The Memory Of Christ’s Love

The Memory Of Christ's Love

(No. 2294)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 2, 1890.

"We will remember Your love more than wine: the upright love You." Song
of Solomon 1:4.

I Do not think I can preach tonight. I feel so weary, and worn, and
ill. Still, I can talk to you a little concerning the great love of
Christ. If I were dying, I think I could speak upon that theme, and oh,
when we rise again, how we shall talk forever and ever about Christ's
love! This will be our endless theme throughout the eternal ages, "His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins."

I have taken for a text the last two sentences in the Song of Solomon,
the first chapter, and the fourth verse–"We will remember Your love
more than wine: the upright love You."

This is a night for remembering Christ's love. The Communion Table is
spread before us, the sacred feast to which we are about to come is
meant to recall to our minds our Savior's words, "This do in
remembrance of Me…This do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance
of Me." But, while we remember Christ, the central thought in our minds
shall be that of which Paul wrote, "who loved me, and gave Himself for
me." We will, above all other things, tonight, remember His love. Have
any of you been forgetting it? Is it long since you had an hour's real
enjoyment in meditating upon the love of Christ? Then, Beloved, come
tonight, and renew your vows! Begin, again, your fellowship, and make
this firm resolve, "We will remember our Lord; we will remember His
love tonight!" May the Holy Spirit, who brings everything to
remembrance whatever Christ has said to us, help us now to remember
Him! For Him to remember us when He comes to His Kingdom, will be our
Heaven. For us to remember Him, though He has gone away to His Kingdom,
shall be a little Heaven to us tonight.

As I am able, I will talk with you briefly, first, upon the
preparations for the holy memory mentioned in our text. We shall find
them in the verse in which the text is embedded–"Draw me, we will run
after You: the king has brought me into His chambers: we will be glad
and rejoice in You." When we have considered the preparations for the
holy memory here referred to, I will speak upon the Divine subject of
this holy memory–"We will remember Your love more than wine." Then,
thirdly, we will meditate upon the Divine product of this holy
memory–"The upright love You, love You because they remember Your
love."

I. First, then, dear Friends, as I may be helped by the Holy Spirit, I
would remind you of THE PREPARATIONS FOR THIS HOLY MEMORY. Here they
are.

The first word is, "Draw me." Lord, I would gladly come to You, but
like Mephibosheth, I am lame in both my feet. I would gladly fly to
You, but my wings are broken, if, indeed, I ever had any. I cannot come
to You. I lie inert, and dead, and powerless. So the first preparation
is, "Draw me." It is a sweet, gracious, efficacious exercise of Divine
power that I need and entreat. I say not, "Drive me," but, "Lord, draw
me." I say not, "Throw me there, or force me yonder, but, "Lord, draw
me. While You draw, I shall have liberty left to run–draw me, we will
run after You."

We do not need to be born again–we who are believers in Christ have
had that miracle worked upon us already. We are not now asking for
pardon and justification–as believers in Christ, we have these
priceless gifts already. What we need is the gentle influence of the
Holy Spirit to attract us nearer to Christ–so each one cries to the
Lord, "Draw me." We are not dead. We are quickened and made alive. Our
very pain and anguish, because we are not able to come to Christ as we
would, prove that we are alive. I commend this prayer to you, "Lord,
draw me; draw me." It is the work of Christ to draw. "I, if I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." It is the work of the
Father. "No man can come

to Me," said Christ, "except the Father which has sent Me draw him." It
is the work of the Spirit of God to draw a soul towards Christ. I pray
this for myself and, I trust that you will pray with me, "Come, Sacred
Spirit, and draw us nearer to Christ! Enliven our hopes; incline our
hearts; awaken our desires and then help us to yield our whole being to
Your gracious influences!"–

"If You hare drawn a thousand times, Oh, draw me, Lord, again!"

That, then, is the first preparation for the holy memory mentioned in
our text, Divine drawing–"Draw me."

Notice, next, that this verse says, "Draw me, we will run after You." I
like the change in the pronouns, as though I should pray tonight,
"Lord, draw me; I am the most weighted, the heaviest of all Your
children in this congregation; but draw me, we will run after You. All
my Brothers and Sisters will run at once if You do draw me. If You draw
the most burdened one towards Yourself, all the rest will come to You
at a rapid rate," Do you not feel, my dear Brother or Sister, as if you
could use this expression? Lord, if You will draw me, all my fellow
members will be running with me; yet they will not outstrip me in their
eagerness to reach You, for we will together run after You. Do,
therefore, draw me, my gracious Lord!

If we would be fully prepared to remember Christ, we must get into this
running pace–"Draw me: we will run after You." Be quick, my Soul, be
quick, about heavenly things! Creep, if you will, about your worldly
business, but run after your Lord. Oh, that we might everyone attain
the running pace tonight! Oh, that we might speed along towards our
Lord with that strong, impetuous desire which will not let us rest till
we are close to Him! "Draw me, we will run after

You."

Divine drawing is the first preparation for the holy memory. And next
comes speedy running.

Now, in the further preparation, if you read the verse through, you
will find that an answer comes to the prayer as soon as it is
uttered–"The king has brought me into His chambers." "What I asked
for, I have obtained at once! And I have received more than I asked
for. I prayed, 'Draw me,' and He has carried me bodily. 'The king has
brought me into His chambers.' I did but pray that I might come a
little nearer to my Lord, but He has brought me into His secret places,
into His withdrawing rooms! He has brought me where He brings His
bride. He has brought me where He receives His courtiers. The King has
brought me into His chambers and now I see how truly royal He is. The
King has done it! The King, not a king, but that King who is King of
all kings, the most royal of all monarchs–'the Prince of the kings of
the earth,' even my Lord Jesus, has brought me into His chambers."

How quickly this was done! I want you to believe, Beloved, that it
could be done just as quickly in your case. Pray, "Lord, draw me. I
feel as if I were coming to the Communion Table quite unfit to come."
Is that what you say? Then pray, "Draw me," and in a moment, before the
prayer is uttered, you shall find yourself not only drawn, but actually
brought into the secret place of fellowship! "The king has brought me
into His chambers." "Before I was aware, my soul made me like the
chariots of Amminadib." I know, and some of you know, unhappily, what
it is to feel very cold and lifeless. But I also know, and some of you
know, what it is to become full of life, full of love, full of joy,
full of heavenly rapture in a single moment! You who could only creep
begin to run. You who could only sigh begin to sing! I want it to be so
with every one of you, dearly Beloved, tonight! And you who think you
are forgotten, shall be remembered tonight, at any rate. You who have
almost forgotten what a real, hallowed time of communion means, may
learn it over again, tonight, as you cry, "Draw me, we will run after
You: the king has brought me into His chambers."

Thus we have had three preparations for the holy memory mentioned in
our text–drawing, running, and bringing.

There is only one more preparation for remembering Christ and that is
to feel gladness and joy in Him–"We will be glad and rejoice in You."
Come, take those ashes from your head, you that are sighing by reason
of affliction! Come, unbind that sackcloth, and throw it aside, you
that have lost fellowship with God, and are, consequently, in the dark!
Christ is yours if you believe in Him. He has given Himself to you and
He loves you. Rejoice in that blessed fact! Remember who He is and what
He is–very God of very God, yet perfect Man, God in Human Nature,
Immanuel, God With Us, glorified now in the highest heavens, though
once, for our sakes, He sank down into the very depths of death and the
grave. Bless His dear name! Be glad and rejoice in Him!

Now, I pray you, let your mouth be filled with laughter, your tongue
with singing and your heart with holy ecstasy as you think of who your
Well-Beloved is, how great He is, and what greatness He puts upon you
by virtue of His union

with you! We cannot very well remember Christ as we should while we
carry about with us a heavy heart. Come, sad spirit, be glad in the
Lord! "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice." If ever a
human soul had reason to rejoice, it must be the soul that believes in
Christ! If ever there were any of the sons of Adam who had cause to be
glad and to clap their hands with holy mirth, it is the men who have
found Christ to be their salvation and their All in All!

These, then, are the preparations for the holy memory of which our text
speaks. If they are well made, you will have no difficulty in
remembering Christ's love tonight!

II. So now, in the second place, as I may be strengthened, I would like
to speak about THE DIVINE SUBJECT OF THIS HOLY MEMORY–"We will
remember Your love."

First, we will remember the fact of Christ's love. What a wonderful
thing it is that the Son of God should love us! I do not wonder so much
that He should have any love for you–but I am lost in wonder at the
fact that He has any love for me, even for me! Does not each Believer
feel that the wonder of wonders must ever be that the Lord Jesus Christ
loves him? He was in Glory, needing nothing. He was in His Father's
bosom, enjoying ineffable delight. If He wanted to cast His eyes of
love on any of His creatures, there were myriads of bright spirits
before the Throne. But, no, He must look down, down, down, to earth's
dunghills and find us who were utterly unworthy of His regard!

Then He might have pitied us, and left us in our lost estate, but it
could not be so with One who has such a heart as our dear Savior
has–He must love us! What it is for God to love, God only knows. We
faintly guess, by the love that burns in our bosom towards the objects
of our affection, what the love of God must be. The love of God must be
a mighty passion! I use the word because I know no better–I am
conscious that it is not the right one, for human language is too
feeble to describe Divine Love–

"Stronger His lore than death or Hell Its riches are unsearchable! The
first-born sons of light Desire in rain its depths to see– They cannot
reach the mystery The length, and breadth, and height."

Oh, the love of Christ! It must always be the wonder of wonders that
Jesus Christ, the darling of the heavens, should have set the eyes of
His affection upon men of mortal mold–on sinful men–on me! That, to
me, is the climax.

We will remember the fact of Christ's love. But we will remember, also,
the character of Christ's love. What a love it was! He loved us before
the foundation of the world! With the telescope of His Prescience, He
foresaw our existence and He loved us when we had no being! Then He
struck hands with the great Father and entered into Covenant on our
behalf, and engaged that He would stand Sponsor for us and redeem us
from the ruin of our sin. Oh, the love, the love, the everlasting love
of Christ! He has never left off loving us from the very first. All
through the ages before the world was, and through the centuries in
which the world has existed, He has loved His chosen every moment–and
loved them to the fullest. Can you drink in the sweetness of that
thought? Oh, I pray you, remember the antiquity and the constancy of
the love of Christ to His people! "We will remember Your love."

It was unmerited love which had no reason in us for it to light upon–

"What was there in you that could merit esteem, Or gire the Creator
delight? 'Twas eren so, Father,'you must always sing, 'Because it
seemed good in Your sight.'" He loved us because He would love us. It
was the sovereignty of His love that made Him love those whom He chose
to love. He loved them freely, without anything in them, or that would
ever be done by them, to deserve His love. But He loved fully as well
as freely. He loved intensely, Divinely, immeasurably. You know your
love to your child–it is but a feeble spark compared to the great sun
of Christ's love to you! You know your love to your husband–it is a
tiny rill compared with the ocean of Christ's love to His people!
Beloved, turn over the wondrous qualities of the love of Christ to you,
and say, as you sit at the Communion Table tonight, "We will remember
Your love, for we cannot forget it. We will remember Your love, for the
joyous theme forces itself upon us. We will remember Your love more
than wine."

We will also remember the deeds of Christ's love. It is a grand story.
I cannot stay to tell it to you tonight. You know how, in the fullness
of time, the Son of God came out of Glory and alighted on a stall where
the horned oxen fed. He who

had made all worlds was hanging at a woman's breast, for He was made
flesh that He might save us from our sins. "Herein is love!" See Him
living a laborious life, going about doing good, despised, maligned,
yet always ready to give still greater Grace and mercy to the unworthy.
You know His life, the wondrous life of Christ. "Herein is love." At
last, He gave Himself up in agony even to a bloody sweat. He gave His
back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
He hid not His face from shame and spitting. And then He gave
Himself–His hands to the nails, His feet to the Cross and the cruel
iron, His side to the lance, His body to the tomb, His soul to depart
to His Father. "Herein is love." I wish I could preach upon this theme
as it deserves to be proclaimed. Oh, that I knew how to speak of the
dying love of Christ! The angels desire to look into the mystery of the
love of Jesus, but even they cannot compass its immeasurable height,
and depth, and length, and breadth! Will not each of us, who are the
objects of it, remember His dying

love?–

"When to the Cross I turn my eyes, And rest on Calrary

Lamb of God! My Sacrifice!

1 must remember Thee! Remember You and all Your pains, And all Your
lore to me.

Yes, while a breath, a pulse remains, Will I remember Thee!"

But Jesus rose from the grave. He rose with the same love. He ascended
with the same love. He lives with the same love, pleading for us! He
loves us now and He will come for us in love. Love shall give Him wings
to fly down to earth again. He will reign here, but not without His
people. "The Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem,
and before His ancients gloriously." He will reign forever in love!
Evermore, throughout the life to come, and the ages that shall never
end, Christ will rest in His love! He will rejoice over His people with
joy! He will joy over them with singing. He will also give them to
share His Glory and to sit upon His Throne–and to reign with Him
forever and ever!

Oh, what a theme is this, the deeds of Christ's love! In trying to talk
of it, I feel like a poor schoolboy standing here, speaking on a
subject he loves. Oh, that there were a Milton, or some one of Miltonic
caliber, to tell out the story of this great love of Christ! Yet,
perhaps the theme is better with my poor description than it would be
with the loftiest words of men, because you are more likely to forget
the description and to remember the love that cannot be described.
Whereas, had my discourse been filled with lofty and worthy diction,
you might have forgotten the theme and remembered the speaker.

I would like you, Brothers and Sisters, tonight, to remember the proofs
of Christ's love. You were far off, but He sought you and brought you
back. You were deaf, but He called you and opened your ears to hear His
loving call. You came trembling and afraid, but He cheered you–and in
a moment He took your burden from you and set you free! Do you remember
it?–

"Do you recall the place, the spot of ground, Where Jesus did you
meet?"

I remember, tonight, the place where first I saw the Lord. I know it to
a yard. Some of you cannot speak as definitely as that, and you need
not blush because you cannot. Did Jesus come to you? Did He forgive
your sins? Did He comfort you with His love? Then remember it tonight!
Never mind about dates and places–just remember His love!

Since Jesus first came to you, and saved you, many a time you have been
in trouble and He has comforted you. You have been in labor and He has
sustained you. You have been in disrepute, but He has honored you.
Alas, you have proved yourself unworthy of His love, but He has
forgiven your backslidings. You have wandered from Him, but He has
restored you. Remember His great love!

No word of mine will, I fear, help you much, but let your memory begin
to run over the pages of your diary. Turn over the leaves that record
your Lord's favor to you. Are there not some pages with great crosses
upon them, which you made in the day of trouble, and other crosses
which you made in the hour of your deliverance when Jesus came to your
relief? Oh, remember His love, remember His love more than wine!

I will not detain you on this point any longer, although there was much
more I wanted to say. Only, Brothers and Sisters, if I cannot talk to
you, do the thing that we are thinking about. Remember Christ and His
great love. Do now,

before you partake of the emblems of His broken body and His shed
blood, get to Him! You may forget everything else if you like, but I
charge you remember Christ's love! There, fling overboard every other
recollection, however precious! Let the golden ingots go, but hold fast
to the true lading of the ship, her real cargo–the love wherewith
Christ has loved us! Remember that and sit still and enjoy the blessed
memory.

Before I come to the last division of my subject, I should like to ask
whether there are any here who cannot remember Christ's love because
they never knew it? Is that your case, my dear Friend over yonder? Let
me remind you of the lepers of whom we have been reading, and then let
me recall to your minds God's ancient Law concerning the man suffering
from leprosy. When he was brought for the High Priest to examine him,
the High Priest looked him up and down, from the crown of his head to
the sole of his feet, and he said to the leper, "Here is a place still
on your breast where your flesh is perfectly clean." And the leper
said, "Yes, I am pleased to see that it is so." But the High Priest
replied, "You are unclean, you must not go into the House of the Lord,
or associate with the people." Then there came another, and he searched
him all over, and said, "Here, upon this part of your leg, there is
still a sound place." "Yes," said the other, "I have often thought what
a good sign it was." "You also are unclean," said the High Priest, "Go
to your separate house, and abide there."

Then there came one poor man who was white all over, and the High
Priest said to him, "Have you any clean places?" "No, my lord, not one.
Examine me and see." And the High Priest looked, and there was not a
clean spot on him where you could have put a pin's point–the leprosy
was all over him, he was saturated all through with the deadly virus
and foul with the loathsome disease. And there he stood and cowered and
trembled before the High Priest. Then the High Priest said to him,
"Behold, you are clean! When you have performed the ceremony required
by the Law of God, you may go home to your house and to the house of
your God, for you are clean." There was a medical reason, I suppose,
for this Law–the mischief had thrown itself out, it had come out to
the shin, the disease was fully developed, and would soon be removed.
But, whatever may have been the medical reason, such was the Law–and
if I am addressing anybody here who feels, "There is nothing good about
me. I am unclean, unclean, unclean, from the crown of my head to the
sole of my feet, and the lowest place in Hell is my dessert," my
Friend, the Grace of God has begun to work in you!

Now that you are emptied, God will begin to fill you! Trust in the
atoning Sacrifice of His dear Son and you shall have the assurance that
you are also the subject of His saving Grace–His love shall be shed
abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit–and you shall join with us in
remembering that great love wherewith He has loved us!

III. The last thing upon which I have to speak to you is this, THE
DIVINE PRODUCT OF THIS HOLY MEMORY–"The upright love You."

So it seems, then, that if we remember Christ, we shall have a respect
for His people. His people are the upright and she, who speaks in the
sacred Canticle, here looks round upon them, and says, "The upright
love You." "That commends You to me; for if they who are of a chaste
spirit love You, much more should I." I think, if you feel as I do
sometimes, you would be glad to be sure that you were even the least in
God's House. We know the upright love Christ and we love the upright
because they do so–and we esteem Christ because the better men are,
the more they think of Him. Is it not so? But sometimes we are afraid
we are not among the number of the chosen ones. "The upright love You."
Lord, am I one of the upright? Our hymn puts it, even concerning
Heaven–

There you that lore my Sarior sit, There I would gladly hare place,
Among your thrones, or at your feet, So I might see His face."

Would we not gladly sit at the feet of the very least of His people if
we might but love Christ? They love Him! I know how you look about you
tonight and you say, "There sits Brother So-and-So. He loves Christ.
There is Mistress So-and-So who is so busy in the service of her Lord.
She loves Christ. And that dear man (Mr. William Olney), whose death we
still commemorate by these sad memorials around the pulpit–he loved
Christ." "Ah, well!" you say, "I wish I loved Him, too, and that I were
among the upright in character who truly admire Him."

Seek that blessing, dear Friends, for it is to be had if you seek it
aright! Seek it, for the love of Christ will make you love the upright
and foster in you an esteem for them. I do not like to hear Christian
people speak ill of one another– and I do not like to hear Christian
people speak ill of the Church. If Christ loves her and is married to
her, woe to you if you find fault with my Master's bride! He loves not
those who love not His chosen! Have a great love for the people of

God, even the poorest of them! Count them to be the aristocrats of the
world, the blood-royal of the universe, the men and women who have
angels to be their servants and who are made kings and priests unto
God! If you remember Christ, you will remember His people. If you
remember His love, you will feel a love towards them, God grant that
you may do so!

One thing more, and I have done. In remembering Christ's love as the
upright do, we shall grow upright. I believe that God blesses trouble
to our sanctification and that He can bless joy to the same end. But I
am sure of this, that the greatest instrument of sanctification is the
love of Jesus! One asked what he should think of to make him holy, and
his friend answered, "Think of death." It is wise to talk with the
grave, the mattock and the shroud–but the living love of Christ has a
sanctifying power that even thoughts of death have not! One has said,
"If you would grow holy, think of the punishment of sin, the pit that
God has dug for the wicked. It will make you tremble at the thought of
sin and cause you to flee from it as from an arch-destroyer." This is
true. But still, if you would grow in Grace fast, and become holy,
rapidly, this is the best theme for your meditation, "We will remember
Your love." If you will remember Christ's love, you will be lifted up
from your crookedness and made straight–and put among the upright who
love the Lord.

Come, then, let us join tonight in sweet thoughts of love to Christ!
The sermon is short, but the subject is long, and you have now an
opportunity for coming to the Communion Table and thinking out that
theme which I have started for you, "The love of Christ to me, the love
of Christ to me." Then follow it up with this, "Oh, my poor love to
Christ!" Think, dear Friends, if you remember your own love to Christ,
what a small thing it is to remember! His great love is like the sun in
the heavens! Your love–well, you have to put on your spectacles before
you can see it, it is so small a thing! God grant it may grow tonight
and, at the Communion Table, may you have such a visitation from
Christ, such delightful fellowship with Him, that you may be able to
sing, again, the hymn that you were singing when I was obliged to
retire for a while from the platform–

"My Jesus, I lore You, I know You are mine,

For You all the follies of sin I resign.

My gracious Redeemer, my Sarior, are You,

If erer I lored You, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I will lore You in life, I will lore You in death,

And praise You as long as You lend me breath.

And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,

'If erer I lored you, my Jesus, 'tis now.'" May you sing it now and be
able to sing it when the death-dew lies cold on your brow! The Lord be
with you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. PSALM 113, AND LUKE 17:11-19.

We will read, this evening, two passages in the Word of God. The first
will be Psalm 113.

Verse 1. Praise you the LORD. Praise, O you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD. Three times are you stirred up to this
duty of praise. Adore the Sacred Trinity with threefold praise! There
is a trinity in you–let spirit, soul and body praise the Lord. Let the
past, the present and the future make another threefold chord. And for
each of these, "Praise you the Lord. Praise, O you servants of the
Lord, praise the name of the Lord."

2, 3. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and
forevermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same
the LORD'S name is to be praised. "From the rising of the sun until the
going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised." In hours of
morning light, when the dew is on the grass and our soul is fall of
gladness, and in the hours of the setting sun, when the day is weary
and the night seems coming on, still let the Lord have the praise that
is His due, for He is always to be praised! There is never an hour in
which it would be unseemly to praise God. For everything there is a
season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven–but the praising of
God is never out of season! All time and all eternity may be dedicated
to this blessed work.

4, 5. The LORD is high above all nations, and His Glory above the
heavens. Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwells on high? The
loftiness, the majesty, the sublimity of God are attributes that are
wonderful in themselves, yet they

minister much joy to those who love the Lord. For, you know, we can
never make too much of those whom we love. And if we see them exalted,
then is our soul glad. Would you wish to have a little God? Would you
wish to have a God who had but little honor, or little power? No, you
ascribe to Him all conceivable and all inconceivable greatness, and you
exult as you think what a high and mighty God He is–

"Who is like unto Jehorah our God, who dwells on high?"

6. Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven, and in
the earth! It enables us to get some faint idea of the greatness of God
when we read that He has to humble Himself even to look at the things
in Heaven, perfect and spotless though they are!. Dr. Watts truly
sings–

"The lowest step around Your seat

Rises too high for Gabriel's feet!

In rain the tall archangel tries

To reach Your height with wondering eyes." All the faculties of all the
angels cannot comprehend the Infinite! When the Lord looks down to us,
how much He must humble Himself! If He humbles Himself to see the
things in Heaven which are clear and pure, what humility is required
that He may look upon the things on the earth!

7, 8. He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of
the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with the, princes
of His people. Have you never noticed that in all these joyous songs to
God, there is almost always one of these notes–that God abases the
proud and exalts the humble? This was the basis of Hannah's song. And
it was the pith and marrow of Mary's Magnificat–"He has put down the
mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree." This
wonderful turning of things upside down. This withering of the green
tree and making the dry tree to flourish. This killing that which lives
and quickening that which is dead. This emptying of the full, and
filling of the empty. This casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting the poor out of the dust! This is always one of the highest
reasons for exulting joy. What a Truth of God there is for you and for
me tonight, if we feel ourselves to be spiritually so poor that the
dunghill is no offense to us because we feel ourselves to be even more
offensive than the filthy things that are cast away by men! What a
mercy it is that the Lord "lifts the needy out of the dunghill that He
may set Him with princes, even with the princes of His people"!

9. He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother
of children. Praise you the LORD. Does your soul feel barren? May the
Lord grant unto it an abundant fruitfulness! Looking back upon the past
year, perhaps you have had many barren times, or times that you have
thought to be barren. If you are a minister of the Gospel, I should not
wonder if those have been your most fruitful seasons. When you have
been most empty, God has been pleased to feed the people through you. O
dear Brothers and Sisters, those very times of spiritual experience
which are most humiliating and most painful are often the most
soul-enriching to us–and they also bring the greatest glory to God!
Now we will read a New Testament story in order that we may see how
some men did not praise the Lord as they should have done. You will
find the narrative in the 17th Chapter of the Gospel according to Luke,
at the 11th verse.

Luke 17:11. And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He
passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. There is but One of
whom we will think tonight–our Divine Lord who was on His way to
Jerusalem. Passing along the frontiers of Samaria and Galilee, He had
the Jews on one side of Him and the Samaritans on the other. He took a
middle course, as if to show how He was going up to the New Jerusalem
loaded with blessings for the Jews on one side, and Gentiles on the
other.

12. And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men
that were lepers. Oh, the abundance of human misery that met the
Savior's eye–"ten men that were lepers"! I was reading only yesterday
of what happened in Westminster, many years ago. When the king went
along the highway there were crowds of poor lepers on either side of
the road–a shocking sight to see in this dear land of ours–and the
king, in his tender mercy, simply passed a law that the lepers should
not come near the road again to shock his gracious majesty with their
misery! That is all he had to do for them. But our glorious King
treated lepers very differently–"There met Him ten men that were
lepers."

12. Which stood afar off. The rule was that they should never come upon
the public road, or near the highway, lest the disease should be taken
by others who might come near them.

13. And they lifted up their voices. Not much of voices were they
likely to have, for the leprosy dries the throat and the voice is low
and husky. And when lepers cry, "Unclean, unclean," it is an awfully
sad sound, but very weak. These ten lepers lifted up their poor voices.

13. And said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! They raised a plain cry
and the whole ten of them had to lift up their voices before they could
be well heard.

14. And when He saw them. Even before He heard them, He saw their
pitiable condition.

14. He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. That is all
Jesus said to the lepers–"Go show yourselves unto the priests." They
were not to go to the priests till they were clean, for the priests
could not heal them. It was the healed man who went to the priests to
get a certificate that he was healed, and so might mingle in society
again. It was a strange message, then, that the Savior gave to these
lepers–"Go show yourselves unto the priests." And oh, the faith of
these men! With only this shell of a promise, as it were, they cracked
it and found a promise inside it, for they said to themselves, "He
would not send us to the priests for nothing! He would not mock our
misery! He must mean to heal us!" And, therefore, away they went. A
grand faith this! You are to come to Christ before you feel any Grace
in yourself! You are not to wait until you feel you are healed and then
come to Him! Come just as you are, without any sense of Grace, or any
kind of feeling within you that is worth having. Come just as you are!

14. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. As the
sinner believes he is saved. As a man begins to go towards the
Savior–the Savior's Grace meets him.

15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed. They all saw that
they were healed and they all must have felt extremely glad. Oh, the
happiness of feeling the hot blood cooled and full health taking the
place of languor and disease!

15. Turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God. This was a sure
sign that he was healed, that he had his voice back–the disease had so
thoroughly gone that the sound, which seemed to hide away in his husky
throat, now came out clear and loud–like the stroke of a bell!

16. And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. When I
read these words just now, I thought, that is where I would like to be
and that is what I would like to do, all my life, to fall down–

"At His feet, giring Him thanks."

16. And He was a Samaritan. Ah, me! Nine of the seed of Israel were
ungrateful–and only one poor outcast Gentile was grateful to the Lord
for the miracle of healing that had been worked!

17-19. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where
are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God,
save this stranger. And He said unto him, Arise, go your way: your
faith, has made you whole. May the Lord Jesus thus speak to many a
poor, leprous sinner here tonight! "Arise, go your way: your faith has
made you whole."