“I and the Children”

DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 20, 1874,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Behold, Iand the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and
for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwells in Mount
Zion." Isaiah 8:18.

WE might possibly have had some difficulty in explaining this verse, or
we might have referred it to the Prophet Isaiah and his sons, had not
Inspiration been its own expositor. Turn to the New Testament and the
text will be no mystery to you. Its key hangs on its proper nail. In
the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and at the 11th
verse, we read–"For both He that sanctifies and they who are
sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call
them brethren, saying, I will declare Your name unto My brethren, in
the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto You. And again, I will
put My trust in Him. And again, Behold, I and the children which God
has given Me."

We have thus, from Divine Revelation, assured evidence that it is our
Lord who speaks, and speaks of His people as His children. This clue we
will follow. The context sets forth, as is most common throughout the
whole of Scripture, the different results which result from the
appearance of the Savior. He is rejected by many and accepted by
others. He was set for the fall and rise of many in Israel. To those
who received Him, He is a glory and a defense, but to others, "a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense."

Even now His Gospel is a "savor of death unto death" as well as a
"savor of life unto life." The election of Divine Grace is always being
worked out. The separating process continues and will continue until
the eternal purpose has been completely fulfilled. Those whom the Lord
has chosen feel the attractions of the Savior and come to Him–while
others willfully and wickedly close their eyes to His brightness and
reject Him–and He leaves them in their willing unbelief. "He came unto
His own and His own received Him not, but to as many as received Him to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believed on His name."

Of those who received the Lord, we find it written that the Testimony
of God would be left in their charge. "Bind up the Testimony; seal the
Law among My disciples." The outside world rejects the Testimony of
God–its own thoughts and opinions are much more pleasant to it–but
among the Lord's disciples His commands are prized and His teachings
sacredly preserved. They see the seal of the living God upon the Gospel
and they also set to it their seal that God is true. They accept the
Gospel of Jesus as the very Truth of God and hold it, and mean to hold
it against all comers.

To the true disciples of Jesus there may come times of darkness. It has
been so with the Church of old and will always be so. But they have
this star to gild their midnight–Christ, their Master and
Representative–is waiting upon the Lord and expecting and pleading for
brighter and happier times. "I will wait," says He, "upon the Lord that
hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him."
Christ, in the dark ages of Judaism, looked for the dawn of the Gospel
day and even now He sets Himself upon His watchtower and looks for a
golden age for His redeemed people. So interested is He in their
welfare that He will not rest till their brightness shines forth as a
lamp that burns!

Having thus noted the context, we will come closely to the text. On
this earth a people exist who have accepted the Messiah and have become
His disciples–and look for all from their Lord. Of these people the
text says, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given Me."
Here we shall notice, first, a remarkable relationship ascribed to
Christ. Secondly, a spontaneous avowal of it–"Behold, I and the
children whom You have given Me." And thirdly, a common
function–common to the Lord and to His disciples–they are appointed
to be "signs" and "wonders" in Israel from the Lord of Hosts which
dwells in Mount Zion.

I. First, here is A REMARKABLE RELATIONSHIP. Jesus is called a Father.
Now, this is not according to precise theology, or according to the
more formal doctrinal statements of Scripture, so we must, therefore,
take care that we do not confuse ourselves. Jesus is not, "the Father,"
and we must always carefully maintain the distinction of Persons in the

Godhead. The Son of God is one with the Father, but He is not the
Father. And we must take care we do not ascribe to the Son acts which
are peculiar to the Father. According to correct speech, it is the
first Person of the Divine Trinity whom we call the Father, who has
begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus from
the dead. And when we say, "Abba, Father," "Our Father which are in
Heaven," and, "Thanks be unto the Father," we do not refer to the Lord
Jesus, but to "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Still, the title of Father is very applicable to our Lord Jesus Christ
for many reasons. First, because He is our federal Head. We speak
correctly of "father Adam," and Jesus is the second Adam who heads up
our race anew and is the representative Man of redeemed mankind. He,
only, of all mankind, stands to others as Adam stood–head of a
Covenant–involving others in His acts. The second Adam, therefore, may
well regard us as His children in whom the Covenant promise is
fulfilled, "His seed, also, will I make to endure forever."

As the first Adam looking down the ages upon us, may well cry with
astonishment, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me!"
So Jesus, viewing the vast company of the faithful, sees in them His
seed, and finds in them a sacred satisfaction for the travail of His
soul. We are in Him. He stands for us and we are, in this sense, His
children. Our Lord is also Father of the golden age of Grace and Glory.
Isaiah calls Him, "the Son born," and, "the Child given," and yet, "the
Everlasting Father." And our hymn has well translated that expression–

"Sire of ages newer to cease, Prince of life and Prince of peace."

There is an age of silver in which we now live, which Christ has
produced by His first Advent and the consequent proclamation of the
Gospel. And there is an age of gold yet to come, delightfully
anticipated by the saints, of which Christ will be the Father and Lord.
Then in Him, and in His seed, shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed! Indeed, I might say, that the eternity of blessedness in which
the sanctified shall dwell is an age which claims Christ for its
Father–and so He may well be called, "the Father of Eternity," or,
"the Everlasting Father."

Again, there is a sense in which Christ is our Father because by His
teaching we are born unto God. Just as the minister who brings a soul
to Christ is said to be the spiritual parent to such a soul, and is,
indeed, instrumentally so, so the Lord Jesus, as the Author of our
faith, is our spiritual Father in the family of God. And of Him the
whole family in Heaven and earth is named. Our Lord, in bringing many
sons unto Glory, is truly their Father, for He calls them into
spiritual life and puts them among the children of God. He is that
"corn of wheat" which, except it fall into the ground and die, it
abides alone. But, inasmuch as He has died, He brings forth much fruit.
And we–all of us who have believed in Him– are the living fruit of
our dying and risen Savior! Therefore we speak correctly when we call
Him Father. He is our elder Brother, but He is also "over His own
house, whose house we are." The Word which quickened us came to us by
Jesus Christ who is Lord of all!

Now, let us see whether there is not much of teaching in this metaphor
by which we are called children of the Lord Jesus. The expression
denotes, first, that we derive our spiritual life from Him as children
take their origin from their father. Of Him we are. If He had not
created us, we had not been in the world. If He had not redeemed us, we
had not possessed a portion in the world to come. If He had not called
us, we had still been in darkness and in death. If He had not quickened
us–for He quickens whom He wills–we had still lain among the dry
bones of the valley of sin. That we are, we owe to the Father's
Providence–but that we are born again, we owe to the Grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

Apart from that matchless scheme of which Christ is the Sum and
Substance, there had been no pardoned sinners, no Believers, no
children adopted into the family of God, no heirs of God, no priests
and kings to reign with Christ forever and ever! As we look at the dear
wounds of Jesus, we see the rock from where we were hewn. When we gaze
upon His precious blood, we see the life blood of our souls! He is the
Root that bears us, the Stem of which we are the branches. Children do
not merely get their origin from their father, but they have a likeness
to his nature–and this is most true in the case of our Lord and His
regenerated people, for He has become like to us–and on the other
hand, He has made us like to Him.

Note how the Apostle puts it, "Forasmuch as the children were partakers
of flesh and blood, He Himself also took part of the same." "Both He
that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one." "It
behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren." As a father feels for
his children because they are of the same flesh and blood as himself,
so does the Lord sympathize with His people, for they are members of
His body, of His flesh and of His bones. No father can be so

thoroughly one with his offspring as Jesus is with us! Moreover, our
Divine Lord is bringing us into His likeness and making us partakers of
His Nature. True Believers are as like their Lord as little children
are like their father.

As I said last Thursday night, the likeness may be in some points a
caricature, so that we smile to see ourselves represented and
misrepresented in our children, yet there it is–we see our image in
them–and so the image of Christ is upon all His believing people! It
is much marred and very miniature, but still it is the true image of
His love. As on the prepared glass of the photographer, the likeness is
present, but needs to be brought out by means best known to himself. So
it is with us–the image of God has been renewed in us, but it lies
somewhat hidden–and the Holy Spirit has it in hand to develop in us
the life of Christ. And His work will be complete at the appearing of
our Lord and Savior, "for when He shall appear we shall be like He, for
we shall see Him as He is."

I believe that the text has in it very clearly the idea of charge and
responsibility. Children are always a charge–a comfort sometimes. No
parent has a child without being under obligations to God to take care
of it and to nurse it for Him. Sometimes the responsibility becomes
very heavy and involves much anxiety. Wherever conscience is lively,
fatherhood is regarded as a solemn thing. Now, Jesus Christ, when
looking upon His people, calls them, "children whom God has given Me,"
as if He recognized the charge laid upon Him to keep, instruct and
perfect His own people. Remember His last words to His Father before He
went to His passion?

"I have manifested Your name unto the men which You gave Me out of the
world. Yours they were, and You gave them to Me and they have kept Your
word. While I was with them in the world I kept them in Your name:
those that You gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the
son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." Like Jacob
with Laban's sheep, our Lord looked upon His elect as a charge for
which He was responsible. And before He departed out of this life He
rendered in an account to His heavenly Father. Even now that Great
Shepherd of the sheep charges Himself with the preservation of His own
ransomed ones! And when He, at the last, shall gather all His redeemed
people around Him, there will not be one missing–and He will say,
"Behold, I and the children that You have given Me." We call Him,
Father, then, because as a father has charge of his family and is
before God responsible for their training and up-bringing, so Christ
Himself is Surety for His people and is under bond to bring the many
sons unto Glory.

In our relationship towards our children there is involved very often a
great deal of care and grief. They are happy parents, indeed, who can
say of a child, "He never caused me anxiety"! Happy father who can say
of all his household, "I have had no sorrow from one of them"! I fear
the case is rare. I know that this Father of whom we are speaking had
care and grief enough for His household. Yes, for their sakes He bore a
weight of woe which crushed Him to the ground! Oh, you sorrowing
parents! Take comfort as you remember the greater griefs of the Head of
the chosen family! For all their infirmities and sins and willful
wanderings were laid upon Him and, for His children's sake, His "soul
was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death."

The pangs of His sacred Fatherhood brought Him to Gethsemane and its
bloody sweat. Yes, to Calvary, and its shameful doom–what are our
griefs compared with these? Jesus must die for His family that He might
be able to say, "Here am I, and the children which You have given Me."
Count it not, therefore, a strange thing, since you cost your Lord so
much anguish, if sometimes your children should pour coals of fire into
your bosoms! But, Brothers and Sisters, the possession of children
involves a very near and dear love. You may try to love other people's
children, but I think there will always be a loving tenderness to your
own which you cannot give to a stranger's child, however much you try.
Your own children, after all–it is natural and it is right–must have
the warmest place in your heart.

Even thus the Lord has a special love for His own. He manifests Himself
to them and not unto the world. It is almost a degradation of the love
of Christ to compare it to anything human. It is so amazing, so Divine,
that it transcends comparison! If all the loves of parents could be
piled up together in one vast mound–the love of fathers and the most
tender love of mothers–yet the whole of that Alp would not equal the
immeasurable love of Jesus Christ to His own people! Who understands
its heights and depths, its lengths and breadths? Oh, You dear Lord and
Savior! Because of Your dear love to us we call You not only Rabbi, but
Father! And as we hear You say to us, "Children, have you any meat?" We
answer, "Yes, You, Father of Your Church. Your Table feasts us to the
full."

Children, however, when they behave aright, bring to the heart of their
parent sweet solace and dear delight. Oh, I love the thought, and I
long to bring it out before you, that as a father is pleased when he
sees his children growing up in the fear of God–when he observes their
good character and qualities, when he marks their struggles for that
which is

right and their attempts to curb themselves in that which is wrong–so
is Jesus pleased with us! He speaks with great delight in our text,
"Behold, I and the children." He is evidently gratified with them. The
sight of them gives Him content. We readily see anything that is good
in our children. We have a quick eye for their beauties. Sometimes,
perhaps, we do not sufficiently see that which is deficient or
wrong–but assuredly our Lord must have a very keen eye for His
people's loveliness, for He says of His Church, "You are all fair, My
Love. There is no spot in you."

We can see many spots in ourselves, but He looks at us with other eyes.
I suppose He looks at us through the glass of His own righteousness,
with eyes fall of perfect love. His delights are with the sons of men.
He rejoices over us with singing. Never does a prayer of penitence rise
from a breaking heart without rejoicing the soul of Jesus, for, "There
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repents." Never does a Believer struggle against wrong, endure
oppression patiently, or conquer sin but Jesus is glad! Each budding
Grace and growing virtue charms Him, even as parents are charmed with
their hopeful little ones. Our joy in our sons and our daughters looks
forward and refreshes us with the prospect of what they will be. How
many bright hopes light up a mother's heart as she thinks of her son or
daughter! She reckons upon comfort from them in her declining years.

Our Lord knows what His people are to be and He rejoices therein. Oh,
if you could see yourselves as you will be in the future, you would not
know yourselves! If you could only have a photograph of your future
Glory and could study it, you would say, "Shall I ever be like that?
Shall I ever be so fair, bright and pure as that?" Remember, the Lord
Jesus sees you as you shall be and He takes delight in you and says,
"Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given Me." Putting, then,
all these things together, you will not fail to see the fitness of the
figure by which our Lord is represented as standing in the midst of His
own redeemed–as Father among His children.

II. Now we shall turn to the second point, and utter a few words upon
it. There is a SPONTANEOUS AVOWAL. He says, "Behold, I and the children
whom You have given Me." The Lord acknowledges His children. Sometimes
they are ashamed to acknowledge Him and He might always be ashamed to
claim them, but He never is. He speaks of them without hesitation. It
is, "/and the children." They are defiled and unworthy. They have been
falling in the mire and have torn their clothes and I know not what
else, but He says, "They are My children." And He never thinks of
casting them

off.

It amazes me that He does so claim them–but it is His infinite love to
them and His boundless delight in them which make Him say–"I have
called you by your name, you are Mine." Not only does Jesus claim them
as His, publicly, but He glories in them as being God's gift to
Him–"The children whom You have given Me," as if they were something
more than ordinary children! They are the promised fruit of the
"travail of His soul." They are the reward which Jehovah covenanted to
bestow on Him for His agonies and death! He looks upon them as the
spoil of His great battle of life, as the crown of His life's labor!
Solomon gave to Hiram, the King of Tyre, certain cities. But he did not
like them and called them Cabul, or "foul." But our Redeemer is
well-pleased with His reward. He takes His purchased inheritance to His
heart and rejoices, saying, "Behold, I and the children whom You have
given Me."

Observe that the Lord not only acknowledges His people and delights in
them, but He challenges inspection. He says, "Behold!–look at them–I
am not ashamed of them. Look at them, My Father–look at them all
glorious in Your Son, all washed in My blood, all robed in My
righteousness–look at them, and see how glorified I am in them! Your
eyes, though full of fire against sin, can see no sin in them! Your
hand, though it grasps the thunderbolt of vengeance against
transgression, will not smite them, for I have made Atonement."
"Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me," is a call to the
whole world to look, "for these things were not done in a corner!"

Jesus did not come into the world that He and His children should be
hidden under a bushel and should not be known! No, standing right out,
as a city set on a hill, Jesus says, "Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord has given Me." "Look at them, for they are meant to be looked
at! They are set 'for signs and wonders' throughout all generations."
And notice again–for it affects my mind much more powerfully than I
can express, "Behold, / and the children." I can understand a mother
speaking thus about herself and children, but for Christ, the God of
Glory, to unite His glorious name with such poor worms of the dust is
very wonderful!

There! Sit down and wonder and weep over it as Jesus says, "I and the
children." Well did old Rowland Hill sing–

"And when I shall die, receive me, I'll cry For Jesus has loved me–I
cannot tell why.

But this thing I find, we two are so joined He won't be in Hea ven and
lea ve me behind." Jesus will not be without us! He cannot bear it! You
mothers do not think it enough to be indoors in bed, yourselves, when
night comes on–you want the dear children to be safely housed, too. If
you were pursued by wolves on some snowy plain in Russia, you would not
be satisfied to escape, yourself, and leave your children to be
devoured. Your motto would be, "I and the children." You would live or
die with them! How often, when mothers have been overtaken in
snowstorms, have they been found dead–with their little ones nestling
in their bosoms still alive! The mother has often taken off her
garments to wrap them around her babe–and even so, Christ has stripped
Himself of every honor and comfort–and died to prove His infinite love
for His own!

It is no idle sentence in which He sets forth His union with His
beloved in very deed and binds Himself and them in one sacred bond. I
cannot tell you how I rejoice in these words! I have them in my mouth
and in my heart–"I and the children." Blessed be our Lord for speaking
thus!

Now, Beloved, if Jesus claims us so lovingly, let us always claim Him!
And if Christ takes us into partnership–"I and the children"–let us
reply, "Christ is all." Let Him stand first with us and let our name be
forever joined with His name. Let us be bound up in the bundle of life
with Him. It is plain that He delights in us–let us delight in Him! It
is clear He glories in us–let us glory in Him! He invites others to
look at us and Him–let us invite all mankind to behold our glorious
Lord! Let us get behind our Lord and set Him always before us. Whoever
visits us, let them not leave us without taking knowledge that we have
been with Jesus!

If we show our treasures, as Hezekiah did, let us begin with showing
our Savior, for no Babylonians will ever come and take Him away from
us! Our "soul shall make her boast in the Lord," and none shall ever
stop us of this glorying here or hereafter! Enough, then, concerning
the spontaneous avowal. Oh, may we be among the happy company of whom
our Lord shall say, "Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me"!

III. Thirdly–and into this I would throw the strength of the
discourse–there is A COMMON FUNCTION. Christ and His people "are for
signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts which dwells in
Mount Zion." Both Christ and His people are set for a purpose. First,
they are to be "signs and wonders" by way of testimony. Our Lord is
called the "Word of God." A word is the means of communication between
one mind and another. God speaks to men by Christ–no–Christ is His
speech. If you want to know what God has to say to you, see what Christ
was and is!

In the same manner, only in an inferior degree, Believers are God's
voice to men–He speaks to the world through His people. In a happy
Christian, God says, "I will make you happy, too, as I have made this
man, if you seek Me in the same way as this man did." In the Believing
Christian who gets his prayers answered, God says to men, "I will hear
your prayer if you pray as this man does, with faith in My promise."

All the world of Nature reveals God, but the revelation is inarticulate
and rather resembles the teaching of a picture or a hieroglyph than a
clear distinct voice. But we, my Brothers and Sisters, are to be God's
mouth among the sons of men! And our conversation, our profession, our
life in its entirety is to be a witness from God to man–a testimony
for the Truth of God, for righteousness, for holiness, for the power of
the quickening Spirit, for the efficacy of redeeming blood–and for all
the Truths contained in Divine Revelation. We are not to be blank
sheets, or papers with a blot on them and nothing more. We are to be
letters written by God and passed round among men that they may read in
us what God has to say! Now, it is very clearly so in Christ–His holy
life and blessed death are a wonderful witness to the people. And as to
us, the Lord has said. "You are also My witnesses." I would inquire
concerning many of you here who have made a profession, whether you are
really God's voice to men. If not, what is the use of your dumb
religion?

We are, secondly, signs and wonders among sinners by way of marvel.
Believers, by their declaration of God's Testimony, become more and
more singular in the judgment of men. No man but a Christian can
understand a Christian. The spiritual discerns all things, yet he,
himself, is discerned of no man. Carnal minds cannot make us out, "for
we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God." The person who
never strikes you as having anything singular about him, who is just
like men of the world, is probably no Christian. If you are a believer
in Jesus Christ, yourself, the unregenerate will misunderstand and
misrepresent you. But if everybody is pleased with you–it is pretty
clear that God is not–for "the friendship of this world is enmity with
God."

Genuine Christians will generally be reckoned by the world to be
singular people. For instance, they profess to have been converted–and
so to have undergone a miraculous change. They profess to have a new
life, compared with which they were dead before. The world calls this
nonsense. Regeneration! What fanaticism! In the days of Whitfield and
Wesley the loose spirits made rare fun of the idea of being born
again–and the preacher of regeneration was dubbed Mr. Wildgoose–and
his followers a set of enthusiasts. The world now practices the crafty
device of using our terms and phrases, but meaning something else by
them–thus talking of being regenerated by baptism and such other
nonsense! To be "born again" is still a marvel to the sons of men!

The real Christian is a man who has faith in Providence and believes in
God–therefore he is calm and unmoved in times of distress. He believes
in the lilies which do not spin and yet are clothed, in the ravens
which sow not and do not reap and yet are fed–therefore, though using
his utmost diligence, he is not anxious, but lives in peace. The world
envies him, but cannot comprehend him! Moreover, the Christian is a man
who has power in prayer–he asks and receives, knocks and it is opened
unto him–and the outside world either disbelieves the fact or else
looks upon it as a strange affair. It must be so! We must be wondered
at!

Yet I do not say that some of you Christian people are a marvel or
wonder at all, for I do not think you are–the marvel is that you dare
call yourselves Christians! I mean that the genuine Christian is, in
many points, a singular person, so singular that others cannot read his
riddle. When a man becomes converted in an ungodly family, he is like a
young swan in a duck's nest–they cannot understand him. They say,
"This is a strange bird! Where did he come from?" They count him ugly
because he is not like the rest. Frequently, ungodly relatives consider
the young convert to be going out of his mind, or as being naturally
weak in the intellect. They put him down as insane while he is
sorrowful, and as idiotic when he is joyous!

The world cannot understand a Christian's endurance of trial, but they
set it down to hard-heartedness. They see him calm and composed. He
neither raves nor blasphemes nor tears his hair. And if the worst comes
to the worst, he still says, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him." This perplexes worldlings and no wonder, for it puzzled the devil
himself! He laid Job, covered with boils, on a dunghill–scraping
himself with a piece of potsherd. He was brought to poverty. His own
wife tempting him and his friends accusing him, yet that man, who was a
greater conqueror than Alexander or Napoleon, still said, "What? Shall
we receive good from the hands of the Lord, and shall we not receive
evil? The lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord." "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."
When the Lord allows any of us to be similarly tried and sustains us in
the trial, we become "a wonder unto many."

One of the greatest wonders to the ungodly is a Christian's deathbed.
Ungodly men, who have despised religion altogether, have been troubled
in conscience and almost persuaded to be Christians through the holy
triumphs of dying saints! Many an Infidel remembers his mother's holy
life–how quiet, how loving she was–making the house always happy. And
he remembers how grieved she was when her boy began to be skeptical
about his mother's Savior. That dying charge of hers will ring in his
memory forever! That dying look of joyful triumph from those eyes which
had no tear in them except for those that were left behind–that
expiring song, that shout of victory–he cannot get over it! If a man
wishes to be skeptical, he must not see true Christians either live or
die–otherwise facts will convince him against his will–or make it
hard to doubt.

When the Believer's testimony for good becomes a marvel, it is not
unusual if he, afterwards, becomes an object of contempt. What did the
world say of the Master? "They called the Master of the house
Beelzebub." He was despised and rejected of men. And if you are one of
His disciples, the world will despise you, also! I will tell you what
they say of us– "They are all a parcel of dupes, led by the nose by a
man. They will believe anything he tells them." All this because you
are true to your pastor and the Word of God! Then, as soon as they see
that you are not led by a man, but think for yourself, they cry, "Ah,
you are one of those pig-headed ones! You will never be taught! Why
don't you believe as your fathers did, and keep to the old Church?"

If the world cannot wound us on one side, it tries the other. If they
cannot accuse us of being black, our enemies will say that we are of a
sickly white. Readily do accusers change their sweet voices and cry,
"Ah! It is all a scheme for motley getting." If the minister is
zealous, they any, "Self-interest is at the bottom. If it is not love
of money, it is love of power and influence." To the Christian people
they say, "No doubt you increase your business by it. Many a man puts
his

religion in his shop window and finds it pays amazingly well." They
know in their own souls that you are free from any sinister motive, but
they will not do you justice. Like Satan, they say, "Does Job serve God
for nothing? Have You not set a hedge about him, and all that he has?"

Meanwhile, if you were in poverty through religion, they would sing
another tune and say, "A pretty thing comes of being a Christian! Why,
you will soon be without shoes for your feet! Look what you bring
yourself and your family to." If God pays good wages, the devil says,
"You only serve Him for the wages." If present mercies are small, the
old accuser tauntingly exclaims, "A pretty master you serve! See how He
starves you?" There is no pleasing the world–and we have no desire to
please it! As Paul said, "The world is crucified unto me and I unto the
world." I know the kind of tone adopted by others–they plume
themselves upon their intellect and set us down as behind our times.
"We have no patience," they say, "with this believing in prayer, this
expectation of conversion, this reliance upon atonement and imputed
righteousness.

"Why, it is downright stupidity! Such preaching is only an echo from
the graves of Puritans! No doubt Puritanism was a power in the days of
Cromwell, but it is out of date now. We require more advanced thought
in this enlightened age when we have locomotives on railways and other
grand improvements, and have discovered that the universe made itself!
We cannot afford to keep behind these intelligent times and must go in
for a splendid smash like other people." If this does not wound us they
will say, "These people are not thinkers–they have no culture." And so
they set us down for fools. In which we greatly rejoice–being glad to
be fools for Christ's sake!

Christians in all ages have been considered fools. If you are traveling
in Switzerland and see an idiot, he is a "Cretin"–that is, a
Christian. Yes! Such was the byword–the fool was called a Christian
and the Christian was thought a fool! We are satisfied to bide our
time, knowing that the day shall come in which the worldly wise will
not only be called fools by Myers, but will confess themselves so in
endless despair. But now they say, "These people are too precise, they
make life dreary!" We are, in our own esteem, the happiest people in
the world! And we could not be much happier this side of Heaven! But
because we do not care for their vain pleasures, their husks, and
swine's' meat, we are austere and miserable. Only they think so who
know nothing about us! We have meat to eat which they know not of, and,
like Daniel and his brothers, though we taste not of the world's
dainties, we are in better shape than those who do.

Men of the world are apt to say, "You are such a set of bigots! You
think everybody wrong but yourselves." Is it a wonder that if we think
we are right–we do not believe that those who are opposed to us can be
right, also! If we know that two and two make four, we are intolerant
enough to affirm that they cannot make five! It is a degradation to my
intellect to expect me to believe that "yes" and "no" can be equally
correct upon the same matter! Triflers with religion may consent to
such folly, but those who are in earnest cannot do so. If to be sure
that what God says is true is bigotry, we confess that bigotry! Our
Master says, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; he that
believes not shall be damned"–we believe this and the damnatory
clause, too! And we are content to abide the judgment of the Last Great
Day as to whether such a belief will then be accounted bigotry or not!

Our despisers often cry, "See what conceit and pride! They think
themselves God's elect and that He has a special favor for them, and
pardons their sins, and saves them." That is correct! Call that conceit
if you please–we are not ashamed to confess it! If you saw a rich man
going down the street and were rude enough to say, "See how conceited a
man he is! He thinks himself worth 10,000 pounds," he might quietly
smile and say, "I do think so, and rightly, too, for I am worth several
hundred thousand pounds." They say we are conceited because we
rejoice–but it is our fault not to rejoice more! The Lord has done
great things for us, we dare not deny it and have no wish to do so. He
has made us to be His sons and daughters and we must glory in His name!

If others mistake our joy for pride we cannot help it, for we know
right well that we give all the glory to God in our own souls. When
Believers thus become, as they will be, objects of contempt, they will
be assailed with ridicule and spattered with slander! Bad motives will
be imputed to them and the Truths for which they are willing to die
will be attacked–both in their persons and their testimonies. They
must bear reproach–and if they do–they will become wonders again! If
they suffer but never retaliate. If they never return railing for
railing. If they bear and forbear, their patience will make them
wonders! As the ages shall roll on, the holy and the godly and the
Christ-like–Jesus and His children–will go from victory to victory!
In every coming age, even though persecution should rage as it did in
former days, the Church of God will bear it and defeat it!

Superstition, heresy and worldliness will come, but the Church will
pass through the storm! And at the last, when Truth shall conquer, when
Gethsemane shall be transfigured into Paradise and the shame of the
Cross of Calvary shall be lost in the Glory of the "Great White
Throne"–when there shall be no more the crown of thorns, and nails,
and sponge and vinegar–but when Jesus shall be proclaimed, "King of
kings and Lord of lords," and all His people shall reign with Him, then
will the saints be signs and wonders, indeed! Know you not that you
shall judge kings, sitting as assessors at the right hand of God? Know
you not that you shall be the Glory of Christ in that day? When the
ungodly shall cry, "Rocks, hide us! Mountains, fall on us!" "The
righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

Hold on, my Brothers and Sisters! And hold out to the end! Be humble
and quietly faithful. Do not try to be a wonder, but be a wonder! Do
not try to do some astonishing thing to attract attention, but "let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father which is in Heaven." Do not believe that the common
Christianity of the present age will carry anybody to Heaven! It is a
counterfeit and a sham! It does not make men different from their
fellows! It pretends to have faith and has none. It talks about love
and does not show it. It brags of truth and evaporates it into thin air
in its tolerant charity. May God give us back the real thing–strong
belief in the Gospel, real faith in Jesus, real prayer to Him, real
spiritual power!

Then, again, there will be persecution, but it will only blow away the
chaff and leave the pure wheat! The world likes us better because we
like the world better–it calls us friends because we hide our colors
and sheathe our swords and play the coward. But if we preach and live
the Gospel in the old Apostolic way, we shall soon have the devil
roaring round the camp and the seed of the serpent hissing on all
sides! But we fear not, for "the Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of
Jacob is our refuge."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Isaiah 8:11-22; 9:1-7. HYMNS
FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–PSALM 116 (SONG II) 255, 342.
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