Good Works In Good Company

Good Works In Good Company

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 18, 1864, BY C, H. SPURGEON, AT
THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Come, my Beloved, let us go forth to the field. Let us lodge in the
villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine
has budded, whether the grape blossoms are open and the pomegranates
are in bloom. There will I give You my love. The mandrakes give off a
fragrance, and at our gates are pleasant fruits, all manner new and
old, which I have laid up for You, O my Beloved." Song of Solomon
7:11-13.

THE daughters of Jerusalem had been praising the Church as the fairest
among women. They spoke of her with admiring appreciation, extolling
her from head to foot. She wisely perceived that it was not easy to
bear praise, and therefore she turned aside from the virgins to her
Lord, making her boast not of her own loveliness, but of her being
affianced to her beloved–"I am my Beloved's and His desire is toward
me."

Solomon has said, in his Book of Proverbs, "As the fining pot for
silver and the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise," meaning to
teach us that praise is a serious ordeal. Very many men can bear
censure and abuse, for their spirit rises so superior to it all that
they are even profited thereby. But to be flattered, or even duly
honored, is not so easy a thing to endure. The sun's warm beams made
the traveler unbind his coat when the wind made him wrap it the more
closely about him–the warmth of praise may make us relax our
integrity–unless we are very watchful.

How many have been foolish enough, when standing upon a pinnacle, to
look down and admire their own elevation and then their brain has
reeled and they have fallen to their own shameful ruin? If we must at
any time listen to the praises of our virtues. If we have served God so
that the Church recognizes and rewards our usefulness, it is well for
us to listen just as long as we are obliged to do, but no longer. And
then let us turn aside at once to something more practical and more
healthful to our own spirits.

The spouse seems abruptly to break off from listening to the song of
the virgins and turns to her own husband-Lord, communion with whom is
ever blessed and ever profitable. She says to Him, "Come, my Beloved,
let us go forth into the field." To lodge in communion with Christ is a
certain cure for every ill. Whether it is the bitterness of woe, or the
overindulgence of earthly delight, close fellowship with the Lord Jesus
will take the gall from the one and the satiety from the other. Live
near to Jesus, Christian, and it is matter of secondary importance
whether you live on the mountain of honor or in the valley of
humiliation.

Live near to Jesus and the glowing coals of the furnace cannot consume
you, nor the chill blasts of wintry affliction destroy you. Living near
to Jesus you are covered with the wings of God and underneath you are
the everlasting arms. If you read the three verses before us with
attention, you will see that the Church all through anxiously desires
fellowship with her Lord. It is, "Come with me," "let us." She will do
nothing except as she is near to her beloved and in the enjoyment of
His company.

I think she desires three things in her words. First, she desires to
practice self-examination–she would go and see whether the vine
flourishes and whether the tender grape blossoms appear. But it is
self-examination with Him. She desires next to go into active
service–it is to this end that she would lodge in the villages and go
among the tender plants, that she may labor there, but it is with
Him–"Let us go!" "Come with me!" In the third place, she has a store
of fruits laid up for Him. Some things done and some things
doing–things old and new–but they are all for Him and she will not
mention them except for Him, much less bring them out for them to be
enjoyed by a rival. "They are laid up for You, O my Beloved."

Let us try to make a personal matter of the text, this morning, and may
God hear the desire of our hearts that we may have true fellowship with
His own dear Son.

I. First, then, IS THE MATTER OF SELF-EXAMINATION. This is a most
desirable and important business, but every Believer should desire to
have communion with Christ while he is attending to it.
Self-examination is of the utmost importance. No trader who would wish
to succeed would neglect to keep his books. No farmer who wishes to
prosper would be careless as to the state of his fields. No
flock-master who would see his herds abundantly increase would leave
his servants to care for them and fail to tend them with a watchful
eye. If you would have your business prosper, see to it carefully
yourself.

In soul-business it is of no use taking anything for granted where
there are so many temptations to self-deception in our own
hearts–where so many around us are deceived and are willing to help us
to be deceived, too. And where Satan sedulously and craftily seeks to
cry to us, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace–it is of the first
and last importance that we should search ourselves whether we are in
the faith and whether, being in the faith, our graces are growing, our
faith increasing, and our love deepening.

Well does the spouse suggest that she should see whether the vine
flourishes, whether the tender grape blossoms have appeared and the
pomegranates budded forth–our spiritual vineyard needs perpetual
watchfulness. While you are attending to this important business, see
to it at the same time that you keep up your communion with Christ, for
you will never know so well the importance of self-examination as when
you see Him! Mark Him there–fastened to the accursed tree–wearing the
crown of thorns all set with ruby drops of His own blood! Look at His
griefs–if repenting tears do not blind you! Behold His awful agonies!
Gaze into that visage more marred than that of any man and stay awhile
and listen to the heart-rending shriek, "Eloi! Eloi! Lama sabachthani?"
And did Christ suffer all this that souls might be saved?

Then surely, my Soul, it should be your chief business to see that you
have an interest in Him. What? Shall I miss that which is purchased
with such a price? When such a crimson stream from Christ's own heart
flows to cleanse away sin, shall I think it a matter of no account
whether I am cleansed or not? When that head which once was reverenced
by angels, is now crowned with the thorns of mockery and cruelty, shall
I not use all the thoughts of my head and brain to find out whether I
am one with Christ, and a partaker of His passion? That cannot be a
little heritage which Christ has purchased with such agonies–let me
fear lest I should lose it!

That cannot be a slight evil which cost my Savior such griefs–let me
search myself to see whether I am delivered from it. I am sure,
Beloved, you cannot have a better candle to look into the secret
recesses of your soul than a candle lit at the fire of Jesus' love.
Know His love for you and all His griefs on your behalf and you will
charge your own heart after this fashion–"See to it that you make sure
work as to your interest in Jesus–that you are really one with Him. Be
sure that your faith in Him is genuine and that you shall be found in
Him in peace at the day of His appearing."

Self-examination, however, is very laborious work–the text hints at
it. It does not say, "Let us go," but "Let us get up." Self-examination
is ever up-hill work. It is by no means a pleasant task. It is one from
which flesh recoils, for the flesh cries, "Let well enough alone! You
are easy and comfortable! You have a hope which affords you much
solace–do not dig too deep–the house stands well enough just as it
is! Be not too anxious about the foundation–rest assured that it is
all right–you would not have all these joys and present comforts if
you had built upon sand."

We need to school ourselves to perform a duty so irksome. But, Beloved,
if we attempt to examine this, feeling that Christ is with us and that
we are having communion with Him, we shall forget all the labor of the
deed. There I see Him in the garden, sweating great drops of blood in
prayer! Can I view Him prostrate on that cold winter's night (when the
ground was hard with frost), so burning with His soul's travail that
huge clots of blood-red gore are falling upon the frozen earth? And
shall I think any toil too great to make sure of my interest in Him?

Does He, when the cup is put to Him, say, "Not as I will, but as You
will," and drink it up with resignation? And shall the far less bitter
cup of self-examination, which is so much for my good, be refused by
me? No, Savior of the world, I have not yet resisted unto blood
striving against sin. But if it must be, if all my powers and members
must be made to bleed, if my poor heart must be crushed as in a mortar,
then let it be so that I may but be found one with You, washed in Your
blood and covered with Your righteousness! Keep close to the Savior and
the difficulties of self-examination will vanish and the labor will
become light.

Self-examination should always be very earnest work. The text says,
"Let us get up early." It has been well observed that all men in
Scripture who have done earnest work rose up early to do it. The dew of
the morning, before the smoke and dust of the world's business have
tainted the atmosphere, is a choice and special season for all holy
work. In this passage getting up early signifies that the Church felt
she must give her best hour to this necessary work. And as the work
might be long, she gets up early that she may have a long day before
her–that before the sun goes down she may have examined every vine and
looked to every pomegranate and examined all the mandrakes of the
garden.

So must we set to work earnestly about self-examination. This is not
child's play. If you would find out the trickery of your deceitful
heart you must be very careful and watchful. If you would know on what
foundation your hope is built, it is a laborer's work to dig out the
rubbish and to find out where the foundation is laid. He who has to
prove the title-deeds of his estate does not always find it an easy
business–there are many manuscripts through which he must wade and
numerous title-deeds to be read, verified and collated before the case
will be clear.

And so it must be with you. The great matter, "Do I believe in Jesus,"
needs no hours of deliberation, for if I do not, I will now begin
again. But to know the growing state of one's graces is not so easy.
After all, you may be deceived. Therefore come to it with a soul all
glowing with zeal, saying, in earnest prayer, "Search me, O God and
know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there are any
wicked ways in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Now I think
there is nothing which can make you do this earnest work so well as to
say to your Master and your Lord, "Lord, come with me." "While we
examine ourselves, abide with us to help us in the work."

I cannot be careless when I hear Christ say, "My meat and My drink is
to do the will of Him that sent Me." I cannot be careless in my own
Christian career when I see Him straining every nerve that He may run
the race and win the crown for me! When I see Him sitting yonder, above
all principalities and powers, pleading for my soul with never-ceasing
intercession, I cannot be dull and sluggish! Wake up, you drowsy
powers! Be stirred up, you sleeping passions, to examine yourselves
anxiously and carefully, since Christ, for Zion's sake does not hold
His peace and for Jerusalem's sake does not rest!

And yet again, self-examination, it seems to me (I may be wrong), is
not the simple work that some people think, but is beset with
difficulties. I do believe that the most of self-examinations go on a
wrong principle. You take Moses with you when you examine yourself and
consequently you fall into despair. He who looks at his own character
and position from a legal point of view will not only despair when he
comes to the end of his reckoning, but he will be a wise man if he
despairs not at the beginning! If we are to be judged on the footing of
the Law, there shall no flesh living be justified. The very brightest
members of Christ's family–those who wear the most of the Savior's
image and honor Him best among men–may well shrink from the place
where even Moses did "exceedingly fear and quake."

O Brothers and Sisters, remember to take Jesus with you and not Moses,
lest you dishonor the Grace of God and harbor suspicion against the
faithfulness of God when you ought rather to have suspected yourself If
I take Jesus with me, see on what different principles the examination
is carried on! I do not ask, "Am I perfect?" That question Moses would
suggest–"Am I perfect in myself?" But I ask, "Am I perfect in Christ
Jesus?" That is a very different matter. I do not put it thus, "Am I
without sin, naturally?" but thus–"Have I been washed in the fountain
opened for sin and for uncleanness?"

It is not, "Am I in myself well-pleasing to God?" but it is, "Am I
accepted in the Beloved?" The Christian man sometimes looks at his
evidences and grows ashamed of them and alarmed concerning his own
salvation. "Why," says he, "my faith has unbelief in it! It is not able
to save me!" Suppose he had looked at the Object of his faith instead
of his faith? Then he would have said, "There is no failure in Him and
therefore I am safe!" He looks at his hope–"Why," he says, "my very
hope is marred and dimmed by an anxious carefulness about present
things! How can I be accepted?" Yes, but if he had looked at the ground
of his hope he would have seen that the promises of God stand sure and
that whatever our hope may be, that promise never fails!

Then he looks at his love–"Oh," he says, "surely I am condemned, for
my love is so cold!" But if he had looked at Christ's love, he would
have said "No, I shall never be condemned–for many waters cannot
quench His love–neither can the floods drown it and, loving me as He
does, He will never condemn me, nor cast me away." I do not want you to
look at Christ so as to think less of your sin, but to think more of
it! You can never see sin to be so black as when you see the suffering
which Christ endured on its behalf–and I do desire, dear Friends, that
you never look at sin apart from the

Savior. If you gaze at the disease and forget the remedy, you will be
driven to despair. If you look at the gathering gangrene and forget the
all-gracious Surgeon who is able to remove it, you may well lie down
and die!

If you see your own emptiness and poverty and forget His fullness, you
will never glorify His name. If you are lost in a sense of your own
corruptions and forget the eternal glory which belongs to you in
Christ, so that you are even now raised up together and made to sit
together in heavenly places in Him–I say, if you forget this
Grace-given brightness and only remember your native blackness–your
spirit will turn aside from the path of faith and you will hang your
harp upon the willows and fail to glorify your God.

Examine yourselves, but let it be in the light of Calvary–not by the
blazing fires of Sinai's lightning, but by the milder radiance of the
Savior's griefs. Am I resting upon You, Son of God? Are Your wounds my
hiding place? Have Your nails nailed me to Your Cross? Has Your spear
pierced my heart and broken it with grief for sin? And am I now
crucified with You to the world, buried with You to the power of sin,
risen with You to newness of life and, like Yourself, waiting for the
day of manifestation when sin, death and Hell shall be trod under foot
and You shall be All in All? Come, let us look to the vines and
pomegranates, but let us make sure that our Crucified Lord accompanies
us! Otherwise we shall do the work amiss.

It appears, from the words of the spouse, that the work of
self-examination should be carried on in detail, if it is to be of real
service. It is written, "Let us see if the vine has budded, whether the
grape blossoms are opened and the pomegranates are in bloom." We must
not take a general view of the garden, but particularize and give
special attention to each point. If a candle is guarded on all sides,
if there is but one place left open, the wind will find it out and blow
out the light. So in self-examination, if we find ourselves right in
many points, it is not enough–we must seek to be right in all points.

The main thing is your faith. Is that faith simple? Does it depend upon
Jesus only? Is it real? Is it an active, living faith? Does it work by
love? Does it purify the soul? When you have examined faith, you may
possibly make a mistake. Therefore go on to see what your love is. Do
you love the Savior? Can you truly say, "The very thought of You fills
my breast with rapture"? Can you hear the music of His name without
feeling your blood leap in your veins? Oh, if you can, I think, dear
Friend, you have reason for grave questioning. Try your active
graces–go from one to the other and search them all. The worm may be
at the root just in that part of the soil where you have not upturned
the sod.

One leak may sink a ship, therefore search well the vessel before you
launch her upon the stormy deep. It is little by little that
backsliders fall–even Judas does not betray his Master with a kiss at
first. Men are schooled in the downward road. Let us be particularly
anxious, therefore, that we do not fall little by little. And let us
watch that we do not suffer small sins to get force and head, till,
like little sparks, they have kindled a great fire!

If you wish to be exact in prying into every part and corner you cannot
do better than take Jesus with you. Tempted in all points like we are,
He will know all the points in which we are tempted. And, while we are
earnestly examining, His gracious finger will point out the spots where
our weakness may lie and we shall thus fulfill the prayer we have often
prayed–"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my
thoughts: and see if there are any wicked ways in me and lead me in the
way everlasting."

When boys are at school and have to learn to write, every schoolmaster
knows that at the first line they keep their eye upon the copy at the
top. The next line they look at their own writing and their penmanship
is not quite so good. And the next line they probably look at the last
they have written and so they write worse and worse as they reach the
bottom of the page because they have been imitating themselves and
copying their own writing! It is well for the Christian if he does not
fall into this mistake. He must keep his eyes upon his great Exemplar,
not upon himself! He will be far more likely to see his own faults by
looking to Christ than by looking at any of his own attainments.

What a delightfully white thing this snow is! When it has newly fallen,
take the whitest linen you may have ever seen and put it down–you will
find it looks positively yellow by the side of it. Take the fairest
sheet of paper that ever came from the mill and compare it. It does not
look white at all. There is no whiteness, that I know of, which can at
all emulate the heavenly whiteness of snow. So, if I put my character
side by side with another man's, I may say of it, "It will bear
comparison," but if I put it by the side of Christ's perfections–since
His whole life is like the pure and spotless snow–I discover at once
my own failures and spots.

Oh, to have our great Pattern ever before our eyes! Jesus should not be
a Friend who calls upon us now and then, but one with whom we walk
forevermore. You have a difficult road to travel–see, O traveler to
Heaven, that you go not without your Guide. You have to pass through
the fiery furnace–enter it not, unless like Shadrach, Meshach and
Abed-nego, there is a fourth with you like unto the Son of Man! You
have to storm the Jericho of your own deceptions– attempt not the
scaling until, like Joshua, you have seen the Captain of the Lord's
host with his sword drawn in his hand.

You have to meet the Esau of your many temptations–meet him not until
at Jabbok's brook you have laid hold of the angel and wrestled with him
and prevailed. In every case, in every condition, you need Jesus! But
most of all, when you come to deal with your own heart's eternal
interests, O, keep close to Him! Lean your head upon His bosom! Ask to
be refreshed with the spiced wine of His pomegranates and then there
shall be no fear but that you shall be found of Him at the last,
without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. Seeing you have lived with
Him and lived in Him here, you shall live with Him forever.

II. THE CHURCH WAS ABOUT TO ENGAGE IN EARNEST LABOR and desires her
Lord's company. It is the business of God's people to be trimmers of
God's vines. Like our first parents, we are put into the garden of the
Lord for usefulness. Observe that the Church, when she is in her right
mind, in all her many labors desires to retain and cheerfully to enjoy
communion with Christ. Some persons imagine that one cannot serve
Christ actively and yet have fellowship with Him. I think they are very
much mistaken.

I confess it is very easy to get into Martha's position and to be
cumbered with much serving. You may have to preach here and there so
many times a week–to attend committees, to visit sick people and to do
so many other things that you may really, unless you are
careful–fritter away your own inward life in outward exercises. You
may have to complain with the spouse, "They made me keeper of the
vineyards, but my own vineyard have I not kept." I do not think,
however, that there is any reason why this should be the case except
through our own folly. Certain is it that a person may do nothing at
all and yet grow quite as lifeless in spiritual things as those who are
most busy.

Mary was not praised for sitting still. No, but for sitting still at
Jesus' feet! And so Christians are not to be praised if they neglect
duties merely because they live in retirement and keep much at home–it
is not sitting, I say, but sitting at Jesus' feet. Had Martha been
sitting still, or had Mary been sitting anywhere else, I doubt not that
the Master would have given a word of rebuke! He would never have said
that mere sitting still was choosing the good part. Indeed, I know some
of you who are none the better for doing nothing, but a great deal the
worse! Those who do nothing grow sour and are always willing to find
fault with the way in which others serve Christ.

Do not think, therefore, that mere activity is, in itself, an evil–I
believe it is a blessing. Taking a survey of Christ's Church you will
find that those who have most fellowship with Christ are not the
persons who are recluses or hermits– who have much time to spend with
themselves–but they are the useful indefatigable laborers who are
toiling for Jesus and who in their toil have Him side by side with
them. They are workers together with God. Let me, then, try to press
this lesson upon you–that when we as a Church and each of us as
individuals have anything to do for Christ–we must do it in communion
with Him.

We come up to His House and why do we come? It is said that among
Church people the prayers are the main thing and among Dissenters the
sermon. I believe that in both cases this would be a fault. Praying
should not eclipse preaching! To preach or to listen to preaching is as
true an act of worship as to pray. We never worship God better than
when we hear His Word, reverently receive it and are moved thereby to
love and gratitude. To hear preaching is, in a sense, praying, since
the true effect of all preaching that is worth listening to draws us
into a spirit of devotion and makes us ready for prayer and every other
form of worship.

But why do we come here? I am afraid there are some who come merely
because it is the time to come–because the hour of worship has come
round. And others come only because a certain preacher happens to stand
upon the platform. Ah, this is not how God's own beloved ones come up
to His House! They desire to meet with Him. Their prayer, as they tread
the hallowed courts of God's House will be, "My heart and my flesh
cries out for the living God." There is no hymn sung so well as when we
really do praise Jesus in it. No prayer is so true as that prayer which
really comes to the Mercy Seat and spreads itself before the All-Seeing
God. There is no preaching like that which is full of Christ, which
gives forth a savor of His good ointments.

Worship is not to be commended because of the glorious swell of a
Gregorian chant, or because of the equally majestic volume of sound
which this great assembly may send forth from that sweet instrument,
the human voice. A service is not to be commended because of the
eloquence of the preacher or because of the display of learning which
he is able to make in expounding his discourse. No, to the Christian it
is, "Was the Master there?" The question on Sunday morning is, "What do
you think, will He come up to the feast?" Coming to the Lord's Table,
the child of God's business is not so much with the bread and the wine,
as with His blood and with His flesh. May I feed on Him? May I see Him?
And if I get to Him, then it is well with me.

If I have then to serve God in the public engagements of His House, let
me say, "Come, my Beloved, let us get up to the vineyards." You have
other service to do, dear Friends. This afternoon many of you will be
occupied with your Sunday school classes. There will be a knot of lads
or girls around you. You will, perhaps, be conducting classes of
hundreds of young men and young women. This evening, again, many will
be occupied in preaching, or you will be engaged at home with your own
children. Oh, how blessed it is to go to the classes, or into the
pulpit, having the Master with you! It sometimes happens to the
preacher that he is like the butcher at the block–he has a cleaver in
his hand and cuts off large pieces of meat as food for those
present–but he himself gets none.

But it is otherwise with him when he has his Master with him! Then,
whether the rest of the assembly are fed or not, certainly he himself
is satisfied as with marrow and with fatness. After what a blessed sort
the teacher can teach when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart!
You will bear with the rudeness of those boys–you will put up with the
inattention of those girls! You will not be angry at the folly of that
youth–you will not forget to be in earnest with that poor
wanderer–when Jesus Christ stands by your side!

A vision of the Crucified, my Brethren, is that which we want! When we
are toiling in His harvest field and sit down to wipe the sweat from
our brow, we grow very weary. The harvest is plenteous, but the
laborers are few–we feel that the edge of our sickle is growing very,
very blunt and we wish we could lie down under the spreading tree from
the heat of the sun and toil no longer. But just then we see the
Crucified One coming forward with His mighty sickle and we mark the
drops of blood streaming from His brow and see the nail prints in the
hands with which He grasps the sickle.

We see how He toils and how He labors! With what an awful love He
sacrifices Himself–He has stripped off His very garments–and in all
the nakedness of self-denial He gives Himself up that He may save
others while Himself He cannot save. Then we pluck up our hearts again
and take our sickle in the hands which once did hang down, saying,
"Jesus, I will never be weary, for You were not weary. And when I shall
be faint awhile, I will see You, whose meat and drink it was to do Your
Father's will and I will make it my meat and my drink to serve You."
Surely you cannot do God's work so well as when you have Jesus Christ
with you!

But it is possible, dear Friends, that some of you may be engaged in
the service of winning for God some one soul. I know those who have one
soul laid upon their heart. Perhaps it is the most solemn work under
Heaven to have to pray for one soul. I have so many to look after that
I cannot but feel I may rightly excuse myself from any very sedulous
attention to one. But there are some of you who have only one person to
look after–one child, one friend, one soul. You tried to talk to that
one person the other day–you burst into tears when you heard the
answer you received. You have been praying for months, but instead of
seeing any answer to your prayer the person prayed for is growing
worse! You are sure that he is never more vile than when you are most
earnest.

Friend, I should not wonder if Satan should whisper to you, "Give it
up!" But let me, I pray you, urge you never to do so. And if you want
something that will make you never to give up praying for that soul,
see yonder, the eternal Son of God! He came into this world to save
such a sinner as you yourself are! And you can never think you are
doing anything too hard when trying to save your fellow man from
destruction. O for a vision of the Savior's face covered with the
spittle! See Him marred and bruised by the rough Roman soldiers! Behold
Him as His back smarts beneath the thongs of the cruel whips! See Him
as Pilate brings Him forth and cries, "Ecce homo."

Mark Him as He treads the Via Dolorosa! See Him while they lift Him up
on high and dislocate His bones! Why, what is all that you can endure
compared with this? When your soul swells with fearful grief you do not
feel such grief as this! You do but sip at the cup which the Savior
drained to the dregs! You do but feel a scratch from those nails which
went right through His hands! You do not have but for a moment a flesh
wound from that spear which pierced His heart!

Courage, solitary laborer–let Christ's griefs solace you. Come with
me, my Beloved! Come with me, my Lord! And my toil shall be easy.

There are some Christians engaged in works of heroism, works of
peculiar daring for Christ. I should not like to be misunderstood, but
I really think that amid the gross darkness of the Popish Church there
have been some who have caught the true idea of Christian life far
better than the most of us. Let me tell you what I mean. There have
been some who have denied themselves all the comforts of life and have
lived in suffering and poverty out of love to Jesus and from a sincere
desire to benefit their fellow men.

There have been produced in that Church men whose passionate love no
labor or persecution could extinguish. They have fed the poor and
nourished the sick. And women who have gone into the hospitals among
diseases the most contagious and have risked life and lost life for the
sake of nursing the sick. There are those living at this present moment
upon the tops of such mountain passes as St. Bernard and the Simplon,
spending the prime of their life in seclusion in inhospitable
frost–where somebody must live–but where nobody ever would live if it
were not for the sake of religion. They are there simply that they may
serve the poor weary traveler when he comes wading through the snow, or
is likely to be lost in a snow storm.

No man shall take precedence of me in my abhorrence of the thrice
accursed doctrines of the harlot of Rome! But from our enemies it is
right to learn–and I do learn and would teach this–that self-denial
and consecration are among the highest of the Christian virtues. I
would to God that our people had the spirit of self-consecration in
proportion to the light which they enjoy. I would to God we had true
Sisters of Mercy who devoted themselves to going from house to house
among the sick. We have some–but we need more–more who would be
hospital nurses and who would count it but a small sacrifice even if
they gave up themselves for the good of others.

Missionaries we need who will face the malaria and deadly fever–our
societies cry out for such–but very few are coming forward. We need
men of substance who would take their substance and go out with it to a
foreign land to evangelize. We need men who having prospered in
business who would now count it an honor to spend the rest of their
days in some new and special work of charity or piety. Oh, when I see
the Savior in all His agonies doing so much for us I cannot but think
that we as a Christian people do next to nothing for Him!

There are no stakes of Smithfield now, thank God. There are no dungeons
of the Lollard's Tower. No crowns of martyrdom for suffering brows–but
there are still special spheres of labor where we could make the name
of Christ illustrious. Let me hold up for your imitation some in modern
times, who by works of faith and labors of love, have made us feel that
the old spirit of Christianity is not dead. Our beloved friend, Mr.
George Muller, of Bristol, for instance. There burns a holy
devotedness, an intensity of faith, a fervor of perseverance which I
would to God we all possessed! May we have more of this and so by
keeping close to Jesus we shall produce better fruits, richer clusters
and more luscious grapes than are commonly produced upon those vines
which are in a less happy part of the vineyard.

III. And now let me close by remaking that according to the text, THE
CHURCH DESIRES TO GIVE TO CHRIST ALL THAT SHE PRODUCES. She has "all
manner of pleasant fruits," both, "new and old," and they are laid up
for her Beloved. We have some new fruits. This morning I hope we feel
new life, new joy, new gratitude–we wish to make new resolves and
carry them out by new labors. Our heart goes up in new prayers and our
soul is pledging herself to new efforts.

But we have some old things, too. There is our first love–a choice
fruit that is! And Christ delights in it. There is our first
faith–that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors
of all things! There is our joy when first we knew the Lord–let us
revive it. How happy we were then, when the candle of the Lord shone
round about us! Old things? Why we have the old remembrance of the
promises. How faithful has God been! In that sickness of ours, how
softly did He make our bed! In those deep waters, how placidly did He
buoy us up! In that flaming furnace, how graciously did He deliver us
so that not even the smell of fire passed upon us. Old fruits, indeed!
We have many of them, for His mercies have been more than the hairs of
our head.

Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances, which He has
given us, by which we have wept our way to the Cross and learned the
merit of His blood. We have fruits, this morning, both new and old. But
here is the point– they are all to be for Christ. Do you not, after
doing good service, detect yourself whispering, "I have done that
well"? You intended that nobody should know it. You tried to do it as a
secret act of devotion. You were half inclined to tell somebody when it
was done, and though it came out, you say it was by accident. But you
had a finger in that accident and you did not altogether regret that
you had some of the honor of it.

Do you not find when you are really serving your Master that if
somebody does not pat you on the back, you grow cold? I know some
Sunday school teachers, who, if they are looked after and encouraged,
can do well, but who, if they have no encouragement, could not keep on
in their work. Oh, it is so easy for us to preach when there are many
souls being fed under us and the Master honors us in the eyes of men!
Would it be quite as easy to serve Him without honor? I have known
Brethren who have met with a little bad feeling among their people.
Perhaps they have not always been able to keep their temper–and they
have run away from their charge–left the sheep in the wilderness
because in their inmost heart they were serving themselves, at least to
a degree.

Truly, Beloved, those are the best and most acceptable services in
which Christ is the solitary aim of the soul–and His Glory without any
mixture whatever is the end of all our efforts. Let your many fruits be
laid up only for your Beloved–bring them forth when He is with
you–bless His name for them. Put jewels into His crown, but never say,
"Unto me be honor and unto my name be praise," but, "Sing unto Jesus,
and to Jesus only be Glory while Heaven endures." O that strangers to
Jesus would believe our testimony concerning Him!

We are asked, sometimes for proofs of our religion. There is one proof
which we defy anyone to contradict and this is the intense joy which
the love of Christ gives to us. We are not fools, and I may add we are
not dishonest–our witness is that there is a joy in love to Christ and
in the enjoyment of His Presence! A joy which could not possibly have
come to us from any but a Divine source!

We do not speak because we have not tried other joys–some of us have
had our fill of them. We can say of some that their sweet is soon lost
in bitterness. Of others that they stale upon our taste. But communion
with Christ has no aftertaste in it. It never grows stale. It is a sun
without spots! It is a moon which never wanes! It is an ocean which
never ebbs–it is a river which flows on forever–it is all Heaven and
all bliss! Oh, if you did but know it you would never doubt again–your
soul would rest implicitly upon Christ, whom God has set forth to be
the Propitiation for sin! And, remember, if you rest upon Him and trust
Him, you are saved and shall be with Him, where He is, to behold His
Glory forevermore! May God bless these words for Jesus' sake. Amen.