The Rough Hewer

The Rough Hewer

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 9, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you?
for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes
away. Therefore ha ve I hewed them by the Prophets; I have slain them
by the Words of My mouth: and your judgments are as the light that goes
forth." Hosea 6:4,5.

VERY simple is the way of salvation–very plain is the road home. The
chapter begins with it–"Come, and let us return unto the Lord." By
going away from the Lord we have lost our privileges, have become
wounded and have lost ourselves. To find all these things again we must
go back to the Lord, from Whom we have wandered. We must cry with the
repenting prodigal, "I will arise and go to my Father"–and if we at
once begin to carry out the resolve–the way home is not far to seek.

Concerning salvation we need only preach one sermon by way of
explanation–but men need 10 sermons by way of exhortation. Turn to the
right when you come to the Cross and keep straight on and you will get
home, however much you have wandered from the right way. Alas, too many
of our hearers complicate this sweet simplicity! They will not be
content to take the plain way–they love more winding paths. They will
not drink of the cool flowing waters–they look for a mingled cup of
their own filling. They are waiting. For what are they waiting? They
are looking about. For what are they looking?

They choose a thorny maze instead of a straight road. The Lord God,
when He is resolved to save, sees it necessary to use peculiar methods
with these who will not be satisfied to receive the kingdom of Heaven
as a little child. Because they will not come when they are bidden, the
Lord adds blows to His words. Because they will not come when they are
gently drawn, they shall be roughly driven. Because the cords of love
and the bonds of a man fail to bring them, they shall have the goad of
the ox and the bit and bridle of the mule. If gentle breezes will not
waft the ship, the tempestuous Euroclydon shall force it to the haven!

When the Lord resolves to save, He will lay on His chastisement until
the whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. He will smite until,
from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, the body is all
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. By strong measures and strange
methods He will bring back the stray sheep. "Yet does He devise means
that His banished are not expelled from Him." It is a great pity that
there should be need for these unusual means, for the method of
salvation is simple–and if we are willing and obedient we shall find
her ways to be ways of pleasantness.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved," is a
command which is plain as a pike-staff. The Gospel precept is such as a
child can understand and its commandment is not grievous. Alas, men
will not follow this path of peace–and even those whom God eternally
ordains to save are, for many a day, most rebellious against His easy
plan. Therefore does God go about and use all sorts of wise dealings
with men, that He may hide pride from them and may make them willing to
accept the humbling terms of salvation by Grace alone through Jesus
Christ.

In the case before us, love seems to have reached its nonplus. Infinite
Love and boundless Wisdom seem, in this instance, to be brought to a
dead halt. God has been dealing with Judah and Ephraim in ways as wide
as the poles asunder–He has been as a moth, which, without noise eats
the garment–and thus He has caused them a grave disquiet in a gentle
and secret manner. But as this sufficed not, He has also turned His
lion upon them and by sharp afflictions and terrible visitations they
have been torn and wounded–as when a wild beast rends his prey in
pieces.

But neither the gentle nor the terrible has availed–they have remained
hardened. What treatment can now be tried? The Lord asks the question.
He appeals to those whom He would bless and puts it to them. Infinite
Wisdom is pictured as crying in bewilderment, "O Ephraim, what shall I
do unto you?" What is the next thing? "O Judah, what shall I do unto
you?" What else can be hopefully used after so many failures? In what
terms shall I now address you? By what methods shall I now attempt to
win you?

Ah, it is a thousand pities that the case should ever wear this
complexion. Why should the line of Love be thrown into such a tangle?
For, after all, today, at this very moment, the way of salvation is
plain, open and simple to those of you whose cases are most perplexing!
All else is intricate, but this is plain–"Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved." "Look unto Me and be you saved, all
the ends of the earth." Since men will complicate it, the Lord pursues
them in His infinite compassion and follows them, despite their devious
ways, double dealings, inconstancies and falsehoods.

Our text tells us, first, of the disappointments of Love–"What shall I
do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early
dew it goes away." Secondly, it mentions the devices of
Mercy–"Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them
by the words of My mouth." When we have thought of these two things, we
shall be led, very briefly, to notice the declaration of Justice. If
all these ways of longsuffering are despised, God's Justice will be
abundantly vindicated–"Your judgments are as the light that goes
forth." The condemnation of those who disappoint Love and defy Wisdom
will be richly deserved. In closing, we shall, in the fourth place,
come back to where we began and remind you of the direction of Wisdom
which stands before us in the first verse–"Come, and let us return
unto the

Lord."

I. First, then, THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF LOVE. May the Holy Spirit aid us
in this meditation! We have a number of persons about us of whose
conversion we have been very hopeful. We know those who for years have
presented cheering signs of a gracious work within them and yet, up to
now, they have occasioned us grave disappointment. They bud, but they
never fruit. Long have they disappointed us and our fear is that they
will disappoint us even to the end.

These people give very speedy promise. We have hardly begun with them
but we feel optimistic of success. Theirs is the religion of haste but
it never speeds. They are as the morning cloud–we have not to wait
until evening–and like the mists on the hills they are visible before
the break of day. Some people are up early and yet do nothing–such are
these. We reckon on them at once but we reckon wrongfully. We have not
preached long before we see tears. We have not talked long before we
perceive emotions. We feel sure that the Word of God will not return
void from them–for they attend carefully and are moved by the Word as
the boughs of the forest are swayed by the wind.

It all comes to nothing. These are the stony-ground hearers. That
scanty soil with a hard piece of rock below it no sooner received the
Seed than, because there was no depth of earth, the Seed began to
spring up. The same cause which made them so easy come made them so
easy go–because of the lack of root and soil they speedily withered
away. Oh, these stony-ground hearers–what a fraud they are! These come
by scores to the Penitent Form–but where are they afterwards? These
throng the Inquiry Room but never unite with the Church.

They make a great display of emotion but it is all a flash in the pan.
They are very impressionable, but they are as impetuous as they are
impressible! They never stop to think, but go for a matter blindly.
They never look before they leap–they leap and then they look–and
come to the conclusion to jump back again. They are quick to promise
but slow performers. Thus they act treacherously with God. These people
give striking promises. For the morning cloud was a very striking
promise of rain. Looking out of his door in the morning, the Eastern
farmer saw a heavy mist hanging over his fields and he said, "It will
rain, and let the Lord be praised, who waters the hills from His
chambers." Very soon he perceived that the sign was not fulfilled, for
the dew and the cloud were gone as quickly as they came. But at the
time, the tokens were very impressive and full of hope.

So have some of you, my dear Hearers, greatly cheered us with a fair
prospect of your conversion. You were so broken down under an address
that we hoped you were about to display true repentance. You were so
pleased to hear the Word of God that we thought you really had received
Christ into your heart. You made some very plain and decided remarks
and your life, for a while, appeared happily altered so that we and
others said, "We trust it is a work of Divine Grace." But you have
deceived us! And, worse than that, you have dealt treacherously with
God in this matter–for you have gone back to your old ways though you
know them to be evil.

You yourself thought that you were converted and you openly avowed that
you were so. You determined to be this, that and the other–and yet you
are none of these beings. I will not go into detail about your promises
but I would have you remember that these are so many bonds and
notes-of-hand which you have not taken up and they will be brought out
against you at the Last Great Day. We could stand and weep over you,
for we know not what to do next. God Himself seems to enquire of you,
"What shall I do to you? What shall I do to you? Your goodness is as
the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away."

These persons give repeated promises. Though they have failed once,
they very freely promise again–though they have failed 20 times–they
confidently resolve anew. They are always beginning, never going on.
The work of a minister with such people is endless. A mason who is
hewing stone has hard enough work–the chips fly in his face and his
tool is often worn down–yet when he leaves off at night, he continues
in the morning where he left off. But what would be his toil if what he
took off in the day grew again at night? What would the hewer of trees
do if the tree grew so fast as to fill up the gashes which his axe had
made? This would be a case of labor in vain.

Such is my work with many of you, my Hearers. Practically, I have to
deal with you as I began 30 years ago–if, indeed, you are not worse!
If I were the hewer of timber, I should feel pleasure in the woodman's
craft. But if each time I had half felled a tree its wound would heal
up, I think I should give up in despair. Yet how does this differ from
my case with some of you? O my Hearers, it is heart-breaking work to
seek your salvation! For the more eager we are, the more bitter are the
disappointments with which you recompense our loving anxieties.

I have said, "Surely that tree will soon fall." But, lo, every mark of
the axe is effaced and the tree looks as if it had never seen a
woodman! I wish you had a little consideration for pastors and teachers
who desire your eternal welfare, for you send us home lamenting, "Their
goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away."
After all, these persons do but give us empty promises. Their vow has
no more substance in it than cloud or dew. Shall I show you how it is
that they are so quick to promise and so ready to yield to our
persuasions–and yet do not come up to the mark and carry out their
resolves?

In some cases they have a very impressible nature. Many men seem made
of hard, unworkable metal. I cannot say I am very fond of them, but
others are made of very soft metal and I cannot say that I am any
fonder of them! These are your men of willow, easy to bend. These are
your lumps of unbaked clay–you can mark them at pleasure with your
thumb or your little finger–they are easily affected by their
surroundings. Hundreds of these people come to places of worship and
are encouraging till they become disappointing. Better still, there are
many who have a naturally tender conscience. Such are here now. When
you were boys you could not do wrong without being troubled about it.
You have wept yourselves to sleep when you have felt that you grieved
your father or mother.

What a mercy it is to have a tender conscience! And yet a conscience
which is only naturally tender, but has never been renewed by the
Spirit of God may be very deceptive–for we may think we have
spiritually repented when we have done nothing of the sort. These
people weep about sin but go on sinning! They desire faith but remain
unbelievers. They soon feel but they quickly leave off feeling. They
are superficial and hence untrue. Many are affected by a strong
tendency to imitate those about them. We all imitate one another more
or less–but evidently many are not born to set examples, but to follow
examples–these easily promise but as easily forget.

The love of approbation acts upon many with great force. Especially
will young people follow each other and follow leaders if they are
praised for it. Converts may easily be made by mutual admiration. If it
happens to be a religious time and it is the fashion to profess
conversion, many of all ages go with the rush and yet are by no means
truly called into the kingdom of God. That religion which lives upon
companionship is apt to die when the company is changed. Beware of the
godliness which is carried off its feet by the crowd–true religion is
the personal conviction of one who has repented and believed on his own
account

No man can be carried to Heaven by the stream of outside
influence–there must be a work within–"You must be born-again." No
doubt we have many who disappoint our hopes because they are moving in
the right way–but they are not going there from a force within–but
are being compelled to go by an influence from without. One person of
great strength of mind may have a vast influence over others–but
subjecting to the best influence can never take the place of personal
conversion. We read, in the Word of God, of a young king who did that
which was right in the sight of God all

the days of the venerable high priest who had been his guardian–but
when the gracious man was gone, the king went his own way–and that way
was an evil one.

Many persons are under the holy influence of godly relatives and
friends, but they are by no means gracious themselves–their real
character is concealed by the godly one who overshadows them. Oh, how
sad, to be going the right way openly and yet in heart to be treading
the downward road! We are before God what we are in heart and not what
our surroundings compel us to be. No doubt some give us early promise
of better things because they are under temporary excitement and hardly
know what they say. Or they are afraid because of prevailing sickness,
or fear of death and judgment. They have no sense of sin but they feel
a fear of Hell. They have no wish to escape from doing wrong, but they
want to save their skins from the punishment which follows upon
wrong-doing.

When they are ill they not only send for the doctor, but send for the
Christian man to come and pray with them. They send for the doctor
because they would be freed from pain and for the other because they
would be freed from Hell. Every murderer would, of course, escape the
gallows if he could–but this desire is no proof of repentance and no
sign of reformation. In such cases their goodness is as the morning
cloud, and as the early dew it passes away. These people involve
themselves in greater sin by breaking their promises for, according to
the 7th verse, these breaches of contract are treacheries to God.
"There have they dealt treacherously against Me."

A man cannot have lived in this world year after year, vowing and
promising, proposing and delaying without hardening his heart in the
process. It is perilous to promise faith and remain in unbelief. I say
a man cannot have lived in idle promises and vain resolves without the
crimson dye of falsehood soaking into his inmost soul. His very heart
and thoughts will become tinctured with a practical untruthfulness and
superficiality. Beware of violating your conscience– even once
tampering with convictions is like once taking the leprosy. To put down
conviction is a species of soul-stifling. To drive out a holy thought
and crush a right desire is spiritual suicide.

If you have not carried it to the last degree of actually killing your
soul, yet in its essence, every lie to one's soul is a dagger at the
heart of its best life. To resist the Spirit of God is a deadly sin and
to quench the Spirit is a capital offense. I cannot, even if I forget
his future, look upon any man who has disappointed our just hopes
without a horror of soul that anyone should have acted in this fashion
against Almighty God, the God of infinite long-suffering, who has borne
with him so long.

II. But I must hasten now to notice, in the second place, with a view
to the comfort of some here, THE DEVICES OF MERCY. "Therefore," says
the text–what? Therefore I gave them up? Therefore I left them to
themselves? No, but, "Therefore have I hewed them by the Prophets; I
have slain them by the Words of My mouth." To many men whom God has
predestinated unto eternal life it has happened that, after they have
long resisted the drawings of Divine Grace, the Lord has dealt with
them in quite another fashion, though with the same end and design.

In this case, according to the text, He hewed them by the Prophets–but
I have seen the Lord hew men with cutting Providences. One man would
not think till the Lord laid him on a bed of sickness. Even there he
tried to brazen it out– but the sickness grew worse and a more painful
disease followed upon the first. He began to be shaken in mind by his
pains, especially when he had to lie awake night after night.
Depression of spirit followed upon weakness of body and suddenly the
curtain seemed to lift and the man was compelled to look into the
eternal future–black and grim. He had always shunned that sight but
now it haunted him. He who would not think nor care about eternal
things began to be exceedingly thoughtful and careful about such
matters! The Lord was hewing him with personal sickness and it was of
no use for him to attempt to stand out against Him.

Or the hewing has been by bereavements. His wife, who was the delight
of his eyes, suddenly sickened and died. A little child followed–the
darling of the household was laid upon its mother's coffin. When the
second stroke came the man cried, "O God, I cannot bear this! What
would You have me to do?" But he still held out and continued
impenitent. He had one left–his daughter–the lone star of his life.
On a sudden she was taken from him. Then he wept in the bitterness of
his spirit, for he was a heart-broken man. In my experience in dealing
with anxious souls, I often meet with men and women who find life
through the death of their beloved children.

An open grave has been God's doorway to their hearts. The arrows of the
Lord have struck one after another and, when deprived of earthly
lovers, they have turned to the heavenly Friend. They will have reason
to bless God to all eternity for those sad days of bereavement wherein
the pruning knife cut away from them the wild wood of worldliness

and carelessness! There are many who can say, "Before I was afflicted I
went astray; but now have I kept Your Word"! The rough hewing has often
taken another shape and has come in the form of loss and
impoverishment. The man was getting on wonderfully in
business–everything prospered with him and his increasing wealth
ministered to his presumption. He had an excursion for God's day, a
jest for God's Word, a contempt for God's house and an ill word for
God's people.

But suddenly there came a turn of the tide and he was carried down
stream. He struggled against it but he found himself hastening to the
lower reaches of the river of debt and drawing near to the sea of
bankruptcy. He did not see that the hand of God had gone out against
him. He cursed his bad luck and resolved to fight it out. He had to
leave his comfortable house and live in a very reduced fashion. But he
did not yield. He would find a situation–he would earn his living by
harder work. But he could not find a situation–he tramped London in
vain till his bare feet almost touched the stones of the pavement–and
his clothes grew ragged about him.

Now, the prospect was grim, indeed, for no citizen of the far country
would even send him into his fields to feed swine. Then it was that he
said, "I will arise and go to my Father." The extremity of his need was
the opportunity of the good Spirit. If you will not come to God while
you have a good coat on your back, I could almost pray that you might
come to rags! May a hungry belly bring you, if nothing else will! I am
glad to see your worldly estate prosper–but if your soul is perishing
you are in a sad case. Better far that the flock be cut off from the
fold and there be no herd in the stall than that you should be cut off
from Christ and have no Grace in your heart!

If some of you are passing, just now, through very trying Providences,
I pray with all my heart that they may be sanctified to you. It will be
no ill wind which wrecks your ship if the tempest casts you upon the
Rock of Ages. I trust that the Lord is laying you low that He may build
you up upon a sure Foundation. With certain others, the Lord does not
so much deal with cutting Providences as by sharp and convincing
ministries. Do you not remember, some of you, before you found the
Lord, how quietly you heard your minister and were comfortable and
sleepy under him? But the Lord came forth by that ministry against you
and you were sorely wounded by it!

You had amended your faults, rectified your life and you felt very much
at ease. The evil spirit had gone out and the house was empty, swept
and garnished–you were in a very hopeful and happy condition! Do you
remember that dreadful sermon which, like a bombshell, broke through
the roof of your house and set the whole place on fire? You were very
angry, but the deed was done! Sometimes it has been my business, in the
name of God, deliberately to break in pieces the choice ornaments of
self-righteous men. This has made them feel ferocious! The special
things wherein they delighted themselves have been destroyed before
their eyes! The ministry has been as a hammer breaking their idols in
pieces!

Do you not know that the Spirit of God is a destroyer? Is it not
written, "The grass withers because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon
it: surely the people are grass"? Everything that grows out of human
nature is dried up when the Spirit of God blows upon it and reveals its
imperfection. The Holy Spirit is to self-confidence a Spirit ofjudgment
and a Spirit of burning. To many it is necessary that the Lord's
servant should be a rough hewer. Then is a man famous according as he
lifts up his axe upon the thick trees! The faithful preacher lops away
many a goodly bough and as the man's natural state is made bare, he
cries, "Why is all this? What sharp preaching is this?"

I have known hearers exclaim, "I will never hear that man again. He
makes me miserable." Why not hear him again? Do you want him to flatter
you? I have no such commission. O my Hearers, do you think that I come
here on the Lord's-Day with an anxious heart aiming at your
gratification? Do you think that I play a fiddle that you may dance to
it? God forbid that I should so ruin both you and myself! A minister
flings his soul away if he spends his energies in the attempt to please
his congregation! It may not be well that some of you should be
pleased. Sometimes when a man grows outrageously angry with a sermon,
he is getting more good than when he retires saying, "What an eloquent
discourse!"

I have never yet heard of a salmon that liked the hook which had taken
sure hold of it–nor do men admire sermons which enter their souls.
When the Word of God becomes as an arrow in a man's heart, he
writhes–he would gladly tear it out–but it is a barbed shaft. He
gnashes his teeth, he grows indignant–but he is wounded and the arrow
is rankling. The preaching which pleases us may not be the Truth of God
but the doctrine which grieves our heart and troubles our conscience,
is, in all probability, true. At any rate, there are grave reasons for
suspecting that it is so.

It is not the way of the Truth of God to flatter guilty men. I say the
Lord uses ministries of a cutting kind to make men uneasy in their sins
and cause them to flee to Christ for peace. It is well for the preacher
to remind men that they are

lost by nature and that in their flesh there dwells no good thing. It
is well that sin should be made to appear sin and that
self-righteousness should be made to look like filthy rags. Human
inability and the need of the Holy Spirit must be set forth clearly and
the Sovereignty of God must be proclaimed solemnly. The Lord has a
right to pass over whom He pleases–and if mercy comes to any man it
will be by the sovereign act of God–because God wills to do it and not
because any man deserves it. We must preach the need of cleansing in
the precious blood and the necessity of being born-again from above.
While the preacher thunders out the doctrine of death by sin and life
in Christ, and other kindred truths, then it is that the Lord hews men
by the Prophets and they fall slain by the Words of His mouth.

"I shall never hope again," says one. "That sermon drove me to
despair." Self-despair is the beginning of true hope in Christ! Go and
hear that man again! "Oh, but he hung up all my hopes like so many
criminals on the gallows." Go and hear him again! For more of that
hanging needs to be done till your last carnal hope is executed. "But
he hits so hard." Thank God he does! There is no hewing stone without
hard blows! Oh, it is well to be riddled by the Gospel, for God never
heals those whom He has not struck and He never binds up those who have
no wounds. Why should the physician come to those who are not sick? It
is to you who are bleeding to death that Mercy flies on wings of wind!
There shall be no delay when you are at Death's door spiritually. Look
unto the Lord and live! He waits to heal the wounds He has made.

Beyond this the Lord uses, with many men, very cutting operations
within their souls. They feel spiritual hewing within which are most
terrible. It is my lot almost every day in the week to meet with those
who are pressed beneath the heavy hand of conviction of sin. By long
experience of the Lord's hewing I feel at home where the axe has made
gaping gashes and the chips lie deep about me. But this is awful work
in certain instances, for the tree seems cut down close by the roots.

The Holy Spirit comes to some men and makes a discovery to them of what
their past lives have been and oh, the horror of it! They were most
respectable people in their own esteem–if not Christians, they were
quite as good as the most of those who are and far better than
some–but how soon was this changed! When the Lord pulls back a shutter
and lets a little light into the dark room of the soul, what filth and
loathsomeness appear where all seemed clean! The Lord does more than
that–He takes up the cellar flap and lets the man peer beneath the
surface into the dark vault of his heart. What a sink of depravity!
What an abyss of deceit!

No man's reason would survive a full sight of his own inner self. A
cage of unclean birds is nothing to it. The lusts and filthy
imaginations, the pride, the wrath, the deceit, the meanness of our
natures–who can know them? When we see these hidden evils revealed by
the Scriptures we are, indeed, slain by the Words of the Lord's mouth!
I have known persons, under horror of sin, try to pray but prayer has
died in their throats. They have read their Bibles and every chapter
has thundered at them. The Word of the Lord has seemed like a red hot
harrow full of burning spikes and it has been dragged up and down the
field of their tender hearts.

Even the Gospel has forgotten its sweetness to their ears. The
ambassador of peace has had no kind word for them. I have met with
those who have even tried to believe in Christ but they have been so
overloaded with fear that they failed to hope in His mercy. I spoke to
one the other day who said, "Sir, I am spiritually dead." I answered,
"Jesus says, 'He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live.'" He replied that he was without hope and I reminded him that at
one time we, also, were without Christ and without hope, and yet we
were made near. "Alas," he said, "I have no strength for anything." I
bade him remember that it is written, "When we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

"O Sir," he said, "You are very skillful to turn things about. But I am
lost." "Yes," I said, "And 'the Son of Man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.' If you will describe yourself as a pretty
gentleman I shall find nothing in the Bible to comfort you. But as long
as you have only black words and condemning words with which to daub
yourself, I feel that you are Christ's man for you describe yourself
just as the Scriptures describe those whom Jesus came to save." Painful
as are God's strokes, I rejoice to hear His axe going–for those whom
the Lord hews today He will help tomorrow!

When the Lord is hewing a man and making him feel that he is nothing
and nobody, or worse than that–when He is making him feel that he is
just a heap of sin and misery only fit to be shoveled into the
bottomless pit–then I know that salvation is near! When God brings a
man down there will soon be a lifting up. When the night is darkest,
the dawn is

nearest. When carnal hope is killed, spiritual hope begins to live.
Thus have we seen the rough methods of tender Love and spied out the
devices of effectual Grace.

III. And now I have to notice with deep solemnity, for a moment only,
THE DECLARATION OF JUSTICE which is placed in the midst of this
Revelation of mercy. What does the Word say? "Your judgments are as the
light that goes forth." Perhaps I address one this morning who has
promised fair for Heaven but has deceived everybody and now God has
been dealing with him in another way and made him feel the axe of
affliction–if, after all, he remains obstinate and will not yield to
the love of God his condemnation will be just.

If, despite all this, he is determined to be lost, God's judgments will
be as clear as the light of the morning, or as the flash of lightning
in a storm. All you have suffered you have well deserved–you have been
brought very low, but it is of the Lord's mercies that you are not
consumed. It is true He seems to have struck you with cruel blows–but
had He dealt with you after your sins and rewarded you according to
your iniquities–you would have been where hope can never come. If God
had not been longsuffering, you would long ago have been where they ask
in vain for a drop of water to cool their tongue, tormented in the
flame.

It is great mercy that has dealt so unmercifully with your temporal
estate. It is great love that has taken away those you love. In any
case you have deserved it all and God's dealings with you are clearly
righteous. You cannot question His procedure. But if all this is in
vain and you pass into another state unsaved, God's eternal judgment
against you will be "as the light that goes forth." Who will plead for
you? I think I see you in that Last Dread Day. Yes, here you come! This
is the man who knew all about Christ and His precious blood and
salvation by Grace through faith! This is he who knew, but did not act
as he knew.

Who will be his advocate? Here he comes, the man who 52 Sundays in the
year heard the Gospel faithfully preached and yet closed his ears to
it. What excuse has he? Here he comes–the man who was pleaded with but
would not come– who will lament for him? Here he comes, the man that
was the subject of many prayers and many anxious pleadings–the man
that was so near to the kingdom as to be almost persuaded to be a
Christian! What can be said for him? For this man so much was done that
the Lord said, "What could have been done more to My vineyard that I
have not done in it?" Mercy itself came to a pause and said, "What
shall I do to you? What shall I do to you?"

Surely, it is now the turn for Justice to ask the same question. Here
he comes, the man on whom the Gospel has exhausted all its pleadings
and God's ambassadors have spent all their arguments! Here he comes
and, when the Judge asks him what he has to say in his own defense,
what answer can he make? Will it not be another case of, "He stood
speechless; and the King said, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into
outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"?

My God! Am I speaking to anyone this morning whose case this will be? I
pray, of Your mercy, that it may not be so! If I had the misery of
knowing that one soul here would be lost and if I was bidden to point
out the one that should be cast away forever–how could I bear it? No,
my Lord, blot my name out of Your book sooner than one of these should
perish! I tremble as I stand before You! Yet there are those here who
are as unaffected as the seats they sit upon. When such go down to
destruction, who shall act as advocate for them? If one would plead for
them, what could he say?–

"How they deserve the deepest Hell Who slight thejoys above! What
chains of vengeance must they feel That break such cords of love!"

IV. So, then, I finish with my fourth head, which is not in the text
and yet is the true drift of the text–consider THE PATH OF WISDOM.
Leave all I have said, if you please, but listen to the voice which
says, "Come, let us return unto the Lord!" Why should you be struck any
more–you will only revolt more and more! Why should you be as the
horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must be
held in with bit and bridle? Why should you be "like dumb driven
cattle?" Listen to the voice of Wisdom and be reconciled to God by the
death of His Son. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord."

This is very simple. So much the better for you. Think of it. No,
practice it! What is the way back to God? The Lord Jesus answers–"I am
the way." Take Him to be your door of access to the great God on whom
you have before turned your backs. Along the blood-sprinkled way of the
atoning Sacrifice return unto the Lord your God. Not only are the words
simple, but they are encouraging. It is put here in a way that ought to
cheer you–for others invite you lest you be

afraid to go alone–"Come, and let us return unto the Lord." Let us go
together. Here, take my hand. I, too, will go to Jesus as a sinner.

All of us who have gone to Him before will go to Him again with you.
Come! Do you hesitate? Come, let us go at once. Let us go together. We
will pray with you and for you–we know the road and will point it out
to you. You are sitting side by side with your wife this morning and
you are, neither of you, saved. Oh, that the two of you would seize
each other's hands and say, "Come and let us return unto the Lord!" And
you, Brothers and Sisters, or you, Friends, who know each other
well–would it not be a happy thing if, hand in hand, before you leave
this place–you did return unto the Lord? Come! Come! Come! Let us
return! Why do we linger?

Oh, that all here present who have not come back to God by Jesus Christ
would come in a great company to the Lord! Does it seem too bold a
thing for you to go back to God? Be not dismayed! Take heart because of
the word of promise. You cry, "He has torn me! He has wounded me!" Yes,
that is why you should come to Him, for it is written, "He has torn and
He will heal us; He has smitten and He will bind us up." "Look!" cries
the sick man, "see what a gash the surgeon made! He has gone away! Do
you think he will come again to me?" Come again? Of course he will. He
must come again. If he made that wound, he had a purpose in it and he
will go through with his design. He has made the open wound because it
was necessary to make it and he has thereby bound himself to attend to
you till you are healed.

In conviction there is promise of consolation. It is not the nature of
our good Lord to cause needless grief. His wounds intend a cure. The
Lord, who has broken your heart, will bind it up! The Lord, who has
made you tremble at His name, will yet make you rejoice in His
salvation. He has said it–"To this man will I look, even to him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word." The Lord
will come to you in the grave of despair and bid you live! Behold His
gracious promise and believe it to be true–"After two days will He
revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in
His sight."

May we all live in His sight by faith in Christ Jesus. And to Him be
glory forever! Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Hosea 5:11-15; Hosea 6.