One Lion, Two Lions, No Lion at All!

DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1882,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"The slothful man says, There is a lion outside, I shall be slain in
the streets." Proverbs 22:13.

"The slothful man says, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the
streets."

Proverbs 26:13.

THIS slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about lions as
if it were his favorite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble
to invent another excuse. Perhaps he hugs it to his soul all the more
because it is a home-born fear, conjured up by his own imagination, and
as mothers are said to love their weakest children best, so is he
fondest of this most imbecile of excuses! At any rate, it serves him
for a passable excuse for laziness, and that is what he wants. If you
can get the king of beasts to apologize for your idleness, there is a
sort of royalty about your pretences! He hopes his sloth will appear
the less disgraceful if he can paint a lion rampant upon its shield. I
am not about to speak of slothful men in general, albeit that when a
man does not diligently attend to his business, he is committing great
wrong to himself and to others. When a man is slothful as a servant, he
is unjust to his employers, and when he is in business on his own
account, idleness is usually a wrong to his wife and family.

I know one who is the cause of poverty and need to those whom he ought
to provide for–and all because honest labor and he have long since
fallen out. He would not move an inch if he could help it, nor even
open his eyes if he could manage to live and sleep all his life away.
When a man is thoroughly eaten up with the dry rot of laziness, he
generally finds some kind of excuse, though his crime is really
inexcusable. "There is a lion in the way" and, therefore, the man
judges it to be quite right that he should keep his bed, or that he
should sit leisurely indoors and should not give himself too much
trouble or run any risks! But all this is mere makeup to screen his
loathsome vice.

No Christian ought to be slothful in his ordinary work–the Apostle
describes the good man as "not slothful in business"–of whatever kind
that business may be. If you have a right to undertake it. If you have
a right to continue in it, you have no right to be a sluggard in it.
There should be as wide a division as between the poles between the
thought of a Christian and the idea of a sluggard! "Whatever you do, do
it heartily." An idler is a disgrace to himself and if he professes
religion, he is a dishonor to it. Paul would starve him, for he says,
"If any would not work, neither should he eat"–and that is as near
starvation as can be.

Popery may create and foster lazzaroni, but the true faith bids every
man eat his own bread. I leave worldly sluggards to the moralist–does
not Nature, itself, teach us to labor diligently? Man was not made for
an idle life. Labor is evidently his proper condition. Even when man
was perfect, he was placed in the garden, not to admire its flowers,
but to keep it and to dress it! If he needed to work when he was
perfect, much more does he require the discipline of labor now that he
is fallen. Lions or no lions, men must work, or find disease and death
in sloth!

But we have many spiritual sluggards and it is to them that I speak.
They are not skeptics; they are not confirmed infidels; they are not
opposers of the Gospel. Perhaps their sluggish nature saves them from
anything like energetic opposition to goodness. They claim that they
are not averse to the Gospel–on the contrary, they are rather friendly
to it– and one of these days they intend to be obedient to its great
commands and to yield themselves as servants to Christ! But not just
yet–the good time has not fully arrived. They have a very comfortable
bed of sloth upon which they lie and they do not want to rise in a
hurry and exert themselves too much.

They need to take this matter very leisurely and turn to Christ when it
is quite convenient–when it will not require so much self-denial as at
the present moment. "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little
folding of the hands to sleep," is their continual cry! And although
God's watchmen disturb them terribly and cry aloud that they may wake
them, yet

they sleep so heavily that they just turn over when they are most
disturbed and drop into their slumbers again. I want to cry aloud under
the window of such sleepers, tonight, with the hope that perhaps some
of them may be awakened! What do you mean, O Sleeper? Will you sleep
your soul away? Will you lose Heaven rather than bestir yourself? Will
you never lift up your eyes till Hell's torments are hopelessly about
you and within you?

Our texts speak concerning the sluggard and the first thing you notice
about him is that his tongue is not slothful– "The slothful man says."
The man who is lazy all over is generally very busy with his tongue!
"The slothful man says, There is a lion outside." In both texts the
slothful man is represented as having something to say and I think that
there are no people that have so much to say as those that have little
to do. Where nothing is done, much is talked about. Their goodness
begins and ends in mere lip service. They talk about repentance, but
they do not repent. They are willing to hear about faith and even to
speak about it, but they do not believe!

They extol zeal and fervor, but they like to see these active Graces
rather than to feel them. They will talk till midnight, but all ends in
smoke. When you sit down to speak with them about the reason that they
have not given their hearts to Christ, they are not at all short of
reasons and apologies and excuses. Indeed, a man must be desperately
hard pushed when he cannot make an excuse! If our first parents made
garments of fig leaves, there is no fear that their descendants will
fail to make coverings of some kind or other–and so the slothful man
with his ready tongue declares that there is a lion in the way–and he
shall be slain in the streets!

He is not idle with his mouth. He has a short hand, but a long tongue!
His imagination, also, is not idle. There were no lions in the streets!
One does not expect to find lions there. They may be in the desert;
they may be in the jungle; they may be in the forest; but who expects
to find lions in the streets of Jerusalem or the lanes of London?
Laziness is a great lion-maker. He who does little, dreams much! His
imagination could create not only a lion but a whole menagerie of wild
beasts–and if some mighty hunter could hunt down all the lions that
his imagination has let loose, he would soon distribute more herds of
the terrible animals–with wolves and bears and tigers to match! An
idler will never be short of difficulties as long as he has no heart
for work.

As they say that any stick will do to beat a dog with, so any excuse
will do to rain your soul with, for this man's objection, after all,
was not to lions in the way–he objected to the way itself–and he was
glad to place a lion there so that he might be excused from going into
the street. He did not want to get to his work and, therefore, there
was a lion in the way to obstruct him! The lion was his friend. He had
invented him on purpose to be the ally of his idleness. Yes, men will
have their tongues busy and their imaginations busy, even though their
hearts are idle and their hands are covered over with idle dirt. This
man, using both his imagination and his tongue, gives me the
opportunity of saying that he took great pains to escape from pains. He
had to use his inventive ability to get himself excused from doing his
duty.

It is an old proverb that lazy people generally take the most trouble
and so they do. And when men are unwilling to come to Christ it is very
amazing what trouble they will take to keep away from Him. Hear how
they argue. Mark their ingenuity in avoiding the narrow way! Oh, if
they were to argue half as well upon the question why they should be
saved as they do upon the question why they should not be saved, their
logic would be put to a much more useful purpose! When we have talked
with them, we have seen them invent all kinds of difficulties and
doubts, disputes and dilemmas. They are always ready with hard
doctrines and texts that are hard to understand. They seem as if they
raked Heaven and earth and Hell to find reasons why they should be lost
and yet the only reason that they have for this is they do not want to
give up their sins–they do not want to give up their
self-righteousness!

They do not want to come to Jesus and be washed in His blood and owe
everything to the charity of God through the Redeemer. They cannot be
troubled with repenting and so they leave that doleful business, as
they call it. They do not like to work out their own salvation with
fear and trembling, and so they invent the lions. They do not care for
faith; they do not delight in Christ; and so they invent difficulties
and take a world of trouble to avoid trouble–storing up for
themselves, hereafter, a heap of misery in order to escape from the
blessedness of being found in Christ both now and at the Last Great
Day.

Now, in dealing with sluggishness and its vain excuse, my divisions,
tonight, will be such that every child can take them home and remember
them. The first head will be a lion. The second will be two lions. And
the third will be no lions at all! Those three headings will surely
abide in everybody's memory and they are fairly derived from the two
texts.

I. The first is "A LION." "The slothful man says, "There is a lion
outside, I shall be slain in the streets." That is to say, it is time
for him to get to the vineyard to work, but he does not get up and he
pretends that he is best in bed, for there is a lion outside the door.
Would you have him risk his precious life, so valuable to himself, at
any rate, if to nobody else? He turns over upon his bed to sleep,
again, for this is far more comfortable than to be meeting a lion and
falling a prey to his teeth! He means, I think, that there is a great
difficulty–a terrible difficulty–quite too much of a difficulty for
him to overcome.

He has heard of lion-tamers and lion-killers, but he is not one. He has
not the strength and the vigor to attack this dreadful enemy! He will
even confess that he has not sufficient courage for such an encounter.
The terrible difficulty which he foresees is more than he can face–it
is a LION and he is neither Samson, nor David, nor Daniel–and,
therefore, he had rather leave the monster alone. Are there not many,
here, who say much the same? "Oh," they say to the preacher, "you do
not know our position, or the peculiar circumstances and special trials
under which we labor! We would gladly be saved, but we cannot live as
Christian men–our trade is a difficulty, our poverty is a difficulty,
our lack of education is a difficulty–and the whole, put together,
make up an impossibility. There is a lion in the way."

Yes, I know, that is what your relative said many years ago. And as
long as there is any of your family left, there will always be lions
about–and you, being a true descendant of the slothful one, to speak
honestly to you–can hear the lion roar under your window just as your
great grandfather's grandfather did in Solomon's time! I am persuaded
that your sons and daughters, if they have the same mind as you
have–that is, a mind unwilling to come to Christ–will hear the voice
of the lions, too! Wonderful difficulties will be in their way, as they
are in yours. The ancient order of the Do-no-mores and the fruitful
family of the Easys will keep their beds and their posts till the last
trumpet shall sound!

Though the promise is, "You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the
young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet," they have no
heart for the conflict and, therefore, never win a victory. Yes, but in
this sluggard's case it was a very fierce lion. The Hebrew of the
second text implies that it was a mighty lion that was in the street.
His imagination pictured a very extraordinary monster, much larger than
usual! And so, my dear Friends, you have some difficulty much greater
than anybody else ever had–at least you talk as if this were the case!

True, the martyrs swam through seas of blood to win the crown and
thousands were burnt to ashes at the stake that they might be found
faithful to Christ. But it would seem, from your talk, that those lions
were nothing compared with your lion, which is of huge dimensions and
extraordinary ferocity! What can this lion be? Perhaps if I were to
examine a little closely it might come out that you are a great coward
and the lion a wretched cur not worth noticing! Your lion is a mere
mouse! Where is your manliness to tremble at so insignificant a trial?
Perhaps you have an acquaintance who would be parted from you if you
became a Christian. Is this your lion? It is a very young one! Or else
you are following a bad trade and a bad business–and you know that you
would have to give them up. Is this all?

Your shop would have to be shut on Sunday–is this the secret of the
matter? You know that the tricks that you now practice and that you
find so profitable, you cannot practice if you become a Christian.
Perhaps that is your lion. I should not wonder, though you try to make
others believe that it is so terrible, that you really cannot tell what
it is and yet you fondly dream that it quite excuses you for being what
you are–an idle lie-abed, sleeping when the light of the Gospel is
shining full in your face–and declining to decide for God and for
Christ, though you know what the Lord requires of you.

I wish that Elijah were here tonight that he might cry, as he did on
Carmel, "If God is God, serve Him! If Baal is God, serve him. How long
will you waver between two opinions?"–

"Wake, you sleepers, wake! What mean you? Sin besets you round about,
Up and search the foes within you Slay or chase the traitors out."

Still you hesitate because this lion is such a terrible lion that there
never was the like of it! In all the woods; in all the forests, never
was there such a roaring beast as this! So you say, if you are wide
awake enough to say as much as that. I tell you that you are trying to
make yourself believe a lie, for your difficulties are no greater than
many of us have surmounted by God's Grace! Your difficulties are not
half as great as were those of Paul and of those who lived in his day

who had to carry their lives in their hands–and seemed every day given
over to death for Jesus Christ's sake–and yet bravely followed their
Lord's will, notwithstanding all!

Observe, again, that this sluggard said that there was a lion outside
and he should be slain in the streets. It is rather a novel thing for
people to be killed by lions in the streets. It has not occurred within
my recollection and I do not think that it is ever likely to occur! But
still, this man professed that he expected to be slain in the streets!
In an age of liberty like this, he is afraid to be a Christian because
of persecution, for persecution would be the death of him! Oh, dear! In
a time like this, when, to be honest, to be upright is, for certain,
the best thing for this world as well as for the world to come, yet men
still tell us that they would lose by being Christians! It would ruin
their business! They could never make a living! They would be slain in
the streets.

If you had lived in Madagascar years ago, when to be a Christian
involved your being hurled down a precipice or being speared, I could
see something in the excuse. But in a land like this, the persecutions
which are endured may be bitter and the losses which are incurred may
be heavy, but they are hardly worth mentioning as compared with the
sufferings of the first ages! I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the sufferings of the
past times–and much less with the Glory that shall be revealed in us.
It will not do for you to talk so! It is idle talk! You do not believe
it, yourself, though you whine like a coward, "I shall be slain in the
streets." If you were half a man you would never fear the streets, or
think it at all probable that a wild beast would pounce upon you there!

And then look at the base conclusion–"There is a lion outside, I shall
be slain in the streets," as if the lion would be sure to look for him
if it did not meddle with anybody else–as if he were the only man in
the street and not one among hundreds equally in danger–if such danger
there really were. The lion, for certain, would kill him–he was quite
sure of it–"I shall be slain in the streets." This is how sluggards
talk, as if all the troubles and trials that ever fell upon men that
are decided for Christ would fall upon them! And, whereas many of God's
Daniels have lived in dens of lions and have been none the worse for
it, they cannot look to Daniel's God–and they do not expect Daniel's
rescue. They are sure that they shall be torn to pieces, though there
is but one lion and that lion in the streets where there would be
protection near and shelter at hand. If I met a lion at all, I should
best like to meet his roaring majesty in the streets because there
would probably be plenty of people at hand to help me. This
consideration puts the case in a most ridiculous light. "Slain in the
streets," when there will be others there more courageous than himself
who will rush to his rescue!

Now, look, you that talk about the difficulties of being Christians.
Are there no other Christians besides you? Will you be the only
Believers? When you are converted to God, will you be all alone? Will
there be none to help you? Is there no Christian brotherhood left among
us? Are there no advanced saints who will help you, as a young man, to
struggle against your doubts and against the temptations that are in
the way? Why, you know that you will not be alone in the streets of the
Jerusalem of God! Once get into the City of God, which is His Church,
and you will be safe, for "no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous
beast shall go up thereon, but the redeemed of the Lord shall walk
there"–and thus you shall be in the blessed company. You shall be in
the place of safety when once you get into the streets of the City of
our

God!

Still, it is after such manner that idle people talk. They imagine
perils. They are in fear where no fear is, frightened at their own
shadows, troubled with imaginary ills! The real lion, after all, is
sluggishness, itself, aversion to the things of God. Oh, how many we
have in the Tabernacle whom I have looked to see coming forward to
profess their faith in Christ, but they have not come and, for all that
I can see, they are just where they were 10, 12, 20 years ago! The real
difficulty lies in this–their heart is not right towards God. They
have not yet humbly acknowledged their need of Jesus–it is too much
trouble to confess their sins. They have not yet accepted the Lord
Jesus as God presents Him, as the Propitiation for sin. Oh, if they
were in earnest about these things–if their hearts were really anxious
to find Christ–they would not see this lion in the way! I am quite
sure that the monster would soon disappear.

Dear Friends, one very common species of lion is the plea of many that
they cannot understand the way of salvation. Is that true? Then
remember the text of last Sunday morning–"If our Gospel is hid, it is
hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world has blinded
their minds." It is an awful thing, then, to say, "I cannot understand
it," for it proves that you are under the power of the devil! Another
man says, "I cannot believe it." That is an equally dreadful thing to
say. What is it? No. Who is it that you cannot believe? Can you not
believe God? Is He a liar? Remember how John puts it and he is the most
loving of all spirits–"He that believes not has made God a liar,
because he has not be-

lieved on His Son." It is a dreadful thing to say, "I cannot believe,"
when God, who cannot lie, is the object of the remark!

If you make such an observation to your fellow man you disgrace him.
But if you say it to God, oh, how you dishonor Him! That excuse will
not do! If Jesus speaks the Truth, why do you not believe Him? The
Gospel is plain to the understanding of those who wish to know the
Truth of God and it carries such evidence with it that it ought to be
at once received without any excuse. Can you deny this? Then where is
your lion? "But," says one, "if I did come to Christ, I am persuaded
that after a little while I should fall back." Be not so sure of that!
If you give your heart to Christ, has He not promised to keep you? Is
it not written, "I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall
never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of My hands"? Do you
think that you are to keep yourself from falling? If so, read this
doxology, and try to sing it–"Now unto Him that is able to keep you
from falling, and to present you faultless before the Presence of God
with exceeding joy–unto Him be Glory both now and forever."

"Oh," says another, "but I know that a great many Christians are
hypocrites!" This is your lion, is it? Well, if there are so many
hypocrites, it is time that there should be one honest man–and why
should not you be that one? Besides, what have you to do to call God's
people hypocrites? You know that they are not! "Oh, but," you say,
"they are full of faults: all of them are false." You do not dare say
that, do you? If they all were false, nobody would want to be thought a
Christian! How is it that a bad sovereign will pass? Why, because there
are so many good ones and because good sovereigns are worth having–and
the reason why a hypocrite passes through society is because there are
so many genuine Christians to make him seem genuine–and it is a good
thing to be a Christian! Instead of judging others, it is time that you
sat and judged yourself, and that lion would soon be dead!

"Yes, but I have tried," says one. Oh that is your lion, is it? But how
did you try? You tried in your own strength, I know–and we do not
invite you to do that any more–for your strength is perfect weakness!
Had you committed yourself to the keeping of Christ, you would have
another tale to tell and another song to sing, for He is faithful and
He keeps those that are in His hands! If that is your lion, God grant
that you may never hear it roar, again! You are not asked to save
yourself, or keep yourself, but to submit yourself to the Grace of
God–and surely that is able to keep you unto the end.

I have this to say to you before I pass to my second head. If there is
a lion outside, is there no lion within? That is to say, if you come to
Christ and perish, you will most surely perish if you do not come to
Him! If you live as you are, what must become of you? If you die as you
are, what must be your lot? Without a Savior to wash you from sin and a
Mediator to plead for you before God, what must be your eternal
portion? Why, it would be better to go out among a thousand lions than
to stay within and to perish in your sins! The lion within doors, in
your case, will certainly destroy you! Therefore up and away! Escape as
a bird out of the snare of the fowler–that fowler is Satan and his
nets are the deceitfulness of sin.

And what if there is a lion outside? Can you not fight it? If you ask
the Lord to go with you, can you not contend with the lion and destroy
him, even as David did? Saints of old have overcome through the blood
of the Lamb! None of those who are in Heaven came there riding upon
beds of ease, but–

"They wrestled hard, as we do now,

With sins and doubts, and fears."

Do you expect to be carried into Heaven on a golden palanquin? You will
be mightily mistaken! Did Jesus die on a Cross and are you to be
crowned with roses?–

"Must I be carried to the skies

On flowery beds of ease?

While others fought to win the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas?" No, my Friend, there is no dainty road
to Glory. If you are afraid of difficulty and self-denial, you judge
yourself unworthy of the Kingdom. Remember, among the condemned, the
fearful and unbelieving lead the van! Up and slay the lion, if a lion
there is, and it shall be your joy to find honey in his carcass before
long!

If you do not feel that you can contend with the enemy–and certainly
you cannot without Divine help–can you not cry for help? Our God hears
and answers prayer! Why not cry to the Strong One for deliverance? Your
lion is in the way. Shout, then, for a Friend to come and help you and
with that call there stands One who is a wonderful lion-killer!

There is the Son of David! Did He not destroy the works of the devil
when He was here? Still He shows Himself strong for the defense of all
them that put their trust in Him. Call to Him, "My Jesus, deliver me
from the lion," and He will be with you and take the lion by the beard
and slay him!

Therefore, Sluggard, your excuses will not do. They are broken vessels
that hold no water. God help you to be weary of them.

II. We leave our friend, the sluggard, for a little while in the 22nd
chapter of Proverbs, and we turn on three or four pages till we come to
the 26th chapter, at the 13th verse. And there we find the gentleman
again. The slothful man is still talking and he says, "There is a lion
in the way; a lion is in the streets." Is there any difference between
this verse and the first one that I took for my text? Yes, I think
there is this difference–that there are TWO LIONS here instead of one.
He has waited because of that one lion and now he fancies that there
are two lions.

He has made a bad bargain of his delay. He said that he would have a
more convenient season, but where is it? It was inconvenient, then,
because there was a lion. Is it more convenient now? Not at all, for
now there are two lions. "There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the
street." That is always the result of waiting–procrastination never
profits–difficulties are doubled, dangers thicken. The countryman who
had to cross the river foolishly determined to wait until the water had
all gone past, for, at the rate it was going, he was quite sure that it
must run dry. But when he had waited long, to his surprise he found
that a flood had come down from the upland country and the river was
much deeper than it had been before–the river was not dried, but
swollen.

Those who think, when they are young, that it will be so much more easy
to seek and to find the Savior when they reach manhood, are greatly
deceived. Those who think that they will wait till their family has
grown up, or till they retire from business–for then they will be able
to attend to it so much more easily–may live to discover that hardness
of heart has come upon them as the result of delay. Life is like an
evening–the longer you wait, the darker it becomes. Delay bristles
with danger and the best fruit it can possibly bear is regret. When
those who lingered are at last brought to Jesus, how much they wish
that the precious years that had been wasted could come back to them!
How heartily do they love that promise, "I will restore unto you the
years which the locust has eaten"!

I said last Sunday evening what I am sure is true–that our dear Savior
knew the best time for the soul to come to Him. And what does the
Spirit say is the best time? He says, "Today, if you will hear His
voice, harden not your hearts." "Come now, and let us reason together,
says the Lord." It is now that He gives the invitation, because now is
the best time that is likely to come to us! You see in the second text
there were two lions, and, according to the Hebrew, they were quite as
bad as the other lion, for one of them was a young lion.

"There is a young lion in the way." And the second Hebrew word implies
a great lion. "A strong lion is in the streets." So now there were two
active enemies–two unconquerable difficulties instead of one. And, as
an old Puritan observes, the first time when the sluggard looked down
the street and saw a lion lurking on the left, he could have gone the
other way. But now when he looked out there was a lion to the right as
well as to the left–and he could not go either way without facing a
foe! With a lion at the front door and a lion at the back, there seemed
to be no way of escape for him and this was the wretched result of
waiting.

And do not some of you who, years ago, hesitated over the difficulties
of being a Christian, find more difficulties, now instead of less? When
you were 21, you were deeply impressed and conscience was awakened. But
you said, "No, not just now. It will be easier soon." Certain cords of
sin held you. But now you are forty! Well, what about it? Are those
cords weaker? I believe that now they are like cart ropes to bind you
and, whereas sin once chastised you with whips, it is now chastising
you with scorpions! You are getting farther away from the melting power
of the Gospel, hardening to your own destruction! You can hear a
sermon, now, and hear it without pricking of conscience.

The tears used to flow, in years gone by, and you have gone out of this
place feeling as if you never dared come into it, again, for the
preacher had cut and torn you to pieces! He tries to preach just the
same and he hopes that he does, but his words have not the same effect
upon you, now, as in earlier days. You are Gospel-hardened! And that is
the worst kind of hardening! You have heard the Gospel so long that
there is no novelty in it and you know the excuses so well that you
have got to be one of the devil's old soldiers, a veteran used to war!

You know how to get over the Gospel, somehow. Like an old fox, you know
all the traps and cannot be caught in them. You are sticking to the old
trick about the lions, but now there are two lions, so you say. Thus
you have a double-

barreled excuse! How can I be so unreasonable as to expect you to come
out often to a week-night service? You have three or four shops! How
can you come out on a Sunday evening, some of you? You have
half-a-dozen children! How is it possible that you should give much
time to prayer? You are here, and there, and everywhere in your worldly
calling! "Oh," you say, "do not talk to us! Years ago it might have
been possible for us to be Christians, but now, how can it be?"

Therefore, I say to you young people, hasten to be blest! I beseech you
do not delay! An old man took a little child up into his arms and put
his fingers into the abundant curls of his sunny hair, and he said,
"Oh! Dear child, while your mother sings to you and tells you about
Jesus, think of Him and trust Him." "Grandpa," said the little boy,
"don't you trust Him?" "No, Dear," he said, "I might have done so years
ago, but my old heart has got so hard, now, nothing ever touches me
anymore." And the old man dropped a tear as he said it. "I wish," said
he, "that I had a curly head like yours and was beginning life like
you."

Oh! Old man, are you here tonight? Let me tell you a secret! You may
become a boy again! I am sure you may, for you may be born again! And
he that is born again is but an infant and starts on a new life with
freshly given strength! He shall have softer feelings than Nature lends
to manhood! He shall have the feelings which Grace, alone, can produce!
In a spiritual sense, his flesh shall come, again, unto him like that
of a little child, though he cannot grow young again as to his bodily
frame. The Holy Spirit can make him a new creature in Christ Jesus. But
do not delay! Do not delay, you that are yet young! I am sure that
Watts is right when he says–

"'Tis easier work when we begin To serve the Lord early."

It is assuredly so!

Although Grace can bring in a person of any age, yet God delights to be
found of them that seek Him early. It matters not who he may be–if any
man comes to Jesus, he shall be received–but yet there is a
susceptibility which pertains to the young which has often gone from
those who, year after year, have heard the Gospel and yet have not
yielded to its demands. Oh, I should like you who have two lions to
frighten you to cry out to the Lord, tonight, to help you to go out and
slay them both! "I am very old," you say. Well, that is one of the
lions, but the Grace of God can make a sinner who is a hundred years
old into a babe in Christ!

"Oh, but I have formed such bad habits." Yes, those are horrible lions,
but those habits can be broken by Divine power. "Ah, but my heart is so
hard." Let it soak in the fountain filled with blood and that will
soften it! The Spirit of

God–

"Can take the flint away

That would not be refined, And from the riches of His Grace, Bestow a
softer mind."

He can take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh! Let us have done with the lions, whether there are two
or 200, for the Lord will help us! Oh, for a lion hunt tonight!. Drive
away the one and drive away the two! But that can never be while
sluggards still are sluggards. The Lord quicken them and wake them up
to real earnestness!

III. That brings me to my last point, which is NO LION AT ALL. If there
is a man here who would have Christ, there is no lion in the way to
prevent his having Christ. "There are a thousand difficulties," says
one. If you truly desire Christ, there is no effectual difficulty that
can really block you from coming to Him. You notice that Solomon does
not say that there were any lions in the way–he only tells us that the
sluggard said so. Well, you need not believe a lazy man! The sluggard
said it twice–but that did not make it true. Everybody knew what a
poor fool he was and that it was only in his own imagination that there
were any lions at all. Do not believe your sluggish self, then, and do
not believe the sluggish speeches of others. There are no lions except
in your own imagination!

John Bunyan pictures lions at the gate of the interpreter's house and,
according to some commentators, he meant the deacons and elders of the
Church that are outside to watch those who desire to join the Church. I
am one of those horrible lions–but the happy thought is that the lions
are chained! Whenever you wish to join the Church, if you will only
have courage to come and face us who are the dreadful lions in front of
the palace gate, you will find that we are chained! And, what is more,
if we were not chained, we would not harm you! We try to roar at those
who are not our Master's

children and we would drive away all who come as thieves and robbers,
for it is our duty to do so–but if you have a true heart and wish to
cast in your lot with the Lord's people–you shall not find that we are
any terror to you!

We shall be glad to say, "Come in, you blessed of the Lord. Why are you
standing outside?" A Believer's duty is to join a Christian
Church–therefore fear not the face of man! I believe that some will
never come to Christ until another and a real lion shall get at them.
And then they will run to Jesus for shelter, lions or no lions! I mean
if the lions of their sin should ever wake up and roar upon them,
terribly, then they will not say that there are lions in the way! I
used to be terribly afraid to come to Christ until I came to be more
afraid of my sin than anything else in the world!

And Mr. Bunyan, in one of his books, says that lion pictured Christ in
his own mind as standing with a drawn sword to keep him away. "But at
last," he says, "I got so desperately worried by my convictions of sin
that if the Lord Jesus had really stood with a sword in His hand, I
would have thrown myself upon the point of it, for I felt that I must
come at Him or perish." Let some such desperate resolve impel you to
His feet. Say–

"I can but perish if I go!

Iam resolved to try

For if I stay away,

I know I must forever die."

Oh, throw yourself on the very point of the sword, for it is but in
seeming that there is either sword or point! Hasten to Jesus, even
though He seems to frown, for there is more love in a frowning Savior
than in all the world besides! He cannot mean it. No sinner comes to
Him but Christ is more glad to receive him than the sinner is to be
received!

Nothing charms Jesus like seeing a poor troubled one come to Him. He
will in no wise cast out one who does so. If you were walking in the
fields and a poor bird should fly into your bosom for shelter from a
hawk, would you take it out of your bosom and throw it away and give it
up to its enemies? I know that you would not! You would put your hands
about it, and say, "Poor fluttering thing, you are safe enough, now.
Nobody shall harm you. You have trusted a man that has humanity and he
will take care of you." And if you fly into the bosom of Jesus Christ,
He will not give you over to your foe, but He will receive you and you
shall be His forever!

I have heard of a king upon the crown of whose pavilion, when it was
pitched, a pair of birds came and built their nests. And he was gentle
of heart and truly royal, for he said to his chamberlain, "The tent
shall never be taken down till the birds have hatched their young. They
have found shelter in a king's pavilion and they shall not have to rue
it." And oh, if you will go like the swallows and the sparrows–and
build your nests under the eaves of Christ, who is the Temple of
God–you shall never have your nest pulled down! Yes, and if you can
lay your young there, they shall be safe, too. There is no place half
so secure for our children as Christ's bosom! All who are in Christ
shall be kept in safety and shall be cherished and blessed!

Oh, come along with you! Come, you that are afraid of lions! There are
no lions! The way is clear and open, for Jesus says, "I am the Way,"
and, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Why do you
still say that you will come by-and-by? Do not trifle so! I had almost
rather that you cried, "I will not come at all!" Such perversity might
end better than feigned promises and base delays. I pray God to give
you a better mind than that and may you say, "Yes, this very night,
please God, I will be saved! The sun has gone down, but there is a
little twilight left, and I will yield before darkness quite sets in. I
will now trust my Savior and hasten to Him and seek Him on my knees in
prayer."

May the Spirit of God sweetly lead you to do this and, oh, our heart
will be so glad of it! The Lord grant it, for His dear name's sake.
Amen.
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The Value and Rank of the Believer