“Forget You, I Will Not”

"Forget You, I Will Not"

(No. 2384)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, OCTOBER 28, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 12, 1888.

"You are My servant: O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of Me."
Isaiah 44:21.

The idols said nothing to their worshippers. They had mouths, but they
spoke not. You might go on worshipping an image for 20 years, but you
would never get a reply to anything you said to it. It could not see
you, it could not hear you, it could not answer you. That is a poor
kind of worship! I do not think that I would care to go on worshipping
a Madonna even if she winked–one cannot make much out of a wink–we
need something more than that from the object of our adoration.

But God has spoken to His people! We have a Revelation from the one
living and true God. Jehovah has broken the eternal silences. He has
torn the veil behind which He was hidden and He has revealed Himself. I
believe this Book to be Inspired of God. I accept every word and every
jot and tittle of it as God's voice to me. He has spoken and the record
of what He has said is before me and I can rejoice in it. This was a
blessed speech when God said to His ancient people, "You are My
servant: O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of me."

I cannot, at this time, stop to make any preface, but I must speak to
you, first of all, upon the title which the Lord gives to His
people–"My servant." Secondly, I will remind you of the promise which
He makes to them–"You shall not be forgotten of Me." And then,
thirdly, I will give you some reasons which assure us that His promise
must and will be kept.

I. First then, dear Friends, here is THE TITLE WHICH THE LORD GIVES TO
HIS PEOPLE–"My servant."

Notice what a practical title it is–"My servant." It has to do with
action and service. It has to do with the heart, but also with the
hands, with the inner and with the outer life. There is no true
Christian but the practical Christian. The merely doctrinal professor
has only the dead logs of wood–there is no fire of devotion, there is
no warmth of fervor, there is nothing that is really worth having. The
man who talks about his experience as a Christian, who never does
anything for Christ, is, I am afraid, only an idle dreamer! There must
be practical obedience to God from those who claim to be His servants.
A servant is not always at work, but a servant is always a servant and
always ready for work. I have known some servants who were very
particular about what work they did. If there was a little given them
to do that they thought was outside their special duty, they went about
it in a very grumbling humor. I do not call such a person as that a
servant! But the Lord's servants belong entirely to Him, they are His
property, their time and talents are wholly at His disposal, their
whole mind and heart and soul are subservient to His will. Let Him say,
"Do this," and they do it. Let Him say, "Go there," and there they go.

I want you, dear Hearers, to ask yourselves, "Are we servants of God?"
Are not some of you servants of sin? Are not others of you servants of
self, servants of the world, servants of the devil? Well, there is
nothing comforting in the text for you! There is nothing comforting in
the whole Bible for you while you remain as you are! You must quit that
evil service. You must, by Divine Grace, become servants of God! But I
know that I am speaking to some who are the servants of the Lord and
who wish that their service was more perfect than it is. The will is
present with you–with hearty goodwill you wear the golden yoke of
Christ and you desire that every member of your body, and every faculty
of your soul, may be yielded up to Him–for that is your reasonable
service.

That is the first point, then, this is a practical title, "My servant."

Notice, also, that in the text it is a personal title. The Lord says,
"Fou are My servant." There were a great many who were not God's
servants. Multitudes of people were the servants of those idol gods of
theirs, which they had made with their compass and their rule, their
line and their plane. Poor things–the servants of a piece of wood! It
must be beggarly service to serve that which you, yourself, have made!
But God says to each one of His people, "You are My servant." Would the
Lord Jesus go round this Tabernacle, and stop in front of each of you,
and say, "You are My servant. Do not judge your fellow-worshippers, nor
try to find out whether this man or that may is My servant. You,
yourself, are my servant"? Oh, would not some of us, if our Master
would do this, just leap to our feet, take hold of His hand, and say,
"Lord, it is so. Brand us as your slaves, for we would gladly bear in
our body the marks of the Lord Jesus. We would let all men know that,
indeed, we are Your servants"? Will you just turn your thoughts away
from this great crowd? I am trying to do so, that I may take to myself
the personal title, "You are My servant." Will you, each one
individually, either allot to yourself these words of the Lord, "You
are My servant," or else honestly put them on one side as not belonging
to you?

Next, notice that, as the title is a practical and personal one, so it
is an exclusive title. "You are My servant. These other people are
servants of Baal or Ashtaroth; but you are My servant." When a man has
a servant, he expects him to serve him, and not to be in the employ of
other people. God's servants must serve God–not idols, not the world,
not self, not sin, not Satan. "You are My servant." When you get up
tomorrow morning and begin to light the fire, and prepare the
breakfast, it is true that you will be your earthly master's servant,
but, as you commune with your God, hear Him saying to you, "You are My
servant." When you take down the shutters, to begin the business of the
day, hear a voice saying to you, across the counter, "You are My
servant." You will live better, you will serve better, it will put a
glory about your actions if you can know and feel that you are truly
serving God!

"You are My servant." I can tell you that this passage has very greatly
comforted me. One has said, "You are altogether wrong." Another has
said, "You are very bigoted," and so on. "Yes," I have answered, "but I
am not your servant. I am not responsible to you. And if my Master is
satisfied with me, I am satisfied with His satisfaction." Certainly I
am not going to be the servant of men, to put my neck under their feet
and do their bidding! Send your own slaves on your business! I shall
attend to my Lord's work, for I have only one Master to serve. I want
you tonight, and all the week, when the devil says, "Now here is a fine
chance for you to get rich very quickly, you can make a lot of money,"
just say to Him, "I am not your servant, and I cannot take your wages.
I can do nothing wrong in order to get gain, for I am the servant of
God."

And if, young man, there should come in your way, during the week, a
pleasurable vice which may seek to win you, flee from it! Say, "How can
I do this great wickedness and sin against God, for I am God's
servant?" "You are My servant, not the servant of anybody else." Hold
your heads up! Be not ashamed! He is a free man whom God has made to be
His servant. "You have loosed my bonds," said David, after he had said,
"I am Your servant." "I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid.
You have loosed my bonds. By the very fact of taking me into Your
service, You have made me a free man."

Note, next, that as this is an exclusive title, so it is an honorable
title. I will not dwell upon that fact, but it must be so, for God uses
the title in this verse twice over. He says, "You are My servant: I
have formed you; you are My servant." It is a greater honor to be the
Lord's servant than to be an earl or a duke, a prince or a king! To
serve God is truly to reign. My dear Friends, is this high dignity
yours? Never mind about earthly stars and garters–this is the highest
degree that you can take–the highest honor that you can win in earth
or Heaven–to be the servant of the ever-blessed

God!

Once more, this is a title of acceptance. As God says, twice over, "You
are My servant," He means by this, "I accept you as My servant; I
acknowledge you as such." What a grand thing it will be if, at the Last
Great Day, God is able to acknowledge us as His servants! He will do so
if He can accept us now. Do you not, sometimes, have a servant in your
employment to whom you say, "Really, I cannot keep you any longer. The
sooner that you are gone, the better"? One does not care to have some
people for servants. Now and then a man pleads that he cannot get any
work and begs you to employ him. You give him a broom and set him to
sweep a path, and he sweeps it in such a way that he makes your flesh
creep, and you pretty soon sweep him out. You would be ashamed to have
anybody know that he was a servant of yours. But when God says, "You
are My servant: you are My servant," it means that He is not ashamed of
us!

Brothers and Sisters, we are often ashamed of ourselves when God is not
ashamed of us. He overlooks a thousand imperfections and it is well for
us that He does, for who among us can serve God perfectly? I have
sometimes known Christian people, who were doing a good work for God,
get quite down-hearted because they found somebody else doing a larger
work. Oh, do not envy your brethren who have more service than you
have! I daresay that they almost envy you, and think how nicely they
could do the work that you have to do. One said to me, the other day,
when I had preached, and preached in what I thought to be a very poor
way, too, "I feel as if, after hearing you, I cannot preach again." "Oh
dear," I said, "if you knew what I thought of the sermon, you would
feel very differently! You would think that anybody could preach better
than that."

I often think that anybody can preach better than I can till I sit and
hear them, and then I say to myself, "Well, after that, I will try
again." But, dear Friends, whether we think we fail, or others think we
fail, how little does it matter if the Lord says, "You are My servant:
you are My servant. It was a poor sermon, dear One, but you are My
servant. That work was very poorly done when you visited the sick, but
you did it with all your heart. You are My servant. You are not a very
brilliant teacher for that class of yours, but you love your scholars,
and you love your God. You are My servant"? He does, as it were, pat
you on the back, and say, "You are My servant. Go on with your work for
Me. I will acknowledge you, I intend to bless you. You are My servant."

One reason why we are God's servants is that He has forgiven us our
trespasses. Shall I read to you, again, the next verse to my text? "You
are My servant. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins." Is not that a reason why we
should serve Him? Forgiven sins should bind us to His service with
bands stronger than steel! We can never run away from Him who has
pardoned such grave faults as we have committed! Then He adds, "I have
redeemed you," and in the 24th verse He goes on to say, "The Lord has
redeemed Jacob." Oh, we must serve Him who has redeemed us! If He has
bought us, we are not our own–we belong to Him–and we must spend and
be spent in His service. And then the Lord says, "Jehovah has redeemed
Jacob and glorified Himself in Israel." Well, if He has been able to
get any Glory out of us, we will keep on serving Him! What a marvelous
God He must be to glorify Himself in such poor wretches as we are! But
as He does so, we will continue in so Divine a service while life shall
last and then we will serve Him forever above!

Thus have I spoken upon the title which the Lord gives to His
people–"My servant."

II. Now, secondly, comes a sweet part of the subject, THE PROMISE WHICH
HE MAKES TO US–"You shall not be forgotten of Me."

Men forget us, do they not? And they turn against us. Those for whom
you do the most are often those who will be most unkind and most bitter
against you. I will not speak as I might, but I know and I have felt,
and I daresay that you know, and that you have felt, in your measure,
too, that, "cursed is he that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm."
The whole of mankind put together in the scales are lighter than
vanity–there is no use in trusting in them at all! But God says, "You
shall not be forgotten of Me." Remember those comforting words that we
sang just now–

"Forget you I will not, I cannot. Your name Engraved on My heart does
forever remain! The palms of My hands while I look on, I see The wounds
I received when suffering for thee."

What does this promise mean? It means, first, that God will never cease
to love His servants. If you are His servants, He loved you before the
world began! He still loves you and He will love you, world without
end. "You shall not be forgotten of Me." Do not dream that God can cast
away His people! We are members of the body of Christ–do you think
that Christ will ever lose any of the members of His body? I should not
like to lose my little finger and Christ will not lose one of the
members of His body. You would think, according to the teaching of
some, that Christ's members keep dropping off, something like the limbs
of lobsters, and that new ones were constantly growing! There is
nothing in Scripture to warrant such a notion as that!

Do you remember Mr. Bunyan's parable of a child, who is in a room, and
a stranger comes in and says, "Come here, child, I will cut off your
finger." "No," says the child. "Yes, but I will. I will take off your
little finger. Here is a knife, I will cut off your little finger."
"No," says the child again, and he begins to cry. "Oh but," says the
stranger, "that is a poor little finger that you have! I will take it
off and I will buy you a gold finger, such a brave gold finger, and I
will put it on your hand instead of your little finger." "Oh," says the
child, "but it would not be my finger! I cannot lose my own

finger." Whereupon Mr. Bunyan says, "If Christ could have better people
than those He has, He would not make the change, 'For,' says He, 'they
are not My people; they are not a part of My own living Self."' So, the
Lord Jesus would not change you for a golden saint, for one much better
than you are! That new finger would not be what the Father gave Him,
nor what He bought with His precious blood. "You shall not be forgotten
of Me," means that God will never cease to love His servants.

Next, it means that the Lord will never cease to think of His servants.
The thoughts of God are wonderful! He can think of every individual
saint as much as if there were no other saint in the universe! He never
leaves off thinking of each one of His people. The Divine mind is
distinctly set on you, Brother, on you, Sister, and it is never taken
off from you. If God were to cease to think of us for five minutes, in
that five minutes we might be ruined–but He never forgets us and,
consequently, there shall be no part of our body without its armor, and
no portion of our time without a sentinel set to watch over us every
single moment of it! Listen to the Lord's promise about His vine–"I
the Lord keep it. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I
will keep it night and day." God will never leave off thinking of you
as well as loving you!

Next, the Lord will never cease to befriend His servants. God's
thoughts are always practical. The gifts of His hands go with the
thoughts of His mind. Our text means, "You shall not be forgotten of Me
in the distribution of My benefits." The Lord will not cease to give
you bread, water and garments. His Providence shall always take care of
you. Remember the passage we read at this morning's service, "The Lord
is my Shepherd; I shall not want"? He will never cease to bestow upon
you the blessings of His Grace. He will go on to pardon you, to guide
you, to teach you, to strengthen you, to lead you until you shall be in
His glorious Presence without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing! "I,
Jehovah, will not forget you. You shall not be forgotten of Me."

I think I hear some dear child of God crying, "I was afraid that the
Lord had forgotten me the other day." It is you who had forgotten Him!
"Oh, but I thought surely that He had cast me off!" What right had you
to think anything of the kind? Will the Lord cast off His people? Will
He be faithful no more? Shame on you that you should think He could or
would act in such a fashion! "But, oh, I am so little and so feeble!"
Are there any of His saints that are not just the same? "Oh, but I am
so unworthy!" And pray, what child of God does not have to make the
same confession? The Lord says, "You shall not be forgotten of Me," and
He will stand to it! Depend upon it and you shall share with the rest
of His people in the high privileges of the Covenant of His Grace. He
will not cease to love you, nor cease to think of you, nor cease to
befriend and benefit you. With John Newton, you may sing–

"His love in time past forbids me to think He'll leave me at last in
trouble to sink. Each sweetEbenezerI ha ve in review Confirms His good
pleasure to help me quite through."

Once more, the Lord will not cease to commune with His people. Whenever
you desire to commune with Him, He is ready to meet you. Knock at His
door–the servant will not say that He is not at home, for He waits to
be gracious. Have you been slipping away from your God of late? Come
back to Him, come back at once. The Lord Jesus Christ has rebuked you
for your Laodicean lukewarmness, but, after having said some hard words
about you, how does He finish? "Behold, I stand at the door and knock:
if any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him,
and will sup with him, and he with Me." He will take supper with you,
tonight, if you are willing. O dear child of God, this is the cure for
your lukewarmness, for the Lord to come to you and have high fellowship
with you–and He is waiting for that communion! "You shall not be
forgotten of Me."

I do not feel that I need say any more upon this promise; but I should
like everyone who is a Christian to take it home. "Fou shall not be
forgotten of Me." Perhaps, in a few days, you will be lying upon the
bed of pain. The Lord bids me say to you in preparation for that
affliction, "You shall not be forgotten of Me." Or, possibly, during
this week, you will have a very serious loss in business that will
occasion you a great staggering unless, as you read this promise to
yourself, you say, "But the Lord has said, You shall not be forgotten
of Me." Dear children of God, you never know what trouble or alarm is
coming, only you have often proved the truth of Mr. Bunyan's quaint
ditty–

"A Christian man is never long at ease

When one fright's gone, another does him seize."

Therefore, be ready for anything, be ready for everything! You will be
prepared for whatever may come if you remember this promise, "You are
My servant: you shall not be forgotten of Me." The Lord will help you,
He will help you right through, He will help you even to the end. Fall
back upon this precious promise, "You shall not be forgotten of Me." I
wish that I could put this passage, like a wafer made of honey, under
every tongue where the mouth is full of bitterness, so that you might
suck at it and get the sweetness out of it, and so say to yourself, "I
shall be happy, yet, and happy, come what may, for the Lord will not
forget me!"

III. My last work at this time is to mention SOME REASONS WHICH ASSURE
US THAT GOD WILL NOT FORGET THOSE WHO ARE TRULY HIS SERVANTS.

I should say, first of all, that the very best reason is that He says
He will not forget us. As He says, "You shall not be forgotten of Me,"
then, He cannot forget us! He is God who cannot lie and His every Word
of Grace is worthy of our utmost confidence. You remember what a boy
said about his mother? "How do you know it is true, Jack?" asked one.
"Mother said so," answered the lad. "Well, but that is no reason at
all." "Yes," he said, "it is. It is the best reason of all, for if
Mother says so, it is so if it is not so." That is the way for a boy to
trust in his mother's word–what she said must be true, her son would
not believe that it could be otherwise! We have just to trust in God
like that–it is so for He says it! "You shall not be forgotten of Me."
We cannot tolerate a doubt as to the Truth of what the Lord says.

But the next reason is this, God cannot forget us since He has made us.
The former part of the verse says, "You are My servant: I have formed
you." The Lord has fashioned us–not merely in the common way in which
others of His creatures have been formed, but upon the wheel of Grace
He has made us revolve like the clay in the potter's hand! With His own
fingers He has made us into vessels of mercy so He cannot forget us. I
think I have heard that before the siege of Paris, Gustave Dore had
nearly finished one of his greatest paintings, one of the finest
pictures which has ever been produced. Having to flee from the city,
all of a sudden, as the Germans were coming up, he hid his picture in a
cellar, down under a heap of rubbish.

When the siege was over, Dore came back to Paris and, of course, when
he returned he had forgotten all about his picture, had he not? Not he!
He had taken too much trouble with it to forget it. He knew the value
of it and he remembered where he had put it. He did not have to go up
and down the house and say to the people, "Do you know where my picture
is?" No, he never forgot where he had, himself, put it, so he found it
where he had hidden it, brought it out to the light of day and finished
it! Now, in a far higher sense than that, God will have respect unto
the work of His own hands. The very bodies of the saints, though they
are hidden away for a while in the rubbish of the earth, He will fetch
out and He will complete the work of Grace which He has begun upon each
one of them! The Lord having formed us to be His servants, we shall not
be forgotten of Him!

A further reason is that He has blessed us. He has blessed us so much,
already, that He cannot, now, forget us. If you needed persons to love
you, perhaps you would set to work to do them a kindness. Very good and
very proper. But you may be beaten over that plan. As a matter of
selfish prudence I would suggest to you that you had better let them do
you a kindness, and then they will be bound to you forever! A boy
forgets his mother's love–alas–it is often so, but the mother never
forgets the kindness she has shown to her son, because she has done so
much for him. The persons you love best are not those who have done
most for you, but those for whom you have done the most. If I should
bind God to me by anything I can do for Him, I should feel that the
ties would be very feeble ones, but when God binds Himself to me by His
blessings and mercies, it is another thing, for then the ties are
Divinely strong! I say, then, that God has blessed us, and He has done
so much for us that He cannot leave off loving us. "You shall not be
forgotten of Me."

Again, the Lord will not forget us, because He has loved too long
already. I was talking with an old saint this week– once a renowned
preacher of the Gospel–who is now some 84 years of age. He shook my
hands and he said, "I am with you, my Brother, I am with you, my
Brother. I know what the contention is and I am on your side, heart and
soul." Then he added, "You and I have known the Lord too long to run
after this new trumpery." And it is so–you get so bound to the old
Truths of God that you cannot give them up! You grow to love the Gospel
so fervently that you cannot renounce it! Well, now, the effect that
such love has upon us is still more clearly seen in God. He has loved
us so long that He cannot forget us. How long has He loved you? "Oh,"
you say, "it is about 10 years since I was converted." Well, but did
not the Lord love you before that? Did not our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ die for you before you were converted?

"Oh, I see!" you say, "then He has loved me more than 1,800 years." But
did He not purpose and plan that Christ should die for you before the
world began? Was there ever a time when the redeemed of the Lord were
not written on the heart of Christ? He loved you before the first star
began to dart its golden arrows through the darkness of space! Rest
secure, then! Love so ancient will never die out!

Further, the Lord must continue to love us. He cannot forget us, for we
have cost Him so much. Oh, how much we have cost our Lord! "By Your
agony and bloody sweat," by the scourging and the spitting, by the
false accusations and the ridicule, by the nails, the vinegar, the
spear, that bitter cry, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani," by Your sorrow,
even unto death–by all this, Lord Jesus, You have bought us! These are
the travail pangs of our spiritual birth and He, by whom all those
agonies were borne, can never forget us! In us He sees of the travail
of His soul and He is satisfied. Look at His hands, look at His side,
look at His feet–there are the records of the costly price that He
paid down for our re-demption–and they are the pledge that He cannot
let us be forgotten!

Besides, Beloved, if we had no other reason for thinking that we should
not be forgotten of God, if we are His servants, we know that He is too
good a Lord to cast us out. He is a wretch of a man who casts off an
old servant simply because he is old. Yet many, when they grow old and
feeble, find that their masters want to get rid of them. A young fellow
has given all his life, ever since he was 15, to a firm in the city,
and when he gets over 60, the employers think to themselves, "A nice
brisk young man will be better in the place of old Jones," and they
pick some little hole in him and off he goes–to the workhouse, for all
they care, as a general rule. "Ah, but," says the Lord, "you shall not
be forgotten of Me." He does not turn His old servants adrift–for He
says, "Even to your old age, I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I
carry you."

In olden times, and I am afraid it is still so, masters have been known
to get rid of their servants when they have been ill. What did the
Amalekite do with the young Egyptian? David found him left behind in
the field and he said that his master was an Amalekite, and left him
because he fell sick. Ugh! So they still say of their sick servants,
"We must get rid of them! They are not strong enough to do their work."
But our Lord never forgets His servants when they are ill. Then He is
more near, more dear, more tender, more considerate than ever! "You
shall not be forgotten of Me, O My servant!" Sick and sad, yes, and
sinful, and worn out, yet still we shall not be forgotten of our Lord!
Young man, enter the service of this blessed Master! You will never rue
it. I love my Master and I would like to see you in His blessed
employment. It is always a sign that a man has a good master when He
would like to see his own boys in the same service, and I can truly say
that nothing gives me so much joy as to think that both my sons are in
the same service as I am in!

Sons of godly parents, may God put you in the same service as your
fathers are in! Daughters of holy mothers, I do pray that your mother's
God may be your God! There is no service like our Master's. If the Lord
were a hard master, tyrannical, changeable, unkind, ungenerous,
austere–if He discharged His servants right and left, for this fault
and for that, or because they grew feeble and faulty–well then, I
think I would stand here and tell you the truth about Him, and urge you
not to think of entering His employment! But oh, He is a blessed
Master, therefore I can plead with you to be His servant and I can
assure you that you shall never be forgotten of Him!

This morning [Sermon #2039, Volume 34–Crossing the Jordan] I spoke
about being on the verge of Jordan. When you are about going into
Heaven, passing over that last stream, dear child of God, you shall not
be forgotten! The Lord will be very near you, then–He will especially
help you in your dying moments.

I cannot at all make out how you who are without a God get on,
especially you poor people. With no comfort in this world, with nothing
worth living for, here, how can you exist without a good hope for the
hereafter, without a Savior to trust in, without a God to run to for
protection, as the chicks run to the hen? And you rich people, how can
you do without a God? What is to become of you? You will have to lose
all that you have and over you it will be said, "Ashes to ashes, and
dust to dust." Members of parliament, or whoever you may be, you will
have to go down to the worms, like other people. What a horrible thing
for you, Dives, to be dragged down with all your scarlet and fine linen
on, and cast into Hell! You who have fared sumptuously every
day–denied even a drop of water to cool your burning tongue! What a
change for you! If the poor need a Savior, so do you, just as much! May
the Lord make both–rich and poor–to be His servants and then whisper
in the ear of each one of you, as you go down the Tabernacle steps
tonight, "You are My servant: you shall not be forgotten of me"!

God bless you all, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Isaiah 44:1-22.

Verses 1-2. Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have
chosen: thus says the LORD that made you, and formed you from the womb,
which will help you; Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and you, Jeshurun,
whom I have chosen. God cannot bear His people to be sad, He delights
to drive away fear, trembling and mistrust. He loves faith, for faith
brings confidence, hope, rest. So He says to us, "Fear not, fear not,
be not afraid." It is God Himself who made us, and who chose us, who
says to us, "Do not fear." Come, dear Hearts, lay aside your
disquietude. If God bids you cast away fear, will you not do it?
Nothing hushes a babe to sleep like its mother's voice. Let God's voice
hush you into sweet and blessed calm whenever you are troubled and full
of fear.

3. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the
dry ground. God will never do anything by halves. He will not only send
rain, but the waters shall pour down from the sky. He will not merely
moisten the surface of the dry ground, He will send floods to saturate
it. God is great in giving His Grace. When once you reach the region of
Grace, you have entered the region of plenty, even the riches of God's
unspeakable Grace. If, dear Friends, you have at this time no spiritual
power, unction, favor and love, you may have it, for here is the Lord's
own promise–"I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods
upon the dry ground."

3. I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your
offspring. Is that your great burden–trouble about your boy? Does your
dear girl grieve you? Well, He who blesses the father and the mother
will bless the children– the God of Abraham is the God of Isaac! Pray
that this promise may be fulfilled to you, that your seed may get a
share of that Spirit of Grace which has been given to you.

4. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water
courses. You can track a stream by the willows. Standing on a hill and
looking down the valley, you can tell where the little brook winds, for
there are the willows. So shall it be with your children–they shall
spring up by the waters of Grace, and be a joy and a blessing.

5. One shall say, I am the Lord's. That is the brave son who comes out
boldly and avows his faith. "One shall say, I am the Lord's."

5. And another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. That is the one
who goes and joins the Church and does not say much about it, but he
has united himself with the Lord's people. "And another shall call
himself by the name of

Jacob."

5. And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname
himself by the name of Israel. He cannot speak much, but he can write.
He is not so bold as the others, perhaps, but he is quite as true.
"Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord." It does not so
much matter how our children are converted so long as they really are
con-verted–and as to the particular way in which they join the
Church–we have only to bid them seek the guidance of God's Word and
His Spirit and follow wherever They lead! Pray earnestly, dear Friends,
that the Lord will bless your children. I thank God that most of the
members of the Church known to me, have their children saved. There are
many families that are altogether in the Church. There are others which
have not that privilege, yet, but, dear Friends, you may have it! Ask
believingly, act faithfully, watch hopefully and you shall see it
joyfully before long.

6, 7. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord
of Hosts, I am the First, and I am the Last, and beside Me there is no
God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in
order for Me, since I appointed the ancient peoples and the things that
are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them. Jehovah challenges
the idol gods to utter a prophecy! Let them tell the future if they
can, but they cannot. Prophecy is always the mark of the one living and
true God!

8-11. Fear you not, neither be afraid: have not I told you from that
time, and have declared it? You are even My witnesses. Is there a God
beside Me? Yes, there is no god; I know not any. They that make a
graven image are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall
not profit, and they are their own witnesses, they see not, nor know;
that they may be ashamed. Who has formed a god, or molten a graven
image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be

ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered
together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be
ashamed together. Well they may. Men who pretend to make a god ought to
be ashamed.

12. The smith with the tongs both works in the coals, and fashion it
with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. What irony!
Making god with hammers and bellows!

12. Yes, he is hungry, This god-maker is hungry!

12. And his strength fails: he drinks no water, and is faint. The
god-maker is getting faint. There is a sarcasm about this description
which ought to convince the most blind devotees of an idol!

13. The carpenter stretches out his rule, he marks it out with a line;
he fits it with planes, and he marks it out with the compass, and makes
it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it
may remain in the house. A god in the house! A god shut up in a room! A
god that has been made with compasses and planes! How ridiculous it
seems!

14. He hews him down cedars, and takes the cypress and the oak, which
he strengthens for himself among the trees of the forest: he plants an
ash, and the rain does nourish it. The raw material for a god is an
ash, a watery tree–"The rain does nourish it."

15-17. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take, thereof,
and warm himself; yes, he kindles it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a
god, and worships it, he makes it a graven image, and falls down
thereto. He burns part thereof in the fire; with part thereofhe eats
flesh; he roasts roast, and is satisfied: yes, he warms himself, and
says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: and the residue thereof he
makes a god. Oh, the folly of idolatry! Perhaps you do not see your own
folly, you who are worshipping yourselves! A man who worships his belly
is a worse idolater than the one who worships a god of wood! A man who
worships gold and silver, if that gold and silver should take the shape
of sovereigns and shillings, is not a bit more justified in his
idolatry than if he had made it into the shape of a calf and had bowed
before it in idolatrous homage and reverence!

17-20. Even his graven image: he falls down unto it, and worships it,
andprays unto it, and says, Deliver me; for you are my god. They have
not known nor understood: for He has shut their eyes, that they cannot
see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considers
in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I
have burned part of it in the fire; yes, also I have baked bread upon
the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make
the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a
tree? He feeds on ashes. Mad people have been known to do even that,
they have thrust cinders into their mouths–and this is what everybody
does who is not trusting in the living God. "He feeds on ashes."

20, 21. A deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver
his oath, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these,
O Jacob and Israel. Think of these false gods and be ashamed of them!

21, 22. For you are My servant: I have formed you; you are My servant:
O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of Me. I have blotted out, as a
thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud, your sin: return unto
Me; for I have redeemed you. These wooden gods have done nothing of the
sort. Come back to the true God and worship Him–/and be happy in His
love.