Nathanael–Or, the Ready Believer and His Reward

Nathanael–Or, the Ready Believer and His Reward

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto you, I saw you
under the fig tree, you believe? You shall see greater things than
these." John 1:50.

NATHANAEL was by nature a man free from cunning and deceit. He was a
specimen of that "honest and good ground" of which our Savior speaks in
the parable, upon which, when the seed fell, a hundred-fold harvest was
produced. We have some such men about us, thank God, in this
country–regular John Blunts, as we say, clear as crystal, true as the
sun in the heavens. Many men are well known to us who are upright,
downright, truthful, honest, candid and open-hearted. You might trust
them anywhere. Yes, trust them to repeat a conversation without
misrepresenting it and that is saying a good deal in these times.

Such people do not understand the clever arts of craft and cunning for
they do not take to them naturally and have never been trained in the
practice of policy. Speech is not to them the medium for concealing
their thoughts. When they have a mind to speak, they speak their mind.
You know where they are. They may have a great many faults but they
have not the faults of deception and dissimulation. They are
Israelites, indeed, in whom is no guile. You know the kind of
people–they may at times speak too harshly and hurt your feelings.
They may put things in an ugly shape and tread on people's corns–but
they are as straight as a plumb-line and you may be sure that you know
them when you have heard what they say.

In the end they cause far less pain to people's feelings than those who
have a great deal of finesse and policy, whose words are softer than
butter but inwardly they are drawn swords. Smooth and oily tongues,
with lying hearts at the back of them are fit instruments for Satan.
But truth-speaking lips, which are joined to an honest heart are
precious things which the Lord Himself delights to use. Now, when the
good Brethren who had joined the Savior came to tell Nathanael that
they had found the Christ he blurted out his objection at once.

They said, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law and the
Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth." But he did not take everything
for Gospel which his friends told him. Nathanael had been born and bred
in the midst of people prejudiced against Nazareth and he had sucked in
their prejudice and felt sure that the Messiah could no more come from
Nazareth than a profound philosopher could come from Gotham. He does
not beat about the bush but he says at once, "Can there any good thing
come out of Nazareth?"

It is always a good thing, when a man has a prejudice, if he will but
state it and "out" with it. You can always deal with this kind of
fellow. If he will say what is troubling him and tell you what keeps
him back from faith, why, then you can put your finger on his
difficulty and try to remove it. It is a great miracle when a dumb
devil is cast out. If the evil will but speak and so declare itself we
have a chance of overcoming it.

Nathanael's question was met at once by his comrades, who said to him,
"Come and see." And like the honest man that he was, he took up their
challenge. He would "come and see." How many there are who make
objections but they will not "come and see"! They have heard concerning
a certain preacher, perhaps, such-and-such absurd things. But another
says, "It is not so. Come and see." Not they. They do not want to come
and see–for they are unfair and prefer to cherish a bad opinion of the
man. They have heard that Calvinistic doctrine is cruel, harsh and
unjust. "Ah," says a Believer in Free Grace, "you have only seen a
caricature of it. You should read for yourself and judge by Scripture."

Oh, no–they do not want to read! They have made up their minds–not
that they have much of a mind to make up. If they had more mind it
might take them longer to make it up. But, having once made up their
little mind, they have no mind to unmake it. They prefer to go blindly
on whether they are right or wrong. They know so much that they do not
wish to learn any more. Nathanael was not of that sort. "Come and see,"
was an invitation which commended itself to his judgment. "Oh, yes,"
said he, "by all means! I am open to conviction. I will come and see."

I wish I could prevail on each one of my hearers to search the Bible
for himself to see what the true doctrine is, that he may have a firm
foundation to build upon and not take his religion second-hand from
another. Nathanael is on his way to see for himself, when the Lord
Jesus Christ, turning to those round about Him, says, in a voice loud
enough for Nathanael to hear, "Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is
no guile!" Here comes a man with no craft, no cunning in him. Nathanael
is startled to find his real character so clearly read and somewhat
bluntly asks, "From where do You know me?"

I must do him the justice of believing that he said it respectfully,
yet, nevertheless, he curtly said, "From where do You know me?" As much
as to say– "You have hit the nail on the head. But how came You to
know this?" You see, the enquiry that was in his mind is soon upon his
tongue–his words at once declare his thought. It is a great mercy when
men dare speak upon that which troubles them. Instead of letting a
doubt or a difficulty fester in their souls, they bring it out–that
the light may play upon it and it is soon gone.

"Jesus answered and said to him, Before that Philip called you, when
you were under the fig tree, I saw you." What Nathanael was doing under
the fig tree I do not know. Some think that he was there in meditation.
Others say in prayer. Very possibly, but I do not know, and the wisest
expositors do not know, and you do not know. Nobody knew but Jesus and
Nathanael. He was doing something of which he was not ashamed but which
he modestly did not wish to have known and so he had chosen a private
place. That transaction was a secret between himself and the Lord, his
God, and He who knew that secret must have come from God.

Perhaps he was doing nothing there but sitting still before the Lord in
anguish of spirit. Possibly he there had looked towards the God of his
fathers with hope, or had enjoyed hallowed fellowship with Heaven.
Anyhow, Jesus mentioned to him something which he remembered and
thought much of, though it was entirely between God and his own soul.
Between Jesus and Nathanael–"under the fig tree"–served as a
password. They were known to one another by that. And at once Nathanael
cried, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel."

He is fairly won and by an open confession he commits himself at once
to what he believes. He is not ashamed of his convictions. He has
enlisted beneath the banner of the King of Israel once and for all.
Forth he comes without a moment's reservation with that blessed
confession of faith–"Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King
of Israel." Our Lord Jesus, charmed with the grace which He had Himself
given, delighted with the faith which He had Himself created, answers,
"Because I said unto you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believe?
You shall see greater things than these." This ready convert, so
speedily convinced, was very acceptable to the Lord Jesus.

Now, we have tonight here, first, one who believed readily. I am going
to speak of that. Secondly, here is one who was highly commended for
it–"You shall see greater things than these." Thirdly, here is one who
might possibly in after days be subject to a peculiar temptation on
account of his very readiness to believe. And, lastly, here is one who,
I doubt not, was peculiarly grateful. And if there is another here like
he, he ought to be very grateful, too.

I. First, then, HERE IS ONE WHO BELIEVED READILY. The first time he saw
the Savior he was converted to the faith. The first sentences that were
addressed to him by the Lord Jesus Christ fairly won him to hearty
faith and loyal service. Why was that? Why was he so soon brought to
discipleship?

I think, perhaps, it was because he was such a true man himself that
the element of suspicion was not in his character. Persons who are
remarkably suspicious and constantly incredulous are seldom very
truthful themselves. If you follow them home, you will discover that
they are suspicious of others because they are not true themselves and
their difficulty in believing others arises from the fact that they
measure other people's corn with their own bushel. They imagine that
other people are as big liars as they are themselves. I believe that
this is the bottom of much of the mistrust and questioning which
seethes around us.

Sometimes that suspiciousness comes upon men's minds through long
dealing with deceptive persons. But if you find that a man began life
with a general suspicion and doubt of others, you may conclude that he
was a born deceiver, radically false from his birth. He judges human
nature from his experience within his own heart. He has observed his
own trickiness and he thinks that everybody else is going to trick him.
And so he is full of suspicion. Nathanael had never taken anybody in
nor tried to mislead anyone in his life and therefore he did not expect
to be deceived.

I wonder whether he was a sailor. I should think that he must have
been, for sailors are generally as open as the sea they sail over. He
never said anything with reserve. Not he. He was accustomed to wear his
heart on his sleeve even if the

crows did peck at it. He could not conceal anything, nor think that
others did so. He was just as honest as the day. And so he came to the
Savior with a heart that was open to faith, ready to believe Him. I
should think the very sight of the Savior's blessed face had half won
him and the tone of that truthful voice had moved him. But when it came
to his laying bare a secret in his life which he was sure that nobody
knew but himself and God, then Nathanael yielded to conviction at once
and became a Believer straightway.

Now I do hope that there are some here to whom the Lord has given, from
their very birth, a truthful, openhearted nature–and if you should
believe in Jesus Christ tonight straightway, even though it is the
first time you have ever heard of Him, I shall bless the grace of God
which has led you to so speedy a closing in with Christ. Oh that the
Holy Spirit may complete the work of which there is already so hopeful
a beginning! But, further, this Nathanael, this rapid Believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, had, I have no doubt, been seeking guidance
beforehand and that guidance he had honestly followed.

I should think that he had for years been expecting the coming of the
Messiah. The tone of his language argues that. Therefore, when Philip
came to him and told him that he had found the Messiah and indicated to
him that he had better come and see for himself, he was willing at once
to come and without delay he came with the view of seeing for himself
whether this Jesus of Nazareth was the Promised One. He was not only
candid but he was interested. He was concerned about Divine things and
in thorough earnest to know the Truth of God in reference to them. So
he came to Jesus with solemn intent and eager desire.

O dear Friends, if you came to hear the Gospel in sincerity, we should
expect to see more of you converted. But people come into our great
assemblies to see the congregation, or to inspect the building, or to
hear the preacher. Their motive is mere idle curiosity. If they get a
blessing we shall heartily thank God for it and admire the sovereignty
of His Grace. But when persons come, as they often do, I thank God,
even from a great distance with the desire to know what the Gospel is
and with a wish to find the Savior for themselves, then we have surer
hope. These enquirers are the people that are likely to be converted.

When fish want to be caught, it is good fishing. When they are anxious
to take the bait, then the fisherman have fine times. If, my dear
Hearers, you would come here saying, "I will go and see whether I can
find salvation. I will hear with the intention that the hearing may be
a means of grace to my soul," none of you would come long in vain where
Christ Jesus is faithfully preached. If you come with a desire of
understanding and knowing Him, He will come and reveal Himself to you.
This was one main reason why Nathanael so speedily believed–that he
came having sought guidance and desiring really to find the Messiah of
whom Philip had spoken.

Observe that he was satisfied with one piece of clear evidence. That
one item of evidence convinced him. The Lord Jesus said, "Before that
Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nobody
knew that he had been under the fig tree except the Lord who sees all
things. No mortal living was aware of what Nathanael had done, or
thought, or purposed in that shady retreat. When Jesus, therefore, with
a peculiar look, said "I saw you," Nathanael also saw Him that spoke to
him. "Godhead alone could speak thus," said he–"there is the Spirit of
God in that man. He knows the secret things of my life. He has revealed
me to myself." "Rabbi," said he, "You are the Son of God. You are the
King of Israel." The conclusion was a sound one but how speedily it was
reached!

One argument, if it is sound, is enough. If a matter is in dispute and
if one man can solemnly declare that he saw such-and-such a thing and
that one man is of high repute, his evidence is sufficient for a
truthful man to rest upon. Twenty may come and say that they think it
is so-and-so but twenty weak links will not make a strong chain. And I
would rather trust to one solid link than I would trust to a chain of
twenty worn and rusted links–each one of which is ready to snap. If it
is so, it is so. If it is not so, it is not so. If a man has proved
anything to me by one infallible proof that is enough. Hence, I believe
that those who come to Christ on one bit of evidence are justified in
so doing. They afterwards receive a host of confirming evidences but
one is quite enough for them to begin with.

Oh that I might have some tonight who shall hear in this sermon some
one thing which shall strike them as being of the Lord! I pray that
some secret matter, which I do not personally know, shall yet be
uttered by me so that my hearers will say to themselves, "How came that
to be spoken? That fits me exactly, yet the minister could not have
known it. God must have spoken to me. Only the Lord knew what I did in
the back kitchen. Only He knew what I was thinking of this afternoon.
But speaking through His servant He has touched a secret spring and
opened a drawer in my cabinet that nobody knew of, save myself! This is
the finger of God."

God grant that some may thus be led to Jesus Christ by one piece of
evidence and may not tarry to feel fifty impressions on their hearts.
Oh, that you would not wait for whole weeks of invitations and months
of pressure and years of expostulation. But oh, that you would yield
tonight! Sometimes, in warfare, cities have been taken without a shot
being fired. The valiant men have come up to the gates and they have
said, "Capitulate and you shall be spared." And the townsmen have
opened wide their gates. I know that many other cities have had to be
battered till there has been scarcely a house without tokens of shot
and shell. But what has been their gain when they have been captured
after all? Do not let it be so with your souls but yield at once to the
conquering Savior who comes forth in the robes of His glorious Grace
and bids you yield. He promises that if you accept His scepter you
shall see the greatness of His Grace.

Notice, however, that although Nathanael yielded at once and believed
on one bit of evidence, yet his faith went a long way! He did not
merely say, "Rabbi, I believe that you are the Messiah," but he said,
"You are the Son of God." This was farther than anybody else had gone
at that time so far as I remember. He added, "You are the King of
Israel." And this again was a great declaration to make. He worshipped
Jesus and he crowned Him. He owned Him as God and he magnified Him as
King. Do not suppose that the faith which is quickly born is therefore
weak. No, but that faith which comes suddenly and quickly is often the
very best and strongest faith in all the world. And I trust that some
of you may prove it to be so tonight by flying to Christ at once–as
the doves fly to their windows–and rest in Him till you find fullness
of peace.

Thus much concerning the Israelite, indeed, who believed readily.

II. In the second place, HERE IS ONE WHO WAS HIGHLY COMMENDED. The Lord
Jesus owned his faith to be true faith. He said, "You believe?" But He
meant that He perceived that he truly believed. He owned that though
his faith was born then and there, it was the genuine article. Christ
owns, as true faith, that faith which is not long in coming. Fear not,
dear Hearer, that if you believe at this very moment your faith will be
any the less sincere and effectual.

Jesus did more than own it to be faith. He commended it as rarely
excellent. He spoke as if He were astonished. "Because I said, I saw
you under the fig tree, you believe?"–as much as to say, "Many see Me
work miracles and do not believe. Do you believe so soon? They see Me
heal lepers and raise the dead and yet they will not believe. But you
believe merely because I said I saw you under the fig tree?" He is
charmed with him for his readiness to own the Truth. Why, there are
some young people who come to Christ and believe in Him by one little
word from their mother. And on the other hand there are men and women
who have been for fifty years hearers of the Gospel and yet have not
believed.

Now, the text proves that Christ has an admiration of those who
readily, willingly, obediently and cheerfully come. Those who make no
questions, raise no difficulties but on comparatively slender evidence,
that evidence being quite sufficient, yield their full trust to Jesus
Christ their Lord. And our blessed Lord was so pleased with this ready
faith that He made a promise to Nathanael. Said He, "You shall see
greater things than these. If you can see so much in My one saying that
I saw you under the fig tree, you have the kind of eyes that are fit to
see great sights."

He that will see shall see, but he that closes his eyes shall be
blinded. Many are the people in this world who, if you show them the
greatest marvel, do not wonder. They look at it and see nothing. When
you meet with such an unobservant person, you say to yourself, "I shall
not show that man anything more. It does not pay to unveil rarities to
him, he has no appreciation of them." But here is another who, when you
show him some curio that you have in your house, is pleased with it and
spies out at once the excellence and beauty of it. You say, "I have
something more which I will gladly show you!" When your visitor
appreciates your choice treasure, you say to him, "I will unlock all my
cabinets. I will take you into my private room and every little thing I
have that can interest you, you shall see, because I perceive that you
have eyes and a mind which finds gratification in rare curiosities."

Oh, you that readily believe in Christ–you are the men and women to
whom Christ will make known His secrets! Those of you who are "fools
and slow of heart to believe" must mend your manners, or the Holy
Spirit will never lead you into the mysteries of the kingdom. Did not
Jesus say to one who came to Him by night, "If I have told you earthly
things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things?" But, you Israelites, indeed, you quick Believers–to
you will He reveal Himself as the Ladder that father Jacob saw,
reaching from earth to Heaven, upon which the angels ascend and descend
between God and His chosen. You shall see the deep things of God. You
are the people out of whom He will make such men as John, who, in
Patmos, beheld a glorious Apocalypse.

O my beloved Hearers, may it be so with you! Because your faith so
readily chimes in with what Christ reveals, may you have visions of God
and may none of you be so dull of heart that it shall be said, "He
could not show them many mighty works because of their unbelief"!

III. I have thus spoken and I come, thirdly, to notice that HERE IS A
MAN WHO MIGHT POSSIBLY BE TROUBLED WITH A PECULIAR TEMPTATION.

People of this kind are subject to a special trial with which I will
now deal. In this Church a considerable number of us, beginning with
the pastor, came to Christ after an awful amount of conviction and
despondency. We are none the better for this but we are at least free
from one particular temptation of the Evil One. Oh, how I look back
upon those times in which I felt my bondage but could not attain
liberty–those days in which Christ was preached to me but I could not
hear Him and I wandered up and down everywhere before I found peace!

In this Church and in the officers of the Church among the deacons,
there is especially one dear Brother who sometimes can hardly
understand me when I speak about the difficulties some have in coming
to Christ for he never experienced them. You all know him, one of the
sweetest and best of men. But he came to Jesus Christ as a boy readily
enough. He heard the Gospel and he believed it and without any sort of
terror he rejoiced in the Lord and he continues to do so to this day.
He is none the worse saint for this but in some respects all the
better.

I know, however, what is the peculiar temptation of those who come so
readily to Christ. The devil comes to them and he says, "Now, look at
you. You have read Mr. Bunyan's 'Grace Abounding,' have you not?"
"Yes," says the good man. "Well," says he, "you never went through the
like battle and struggle." "No, I never did." "Then," says he, "You are
no child of God. You see you were easily converted–there was no deep
work in your soul. You came to Jesus Christ one sunshiny day and you
will go away from Him one dark day. You are like the stony-ground
hearer, the seed sprang up in you on a sudden, because there was no
depth of earth and you will soon die away when the sun is risen with
fervent heat."

Now, the next time the devil comes to any of you with that, I want you
to talk to him, if he is worth it, for your own good. I want you to
quench the fiery dart which he will fling at you. It is true that many
come to the Lord Jesus under extreme difficulties and are long before
they can rest in faith. But you must not compare yourself with others,
nor expect that the work of God will take precisely the same shape in
every heart. Some, like Nicodemus, say, "How can these things be?" But
others believe in Jesus as readily as Nathanael did and they come just
as truly, just as really, just as lastingly as those who find it
difficult to come.

Let me help you with a few considerations. Those you have read of, who
came to Christ under so much terror–it may be that they had some other
trouble at the same time–as well as the trouble of their conscience.
Perhaps, in addition to being convinced of sin, they were suffering
from poverty, or sickness, or indigestion, or remorse, or some other
vexation of spirit. Discern carefully between spiritual trouble and
temporal trouble. Temporal trouble may help to aggravate the spiritual
but it is not a necessary part of it–in fact, very much the reverse.
It may increase the apparent depth of the work of repentance but it may
detract from its real worth.

In the next place, it may be, and probably is, the fact that those who
found so much difficulty in coming to Christ were worried by Satan.
Perhaps he injected into their minds blasphemous thoughts or he
suggested doubts concerning the Scriptures, or the Truth of God.
Because they were just escaping from his power he worried them most
maliciously. Do you want to be worried in that way? Do you think that
there is any advantage in Satan's attacks? If you can get to Christ
without them, ought you not to be thankful to escape them? How can you
desire an affliction so utterly undesirable? How can you wish to feel
that which those who suffer from it would give their eyes to be rid of?
I beseech you, be reasonable.

In many persons their difficulties in coming to Christ were caused very
largely by their melancholy temperament. We are not all alike cheerful
by natural constitution. Why, here is one man who is bright-eyed by
nature and when he is down he is higher up than others are when they
are up. He is always bright and hopeful. Yonder is another Brother who
seems inevitably to take a dark view of matters. He is an unhappily
constituted person. A person with whom it is not easy to live except in
a very large hotel, in which the dinner-table is many yards long. You
know and avoid the style of man.

If there is a melancholy disposition, it tends to darken the work of
the Spirit in the heart. And whereas the work of the Spirit makes the
man sorrowful, his own melancholy disposition, perhaps caused by mental
disease, darkens that sorrow into black despair. Few of us are
perfectly sane. In fact, I do not think anybody is altogether so. I see
you smile but I am not jest-ing–we have each one a peculiarity which
we could hardly defend by the rules of strict reasoning. Have we not?
We are all a little "touched" by that black hand which sin stretched
out when it shook our universal manhood in all its faculties.

Some are touched with melancholy from their birth and so a part of
their great terror, when under conviction, may arise from the fact that
they are not absolutely free to form a hopeful judgment. Why should you
wish to be like they? What can there be desirable about feelings which
spring from a disease?

Again, there is no doubt that many in coming to Christ are greatly
troubled because they are ignorant. They do not know that which would
comfort them if they did but know it. They are vexed with fears which
would not exist if they were better acquainted with Scripture. If they
knew more of the Doctrines of Grace they would not be vexed with the
fears which their ignorance creates. You who are taught in the Word are
all the more likely to find speedy peace. Now, dear Friends, do you
want to be bothered with fears which only spring out of ignorance? Must
it not be much better for you, having a clearer light and a brighter
knowledge, to say, "Yes, that is it. I believe in Jesus Christ and I am
saved. Blessed be His name! I ask no questions. I believe and am saved
at once"?

May it not also be that those who are so hard put to it in coming to
Christ are without the helps that you have? Perhaps they cannot read.
Possibly they have nobody to explain the Scriptures to them. They may
be misled by their religious guides and have no one to keep them out of
the ditch. It may be that they are placed where they are rather
hindered than helped– they have no Sunday school teacher, no Christian
friend to sympathize with them. And so they have a hard fight of it.
Many a man who is wounded in battle is soon restored because the
surgeon takes him up as soon as the bullet lays him low. Whereas the
wound of another, who has to lie and bleed for hours, will prove far
more serious. Do you not think that you ought to be very thankful that
you have so many things to help you, and that thus you the more readily
come to Christ?

Very possibly, too, many of those who had those terrors and horrors in
coming to Christ, as I had myself, must lay them to the door of their
unbelief. Had they believed, they might have had comfort long before.
But they went to the Law for comfort, or they looked to feelings
instead of looking to Christ and so they remained in darkness. Now, if
you have the privilege of believing at once, as I pray you may have,
should you not be glad of it and instead of envying those others,
should you not thank God that you were brought to find Jesus Christ by
so sunny and speedy a route?

There is a story that I have told you before but I must tell it to you
again, for I do not know anything better. A young man in Edinburgh went
out and he thought he would speak about Jesus to the first person that
he met with. He met a Mussel burgh fishwife carrying a great load on
her back. I cannot speak Scotch–I have not that useful acquirement–so
I will put the conversation into English. He said to her, "Here you are
with your burden." "Yes," said she. "Well," he said, "did you ever feel
a spiritual burden?" "Yes," said she, "that I did, long ago, long ago
and I soon got rid of it. For I did not go the same way to work that
John Bunyan's pilgrim did."

"Oh," thought the young man, "I hoped that I had met with a Christian
woman, but she must be a great heretic to talk in that way." "Now,"
said she, "Bunyan's Evangelist that he speaks of was not half a Gospel
preacher. He was one of the usual sort. He was not clear in the Gospel.
For when he met with the poor pilgrim, weary with his burden, he said
to him, 'Do you see that wicket-gate?' 'No,' said the man, 'I do not
see it.' 'Do you see that light over the gate?' 'Well,' he said, 'I
think I do.' 'Now,' he said, 'you run that way with your burden.' Why
man," said she, "that was not the way to do at all. What had that man
to do with the wicket-gate or with the light over it?

"The Gospel does not say run to a gate or a light. What he should have
said was, 'Do you see that Cross? Look at that and your burden will
fall from your shoulder.' I looked straight away to the Cross and not
to the wicket-gate. And at the Cross I lost my burden. Now," said she,
"what did Pilgrim get by going round to the wicket-gate? He tumbled
into the Slough of Despond and was like to have lost his life there."
"Ah," said the young man, "did you never go through the Slough of
Despond?" "Ah, yes!" she said, "I have been through that slough many a
time. But, let me tell you, it is much better to go through it with
your burden off than it is with your burden on."

And so it is. I do not want any of you to attempt to flounder through
the Slough of Despond with your burden on. I want you to have done with
the Slough of Despond and the wicket-gate and all that bother and just
look to Christ alone. For salvation lies in a look at Him and there is
salvation in none other. Peace comes to sinners by nothing else but
faith in Jesus. All else is vain, be it what it may. Frames and
feelings, sinkings and risings, doings and fretting–all these may go
for nothing. Believe in Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. This is
God's short way to Heaven and blessed is he who knows how to take it.

Listen yet once more. You say, "But I have heard of some who endured a
dreadful Law-work within their souls. They were plowed and cut up
dreadfully and I never was." I will further tell you that certain
persons need rougher handling than others. The needle in surgery will
do for certain cases, whereas the lancet is wanted for others. If the
Lord can, with a needle, do for you all that is needed, why do you want
more? The Lord required to take the knife to me and are you going to
fret because you have never felt the deep gashes which made me cry out
in agony? I pray you, be not such a fool–I cannot speak a softer word
if you have a craving after anguish.

Again, the Lord may deal roughly with some because He means to qualify
them for comforting despairing souls. He puts His servants through the
furnace when He means them to work at pulling others out of the fire.
He chastens them every morn-

ing because He means to make Barnabases of them, that they may be sons
of consolation to souls in distress. I have been through the thick
darkness at times for your sakes. If ever a soul was in a horror of
great darkness, I was, one day, when I preached in this pulpit from "My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" I could not understand why I
felt in such an awful state as I did, till that evening there came into
the vestry a man whose hair seemed to stand on end.

He looked at me and said, "I have never found a preacher that met my
experience before." We sat down and he told me his tale of woe. By
God's grace I rescued that man, by seasonable comfort, from being sent
to a lunatic asylum and perhaps from committing suicide. And then I
said to the Lord my God, "Let me go through the fire again if it will
help me to meet the case of your poor afflicted children. Let me feel
the horror of great darkness, if so I may thereby find light with which
to cheer the victims of despair."

But you, my dear Brother, my dear Sister, may not be called thus to cut
your way through the forests of sorrow as the pioneer of others. You
are not sent to be a guide to thousands but quietly to pursue your own
lowly way. And why do you want all this painful experience? You cannot
make use of it. Be thankful that you are spared the ordeal. These who
have to be champions must be trained for war after a sterner sort than
those who only make up the rank and file of the army. If your Lord
means to lead you only as sheep at His heel into the green pastures by
the still waters, you will see but little of the war and little of the
rough side of the march. And why should you be so stupid as to desire
distress and condemn yourself because you have it not?

Be a Nathanael. Take the happier and better side and believe your God
without a doubt or a quibble. And go to Heaven following the Lamb
wherever He goes, without doubt or fear. I was going to have another
head but I think that I will not, I will venture no further but close
with a word to sinners, although I have in truth been speaking to them
all through my discourse.

Hear me, you that would be saved! The way of salvation is by believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, by trusting Him. There are two
things I have to say to you. First, God COMMANDS you to believe in
Jesus Christ–and, secondly, nothing you can do will please God so much
as for you to believe at once in His Only-Begotten Son, whom He has set
forth to be the propitiation for sin.

These are two strong things to say and so I will not say them, of
myself, but give you God's Word for them. Please note these texts down,
all of you. First Epistle of John, third chapter, at the twenty-third
verse–"And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name
of His Son Jesus Christ." Let me tell you where it is again. First
Epistle of John, third chapter, twenty-third verse–"This is His
commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus
Christ." If you are commanded to do it, do it. If you have salvation
promised you when you do believe on the name of Jesus, why then,
believe, and have salvation. Believe on the name of His Son Jesus
Christ. That is the first point. God commands you–will you disobey?

The second thing I said was that nothing you can do will please God so
much as for you, now, to believe in Jesus Christ. Look at the sixth
chapter of John's Gospel and the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses.
There you have it. "Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we
might work the works of God?" They meant, "What are the best works, the
works most pleasing to God?" "Jesus answered and said unto them, This
is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent." If you
could build a row of almshouses, or endow a Church, or pay the salaries
of a hundred missionaries, it would not half so well please God as for
you to believe on His Son Jesus Christ.

Trust Christ and you have worshipped God as acceptably as cherubim and
seraphim. Trust Christ and you have brought unto the Lord that which
will charm Him more than the hallelujahs which day without night,
circle His Throne with praise. You poor guilty man, you poor guilty
woman–humble, unknown, obscure, a nobody–God bids you trust His Son
and assures you that this will please Him more than all else you can
do! Will you not do it? Oh, end your ramblings! End your strivings! End
your seeking! Come and trust my Lord Jesus and you shall receive
eternal life. Your fretting and your hoping and your doubting, your
coming and your going–end them all by simply trusting Jesus and it is
finished–you are saved from wrath and the life of holiness has begun
in you.

Now shall you live after a nobler sort. Now shall you be filled with
good works to the praise of His Glory, seeing you are no more trusting
in them. I beseech you, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and you
shall receive power to become a child of

God.

May the Lord bless you, dear Friends! May we all meet in Heaven, the
whole company of us, without exception, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.