A Gospel Sermon To Outsiders

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, AUGUST 19, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Be of good comfort, rise; He calls you." Mark 10:49.

Preached on a night when the Tabernacle was free to all comers, the
regular congregation having vacated their seats.

THESE open services, as most of you will judge, are intended to be
purely evangelistic. No doubt a large number of Believers are here,
many of them well-established in the faith, who would like to hear a
doctrine argued, a type interpreted, or an apocalyptic symbol unfolded.
But really, I cannot attend to you this evening. I feel something like
Luther when preaching to a mixed assembly. He said, as nearly as I can
remember, words to this effect, "I perceive in the Church Dr. Justus
Jonas and Melancthon and other learned doctors. Now, if I preach to
their edification, what is to become of the rest? Therefore, by their
leave, I shall forget that Dr. Jonas is here at all and preach to the
multitude." So must I do at this good hour, asking those of you who are
advanced in the Divine life to unite your prayers with mine, which will
continually ascend, that the Word of the Gospel may be blessed to the
unconverted.

Dear Friends, there are so many of you that have been, for years,
listening to the proclamation of the Gospel. You are dwellers, almost,
in Emmanuel's land, but not quite–that is why I feel most earnest that
this night should be the time of your decision for the Savior–that you
should not remain, any longer, hearers only, but should become
believers and afterwards doers of the Word of God! There are gentlemen
in England who can afford to drive a coach and four from town to town
and carry nobody, performing their journeys for their own amusement,
but I am not able or willing to do anything of that kind. Unless I can
have my coach loaded with passengers to Heaven, I would sooner it were
never started and had rather my team stayed in the stable.

We must carry some souls to Heaven, for our call is from above and our
time is too precious to throw away on mere pretense of doing good! We
cannot play at preaching–we preach for eternity. We cannot feel
satisfied merely to deliver sermons to senseless throngs, or to the
most attentive crowds. Whatever smiles may greet us as we start and
whatever salutation may welcome us at our close, we are not content
unless Jesus works salvation by us! Our desire is that Grace should be
magnified and that sinners should be saved. They used to jeer at the
Tabernacle in Moorfields and the one in Tottenham Court Road. They
called them Mr. Whitfield's soul traps. A very excellent name for a
place of worship!

Such may this Tabernacle always be! It ought to be a soul trap and we
shall be disappointed, indeed, if there are not some souls taken in the
trap tonight! If God does not bless the Word and make it so potent that
some of you shall really close in with the Gospel proclamation and
enter into eternal life, I shall be heavy of heart. Before I attempt to
deal with my text, let me describe to you the plan of salvation. You
know it, most of you. Oh that we could get at the thousands of London
who do not know it! The multitudes that never enter a house of prayer
or yield attention to the Gospel message! Our heart yearns over
them–but what more can we do for them? They are perishing in willful
ignorance.

Thanks be to God that so many are here tonight! I will seize the
opportunity to declare the plan of Grace. Though so many of you know
it, let me tell it to you again. By sin, by unrighteousness, by
violation of God's Law, we have broken our peace with God. We are lost,
for He must punish sin. It is not possible that He should be the
righteous Governor of the universe and allow sin to go unpunished! To
punish sin is no arbitrary purpose of an angry God. It is inevitable in
the universe that where there is evil, there should be suffering. If
not in this life, yet in another life, which will shortly succeed that
which now is, every transgression must receive its meet recompense of
reward.

The question is, how can we be forgiven? How, consistently with Divine
Justice, can our iniquities be blotted out? This is not an impossible
problem left for us to work out–God's way of peace is made clear by
Divine Revelation. God,

in His Infallible Word, has told us the means and appliances by which
guilty sinners can be made righteous before Him. And, instead of being
driven from His Presence at the last, he may be accepted and dwell at
His right hand! He tells us that inasmuch as the first sin that ruined
us was not ours, but Adam's, and by the transgression of one man we all
fell, so it became possible for Him, in consistency with justice, to
ordain that another Man should be forthcoming in whom we may rise and
be restored!

That other Man has come–"the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven." But
the task of lifting up was much harder than that of casting down. A
mere man could ruin us, but a mere man could not redeem and rescue us.
Therefore, God Himself, the Ever-Blessed, clothed Himself with the
nature of man, was born of a woman, lay in Bethlehem's manger, lived
here on earth a life of humiliation and self-denial and, at the last,
took upon Himself the sins of men in one vast load. Even as the fabled
Atlas was said to carry the world upon his shoulders, so He took sin
and guilt upon Him and bore it in His own body on the tree. Jesus hung
on the Cross as the Substitute for all of our race that ever will
believe on Him and then and there He put away, by His suffering, all
the transgression and iniquity of believing men so that now we can
preach to mankind and say, "He that believes in Him is not condemned.
He that believes on the Son of God has everlasting life."

When you go to a foreign city for the first time and stay at an inn, it
may be that you miss your way when you go out and are not able to get
back, again, as easily as you wish. It is generally expedient,
therefore, for travelers to learn the main streets of every town which
they visit. In Rome we come to know which way the Corso runs and when
we get an idea of the run of that main thoroughfare we, by-and-by, are
able to pick our way through the city. Now, the main street of the
Gospel is Substitution. "He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The main street
of the Gospel runs crosswise–follow it and you will know the ins and
outs of the other great streets before long. This is the high street of
the City of Grace–"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law,
being made a curse for us."

Christ stood in our place and suffered that we might not suffer. He
"died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God." Whoever believes
in Christ is saved from the damning power of sin and delivered from the
wrath to come. Take this fact in all its breadth and length–and never
doubt it–and you have the key of the Gospel. Whoever, I say, trusts
his soul with the Lord Jesus Christ, relying on that Sacrifice which He
offered, and that death which He endured, is saved! Let him not doubt
it. He has God's Word for it–let him believe it and rejoice in it.
"Whoever believes in Him is not condemned," for, "like as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so has the Son of Man been
lifted up that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." Simple, child-like reliance upon the Lord Jesus
gives immediate and complete salvation to the trustful soul!

Well, that is the main street of the city. Now how to get into it is
the question. I earnestly desire and devoutly hope to be the means, if
God will help me, of leading some there. May the Holy Spirit now bear
witness with the Truth of God and make it the power of God unto
salvation! Our text says, "Be of good comfort, rise; He calls you." Our
first point is that some who are seeking Christ greatly need
comforting. Secondly, their very best comfort lies in the fact that
Jesus calls them. But, thirdly, if they take the comfort of that call,
it urges them to immediate action–"Arise." "Be of good comfort, rise;
He calls you."

I. First, then, MANY PERSONS WHO ARE REALLY SEEKING THE SAVIOR GREATLY
NEED COMFORTING. I know there are many such here tonight. You long
after everlasting life. God has worked in you a desire to be reconciled
to Himself but you need encouraging, for you labor under a sort of
undefined fear that these good things are not for you. Partly your
conscience, partly your unbelief and partly Satan–these three have
joined together to throw a darkness over you–and you really think that
you cannot be forgiven. You would not like to put it into exactly those
words, but such is the tenor of your thoughts.

There is a hazy idea about you that there are many very good saintly
people who will be saved and, indeed, that there are some great
transgressors who will be saved–but you do not think that you can be.
Oh that I could destroy that unbelieving thought! There is salvation,
there is mercy, there is forgiveness and it is free to every soul that
will come and take it! It is as free as the air you breathe, or as the
water leaping from the street fountain yonder. "Whoever will, let him
come and take of the Water of Life freely." You are mistaken in your
gloomy reflections! You write bitter things against yourself, but God
has not written them! What if you should take heart and get
hope–"Perhaps I may tonight find

eternal life. Perhaps I may tonight go out of this house relieved of
the burden of my sin"? It were a good beginning if you had such a hope,
but you may with confidence go a great deal further than that!

It may be that you are cast down because you think that you have been
seeking in vain. You began to pray a few months ago, young man, and I
am glad to hear of it! But you have not yet obtained peace. Do not give
up praying! I know you are discouraged, but do not cease seeking. I,
myself, was for many months an earnest seeker after God by the way of
prayer. I thought that by importunate prayer I should find pardon. I
did not understand that He had said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved." So I set to work praying. Nevertheless, I am
thankful that I did not cease from prayer, though it often seemed as if
I wasted my words and spent my tears for nothing. Be not discouraged.
This blind man was not heard at first, though he cried earnestly. He
had to cry for sight again and again, increasing in vehemence each
time.

Do not be driven to despair! There may be delays, but there shall never
be denials to those who cry in earnest. Be of good comfort. Press on,
dear Heart, press on, and you shall find peace and comfort! Perhaps,
too, you are sad because there are many round you who discourage you.
They tell you there is nothing in religion. How should they know?
Theirs is a strange infatuation. There are a great many individuals in
the world who are considered to be honest in business– you would take
their note of hand and you would trust their word about any goods they
were selling. And yet when these good folks begin to say that they are
conscious of a new life within them. That they have found out that God
is real and spiritual–and that they have received a Spirit which
dwells within them, or that they commune with God–straightway a number
of people say that it is not true! In effect they are calling them
liars.

But why not true? On what ground are they to be discredited? Simply
because the aforesaid people who deny it say that they never saw such a
thing themselves and never felt such a thing themselves? But if there
were a world full of blind people and among them a few persons blessed
with sight, whose eyes had been opened–if these began to talk of
sunlight and color, all the blind men might say, "It is not true!" Why?
"Because we never saw the sunlight or the color." Does that prove that
it is not true? Though you do not possess the faculties of vision,
others do. If those men are honest in other things, they have as much
right to be believed in this thing as in the rest. We solemnly assert
that there is something real in religion! It is not a creed–alone, it
is a life!

The regenerate belong to a new creation. If any man is in Christ, he is
a new creature with new faculties and new powers so that he is
introduced into altogether a new world. Do not believe those, then, who
tell you that there is nothing in it, for they do not know and,
therefore, are not fair witnesses! They can witness to nothing but the
fact that they are not in the secret. The man who was brought up for a
murder which was sworn against him by six witnesses said that he ought
not to be condemned because he could bring 60 witnesses who did not see
him do it. Of course he could! And so we can bring 60,000 people to say
there is no spiritual life because they have never felt it! What does
that prove? It only proves that they know nothing about it!

But if you bring a few–even though they should be but a
few–straightforward, honest, simple-minded people whom you would
believe in other things, you are bound to accept their testimony about
this. There is something real in faith in Jesus! There is a peace which
passes all understanding obtained through pardoned sin. There is a new
birth, for we have felt it! There is a new life, for we enjoy it! There
is a joy that leaps over earth's narrow bounds. There is a rest of
heart akin to the rest of the blessed in Heaven and it can be enjoyed
here and now! Thousands of us bear witness that it is so! Do not be
discouraged then, for we tell you no old wives' fables, but the very
Truth of God which we have, ourselves, tasted and handled! You that are
seeking after eternal life need not be baffled by skeptics. We are true
men and tell you what we have proved for ourselves. You will yet find
it to be as God declares.

One reason why you have not obtained comfort is, perhaps, because you
do not know all the Gospel yet. Good news half told may often seem to
be bad news. I have read that in the days of the flag and light
signals, a message came across to England concerning the Duke of
Wellington and half the message was read as it appeared, and astonished
all England with the sad intelligence. It ran thus, "Wellington
defeated." Everybody was distressed as they read it but it so happened
that they had not seen all the message. Fog had intervened, and when,
by-and-by, the air was clearer and the lights flashed out a second
time, it was read thus–"Wellington defeated the French"–quite another
thing! It was quite the reverse, indeed, of what half the message had
led men to fear. Thus when you hear half the Gospel it may appear to
condemn you–but you have only to hear the other half to find out its
encouraging tidings.

I would say be diligent in hearing the Gospel. Be diligent in searching
it out in the sacred Book which God has given us. And when you know the
Truths of God more fully you will find faith comes to you by the
hearing and the understanding of the Word of God. Leave those ministers
who preach only a portion of the Gospel–try to know all the message of
love and you will, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, soon lose your
fears. Do you not think, too, that some seekers miss comfort because
they forget that Jesus Christ is alive? The Christ of the Church of
Rome is always depicted in one of two positions–either as a babe in
His mother's arms, or else as dead.

That is Rome's Christ! But our Christ is alive. Jesus who rose has
"left the dead no more to die." I was requested in Turin to join with
others in asking to see the shroud in which the Savior was buried. I
must confess that I had not faith enough to believe in the shroud, nor
had I curiosity enough to wish to look at the fictitious linen. I would
not care a penny for the article even if I knew it to be genuine! Our
Lord has left His shroud and sepulcher and lives in Heaven! Tonight He
so lives that a sigh of yours will reach Him, a tear will find Him, a
desire in your heart will bring Him to you! Only seek Him as a loving,
living Savior and put your trust in Him as risen from the dead no more
to die, and comfort will, I trust, come into your spirit.

Perhaps, too, you have a notion that conversion is something very
difficult. A young woman came to me, the other day, after a service, to
ask me whether I really meant what I said when I declared that he that
believed in Jesus Christ was saved then and there. "Yes," I said, and I
gave her the Scriptural guarantee for it. "Why," she said, "my
grandfather told me that when he found religion it took him six months
and they had nearly to put him into a lunatic asylum, he was in such a
dreadful state of mind." "Well, well," I said, "that sometimes happens.
But that distress of his did not save him! That was simply his
conscience and Satan keeping him away from Christ. When he was saved it
was not by his deep feelings–it was by his believing in Jesus Christ."
I then went on to set Christ before her as our only ground of hope in
opposition to inward feelings.

"I see it," she said! And I rejoiced as I noticed the bright light that
passed over her face–a flash of heavenly sunlight which I have often
seen on the countenances of those who have believed in Jesus
Christ–when peace fills the soul even to the brim and lights up the
countenance with a minor transfiguration. It is so. You have but to
trust Christ and it is done! But you are afraid. Have you ever heard of
the man who lost his way, one night, and came to the edge of a
precipice, as he thought, and fell over? He clutched at some old tree
and hung there, clinging to his frail support with all his might, for
he felt that he should be dashed to pieces if he fell. There he hung
till he got into a desperate state of fever and his hands could hold
his body no longer! So at last he dropped and fell–about six
inches–onto a smooth mossy bank where he lay, altogether unhurt, and
quite safe.

Now, there are many who think that sure destruction must await them if
they confess sin and resign all into the hands of God. It is an idle
fear! Give up your hold upon everything but Christ and drop down! Soft
and mossy shall the bank be which receives you! Jesus Christ, by His
love and by the efficacy of His precious blood, shall give you
immediate rest and peace. Only drop now. Drop down at once! This is the
major part of faith–the giving up of every other hold and simply
falling upon Christ. That dropping down will bring you present
salvation.

II. Now, in the second place, the greatest comfort which I can very
well conceive is that which is conveyed in the text.

It is this–"BE OF GOOD COMFORT, RISE; HE CALLS YOU"–a good word for
the blind man, for he knew that

Jesus did not call him to mock him, and that He did not say, "come
here" that He might merely tell him, "your eyes cannot be opened."
Jesus did not call him to sport with him and send him away
disappointed. Christ's calls are honest calls and guarantee blessing to
those who accept them.

Now, beloved Friends, there are two calls mentioned in Scripture. The
one is the general call of the Gospel and the other is the effectual
call, the personal call, by which men are saved. The general universal
call ought to yield great comfort to any seeking soul. In the Word of
God, you, dear Hearer, are called to come to Christ, even you! Why do I
know that? Because when Jesus gave the commission to His disciples He
said, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature." You are a creature, are you not? Well, then, you must be
included in that range! We are to preach the Gospel to you. And then
again, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."

You are a sinner, are you not? Do you admit that? Very well, then,
according to the text that faithful saying is to be addressed to you.
And you, dear Seeker, feel a burden upon your soul, do you not? You are
laboring hard to get

salvation. Therefore, the Gospel call must be addressed to you. "Come
unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest." Indeed there are many such calls, but there is another which
must include you–"Whoever will, let him come and take the Water of
Life freely." Are you willing to come? Then you are undoubtedly called
to come to Christ! Should not that fact comfort you? Remember, as I
have already said, He does not call you to mock you, or invite you to
come without intending to bless you. Oh hear His honest call! Pluck up
courage and come to Him!

Nobody feels any trouble about going where there is a general
invitation. Did you ever cross the Mont St. Bernard? If so, I do not
suppose you needed much pressing to turn into the hospice, there, and
spend the night! When they came out and told you that everybody was
welcome, rich and poor, and that travelers nearly all stayed there, you
turned in! I went the other day to St. Cross Hospital, near Winchester,
which some of you may know. There they give away a piece of bread to
everybody who knocks at the door. I knocked as bold as brass. Why
shouldn't I? If they gave the bread away to everybody, why should not I
have my piece? And so, of course, the hatch was opened and I had my
little piece of bread with the friends who were with me. It was a gift
to be given to everybody that called. I did not humble myself
particularly and make anything special of it. It was for all and I came
and received as one of the people who were willing to knock.

Now, even so, if the Gospel is to be preached to every creature, why do
you stand higgling and haggling when you need the Bread of Life? Why
should you waste time in raising question after question when you only
need to take what Jesus freely gives? I guarantee you do not raise such
quibbles against yourselves in money matters! If an estate is
bequeathed you, you do not employ a solicitor to hunt for flaws in the
title, or to invent objections to the will! Why do men raise
difficulties against their own salvation, instead of cheerfully
accepting what the infinite mercy of God so graciously provides for all
who, with broken hearts and willing minds, are ready to take what God
the Ever-Bountiful is so pleased to give? The invitation is so large
and there is this to be noted concerning it–no one was ever refused
yet!

There is a well-known institution in London which bears across the
front of it, "No destitute boy ever refused." Well may we put this over
Christ's great house of mercy–"No destitute soul ever refused." I can
imagine two boys standing on the pavement in front of Dr. Barnardo's
institution and one saying to the other, "Can we go in there?" "Yes,"
says the other, "I should rather think we could. We are destitute,
aren't we? Look here, my clothes are all in rags and I have not a penny
in the world, and no father and no mother. I slept under a dry arch
last night. I am a destitute boy, and no mistake of that." I can only
suppose that the other might boastfully say, "I ain't destitute, not I!
I can earn my living any day and I have got a half-crown in my pocket."

Now, that fellow has no claim to be admitted because he is not
destitute. But the boy who is hungry and ragged and homeless is sure to
be welcomed. As he reads those lines, "No destitute boy ever refused,"
he says, "There is hope for me, then." Now, then, destitute Soul, Jesus
Christ never refused one like you yet! If you have a store of merit of
your own–if you believe you can be saved by your good works–you do
not come under the heading of "destitute." "The whole have no need of a
physician, but they that are sick." But if you are stripped of all
boasting. If you are brought to bankruptcy as to personal merit. If you
have come down to absolute poverty as to any hope in yourself, then, as
no destitute soul ever was rejected or ever shall be, come to Jesus at
once! Come at once, I say. "Be of good comfort, rise; He calls you."

But, dear Friends, I said that there was another and an effectual call.
That call the Holy Spirit directs to individuals and when it comes, it
is not resisted, or if resisted for a while, it is ultimately yielded
to, so that the man is constrained to come. O Holy Spirit, give that
call tonight! There were two brothers fishing and Jesus said to them,
"Follow Me." They threw down their nets and followed Him. Matthew was
sitting at the receipt of customs with his pen behind his ear and his
account books before him. Jesus said, "Follow Me." Up Matthew rose and
followed Him at once. That little fellow, the tax gatherer, had climbed
up a tree because, being short of stature, he could not see over the
heads of the crowd. While he was looking down from among the leafy
branches, the Master stood at the bottom of the tree and said,
"Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide in your
house."

Down came Zacchaeus! How could he help it? The Spirit of God had given
the effectual call and Christ was in that man's house shortly
after–and the man gave abundant evidence of a change of heart. Oh, may
the eternal Spirit speak in that fashion to some here present so that
they may at once yield and follow Jesus Christ! That call, wherever it
comes, casts a sweet softness over the soul. The man cannot make it
out, but he feels so differently from what he did before. The iron
sinew of his neck is gone. The cold stone within his breast has melted
into flesh. He listens to the Gospel which once

he despised. Listening, he thinks–and it is a grand matter to get a
man to think about himself, his God, eternity, Heaven, Hell, the
Redeemer. As he thinks, he sees his life in a different light.

He perceives that there has been sin in it–very much more of sin than
he ever thought could have been there–and as he sees his sin, he
mourns over it. He almost wishes that he had never been born rather
than have transgressed as he has done. His heart softens under the
influence of the Law of God. He lays aside his proud boasts and
confesses that he is full of transgression and sin. Next to this
thoughtfulness and repentance comes a little hope–he perceives that
there is a salvation worth having and he asks himself why he should not
have it. Then comes faith–he perceives that Jesus is the Son of God
and he says to himself, "the Divine, He can save even me!" He trusts
and, as he trusts, the darkness which enveloped him begins to
disappear. He obtains a little light and yet a little more! And at last
he cries, "I do believe that Jesus died for me. I rest my soul in His
pierced hands. I am forgiven–I am saved."

That man has been called by the blessed Spirit! It is very strange,
too, how God calls some men. I have known it happen many times in this
Tabernacle. I have been preaching and I have made a remark which has
suited the case as well as if I had been that man's companion or
better. How was it? I will tell you. God had been at work on that man
and He led His servant to work to the same point. The Lord was, by His
Providence, tunneling one side of the mountain of the man's
indifference and then He set me to work on the other side by guiding me
in my thoughts so that I preached the Gospel in a suitable manner. Just
as when they made the Mont Cenis tunnel, one set of engineers were
boring one way and one set the other way–and then they met in the
heart of the great mass.

A pious mother has been boring away at the mountain by her entreaties,
or an earnest Christian teacher, or a wife or a sister has been at the
same work. Perhaps sickness, like the diamond boring rod, has been
piercing into the man and then, at last, in this place, the Word of the
Lord has exactly hit the case so that the tunnel through the soul has
been completed, and eternal salvation has been the result! Perhaps the
chance words of this night are no chance words to some of you now
present, but the very words of God sent straight to your soul! O God,
grant that it may be so and You shall have the praise. O Blessed
Spirit, let it be!

III. Now, lest I weary you, I am going to close with the third head
which is THE COMFORT DRAWN FROM OUR CALLING SHOULD LEAD TO IMMEDIATE
ACTION. "Be of good comfort, rise; He calls you." That exhortation to
rise means instant decision. You have been hesitating and hanging like
the scales of a balance, trembling between Heaven and Hell. Which is it
to be? May the Holy Spirit call you so that it shall be Christ,
salvation, eternal life! I am not always sorry when men grow angry
while hearing a sermon. The worst thing that can happen to me tonight
is for you all to be satisfied! But when some people get very angry
they will think–and thinking they will feel–and feeling they may turn

to God.

Despite their anger they will come again. The hook is in the man's
jaws. We shall have that fish! Let him draw out the line further and
further, for it will hold him. Let him have play. We shall have him
back, again, before long. Have the landing net ready! There is nothing
better for some men than to have their antagonism to the Gospel
awakened for a time. The Truth of God has come home to them. It is at
work on them and, before long, we trust the blessed work will be
complete and the soul will be saved! This is the point aimed at.
"Rise," says the text. That is, do not let it be any longer a question,
"Shall it be?" or, "Shall it not be?" but decide tonight, "It shall be!
By the Grace of God I will be a Christian. By the Grace of God, if
there is salvation to be had, I will have it." I do not ask you to come
to that decision for the mere sake of making a decision which you will
cordially adopt and then carelessly forget. But I ask the Grace of God
to lead you to say with purpose of heart, "It shall be."

Alas, very many of you come and go! You hear and hear without
profit–for it ends in hearing and never ripens into decision. Too many
of our regular hearers still remain unconverted though occasional
hearers have been saved. When you take hold of a piece of India rubber,
you may make any impression that you like all over it, but finally it
resumes its old shape. There are hosts of hearers of that kind–very
impressible, but they quickly return to their old tastes and habits.
But you meet with other people who seem to be hard as rock. I have
observed some who have sat in the aisle biting their lips who have
never intended to believe the Gospel–and yet with one blow of the
Master's hammer, their hearts have gone to shivers at once! Their armor
of resistance and their mail of defiance have been broken through–and
they have proven, afterwards, the heartiest and most earnest of
Christian converts!

That is an unfortunate impressibility which ends in indecision. Those
who show this plastic character mean to be right, but they manage to
remain in the wrong. They intend to go to Heaven, but, alas, alas,
little hope is there that they will ever reach the Celestial City of
the blessed. The probabilities are against it–they have passed so many
years in procrastination that their indecision has become chronic and
fetters them to their sins! After the many seasons in which fair leaves
have disappointed the hope of sweet fruits, our despondency is, we
fear, the herald of their despair. There seems so little probability
that they will ever decide for God and for His Christ that we scarcely
hope with trembling– no, we tremble to hope! Would God it were not so.
Oh dear Friends! I pray you listen to the text–"Be of good comfort,
rise; He calls you." Rise! Rise to something more than decision–rise
to resolution!

You have all heard of the poor woman who could not get justice done her
by the judge. She called on him a great many times, but he would not
listen to her. At length she made up her mind that he should attend to
her. So she was present on the first court day and as soon as the judge
came in she rose and said, "My Lord–" "Have I not told you not to
trouble me?" "But, my Lord," she cried again. "I tell you to sit down."
She sits down, but before the court is up, she says, "Can't I have a
hearing?" "I cannot attend to you now, my good woman." But when the
judge comes out of court to go home, there she is, standing at the
carriage window, saying, "When will you hear my case? There are my poor
children starving."

She goes to the judge's house and knocks at untimely hours. "Who is
it?" the judge asks. And his servants tell him, "It is that poor woman
who wants her case to be heard." He bids them chase her from his gate.
She goes home, sad but determined, and the next morning she is in court
again. The unjust judge had commanded the ushers not to let her in, but
she has entered somehow, and the first thing that is heard is that
shrill voice– "My Lord, will you hear me?" At last he grows tired and
he says, "Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow
troubles me I will avenge her." And he does avenge her! Though the just
God bears no resemblance to an unjust judge, yet the widow's
importunity that prevailed in the teeth of such unpromising surrounding
may urge you to incessant prayer!

Treat the great God with the importunity which Christ, by so bold a
simile, counsels and commends. Say thus to yourself–"I cannot perish.
But I must perish if I do not have salvation and, therefore, I will
have it! I will die at the foot of the Cross if die I must, but I will
have it." It happened to me some few years ago to have to lecture at
the City Hall, Glasgow. I went at the hour appointed to keep my
engagement and the Provost of Glasgow went to the hall with me, but the
policeman said that he could not let us in, for we had no tickets and
his orders were to admit none without them. That was a pretty state of
things. So the Lord Provost said, "But you must let us in." The
policeman said that he could not, no matter who we were.

I said, "This is the Lord Provost," but the policeman said he did not
know that, neither did he care who he was–he should not let us pass
against rules. He had received orders from the inspector to let nobody
in and he was sure no Lord Provost would wish him to disobey orders.
Then the Lord Provost said, "But this is Mr. Spurgeon. He has got to
deliver the lecture." "I cannot help that. I have my orders and he
shall not come in without a ticket." What do you think we did? Did we
take, "No," for an answer? Not so! We meant to get in. So we talked and
parleyed and reasoned, but he, like a good policeman, did his duty and
would take no commands from us which were contrary to orders. There we
stopped. At last he was condescending enough to let us send our cards
in to his inspector and straightway we were admitted.

Now, if we had taken, "No," for an answer and had gone away, I should
have had, to this day, the reputation of having gathered the people
together to disappoint them. No, I knew I had a right to go in and I
meant to get in–and I did get in. You must do the same. Even though
your sin should condemn you, the Law should denounce you and the
officer of Justice should refuse you and say, "You cannot come in! No
sinner comes this way," yet insist upon it that you are a creature and
a sinner–that the Gospel is sent to every creature and specially
invites sinners and, therefore, you mean to go in to the feast of
Grace, no matter who may oppose! Stand to it that you will enter and,
as surely as God is true, if there is this resolve and perseverance in
you, you shall enter into the banquet of love–you shall inherit
eternal life–and rejoice forevermore!

But, dear Friends, if you get to that decision and resolution, there is
one thing more, and that is, cast away everything that hinders you from
finding salvation. The poor blind man cast away his garment. Now, if
you would be saved you must resolve in your soul, by the blessing of
the Holy Spirit, that every sin and every habit of yours which hinders
your finding Christ shall, at once, be given up. There is no pleasure
worth keeping at the price of your soul! No

sin is worth preserving on any account whatever–let all your old
pleasures and habits go! Let them all go and give yourself up to Jesus
Christ! How I wish that many, tonight, might be led to say, "There is
salvation, then, for me by believing. I believe that the Word of God is
true and I take Christ to be mine." Give yourselves up wholly to
Christ. No half measures! No hesitating and halting now!

You know what Cortez did when he went to Mexico and intended to conquer
it? The soldiers that were with him were few and dispirited. The
Mexicans were many and the enterprise very dangerous. The soldiers
would have gone back to Spain, but Cortez took two or three chosen
heroes with him and went down to the seaside and destroyed up all his
ships. "Now," he said, we must conquer or die! We cannot go back." Burn
your boats! Get rid of all thoughts of return! Leave sin and abhor it!
God help you to do it, for this is His Gospel–"Repent and be
converted, every one of you." Forsake sin and believe in Jesus Christ!
And let the boats be burned, making this your resolution–that there
shall be no going back to sin!

Thus have I told you what should be done, but God alone can make you do
it. We can lead a horse to the water, but we cannot make him drink–so
we can set the plan of salvation before men, but we cannot induce them
to accept it, except only as, in answer to prayer, the eternal Spirit
moves in the souls of men. He is moving upon you now! We are conscious
that He is brooding over some of you at this hour! Do not resist Him!
Yield yourselves wholly to His monitions. As the bulrushes in the
stream bow their heads to the passing breeze, so bow before the motions
of the ever-blessed Spirit! May He help you to do so, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
__________________________________________________________________