Jesus, The King of Truth

A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1872,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Pilate therefore said unto Him, Are You a king, then? Jesus answered,
You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice." John 18:37.

THE season is almost arrived when by the custom of our fellow citizens
we are led to remember the birth of the holy child Jesus who was born
"king of the Jews." I shall not, however, conduct you to Bethlehem, but
to the foot of Calvary. There we shall learn, from the Lord's own lips,
something concerning the kingdom over which He rules and thus we shall
be led to prize more highly the joyous event of His nativity. We are
told by the Apostle Paul that our Lord Jesus Christ before Pontius
Pilate witnessed a good confession. It was a good confession as to the
manner of it, for our Lord was truthful, gentle, prudent, patient, meek
and yet uncompromising and courageous.

His spirit was not cowed by Pilate's power nor exasperated by his
sneers. In His patience He possessed His soul and remained the model
witness for the Truth of God–both in His silence and in His speech. He
witnessed a good confession, also, as to the matter of it, for though
He said but little, that little was all that was necessary. He claimed
His crown rights and, at the same time declared that His kingdom was
not of this world, nor to be sustained by force. He vindicated both the
spirituality and the essential truthfulness of His Sovereignty.

If ever we should be placed in like circumstances may we be able to
witness a good confession, too! We may never, like Paul, be made to
plead before Nero but, if we should, may the Lord stand by us and help
us to play the man before the lion! In our families or among our
business acquaintances we may have to meet some little Nero and answer
to some petty Pilate–may we be true witnesses! O that we may have
Grace to be prudently silent or meekly outspoken as the matter may
require, but in either case be faithful to our conscience and our God!

May the sorrowful visage of Jesus, the faithful and true Witness, the
Prince of the kings of the earth, be often before our eyes to check the
first sign of flinching and to inspire us with dauntless courage! We
have before us, in the words of the text, a part of our Savior's good
confession touching His kingdom.

I. Note, first of all, that OUR LORD CLAIMED TO BE A KING. Pilate said,
"Are You a king, then?" asking the question with a sneering surprise
that so poor a being should put forth a claim to royalty. Do you wonder
that he should have marveled greatly to find kingly claims associated
with such a sorrowful condition? The Savior answered, in effect, "It is
even as you say, I am a king." The question was but half earnest–the
answer was altogether solemn–"I am a king." Nothing was ever uttered
by our Lord with greater certainty and earnestness.

Now, notice that our Lord's claim to be a king was made without the
slightest ostentation or desire to be advantaged thereby. There were
other times when, if He had said, "I am a king," He might have been
carried upon the shoulders of the people and crowned amid general
acclamations. His fanatical fellow countrymen would gladly have made
Him their leader. At one time we read that they would have "taken Him
by force and made Him a king." At such times He said but little about
His kingdom and what He did say was uttered in parables and explained
only to His disciples when they were alone.

Little enough did He say in His preaching concerning His birthright as
the Son of David and a scion of the royal house of Judah, for He shrank
from worldly honors and disdained the vain glories of a temporal
diadem. He who came in love to redeem men had no ambition for the
gewgaws of human sovereignty. But now, when He is betrayed by His
disciple, accused by His countrymen and in the hands of an unjust
ruler–when no good can come of it to Himself–

when it will bring Him derision rather than honor, He speaks out
plainly and replies to His interrogator, "You say that I am a king."

Note well the clearness of our Lord's avowal! There was no mistaking
His words–"I am a king." When the time has come for the truth to be
spoken, our Lord is not backward in declaring it. Truth has her times
most meet for speech and her seasons for silence. We are not to cast
our pearls before swine, but when the hour has come for speech we must
not hesitate but speak as with the voice of a trumpet, giving forth a
certain sound that no man may mistake us. So, though a prisoner given
up to die, the Lord boldly declares His royalty though Pilate would
pour derision upon Him in consequence thereof. O, for the Master's
prudence to speak the Truth at the right time and for the Master's
courage to speak it when the right time has come!

Soldiers of the Cross, learn of your Captain! Our Lord's claim to
royalty must have sounded very singular in Pilate's ear. Jesus was,
doubtless, very much careworn, sad and emaciated in appearance. He had
spent the first part of the night in the garden in an agony. In the
midnight hours he had been dragged from Annas to Caiaphas and from
Caiaphas to Herod. Neither at daybreak had He been permitted to rest,
so that from sheer weariness He must have looked very unlike a king. If
you had taken some poor ragged creature in the street and said to him,
"Are you a king, then?" the question could scarcely have been more
sarcastic.

Pilate, in his heart, despised the Jews as such, but here was a poor
Jew persecuted by His own people, helpless and friendless. It sounded
like mockery to talk of a kingdom in connection with Him. Yet never
earth saw a truer king! None of the line of Pharaoh, the family of
Nimrod, or the race of the Caesars was so intrinsically imperial in
Himself as He, or so deservedly reckoned a king among men by virtue of
His descent, His achievements or His superior character. The carnal eye
could not see this, but to the spiritual eye it was clear as noonday.

To this day, pure Christianity, in its outward appearance, is an
equally unattractive object and wears upon its surface few royal
tokens. It is without form or comeliness and when men see it there is
no beauty that they should desire it. True, there is a nominal
Christianity which is accepted and approved of men–but the pure Gospel
is still despised and rejected. The real Christ of today among men is
unknown and unrecognized as much as He was among His own nation 1,800
years ago! Evangelical doctrine is at a discount, holy living is
censured and spiritual-mindedness is derided.

"What?" they say, "This evangelical doctrine, do you call it the royal
truth? Who believes it nowadays? Science has exploded it! There is
nothing great about it! It may afford comfort to old women and to those
who have not capacity enough for free thought, but its reign is over,
never to return." As to living in separation from the world, it is
called Puritanism or worse. Christ in doctrine. Christ in spirit.
Christ in life–the world cannot endure as King!

Christ chanted in cathedrals. Christ personified in lordly prelates.
Christ surrounded by such as are in king's houses He is well
enough–but Christ honestly obeyed, followed and worshipped in
simplicity, without pomp or form–they will not allow to reign over
them. Few nowadays will side with the Truth of God their fathers bled
for. The day for covenanting to follow Jesus through evil report and
shame appears to have gone by. Yet, though men turn round upon us and
say, "Do you call your Gospel, Divine? Are you so preposterous as to
believe that your religion comes from God and is to subdue the
world?"–we boldly answer–"Yes!"

Even as beneath the peasant's garb and the pale visage of the Son of
Mary we can discern the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, so beneath the simple form of a despised Gospel we
perceive the royal lineaments of Divine Truth! We care nothing about
the outward apparel or the external housing of the Truth of God–we
love it for its own sake. To us the marble halls and the alabaster
columns are nothing–we see more in the manger and the Cross. We are
satisfied that Christ is the King, still, where He was likely to be
king–and that is not among the great ones of the earth, nor among the
mighty and the learned–but among the base things of the world and the
things which are not, which shall bring to nothing the things that are,
for these has God from the beginning chosen to be His own.

Let us add that our Lord's claim to be a king shall be acknowledged one
day by all mankind! When Christ said to Pilate, according to our
version, "You say that I am a king," He virtually prophesied the future
confession of all men. Some, taught by His Grace, shall in this life
rejoice in Him as their altogether lovely King. Blessed be God, the
Lord Jesus might look into the eyes of many of us and say, "You say
that I am a king," and we would reply, "We do say it joyfully!" But the
day shall come when He shall sit upon His Great White Throne and then,
when the multitudes shall

tremble in the Presence of His awful majesty, even such as Pontius
Pilate and Herod and the chief priests shall own that He is a king!
Then to each of His astounded and overwhelmingly convinced enemies He
might say, "Now, O Despiser, you say that I am a king," for to Him
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord!

Let us remember, here, that when our Lord said to Pilate, "You say that
I am king" He was not referring to His Divine dominion. Pilate was not
thinking of that at all, nor did our Lord, I think, refer to it. Yet,
forget not that, as Divine, He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
We must never forget that, though He died in weakness as Man, yet He
ever lives and rules as God. Nor do I think He referred to His
mediatorial sovereignty which He possesses over the earth for His
people's sake–for the Lord has all power committed unto Him in Heaven
and in earth–and the Father has given Him power over all flesh that He
may give eternal life to as many as are given Him. Pilate was not
alluding to that, nor our Lord, either, in the first place.

But He was speaking of that rule which He personally exercises over the
minds of the faithful by means of the Truth. You remember Napoleon's
saying, "I have founded an empire by force and it has melted away.
Jesus Christ established His kingdom by love and it stands to this day
and will stand." That is the kingdom to which our Lord's word refers–
the kingdom of spiritual Truth in which Jesus reigns as Lord over those
who are of the Truth. He claimed to be a king and the Truth which He
revealed and of which He was the personification, is, therefore, the
scepter of His empire. He rules by the force of the Truth of God over
those hearts which feel the power of right and Truth and therefore
willingly yield themselves to His guidance, believe His Word and are
governed by His will.

It is as a spiritual Lord that Christ claims sovereignty among men! He
is King over minds that love Him, trust Him and obey Him because they
see in Him the Truth which their souls pine for. Other kings rule our
bodies, but Christ our souls! Other kings govern by force, but He by
the attractions of righteousness–theirs is, to a great extent, a
fictitious royalty, but His is true and finds its force in the Truth of
God. So much, then, upon Christ's claims to be a king.

II. Now, observe secondly that OUR LORD DECLARED THIS KINGDOM TO BE HIS
MAIN OBJECT IN LIFE.

"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." To
set up His kingdom was the reason why He was born of the virgin. To be
king of men it was necessary for Him to be born. He was always the Lord
of All–He needed not to be born to be a king in that sense–but to be
king through the power of Truth it was essential that He should be born
in our nature.

Why so? I answer, first, because it seems unnatural that a ruler should
be alien in nature to the people over whom he rules. An angelic king of
men would be unsuitable. There could not exist the sympathy which is
the cement of a spiritual empire. Jesus, that He might govern by force
of love and truth alone, became of one Nature with mankind–He was a
Man among men, a real Man–but a right noble and kingly man and so a
King of men. But, again, the Lord was born that He might be able to
save His people. Subjects are essential to a kingdom–a king cannot be
a king if there are none to govern.

All men must have perished through sin had not Christ come into the
world and been born to save. His birth was a necessary step to His
redeeming death–His Incarnation was necessary to the Atonement.
Moreover, truth never exerts such power as when it is embodied. Truth
spoken may be defeated, but Truth acted out in the life of a man is
Omnipotent through the Spirit of God. Now Christ did not merely speak
the Truth–He was Truth. Had He been truth embodied in an angelic form,
He would have possessed little power over our hearts and lives. But
perfect Truth in a human form has royal power over renewed humanity.
Truth embodied in flesh and blood has power over flesh and blood and
therefore, for this purpose was He born.

So when you hear the bells ringing out at Christmas, think of the
reason why Jesus was born! Dream not that He came to load your tables
and fill your cups–in your mirth look higher than all earth-born
things. When you hear that in certain Churches there are pompous
celebrations and ecclesiastical displays, think not that Jesus was born
for this purpose. No, but look within your hearts and say, "For this
purpose was He born–that He might be a King–that He might rule
through the Truth in the souls of a people who are, by Grace, made to
love the Truth of God.

And then He added, "For this cause came I into the world." That is, He
came out of the bosom of the Father that He might set up His kingdom by
unveiling the mysteries which were hid from the foundation of the
world. No man can reveal the Counsel of God but One who has been with
God! And the Son who has come forth of the ivory palaces of gladness
announces to us tidings of great joy! For this cause He also came into
the world from the obscure retirement of

Joseph's workshop, where, for many years He was hidden like a pearl in
its shell. It was necessary that He should be made known and that the
Truth to which He witnessed should be sounded in the ears of the crowd.

Since He was to be a King, He must leave seclusion and come forth to do
battle for His Throne. He must address the multitudes on the hillside.
He must speak by the seashore. He must gather disciples and send them
forth by two and two to publish on the housetops the secrets of the
mighty Truth of God! He came not forth because He loved to be seen of
men or courted popularity–but for this purpose–that the Truth being
published, He might set up His kingdom. It was necessary that He should
come out into the world and teach, or the Truth of God would not be
known and consequently could not operate.

The sun must come forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber or the
kingdom of light will never be established. The breath must come forth
from the hiding place of the winds or life will never reign in the
valley of dry bones. During three years our Lord lived conspicuously
and emphatically "came into the world." He was seen of men so closely
as to be beheld, looked upon, touched and handled. He was intended to
be a pattern and therefore it was necessary that He should be seen. The
life of a man who lives in absolute retirement may be admirable for
himself and acceptable with God, but it cannot be exemplary to men. For
this cause the Lord came forth into the world–that all He did might
influence mankind.

His enemies were permitted to watch His every action and to endeavor to
entrap Him in His speech. By way of test His friends saw Him in privacy
and knew what He did in solitude, thus His whole life was reported. He
was observed on the cold mountainside at midnight as well as in the
midst of the great congregation. This was permitted to make the Truth
known, for every action of His life was Truth and tended to set up the
kingdom of Truth in the world. Let us pause here. Christ is a King. A
King by force of Truth in a spiritual kingdom. For this purpose was He
born. For this cause He came into the world.

Beloved, ask yourself this question–Has this purpose of Christ's birth
and life been answered in you? If not, what is Christmas to you? The
choristers will sing, "Unto us a Child is born; Unto us a Son is
given." Is that true to you? How can it be unless Jesus reigns in you
and is your Savior and your Lord? Those who can in truth rejoice in His
birth are those who know Him as their bosom Lord, ruling their
understanding by the Truth of His doctrine. He rules their admiration
by the Truth of His life. He rules their affections by the Truth of His
Person. To such He is not a personage to be portrayed with a crown of
gold and a robe of purple like the common theatrical kings of men.

He is one brighter and more heavenly, whose crown is real, whose
dominion is unquestionable, who rules by Truth and love! Do we know
this King? This question may well come home to us, for, Beloved, there
are many who say, "Christ is my King," who know not what they say for
they do not obey Him. He is the servant of Christ who trusts in Christ,
who walks according to Christ's mind and loves the Truths of God which
Jesus has revealed–all others are mere pretenders.

III. But now I must pass on. Our Lord, in the third place, REVEALED THE
NATURE OF HIS ROYAL POWER. I have already spoken on that, but I must do
so again. We should have thought the text would have run thus–"You say
that I am a king; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I
into the world, that I should establish My kingdom." It is not so in
words, but so it must mean, for Jesus was not incoherent in His speech.
We conclude that the words employed have the same meaning as that which
the context suggests, only it is differently expressed.

If our Lord had said, "That I might establish a kingdom," He might have
misled Pilate. But when He availed Himself of the spiritual explanation
and said that His kingdom was Truth and that the establishment of His
kingdom was by bearing witness to the Truth of God, then, though Pilate
did not understand Him–for it was far above his comprehension–yet, at
any rate, he was not misled. Our Lord, in effect, tells us that the
Truth of God is the preeminent Characteristic of His kingdom and that
His royal power over men's hearts is through the Truth of God.

Now, the witness of our Lord among men was emphatically upon real and
vital matters. He dealt not with fiction, but with facts–not with
trifles, but with infinite realities. He speaks not of opinions, views,
or speculations but of infallible verities. How many preachers waste
time over what may be or may not be! Our Lord's testimony was
preeminently practical and matter-of-fact. It was full of verities and
certainties.

I have sometimes, when hearing sermons, wished the preacher would come
to the point and would deal with something that really concerned our
soul's welfare. What concern have dying men with the thousand trivial
questions which are flitting around us? We have Heaven or Hell before
us and death within a stone's throw–for God's sake do not

trifle with us, but tell us the Truth at once! Jesus is king in His
people's souls because His preaching has blessed us in the grandest and
most real manner and set us at rest upon points of boundless
importance. He has not given us well-chiseled stones, but real bread!
There are a thousand things which you may not know and you shall be
very little the worse for not knowing them–but O, if you do not know
that which Jesus has taught–it shall go ill with you!

If you are taught of the Lord Jesus you shall have rest for your cares,
balm for your sorrows and satisfaction for your desires. Jesus gives
sinners who believe in Him the Truths of God which they need to
know–the assurance of sin forgiven through His blood, favor ensured by
His righteousness–and Heaven secured by His eternal life. Moreover,
Jesus has power over His people because He testifies not to symbols but
to the very substance of the Truth of God. The Scribes and Pharisees
were very fluent upon sacrifices, offerings, oblations, tithes, fasting
and the like–but what influence could all that exert over aching
hearts?

Jesus has imperial power over contrite spirits because He tells them of
His one real Sacrifice and of the perfection which He has secured for
all Believers. The priests lost their power over the people because
they went no further than the shadow–and sooner or later all will do
so who rest in the symbol. The Lord Jesus retains His power over His
saints because He reveals the substance, for Grace and Truth are by
Jesus Christ. What a loss of time it is to debate upon the fashion of a
cape, or the manner of celebrating communion, or the color suitable for
the clergyman's robes in Advent, or the precise date of Easter! Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity! Such trifles will never aid in setting up
an everlasting kingdom in men's hearts!

Let us take care lest we also set great store on externals and miss the
essential spiritual life of our holy faith. Christ's kingdom is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!
The power of King Jesus in the hearts of His people lies much in the
fact that He brings forth the unalloyed Truth of God without mixture of
error. He has delivered to us pure light and no darkness. His teaching
is no combination of God's Word and man's inventions! It is no mixture
of Inspiration and philosophy–silver without dross is the wealth which
He gives His servants. Men taught of His Holy Spirit to love the Truth
of God recognize this fact and surrender their souls to the royal sway
of the Lord's Truth–and it makes them free and sanctifies them–nor
can anything make them disown such a Sovereign, for as the Truth lives
and abides in their hearts, so Jesus, who is the Truth, abides also.

If you know what Truth is, you will as naturally submit yourselves to
the teachings of Christ as ever children yield to a father's rule. The
Lord Jesus taught that worship must be true, spiritual and of the heart
or else it would be worthless. He would not take sides with the temple
at Gerizim or that on Zion–He declared that the time was come when
those who worshipped God would worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Regenerate hearts feel the power of this and rejoice that it
emancipates them from the beggarly elements of carnal ritualism. They
accept gladly the Truth of God that pious words of prayer or praise are
vanity unless the heart has living worship within it. In the great
truth of spiritual worship Believers possess a Magna Charta dear as
life itself. We refuse to be again subject to the yoke of bondage and
we cleave to our emancipating King.

Our Lord taught, also, that all false living was base and loathsome. He
poured contempt on the phylacteries of hypocrites and the broad borders
of the garments of oppressors of the poor. With Him ostentatious alms,
long prayers, frequent fasts and the tithe of mint and cumin were all
nothing when practiced by those who devoured widows' houses. He cared
nothing for white-washed sepulchers and platters with outsides made
clean–He judged the thoughts and intents of the heart. What woes were
those which He denounced upon the formalists of His day! It must have
been a grand sight to have seen the lowly Jesus roused to indignation
thundering forth peal on peal His denunciations of hypocrisy!

Elijah never called fire from Heaven half so grandly. "Woe unto you
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," is the loudest roll of Heaven's
artillery! See how like another Samson Jesus slays the shams of His age
and piles them heaps upon heaps to rot forever! Shall not He who
teaches us true living be King of all the sons of Truth? Let us even
now salute Him as Lord and King. Besides, Beloved, our Lord came not
only to teach us the Truth of God but a mysterious power goes forth
from Him through that Spirit which rests on Him without measure–which
subdues chosen hearts to truthfulness and then guides truthful hearts
into fullness of peace and joy.

Have you never felt, when you have been with Jesus, that a sense of His
purity has made you yearn to be purged of all hypocrisy and every false
way? Have you not been ashamed of yourself when you have come forth
from hearing His Word, from watching His life and, above all, from
enjoying His fellowship–quite ashamed that you have not been more
real,

more sincere, more true, more upright and so a more loyal subject of
the truthful King? I know you have! Nothing about Jesus is false or
even dubious. He is transparent–from head to foot He is Truth in
public, Truth in private, Truth in word and Truth in deed. Hence it is
that He has a kingdom over the pure in heart and is vehemently extolled
by all those whose hearts are set upon righteousness.

IV. And now, in the fourth place, our Lord DISCLOSED THE METHOD OF HIS
CONQUEST. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the
world, that I should bear witness for the truth." Christ never yet set
up His kingdom by force of arms. Mohammed drew the sword and converted
men by giving them the choice of death or conversion. But Christ said
to Peter, "Put up your sword into its sheath." No compulsion ought to
be used with any man to lead him to receive any opinion, much less to
induce him to espouse the Truth of God. Falsehood requires the rack of
the Inquisition, but Truth needs not such unworthy aid. Her own beauty
and the Spirit of God are her strength.

Moreover, Jesus used no arts of priestcraft or tricks of superstition.
The foolish are persuaded of a dogma by the fact that it is promulgated
by a learned doctor of high degree, but our Rabboni wears no sounding
titles of honor. The vulgar imagine that a statement must be correct if
it emanates from a person who wears lawn sleeves, or from a place where
the banners are of costly workmanship and the music of the sweetest
kind–these things are arguments with those who are amenable to no
other.

But Jesus owes nothing to His apparel and influences none by artistic
arrangements. None can say that He reigns over men by the glitter of
pomp or the fascination of sensuous ceremonies. His battle-ax is the
Truth of God! Truth is both His arrow and His bow, His sword and His
buckler. Believe me, no kingdom is worthy of the Lord Jesus but that
which has its foundations laid in indisputable verities–Jesus would
scorn to reign by the help of a lie! True Christianity was never
promoted by policy or guile, by doing a wrong thing, or saying a false
thing. Even to exaggerate truth is to beget error and so to pull down
the Truth we would set up.

There are some who say, "Bring out one line of teaching and nothing
else, lest you should seem inconsistent." What have I to do with that?
If it is God's Truth, I am bound to deliver it all and to keep back
none of it! Politics in religion, like a sailing vessel dependent on
the wind, tacks about here and there–but the true man like a vessel
having its motive power within, goes straight onward in the very teeth
of the hurricane. When God puts Truth into men's souls, He teaches them
never to tack or trim but to hold to the Truth of God at all hazards.
This is what Jesus always did. He bore witness to the Truth and there
left the matter being guileless as a lamb.

Here it will be fit to answer the question, "What Truth did He witness
to?" Ah, my Brothers and Sisters, what Truth did He not witness to? Did
He not mirror all Truth in His life? See how clearly He set forth the
Truth that God is love. How melodious, how like a peal of Christmas
bells was His witness to the Truth that "God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not
perish but have everlasting life." He also bore witness that God is
just. How solemnly He proclaimed that fact! His flowing wounds, His
dying agonies rang out that solemn Truth as with a knell which even the
dead might hear!

He bore witness to God's demand for truth in the inward parts–for He
often dissected men and laid them bare and opened up their secret
thoughts and revealed them–and made them see that only sincerity could
bear the eyes of God. Did He not bear witness to the Truth that God had
resolved to make for Himself a new people and a true people? Was He not
always telling of His sheep who heard His voice? Of the wheat which
would be gathered into the garner and of the precious things which
would be treasured up when the bad would be thrown away? Therein He was
bearing witness that the false must die, that the unreal must be
consumed, that the lie must rust and rot–but that the true, the
sincere, the gracious, the vital shall stand every test and outlast the
sun. In an age of shams He was always sweeping away pretences and
establishing Truth and right by His witness.

And now, Beloved, this is the way in which Christ's kingdom is to be
set up in the world. For this cause was the Church born and for this
end came she into the world, that she might set up Christ's kingdom by
bearing witness to the Truth. I long, my Beloved, to see you all
witness bearers. If you love the Lord, bear witness to the Truth! You
must do it personally. You must also do it collectively. Never join any
Church whose creed you do not entirely and unfeignedly believe, for if
you do, you act a lie and are, moreover, a partaker in the error of
other men's testimonies. I would not for a moment say anything to
retard Christian unity, but there is something before unity and that
is, "Truth in the inward parts" and honesty before God.

I dare not be a member of a Church whose teaching I knew to be false in
vital points. I would sooner go to Heaven alone than belie my
conscience for the sake of company. You may say, "But I protest against
the error of my Church." Dear Friends, how can you consistently protest
against it when you profess to agree with it by being a member of the
Church which avows it? If you are a minister of a Church, you do in
effect say before the world, "I believe and teach the doctrines of this
Church," And if you go into the pulpit and say you do not believe them,
what will people conclude? I leave you to judge that.

I saw a Church tower the other day, with a clock upon it, which
startled me by pointing to half-past ten when I thought it was only
nine. I was, however, quite relieved when I saw that another face of
the clock indicated a quarter past eight. "Well," I thought, "Whatever
time it may be, that clock is wrong for it contradicts itself." So if I
hear a man say one thing by his Church membership and another by his
private protest, why, whatever may be right he certainly is not
consistent with himself! Let us bear witness to the Truth of God since
there is great need of doing so just now, for witnessing is in ill
repute.

The age extols no virtue so much as "liberality," and condemns no vice
so fiercely as bigotry–alas–honesty. If you believe anything and hold
it firmly, all the dogs will bark at you. Let them bark! They will have
done when they are tired! You are responsible to God and not to mortal
men. Christ came into the world to bear witness to the Truth and He has
sent you to do the same–take care that you do it, offend or
please–for it is only by this process that the kingdom of Christ is to
be set up in the world.

V. Now, the last thing is this. Our Savior, having spoken of His
kingdom and the way of establishing it, DESCRIBED HIS
SUBJECTS–"Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice." That is to
say wherever the Holy Spirit has made a man a lover of the Truth of God
he always recognizes Christ's voice and yields to it. Where are the
people who love the Truth? Well, we need not enquire long. We need not
Diogenes' lantern to find them–they will come to the light–and where
is light but in Jesus?

Where are those that would not seem to be what they are not? Where are
the men who desire to be true in secret and before the Lord? They may
be discovered where Christ's people are discovered–they will be found
listening to those who bear witness to the Truth of God. Those who love
pure Truth and know what Christ is, will be sure to fall in love with
Him and hear His voice. Judge you, then, this day, Brothers and
Sisters, whether you are of the Truth or not–for if you love the
Truth, you know and obey the voice which calls you away from your old
sins, from false refuges, from evil habits–from everything which is
not after the Lord's mind. You have heard Him in your conscience
rebuking you for that of the false which remains in you. You have heard
Him encouraging you for that of the true which is struggling there.

I have done when I have urged on you one or two reflections. The first
is, Beloved, dare we avow ourselves on the side of Truth at this hour
of its humiliation? Do we own the royalty of Christ's Truth when we see
it every day dishonored? If Gospel Truth were honored everywhere, it
would be an easy thing to say "I believe it." But now, in these days,
when it has no honor among men, dare we cleave to it at all costs? Are
you willing to walk with the Truth through the mire and through the
slough? Have you the courage to profess unfashionable Truth? Are you
willing to believe the Truth against which science, falsely so-called,
has vented her spleen? Are you willing to accept the Truth although it
is said that only the poor and uneducated will receive it? Are you
willing to be the disciple of the Galilean whose Apostles were
fishermen? Verily, verily, I say unto you, in that day in which the
Truth in the Person of Christ shall come forth in all its glory, it
shall go ill with those who were ashamed to own it and its Master!

In the next place, if we have heard Christ's voice, do we recognize our
life-object? Do we feel, "For this end were we born and for this cause
came we into the world, that we might bear witness to the Truth of
God?" I do not believe that you, my dear Brother, came into the world
to be a linen draper, or an auctioneer and nothing else! I do not
believe that God created you, my Sister, to be merely and only a
seamstress, a nurse, or a housekeeper! Immortal souls were not created
for merely mortal ends. For this purpose was I born, that, with my
voice in this place and everywhere else, I might bear witness to the
Truth of God! You acknowledge that–then I beg you, each one, to
acknowledge that you have a similar mission. "I could not occupy the
pulpit," says one. Never mind that–bear witness for the Truth of God
where you are and in your own sphere. O waste no time or energy, but at
once testify for Jesus!

And now, last of all, do you own Christ's superlative dignity, Beloved?
Do you see what a King, Christ is? Is He such a King to you as none
other could be? It was but yesterday a prince entered one of our great
towns and they crowded all their streets to welcome him–yet he was but
a mortal man! And then at night they illuminated their city and made
the heavens glow as though the sun had risen before his appointed hour.
Yet what had this prince done for them? Loyal subjects they were and
that was the reason of their joy. But O, Beloved, we need not ask,
"What has Christ done for us?"–we will ask, "What has He not done for
us?"

Emmanuel, we owe all to You! You are our new Creator, our Redeemer from
the lowest pit of Hell! In Yourself resplendent and altogether lovely,
Your beauties command our adoration! You have lived for us. You have
bled for us. You have died for us! And You are preparing a kingdom for
us. And You are coming again to take us to be with You where You are!
All this commands our love. All hail! All hail! You are our King and we
worship You with all our soul! Beloved, I beseech you, love Christ and
live for Him while you can. Work while opportunity serves.

While I have been laid aside and able to do nothing, the great sorrow
of my heart has been my inability to do Him service. I heard my
Brothers shouting in the battlefield and I saw my comrades marching to
the fight–and I lay like a wounded soldier in the ditch and could not
stir–except that I breathed a prayer that you might all be strong in
the Lord and in the power of His might.

This was my thought–"Oh, that I had preached better while I could
preach and lived more for the Master while I could serve Him!" Don't
incur such regrets in the future by present sluggishness, but live now
for Him who died for you! If any present in this assembly have never
obeyed our King, may they come to trust in Him tonight, for He is a
tender Savior and is willing to receive the biggest and filthiest
sinner who will come to Him! Whoever trusts in Him will never find Him
fail for He will save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him!

May He bring you to His feet and reign over you in love. Amen.
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The Hexapla Of Mystery