Life More Abundant

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JANUARY 4, 1874,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I am come that they might ha ve life, and that they might have it more
abundantly." John 10:10.

"THE thief comes not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy."
False teachers, whatever their professions, seriously injure and
endanger the souls of men and in the end cause their destruction. Their
selfish ends can only be answered by the ruin of their dupes. The Lord
Jesus, the true Teacher of men, causes injury to none, and brings death
to no man's door. His teaching is full of goodness, kindness and love.
It works most effectually for human happiness and benefit. Error is
deadly. The Truth of God is life-giving. The coming of the old serpent
worked our death. The Advent of the woman's Seed has brought us life.
We shall omit all preface and ask you to note that, according to the
text, Jesus Christ is come, first, that His people may have life. And,
secondly, that where life is already given it may be enjoyed more
abundantly.

I. The first Truth is that JESUS CHRIST HAS COME THAT MEN MAY HAVE
LIFE. I will not dwell upon the thought that even the prolonged natural
life of the sinner is due, in a large measure, to the coming of Christ.
That barren tree would not stand so long in the garden of life if it
were not that the dresser of the vineyard intercedes and cries, "Spare
it yet another year, until I dig about it and fertilize it." The
interposition of the Mediator accounts for the lengthened lives of
gross offenders whose crimes tax the long-suffering of Heaven. If the
prayers of our great Intercessor should cease for a single hour, the
ungodly among mankind would, perhaps, sink down quickly into Hell, as
Korah, Dathan and Abiram did when the Lord's anger broke forth upon
them.

That, however, is not the drift of the text. Life, in the sense of
pardon and deliverance from the death penalty, is a great result of
Christ's coming. All men in their natural condition are under sentence
of death, for they have sinned, and they must be shortly taken to the
place of execution, there to suffer the full penalty of the second
death. If any of us are delivered at this time from the sentence of
death and have now the promise of the crown of life, we owe the change
to the coming of the Redeemer to be a Sacrifice for our sins. Every man
among us must go down to the endless death unless, through Him who came
to earth and hung upon the tree as the sinner's Substitute, we obtain
full remission for all offenses–and the verdict of life instead of
death. There is life in a look at Jesus, but apart from Him, the sons
of Adam are under sentence of death.

Moreover, we are all, by nature, "dead in trespasses and sins." In the
day when our first parents broke the Law, they died spiritually, and
all of us died in them. And now, today, apart from Christ, we are all
dead to spiritual things, being devoid of that living Spirit which
enables us to have communion with God and to understand and enjoy
spiritual things. All men are by nature without the Spirit which
quickens to the highest form of life. Unregenerate men have physical
life and mental life, but spiritual life they have not–nor will they
ever have it except as Jesus gives it to them. The Spirit of God goes
forth according to the Divine will and implants in us a living and
incorruptible seed which is akin to the Divine Nature. He confers on us
a new life, by virtue of which we live in the realm of spiritual
things, comprehend spiritual teachings, seek spiritual objects and are
alive unto God, who is a Spirit.

No one among us has any life of this kind by birth, neither can it be
bestowed upon us by ceremonial rites, nor obtained by human merit. The
dead cannot rise to life except by miracle–neither can man rise to
spiritual life except by the working of the Spirit of God upon him, for
it is He, alone, who can quicken us. Christ Jesus has come to call us
from the graves of sin. Many have already heard His voice and live.
This spiritual life is the same life which will be continued and
perfected in Heaven. We shall not, when we rise again from the grave,
obtain a life which we do not possess on earth–we must be alive unto
God here or take our places among those whose worm dies not and whose
fire is not quenched.

There beats within the Believer's heart this day the same life which
shall enjoy the fullness of joy in the Divine Presence. If you have
only looked to Jesus a few minutes ago, yet there is now in your heart
the blessed life. The incorruptible seed is sown in you which lives and
abides forever. The heavenly life is within you and this Jesus Christ
came to bestow upon us. The Truth that Jesus is the life-giver is clear
enough in the text and it leads to the following practical
reflection–life for your soul is only to be had in Jesus. If, then,
you are, this day, seeking salvation, you are instructed as to the only
source of it!

Spiritual life is not the result of working–how can the dead work for
life? Must they not be quickened, first, and then will they not rather
work from life than for life? Life is a gift and its bestowal upon any
man must be the act of God. The Gospel preaches life by Jesus Christ.
Sinner, see where you must look! You are wholly dependent upon the
quickening voice of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. "This,"
says one, "is very discouraging to us." It is intended to be! It is
kindness to discourage men when they are acting upon wrong principles.
As long as you think that your salvation can be effected by your own
efforts, or merits, or anything else that can arise out of yourself,
you are on the wrong track–and it is our duty to discourage you.

The way to life lies in the opposite direction. You must look right
away from yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ! You must rely upon what He
has done and not upon what you can do. And you must have respect not to
what you can work in yourself, but to what He can work in you. Remember
that God's declaration is that, "Whoever believes in Jesus has
everlasting life." If, therefore, you are enabled to come and cast
yourselves upon the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, you have
that eternal life immediately–which all your prayers, tears,
repentance, church-going, chapel-going and sacraments could never bring
to you!

Jesus can give it to you freely at this moment, but you cannot work it
in yourself. You may imitate it and deceive yourself. You may garnish
the corpse and make it seem as though it were alive–and you can
galvanize it into a spasmodic motion–but life is a Divine fire and you
can not steal the flame, or kindle it for yourself! It belongs to God,
alone, to make alive, and therefore I charge you look alone to God in
Christ Jesus! Christ has come that we may have life! If we could have
obtained life without His coming, why did He need to come? If life
could come to sinners apart from the Cross, why nail the Lord of Glory
to the shameful tree? Why Your bleeding wounds, Immanuel, if life could
come by some other door?

Yet, further, why did the Spirit of God descend at Pentecost, and why
does He still abide among men if they can be quickened without Him? If
life is to be obtained apart from the Holy Spirit, to what end does He
work in the human heart? The bleeding Savior and the indwelling Spirit
are convincing proofs that our life it not from ourselves, but from
above. Away, then, from yourself, O Trembler! Seek not the living among
the dead! Search not in the sepulcher of self for the Divine Life. The
life of men is in yonder Savior and whoever believes in Him shall never
die!

II. But we intend to spend the most of our time at this time upon the
second Truth of God, namely, that JESUS HAS

COME THAT THOSE TO WHOM HE HAS GIVEN LIFE MAY HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY.
Life is a matter of

degrees. Some have life, but it flickers like a dying candle and is
indistinct as the fire in the smoking flax. Others are full of life and
are bright and vehement, like the fire upon the blacksmith's forge when
the bellows are in full blast. Christ has come that His people may have
life in all its fullness.

Increase of life may be seen in several ways. It may be seen in
healing. A man lies sick upon his bed–he is alive, but he can hardly
move a limb–he is helplessly dependent upon those around him. His life
is in him, but how little is its power! Now, if that man recovers,
rises from his bed and takes his place in the world's battle, it is
evident that he has life more abundantly than in his illness! Even thus
there are sick Christians of whom we need to say, "Strengthen you the
weak hands and confirm the feeble knees." Their spiritual constitution
is weak, they do but little. When the Lord Jesus restores them,
strengthens their faith, brightens their hope and makes them healthy,
then they not only have life, but they have it yet more abundantly!

Our Lord desires to have us in spiritual health. He has for that end
become the Physician of our souls. He heals all our diseases and is the
health of our countenance. A person may, however, be in health and yet
you may desire he had more life. Yonder little child, for instance, is
in perfect health, but as yet it cannot run alone. Put it upon the
ground, it totters a little way, and is ready to fall. Those bones must
harden, those muscles must gather strength. When the boy becomes a man,
he will have life more abundantly than when he was a babe. We grow in
Divine Grace, we advance in

knowledge, in experience, in confidence and in conformity to the image
of our Lord. From babes in Christ Jesus we advance to young men. And
from young men we become fathers in the Church. Jesus would have us
grow. This is one of the designs of His coming and thus do we possess
life more abundantly.

A person might, however, have both health and growth, and yet enjoy a
stinted measure of life. Suppose he is confined as a prisoner in a
narrow cell where chains and granite walls perpetually bound his
motions–can you call his existence, life? Might it not be accurate to
speak of him as dead while he lives and to describe his dungeon as a
living tomb? Can that be life which is forbidden pure air which is the
poorest man's estate? Denied the sun which shines for all that breathe?
He lives, for he consumes that piece of dry bread and empties the
pitcher placed daily upon the stone floor, but in the truest sense he
is shut out from life, for he is denied liberty. When the poor prisoner
once more climbs the hill, crosses the ocean's wave and wanders where
he will, he will gratefully know what it is to have life more
abundantly.

Now, mark well that if the Son of God shall make you free, you shall be
free, indeed, and in that freedom find life sparkling, flashing and
overflowing like the streams of a fountain! To be under bondage through
fear of death is scarcely life. To be continually fretted with
mistrusts and receive the spirit of bondage, again, to fear, genders
unto death. But it is truly life to be able to cry, "You have loosed my
bonds!" Yet I can suppose a man at liberty and in health who might have
still more abundant life. He is extremely poor. He may wander where he
wills, it is true, but no foot of ground can he call his own. He may
live where he chooses, if he can live, but he has scarcely bread for
his body, covering for his limbs, or shelter from the night. He is
extremely poor.

The poor man works from before the sun proclaims the morning till far
into the night to earn a miserable pittance. This toil is exacting to
the last degree and his remuneration barely sufficient to provide
necessities. He can scarcely keep body and soul together. Is this life?
It is almost a sarcasm to name it so! When we have met with persons
compelled to sleep upon the bare floor, or who have for many hours been
without a morsel to eat, we have said, "These poor creatures exist, but
they do not live." This saying is true. And so, sometimes, there are
Believers who rather exist than live. They are starving. They do not
feed upon the promises. They do not enjoy the rich things which Christ
has stored up in the Covenant of Grace. When the Lord Jesus enables
them to partake of the "fat things full of marrow," and the wines on
the lees well-refined, then they not only have life, but they have it
"more abundantly."

I can still suppose a person who is free, in health and in the
enjoyment of abundance, who needs more life. He is mean and despised–a
pariah and a castaway. He has none to love him or look up to him with
respect. He does not even respect himself! He slinks along as if the
mark of Cain were upon him. He has forgotten hope and bid farewell to
love. You pity such a man every time you think of him. To possess the
love and esteem of our fellows is necessary if we would live. When
under conviction of sin a man has felt himself to be less than nothing,
a sinner unworthy to lift his eyes to Heaven, a leper fit to be shut up
among the unclean, or as a dead man, forgotten and out of mind–then, I
tell you by experience–he finds it a mighty addition to his life when
the Lord Jesus lifts him up from the dunghill and puts him among
princes, even the princes of His people!

Brothers and Sisters, to know that you are no longer a slave, but a
son, an heir of Heaven, a joint heir with Jesus Christ for whom the
saints are companions and to whom the angels are servitors–this is to
have life more abundantly! Is it not? I have thus hastily hinted at
some of the points in which increased life reveals itself. I will now
set forth the same subject in another way. I would lay before you seven
particulars in which Christians should seek after more abundant life.
First, let them desire more stamina. An embankment is to be thrown up,
or a cutting to be dug out. You need laborers. Here are your spades,
your picks and your wheelbarrows–only men are required. Look, a number
of persons offer themselves for hire. They are very thin, they have
singularly bright eyes, sunken cheeks and hollow churchyard coughs–
they are a choice company from the Consumptive Hospital!

Will you hire them? Why do you look so dubious? These men have life.
"Oh, yes," you say, "but I wish they had it more abundantly–they
cannot do such work as I have to offer them." We must send these poor
men away, they must go to the doctor and be taken care of. Look
yonder–another band of rough, stalwart fellows! These men will suit
your purpose. Look at their ruddy faces, their broad shoulders, their
mighty limbs–hand them the picks and the spades and the barrows and
you will see what British workers can do! What is the difference
between the two sets of men–these laborers and those consumptives?

Why the difference lies in the presence or absence of stamina in their
constitutions! There is a something–we cannot exactly say what it is,
perhaps the physician himself cannot put his finger upon it–but the
one set of men without it are weak, and the others with it are full of
force! Our Lord Jesus has come that, in a spiritual sense, we may have
stamina, may have a well-founded, well-furnished, well-established,
confirmed and vigorous life so that we may be capable of arduous
service and powerful action! He would have us walk without weariness
and run without fainting. He would have us quit ourselves like men and
be strong.

Beloved, do you not see how great a difference there is between some
Christian men and others? Are not some of them spiritual invalids? They
believe, but their favorite prayer is, "Lord, help our unbelief!" They
hope, but fear is almost as fully in possession of their hearts. They
have love to Christ, but they often sing–

"Do I love the Lord or not? Am I His or am I not?"

They need medicine and nursing. Give them any work to do for the Lord
and how soon they grow weary! Discourage them a little and they are in
despair! Oh that the Spirit of God would give them life more
abundantly! I am afraid that a very large proportion of Christian men
in this day are on the sick list. They are in a decline from need of
deep-seated principle and sound vitality of godliness, which is what I
mean by stamina.

It is sad to see how some professing Christians are led astray by any
error which is plausibly put before them. If all Christians were alike,
then Popery might easily become the universal religion of the country,
for they have no Protestant principle, no grounding in doctrine, no
firmness in the faith! They believe, but they know not why or what, and
cannot give a reason for the hope which is in them. It is to be feared
that they do not profess the Truth of God because others go this way
and that, and some eloquent preacher wins their affection and becomes
their oracle. They have not the stuff in them of which martyrs are
made. They have no grit in their nature, no decision, no tenacity of
belief, no firmness of grip!

Consequently, whenever persecuting times come over this land, they will
be our weakness. We shall have to look after such puny camp followers
and put them in the rear–or the enemy will make sad havoc among them.
Those who have life more abundantly are good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
They have learned to stand fast in the Truth, and by the blessing of
God they are more than a match for the teachers of error, for they know
what they know and are able to put to silence the fair speeches of
deceivers. They are not carried away with every wind of doctrine, but
abide in the Truth of God as they have been taught. They cry, "O God,
my heart is fixed!" They are "strong in the Lord and in the power of
His

might."

I pray that every member of this Church may be a man of inward
stamina–not one of those spiritual babies whom we have to be looking
after every day and feeding with spiritual spoon victuals every
Sunday–but men who, by the blessing of God, have got something in them
which they know the value of, and which they could not give up if all
the world should tempt or threaten them! I compared such strong
Believers to navigators and I shall not withdraw the comparison, for we
need men who can say to the mountains, "Be you removed," and to the
valleys, "Be you exalted." It is by such agents that the Lord will make
straight in the wilderness a highway for His march of mercy.

In a second sense we have life more abundantly by the enlargement of
the sphere of our life. To some forms of human life the range is very
narrow. Wordsworth's farmer had no great abundance of life, for–

"The primrose by the river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And
nothing more."

To plow and sow, and reap and mow, were his philosophy. The seasons
preached no sacred homilies to him. The birds sang, but he would have
been as much pleased if they had been silent. The hills were a
weariness to climb and the view from their summit he thought nothing
of. His soul was inside his smock frock and his corduroys, and never
wished to go beyond them.

Nor in the fields, alone, are there such beings. Our streets swarm with
men in broadcloth of the same race, to whom "the music of the spheres"
means the clink of sovereigns–and whose choice quotations relate to
the price of stocks and changes of the market. Over the Exchange we
read, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," but they read
it, "This earth is our God and the fullness thereof is our all." The
souls of such men live like squirrels in cages, and each day their
wheel revolves–it is all the world they know. Jesus Christ has come to
give His people a wider, broader life than this!

True, there are many men upon whom Christ has never looked, whose life
traverses wider areas than those which content the baser sort. Such men
map out the stars and fathom the sea–they read the mysterious story of
the rocks and of the ages past. They are deep in philosophy and force
their way into the secret chambers where the immature principles of
things are nestling. They have a life which is bounded only by time and
space. But, Beloved, when Jesus comes, He enlarges the sphere of the
most capacious mind and makes the greatest intellect to feel that it
was but "cabined, cribbed, confined," until He set it free. Beyond time
and space does Jesus lead us! The life which He has given us has been
tossed upon the stormy sea of sin and has descended into the deeps of
the tremendous ocean of terror.

We have been like Jonah at the bottom of the mountains, where the earth
with her bars seemed about us forever. The Grace of our pardoning God
has now set us on a rock and given us to behold the paradise of pardon!
What a blessed thing it is to be forgiven, to be dear to the Father's
heart and to feel the Father's kiss! This is a new world to us–to live
as they live who live at home with God–to see His smile and feast upon
His love! This is a life of no mean dimensions, for we dwell in God and
are in fellowship with the Infinite. We are no longer shut up to self,
but we hold conversation with the spirits before the Throne of God and
commune with all the saints redeemed by blood!

Now we have seen those mysteries which were before hidden from our
eyes. The path which the eagle's eyes have not seen we have gazed upon,
and the way which the lion's whelp has not trod we have traversed! We
have entered into the mysteries of the invisible and have stood within
the veil! We were as little birds within their shells, but the Lord has
broken our prison and His Spirit has led us into all Truth and shown us
that which was hid from ages and from generations. In this sense we
have life more abundantly.

Thirdly, our life in Christ becomes more abundant as our powers are
brought into exercise. I suppose all the powers of the man are in the
child, but many of them are dormant and will only be exercised when
life is more abundant. None of us know what we may be, we are but in
our infancy. Christ has come to give us a fuller life than we have yet
attained. Look at the Apostles! Before Pentecost they were mere junior
scholars, only fit to occupy the lower forms. They were often ambitious
and contentious among themselves–but when Jesus had given them the
Spirit, what different men they were! Would you believe that the Peter
of the Gospels could be the same person as the Peter of the Acts? Yet
he was the same man! Pentecost had developed in him new powers.

When I hear him saying, "I know not the Man," and a few weeks after see
him standing up in the midst of the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
boldly preaching Christ, I ask, What has happened to this man? And the
reply is, Christ has given him life more abundantly and he has
developed in himself powers which were concealed before! Beloved, you
pray, yes, but if God gives you more life, you will pray as prevalently
as Elijah! Even now you seek after holiness, but if you have life more
abundantly, you will walk before the Lord in glorious uprightness as
Abraham did! I know that you praise the Lord, but if the more abundant
life fills you, you will rival the angels in their songs! I repeat what
I have already said to you–we do not know what we may become.

Gladly would I fire you with a holy ambition! Pray to Jesus to make you
all you can be. Say to Him, "Lord, nurture in me all the Graces, powers
and faculties by which I can glorify You. To the fullness of my manhood
use me. Send a full stream of life upon me that all my soul may wake up
and all that is within me may magnify You. Get all out of me that can
possibly come out of such a poor thing as I am. Let Your Spirit work in
me to the praise of the glory of Your Grace." I desire, Brethren, for
myself and you, that we may be alive all over, for some professors
appear to be more dead than alive! Life has only reached a fraction of
their manhood! Life is in their hearts, blessed be God for that–but is
only partially in their heads–for they do not study the Gospel nor use
their brains to understand its Truths. Life has not touched their
silent tongues, nor their idle hands, nor their frost-bitten pockets.
Their house is on fire, but it is only at one corner, and the devil is
doing his best to put out the flame.

They remind me of a picture I once saw in which the artist had labored
to depict Ezekiel's vision of the dead bodies in course of
resurrection. The bones were coming together and flesh gradually
clothing them–and he represents one body in which the head is
perfectly formed, but the body is a skeleton–while in another place
the body is well covered, but the arms and legs remain bare bones. Some
Christians, I say, are much in the same state–they are alive only in
parts–and in some it must be some very hidden part which is quickened,
for little or nothing is to be seen of practical love or zeal. Oh for
men who are alive from head to feet! Whose entire existence is full of
consecration to Jesus and zeal for the Divine Glory–these have life
"more abundantly."

Fourthly, an increased degree of energy is intended in the text. We may
have the powers, but may not exercise them, and no doubt many men have
great spiritual capacities, but they lie still for lack of intensity of
purpose. Now, when is a man most alive? Some are so alive when they are
in determined pursuit of a favorite purpose. They have formed a
resolution and they mean to carry it out. You can see their whole man
pressing forward upon the track, all aroused and full of eagerness.
Now, the Lord Jesus has furnished us with a purpose which is sure to
stimulate us to energetic life, for "the love of Christ constrains us."

He has given us a motive and an impulse which we cannot resist and we
are in covenant with Him that we will glorify His name so long as we
have any being. We are solemnly resolved and earnestly set to seek His
honor. This gives an intensity to life which increases its abundance by
arousing it all. A man is said to be full of life when he is worked up
into excitement and livid with passion. Enthusiasm is life
effervescing, life in volcanic eruption. Where there is determined
resolve, if you arouse the man by opposition, you will see his whole
life come into action. He was quiet enough before, but you have
awakened the lion in him! His life was slumbering at ebb–now it is
dashing up at flood.

The man is carried right away! In his look and speech he is all alive.
And in his actions he is energetic to the last degree. Our Divine
Master has aroused the flame of our life by inspiring us with the
glorious passion of love to Himself. This provides us with stimulus and
impetus. A heart which is wholly surrendered to the love of Jesus is
capable of thoughts and deeds to which colder souls must forever be
strangers! Energetic, forceful, triumphant life belongs to souls
enamored with the Cross and espoused in ardent love to the heavenly
Bridegroom!

Abundance of a kind of life is painfully manifest in insane persons.
The demoniac in the Scripture burst the chains with which he was bound,
for he had unusual strength when the sudden outburst of his rage was on
him. Now, if possession by an evil spirit arouses men to an unusual
force of life, how much more shall possession by the Divine Spirit gird
a man with extraordinary energy! It is not possible for us to tell how
potent for good any man among us may become. As the man who was feeble
enough before, when he became possessed with an evil spirit refused to
be held in bondage, so the man possessed by the Divine Spirit becomes
supernaturally strong and refuses to be the captive of sin or Satan!

Look at Martin Luther! Could you have believed that such a poor monk
would shake the Vatican? And yet in his zeal for the Truth of God and
hatred of error he did it! Look at other men in other times who have
been raised up of God for a special purpose–what abundant life their
holy ardor gave them! They were like Samson of old. Go up to Samson,
feel his flesh, look at his bones–he is no larger than another man!
Though his thighs indicate enormous strength, yet he does not seem so
surprisingly superior to others. But wait till the Spirit of God moves
him in the camp of Dan, and then woe to the thousands of the
Philistines! Look how he piles them heaps upon heaps, while hip and
thigh he smites them! See how he takes the pillars of their temple and
rocks them to and fro and brings the edifice down upon their heads! The
Spirit of God is on the man and He works wondrously! If the Spirit of
God shall come upon you, it will make you do greater things than these
and achieve loftier victories. Only believe it, and come to Christ, for
abundant life is yet to be

had.

We will change the line of our thought, and, coming to the fifth point,
we will say that abundance of life is often seen in the overflow of
enjoyment. On a spring morning, when you walk in the field and see the
lambs frisking so merrily, you have said, "There is life for you." You
see a company of little children, all in excellent health–how they
amuse themselves and what pranks they play! You say, "What life there
is in those children!" Catch one of the little urchins and see if he
does not wriggle out of your arms, and you say, "Why, he is all life."
Just so, and therefore his happiness! In youth there is much life and
overflow of spirits. When Israel came out of Egypt, she was young
Israel, and how merrily did she smite her timbrels and dance before
Jehovah!

When Churches are revived, what life there is in them, and then what
singing! Never comes a revival of religion without a revival of
singing! As soon as Luther's Reformation comes, the Psalms are
translated and sung in all languages! And when Whitfield and Wesley are
preaching, then Charles Wesley and Toplady must be making hymns for the
people to sing, for they must show their joy, a joy born of life! When
the Lord gives you, dear Friend, more life, you also will have more
joy. You will no more go moping about the house, or be thought
melancholy and dull when the Lord gives you life more abundantly!

I should not wonder but what you will get into the habit of singing at
work and humming tunes in your walks. I should not wonder if people
ask, "What makes So-and-So so happy? What makes his eyes twinkle as
with some strange delight? He is poor. He is sick, but how blissful he
appears to be!" This will be seen, Brothers and Sisters, when you not
only have life, but when you have it more abundantly!

Now, sixthly, this is a somewhat peculiar fact, but I think it should
not be omitted. The abundance of life will be seen in delicacy of
feeling. No doubt there is a very great deal of difference as to the
amount of pain which persons suffer under the same operation. There are
persons so constituted that you might cut off an arm and they would
scarcely feel more than another person would suffer during the drawing
of a tooth. There are some, on the other hand, to whom the slightest
pain involves a thrill of horror, they are so sensitive. Whether it is
an advantage or a disadvantage I cannot tell, but it has certainly been
observed by skillful physicians that those persons who have strong
mental constitutions–who use their brains a lot and have a fine mental
organization–are usually those who suffer most when subjected to pain.
There is more life in them of a certain sort, and they are more
sensitive for that reason.

Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ gives His people life in its higher
forms, they become more capable of pain. The same sin will pain them a
hundred times more than it used to do–and they will shrink from it
with greater anxiety to avoid it. If you are only just a Christian, you
may do wrong and you will be penitent. But if you have much life and
you do wrong, ah, then your heart will be wrung with anguish and you
will loathe yourself before God! The man full of delicate life will not
only suffer more, but he has probably more pleasure–he is sensitive to
joys unknown to others– and his whole constitution thrills with a
pleasure which another but faintly perceives.

The name of Jesus is inexpressibly sweet to those who have abundant
life! It is precious if you only have life, but it is beyond all price
to those who have very tender hearts which swell with exuberant life. I
have met with some Christians who say they cannot understand Solomon's
Song, and I have often wondered at it, myself. That is a test book for
sensitive souls–and when men have much of the life of love–that
sacred canticle suits their feelings better than any other book in the
Bible, because it is a tender book of sacred love and glows like altar
coals! Oh, I pray you, have much of the tenderness of the intense life!

Nor is this all I mean by delicacy. I mean this. There is a delicacy of
hands which a man may acquire by long practice which renders that
wonderful member a great worker of feats. The fingers and palms are all
life and can execute manipulations of a most surprising kind. Even so,
the hands of educated faith can not only grasp but handle the good Word
of Life. When gifted with this faculty, we pry into the mysteries of
the heart of Jesus as others cannot! The lips, also, can become
sensitive. Laura Bridgman learned to read with her lips, the raised
letters–blind persons very generally have a wonderful life in the ends
of their fingers which others of us have not yet developed. So the Lord
would have His people enjoy a sensitively discerning life which shall
reveal to them what they would never have felt and known. Oh, when your
soul is blest with holy delicacy! When every part of your nature has
become full and brimming over with intense sensitiveness! And, when you
have an educated sensitiveness to the Divine mind and will, then are
you getting where Christ would have you to be!

Once more, this delicacy shows itself in a marvelous apprehensiveness
and keenness of perception which had not been there before, The Indian
will put his ear to the ground and say, "There is an enemy on the way,"
while you cannot hear a sound. When he comes to a turn in the forest,
"There is the trail," he says, "to the right," though you cannot see
that a stick has been moved, or that a single blade of grass has been
bent. His faculties are full of life and therefore he has a better ear
and a better eye than you. Remember the story of the Siege of Lucknow?
When the Highland woman said, "Dinna you hear it?–dinna you hear it?"
She could hear the sound of the Highland music when it was far away. I
do not doubt she heard it, though others did not–her ear was quicker
then theirs.

Jesus would have us quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord so
that we shall say, "He is coming–He is coming! I can hear His
footsteps!" And the world will say, "You are mad! Let us eat, and
drink, and be married and given in marriage." We want to be able to
say, "I can hear the Bridegroom's voice," when others will say, "Not
so, it is mere imagination." We need eyes which will see the land which
is very far off so that the golden gates of our heavenly home shall be
visible to us. Thus shall we have life "more abundantly."

The seventh point is this–life, when it is in abundance, becomes
supreme. Some races of men have physical life, but have it not
abundantly. For instance, the Red Indian and the Australian races have
life, but after awhile they perish and

die from off the face of the earth, while other races of more vigorous
life battle with their surroundings and survive. Christians should have
such abundant life that their circumstances should not be able to
overcome them–such abundant life that in poverty they are rich, in
sickness they are in spiritual health, in contempt they are full of
triumph–and in death full of glory!

Glorious is that life which defies circumstances! Christ has given to
us, Brothers and Sisters, a supreme life, supreme in its tenacity–it
cannot be destroyed, none can cut its thread. "Who shall separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?" Neither things
present, nor things to come shall ever avail to do this. We have life
so abundantly that it triumphs over all. What I desire for us, beyond
everything is to have this life so abundant that it may be supreme over
our entire selves. There is death within us and that death struggles
with our life. Our life has dashed Death down and holds it beneath its
feet–but tremendous is the struggle of Death to rise again and get the
mastery.

Brethren, we must hold Death down, we must grip him as with bands of
iron and hold him down–and plant the knee of prayer upon his bosom and
press him to the earth. We must not suffer sin to have dominion over
us, but life more abundant must, through Divine Grace, triumph over
inward corruption! There is yet much beyond you, Christian Brethren,
but that much is attainable. You are not to sit down and say, "We must
be always captives to the flesh, to yield it obedience." Beloved, you
may overcome! God's Grace being in you, you may overcome!

You shall not, this side of the grave, congratulate yourselves upon
perfection–such boasting be far from you! But in the strength of God,
the life of God which is in you may be increased and shall be
increased, for Christ has come to increase it, till Death shall be trod
down and you shall be more than conquerors through Him that has loved
you!

My time has gone, the subject is too large for me. Only this I conclude
with–if you need life, you must get it from Christ. If you need more
life, you must go to the same place. Do not look to Christ for the
beginnings and then somewhere else for the ending! Christ has come that
you might have more life. Come to Him by faith. Do not look to
ceremonies or outward services or anything else for growth in Grace,
apart from Jesus, but fly to Him and He will give it to you–and you
shall be rich to all intents of bliss.

God grant that all the members of this Church may have this great
blessing for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–JOHN 10. HYMN FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–46 (VERSION II) 798, 818.
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