Jesus–“All Blessing and All Blessed”

Jesus–"All Blessing and All Blessed"

(No. 2187)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1891,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed."
Psalm 72:17.

THERE are many famous names in human history, but many of them are
connected with deeds which have brought no blessing upon mankind. To
bless and to be blessed is the noblest sort of fame and yet how few
have thought it worth the seeking! Full many a name in the roll of fame
has been written there with a finger dipped in blood. It would seem as
if men loved those most who have killed the most of them! They call
those greatest who have been the greatest cutthroats! They make their
greatest illuminations over massacres of their fellows, calling them
victories. To be set aloft upon a column, or represented by a public
statue, or to have poets ringing out your name, it seems necessary to
grasp the sword and to hack and slay your fellow men! Is it not too
sadly true that when men have been cursed by one of their leaders,
they, from then on call him great? O misery, that wholesale murder
should be the shortest method of becoming illustrious!

There is one name that will last when all others shall have died
out–and that name is connected with blessing–and only with blessing.
Jesus Christ came into the world on purpose to bless men. Men, as a
race, find in Him a blessing wide as the world. While He was here, He
blessed and cursed not. All around Him, both by speech, act, glance and
thought, He was an Incarnate blessing. All that came to Him, unless
they willfully rejected Him, obtained blessings at His hands. The home
of His infancy, the friends of His youth, the comrades of His manhood,
He blessed unsparingly! He labored to bless men. To bless men, He
parted with everything and became poor. To bless men, at last He died.
Those outstretched hands upon the Cross are spread wide in
benediction–and they are fastened there as if they would remain
outstretched till the whole world is blessed!

Our Lord's resurrection from the dead brings blessings to mankind. He
has won for us redemption from the grave and eternal life. He waited on
earth, a while, until He ascended, blessing men as He went up. His last
attitude below the skies was that of pronouncing a blessing upon His
disciples. He is gone into Glory, but He has not ceased to bless our
race. The Holy Spirit came among us soon after the Ascension, because
Jesus had received gifts for men–yes, also for the rebellious. The
wonderful blessings which are comprised in the work, Person and offices
of the Holy Spirit–all these come to us through Jesus Christ, the
ever-blessed and ever-blessing One! He still loves to bless. Standing
at the helm of all affairs, He guides the tiller of Providence with a
view to the blessing of His chosen. He still spends His time in making
intercession for transgressors, that the blessing of God may rest upon
them, while His Spirit, who is His Vicegerent here below, is always
occupied with blessing the sons of men.

Our Lord Jesus will soon come a second time and in that glorious hour,
though His left hand must deal out justice, His right hand will lavish
blessing! His chief end and bent in His coming will be that He may
largely bless those loving hearts that watch for His appearing. Christ
is all blessing. When you have written down His name, you have pointed
to the Fountain from which all blessings flow–you have named that Sun
of Righteousness to whose beams we owe every good and perfect gift!
From the beginning, throughout all eternity, the Lord Jesus blesses
men–

"Over every foe victorious,

He on His Throne shall rest!

From age to age more glorious

All blessing and all blessed.

The tide of time shall never

His covenantremove,

His name shall stand forever,

That name to us is–Love."

I purpose, at this time, if the Lord shall help me, to speak very
simply about the fullness of blessing which comes from our Master and
Lord. First saying, dear Friends, that we ourselves are living proofs
of the statement that men shall be blessed in Him. Then, desiring to
say, in the second place, that we have seen it to be true, also, in
others. And, thirdly, expressing our conviction that it shall be true,
on the largest scale, with the nations–"All nations shall be blessed
in Him," and, therefore, they shall call Him blessed.

I. First, then, WE OURSELVES ARE LIVING WITNESSES THAT MEN ARE BLESSED
IN CHRIST. You and I do not pretend to be great sages, famous
philosophers, or learned divines. We feel when a pin pricks us, or when
a dog bites us. We have sense enough to know when a thing tastes well
or bad. We know chalk from cheese, as the proverb has it. We know
something about our own needs and we also know when we get those needs
supplied. We have not mastered the extraordinary, but in the
commonplace we feel at home. A man is none the worse witness in court
because he does not know all the technical terms used in science. A
judge is never better pleased than when he sees, in the witness box,
some plain, blunt, honest fellow who will blunder out the truth. We
will speak the Truth of God at this time, so far as we know it, whether
we offend or please. Every man is to speak as he finds and we will
speak concerning Jesus Christ as we have found Him. I will try, if I
can, to be spokesman for all present who are believers in Christ. And I
ask a patient hearing.

We bear witness that we have been blessed in Him. How much, how deeply,
how long and in how many ways we have been blessed in Him, I will not
undertake to say, but this I will say most emphatically–for many of
you now present, whose lives and histories I know almost as I know my
own, we have in verity, beyond all question, been blessed in Jesus to
the highest degree and of this we are sure! We believe and faith grasps
the first blessing–that we have received a great blessing in Christ by
the removal of a curse which otherwise must have rested upon us. That
curse did overshadow us, once, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the
Law to do them." We could not keep the Law. We did not keep it. We gave
up all hope of keeping it. Therefore, the dark thundercloud of that
tremendous sentence hung over us and we heard the voice of justice
speaking out of it, like a volley of the dread artillery of God in the
day of tempest! The thunder of the curse rolled heavily over our heads
and hearts. How some of us cowered down and trembled!

We can never forget the horror of our soul under the near apprehension
of Divine wrath! To be cursed of God meant all woes in one. Some of us
were brought very low, indeed, by the frown of a guilty conscience. We
gave up, even, the dream of hope. We thought ourselves effectually,
finally and everlastingly condemned and so, indeed, we should have
found it, had there not been a Divine Interposer! But now that curse is
taken from us and we do not dread its return, for He was made a curse
for us, of whose name we are speaking now–even He "who knew no sin,
but was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him." No curse now remains–only blessing abides! Hallelujah! If our
Lord had done nothing else for us but the rolling away of the curse, He
would have blessed us infinitely–and we would have blessed Him
forever. If He had accomplished nothing but the bearing away of our sin
into the wilderness–as the scapegoat of old bore away the iniquity of
Israel–He would have done enough to set our tongues forever praising
Him. He has lifted from the world the weight of the eternal curse and,
therefore, let all the bells of our cities ring out His honor and all
the voices of the villages sing forth His praise! O you stars of light,
shine to His Glory, for He is blessed beyond all earthly measure!

The negative being removed, we have had a positive actual experience of
blessing, for God has blessed us in Christ Jesus and we know that none
are more blessed than we are. We are not at all, now, the men that we
used to be as to our inward feelings. Some years ago, under the
apprehension of Divine wrath, we were so unhappy and troubled that we
could find no rest. But now we are blessed in Christ so greatly that we
are at perfect peace and our soul has dropped its anchor in the haven
of content! Our joy is usually as great as formerly our sorrow used to
be. We feared our sorrow would kill us–we sometimes think, now, that
our joy is more likely to do so, for it becomes so intense that at
times we can scarcely bear it, much less speak of it!

As we could get no rest before, so now, by faith, we feel as if we
never lost that rest, for we are so quiet of heart, so calm, so
settled, that we sing, "My heart is fixed, O God; my heart is fixed!"
Not because temporal circumstances are quite as we would wish them, but
because we have learned to leave off wishing, we are now more than
satisfied! Getting

God's blessing upon everything, we have learned to be content and
something more–we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We used to
fret, before we knew Him, but His love has ended that. We thought we
could do things better than God could and we did not like His way of
managing–but He has taught us to be like children, pleased with
whatever our Father provides–and, therefore, we joyfully declare, "My
soul is even as a weaned child! I have nothing to wish for. I need
nothing but what my Father pleases to give me." Having God's sweet
love, we would not give a snap of the finger for all that princes call
their treasure, or all that great men reckon to be their honor. Unto us
who believe, Christ is precious–both treasure and honor in one! In
fact, Christ is ALL! It is a delightful calm of mind which the Believer
enjoys when He dwells in Christ.

Humble faith puts the soul into the guardian hand of the Redeemer and
leaves it there in the restfulness of entire trust. Grace baptizes us
into blessedness. It plunges us into that sea of everlasting rest in
which we hope, forever, to bathe our weary souls. Yes, blessed be His
name, the Lord Jesus has made life worth living! It is no longer,
"something better not to be." We must speak well of the condition into
which He has introduced us since we have known His name. "Well, Jack,
old fellow," said one who met a man who had lately joined the Church,
"I hear you have given up all your pleasures." "No, no," said Jack,
"the fact lies the other way. I have just found all my pleasures and I
have only given up my follies." Every Christian man and women can
confirm that way of putting it! We who have believed in Jesus have lost
no real pleasures, but we have gained immensely in that direction. If
anything sinful was once a pleasure to us, it is not so now–when we
discovered it to be evil, it ceased to be pleasure–and we thrust it
away without regret! We have lost nothing by conversion that was worth
the keeping, but what we gained by coming to Christ has been an
inconceivable recompense to us. Is it not so, Brothers and Sisters? Are
we not blessed in Christ?

Now, there are some of us who, if we were asked to tell what blessings
we have received from Christ, would scarcely know where to begin–and
when we had once begun–we would never leave off unless it were from
sheer lack of time or strength. Brethren, certain of us owe all that we
have to the influence of the Lord Jesus. From our birth and childhood
we were indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of us now present had
the great happiness to spring from godly parents– before we knew the
meaning of language, that softly sweet name of Jesus Christ was sung in
our ears! The kindness that we received in our earliest days was, very
much of it, due to, "Gentle Jesus," of whom our mothers taught us to
sing! He found for us the first swaddling bands of love and watched
over our first sleep. Ah, those poor children of the back
streets–children who are trained in infamy and blasphemy–how sad
their start in life! But some of us had great advantages which were
granted us of Sovereign Grace by His dear pierced hands! We bless the
Lord who saved our parents and, through saving them, sent to our
trembling infancy a mine and a mint of blessing.

In our opening childhood we began to understand for ourselves the
loving influence of an affectionate and anxious mother. And then golden
showers of Divine Grace fell on us from the love of Jesus. We remember,
some of us, those hours on the Sabbath, when Mother would talk with us
of heavenly things–with tears in her eyes persuading her boy to give
his heart to Jesus, early, and not to let his first days be spent in
sin. We remember a wise and prudent father, whose example and
instruction all went the same way. The comforts of our home–and they
were many–we owed them all to Jesus, for His love made our parents
what they were and created a holy, happy atmosphere around us! He might
have left our father to frequent the drunkard's haunt and might have
suffered our mother to be what many mothers are–unworthy of the
name–and then our childhood would have been utter wretchedness and our
home the nursery of vice. Education in crime might have been ours–we
might have been tutored for the gallows.

Since that, we have had to shift for ourselves and have left the
parental roof, but I, for one, have been casting my thoughts back, to
see if I could remember any good thing that I have which I do not owe
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not know that I have anything that I
cannot distinctly trace to Him and His influence! I have many Christian
friends– most valuable friends, I find them–but my association with
them commenced in the House of God and the friendship between us has
been cemented by common service yielded to our blessed Master! Many of
you would hardly have had a friend in the world if it had not been that
Jesus introduced you to His disciples–and they have been the best
friends you have ever had, or ever will have! You used to know certain
fine fellows who called themselves your friends and as long as you had
a shilling to bless yourself with, they stuck to you to have sixpence
of it. You know the style of their friendship and you must now have
serious doubts as to its value.

Well, they left you when you became Christians and their departure has
been a very gainful loss to you! When they cleared out, altogether, you
found that their removal was for your good, if not for their own. But
those friends you have made in Christ have been really helpful to you.
They have deeply sympathized with you and, as far as they could, they
have helped you. Many have been carried through sharp trials by the
help of Christian hands. But, whatever you may have to say on the
point, I am personally a debtor, over head and ears, to my Savior. What
is there–I repeat the question–that I do not owe to Jesus? I am again
and again thinking, and thinking, and thinking–but if anything which I
call my own is worth having, I must trace it to Him. And are you not,
dear Friends, many of you, compelled to say the same? Among the best
things you have are your Sabbaths–but they are His days–His
resurrection days. Your Bible, too, is a priceless treasure, but that
is His Testament–His legacy of love! The Mercy Seat is a storehouse of
wealth–but He is that Mercy Seat, and His own blood is sprinkled on
it! You have nothing, dear Friend, that you do not owe to Jesus, the
Fountain of salvation. You are blessed in Him!

I might single out another class of persons, who, from quite another
point of view, would be compelled to say that they, also, have been
blessed in Christ. They started in another way and were upon a road
which led to death, but they have been rescued. Some of you started
life in the midst of an entirely worldly family. There was
kindness–parental kindness, in the home, but it was unwise. Abundance
of temporal enjoyment was always supplied, but there was a very scanty
recognition of anything like religion and, indeed, no knowledge
whatever of personal piety. It is little wonder that young persons who
are trained in a godless manner and allowed to do very much as they
like, should plunge into this sin, and into that. That some young men
are saved is a special miracle, for their circumstances make their ruin
almost inevitable. I am addressing some of my Christian Brothers and
Sisters who remember what liberty to sin was and how they availed
themselves of it. They took large license to destroy themselves under
the pretence of seeing the world. They were never content except when
they were gratifying their passions and obeying the commands of the
devil. In their salvation they have been blessed, indeed!

But you, also, who have gone to no great extent in open sin, you, also,
have been signally blessed in Christ by gracious and unmistakable
conversion. In receiving the Lord Jesus into your soul, what a change
has been made! From what a bondage have you been rescued! Into what a
new life have you been brought! What new scenes now open up before you!
What new hopes, what new joys, what new prospects are all your own! Do
I speak to some who plunged into the very grossest sin and yet can say,
"But we are washed, but we are sanctified"? Blessed be our dear
Master's name for Grace to such individuals! Such, indeed, are blessed
in Him. I know that I am addressing those who had, in their earliest
days, the very worst example–who have been brought into the House of
God from the place where Satan's seat is–who cannot, after years of
godliness, get out of their memory the recollection of the bad,
depraved old times of their youth. In your salvation Jesus has worked a
blessed deed. You could drink as others drank. You could fall into sins
of uncleanness as others did.

Let us say very little about these open evils. I do not like to hear
men talk about their old sins as if they were adven-tures–they are a
shame and a sorrow to all right-minded persons. We humbly hint at them
to the praise of the Glory of His Grace, for great Grace it was in the
case of some of us. Oh, but the day in which you first knew that dear
name! When you first felt repentance melting your hard heart! When you
first felt hope springing up in your formerly insensible spirit–then
you began to see that there was something nobler and better to live for
than merely to gratify sensual passions. Then you began to see that you
were an immortal spirit and not meant to fatten like the swine, but
were created to be a brother of the angels and to be akin to God,
Himself–that was a happy day–a day written in Heaven and made bright
with the light of seven days! When Jesus changed your nature, forgave
your sins and made you to be like Himself, you were, indeed, blessed in
Him!

I want you now, to look back again. I ought not to tire you, even if my
talk should seem dull and commonplace, because to remember what God has
given and to be grateful concerning it, ought to be a sweet pastime to
each one of us. It is not only a duty, but a recreation to be grateful!
I do not know any emotion which can give greater joy than that of
thankfulness to the Most High. Dear Friends, the Lord has greatly
blessed us in the name of Jesus in times of very special trouble. I may
not be able to describe your personal trial, but I will take one as a
specimen. Depression of spirits comes upon the man. He scarcely knows
how or why, but his soul melts because of heaviness. There is, at the
back of his sadness, probably some real trial–this he is very apt to
magnify and make more of than needs be–and also to expect a dark and

terrible calamity to come which will not come. But yet the foreboding
is as real a trial as if the catastrophe had actually occurred. The
poor despondent creature cannot endure himself and almost grows weary
of life. Like the king of Israel, who had all that heart could
wish–gardens, palaces, singing men and women–who had all the
appurtenances, both of folly and of wisdom, to make him happy, yet he
cries, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!" Nothing will cheer this
child of grief–he is downcast and desolate.

If you have ever gone through that experience, it has been a very great
delight to you when you have got alone and thought of your Lord Jesus,
whose everlasting love cannot cease towards you, whose fullness of
Grace cannot be exhausted, whose power and faithfulness will always
stand you in good stead. If, by a sort of desperate resolve, you have
cast yourself upon Him, to sink or swim, to find everything in Him, or
else to have nothing, you have risen up altogether a new man! You have
felt, "I can face the adversary. I can meet the trial, for Jesus is
mine!" Despair of spirit has fled when you have leaned hard on the
Cross-Bearer. I have been one of the cave dwellers and the dark has
shut me in, but Jesus has been my Heaven below. I may have a degree of
heaviness about me, but still, I trust in the Lord, and I am not
afraid, for the name of Jesus has caused me to be strong! Yes, men
shall be "blessed in Him" by the strength which He gives in the hour of
need.

You remember the loss of that dear little child. How blessed you were
in Jesus when He came and solaced you! You remember your father's
death, or the loss of your husband, or the death of the dearest earthly
friend. Yes, then in such times you knew how precious Christ could be
and how blessed you were in Him! Some of you have passed through the
desert of poverty. You have frequently been very hard pressed, but
still, though you cannot tell how, you have had just enough. You are
yet alive though death seemed certain. You have been "blessed in Him,"
and so you have survived every storm. Some of you have had little
enough of earthly comfort and yet you have not been unhappy. I have
sometimes admired a dog for his economical use of comforts. When it has
been a long, rainy day and the sun has just peeped out and there has
been a gleam of sunlight on the floor–I have seen him get up and wag
his tail–and shift his quarters so as to lie down where the bit of
sunshine was! It is a fine thing to have just that state of mind–never
to go sullenly into the shadow, but always cheerfully to accept the
square yard of sunshine and make the most of it! There is something,
after all, to be thankful for–something for which to praise the name
of God. And if the Lord Jesus Christ had taught us nothing else but
that–the practice of lying down wherever there is a trace of sunshine
and, better still, of always finding sunshine in His dear name–I am
sure we are bound to say that we have been "blessed in Him."

Well, every year will teach us more and more fully how blessed we are
in Jesus, and there will come a day–the last of our earthly days–when
we shall know on a higher scale how blessed we are in Him! One of the
most pleasant scenes that I ever see is the dying bed of a fine old
Christian. I saw one but a few days ago, who, since I was at his
bedside, has entered into rest. It was very pleasant to talk with him
about what the Lord had done. He was ready to speak well of the dear
name. There was much self-depreciation, but much more honoring of
Christ by testimony concerning support given in the hour of affliction
and succor in the time of need. Brothers and Sisters, you think it will
be hard to die? You may not find it so. One, when he was dying, said,
"Is this dying? Why, it is worthwhile going through all the troubles of
life, even for death's own sake, if it is like this, for I have such
heavenly enjoyment as I never could have imagined." Some of God's
saints are very needlessly anxious about dying. I knew one to whom it
was always a burden. He went to bed one night and he never woke
up–thus answering his own fears, for he did not even know when he
passed away, but died in his sleep! He was gone, gone, gone to Heaven
without a pang! When you see how Believers pass away to be with their
Lord in Glory, you have a commentary upon the words of my text–"Men
shall be blessed in Him."

But do you see them? Their spirits have ascended unto God, their
Father. How full of bliss they are! Disembodied they are, but they are
not destroyed. Their poor earthly frames are still in the grave, yet
their liberated spirits are supremely blessed, for they are, "forever
with the Lord" and they are blessed in Him. Wait you but a very little
while and the trumpet shall ring out from the angel's mouth, "Awake,
you dead, and come to judgement!" And then shall men be blessed in Him,
if they are, indeed, "in Him." When the righteous, restored to their
bodies, shall, in their perfect manhood, behold Him face to face and
dwell with Him, world without end, "men shall be blessed in Him."

I do not feel satisfied with the style of my speech at this time, but
we who speak the Word are by no means masters of ourselves. I cannot
rise to the height of this great argument and I do not think that, if I
were to try a hundred times, I could ever satisfy myself when speaking
upon this most Divine theme. My Lord is the most blessed Master that
ever a ser-

vant had and He has blessed me personally so unspeakably that, if I
were to bear my witness with the tongues of orators and angels by the
space of a century, yet must I cease from the task and humbly
confess–"I have not told you the half– nor can I tell you even the
tenth of how good my Well-Beloved is to me." I suspect that you are,
most of you, of my mind and say, "Neither can we." I sometimes tell you
the story of what happened to me when I declared, in a sermon, that in
the Heaven of the grateful, I would sing the loudest of them all,
because I owed more to the Grace of God than anybody else. I meant it
not out of any sense of superiority, but rather of inferiority. One
good old soul, when I came down the pulpit stairs, remarked to me, "You
have made a great mistake in your sermon." I answered, "No doubt I made
a dozen." "No, but," she said, "the great mistake was this–you said
that you owed more to God than anybody else, but you do not owe
anything like so much as I do. I have had more Grace from Him than you
have. I have been a bigger sinner than you ever were. I shall sing the
loudest!"

"Well, well," I thought, "I will not quarrel with her; it shall make me
the more glad to find myself outdone." I found that all the Christians
were much of the same mind. Brothers and Sisters, we will have it out
when we get up yonder. But you shall praise God, indeed, if you praise
Him more than I will–and you must be double debtors to my Lord if you
owe Him more than I do! If you are more unworthy and more undeserving
than I am, you must, indeed, be unworthy and undeserving! And if His
rich, free, Sovereign Grace has exhibited itself more fully in you than
it has in unworthy me, it has, indeed, overflowed all its banks! We
will leave the loving contest for the present, but when all the birds
of Paradise reach their nests above, there shall be a competition of
adoring praise–and all of us will do our best to bless the name of the
Lord!

II. Our second head was to be a practical one–we can only give a few
minutes to it. WE HAVE SEEN OTHER MEN BLESSED IN CHRIST. Our
observation confirms our experience. If this were the proper time, I
could narrate many instances–which I could also confirm by producing
the individuals–in which men have been remarkably blessed in Christ.
What social changes we have seen in those who have believed in Him!
They have not been the same persons–in many respects they are new. I
have known persons at whose houses I have visited–well, you could not
have believed that the man who lodged in the house, where he was first
found, could ever have risen to occupy a room in a house at all like
that in which he came to reside! The room in which I conversed with him
was a palace, compared to the dog-hole in which he once existed. There
was a change in his dwelling. There was a change in his wife. You would
hardly know the woman–she is so different from the wretched slut and
slave who called him, "husband," with a sigh and a sneer! She is here,
now, sitting with him, and they are as happy as angels! I shall not
point them out, but they are as good as any of you. We have known the
case in which, from rags–absolute rags–the coming of Christ into the
soul has lifted a man into competence, respectability and position.

Godliness has a gain about it–an honest, worthy gain for the life
which now is. It teaches men habits of thrift, prudence and
temperance–and delivers them from the thralldom of drunkenness and
other vices–by which the major part of poverty is occasioned. It is
worth mentioning even such blessings as these, as the poor little
children know. They used to run away when Father came in, for they were
afraid of him, but now, instead of that, they are watching for the time
when his work is done, to go toddling down the street to meet dear
Father, for the luxury of being brought home in his arms! Our Lord
Jesus Christ has blessed some men and some women at such a rate that
the devil, himself, would not have the impudence to say it was not a
blessing! Liar as Satan is, he could not deny that godliness has
brought sunshine where there was none–the blessing has been too
distinct and manifest for any to deny it!

What a moral change have we seen in some! They could not speak without
an oath, but the habit of profane swearing ended in a minute and they
have never been tempted to it since! Rash, bad-tempered men, who would
break up the furniture of the house in their passion, have become as
gentle as lambs! Such furies usually become quiet, peaceable and
long-suffering–Divine Grace has a marvelous influence upon the temper!
Men of hot passions that used to give a word and a blow–but generally
the blow, first–now watch themselves and guard against their
infirmity! They take a little time to think before they let fly a hard
word or give a sharp look. The change that we have seen in some men has
been as complete as that which could have been worked by that fabled
mill, into which the legend says that they put old men, turned the
handle and ground them young again! Truly a far greater renovation is
worked in mind and heart where Jesus comes. Men are "blessed in Him"!

Then, as to mental blessing. What have we seen? This have I seen–here
is one case out of many. A young man who had fallen into sin, came to
me in deep despair of mind. He was so desponding that his very face
bore witness to his misery. He wore the aspect of one who could not
live much longer as he then was. I had tried to set the Gospel clearly
before him on the previous Sabbath, but he told me that he could not
grasp it, for that by his sin he had reduced his mind to such a state
that he felt himself to be little better than an idiot. He was not
speaking nonsense, either, for there are vices which destroy the
intellect. I told him that Jesus Christ could save idiots–that even if
his mind was, in measure, impaired as the result of sin, yet there was
quite enough mind left to be made glad with a sense of pardon, seeing
there was more than enough to make him heavy with a sense of guilt. I
cheered that Brother as best I could, but I could effect nothing by my
own efforts. Soon the Lord Jesus Christ came to him–and he is now a
happy, earnest, joyful Christian! Not long ago he sent an offering of
thanksgiving to God for having lifted him up from the deeps into which
he had fallen. I hope there is a long life of real usefulness before
him.

We cannot mention one tenth of what we personally know! Eternity will
open a great book of record. I call upon the spirits of the just made
perfect to witness what the Grace of God did for them! I call upon
parents, here, to tell the pleasing story of the conversion of their
sons and daughters! And I call upon those who watch for their fellow
men to say whether they have not met with many cases in which men have
been blessed in Jesus by being snatched from between the jaws of
madness, itself, by the sweet, calming influence of the always dear and
blessed name of our Redeemer! Yes, indeed, and of a truth, men are and
shall be blessed in Him!

The practical point is, Brothers and Sisters, since we need to do good,
let us preach up our Lord Jesus Christ as the Sovereign balm for every
sinner's wound! If you want to be philanthropists, be Christians! If
you would bless your fellow men with the best of all blessings, convey
to them the knowledge of Jesus Christ! Do not believe that there is
anything you can do for your children which will be more effectual than
teaching them about Jesus! Do not think that anything in the workshop
can soften the vulgarities, silence the blasphemies and end the
profanities of your fellow workmen, like setting Jesus Christ before
them! When the Moravian missionaries first went to Greenland, they
tried to tell the Greenlanders about the existence of a God–they spent
some months in such preliminary subjects before they came to the
Gospel–but they never gained the attention of the people. Discourses
upon such necessary subjects as the Godhead, the immortality of the
soul and the like, were flavorless to the Greenlanders.

It happened, one day, that one of the missionaries, translating the
Gospel according to John, read out these words– "God so loved the
world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." "What is that?" said the
Greenlanders. "What is that? We never heard the likes of that. Why have
you not told us that before?" Nothing had been done till the
missionaries came to the Gospel, itself! Then they reached the
Greenlander's heart–awakened his dormant intellect and led him to
Jesus! Oh, let us keep on with the subject of Christ Crucified!
Whatever there is not in our shop window, let us always have Christ as
the chief article of our heavenly commerce. Whatever there may lack of
Grace and beauty in our speech, and our outward appearance, may there
be no lack of Jesus Christ set forth among the sons of men, for, "men
shall be blessed in Him" and not without Him! Great schemes of
socialism have been tried and found lacking–let us look to
regeneration by the Son of God–and we shall not look in vain. Nothing
has come of newfangled preaching from the first day till now–but never
has the old faith of Jesus failed! Men have been blessed in Jesus and
they shall be blessed in Him as long as the race shall exist.

III. Lastly, this whole matter is to extend till THE ENTIRE WORLD SHALL
BE BLESSED IN CHRIST. Even at

this moment the whole world is the better for Christ. But where He is
best known and loved, there is He the greatest blessing. What snatched
many an island of the southern sea from barbarism and cannibalism?
What, but Jesus Christ preached among them? Men have been blessed in
Him in Europe, America, Asia and everywhere. Africa and other lands,
still plunged in barbarism, shall receive light from no other source
but that from which our fathers received it centuries ago–from the
great Sun of Righteousness.

Men shall be blessed in Christ because where He comes, oppression
cannot live. You may tell me that the governor of such an empire is a
despot. Oh, yes, but despots cannot long flourish where there is an
open Bible! Tyrannies may last a generation or two, but all the world
knows that their time is short. They will go down–they must go down
where Christ is lifted up! That Inspired Book is a testimony for human
liberty, louder than all others. It is a declaration of the rights of
men under King Jesus–despotism must fall before it, sooner or later.
We, in this country, owe our liberties,

beyond everything, to the Christianity which is the outflow of a
present Christ among us. Slavery? What a plague it was upon the fair
hands of our sister nation across the Atlantic! The spot is washed away
and it was true religion which forced the washing! There would have
been no freeing of the slaves from fetters if it had not been for the
Christianity which, after long silence, at last spoke out! And when it
spoke, it was as when a lion roars.

The Christianity of England is always pleading for the slave, for the
aborigine, for the down-trodden. Leave our politicians alone and we
shall soon have all the infamies alive again! Slavery would be
tolerated, if not encouraged, if there were not Christian souls upon
the watch. What saves us from war at this moment? What influence is it
that is always contrary to war and always cries for peace? Why, it is
the Christian element among us which counts anything better than
bloodshed! Let the Christian element spread and it will be a power to
bless mankind! It shall, in proportion as it spreads, put down evil and
foster good. Already many a monopoly has been ended and many a liberty
has been gained. Much religious intolerance has been subdued by the
power of Jesus Christ over His people and I do pray, dear Friends, that
we may live to see all nations more manifestly affected by the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. May every nation be ruled by just and righteous laws!
May every nation be willing to submit exterior disputes to the
arbitration of justice!

It will be so one day. The nations shall be friends and all men shall
feel that they are members of one great family. "Do unto others as you
would that they should do to you," is the sum of the moral teaching of
our Divine Lord–and if that is followed, it will bring about a halcyon
era, the likes of which the world has never seen! If His Spirit will
come and renew men's hearts–and teach them to love and to obey the
Lord their God–then shall all nations call the Redeemer, blessed and,
from every corner of the whole earth, the song shall go up, "Blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the Throne,
and unto the Lamb forever and ever!" Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 72.