A Call To Worship

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 20, 1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go
speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will
go also." Zechariah 8:21.

THIS prophecy may relate to the Jews, literally, and it is referred to
by their learned doctors as to the days of the Messiah. We believe,
also, that it refers to the days of the Messiah and we look for times
when again the Holy Land shall be fully inhabited and the people shall
rejoice to meet together to worship the Lord their God. We do not see,
however, that this prophecy has yet been accomplished, and we look for
it to be fulfilled in the latter days. Spiritually it teaches just
this, that when God returns to bless His Church there are certain signs
and marks of His return. Just as the coming back of the sun when he
advances north of the Equator and again cheers us with his warmth, is
marked by the springing up of flowers and the singing of birds, so the
return of God's Holy Spirit to bless His Church is marked by certain
signs and tokens.

The text tells us what those signs and tokens are, but before I mention
them, let me suggest that every Believer should pray that these
cheering indications may be manifest in our midst–that in these, our
days, the Lord may return unto His Jerusalem and be jealous for her
with a great jealousy–that we may see glad seasons such as our fathers
have told us of, which happened in their days and in the olden times
before them. As far as shall lie in the ability of any one of us, may
we help towards such revivals by our prayers, by our efforts and by our
consistent obedience to the Gospel. And may the Lord visit us according
to the desire of our hearts.

I. One of the first signs of God's Presence among a people is that THEY
TAKE GREAT INTEREST IN DIVINE WORSHIP. "The inhabitants of one city
shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the
Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts." It is clear from this that they
no longer despise assemblies for worship and no longer count Divine
service to be a weariness. On the contrary, they begin to value the
means of Grace and desire to make good use of them. The first solemn
assembly mentioned here is the Prayer Meeting and certainly one of the
surest tokens of a visitation of God's Spirit to a community is their
delighting to meet for prayer.

The first cry of the people mentioned in our text was, "Let us go
speedily to pray before the Lord." It is no statement of mine,
suggested by unreasonable zeal, but it is the result of long-continued
observation when I assert that the condition of a Church may be very
accurately gauged by its Prayer Meetings. If the spirit of prayer is
not with the people, the minister may preach like an angel, but he
cannot expect success. If there is not the spirit of prayer in a Church
there may be wealth, there may be talent, there may be a measure of
effort, there may be an extensive machinery, but the Lord is not there.
It is a sure evidence of the Presence of God that men pray as the
rising of the thermometer is an evidence of the increase of the
temperature.

As the Nilometer measures the rising of the water in the Nile, and so
foretells the amount of harvest in Egypt, so is the Prayer Meeting a
"Graceometer," and from it we may judge of the amount of Divine working
among a people. If God is near a Church it must pray. And if He is not
there, one of the first tokens of His absence will be slothfulness in
prayer. God's people, by their saying one to another, "Let us go
speedily to pray," manifest that they have a sense of their needs–they
feel that they need much, much that Nature cannot yield them–they feel
their need of Divine Grace, their need of quickening, their need of
God's help if sinners are to be converted. They feel their need of His
help if even those who are saved are to be steadfast–their need of the
Holy Spirit that they may grow in Grace and glorify God. He who never
prays surely does not know his own needs and how can he be taught of
the Lord at all? God's people are a people sensible of their needs and
therefore the absence of a sense of poverty is a sad token.

Moreover, the love which God's people have for prayer shows their
desire after heavenly things. Those who frequently meet together for
importunate, wrestling prayer, practically show that they desire to see
the Lord's Kingdom come. They are not so taken up with their own
business that they cannot afford time to think of God's business. They
are not so occupied with the world's pleasures that they take no
pleasure in the things of God. Believers in a right state of heart
value the prosperity of the Church and, seeing that it can only be
promoted by God's own hand, they cry mightily unto the Lord of Hosts to
stretch out His hand of mercy and to be favorable to His Church and
cause.

Church members who never pray for the good of the Church have no love
for it. If they do not plead for sinners they have no love for the
Savior and how can they be truly converted persons? Such as habitually
forsake the assembling of themselves together for prayer may well
suspect the genuine character of their piety. I am not, of course,
alluding to those who are debarred by circumstances, but I allude to
those who, from frivolous excuses, absent themselves from the praying
assemblies. How dwells the love of God in them? Are they not dead
branches of the vine? May they not expect to be taken away before long?
Earnest meetings for prayer, indeed, not only prove our sense of need
and our desire for spiritual blessings, but they manifest most our
faith in the living God, and our belief that He hears prayer, for men
will not continue in supplication if they do not believe that God hears
them. Sensible men would soon cease their prayers if they were not
convinced that there is an ear which hears their petitions. Who would
persevere in a vain exercise?

Our united prayers prove that we know that God is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We know that the Lord is
able to work according to our desires and that He is willing to be
entreated of us. I have never known a thirsty man by a well who would
not use the bucket which was there ready to hand unless, indeed, he was
of the opinion that the well was dry. I have never known a man who
wanted wealth and had a good trade, who would not exercise his trade.
And so I have never known a man who believed prayer to be really
effectual and felt his great needs who did not engage in prayer.

It is an ill token to any community of Christians when prayer is at a
low ebb, for it is clear evidence that they do not know their own
needs, they are not anxious about spiritual things and neither do they
believe that God will enrich them in answer to their petitions.
Beloved, may we never, as a Church, deserve censure for neglecting
prayer! Our meetings for prayer have excited general astonishment by
their number, but they are not all they might be. I shall put it to the
conscience of each one to say whether you are as prayerful as you
should be. Did you ever hear of a Church member who had not attended a
Prayer Meeting for a month? Do you know of Church members who never
assemble with the Brethren so much as once in a quarter of a year? Do
you know of any who have not been to a Prayer Meeting in this place for
the last six months? Do you know such?

I will not say I know any such. I will do no more than hint that such
people may exist. But ifyou know them will you give them my Christian
love and say that nothing depresses the pastor's spirit like the
absence of Church members from the public assemblies of prayer, and
that if anything could make him strong in the Lord, and give him
courage to go forward in the Lord's work, it would be if all of you
were to make the prayer meeting your special delight? I shall be
satisfied when I see our prayer meetings as crowded as the services for
preaching. And it strikes me if ever we are fully baptized into God's
Spirit, we shall arrive at that point. A vastly larger amount of prayer
ought to be among us than at present and if the Lord visits us
graciously He will set us praying without ceasing.

But next, these people also took an interest in meetings for
instruction. I find that the Chaldee translates the second sentence,
"Let us seek the doctrine of Jehovah of Hosts." The Lord's coming near
to any people will be sure to excite in them a longing to hear the
Word. God sends impulses of enquiry over men's minds and suddenly
places of worship become crowded which were half empty before.
Preachers, also, who were cold and dead become quickened and speak with
earnestness and life. No doubt waves of religious movement pass over
nations and peoples–and when God comes to a people the crest of that
wave will be seen in this form–that the kingdom of Heaven becomes an
object of interest and men press unto it!

During the revival under John the Baptist, the people went in crowds
into the wilderness to hear the strange preacher who bade them repent.
The revival under the Apostles was marked by their everywhere preaching
the Word and the people listening. This was the great token of the
Reformation–meetings were held under Gospel Oaks, out upon the commons
and away in lone houses–and in glens and woods men thronged to listen
to the Word of God! The professionals of popery were forsaken for the
simple preaching of the Truth of God! This also marked the last grand

revival of religion in our own country under Whitfield and Wesley. The
Word of the Lord was precious in those days. And whether the Gospel was
preached among the colliers of Kingswood or the rabble of Kennington
Common, tens of thousands were awakened and rejoiced in the joyful
notes of Free Grace.

Men loved to hear the Word–they said to one another, "Let us seek the
Lord." It is said that Moorfields would be full of light on a dark
winter's morning at five o'clock when Mr. Whitfield was to preach
because so many people would be finding their way to the rendezvous,
each one carrying a lantern. And so also over there in Zoar Street, in
Southwark, when Mr. John Bunyan was out of prison and was going to
preach, a couple of thousand would be assembled at five o'clock in the
morning to enjoy his honest testimony.

It is a token for good when people press to hear the Word. I think we
have in a measure the first token–a love for prayer, but we need far
more of it. As for the second token, namely, an earnest love for
listening to the Word of God, we have that in abundance. See you not
how the crowds rush in like a mighty torrent as soon as the doors are
open? Putting the two together, it seems that both these forms of
meeting were loved by the people because they sought salvation therein,
or as the margin has it, they, "entreated the face of the Lord." They
came to pray with a view to be saved! They came to hear preaching with
a view to Divine favor! They wanted reconciliation with God–they had
wandered from Him, but now they sought Him! They wanted fellowship with
God!

They had said to God, "Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of
Your ways." But now they said, "Reveal Yourself unto us, O God, as You
do not unto the world." They longed to promote God's Glory, even as
before they dishonored Him. Yes, when Prayer Meetings and Preaching
Meetings shall be attended with this end and object–that we may get
near to God and that we may glorify God–there shall be happy days,
indeed, for us! Master Fox in his, "Acts and Monuments," speaking of
the time when the Reformation was breaking out, uses language something
to this effect–"It was lovely to see their travels, earnest seeking,
burning zeal, Bible reading, watching, sweet assemblies, resort of one
neighbor to another for conference and mutual confirmation." And, he
adds, "All which may make us now to blush for shame in these, our days,
of free profession."

We may take the good man's hint and feel shame for neglected
opportunities, cold devotions and disregard of the Word of God. Our
fathers loved to meet for prayer and to hear the preaching of the Truth
of God. And when they came together it was with an intensely earnest
desire to obtain the Divine blessing. To get this they risked life and
liberty, meeting, even, when fine and imprisonment, or perhaps the
gallows might be their reward. O to see the like earnestness among
ourselves as to the means of Grace! May the Lord Jesus send it to us by
the working of His Holy Spirit.

II. Another sign of God's visiting a people in mercy is that THEY STIR
EACH OTHER UP TO ATTEND UPON THE MEANS OF GRACE, for "the inhabitants
of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray
before the Lord." That is to say, they did not merely ask one another
to go if they casually met. They did not bring in the subject
accidentally if they could do so readily in common conversation–but
the inhabitants of one city went to another on purpose to exhort them!
They made a journey about it. As men go to market, from town to town,
so did these people try to open a market for Christ–and not only one
messenger, but many of the inhabitants of one city went on purpose all
the way to another city, with set design, to induce them to join in
worship, saying, "Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord."

They put themselves out of the way to do it. They had such a desire
that great numbers might come together to worship the Most High that
they took much trouble to invite their neighbors. God will be with us,
indeed, if each one of us shall be anxious to bring others to Jesus,
and to that end shall try to bring them to hearken to the Word of God.
Why were these men so earnest? The reply will be, they persuaded others
to come to the meetings for worship out of love to God's House, to
God's cause, and to God Himself. God's House is honored and beautified
when great numbers come together. The ways of Zion do mourn and
languish when but few assemble for prayer. Christ has promised to be
where two or three are met together in His name. Still, it is not
helpful to comfortable fellowship for a mere handful to meet in a large
house. We feel like sparrows alone on the housetop when such is the
case.

A great space and only a sprinkling of people to occupy it is like a
big barn with only one bundle of straw in it–the winds howl in and out
of it very miserably. I am sure if any of you attend a place of worship
where there are very few beside yourselves, you must feel unhappy. And
if you do not, why surely your hearts cannot be in the right place.
Warm

hearts are not easily kept alive among empty pews. A coal must be very
lively to burn alone, but many glowing coals laid together help to keep
each other alight.

No one can doubt, moreover, that full houses give opportunity to the
preacher to glorify God. It is hopeful work to throw the net where
there are great shoals of fish. Where men are hearing, we may hope that
God will be blessing and therefore earnest Christians love to see the
aisles and seats crowded. Besides, God is glorified when great numbers
come together with earnest minds to celebrate His worship. In early
days, in the Jewish Church, the men of Israel did not come by twos and
threes and meet together in scant numbers, but from all parts of
Judea's land–north, south, east, and west–they came together in
companies, singing through the glades of the forest, singing through
the dells, and singing over the hills! And when they reached the city
of Jerusalem in their hundreds of thousands, their praise was a great
shout, like the voice of thunder and the smoke of their sacrifices rose
up in clouds to Heaven.

Those were grand days! Does not David seem to relish the service of the
Lord his God all the more because of the multitude that kept holy day?
Therefore the saints love to see many come to pray and to listen to the
Word of God because the multitude honors the house and God thus honors
God Himself. O Brothers and Sisters, we think the cause is sadly
declining when hearers are like the gleanings of the vintage, when
service time comes and sees vacant seats by the score because
professors shrink at the weather, or hunt up an excuse for staying at
home, being too idle, too indifferent to cross the threshold of their
houses unless some eloquent preacher or fresh comer shall attract them.
But we reckon that God's cause prospers when the people come joyfully
in their bands to listen to the Truth of God and God's Spirit applies
it to their hearts with power, leading them to prayer and praise.

Moreover, Believers love to bring others to the House of God because
they wish to do good to them. Did you ever notice how the little birds,
when they find a heap of corn, begin to chatter and twitter as if they
would call all the other birds to come and feast, also? Grace is
generous and is never akin to churlish Nabal. Misers would rather keep
all their wealth to themselves, but a man who is rich in faith feels
his happiness increased when others have faith, too! As soon as we
drink of the Water of Life, a sacred instinct within us bids us cry,
"Come." "Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters." He knows
not the Grace of God who has no desire that others should know it,
also. You will assuredly long for the souls of others if God has saved
your soul. Natural humanity, let alone our alliance to the Divine
Nature, leads us to bid others come to Christ.

Besides, the love of company in the Christian makes him invite his
neighbors to Gospel worship. Believers are like sheep in this among
other things, namely, that they are gregarious. A man who loves to keep
his religion to himself must surely be a stranger to the religion of
Christ! Communion is one of the sweetest joys of the spirit. Fellowship
with saints above will be one jewel of our everlasting crown and
fellowship with saints below is one of the sweetest cordials of our
mortal cares. "I went to the House of God in company," says David, as
if it made the house so much the sweeter to go in company with others
who went there. "I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the
House of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that
kept holy day." For the sake of communion we long to see many going
upon the heavenly pilgrimage.

Observe in our text there does not appear to have been any minister or
missionary employed to go from one city to another, and to say, "Let us
go and pray," but the inhabitants, themselves, undertook the duty of
invitation and persuasion, and said, "Let us go and pray unto the
Lord." The people, themselves, attended to mutual provocation to love
and to good works! How I wish they did so now! They did not wait for
the exhortations of one specially set apart to be a prompter and an
organizer. But their own hearts were so warm that they did it
spontaneously among themselves! My Brothers and Sisters, may you thus
be pastors to one another! There are far too many of you for me to look
after personally, therefore I pray you stir one another up to every
good word and work.

I believe that when a man stirs others up it is good for himself, for a
man cannot, in common decency, be very cold, himself, who bids others
be warm. He cannot, surely, unless he is an arrant hypocrite, be
negligent of those duties which he bids others attend to! Beloved, I
commit this charge to you, and then I have done with this point. This
morning I ask you to visit one another and to say, "Come, let us not as
a Church lose the Presence of God after nearly 20 years' enjoyment of
it. Let not our minister's hands grow weak by our neglect of prayer.
Let not the work of the Church flag through our indifference, but let
us make a brotherly covenant that we will go speedily to pray before
the Lord and seek the Lord of Hosts, that we may retain His Presence
and have yet more of it, to the praise of the glory of His Grace."

III. I must pass on to notice that it appears from our text that it is
a sure mark of God's visiting a people, when THEY ARE URGENT TO ATTEND
UPON THESE HOLY EXERCISES AT ONCE. The text says, "Let us go speedily
to pray," by which is meant, I suppose, that when the time came to
pray, they were punctual, they were not laggards. They did not come
into the assembly late. They did not drop in, one by one, long after
the service had begun–but they said, "Let us go speedily." They looked
up to their clocks and said, "How long will it take us to walk so as to
be there at the commencement? Let us start five minutes before that
time lest we should not be able to keep up the pace and should, by any
means, reach the door after the first prayer."

I wish late comers would remember David's choice. You remember what
part he wished to take in the House of God? He was willing to be a
doorkeeper and that not because the doorkeeper has the most comfortable
berth, for that is the hardest post a man can choose. But he knew that
doorkeepers are the first in and the last out and so David wished to be
first at the service and the last at the going away! How few would be
of David's mind! It has been said that Dissenters in years gone by
placed the clock outside the Meeting House so that they might never
enter late. But the modern Dissenters place the clock inside, that
their preachers may not keep them too long! There is some truth in the
remark, but it is not to our honor.

This was, however, a fault with our forefathers, for quaint old Herbert
said–"O be drest, stay not for th' other pin: why you have lost a joy
for it worth worlds." Let us mend our ways and say, one to another, in
the language of the text, "Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord."
Let us go with quick feet. If we go slowly to market, let us go quickly
to Prayer Meeting. If we are slow on week days, let us go quickly on
Sunday. Let us never keep Jesus Christ waiting and we shall do so if we
are not on time, for He is sure to be punctual, even if only two or
three are met together in His name. The expression, however, means more
than this. "Let us go speedily" means, let us go heartily–do not let
us crawl to prayer, but let us go to it as men who have something
before them which attracts them.

When the angels serve God they never do it as though they were half
asleep. They are all alive and burning like flames of fire. They have
six wings and, I guarantee you, they use them all! When the Lord says,
"Gabriel, go upon My bidding," he outstrips the lightning! O, to
exhibit some such ardor and zest in the service of God! If we pray, let
us pray as if we mean it! If we worship, let us worship with our
hearts. "Let us go speedily," and may the Lord make our hearts to be
like the chariots of Amminadib for swiftness and rapidity–glowing
wheels and burning axles may God give to our spirits–that we may never
let the world think we are indifferent to the love of Jesus. "Let us go
speedily."

The words, "Let us go speedily," mean–let us go at once, or instantly.
If any good thing has been neglected and we resolve to attend to it
better, let us do it at once. Revivals of religion–when is the best
time for them? Directly! When is the best time to repent of sin? Today!
When is the best time for a cold heart to grow warm? Today! When is the
season for a sluggish Christian to be industrious? Today! When is the
period for a backslider to return? Today! When is the time for one who
has crawled along the road to Heaven to mend his pace? Today! Is it not
always today?

And, indeed, when should it be? "Tomorrow," you say. Ah, but you may
never have it! And, when it comes, it will still be today. Tomorrow is
only in the fool's almanac–it exists nowhere else. Today! Today, let
us go speedily! I beseech the Church of God here to be yet more alive
and at once to wake up. Time is flying–we cannot afford to lose it.
The devil is wide awake, why should we be asleep? Error is stalking
through the land, evil influences are abroad everywhere! Men are dying,
Hell is filling, the grave is gorged and yet is insatiable–and the man
of destruction is not yet satisfied. Shall we lie down in wicked
satisfaction, yielding to base laziness? Awake, arise, you Christians!
Now, even now, lest it be said of you, "Curse you Meroz, says the Lord,
curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

I know we are all apt to think that we live in the most important era
of history and I admit that under certain aspects every day is a
crisis, but I claim liberty to say that there never was a period in the
world's history when Christian activity, and prayerfulness, and genuine
revival were more needed than just now. Where is our nation? Is it not
on the very verge of becoming, once again, a province of the Pope's
dominion? Are not the modern Pharisees compassing sea and land to make
proselytes? Does it not seem as if the people were gone mad upon their
idols and were altogether fascinated by the charms of the Whore of
Babylon, and drunken with her cup? Do you not see everywhere the old
orthodox faith forsaken, and men occupying Christian pulpits who do not
believe, but even denounce the doctrines which they have sworn to

defend?

Might I not say of Christendom in England, that "her whole head is sick
and her whole heart faint"? The daughter of Zion staggers in the street
for weakness–there is none to help her among all her sons–all her
friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her
enemies. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper. Her
Nazarites were purer than snow and their separation from the world was
known of all men–but now they are defiled with worldliness until they
are blacker than a coal! From the daughter of Zion her beauty is
departed. O you that love her, let your hearts sound as a harp for her!
O you that love her, weep day and night for her hypocrisy, for unless
the Lord returns unto her the time of her sore distress draws near.
Thus says the Lord, "Arise, cry out in the night season, pour out your
hearts like water before the Lord, and then the Lord will return and be
gracious to His inheritance."

IV. For a moment I shall call your attention to another point. When God
visits a people they will not only attend to prayer and preaching, and
stir each other up to do so at once, but THEY WILL HAVE A SPECIAL EYE
TO GOD IN THESE DUTIES. Observe, they shall say, "Let us go speedily to
pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts." Alas, many go to
religious meetings to be seen of men! I am afraid there is a great deal
too much exhibition of dress in some quarters, and there certainly
cannot be a greater abomination than to make the House of God a show
room for our finery. Jesus might say, "Take these things away. It is
written My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made
it an exhibition wherein to display yourselves."

Some go to worship because it is the custom and it would not be
respectable to stay away. "We must have a pew in Church, you know, or
we should be remarked upon in society." I am glad that people attend
Divine worship for any reason, but mere custom is a poor motive and is
no sign of Divine Grace. The people in the text did not say, "We will
go that we may see our neighbors, and that our neighbors may see us."
No, they went to "pray before the Lord." They did not assemble to seek
a man. They did not go to hear Mr. So-and-So preach. Of course they
would sooner hear one who preached all the Gospel and preached it
plainly, than another who preached half the Gospel and fired over their
heads. But, still, they looked through the man to the man's Master and
they did not think that the Master was tied up to any one man.

May we cultivate in our midst the desire to worship for God's sake, not
for the preacher's sake, whoever he may be. I believe it is not wrong
for a Christian man to feel that he is better fed by one minister than
by another and therefore to be most glad when God's servant is in the
pulpit. But if that feeling grows so that if he cannot hear his
favorite preacher he will stay at home, it is most mischievous. I thank
God that my Master has other preachers besides Paul. There is Apollos,
there is Cephas, and beyond these I see a great company of them that
publish the Good News. I will hear what God will speak through them. I
would have you note, Beloved, how different is my text from that formal
worship into which it is so easy to fall. "I have been to the Prayer
Meeting. I have done my duty and I can go home satisfied. I have taken
a seat at the Tabernacle and listened to two sermons on Sunday–I feel
I have done my duty."

Oh, dear Hearer! That is a poor way of living! I need a great deal more
than all that or I shall be wretched. At the Prayer Meeting I must see
God, I must pour out my soul before Him! I must feel that the spirit of
prayer has been there and that I have participated in it, otherwise
what was the good of my being there? I must, when in the assembly on
Sunday, find some blessing to my own soul! I must get another glimpse
of the Savior! I must come to be somewhat more like Him! I must feel my
sin rebuked, or my flagging Graces revived! I must feel that God has
been blessing poor sinners and bringing them to Christ! I must feel,
indeed, that I have come into contact with God, or else what is my
Sunday worth, and what is my having been in the assembly worth? If God
shall bless you, indeed, you will worship spiritually and you will
count nothing to be true worship which is not of the spirit and of the
heart and soul. May God quicken us all up to that point, and He shall
have the praise.

V. The last thing is this–it is a blessed sign of God's visiting a
people when EACH ONE OF THEM IS

RESOLVED, PERSONALLY, THAT HE WILL, IN A SPIRITUAL MANNER, WAIT UPON
GOD. Notice the last

four words. "I will go also." "Let us go speedily to pray before the
Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will go also." That is the
point–"I will go also." The Christian man should neither be content,
when he goes to worship, to leave others behind, nor should he be
content to drive others before him and stop behind himself. It is said
of Julius Caesar that he owed his victories to the fact that he never
said to his soldiers, "Go," but always said, "Let us go." That is the
way to win. Example is mightier than precept!

We read of the Pharisees of old that they laid burdens on other men's
shoulders, but they themselves did not touch them with one of their
fingers–true Christians are not so. They say, "I will go also." Was
not that bravely spoken of poor old Latimer, when he was to be burnt
with Ridley. Ridley was a younger and stronger man, and as he walked to
the stake, old Latimer, with his quaintness about him to the last,
cried to his Brother, Ridley, "Have after, as fast as my poor old legs
can carry me." The dear old saint was marching to his burning as fast
as he could–not at all loath to lay his aged body upon the altar for
his Lord! That is the kind of man who makes others into men–the man
who habitually says, "I will go also; even if I am called to be burned
for Christ. Whatever is to be done or suffered, I will go also."

I would be ashamed to stand here and say to you, "Brothers and Sisters,
pray. Brothers, preach. Brethren, labor," and then be an idler myself.
And you, also, would be ashamed to say to others, "Let us pray. Let us
be earnest," while you are not praying and not earnest yourselves.
Example is the backbone of instruction! Be, yourself, what you would
have others be and do, yourself, what you would have others do. "I will
go also," because I need to pray as much as anybody else. I will go to
hear the Word, for I need to hear it as well as others. I will go and
wait upon God, for I need to see His face. I will cry to Him for a
blessing, for I need a blessing. I will confess my sin before Him, for
I am full of sin. I will ask mercy through the precious blood of Jesus,
for I must have it or perish.

"I will go also." If nobody else will go, I will go. And if all the
rest go I will go also. I do not want to pledge any of you this
morning. I shall not, therefore, ask you to hold up your hands, but I
should like to put it very personally to all the members of this
Church. We have enjoyed the Presence and blessing of God for many years
in a very remarkable manner and it is not taken from us. But I am
jealous, I believe it is a godly jealousy and not unbelief–lest there
should be among us a slackness in prayer and a lack of zeal for the
Glory of God. I am fearful of a neglecting of the souls of our
neighbors, and a ceasing to believe to the full in our mission and in
the call of God to be, each one of us, in this world as Christ was,
saviors of others.

My Brothers and Sisters, knit together as we are in Church fellowship
and bound by common cords to one blessed Master, let each one say
within himself, "I will go also." The Church shall be the subject of my
prayer. The minister shall share in my petitions. The Sunday school
shall not be forgotten. The College shall be remembered in
supplication. The Orphanage shall have my heart's petitions. I will
plead with God for the Evangelists. I will consider the congregation at
the Tabernacle and pray that it may gently melt into the Church. I will
pray for the strangers who fill the aisles and crowd the pews that God
will bless them. Yes, I will say unto God this day, "My God, You have
saved me, given me a part and lot among Your people and put me in Your
garden where Your people grow and flourish. I will not be a barren
tree, but abound in fruit, especially in prayer. If I cannot do
anything else I can pray. If this is my one mite, I will put that into
the treasury. I will put You in remembrance and plead with You, and
give You no rest until You establish Your cause and make it praise in
the earth."

I am not asking more of you than Jesus would ask, nor do I exact
anything at your hands–you will cheerfully render that which is a
tribute due to the infinite love of your Lord. Now, do not say, dear
Brother, "I hope the Church will wake up." Leave it alone and mind that
you wake up yourself. Do not say, "I hope they will be stirred up this
morning." Never mind others! Stir up yourself. Begin to enquire, "Which
Prayer Meeting shall I go to, for I mean to join the people of God and
let them hear my voice, or at least have my presence. And if I cannot
go to the Tabernacle I will drop in near my own house. And if there is
no meeting there I will open my own house–the largest room of any
cottage shall be used for a Prayer Meeting–or my parlor if I have one.
I will have a share in the glorious work of attracting a blessing from
the skies. I will send up my electric rod of prayer into the clouds of
blessing to bring down the Divine force."

Do it! Do it! Let each one say, "I will go also." May God bless this
Word to His people, and I am sure it will result in benediction to
sinners. For, remember, you ungodly ones, that all this noise is about
you. What we need the blessing of God for is that you may be saved! We
cannot bear that you should remain as you are, unconverted! And I am
asking God's people to pray specially with an eye to your salvation.
Shall we think about your souls and will you not think about them
yourselves? Are we inclined to move Heaven and earth that you might be
saved and will you sit still and perish? May the Lord awaken you to
say, "If others are going to pray unto the Lord and seek His face, I
will go also," and the Lord bless you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Zechariah 8.
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Plenary Absolution