I Was Before

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious." 1 Timothy
1:13.

I AM not going to dwell, at this time, upon the special items of the
text as to what Paul was before his conversion because none of us have
been exactly as he was. We have all gone astray like lost sheep, but
each one of us has taken a distinct course from all the rest. You might
have to describe your transgressions in very different words from those
used by the Apostle because yours have been a different form of guilt
from his. Paul said of himself that he, "was before a blasphemer and a
persecutor and injurious." Saul of Tarsus was a blasphemer. He does not
say that he was an unbeliever and an objector, but he uses a very
strong word, though not too strong, and says that he was a blasphemer.

He was a down-right, thorough-going blasphemer who also caused others
to blaspheme. From blasphemy, which is a sin of the lips, Saul
proceeded to persecution, which is a sin of the hands. Hating Christ,
he hated His people, too. He was also injurious, which I think Bengel
considers to mean that he was a despiser. That eminent critic says,
"blasphemy was his sin towards God, persecution was his sin towards the
Church and despising was his sin in his own heart." He was
injurious–that is, he did all he could to damage the cause of Christ
and, thereby, injured himself. He kicked against the pricks and by
doing so injured his own conscience. Having sinned thus grievously,
Paul makes a full confession of his guilt in order that he may magnify
the Divine Grace which saved, even, the chief of sinners.

Note here, before we come to the special purpose we have in view, that
godly men never think or speak lightly of their sins. When they know
that they are forgiven, they repent of their iniquities even more
heartily than before. They never infer the lightness of sin from the
freeness of Grace, but quite the contrary–and you shall find it as one
trait in the character of every true penitent that he is rather
inclined to blacken himself than to whitewash his transgressions. He
sometimes speaks of himself in terms which others think must be
exaggerated, though to him and, indeed, to God, they are simply true.

You have probably read biographies of John Bunyan in which the
biographer says that Bunyan labored under a morbid conscientiousness
and accused himself of a degree of sin of which he was not guilty.
Exactly so, in the view of the biographer, but not so in the view of
John Bunyan, who, startled into sensitiveness of conscience, could not
find words strong enough to express all his reprobation of himself. Job
once said, "I abhor myself." That is a very strong expression but, when
he saw his own sin in the Presence of God, the man of whom the Lord
said unto Satan, "There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an
upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil," the man against whom
the devil, himself, could not bring an accusation, yet says that when
he saw God, the brightness of the Divine Holiness made him so conscious
of his sin that he exclaimed, "Now my eye sees You, I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes."

Those who have seen the exceeding sinfulness of sin by the light of the
Holy Spirit and who have been made truly penitent are the last persons
to speak lightly of evil! They dwell upon their own criminality with
many terms to set forth how greatly they have felt it. We will consider
the case of Paul for just a minute or two because it is a type and
pattern of the work of God's Grace in other Believers. He tells us in
the 16th verse of this chapter, "For this cause I obtained mercy, that
in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a
pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life
everlasting." He was a model convert, a typical instance of Divine
long-suffering, a pattern and specimen of all who believe on Christ and
all conversions are, to a large extent, similar to that which
transformed the blaspheming, persecuting, despising Saul of Tarsus into
the great Apostle of the Gentiles!

Now, notice when he is describing his own past life how he dwells upon
it with painful minuteness. He is not speaking before God in private,
as Job was in the words we have quoted, else I can conceive that he
would paint his sin in still darker colors. But he is answering for
himself before king Agrippa, touching the things of which he had been
accused by the Jews and you will see that he puts his offense against
Christ and His Church in as strong a light as he very well could. His
enemies have no such accusation to bring against him as that which he
voluntarily makes against himself! First, he

says in the 10th verse of the 26th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles,
which we read just now, "Many of the saints did I shut up in prison."

Those whom he shut up in prison were saints. To imprison the guilty is
no fault, but to maltreat and shut up holy men was, indeed,
blameworthy. He confessed that they were saints, saintly persons, but
he committed them to prison for that very reason, because they were
Christians and, therefore, their saintly lives did not protect them
from his malice, but made them so much the more objects of his cruel
hatred. He says that he hunted the saints–and not merely a few of
them, but, "Many of the saints did I shut up in prison." He lays stress
upon the word, "many"–not half-a-dozen here and there–but scores and
hundreds suffered through him and his persecuting band. He crowded the
prisons with the followers of Jesus Christ! "He that touches you
touches the apple of His eye," says the Lord of Hosts when addressing
captive Zion.

One touch of a saint of God injuriously given will be painful to the
Lord–how much more, then, when there are many such touches and when he
whose hand has done the evil deed has to confess–"Many of the saints
did I shut up in prison"? We may be quite sure that he did this because
they were Christians, for the 9th verse puts it thus, "I verily thought
with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth." It was Jesus of Nazareth he was aiming at, though
his blows were directed against His followers. It was because the name
of Jesus was named upon these people that they were put in prison!

Now, this is no small sin–to persecute holy men, to imprison many of
them and to do so simply because they believed in Jesus Christ. The
Apostle felt that this put exceeding bitterness into the gall of his
transgression–that he had lifted up unholy hands against the members
of Christ's body and through them had wounded their ever-glorious Head.
More than this, he did not merely put them in prison, but, he says,
"Many of the saints did I shut up in prison." Some persons in prison
have had a measure of liberty, as Joseph had, but Saul took care that
these Believers should be shut up–that they should have no liberty at
all! He put them into the common jails, locked them up and made their
feet fast in the stocks, causing them to suffer even as he and his
companion, Silas, afterwards did in the prison at Philippi.

Continuing the summary of his evil against the servants of the Lord, he
says, "I was not content with their imprisonment, but I was eager for
their death. When they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
When the Sanhedrim wanted a vote I, young Saul, was there to give my
maiden vote against Stephen or any other saint. If the chief priests
wanted a knife to cut the Christians' throats with, there was I ready
to do the deed. If they needed one who would drag them away to prison
and to death, there stood I, the eager messenger, only too glad if I
might lay hands upon them, believing that I was, thereby, doing God
service."

"No," he says, "that is not all. I often punished them in every
synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme." This, indeed, was a very
horrible part of Saul's sinfulness. To destroy their bodies was bad
enough, but to destroy their souls if that were possible–to compel
them to blaspheme, to speak evil of that name which they confessed to
be their joy and their hope–surely that was the worst form that
persecution could assume! He forced them under torture to renounce the
Christ whom their hearts loved! As it were, he was not content to kill
them, but he must damn them, if it were possible, too. "I compelled
them to blaspheme." This was a dreadful sin and Paul mentions it as
such. He does not extenuate his crime, nor attempt to find excuses for
his conduct.

And then he adds, once more, that he did all this wickedness with the
greatest possible enthusiasm–"And being exceedingly mad against them,"
like a raging madman in his fits, like a violent maniac who cannot be
held in–seized with frenzy, tearing right and left, finding no rest
unless he could be harrying and worrying the sheep like a bloody wolf,
as he was to the sheep of Christ's flock. "Being exceedingly mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." He scattered
them far and wide and then sought to get authority that even when they
were in exile they might not be beyond his reach!

Saul seems to have grown proficient in the science of persecution and
to have become a very master in the cruel art of crushing the people of
God. We do not learn this from James, or John, or any of the other
Apostles. Who tells us of all this? Who makes out this long, black
catalog of crimes of which the man who committed them might well be
ashamed? Why, Paul himself! It is Paul himself that puts it so and I
would that, in like manner, the worst character you could have, my
Brother, might come from your own lips. "Let another man praise you and
not your own mouth; a stranger and not your own lips." But, when there
is an accusation that must be made against you, be you the first to
make it with tears of repentance before the living God!

I think I have thus, from the example of Paul before Agrippa, justified
the expression with which I started–that true penitents do not seek to
extenuate or diminish the sin which has been forgiven them, but they
acknowledge how great it is and set it forth in all its enormity as it
appears before their enlightened eyes. Now, I want you, dear Friends,
who know the Lord, to follow me in a very simple way, rather by your
emotions than by anything else. I want the text of my sermon to be, "I
was." The Apostle tells us what he was–what he was before conversion.
Now, I want you to think what you were before the Grace of God met with
you and changed you.

I do not know that I shall help you much to remember the details of
your sin, for pretty near the last time I stood here, I did that when
we spoke of Peter from the words–"When he thought thereon, he wept,"
[Fountain of Repentant Tears–Sermon #2735, Volume 47–Read July 14,
1901–Preached October 24, 1880.] but I want you to see seven very
profitable inferences which will arise out of an impartial retrospect
of your life before conversion.

I. The first, I think, will be that IF WE THINK OF WHAT WE WERE, IT
WILL EXCITE IN US ADORING GRATITUDE. Paul was full of gratitude, for he
thanked Christ Jesus that He counted him faithful, putting him into the
ministry. He is so glad of the favor of God that when he comes to the
17th verse he must put down his pen while he sings, "Now unto the King
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen." If, then, you and I look back upon what we
were before the Lord saved us, we, too, shall be full of adoring
gratitude as we think of even the least of all the favors that He has
bestowed upon us!

"I am not worthy," said the Patriarch, Jacob, when he was returning to
his country at the command of God–"I am not worthy of the least of all
the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown unto Your
servant." And we can, each one, say the same. Is it not a wonderful
thing that you who were–I will not say what–you know what you were
and God knows! Isn't it wonderful, I say, that you should be a teacher
of others? That you should be permitted to stand up and speak of pardon
bought with blood? That you should be allowed to talk of holiness
though your lips used to speak of any other theme but that?

Isn't it wonderful that you should be allowed to extol the Christ for
whom you had no words of praise a little while ago, for whom, indeed,
you had only words of contempt and scorn? Paul was astonished to think
that he was put into the ministry! And when I look back upon my own
life before I knew the Lord, I am amazed that I should ever stand here,
seeing that for so long I refused my Lord's love and put aside His
favors and would have none of them! Ah, I did not know what would
happen to me one day. Little did I think then that I should ever stand
here to–

"Tell to sinners round, What a dear Savior I have found."

But it does fill me with gratitude which makes me bow before God in
thankful adoration to think that He should have looked on me and to
know that, "unto me," as well as unto Paul, "is this Grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

I ask you, dear Friends, to remember this gratitude in the reception of
every blessing. When you enjoy Church privileges; when you come to the
Communion Table, think, "Here comes one to sit with the children of God
who once was like a dog outside the house." When you stand up and
praise the Lord, think, "And I, too, am permitted to offer the
sacrifice of praise–I, who once sang the praises of Bacchus or of
Venus–rather than of Christ Jesus!" When you draw near to God in
prayer and know that He hears you, too–when you have power in prayer
and prevail with the Most High and come back with your hands full of
blessings that have been obtained at the Throne of Grace, you may well
say, "What shameful things these hands once did when I rendered my
members instruments of unrighteousness–and now they are loaded down
with the bounties of a gracious God!"

Oh, do bless His name! If you do not, the stones in the street will
begin to cry out against some of you! Oh, if your heart does not leap
at the very sound of the name of Jesus, surely you cannot possess a
heart at all! Such a change, such a wondrous, matchless change has
passed upon you that if you do not praise the Lord today and tomorrow
and as long as you have any being, what shall be said of your
ungrateful silence? "I was"–I was before–all that I ought not to have
been, but Grace has changed me and unto the God of Grace be all the
glory! Do not all of you who love the Lord unite with me in this
utterance of adoring gratitude?

II. A second very blessed inference (we can only speak briefly upon
each one) is that A SENSE OF WHAT WE WERE SHOULD SUSTAIN IN US VERY
DEEP HUMILITY. It did so hn the case of the Apostle Paul and I would
refer you to his expression of it in the First Epistle to the
Corinthians, the 15th chapter and the 9th verse, where he says, "I am

the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle
because I persecuted the church of God." When He was compelled to glory
in what he was through the Grace given to him, he said that he supposed
he was not a whit behind the very chief Apostles, yet he here says of
himself that he was not worthy to be called an Apostle because before
his conversion he persecuted the saints of God!

Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, if we have been a little while
converted and have united with the Church of God and the Lord has given
us a little work to do, we may be tempted to think, "Now, I am
somebody! Really, I am not now quite the humble dependent that I used
to be. I am getting to be of some service to my Lord and Master and I
am of some importance in His Church." Ah, that is the way many
Christians get into sad mischief. "Pride goes before destruction and a
haughty spirit before a fall." You must always strive against that kind
of spirit and one way to avoid it is to remember what you were in your
unregenerate state. There are some who might say, "I am a minister of
the Gospel, but I am not worthy to be called a minister because of the
sins that I committed before my conversion. I am a member of the Church
of Christ, but I am scarcely worthy to be called a member because I was
a blasphemer, or a Sabbath-breaker, or profane, unchaste, or
dishonest."

Remember what you were and let your spiritual advancements never lead
you to unspiritual pride and self-conceit for, "everyone that is proud
in heart is an abomination to the Lord." I have heard of a good man in
Germany who used to rescue poor, destitute boys from the streets and he
always had them photographed in their rags and filth just as he found
them. And then, years afterwards, when they were clothed and washed and
educated and their characters began to develop, if they grew proud he
would show them what they were and try to teach them what they would
have likely been it had not been for his charity. If you are inclined
to lift up your head and boast what a great man you are, now–just look
at the likeness of what you were before the Lord made you a new
creature in Christ Jesus!

Oh, who can tell what that likeness would have been but for the
interpositions of Divine Grace? I think you would say what the Scotsman
said to Rowland Hill when he called to see the good man in his study.
He sat and looked at him. And Rowland Hill's face, you know, if you
have seen his portrait, is one to be remembered–there is a peculiar
comic look about it. So the Scotsman said, in answer to the question,
"What are you looking at?" "I have been studying the lines of your
face." "And what do you make out of them?" said Mr. Hill. "Why, that if
the Grace of God had not made you a Christian, you would have been one
of the worst fellows that ever lived." "Ah!" said Mr. Hill, "you have
hit the mark this time!"

I should not wonder, too, if some of us, when we look in the mirror,
were to see somebody there that would have been a very deep-dyed sinner
if it had not been for the change of heart which Sovereign Grace has
worked. This ought to keep us very humble and very lowly before God. I
invite you, Friends, to think this over and when you feel yourselves
beginning to swell a little, let the bladder of your foolish and wicked
pride be pricked with the needle of conscience as you remember what you
used to be and you will be all the better for letting some of the gas
escape! Come back as speedily as you can to your fine shape, for what
are you, after all? If you are anything that is good, or right, or
pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, you must still say, "By the Grace of
God I am what I am."–

"All that I was, my sin, my guilt,

My death, was all my own.

All that I am, I owe to You,

My gracious God, alone.

The evil of my former state

Was mine and only mine.

The good in which I now rejoice

Is Thine and only Thine."

Well, those are two of the inferences which result from looking back at
what you were–the retrospect excites gratitude and sustains humility.

III. The next is this–THE REMEMBRANCE OF OUR FORMER CONDITION SHOULD
RENEW IN US GENUINE REPENTANCE. When we look back upon what we used to
be before the Lord met with us, it should breed in us a perpetual
repentance. There are some who seem to think that we only repent of sin
when we are first converted. Do not be deluded by any such false
notion! When you leave off repenting, you have left off living! You are
not living for God as you ought to do unless you daily repent. Remember
that we are not saved by a single act of faith which terminates the
moment we receive the assurance of the Divine forgiveness, but by a
faith which continues as long as we live and,

therefore, as long as we have any faith we must have repentance, too,
for these are twin Graces–faith with a bright eye, like Rachel, who
was beautiful and well-favored–and repentance, tender-eyed, like Leah,
but with a lovely eye for all that.

"Repentance," says one, "why, I thought that was a bitter thing that
was taken away when we believed!" No, it is a sweet thing–I could wish
to repent in Heaven, though I suppose I shall not. We cannot carry the
tear of penitence in our eyes into Heaven–it will be the only thing we
might regret to leave behind. Surely we shall be sorry, even there, for
having grieved our God. Even there, I think, we shall repent, but
certainly as long as we are here we must daily repent of sin! Yes, and
repent of the sin that is forgiven–repent more because it is forgiven
than we did when we had any doubts about its being pardoned–

"My sins, my sins, my Savior! How sad on You they fall, Seen through
Your gentle patience, I tenfold feel them all. I know they are
forgiven, But still their pain to me Is all the grief and anguish They
laid, my Lord, on Thee."

Smite on your breasts while you think that it was necessary that Christ
should die that you might be delivered from sin and its penalty and
power–and as your love increases, let your sorrow abound that such a
Lord should have needed to be crucified for you.

Oh, Sin, as Christ becomes more lovely, you become more hateful and as
our soul learns more of the beauty of holiness, it perceives more of
your ugliness and so continually loathes you more and more! If you want
to draw up the sluices of repentance, sit down and remember what you
were by nature and would have remained if Grace had not intervened! So,
then, it shall be good for you to say, "I was before a blasphemer and a
persecutor and injurious," or to use any other expression that shall
accurately describe you, if it leads you, like Peter, to go out and
weep bitterly true tears of repentance.

IV. And now, fourthly, (we have but a word on each inference, you
see)–THE RETROSPECT OF OUR PAST

LIVES SHOULD KINDLE IN US FERVENT LOVE to the Lord who has redeemed us.
You remember Christ went into

the house of one of the Pharisees who had a measure of respect for
Him–this was Simon who desired Him to eat with him. But when He
entered in, Simon treated Him as a common guest and offered Him none of
the delicate attentions which men give to choice friends or to
superiors. Christ took no note of this, nor had He need to do so, for
there was another who stole into that room who did for Him all that
Simon ought to have done and more than Simon could have done!

"A woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat
at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment
and stood at His feet behind Him weeping." She stood behind the couch
upon which He was reclining and let her tears fall down upon His
blessed flesh till she had washed His feet with them and then,
unbraiding the luxurious tresses of her hair, she wiped those holy feet
with them! Her love, her humility, her adoration and her penitence were
all mingling as she kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment
which she had brought. Our Lord explained why this woman had performed
this extraordinary action. He said it was because she had been forgiven
much.

Now, rest assured that there is no exception to this rule–that those
who are conscious of having had much forgiven are those who will love
Christ much! I do not say–I almost wish I could–that love is always
in proportion to the amount of sin forgiven, but I do say that it is in
proportion to the consciousness of sin forgiven. A man may be a less
sinner than another, but he may be more conscious of his sin and he
will be the man who will love Christ more. Oh, do not forget what you
were, lest you should become unmindful of your obligation to Jesus! You
are saints, now, but you were not always so. You can talk to others of
Christ, now, but you could not once have done it. You can wrestle with
the Angel of God in prayer and prevail, now, but once you were more
familiar with the devil than you were with the Angel!

At this moment your heart bears witness to the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit–it is not long ago that the Prince of the power of the air
worked within you and the Holy Spirit was not there at all! I beseech
you, therefore, forget not this, lest you forget to love Him who has
worked this wondrous change in you! I think there is nothing better
than to retain a vivid sense of conversion in order to retain a vivid
sense of love. Do not be afraid of loving Christ too much. I see the
cold

carping criticism of this age objects to any expressions of love to
Christ which we use in our hymns because it says that they are
sensuous. My only answer to such talk is–God give us more of such
blessed sensuousness!

I think that instead of diminishing these utterances it will be a token
of growth in Grace when they are more abundant–not if they become so
common as to be hypocritical. Then they would be sickening, but as long
as they are true and honest, I, for one, would say to you who love the
Lord, go on and sing–

"Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast."

Go on and sing–

"Jesus, I love Your charming name, 'Tis music to my ear."

Hesitate not to say–

"You, dear Redeemer, dying Lamb, We love to hear of You"

and if it shall please you and the Spirit shall move you, even say,
like the spouse in the song, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His
mouth: for Your love is better than wine." The starveling religion of
the present day, not content with tearing away the doctrinal flesh from
the spiritual body, is now seeking to drag out the very heart of
religion and to reduce Christian experience to nothing but a chilly
doubting of everything! Let this be far from you! Believe something and
love something, for to believe is to live, and to love is to be in
health.

Oh for more love arising out of a deep, intense sense of what we once
were and of the change which Christ has worked in us! "But," says one,
"I do not know that any great change has been worked in me." No and
there are some who tell us that we do not need any. There are certain
Paedobaptists preaching, nowadays, that most children of pious parents
do not need conversion. We have long had the Church of England teaching
us baptismal regeneration–now we have some Nonconformists trying to
persuade us that no regeneration at all is needed! This a new kind of
doctrine that I know nothing of and that the Word of God knows nothing
of and it will not do for us! It will eat out the very life of
Christianity if it is believed.

Pious ancestors could not save one of you–even if your fathers and
mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers and great-grandfathers and
great-grandmothers and great-great-great-great-grandfathers and
great-great-great-great-grandmothers–as far back as ever you like–had
been all saints, nevertheless, their faith could not be of any use to
you! You must be born, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God." "You must be born again" is as true of
one child as of another–as true of you as it was of me and as true of
me as of the thief confined in prison today.

But some of us have been changed–we are washed, we are sanctified, we
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our
God. It has been a real work of Divine Grace–the turning of us upside
down, the reversing of the course of Nature, a turning of night into
day, a turning of the powers of our spirit from the dominion of Satan
to the dominion of Christ–and we must and will, therefore, love Him
who has worked in us such a wondrous transformation!

V. Well now, fifthly, REMEMBERING WHAT WE WERE, ARDENT ZEAL SHOULD BE
AWAKENED IN US.

Look at Paul. He says, "I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and
injurious." What then? Why, now that he has become a follower of
Christ, he cannot do too much! He put many saints in prison–now he
goes into many prisons, himself. He hunted them even to strange
cities–and now he goes into all manner of strange cities, himself. He
dragged them before tribunals and now he, himself goes and stands
before Roman proconsuls and before the Roman emperor, himself! Paul can
never do too much for Christ because he had done so much for Satan!

I remember one who lived four or five miles away from a place of
worship who used to say, "You old legs, it is no use being tired, for
you have got to carry me. You used to take me to the place of amusement
when I served the devil and you shall carry me, now, to the House of
God that I may worship and serve Him." When sometimes he had an uneasy
seat, he used to say, "It is no use grumbling, old bones, you will have
to sit here, or else you will have to stand. Years ago you put up with
all kinds of inconveniences when I went to the theater, or some other
evil place when I served Satan–and you must now be content to do the
same now for a better Master and a nobler service."

I think some of us might take a lesson from that old man and say to
ourselves, "Come, Covetousness, you are not going to hinder me from
serving the Lord. I used to be liberal to the devil and I do not
intend, now, to be stingy with God." If ever I am tempted in that
fashion, I will give twice as much as I had thought of doing, so as to
spite the devil, for

he shall not have his way with me! Some, when they serve Satan, go as
if they rode a racehorse and whip and spur to get in first. How they
will destroy body and soul in the service of the Evil One! But if a
Christian gets a little lively they say, "Oh, dear me, dear me, he is
excited! He is fanatical! He has grown enthusiastic!"

Why should he not be in earnest? The devil's servants are enthusiastic
and why should not the servants of Christ be the same? Black Prince,
Black Prince, are you served by heroes and shall Christ be served by
dolts? Oh, let it not be so, my Brothers and Sisters! Surely if
anything can wake up all the powers of our nature; if anything can make
a lame man leap as a hart; if anything can make a palpitating,
trembling heart to be bold and brave for Christ, it should be the love
which Christ has shown in looking upon such as we were and changing us
by His Grace! "Ah, but you must not do too much," says one. Did you
ever know anybody who did?

If anybody ever does too much for Christ, let us rail off a piece in
the cemetery that we may bury him in it. That grave will never be
needed–it will be empty till Christ comes! "Ah, but you may have too
many irons in the fire." It depends upon the size of the fire! Get your
fire well hot–I mean get your heart well hot and your nature in a
blaze–then put all the irons you can ever get, into it! Keep them all
at a white heat if possible. Blow away and let the flames be very
vehement. Oh, to live for God a life of ecstatic zeal even if it were
only for a short space of time! It were better than to have a hundred
years of bare existence in which one went crawling along like a snail,
leaving slime behind and nothing else. It were better far than
driveling out, as oftentimes we do–

"Our souls can neither fly nor go To reach eternal joys." The love of
Christ to us, then, suggests great zeal in His service.

VI. Now, sixthly, I am sure that another inference that should be drawn
from it is this–If we remember what we were and how Divine Grace has
changed us, IT OUGHT TO MAKE US VERY HOPEFUL ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE. Paul
was, for he says, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of
whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me
first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to
them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." Well,
Friend, are you saved? Then anybody can be! You never ought to despair
of the salvation of anyone, for you know yourself and feel yourself to
have been the most undeserving of men–and yet God's Grace has made you
love Him. Well, then, that Grace can light on anybody. Already it has
fallen on the most unlikely spot possible!

Now, from this moment on, never indulge the idea that it is useless to
attempt to benefit any of your fellow men. I remember–indeed, I have
often met with persons who tell me of being asked, "Why did you not ask
So-and-So to attend a place of worship?" "Ask him? Oh, I never thought
of him." "Why not?" "I did not think it was any use." It is a very
amazing thing that those are the kind of people who, if you get them to
hear the Word of God, are generally con-verted–the people you think it
is no use to bring! Men who have been accustomed to speak very
disrespectfully of religious things, when once brought under the sound
of the Truth of God, are often the first to receive a blessing! Those
are the kind of fellows to seek, for there is some hope of reaching men
who are in such need of the Gospel we have to proclaim. You know there
is virgin soil there, so it is the very place to sow the good Seed of
the kingdom.

There is good fishing in a pond that never was fished before and here
is a man who, at any rate, is not Gospel-hardened–he has not got used
to the sound of the Word so as to take no notice of anything that is
said. Bring him in! He is the very man we want–bring him in! "But he
is a swearer." Well, but if you were a swearer before your conversion,
you ought never to say anything about that. "Oh, but he is a very
hardened man." Yes, but if you were converted, notwithstanding what you
were, you ought never to make that objection against anyone. "Oh, but
he is such a low-bred man." Well, there are plenty of us who cannot
boast much about our aristocratic descent! "Oh, but," says one, "he is
such a proud man, such a haughty man." Or, "He is a rich man. He is a
purse-proud man." Yes, but there are others like he who have been
brought in and while that man has sinned in one way, you have sinned in
another–and if the Grace of God met your six, it can meet his
half-dozen!

Depend upon it, God meant us to be hopeful about other people when He
saved us. See that man coming out of the hospital? He has had pretty
nearly all the diseases you ever heard of and yet he has been cured. He
is not the man to say, "It is no use going in there. You will get no
good by putting yourself under the treatment of that doctor." On the
contrary, whenever he meets with anybody who is suffering, he says,
"You go and try the physician that healed me. If you can get a bed
under his care; if you can come under his notice, you are almost
certain to get cured–your maladies cannot be worse than mine and he
met my case exactly and he can meet yours." He is the man who will
advertise Christ and will

proclaim His fame the whole world over–who has tasted that He is
gracious and has proven, in his own case, the converting power of the
Holy Spirit!

Oh, I pray you, dear Friend, despair of nobody! You who go with your
tracts, go into the worst houses! You who talk in the workhouses to
those who are, perhaps, as gladly gone as any–who find them dying in
the infirmary and rejecting the Word of God as you speak it, yet keep
on! Keep on! "Never say die" concerning anyone! Since the Lord has
saved you, the Grace of God can save anybody, however far he may have
sunk in sin! It can reach even to the very vilest of the sons of men.

VII. The last inference is that WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US SHOULD CONFIRM
OUR CONFIDENCE FOR OURSELVES–our confidence, not in ourselves, but in
God who will perfect that which He has begun in us. There is not half
as much Grace necessary to bring you to Heaven if you are a Believer as
you have had, already, to bring you where you are! You have got to be
perfected, but remember that it was the very first step that had the
difficulty in it. It always reminds me of the legend of St. Denis who
picked up his head after it was cut off and walked, I think, 40 leagues
with it. But a wit said that there was no trouble about walking 40
leagues–the difficulty all lay in the first step!

So it did and so all the difficulty of the walk of faith lies in the
first step–that first coming of a dead heart to life! That first
bringing of a reprobate soul–a carnal mind that is enmity against
God–into friendship with God. Well, that has been done! That first
great work has been worked in you by God the Holy Spirit and now you
can say with the Apostle, "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life."

Do you think the Lord ever converts a man with a view of showing him
His Light that he may go back, again, into the thick darkness, forever?
Does He drop a spark of heavenly light into our souls that it may go
out, never to be rekindled? Does He come and teach us to eat heavenly
bread and drink the Water of Life and then leave us to starve or die of
thirst? Does He make us members of Christ's body and then allow us to
rot and decay? Has He brought us thus far to put us to shame? Has He
given me a heart that cries after Him and pines for Him! Has He given
me a sighing after perfection, an inward hunger after everything that
is holy and true and does He mean, after all, to desert me? It cannot
be–

"His love in time past forbids me to think

He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink.

That gracious conversion I ha ve in review,

Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through." So let us go on
our way rejoicing that it shall be even so with each one of us. Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Acts 26:1 Timothy 1:11-17.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–30, 233, 235.
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