Compassion on the Ignorant

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Who can ha ve compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity." Hebrews
5:2.

THIS is a part of the necessary qualification of a priest. Under the
old Law there were priests who were taken from among men in order that
they might speak to God for men and might speak to men for God. They
were taken from among men, not from among angels, and they were taken
from men compassed with infirmity–not from absolutely perfect men like
those in Heaven–in order that they might be familiar with sinful and
suffering men and on a level with them. When the people of Israel came
to them they saw that they were speaking to persons who knew and
understood their weaknesses and sorrows–not to exalted beings who
would look down upon them with serene indifference.

They felt that they could approach their priest without the awe which
creates a freezing distance, as though a deep crevasse opened between
them. And when they spoke to their friend, the minister of God, they
felt that they could tell him their trials and troubles, for he had
felt the same and, therefore, was able to console and comfort them.
Many a kindly word the good man spoke, before he sent them back to
their houses, which he never could have spoken unless he had been a
man, himself, "compassed with infirmity."

Loving them and being such as they were, he was able to have patience
with the many strange cases which came before him. He was not soon
vexed by their stupidity, but listened carefully to what they had to
say, trying to solve their difficulties and to meet their cases. He
knew that he, too, was weakness and folly, itself, before his God. And
his own afflictions and trembling made him feel that he must be gentle
to others since the Lord had been tender to him. It was, in the
all-wise Providence of God, ordained that the sons of Aaron should be
men compassed with infirmity that they might compass others with
sympathy.

Men admire an iron duke for war, but who could bear an iron priest in
the hour of trouble? A bronze wall is good for a defense, but we need a
breast of flesh and blood for consolation. Give me, for a spiritual
comforter and guide, not an infallible pontiff, nor a thrice-crowned
spiritual lord, but a brother of my own condition, a friend possessed
of a nature like my own! After mentioning this fact, which is stated in
the text, I would bring forth two remarks which will constitute the
essence of our discourse.

The first is that compassion and forbearance are two great
qualifications for doing good to our fellow men. And, secondly–and
upon this I shall dwell at length–that both of these are found
pre-eminently in our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, we may with
boldness come to Him. May the great Spirit whose teaching is our only
means of profiting bless our meditation!

I. First, then, COMPASSION AND FORBEARANCE ARE TWO THINGS WHICH ANY MAN
WHO WOULD DO GOOD TO HIS FELLOW MEN OUGHT TO POSSESS TO A VERY LARGE
DEGREE. You will have plenty of use for all the compassion and all the
tenderness that you can possibly command, for this will help to draw
around you those who are ignorant and out of the way. Men will not
gather to some individuals–they are too hard, too cold, too stern.
They seem cut out of stone–they have no feeling. Or else they are dry
and leathery and have none of the juice of humanity in them–no warm
blood–no milk of human kindness and you are not attracted to them.

Who loves a bag of old nails, or a sack of sawdust? And yet some men
and women are almost as hard and dry! If you want to draw people around
you, you must have sympathy with them. Compassion magnetizes a man and
makes him attract as the loadstone fascinates the needle. A big heart
is one of the main essentials to great usefulness. Try and cultivate
it. Do not let another man's sorrow fall upon a deaf ear as far as you
are concerned, but sorrow with the sorrowful and have compassion upon
the ignorant and those that are out of the way. They will soon perceive
it and they will do to you as they did to your Master, of whom we read,
"Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners."

Men will cluster around you like bees around their queen! They will not
be able to help it. They will not wish to help it. Love is the queen
bee and where she is, you will find the center of the hive.

By this same spell you will hold those whom you gather, for men will
not long remain with an unloving leader. Even little children in our
classes will not long listen to an unsympathetic teacher. Great armies
of soldiers must be led by a great soldier–and children must be held
in hand by child-like instructors. When human beings surround an
uncompassionate person, they soon find it out and fly away at a tangent
as if by instinct. You may collect people for a time by some extraneous
means, but unless they perceive that you love them and that your heart
goes out with desires for their good, they will soon weary of you.

The multitude still clung to the skirts of Jesus, even to the last,
whenever He preached, because they saw that He really desired their
good. You, dear Friend, must have compassion if you are to keep up the
attention of those whom you address. The earth is held together by the
force of attraction and to the men upon it that same power is exercised
by love and compassion. Compassion in your heart will also be greatly
useful in moving sinners to care for themselves. I believe there are
some people who will never feel about their own souls until they are
driven to it by seeing that other people feel for them.

If I remember the story correctly, Mr. Knill at one time was
distributing tracts at Chester and went out where there was a company
of soldiers. Many received the tracts, but one man tore a little book
in pieces before the good man's eyes! And on another occasion the same
individual said to the soldiers, "Now make a ring round him." The men
stood round the preacher and then the wicked fellow cursed him in such
a frightful manner that Mr. Knill burst into tears to hear such awful
sounds. The sight of Knill's tears broke the heart of the
blasphemer–nothing else could have touched him–he could not bear to
see a strong man who was at least his equal, and, probably, his
superior, weeping over him. Years later he came forward to acknowledge
that the tender emotion displayed by Mr. Knill had touched his inmost
soul and led him to repentance.

Now, if you have compassion on other people, they will wonder why you
should be so much concerned for them. "Why do you care for me?" said a
reprobate to an earnest Christian who tried to win him. "Ah," said
another, who looked at it from the opposite side, "no one cares for my
soul. I have nobody to pray for me, nobody to care for me, or I might
have some hope." It is clear, beloved Brothers and Sisters, that if you
feel moved of God to seek the good of your fellow men, as I trust you
do, the first things you need are compassion, forbearance, patience,
sympathy–and without these you will no more touch the hearts of those
to whom you speak than would a parrot or a talking robot.

You also need great compassion to insure your own perseverance, for if
you do not love the children of your class, if you do not love the
people whom you try to benefit as you go from house to house, if you
have no compassion for the dying sinners around you, you will soon give
up your mission or go about it in a merely formal manner. You will not
find the conquest of the human heart to be an easy thing. Indeed, it is
the most difficult of all enterprises! Unless you so love men that you
will bear a thousand rebuffs and disappointments and will still press
on with the blessed news of mercy–unless, I say, you have a compassion
as enduring as your own life, you will fail and be discouraged and cast
away the sacred nets with which you fish for men and the seed basket
from which you scatter the heavenly Seed.

You may, perhaps, continue to sow a handful here and there, but you
will never reap a large harvest unless the heart moves the hand.
Besides, only compassion of the heart can teach you how to speak to
others. I have often been pleased to see how young converts manage to
tell of the love of Christ to people much older than themselves and do
it very effectively, too. You cannot take a man into college and teach
him how to preach to sinners rightly by giving him books, or lectures,
or rules. No, that must be learned by a kind of instinct of the new
nature which teaches the man who is ordained to do it.

Nobody, I suppose, teaches the young mother how to manage her first
child and yet, somehow or other, it is done because she loves it. It is
wonderful, to me, how a widow with quite a swarm of children somehow
provides for them. I cannot tell how, but the love she bears them leads
her to make exertions which would seem impossible to anyone else and
the little ones are somehow or other housed and fed and clothed! If you
have love enough, you can, by God's Grace, win any man to Jesus. If his
heart is as hard as a diamond, why, then, you must have a purpose twice
as hard as a diamond and you will yet cut him to his heart!

If you are resolved that you will move Heaven and earth that some soul
shall feel the power of the Gospel and if you will go with mighty
prayer and invoke the aid of the Divine Spirit, I do not see that you
can fail. You must do good if you have but love enough and heart
enough! These are the main qualifications, I believe, for a minister of
the Gospel, for the teacher of a Sunday school class, or for any other
sort of Christian worker–plenteous compassion and unfailing
forbearance.

If you possess these two things, dear Friends, you will find that they
will be very much tried and exercised. It will not be long, young
worker, if you plunge into the midst of Christian service, before you
will meet with open opposition. Scoffers will rail at you. Fools will
laugh at you. It may be profane persons will swear at you. This is no
uncommon thing. Now, if you can look upon an open opposer with
compassion, you will not lose your temper, neither will you be at all
distressed except for his sake. The surest way of putting down your
opponents is to feel that they cannot make you angry or drive you from
your purpose.

You must feel that you love them all the more because you see how
greatly they need the Gospel–and then the more they sin the more will
you be certain that theirs is a case of great necessity requiring you
to be in sevenfold earnest. I do not think, however, that all workers
are so much put about by open opposition as they are by those persons
who never oppose, but who, at the same time, never yield. I do not
know, sometimes, how to get on with certain people with whom I speak
about Christ. They say, "Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir." You say, "But,
my dear Friend, there is a necessity for a new heart." They answer,
"Yes, Sir, yes." "And you know there is no salvation except by faith in
Christ." "Yes, Sir. Yes,

Sir."

I have spoken to one person several times who always thanks me for
doing so and declares that it is very kind of me to speak to him. He
says he is very much obliged to me and, "Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir." That is
all I can get out of him! I do not wish he would swear at me, but if he
would but say something or other rather outrageous, so that I might go
at him hammer and tongs, I should really feel a little hopeful about
him! But he never does this and I cannot, therefore, get at him. He
will come and hear a sermon and he will not make many remarks about it,
but he will say, "It was very nice and very clever and quite a treat,"
and that is all.

You cannot entice these Pliables any farther–they conquer you by
yielding–even as the bulrush vanquishes the north wind by bowing
before it. These people disquiet earnest laborers and make heavy
demands upon their compassion. We must get much love into our hearts
and have pity upon these poor India rubber-souled people, or we shall
become wearied and leave them to their fate. Have pity upon them and
still go on with your holy endeavors, bearing and forbearing, even
though they seem to frustrate you!

You will, also, often meet with very deceitful, hopeful persons, who
encourage you much but disappoint you more. You say, "I saw a tear in
that man's eye when I was preaching." Yes, he has a watery eye–perhaps
he has been drunk and it is easy to weep, then! You lose your man,
after all. You say, "That woman is so attentive and earnest. I really
think there is an impression made upon her." But by-and-by you discover
that there was a motive for the apparent attention and it was all
pretense. Now is the time to have your compassion in full exercise–the
more often you are disappointed the more compassion must you feel. And
the more must you resolve, God helping you, never to give up anyone
until the funeral knell shall toll and the soul shall have passed
beyond the region of your influence.

Alas, there is another and still more wearisome trial of faith and
patience, for out of those who profess to be converted there are many
who cause us grief of heart! Even when the wheat is come to the ear we
may yet lose our harvest, even as the farmer, by smut and mildew, may
see his fields blasted before his eyes. There are to be found persons
who come forward and declare themselves to be upon the Lord's side, but
very soon grow cold, fall into sin and turn aside from the narrow way.
"They went out from us, but they were not of us," says John, "for if
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us."

These are heart-breakers, thorns in our side and swords in our bones,
causing us sharp sorrows and doing grievous mischief. Like Judas, they
sell Christ for money and betray their Master and so prove themselves
to be the children of Hell, though, for a while, numbered with Christ's
disciples. Even these we must not cast off utterly, but pity them and
seek after the straying sheep. Do, my dear Brothers and Sisters, shun
everything that would make your heart callous towards the most
provoking and deceitful–it is true their conduct tends to petrify the
heart–but yield not to the wretched influence or you will suffer loss.

Living in a city like this, where you get imposed upon very often, it
is recommended to some people to get a little hard-hearted, but I
cannot sanction such advice. I fear you will find the process acting
upon you without your seeking it and I urge you to strive against it.
Better to be often deceived than to become unfeeling. I would sooner be
a dupe than a brute, though there is no need to be either the one or
the other. Try to be tenderhearted, pitying and full of compassion.
Labor with all your might to be as the text says–"A man who can have
compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way."

Now, there are many reasons why we should have a great deal of
compassion and forbearance. God has a great deal with us. You say that
such a person grieves you. Alas, he has grieved God much more than you!
Oh, but you have had patience with him and tried to bring him to
Christ, now, these 10 years. Remember that the Lord has had patience
with him, perhaps, these 50 years! Do you reply, "But you do not know
how badly he treats me"? No, but you forget how badly he treats your
Lord, Jesus. Has not man always provoked God? Have not the people
grieved His Holy Spirit these thousands of years? It is a thought that
ought to lay us in the dust–the innumerable provocations which
surround the Most High and arise, even, from one man!

But what must be the provocations caused by the four millions of this
great city? What must they be from all the millions of the known world?
Idols are worshipped and blocks of wood and stone set up and called
gods while the true God is neglected! False doctrine is taught. A man
claims to be infallible! Christ is forgotten, men trust in their own
works and glory in their own pretended righteousness–is not the Lord
angered by all this? What with open blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking and a
thousand forms of sin, God is terribly provoked! And yet He bears with
it from day to day and does not suffer His fierce auger to smoke
against His guilty creatures. Is not the Divine forbearance the miracle
of miracles?

When I stood, for a few minutes at the bottom of Pilate's Staircase in
Rome and saw the poor creatures crawling up and down it on their
knees–and the priests looking on–I thought that if I had the loan of
a thunderbolt or two I would have cleared out all the impostors and
their trumpery in the twinkling of an eye! And then I remembered that
they were dealing with God and not with man. He looks down on
Antichrist and all its blasphemies and still stays His hand! He sees in
this city of London sins which I dare not mention–yet does His thunder
sleep. He hears man curse Him and even defy Him to His face–and still
His compassions go forth and He bears with them! Wonderful, wonderful
is the Omnipotent long-suffering of the Lord! Oh, then, my Brethren, we
ought surely to have patience with the trifling affronts which we have
to put up with in the service of God! And we ought never to grow weary
in well-doing!

Here is another point which will touch some of you more closely. Think,
my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what patience God had with you
all those years before your conversion and multitudes of times since!
He has not cast you off nor grown weary of you despite your ill
manners. And if He has had patience with you, should not you have
patience with your fellow sinner even to the end? There is one
reflection which may help you. Remember that these poor souls who sin
as they do should be looked upon by you as persons who are deranged,
for sin is madness. That prodigal who spent his money riotously was out
of his mind, for we read that when he repented, "he came to himself."

Look at sinful men as mad and you will pity them and bear with them. If
you have a poor daughter at home whose mind is gradually failing, you
say, "Do not take much notice of what she says. Her poor mind wanders.
Her faculties are out of order." These poor souls are out of order,
too. Their minds have wandered from God. Do not take much notice of
their ravings–go on and do them all the good you can–in spite of
their idle talk and petulant complaining. View them as sick and when
people are ill, you know, they will be very touchy and very soon
irritated. And, perhaps, they will say naughty things, but you must say
to yourselves, "It is the fever or the pain which makes them rattle on
in that bewildered manner. Never mind them."

You are very tender with the ailing ones, are you not? A man tells you
that when he spoke a cross word to you the other night he had a
wretched toothache at the moment, and you reply, "I beg you not to
mention it. I quite understand you now." Look on sinners in that light
and say of them, "Poor souls, this malady of sin has so laid hold upon
them that I must not regard them as in their senses, but must pity
them." Such a view of human nature will greatly help you to have
compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. And do
remember this–if you do not have compassion you cannot do them good.
If you become weary of them and speak sharply, you cannot bless them
and, perhaps, if you are not the means of blessing them, nobody else
may be.

Ah, is it your own husband? Wife, win him! Win him! Do not drive him
from bad to worse by scolding him. Sister, is it your brother? Woo him
and win him to Christ! Do not vex him by becoming acid and sour. I am
afraid that sharpness of speech and quickness of temper may have much
to answer for, since in a moment it may cut the cords with which men
were being drawn in the right direction. Have compassion! Have
compassion on obstinate ignorance and willful rebellion! Remember, the
more trouble it costs you to bring a soul to Christ, the greater will
be your reward. In your own conscience you will feel a sweet recompense
when you will, in later days, be able to say, "I travailed in birth for
that

soul."

You will love it all the more because of the anguish of your spirit
during its birth. I am sure it is so–that which costs us most we value
most. Jabez was more honorable than his brethren because his mother
bore him with sorrow. Jacob gave one portion to Joseph above his
brothers because the archers had sorely shot at him and wounded him.
And that portion was the more precious because the Patriarch took it
out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow. If
there is a soul that you have, as it were, brought to Christ by severe
fighting, taking it out of the hand of the Amorite with your sword and
with your bow, that soul will be more precious to you than any other!

So, Beloved, I pray the Holy Spirit to overshadow the company of
Christian workers here present and all that are throughout the whole
earth, that they may have "compassion on the ignorant, and on them that
are out of the way; for that they themselves also are compassed with
infirmity."

II. But now for the second part of our subject, which may the eternal
Spirit greatly bless. COMPASSION AND

FORBEARANCE PREEMINENTLY DWELL IN JESUS CHRIST. Though He was not
compassed with any sinful

infirmity, for in Him is no sin, yet physical infirmity He did take and
He is, to the highest possible degree, the Lord of tenderness–

"His heart is made of tenderness, His heart melts with love."

First–for I will keep to my text, and not be very long–first, He has
compassion on the ignorant. That is to say, sins of ignorance Jesus
readily puts away. Some of you did not know better while you lived in
unregeneracy. You had been trusting in your good works, but though you
might well have suspected, you did not know that they were a faulty
foundation for your hope.

Some of you were very diligent in outward forms and ceremonies. You had
a zeal for God, but it was not according to knowledge–you did not know
that salvation is to be found only in Jesus. There are many who, if
they had known, would not have crucified the Lord of Glory year by year
as they have done. They may say, as Paul did, "But I did it ignorantly
in unbelief." Well, dear Hearts, if you have been living in sin, not
knowing what you were doing. If you have rejected the Savior whom you
would not have rejected if you had known Him better, the Lord Jesus,
our great High Priest, readily blots out such sins! Come to Him! Say,
"What I know not, teach me. Cleanse me from secret faults," and though
you cannot now, in looking back, discover all the evil of your conduct
and the sin of your life, yet, nevertheless, let Him see what is in
your heart–lay it bare before Him and He will have compassion on your
ignorance and put away your sin forever!

But the text does not refer only to sins resulting from ignorance, but
to ignorance itself. Very many persons are willfully ignorant of
Christ. They might have known about Him if they would. Possibly some
have come to this place, this evening, who very seldom attend a place
of worship though there is one on the street in which they live. Any
man in London who does not know the Gospel has nobody to blame for it
but himself. It would be well worth while for you to walk a hundred
miles to hear Jesus Christ preached, but I thank God few of you need to
walk one mile to hear the Gospel. You may hear it if you will–and if
you Londoners perish, you perish with the opportunity of life brought
to your very doors.

I believe, no doubt, there are many now living in utter ignorance of
Christ and yet they have the Bible in their houses and have Christian
neighbors who would be glad enough to explain it to them–and they
might go and hear the Gospel if they would. It is as if the sun is
shining and they shut their eyes–the thunder is pealing and they close
their ears. Is not this enough to move the Lord to anger? And yet His
patience continues! Still will the Lord Jesus have compassion upon you
who have been cruel to yourselves as well as contemptuous to Him! Come
to Him just as you are and confess your willful blindness and He will
put it away and enable you to understand the things which make for your
peace.

Some are ignorant, however, because they have been cast where they
could not well know. They were born in an ungodly family, or thrown
among godless people, or, what is much the same, among those who have
only a mere formal religion. They do not know the Truth of God, but
they can scarcely be blamed for it. Well, dear Hearts, Christ is able
to teach you! Come and sit at His feet, for He will have compassion on
your ignorance! Some are very young and, therefore, do not understand
much. Dear young people, there are some of you here–Jesus is quite
ready to have compassion on the ignorance of little children and save
them! They may know but very little, but if they know Christ Jesus to
be the Savior of sinners, He will have compassion on their ignorance.

Alas, others are getting very old, but they are so dull that we cannot
get much knowledge into their heads and their ears are dull of hearing.
I sometimes have such an enquirer to talk to and I try to show great
compassion to such. I have long, long ago given up estimating character
by the amount of intelligence, for I sometimes find that the most
intelligent are the best able to deceive me. How often in daily life we
find that the most knowing are the most cunning–and the greatest
scholars are the biggest rogues! We see plenty of instances in the
newspapers.

On the other hand, many a poor soul who cannot get two ideas into his
head has got the right idea, the grand Gospel idea, and that fills his
head and heart! He knows that Christ came into the world to save
sinners and he hangs on to that. Some of the most simple-hearted people
are quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord. The Lord will have
compassion on such ignorance readily enough. There are many, alas, who
are ignorant, not from lack of capacity or lack of faculty, but because
sin has made them so brutish that they cannot understand. Like salt
cast on the soil, it has made the mind barren.

This is a frightful state of heart! There are, in this city of ours,
many who have so soaked themselves in the most gross vices that they
appear to be incapable of knowing purity, delicacy, truth, holiness, or
any Divine excellence. They have so indulged themselves in drunkenness
and chambering wantonness that you really cannot get a spiritual idea
into them! They have developed backward into a mere animal and, like
the swine, they feed on husks and have no idea above the mire they
wallow in. Our City Missionaries can tell us the brutal power of sin if
we have never seen it for ourselves! As Divine Grace makes fools wise,
so sin makes wise men fools! As Grace turns stone to flesh, so sin
turns flesh to stone! As Grace lifts man to the angels, so sin sinks
him to the devils!

Sin is a murky cloud which buries the human mind in sevenfold night,
which, it seems impossible to pierce with a beam of day. Yet when a
flash of light from God the Holy Spirit penetrates the thick Egyptian
darkness of such a soul, Jesus manifests His compassion on the ignorant
and proves His saving power! Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, what a mercy
it is that the Lord Jesus Christ saves people who know very little
about Him! The poor woman who touched the hem of His garment made a
mistake, I suppose, in imagining that power must necessarily dwell in
His clothes, but, nevertheless, the Lord went with her mistake and let
the virtue go even out of His robe as well as out of Himself.

He will meet you, dear Friend–meet you where you are and grasp the
hand of even your blind and lame faith and save you! However deeply
ignorant you may be, He will have compassion on your ignorance by
sending forth His light and His salvation–and you shall know Him and
rejoice in Him! When He was here, you know, He picked up a few
fishermen and tax gatherers and such–and He set to work to teach
them–and how beautifully He did it! He taught them with parables and
little easy words, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little
and there a little.

Look at that Gospel of John. Look at any of the sermons of Christ. How
very different they are from the very magnificent discourses which we
get from the learned and thoughtful divines of the present period! They
preach over people's heads, but Christ preached into people's hearts!
He taught so plainly and simply that anybody could understand Him! But
these great doctors of today preach so that they do not even understand
themselves! All this makes us see that our Lord had compassion on the
ignorant.

I would repeat the thought that He did not teach those disciples too
much at once. He gave them one idea at a time and He did not drive that
out with another. He said, "I have many things to say to you, but you
cannot bear them now." What He did teach was mainly simple and He left
it till the Holy Spirit was given for Paul to elaborate the Gospel and
tell us in plain language some of the more doctrinal Truths. He was
bent on teaching His disciples as much as they could receive and so He
did–but He taught them no more lest they should be overfed and become
unable to digest what they had received.

And then how very little chiding there was in all our Lord's
conversation with His pupils. He did say, "Have I been so long a time
with you and yet have you not known Me, Philip?" He did have, now and
then, to upbraid because of the hardness of their hearts, but still,
what gentleness there was about such rebukes and how seldom did they
occur! And He never turned one of them out of class for being stupid.
If He had done that, perhaps some friend here might suppose He would
turn him or her out–but out of all the 12 there was not one to whom He
said, "Now, I really never shall make much of you! Your intellect is
too weak." Not at all. He taught each one as much as he could receive
and then said, "Go and tell it to others!"

And while they told it to others they were learning it better,
themselves, for one of the best ways of learning a thing is trying to
teach it. "What I tell you in secret that tell you upon the housetops."
He was the wisest of teachers because He was the most compassionate.
And I may add here that we know this to be the case with some of us,
because He has been very tender in teaching us. Some of our teachers
wanted us to learn the big doctrines, first. They did not like it
because we could not at once see all the sublime truths of election and
predestination. Certain of the old standards who are very orthodox–16,
if not 18 ounces to the pound–expect all new-born babes to eat meat at
once! As soon as ever a person is converted they would have him know
all about the sublapsarian and supralapsarian schemes. And if he does
not, they say, "He is a doubtful character. He is not sound."

Ah, but that is not the manner of our Lord who is tender over us as a
nurse with a child! He begins by working into our experience a few
elementary Truths of God and then, when we get farther on, we find out
something more. And as we are able to bear it, He reveals to us His
Truths. He does not teach us experimentally all at once any more than
He taught the Apostles all at once! By degrees He illuminates our
minds. Our poor blind eyes could not bear sunlight at first and,
therefore, He gives us just a little starlight, then moonlight, then
twilight. Then afterwards He brings us into the high unclouded noon of
the clear revelation of His love which is to be our portion in Heaven!
Our sight through a glass darkly is purposely made dim to suit our
feeble vision for He has compassion on the ignorant.

I speak, then, to everyone here who feels himself to be theologically
backward and doesn't know much about the things of God's Word. Never
mind, dear Brother. Never mind, dear Sister. Come to Jesus Christ and
trust Him–and He will teach you as well as save you! And if you are
now untaught and unlearned, do not hold back because of that, but come
forward with all hopefulness. If you do not know one letter in the
alphabet from another and if you do not know one doctrine of the Word
of God except that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,
yet come and welcome to your great High Priest, for He will have
compassion on the ignorant!

My time is almost gone and I want to speak a word upon the last point,
which is that He will have compassion upon those that are out of the
way. "Out of the way"–out of the right way, the narrow way, the happy
way, the ONLY way! Who are these people? Some are out of the way
because they never were in it and never knew it. They have heard of it,
perhaps, a little, but they have never tried it by setting one foot in
it. You are not church-goers or chapel-goers, for you are altogether
out of the way. You are not hearers of the Gospel, not people who even
practice a form of prayer. You are avowedly out of the way.

Listen then, while I tell you that Jesus can have compassion on those
that are out of the way! Many are in a very emphatic sense,
out-of-the-way sinners! They have gone to such extravagances that they
are out of the way of common morality and quite startle their careless
comrades. Even those who have no religion yet say, "Well, now, you go
beyond me! You are an out-of-the-way fellow." "I drink sometimes," says
one man, "but as for you, you are an out-of-the-way drinker." "I," says
another–"well, I make no pretensions to be very precise, but still I
draw a line somewhere. As for you, you go beyond all bounds and are an
out-of-the-way fellow altogether."

Well, I have to say tonight that my Lord Jesus will have compassion on
you out-of-the-way sinners! However far you have gone, only turn to
Him–for pardon is freely published. Forsake your sin, tonight, and
come to Jesus' feet and cast yourself there and say, "I will not go
till You renew me and deliver me from the guilt and bondage of my sin."
He can do it, yes He WILL do it, for He has compassion on
out-of-the-way sinners! Perhaps I am addressing some who were once
nominally in the way. You were members of a Church years ago. Where are
you now? The Church may well disown you and you may well disown the
Church, for you are a disgrace to it.

What have you been doing this morning? How do you spend your Sabbaths?
What is your conduct during the week? I would speak personally to those
of you who were once professors and are now prodigals. You were with
the Methodists,

were you not, when you were in the country? You have nothing to do with
them now. Ah, yes, before you entered the army you had some idea of
religion and loved, in some respects, the service of your mother's God.
But you have forgotten it since you have been in the barracks. I know
how it is with many–they are very willing to go with Christ when He
wears His golden vest and His starry crown and walks out on sunshiny
days–but to bear a cross and follow Him through the mocking mob is
quite another matter! And, therefore, they go out of the way.

Backslider, do not despair, the great High Priest of our profession
will have compassion on you–only return to Him! He still has the
greatest pity for the greatest wanderer. He rejoices more over one lost
sheep that He has found than over 99 that went not astray. And oh, dear
child of God, here is a word for you, for it may be you feel, tonight,
as if you were out of the way. You are not enjoying religion as you
once did. When the hymn is sung, your heart does not make music, and
when prayer is offered you feel as if you could not pray. Despair not,
for He can have compassion on you. You are ignorant, for who among us
is there that is not ignorant?

He who knows most of Christ knows very little. We are all ignorant and
He has compassion on us all. And we are all out of the way in some
measure–the best child of God on earth is not perfect. I did hear from
a Brother that he was perfect, but I did not believe him nor think any
the better of him for his being so conceited. I thought, when he said
he was perfect, that I could see an imperfection in his eyesight and,
if I had looked a little closer, I should probably have found another
in his tongue. Better, far, to pray, "I have gone astray like a lost
sheep. Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments." The
Good Shepherd will have compassion upon us, bind up our wounds and bear
with our weaknesses and follies–therefore let us come to Him anew and
trust Him more and more.

Let us come to Him as He is now, enthroned in the highest heavens, and
say, "Jesus, we have heard that You have compassion on the ignorant and
those that are out of the way, and such are we. Behold, we trust
ourselves with You." Trembling Believer, be not slow to draw near, for
His loving heart is unable to refuse you! If you will trust yourselves
with the Savior, He cannot betray or deceive your trust. Only do that
and your faith will have power over the sacred heart of the Crucified
One!

You know if a child trusts you–if it is only to buy a penny toy–you
do not like to go home without doing it. You City men, if your little
daughter trusted you to buy her something, you would not like to
disappoint her. Well, and God, our blessed Savior, cannot, will not
disappoint His trusting children! If we can trust Him with our souls we
have a hold upon Him which He will not shake off, but He will bless
us–yes, He will bless us eternally! God help you to trust Him now, for
Jesus' sake. Amen.