fast there–for Jesus is the first and the
last, the Alpha and the Omega. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–1 Corinthians 2. HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–425, 483, 433.