Cheer for the Worker and Hope for London

DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 28, 1880,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Then spoke the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid,
but speak and hold not your peace: for I am with you and no man shall
set on you to hurt you: for I have much people in this city." Acts
18:9,10.

IT is clear from this, dear Friends, that even he who was not a whit
behind the chief of the Apostles sometimes needed special comfort. It
is possible that even the bravest of the brave may be afraid. Sinking
of heart assailed even Samson while as yet the thousand slain lay in
heaps around him. Moses was cast down in the desert and David on the
throne. Even iron will melt, much more a heart of flesh. Remember the
faintness of Elijah when he said, "Let me die, I am no better than my
fathers," and recollect that this was a lion-like man, one of those
ministers of God who are as a flame of fire! The second Elijah, he who
rebuked Herod to his face, was sadly staggered while he lay in prison.
John the Baptist sent to Jesus to inquire, "Are you He that should
come?"

No doubt those heroes who have fought the battle of the Truth of God
and have driven back its adversaries have been men of like passions
with us and some of them of more than ordinary sensitiveness of
feeling. Luther said, "Because I seem to be always strong and merry,
men think that I walk on a bed of roses, but God knows how it is with
me." Perhaps no man ever experienced such mighty joys and such
tremendous despairs as did that mighty man who shook the papacy to its
foundation! Even Paul was not without his tendency to fear. He writes
in one of his Epistles: "When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh
had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were
fightings, within were fears." Do not think, therefore, my dear Brother
or Sister, if, in working for Christ, you get thoroughly cast down and
sick of yourself, that you are undergoing an experience unknown to the
sons of God. It is by no means so.

Trembling takes hold on all in turns. Faintness is common enough on all
hands. Fear, like the mist of the valley, steals over the very garden
of the Lord and there is not a flower in all the borders which is not,
at times, bowed down with the weight of the chilly damp. But the Lord
took care to visit His servant when he was in a measure of trouble, or
afraid of being so. He came to him in the visions of the night. We do
not expect to see the Lord Jesus Christ in visions, now, for, "we have
a more sure Word of prophecy to which we do well to take heed, as unto
a light that shines in a dark place"–we have the Word of God, Inspired
and Infallible! We have the whole of the Divinely written roll–we can
read it when we will and from its pages God speaks with a clear and
certain voice. A dream of the night might, perhaps, be only a dream,
even in those olden times when God did speak in visions–but this Word
of the Lord is no delusion! It stands fast forever and ever and every
promise is sure, being made yes and amen in Christ Jesus.

When by faith we take the promise, it is as if Christ did speak it
again to each one of us, for the promise is never exhausted. It is as
fresh today, when I read it, as when the eyes of saints a thousand
years ago found comfort in it! God is always appearing to you who have
believing eyes! God is never silent until we are deaf. He speaks to us
morning by morning and He has precept upon precept for the quiet hours
of eventide. The Lord did but appear to Paul during one night, for
visions are short and few, but any night you like to wake and open the
Scriptures and seek for the power of the Spirit to rest upon them, you
shall hear Jesus speaking to you–and any day you turn to that passage
in Isaiah, you shall hear the very words that Jesus spoke to Paul,
"Fear not, I am with you," with these additional words, "I am your God.
When you go through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall
the flame kindle upon you."

Besides, visions and such like things belong to the infancy of the
Church–now that she has grown strong, she exercises a greater faith in
God and needs not that the Invisible should be supplemented by signs
and wonders. If you plant a tree in an orchard, it is very common to
put a big stake by the side of it to hold it up. Nobody thinks of
putting a post to support an apple tree which has been there for the
last 50 years! In fact, it could hold the stake rather than borrow
support from it.

When a ship leaves the docks and passes down the river, you will see it
towed out till it reaches the sea. But that same vessel will,
by-and-by, spread all her sails and with a heavenly breeze to bear her
along, she will need no tug to tow her to the desired haven. The Church
of God, today, is a tree that needs no support of miracles and visions!
She is a vessel that has braved for 2,000 years the battle and the
breeze and will still, till Christ comes, outride every storm!

At this time, O servants of Jesus, you have the Word of God, which is
better than visions! Oh, that tonight the Lord Jesus would take of His
own Word and, by His Spirit, speak it home to all who love Him! Then
will they be as much refreshed as though they were in Patmos with the
beloved Disciple. My prayer has been especially that the Lord would say
to each one here present who knows His name, "Be not afraid, but speak
and hold not your peace; for I am with you and no man shall set on you
to hurt you: for I have much people in this city." I am to be
understood as speaking to every blood-bought man and woman with the
anxious desire that the words of the text should be laid home to the
heart of each one. O Spirit of God, make Your servant's words to be as
fire among stubble, that so the Gospel flame may spread abroad!

I. And, first, Brothers and Sisters, notice briefly THE TENDENCY OF OUR
WEAKNESS. That tendency is revealed in the first word–"Be not afraid."
We feel, when we first find Christ, that we must speak for Jesus and we
do. But after a while a foolish fear freezes many a tongue and keeps
many a lip silent that ought to be telling out the wondrous story of
redeeming love. We get to be afraid. We are not, nowadays, afraid as
the first Christians might have been–of the amphitheater and the
lions, or of Nero and his sword. Happily, we are delivered from almost
all open persecution, but there are times which evidently frighten a
good many.

For instance, some are afraid to speak for Jesus because of the defects
of their education. They fancy that when educated persons are present,
if they say anything for Christ, they will make a mistake in grammar or
mispronounce a word and the very learned folks will discover their
ignorance and set them down for dunces. I have heard a young preacher
say that in his early days, when he saw a gentleman with a white cravat
come into the village chapel, he felt that he could not preach.
Something very dreadful about that, no doubt! Somebody from London has
entered the cottage where the dear Brother has been trying to talk
about Christ and he is in a cold sweat and he hardly knows why. The
stranger has a respectable black coat on and is very different from the
agricultural laborers who make up the usual congregation and, for fear
of him, the champion of the Cross is quaking!

Do you not notice that the good Brother's voice has undergone a serious
toning down? He cannot speak with freedom and yet, if he only knew it,
his best friend in the whole congregation is that well-dressed
stranger. He is afraid of a Brother who would best sympathize with him
and most earnestly pray for him–the very Brother who would encourage
him most if they could have a half-hour's talk together. Friend over
yonder, are you blushing because this incident has happened once and
again to yourself? Do you not think that whenever you have been checked
in that way it has been very foolish? Has not pride been at the bottom
of it? Should we not be willing to be called blunderers? We should
endeavor to do our Lord's work in the best possible manner, but if our
education is deficient and we cannot overcome early disadvantages,
ought we, therefore, to hold back? Should we not be willing to save a
soul anyway?

If we can declare the Gospel in a masterly manner, by all means let us
do it! But if we are slow of speech and uncouth in utterance, let not
these things silence us. Was not Moses slow of utterance? Was he
silent? Did not Isaiah acknowledge that his lips were unfit to deliver
God's message? Was he, therefore, idle? If a man is learned and
educated, let him reckon that his learning should help him to
simplicity–and if he is not educated, let him talk about Jesus Christ
in his own way, with the words that come fresh from his heart and let
him never be afraid. I have known others to be fearful, on the other
hand, because they have not gathered educated people to listen to them,
but are surrounded by a rough lot whose manners and habits distress
them. Sensitive Christians have shrunk from speaking to such characters
for, they said, "Ah, they will turn it all to ridicule and we must not
throw pearls before swine."

Brother, are you quite sure that you have any pearls and are you quite
sure that the people are swine? I generally feel as if what I had to
say was not so pearly that I need be alarmed about the swine treading
on it! And, also, I have felt, concerning my congregation, that as they
have immortal souls, there is something about them which differentiates
them from swine–and anyway, who am I to be so particular about the
reception which men give to my words? Christ spoke even to those who
refused Him and shall not I do the same? Our Savior did not mean, by
that expression, what you think He did. Some parts of our experience
are choice as pearls and these we may only tell to God's own people and
not to those who can-

not appreciate them. But, as for the Gospel, preach it before all the
swine that ever can be gathered together, for to such is it sent!

What were all the nations in our Lord's day but a swinish multitude and
yet He bade us preach the Gospel to every creature! The worse the men,
the more they need the Gospel and the more we are bound to carry it to
them! Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is your business, whoever may
be around you, to tell what Jesus Christ has done for you! "But they
would laugh at it." Well, well, there are worse things than that in the
world! Making people laugh is not the worst thing that can be done. I
would sooner increase mirth in the world than sorrow. If I made men's
hearts ache about nothing, as our novelists often do, I would throw
away my pen and hold my tongue! But if, in consequence of some
awkwardness or eccentricity, people smile at me–well, if they are the
happier, it cannot hurt me. Why should they not laugh at me? And am I
not, after all, ridiculous? "No," says one, "I do not think I am." Ah,
but my Brother, there is a comic side to you as well as to everybody
else and there is something about you, I dare say, that is ridiculous!

I have generally found that the man who could not bear to be ridiculed
was some precise kind of body who was the very person to excite
remarks. Oh, be content to take a little of the rough with the smooth
for your Master's sake! Some hearts cannot be got at until, first of
all, they feel a keen aversion to what they hear. Better that they
should rave with wrath than feel nothing! We must get the oyster open,
somehow, and if this may be done by a tempting bait as well as by sheer
force, then let us try the gentle experiment. It may be the creature
will only open out of spite and perhaps it thinks to nip us when it
shuts its shell–but we thrust in the knife of the Gospel and the deed
is done! While they are criticizing our manner, we can stab at their
sin!

Sometimes the aversion which people display and the contempt which they
profess to feel for the preacher may only be a secondary means of
enabling the Gospel to get at them the better and, if it is so, why
should we be afraid? We have known Brothers who have trembled at the
slightest degree of publicity. They are tender souls and do not like to
be seen. I would not harshly condemn all, for certain minds are quiet
and timid and must be allowed to do good by stealth. But I cannot thus
excuse all, either, for some are blamably deficient in courage. There
is a beautiful modesty about them, but I would have them remember that
modesty is not all the virtues, nor can it be a substitute for them.
The soldier who was so very modest that he retired before the battle, I
have heard say, was shot.

And as for Christian people who are so very modest that they get out of
the way of everything that is to be done for Christ, I do not know how
they will answer for it to their superior Officer at the last. Come,
dear Brother, you sang the other day–

"Am I a soldier of the Cross,

A follower of the Lamb

And shall I fear to own His cause,

Or blush to speak His name?"

and so on and yet you are a coward? Yes, put it down in English–you
are a coward! If anybody called you so, you would turn red in the face
and perhaps you are not a coward in reference to any other subject.
What a shameful thing it is that while you are bold about everything
else you are cowardly about Jesus Christ! Brave for the world and
cowardly towards Christ!! A Christian ought to be afraid to be afraid,
for His Lord has said, "Whoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of Me and
of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him, also,
shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His
Father with the holy angels."

"Oh, but I am naturally timid," says one. It is to you, then, that the
Lord's word is addressed–"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be
strong, fear not." I have heard and I think I have observed that the
bravest men in the hour of danger are timid in the prospect of it. They
say that a fire-eater who dashes to the battle is often the man who
fails, but he who stands trembling at the first shot–in his inmost
soul dreading death–is, nevertheless, the very man to act the hero's
part because he is so overpowered by a stern sense of duty that he
masters fear and steadily keeps his position with cool, immovable
resolve–

"The bra ve man is not

He who feels no fear,

For that were stupid and irrational.

But he whose noble soul, its fear subdues,

And bravely bares the danger nature shrinks from."

Up, then, you tremblers and play the man! In the matter of speaking for
Jesus this should not be a severe ordeal. Oh, do not, I pray you, let
timidity so check you that you cannot speak a word to your own
children–cannot pray with your own girl, cannot plead as a father with
your own boy, cannot speak as a neighbor or a fellow workman to the man
who works side by side with you at the bench. May God help you to get
out of the cold shade of cowardice, for the text says, "Be not afraid."

Still, I hear you say, "I am afraid to speak out for religion because I
should bring down upon myself a world of opposition at home." That is
painful, my dear Friend, but though painful, it is a part of the cost
which you reckoned upon when you took up the Cross to follow Jesus. It
is a part of the cost that, "a man's foes shall be they of his own
household." "The brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the
father the child," says Christ. It was so in old times. It is so now.
It is terrible to think of what some young people have had to suffer
for being faithful to their convictions. But when we consider that it
is all for Jesus' sake, happy are they who are honored to endure on
that account!

For His sake, what were it if we were martyred? What were it if all men
did forsake us? We ought to have such an esteem for Jesus that if all
were to become our foes and to hunt us to death, we would still say,
"It is well, since hereby I become a living sacrifice for Christ." Now,
I charge every Christian here to be speaking boldly in Christ's name,
according as he or she has opportunity and especially to take care of
this tendency of our flesh to be afraid which leads, practically, to
endeavors to get off easily and save ourselves from trouble. Fear not!
Be brave for Christ! Live bravely for Him who died lovingly for you!

II. We now come to the second point–and this we will also speak upon
briefly–it is THE CALLING OF OUR FAITH. "Be not afraid, but speak and
hold not your peace." It is the vocation of faith to be a speaker. When
the heart believes, the mouth follows suit and makes confession. Faith
made Noah a preacher and caused it to be said of Abel, "He, being dead,
yet speaks." "I believed," said David, "therefore have I spoken." And
others unite with Him in saying, "We believe and therefore speak." Paul
says of the Thessalonians, "For from you sounded out the Word of the
Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your
faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak
anything." You see their faith had a sound about it as of a trumpet and
the Gospel was made known, thereby, in all regions! Faith lives on the
Word of God and then gives a voice to that Word. A dumb faith is a
questionable Grace. Faith first speaks to Christ and then speaks for
Christ. It hears His voice and then acts as an echo by repeating it!

Why ought those that believe in Christ speak for Him? I answer, first,
because, Brothers and Sisters, we are debtors. We are put in trust with
the Gospel for other people. Let us not be false to our trusteeship,
but faithful stewards of the mysteries of God. Let us take care that
the light is not hid under a bushel and that the talent is not wrapped
in a napkin. We have the Bread of Life in our houses–let it not be
hoarded, neither let a single hungry soul knock at our door in vain
because we are asleep or too idle to attend to the call. We are the
reservoirs of God's Gospel that it may flow out of a hundred pipes to
thirsty souls who may come from all quarters of the earth and drink!
Paul says, "I am debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both
to the wise and to the unwise." We owe something to every man that
lives.

"Oh," says one, "I do not see that." But has not the Lord said, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself? That is a word of very wide
range, for every human being is your neighbor. The Samaritan was
neighbor to the Jew. The Roman Catholic is neighbor to the Protestant.
The Muslim is neighbor to the Christian and the heathen is neighbor to
us all. You never pass "a heathen Chinese," or a Zulu in the street
without owing him something, according as you have an opportunity to do
him good. We are, all of us, of one family and because of the tie of
the one blood there is a debt of brotherhood from all who are
enlightened to those who are yet in darkness. Who can tell what we owe
to Christ? He seems to say, "Pay it back to My Brothers and Sisters. If
you love Me, feed My sheep; feed My lambs. If you want to do good for
Me, do good to Mine. Bring in those that I have redeemed with blood;
for this is the best reward you can give Me for having laid down My
life for you." You are a keeper of the Gospel Oracles, my Brother. Take
care, then, that you speak and are not silent!

But, next, you and I were saved by the testimony of other people who
spoke to us personally. I owe a great deal of my being brought to
Christ to my parents to whom I would always be grateful for their
spiritual care of me. And as a parent, I am to repay that obligation by
teaching my own children. I owe very much to a very excellent teacher
in a day school. I did try, when I personally taught children, to pay
back my teacher by teaching others. I owed still more to such men as
Baxter and Bunyan who left their books for me to read. I have tried to
write earnest books, that I may recompense, as well as I can, the
Church of God for the loan which it made to me in that direction. Most
of all, I owe my decision, under God, to a man I

never knew, who humbly and simply preached Christ crucified to me–and
I would desire to be always preaching Christ crucified to others, as
the best way of making some sort of return.

Undoubtedly the most of us were brought to Christ by the personal
testimony of others and, therefore, we have an obligation to pass on
the sacred deposit. Even in those few cases in which no living voice
was used, yet the Word of God was made useful to the soul–and where
would the Word of God have been if it had not been for Wickliffe and
Tyndale and those holy men who preserved it to us at the peril of their
lives and wrote out a translation of it for the common people– dipping
their pens in their own heart's blood to accomplish the deed? We are
all debtors to the Church of God and let us repay the gift! We shall be
shamefully ungrateful unless we do this.

Next, let me ask how we to are expect the Gospel to be kept alive in
the world if we do not hand it on to the next generation as the former
generation handed it down to us? It is from one lip to another that the
Word of God is passed with a kind of living flame which books are not
likely to communicate. Oh, shall it ever be said a century from now,
"The people of 1880 never thought of us of1980? They let the Gospel go!
They allowed the doctrines to be denied, one after the other, and here
we are without them, to perish in the darkness! The people of the
Tabernacle knew the priceless Truth of God, but they cared not to make
it known and here we are in ignorance through their indifference"? Oh,
let it never be so! Let not the next century have to rebuke the
professors of the present one and say, "You were false to God. Your men
never preached the Gospel, though they had the gift! Your women never
told it out to those about you and so the light flickered and almost
went out and we are now left to suffer for your negligence."

May God grant that we may be clear of the blood of souls. What a crime
it will be if we murder generations of men by our cowardly silence!
Besides, it seems to me that common humanity calls upon every Christian
to seek the salvation of others. They are perishing! Will you let them
perish? "God have mercy on them," you say? Yes, but is that all? Have
you nothing but that hurried prayer to give them? "Be you warmed! Be
you filled," you say to the hungry and cold and yet you fill them not
from your own stores. God's curse will light on such inhuman conduct!
It is ours to labor by pleadings and entreaties to snatch our
infatuated neighbors from the fiery wave which will soon overwhelm
impenitent sinners! But if we do not earnestly seek them, they shall
perish and God will require their blood at the watchman's hands! He has
set each one of His people to take a part of the watch for the souls of
men. Are we awake at our post? Oh, see you well to this, I pray you,
each man, each woman for himself or herself! If we love God, we must
love our Brothers and Sisters, also. If the Gospel has saved us, we
must wish to see others saved! Unless we are altogether hypocritical,
we must burn with strong desire to bring others to the Savior!

I have been pleased as I have looked around, to see such a goodly
number of young men here tonight. Never was the weather worse and yet
our numbers are great and among us are young men in the hundreds!
Comrades, I welcome you! I would gladly enlist you this night into the
service of Christ! Come as volunteers! Or if you cannot manage that,
come as pressed men. Oh, that the Lord Jesus Christ may lay His pierced
hands on some young men and say, "You are studying, but what for? Study
for Me and My cause." And to another, "You are working hard to prosper
in business, but you have another call and you must consecrate yourself
more directly to Me." Or to another man, "You are in business, making
money. Are you using it for Me? Are you laying it out for the spread of
My kingdom?" I would to God that He would call out to Himself a troop
of valiant ones at this good hour!

I feel somewhat, tonight, in thinking about London, as Farel did when
he met with Calvin. Calvin was yet a young man. He had written his
famous, "Institutes," and Farel, at Geneva, saw what mental force there
was in him. Here is the story from Bungener–"Farel, alike humble and
courageous, had often asked if another would not succeed better than he
and a sort of presentiment had bid him wait in hope of such a man.
Calvin was unwilling to undertake the work. He was not made, he said,
for such an office. He was willing to be a laborer in the great harvest
which was ripening, or to be a soldier of the Lord, but this, he was
convinced, was not his task. If He had rendered some service, it was by
means of a book, the fruit of silence and of study. Farel is
urgent…Calvin educed fresh reasons and it seemed as though he wanted
to deter Farel by exhibiting to him the defects of his future
colleague. He knew himself, he said. He was tenacious and obstinate.
Once more he asked that he might be left in obscurity to busy himself
in studies, for it was only thus he could be of any value. Then Farel
broke out, 'Your studies are a pretext! I tell you that if you refuse
to associate yourself with my work, God will curse you for having
sought yourself and not Christ.' Calvin yielded to God and not to
man–and the man always remained dear and venerable in his eyes."

Calvin was henceforth prompt and sincere in the work of the Lord, even
when his body was tortured with diseases and worn down with pain. Would
God I might find some such man here who would, this night, respond to
the voice saying to him, "Be not afraid, but speak and hold not your
peace." A youth looks round and says, "I wonder whether that young man
is sitting next to me?" Never mind about your neighbor–look to
yourself! Are you the young man? Are you the consecrated woman? Take
heed lest a curse light on you if you are disobedient to the heavenly
vision!

III. But now, thirdly, THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF OUR SERVICE. Let us dwell
on that a little while. "Be not

afraid, but speak and hold not your peace, for I am with you." There is
the first encouragement–God's Presence–"I am with you." When a man
speaks for God, God speaks in Him. We never go to war for God at our
own charges–He is sure to be with the man who is with Him. If you seek
yourself, you will run without God. If you desire honor among men, you
shall have no honor from God. But if your heart is set upon the
blessing of your fellow men and the extension of your Redeemer's
kingdom, God is with you. He never was away from any man who sought
holiness, virtue and eternal life. What cause, then, can there be for
fear? If God is with you, who can be against you?

Have God with you and you have strength enough, wit enough, gold
enough–for you have Grace enough! Does He not say, "My Grace is
sufficient for you"? He will give you thought and judgment and
utterance. And He will give you within all and above all, a mysterious
power which none shall be able to resist. He will help you to acquire
what you have not and wisely to use what you have. If He gives you not
the tongue of the learned, He will use you where your need of learning
cannot hinder you. He has a sphere for you somewhere. Only trust in Him
and be not afraid! O that precious word, "I am with you." What more can
the most fearful require? Come, be of good courage. Take up your cross!
Take up your daily service! In these shall lie a present comfort and a
future reward and your God says, "My Presence shall go with you and I
will give you rest."

The next consolation is God's protection. "No man shall set on you to
hurt you." The Jews dragged Paul before the judgment seat of Gallio and
Paul must have been amazed when he saw the persecutors, themselves,
beaten. The great King knows how to protect His own ambassador! When
men meddle with one of God's burning and shining lights, they will,
sooner or later, burn their fingers. There is a disposition about some
ungodly men to fly at Christian ministers just as gnats do at candles
and they generally meet with the gnats' fate. "Touch not My anointed
and do My Prophets no harm," is still the shelter of God's ministers.
"No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper and every tongue
that rises in judgment against you, you shall condemn," is a promise
which abides the same.

"Still," says one, "I am half afraid." But then the Lord is your
protection and who is he that shall harm you if you follow that which
is good? How feeble all your enemies are! Who are you that you should
be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man that is but as
dust. "Fear not them which can kill the body, but afterwards have no
more that they can do; but fear Him who, after He has killed, has power
to cast into Hell. Yes, I say unto you, Fear Him." The protection of
God should be a constant fountain of comfort to God's people.

The last comfort is God's predestination. Predestination is an ugly
word to some people, but I cannot help that. Here is the doctrine in
the text–"I am with you and no man shall set on you to hurt you, for I
have much people in this city." That is to say, many who belonged to
Christ, though they were as yet heathens. The Lord does not speak of
those who were converted! Paul did not need a Revelation in the night
to tell Him that God had much people in that city, if by that was meant
the persons who professed faith in Christ, for he knew all about them.
Night and day he had watched over them. But God knew that He had an
elect people in Corinth whom He must save–a redeemed people that
Christ specially bought from among men to be His own people, of whom
the Lord had said, "Other sheep have I that are not yet of this flock."

Paul was cheered by the good news that God had many chosen and redeemed
ones in Corinth whom He must save! I learn from this that the doctrine
of God's predestination is no check to labor. "If there are so many
that will be saved," says one, "then why do you preach?" That is why we
do preach! If there are so many fish to be taken in the net, I will go
and catch some of them! Because many are ordained to be caught, I
spread my nets with eager expectation. I never could see why that
should repress our zealous efforts! It seems to me to be the very thing
that should awaken us to energy–that God has a people and that these
people shall be brought in! Why, it nerves me to labor when I remember
that His Word shall not return void–it shall prosper in the thing
where He has sent it!

If God has ordained to save men, yet it is a part of the ordinance that
they shall be saved through the preaching of the Word of God, for
"faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God"–and not
without faith and the Word shall

any man be saved! Nor has God ever said that any should, or ever
purposed that any should! The purpose embraces the means for the
carrying out of the purpose and that decree which predestinates the
salvation of many in Corinth predestinates that Paul should go there
and that he should stay there a year and a half–and night and day,
with tears, should seek the souls of men! What a comfort it ought to be
to all earnest workers that God has many people yet unsaved whom He
will save and must save! Thus we go to work under the sweet shadow of
the Divine decree, stimulated by it to labor with all our might.

The next thing we learn is that the certainty of success should be a
great stimulus to us. That is why the Lord said to Paul, "I have much
people in this city." You and I are bound to preach the Gospel, even if
never a soul were converted by it, for the great objective of the
Gospel is the Glory of God and God is glorified even in those who
reject the Gospel! Still, it is a very sweet help to earnestness when
we know that we shall not labor in vain, or spend our strength for
nothing. "I have much people in this city" nerves Paul to go forth and
proclaim bravely, in every place, that Word of God which is to bring
the people of God home to Himself.

But, next, we see very clearly that old means and methods are quite
sufficient to save souls. Our Lord did not say, "Paul, be not afraid,
but deliver a Sunday afternoon lecture with a nonsensical title and
little or no Gospel in it." No, no! Our Master said, "Speak and hold
not your peace, for I have much people in this city." God's way of
saving souls is the best way, after all! You and I may get up all sorts
of inventions and He may wink at our follies and let us go on with
them, but His way of saving souls is speaking the Gospel and nothing
other than the Gospel! I should like to see in the world, again, a
revival like that under Jonathan Edwards in which there were no
extravagances, no utterances of false doctrine, no making a noise and a
riot–but just the preaching of the old-fashioned Doctrines of Grace!

Those Truths of God brought on a revival of a deep and enduring kind.
Men were filled with an awful fear of God and they repented bitterly
and mended their ways and sought Jesus in dreadful earnest and rested
not till they found Him! They did not sing jigs, but they wept as one
that is in bitterness for her firstborn. They flaunted no banners, but
they laid hold on Jesus in the secret of their souls. They did not
often shout, but they went home and talked, one to another, of what God
had been doing in their souls and they lived near Him. I would like to
see that old kind of work and life among us again! The Holy Spirit may
work as He pleases, but still, that order of revival seemed to be deep
and permanent and the results were found after many days–whereas,
nowadays–where are the converts of your revivals? Where are the
converts after a little time has passed? All Paul did, when he knew
there was much people in that city, was just to go and speak the Gospel
and not be afraid–I, for one, mean to keep to the old-fashioned way.

Once again, dear Friends, usefulness, according to the text is the best
protection a man can have. Notice that. "No man shall set on you to
hurt you, for I have much people in this city." When God means to save
people by any man, that man will live till the chosen are gathered in!
He may go to sea, but storms cannot drown him! He may be waylaid by
ungodly men, but robbers cannot hurt him! He is immortal till his work
is done! There is no protection for anybody, depend upon it, like
usefulness–God will not allow the goat to browse upon the branch that
bears fruit–or the blast to wither. Men of God have gone into fever
lairs, using all care and precaution and they have been protected from
the pestilence.

It has happened that Christian men have been in perils by robbers,
perils by false brethren, perils everywhere, but they have survived all
and triumphed in all–and when they have not been thus upheld, it may
have been because their ministry was ended. They went Home because
their day's work was over! Where else should they go? They went back to
their Father, for their Father had no more need of them abroad. As long
as God has anything for you to do, nothing will ever kill you, my
Brother! Go ahead and fear not. "I have much people in this city." Go
to win them and you shall be safe!

I believe that our position at this time is very much that of Paul's,
for we, too, hope, trust and believe that God has much people in this
city. What a city it is! Not one among us has any idea of the size of
London! You shall go, today, to a well-remembered spot and find
yourself, all of a sudden, in a region which you never saw before–a
township which has sprung up overnight! I remember an old oak tree and
a pond with geese and cowslips growing in the meadow. It is a mile in
town at the present moment and the tree is gone and everything that was
around it. Instead of a hedgerow I sigh to see an endless wilderness of
brown bricks and stucco. Oh, this great city! It grows at an awful
rate, but God has much people in it, depend upon it!

I believe God means to bless London largely. You will ask, "Why?" Well,
I look back upon its past history and I have hope. The martyrs' blood
lies here! When all the country was yielding its martyrs, London
furnished its full share. On this

very spot where we now are, three were burnt for the Truth of God's
sake. Old chronicles say, "At the Butts at Newington, three Anabaptists
were burnt." These were among the earliest of martyrs, before
Protestants were known or thought of. Anabaptists were always a prey
and they who killed them thought they did God a favor! Members of our
ancient persecuted Church were often burnt for the Truth's sake and for
Christ's sake in London–and from the ground, their blood is calling
still! All over this London of ours, the preaching of the Gospel was
precious in the old times. You hear the name of, "Gospel Oak," as you
travel in the North of London and the tree was so called because there
the Gospel was preached and crowds gathered beneath its shade to listen
to the joyful sound! All about the city secret groups met to worship
God after the Gospel way.

Now, the Lord will never let the blood of the martyrs die out! It will
forever be the seed of His Church. See, again, how London kindled with
holy fire in the days of Whitfield and Wesley. Go but a mile from this
place and notice Kennington Park, once Kennington Common. What
thousands used to gather there to hear the Gospel preached! The men of
the south of London loved the Gospel! Multitudes of them still do. I
feel sure that God will yet bless London because at this very moment,
if the Gospel is preached so that people can understand it, they will
throng to hear it! Alas, poor men cannot understand half the preachers.
They preach Latin fit for drawing rooms. If they would go to
Billingsgate and learn English, they might get on.

You say, "That would be very rough English!" Well, but the roughest of
English might be better than the Latinized jargon of most of our
pulpits. When men preach the Gospel plainly and simply, they will never
lack a congregation in this great city, I am certain of it. Away in a
hack street down in a hollow way just beyond Barclay and Perkins's
brewery, where there are no cabs, or other public conveyances–right
out of the world and into the mud–the crowds came and discovered a boy
years ago and they followed him because he preached the Gospel in a way
which they could understand. They will find a man anywhere if he will
but preach the Gospel of Christ! I am sure that the Lord has much
people in this city because there is a hungering and thirsting after
the Gospel, if they could but get at it.

Go ahead, then, Brothers and Sisters! Talk about Christ! Talk about Him
everywhere! Talk about Him in the workshop! Speak about Him quietly and
modestly, prudently and gently, but carry out the blessed Words of my
text–"Be not afraid, but speak and hold not your peace." Be this to
each one his word of good cheer, "For I am with you and no man shall
set on you to hurt you: for I have much people in this city." God bless
you, for Christ's sake. Amen and amen!
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The Blood of the Covenant