Hold Fast Your Shield

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense
of reward." Hebrews 10:35.

THE early Christians had to suffer for their faith. They were exposed
to great ridicule and enmity. They were, indeed, the byword, the
laughingstock and the derision of all mankind. There are still to be
seen in Rome, in the praetorian guardroom, caricatures of Christians
and of their Lord. I dare not mention what they are, but they are so
insulting to everything which we hold dear, that they remain as lasting
evidence that Christians were counted as the offscouring of all things
for the sake of Jesus, their crucified Savior. Nor did it end in
ridicule. They were deprived of their goods. Ruinous fines were exacted
from them. They were driven from city to city and not thought worthy to
dwell among the sons of men.

They were made a spectacle to all men, both in their lives and deaths.
Very frequently they were not put to death as other condemned persons
were, but their execution was attended with circumstances of cruelty
and scorn which made it still harder to bear. They were daubed with
pitch and set up in the gardens of Nero to be burned alive to light
that tyrant's debaucheries, or taken to the amphitheater, there to
fight with beasts and to be torn in pieces. Everything that could be
invented that was at once degrading and cruel, their persecutors
devised for them. Malice exhausted its ingenuity upon believers in
Christ. Yet there was never a braver race of men.

"Men," did I say? Why, the women were as brave as their brothers! The
name of such women as Blandina will remain in everlasting recollection.
Set in a hot iron chair, tormented with whips, or tossed upon the horns
of bulls, such heroines showed no cowardice. The tenderness of their
sex only increased the glory of the courage with which they adhered to
their Master under unutterable torments. The despised sect wearied out
a long succession of Roman emperors. Those despots passed edict upon
edict, each one more ferocious than its predecessor, in order to
exterminate the followers of the Nazarene!

But the more they persecuted them the more they multiplied. And instead
of hiding themselves, they came boldly to the courts of the
magistrates, confessing Christ and defying death. Never was the victory
of patience more complete than in the early Church. The anvil broke the
hammer by bearing all the blows that the hammer could place upon it.
The patience of the saints was stronger than the cruelty of tyrants.
Christ, then, the immortal Christ, was stronger than all the pangs of
death and they triumphed though they were slain! Truly did the Apostle
say, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us."

The secret reason for the triumph of Christians in those circumstances
was their confidence in Christ. Brothers and Sisters, we are not
subjected to the same persecution and it will not do for us to wrap
ourselves about with the garments of our ancestors and say that
Christians are this and that, as though we were to be honored without
enduring trial. Yet, remember, there are still conflicts for you. If
you are real Christians, you will have to endure the trial of cruel
mockeries. In some cases family ties are the source of far greater
sorrow than comfort. Truly is it written, "A man's foes shall be they
of his own household."

The coming of the Gospel into a man's heart has often rendered him the
object of hatred to those who loved him before. In his own house and in
society abroad, the Christian working man has, at this day, to run the
gauntlet much more severely than some suppose. And in almost every
sphere of life the genuine Christian meets with the "cold shoulder" and
the sneer–and sometimes with cruel misrepresentation and slander, for,
until the hearts of men are changed, persecution in some form or other
will continue. Those that are born after the flesh will always
persecute those that are born after the Spirit.

For us, then, our only defense is holy confidence–the confidence which
sustained the martyrs–and to us Paul speaks as well as unto them.
"Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense
of reward." Let us notice, first, the elements of this confidence of
which the Apostle speaks. And then we shall speak upon how it may be
cast away. God grant we may never attempt to do so! Thirdly, let us
consider why it should be held fast–because it "has great recompense
of reward."

I. First, then, WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF THIS CONFIDENCE of which the
Apostle speaks? Those who are acquainted with the original will know
that it is not very easy to explain this word in one English word. The
nearest approach to it would be boldness–"Cast not away your
boldness." It is frequently translated by that word. In Acts, where we
read, "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John," it is the same
word in the Greek as that which is here translated, "confidence." But
it means something rather different from boldness, because we read of
Christ, in the Gospel by Mark, that He spoke openly–and there the word
is precisely that which is here used and translated–"confidence."

And the Apostle says, "We use great plainness of speech," and there the
word is the same, also. It means that freedom, that peace, that
at-home-ness, which makes a man feel bold, free, confident.

We come back to the word in the text–your confidence, your child-like
plainness, freedom, quietude, peace of heart, rest, sense of security
and, therefore, courage. The Apostle meant a great deal when he said,
"Cast not away, therefore, your confidence." And the elements of it
seem to me to be these. First, confidence in the principles which you
have espoused. Some persons appear to think that a state of doubt is
the very best which we can possibly reach. They are very wise and
highly cultured individuals and they imagine that by their advanced
judgments nothing in the world can be regarded as assuredly true.

Some of the broad Church school would seem to believe that no doctrine
in the Bible is worth dying for, or worth anybody's losing over and
above a halfpenny for. They do not feel sure of any doctrine–it may be
true and there is a good deal to be said for it, but then, a good deal
may be said on the other side–and you must hold your mind,
"receptive," and be ready to accept "new truth." Some Robinson or other
said something about new truth as if there ever could be such a thing
and, under cover of his probably misinterpreted speech, like
chameleons, they are always taking their cue from the particular light
that falls upon them.

They have no light in themselves and no truth which they hold to be
vital. Such people cannot understand this confidence, but the smallest
babes in the family of faith know what it means. Here are certain
things which God has taught me. I believe them and am sure about them.
"Dogmatic," one says. Exactly so! Call it what you like, but we are
bold to confess that there remains no doubt to us after God has spoken!
The question is solved by God's Word! The doubt is laid to sleep,
forever, by the witness of the Holy Spirit! Oh, to know the grand
Truths of the Gospel and to know them Infallibly!

For instance, the grand doctrine of the Substitutionary Sacrifice of
the Son of God–to know it and hold it and be able to say, "Let others
question and quibble, but I believe it! It is my only hope, it is all
my salvation. I stake my soul upon it. If that is not true then am I
lost." And so with regard to all the other grand Truths of Revelation,
the thing is to know them and grasp them firmly. There must be leverage
if we would move men and, to have a leverage you must have a fixed
point. There must be certain undoubted Truths of God about which you
can sing, "O God, my heart is fixed! My heart is fixed! I will sing and
give praise"–things which you perceive to be plainly taught in the
Scriptures–things brought home by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the groundwork of true confidence. But to make it complete
there must be an open acknowledgement of our belief in our Lord Jesus.
The Apostle has said, "Hold fast the profession of your faith," not
merely your faith, but the profession of it. To hold a Truth of God
which I am ashamed to utter is to be false both to God and man. To have
convictions which I stifle and principles which I dare not profess, is
to be unworthy of the Lord that bought me and unworthy of the Spirit
who has instructed me. God forbid that we should glory save in the
Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and God forbid that we should refuse to
glory in that!

Let us never cloak our faith in Jesus, whatever the company, and though
we are not to cast pearls before swine, yet, if a time comes to exhibit
pearls, let us not conceal them, even though swine should gaze upon
them. We are not sent into the world to comfortably sneak through it
into Heaven, but we are sent, like a troop of soldiers, to fight our
way and to win a victory all along from the beginning of our pilgrimage
even to the close of it. The colors are not to be covered up

and kept by the color-sergeant in a tent somewhere in the rear! They
are to be unfurled to the breeze and borne in the front and every
believing soldier is to labor earnestly to bear them farther forward
and to smite the foe that dares to insult the standard of the Lord.
"Cast not away your confidence," that is, hold confidently the Truths
of God which God has taught you and never blush or stammer, or show the
slightest sign of hesitancy in avowing them.

To do all this you must know your own interest in those truths. A man
will readily let go a truth which may condemn him. Who will die for a
truth in which he has no share? The man who can live and die for Christ
is the man who believes that Christ has lived and died for him. A
doctrine–what is that? A mere statement written in a book. It stirs no
man's heart and awakens no one's enthusiasm. But a blessed Truth of God
which has been verified in one's own experience, in which one feels
that he has a share, no, which is all his own–this is a thing for
which a man may well be willing to be counted the offscouring of all
things.

Beloved Christian Friends, do you know that you have passed from death
unto life? If so, you do not doubt the doctrine of Conversion. Do you
know that you have been washed in the blood of Jesus? If so, you do not
doubt the doctrine of Atonement. Do you know that Christ has saved you,
and that you are one with Him? Then you do not doubt the doctrine of
Union to Christ. Do you know that He has preserved you to this day?
Then you do not doubt His faithfulness– you have proof of it before
your eyes! We must "eat this roll," as Ezekiel did, before we can bear
testimony to it. The Truths of God must be the food of our spirits, the
sustenance of our inward life, before we can have that confidence in it
which the Apostle bids us never to cast away. These are the first
points of confidence–a full conviction of the Truth of the Gospel,
willingness to confess it and a full assurance of our own interest in
it.

But the word, as I have said, cannot have all its meaning brought out
by this word, boldness. It means beside, a full and firm reliance upon
the faithfulness of God, so that we are free from all mistrusts, fears
and simply rest in God. It is a very sweet thing to admit that God is
true and to sing, with the Psalmist of old, "His mercy endures
forever." "Why," says one, "that is a very simple fact and I never
doubted it." Dear Brothers and Sisters, when the Holy Spirit taught the
Psalmist to make that Psalm whose many verses conclude with, "His mercy
endures forever," He knew very well that we do not so easily believe in
the Lord's enduring mercy as we think we do. And, therefore, He has
given us line upon line, and precept upon precept.

Do you not feel that you have a very great deal of faith in God when
you have no afflictions? Do you not feel sure about your daily bread
when you have a good job, or have an excellent pension, or a good sum
of money in the bank? Such faith is very easy and very unreal–the
publicans and sinners have that faith. But to trust in God when you see
nothing but starvation before you! To believe when you cannot see! Ah,
this is another kind of faith, and the faith and the only faith that is
of the operation of the Spirit of God. I wonder whether you could have
believed in Jesus if, for having been here last night, you had been
arrested at the foot of the steps of the Tabernacle and taken off to
Horsemonger Lane Jail, and kept there in prison in the dark, with only
bread and water for several months?

Suppose you were occasionally stretched upon the rack, or beaten with
rods? Would you feel, in the loneliness of the prison, smarting under
the rounds you endured, quite sure that all things worked together for
good–quite certain of that promise, "I will never leave you, nor
forsake you"? If it were intimated to you that tomorrow morning you
must go out to be burned to death in the great square of the city, or
to be torn to pieces in the amphitheatre by wild beasts, would you be
quite sure that the promises of God were faithful and true? Yet,
Beloved, that is the kind of faith we must have, for God deserves it!
He cannot lie! He has promised that those who trust in Him shall never
be forsaken or confounded world without end. Now, to have the
confidence of the text, we must subscribe in heart to a full
surrender–"Whatever happens, I believe in God. Come what may, I rest
in His promises and I leave my matters entirely in His hands, resting
them with Him as with a faithful Creator." Happy is the man who has
this confidence! Let him take care that he never casts it away!

Where that confidence really reigns in the soul, it takes the form of a
sense offull acceptance before God. Let me illustrate that by the
condition of a child. A child that lives in full confidence with its
father is quite sure of its father's love. It is also sure about its
father's wisdom and, consequently, quite content with all its father's
dealings. This is confidence, and the sort of confidence which is meant
in the text. That, at least, is part of what is meant–confidence
towards God– confidence that all is well between my soul and God.
Confidence that I can walk with Him in the light as He is in the

light–that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses from all sin
and, therefore, I have fellowship with Him as a man has fellowship with
his friend.

We must have confidence so as to avail ourselves of perpetual access to
God, so as to be able to speak with Him at all times, not merely in the
closet where we are accustomed to pray, but everywhere! True confidence
makes the Believer feel, "I am God's child. I can speak with my Lord
whenever I will and I can hear His voice everywhere–hear it in Nature
as well as in the Bible. I dwell always in my Father's own house at
home and I know that 'goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life.'" Oh, what a sweet feeling that is, to know that you are
always near to God, that He is always with you and, consequently, you
are always at home and your Father is always accessible. Upon this
there follows that further confidence, of which John says, "This is the
confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to
His will He hears us"–confidence that when we pray we shall be heard.

Now, all Christians accept this as a matter of doctrine, but very few
Christians really believe it. When you talk to them about God's hearing
prayer, they open their eyes at you. You tell them some cases in which
He has answered you, and they look upon you as a wonder! Dear Mr.
Muller's Orphanage at Bristol is thought to be a sort of miracle and
we, ourselves, in that and other cases are conscious of a feeling of
astonishment when we hear of God's answering prayer. It should not be
so. If we have the confidence we ought to have in our heavenly Father,
we shall be astonished at His goodness, but we shall not be astonished
at the fact that He keeps His promises and answers His children's
prayers.

I sometimes felt, when I was a child, astonished at my father's
goodness in giving me what I asked for. But not when he had previously
promised it to me. A loving child asks with expectation. Probably if he
had not the expectation he would scarcely ask, but he asks because he
expects to receive. And, oh, what a sweet confidence that is–to know
that God is your Father, that you are on happy terms with Him through
Jesus Christ and that you may speak to Him and whatever you desire you
may ask of Him, pleading that promise–"Delight yourself, also, in the
Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Oh, blessed,
blessed confidence! May we always enjoy it!

Over and above that, how delightful to feel that even what we do not
pray for, by reason of ignorance or forgetfulness, our gracious God
will bestow. "Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of before
you ask Him." I would pray as if I had to remind the Lord of everything
and yet feel when I have done that He has never forgotten, nor could He
fail to give anything that was good for me, for did He not say, "No
good thing will I withhold from then that walk uprightly"? Beloved,
this is the confidence that we have towards God, that He will bestow
upon us all things necessary for this life and godliness. That He will
not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able and that when He
sends a trial, He will also make a way of escape.

"Ah," says one, "that is a happy way of living if we could only attain
to it." That is how you ought to live, dear Brothers and Sisters, and
if you ever do so live, then remember the text, "Cast not away,
therefore, your confidence." If you get it, hold it! If you have a
childlike simplicity of confidence in God, reckon it to be a priceless
jewel and watch it night and day. Let no one rob you of it, but labor
with might and main, by His blessed Spirit, to abide in this confidence
as long as you live. You may add to all this the confidence that He is
able to keep that which you have committed to Him, for we have this
confidence–that whether we sleep or wake we shall be together with
Him. "We are confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from
the body and present with the Lord," for we are confident that though
we shall drop this tabernacle, "we have a temple of God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

With confidence we are looking forward to resurrection after death! We
are looking forward to a grand reunion with the beloved ones that have
gone before! We are looking forward to being satisfied when we awake in
His likeness! We are looking forward to seeing the King in His beauty
in the land that is very far off. We are looking forward to sitting
upon Christ's Throne, even as He overcame and has sat down with His
Father upon His Throne. We comfort one another with these words! Yes,
we joy and rejoice and we reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall revealed
in us.

Oh, blessed confidence, the confidence that He will keep us while we
are here and will glorify us hereafter! As sure as Christ is glorified
so must His people be! "If we suffer with Him, we shall reign with
Him." This is the confidence we have in Him! Cast not away your
confidence!

II. Having thus labored as best I could to show the confidence, let us
now spend a few moments in considering how WE MAY CAST IT AWAY. It
strikes one, at once, on reading the passage–and the best expositors
think so, too–that

there is, here, an allusion to the Greek soldier with his shield on his
arm. When he went out to battle wearing his shield, which covered him
from head to foot, the rule was that he must either come back with his
shield or be brought back upon it–but he must never cast it away.
Among the Spartans there was a law that any soldier who cast away his
shield must die–he was not fit to be a soldier.

You remember how one of the old Scriptural songs speaks of the shield
of the mighty which was vilely cast away? This showed that in the old
war times, the casting away of your shield was a disgrace. It was
showing the white feather. It was giving up the conflict and ceasing to
hope for safety, much less victory! Our confidence is our shield and we
are not to cast it away, or suffer any to tear it from us, but hold it
fast until the battle is fought and the victory is won forever. But how
can you cast your confidence away? You can cast it away by exchanging
it for self-confidence. You can get off from the platform on which you
now stand, which is that of simple confidence in your Savior, and you
can very readily grow confident in yourselves.

All along the road to Heaven there are many junctions and at every one
of these, the devil cries out, "Change here for self-righteousness!"
The high level railway of the perfect Brethren has been much infested,
of late, by devils which cry, "Change here for self-confidence!" When I
hear how good they are and how they have conquered their tempers, I am
delighted to hear that they are on such good terms with themselves. But
at the same time I remember the proverb, "Let another praise you and
not your own lips," and I conclude that if they had been quite as good
as they say they are, they would have held their tongues about it.

My dear Brothers and Sisters, you who have begun in the Spirit, do you
hope to be perfected by the flesh? Hang on to Christ, as a sinner's
Savior, till you die! If it has been Christ up till now, do not put,
"Christ and Co." for that firm will fail, inasmuch as one of the
partners is already a bankrupt! Christ alone will stand, and stand
forever! Whatever run there may be upon that bank it will pay out gold
coin without end. When you come in, it is a self-reliance altogether.
Better to yoke a cherub with an ant than to think of yoking yourself
with Christ! You have cast away your confidence if, in any measure or
degree, you confide in self. God keep us from that, and hold us fast to
the platform of simple reliance on Christ.

I remember telling you, years ago, a story you have often met with
since, of poor Jack the huckster who heard a little ditty sung–

"I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all But Jesus Christ is my All in
All." That exactly suited Jack because he had nothing of his own, and
so he took Christ and trusted Him. He wanted to join the Church and
they asked what was his experience, and he said he did not think he had
any, only he was a poor sinner and nothing at all and Jesus Christ was
his All in All. "But," they said, "don't you have doubts?" And he said,
"Well, what is there to doubt? I know that I am a poor sinner and
nothing at all, I cannot doubt that. And Jesus Christ is my All in All,
for the Bible says so, and why should I doubt it?" They could never get
him away from that standpoint–

"I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all But Jesus Christ is my All in
All." Oh, Brothers and Sisters, if you get an inch above that platform,
you will have to come down again! Be empty and Christ will be your
fullness! But if you become full in yourself you have done with Christ.
Cast not away your confidence by leaving your simple reliance upon
Jesus Christ.

Some, however, cast away their confidence by giving way to sin. Look at
the child I spoke of just now who has such confidence in his father. He
goes in and out the house and asks for what he wants and expects to
receive it because he knows his father loves him. But see, he has done
what his father told him not to do! Do you not see that his confidence
is gone? At night he slinks away to bed. In the morning at breakfast he
does not eat much, for his father is grieved. That child does not think
that he has ceased to be his father's child, but he knows that his
Father is grieved with him and he cannot act with freedom and
confidence. If his brothers were to say, "John, ask father for
such-and-such," he would say, "No, you had better, I am out of favor
with him."

Perhaps the father has not said a word, yet, but the boy is conscious
of having done wrong and is ill at ease. If he is a wise child he will
go, at once, and say, "Father, I have done wrong. Forgive me." And
after his father has said, "Yes, dear child, I forgive you," his
confidence will return. But by doing wrong he has cast away his
confidence. He has faith in his father that he will provide him with
food and raiment and all things necessary–he never loses that
faith–but when

he disobeys, he has not that confidence towards his father which
enables him to act as a loving, favored child should do. My Brothers
and Sisters, we cannot enjoy confidence towards God if we live in
disobedience.

Old Master Brooks says, "Assurance will make us leave off sinning, or
sinning will make us leave off assurance." And, depend upon it, it
will. He who lives in the light of God's Countenance must mind what he
is doing. Kings' favorites live under a jealous eye. More is expected
from those who lean their heads upon Christ's bosom than from any other
of the disciples. You cannot grieve your heavenly Father and yet feel
the same confidence towards Him. Perhaps some of you know that you have
not this confidence. Remember that the Lord is ready to forgive you. He
is waiting for you to come and say, "Father, I have sinned."

Never let sin rankle in your conscience. It is well, every night, to
clear all out by confession. Dear Mr. Muller said from this pulpit, "Do
not begin the day unless you feel happy in the Lord." The advice is
good. See that you walk in obedience with great watchfulness, so shall
you have the freedom of children towards God. "Beloved, if our hearts
condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God." There is another
way of losing our confidence, and that is by getting into worldly
company and mixing up with the wild and frivolous. A child would soon
lose his loving, confident feeling towards his father if his father had
an enemy and he constantly went into that enemy's house and heard all
the language that was used there. Why, he would gradually harbor hard
and wrong thoughts about his father–and if his father knew that he had
been associating with his enemies, the child could not feel towards his
father as before.

Have you been cast into company some evening where the conversation was
not at all to edification, but light and frivolous and perhaps worse?
If you are a child of God, have you not felt unfit for devotion when
you reached home? You wanted to pray, but you could not. A deadening
influence will come over your intimate communion with God if you are on
close terms with unbelievers. You cannot walk with God and His enemies.
You cannot be in league with Christ and Belial at the same time, or sit
at your Master's table and expect Him to smile upon you after you have
partaken of the cup of devils. Do not lose your sweet confidence and
holy boldness in God's Presence by associating with the world, but come
out from among them and be you separate.

You can very easily lose your confidence by changing your aim in life.
The Christian's aim in life is to live for God's Glory. If he does so,
no persecution can ever shake him. If his goods are spoiled, he says,
"If it glorifies God for me to lose my property, I am no loser. I gave
my goods to God years ago." If he is put in prison, he says, "I have
lost my liberty, but I am no loser. I gave up my liberty to God long
ago." If they tell him that he will die, he says, "Well, I am no loser,
for I gave Him my life long ago. I am altogether Christ's." While your
objective is God, you will be bold as a lion! But a sordid motive is
the mother of cowardice. Suppose a minister preaches so that he may
receive honor from men? How anxious he will be to please his
hearers–and he will cut and trim to do so.

But if his sole objective is the Glory of God, he will not smooth his
speech or withhold rebukes because of man's anger. He will care no more
for human criticism than for the sighing of the rushes by the river. If
we once shift our motive. If we seek after honor from men, or for
money, or anything of self, we have cast away our confidence. You can
be perfectly confident when you feel, "What I have done I did for God's
Glory. I have a clear conscience about it." But your confidence is gone
if your motive is selfish. Why, you can look 7,000 devils in the face
and not care for one of them when your conscience will bear the
piercing eyes of God! But if you must confess to sordid motives, you
fall from your excellency and stand in doubt of your own honesty. Cast
not away your confidence, then, by shifting your aim.

Alas, dear Friends, some unhappy professors have apparently cast away
their confidence in utter unbelief. They set out with a great
confidence of a certain sort. Like Pliable, from the City of
Destruction, they were going to have the Celestial City and enjoy it
forever. But they fell into the Slough of Despond and they felt that
their confidence could not be kept up–and so they got out of the
slough on the side that was nearest their own house–and went back
through sheer despair of better things. May God keep you from this!
Remember, if you really are Christians, there is nothing for you but to
fight it through.

This is what Bunyan impresses upon us in his portrait of the Pilgrim,
who, when he saw Apollyon standing across the way and heard him swear
that he would spill his soul, would have turned back but he reflected
that he had no armor for his back, so that to retreat would be certain
destruction. For you there is nothing but to cut a lane right through
your enemies till you come up to the Throne of God! To turn back means
sure damnation! God's vengeance rests upon

the deserter and the apostate. Oh, then, Brothers and Sisters, we must
go forward! And may God the Holy Spirit help us to do so! If we think
of turning aside we are casting away our confidence and renouncing its
reward.

III. I will close by noticing THE REASONS GIVEN IN THE TEXT FOR HOLDING
FAST OUR CONFIDENCE. The first argument in the text is "therefore."
"Cast not away, therefore, your confidence." What does this,
"therefore," mean? Why, it means this–because you have already endured
so much. You were made a laughingstock and you suffered the loss of
your goods. Therefore, cast not away your confidence, for if you do,
you will have suffered for nothing! I have known a man begin to build
his house and he has spent a great deal of money upon it. But, at
length, he has thought, "I do not quite like the situation. Shall I
finish the building?" One strong argument for going on has been this,
"I have spent so much money on it, I must go through with it."

Now, some of you have spent much upon your faith. By God's Grace you
have been, for years, following on to know the Lord. You bore the
troubles of your early youth when, perhaps, father and mother were
against you and you were bold, then, for Christ. Some of you have been
known as Christian working men for years and you have encountered the
chaff of the workshop for many a month. And yet you have not gone back.
Well, you have spent a good deal upon your faith–never give it up, my
Brother–never give it up. If, for your Lord's sake, you have had the
honor to be abused and scandalized, do not turn your back, now. What?
Have you half routed the enemy, and will you now flee? Believe me, the
rest of them will be routed, too. Yon cowards have fled before you
already, fight on till the rest are vanquished!

"But," you say, "they come up thick and fast." So much the better, for
so much the grander the victory in the end. You can overcome them–by
God's Grace you can! Do not lose the victories which you have already
gained. If it was wise to go so far, it will be wise to go on to the
end. Cry for Grace to persevere, for he that endures to the end, the
same shall be saved, and only he. Having gone so far it will be
disgraceful to turn back now! Do not even think of it. I remember going
over the Col D'Obbia on the Alps and when I got a little way down I
found myself on a steep mountain side upon a mass of loose earth and
slate.

There seemed to me to be some miles of almost perpendicular descent and
no road. My head began to swim. I set my feet fast down in the loose
soil, turned my back to the scene below me, my face to the hillside,
and stuck my hands into the earth to hold as best I could. I cried to
my friend, "I shall never go down there! I will go back." He coolly
replied, "Just look where you have come from." When I looked up it
appeared to be much worse to try and clamber up than it could possibly
be to go down and so he remarked, "I think you had better go on, for it
is worse going back." So, Brothers and Sisters, we must go on, for it
will be worse going back. Let us never think of retreating, but gird up
the loins of our mind and push onward with firm resolution, by the help
of the Spirit of God.

Here is the other argument–Do not cast away your confidence, for it
has great recompense of reward. There is a reward in it now for it
makes us happy. When we are sweetly confident in God and do not molest
ourselves with doubts and fears, how happy we are! Who has not read
Cowper's beautiful description of the cottager with her pillow lace and
bobbins, who knew no more than, "her Bible true, a truth the learned
Frenchman never knew"–who was just as happy as the days were long? We
are never so happy as when, in childlike simplicity, we trust our God
without a doubt! Do not cast away your confidence, since it yields you
such pure delight.

But it makes you so strong, too–strong both to bear and labor. When
you are like a child in confidence before God, you can endure pain and
reproach right bravely–

"If on my face, for Your dear name, Shame and reproach shall be, I'll
hail reproach and welcome shame, For You'll remember me."

You can bear, like Atlas, a world upon your shoulders when you have God
within you! If He is near, you laugh at difficulties! And as for
impossibilities, there are no such things! Brethren, hold fast your
confidence, because it ministers to your strength. And, moreover, it
makes you victorious. Many a man has been won to Christ by the
confidence of simple Christians. Our doubts and fears are mischievous.
They are thistle seed. They sow unbelief in others, but our childlike
reliance upon God, our humble joy in our dear Father's care and our
unmoved resolution through thick and thin to stick to our Master is
likely to convert others, by God's good Spirit, to the right way!
Therefore, cast not away your confidence.

And, best of all, there is a recompense of reward to come. The day will
come when the King will review His troops as the squadrons come back
from the battle. The day will come when He shall come down our ranks
and look at every one of us. And, if we have been faithful in this evil
day, O Brothers and Sisters, it will repay us for anything we suffered
if He shall say to us, "Well done!" Oh, those two words! These were
enough to make us eternally happy! But hear the rest– "Well done, good
and faithful servant, enter you into the joy of your Lord." Believe me!
Believe me, my Hearers! Kings and mighty men who have rolled in riches
and yet were enemies to Christ, when they hear Christ say, "Well done!"
to His poor people, will think themselves accursed that they were not
martyrs and that they did not lie in prison, or at least suffer
reproach for Christ!

The enemies of Christ laugh today, but they will laugh on the other
side of their faces before long. Let them laugh, for we shall win! The
day shall come when shame shall be the promotion of fools, but the
royal robe shall be put upon each man's back who dared to be a fool for
Christ. The scars of suffering saints shall shine like diamonds and
they that were most abused shall be the brightest of the shining ones!
Most glad of all will they be who have the ruby crown of martyrdom to
cast at the Savior's feet–but each one of you who have boldly held on
to Christ, though despised and re-jected–and dared to suffer slander
for His dear name's sake–you shall be among the first and brightest
who wear the white robe and share their Master's victory. By the palm
and by the white robe. By the unfading crown. By the halos of angels,
and the streets of gold, cast not away your confidence, for it has
great recompense of reward!

Oh, you that know not Christ and have no confidence in Him, beware! He
is coming–coming to call you to judgement. Beware, for in the day of
His appearing He will look upon you and He will know that you never
trusted Him and never suffered for Him, but chose the broad road that
leads to destruction. Oh, how you will tremble, then, and with what
agony will you cry to the mountains, "Hide us from the face! Hide us
from the face of Him that sits upon the Throne!" God grant that you may
not thus be carried away with terror, but may you believe your Lord and
then have a full confidence in Him–a confidence which you will never
cast away, "for it has great recompense of reward."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hebrews 10:19-39. HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–675, 632.