My Restorer

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER28,1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He restores my soul." Psalm 23:3.

THIS sweetest of the Psalms sings of many mercies which the happy soul
of the Believer receives–and it traces all those benefits to one
Source–namely to the Good Shepherd, Himself. "I shall not want." Why?
Because the Lord is my Shepherd. I lie down in delicious repose in
green pastures. Why? Because "He makes me." I march onward making holy
progress beside the still waters. Why? Because "He leads me." In the
prospect of death I am calm and free from fear. Why? Because He is with
me, His rod and staff they comfort me. The crown is composed of many
costly things–gold, pearls and rare gems from the land beyond the
river–they are all blended in one diadem–and that diadem is, without
a question, joyfully placed upon the head of the Great Shepherd of
Israel. The poet laureate of Scripture sings surpassingly in this
Psalm, and every line is dedicated to the Beloved of his soul, in whom
were all his fresh springs.

My object, while handling a part of one of his verses shall be the same
as his own–I also would speak of "things which I have made touching
the King," with the view of extolling His name. I desire to glorify Him
from one particular point of view, namely, as The Restorer who,
Himself, brings back our wandering spirits when we forsake His ways. I
would just now write the first word of the text in capitals, capitals
as large as you can find. "HE restores my soul." He, He alone, He and
not another. Unto Him be praise!

I. The text is full of lessons and reminders, and reminds us, in the
first place of OUR TRUE POSITION as Believers. Let us dwell upon it in
that light. What is the true position of every Believer? It is that of
a sheep abiding close to its Shepherd. The text suggests that the sheep
has gone astray and the Shepherd brings it back in order to put it into
the position which it ought never to have left. The fittest condition
of a Believer is in communion with Christ. It ought not to be a
privilege occasionally enjoyed–it should be the everyday life of the
soul. We are to abide in Jesus, walk with Him and live in Him.

Paul did not say, "For me to specially rejoice is Christ," or, "For me
to feast on holydays is Christ." No, he said, "For me to live is
Christ." Christ is the ordinary bread of the common meal as well as the
fat things full of marrow for the banquet. He is water from the rock as
well as wine on the lees well-refined. To us, His name is the watchword
of earth as we expect it to be our passport into Heaven. We need
fellowship with Jesus, not as a luxury for red-letter days and
Sabbaths, but as the necessary provision of every day of our lives.
"Abide in Me" is His Word to us for all seasons, and we ought to strive
to realize it, so that always, by night and by day, on the Sunday and
equally on the weekdays–in our joys and in our cares–we should abide
in Him.

Christ is not merely a harbor of refuge, but a port for all weathers.
Do not think, Beloved, that I am setting up too high a standard when I
say this. I am so sure I am not that I will repeat what I have
said–the proper condition of a child of God at all times is that he
should sit with Mary at the Master's feet, or, with John, should lean
his head upon the beloved Redeemer's bosom. I think this will be clear,
first, if we remember our obligations to Jesus. When we were newly
converted and first knew our sins to be blotted out, if we had been
asked how we should, in the future, act towards our Lord, we should
have set up a very high standard.

"Did He die for me, bearing all my sins in His own body? Then I will
forever view His death as the grandest miracle of love! And my grateful
heart shall have communion with Him by love and praise. Has Jesus
really forgiven me? Am I clean through being washed in His most
precious blood, clean every whit, and made a child of God, and accepted
in the Beloved? Oh, then, I will praise Him and bless Him, and magnify
Him, and live to Him all my days! As to ever being weary of
Him–impossible! As to ever growing cold and indifferent towards
Him–better my heart should cease to beat than that it should ever be."

Do I not accurately describe what you thought at the first? Have I not
truthfully described the ardor of your espousal love? You have not
realized your ideal, but that is what you rightly judged to be, and,
Beloved, it is what you ought to have been. It is not a higher
condition than your solemn obligations to Christ really demand. If an
angel had never heard of men before, and should suddenly alight upon
this earth and meet with one of our race–and hold talks with him–he
would be filled with wonder at what he discovered. Suppose that we
should tell him that we fell into sin and were condemned to die, but
that the great Maker of Heaven and earth condescended to take upon
Himself our Nature, and died in our place? Can you imagine the angel's
astonishment at the condescension of the Son of God?

After his first amazement had passed away, he would say to us, "And do
you not love Him infinitely? Are you able, within the limits of your
little heart, to hold all the love you feel for such unutterable Grace?
How do you live? Do you not feel that you cannot do half enough for
Him? You certainly will never fail in obedience to Him! In trust of
Him. In zeal for Him–that would be quite impossible!" How deeply would
we blush and strive to cover our faces as we confessed to our angelic
questioner that for such surprising love we have made but a poor
return.

I am quite sure, however, that we should quite agree with the angel as
to what was due to our Lord–our conscience and our heart awarding Him
the highest affection and the most constant service. Such deeds of love
as Jesus has performed for us can never be adequately requited, but at
the very least they ought not to be insulted by lukewarm and casual
communion! They demand our heart, our soul, our all. With Him who has
healed us we desire evermore to remain. With our Ransomer we would live
in lifelong discipleship and be His servants, to go no more out
forever.

Moreover, our relationships to the Lord Jesus require perpetual
communion with Him. Know you not that you are the friends of Christ?
And if you are friends, will you not show yourselves friendly? But how
can you be friendly if by the space of a week you have no converse with
Him in the house, or in the field, or by the way? Is this your kindness
to your Friend? You are more than friends–you are His brothers and
sisters. "The same is my brother, and sister, and mother," said He, and
can you treat a Brother so indifferently as to walk towards Him as if
He were a stranger and a foreigner– and scarcely exchange a token of
affection by the months together? Is this brotherly? Did David treat
his Jonathan thus?

More than that, in wondrous love Jesus has called Himself your Husband
and taken you to be His spouse. Is not that strange love, or the lack
of it, which would allow a married pair to walk together week by week
without the fellowship or affection? Surely, their marriage bands would
be bonds, and their unity would be misery! I can conceive of scarcely
any worse torment than conjugal union without affectionate communion!
Shall I be the bride of Jesus and my love never be displayed in
converse with Him? Shame upon me, a thousand times shame, if I allow a
day to pass unblest with thoughts, and words, and deeds of love!

Yet more, the Lord has been pleased to call us members of His body.
Now, every member of the body must carry on vital fellowship with the
head. It must exercise inevitable, though not always conscious,
fellowship. In the spiritual body communion should be consciously
enjoyed at all times. Shall the hand become indifferent to the head, or
the foot refuse commerce with the brain? If we are in good health, no
such schism in the body will ever occur–but with the head all the
members will abide in affectionate, unbroken communion. We may suspect
paralysis if life ceases to flow through the entire corporate body, and
so communion is suspended. It is clear to all who are taught of God
that our relationships certainly require of us that we abide in the
Lord Jesus.

Moreover, Beloved, this case ought to need no pleading, for if we would
have happiness, where is happiness to be found but in walking near to
Jesus? I speak what I know, and the common testimony of all the saints
is with me–we say that out of Heaven there is no Heaven but nearness
to Christ! Fellowship with Him is Paradise without a serpent in it. It
is Canaan, itself, without the Canaanite foe. Communion with Jesus is
the porch of Glory. It is the Saturday night of the eternal Sunday. It
is the dawn of the heavenly day. Communion with Christ, if it is not
actually Heaven, is certainly the choicest suburb of the new Jerusalem!

Did not our poet cry–

Where can such sweetness be, As I have tasted in Your love, As I have
found in Thee?"

Now, men do not ordinarily need to be stirred up to that which is their
delight! Their spirits fly after their joys as eagles to the spoil.
Where their heart moves with pleasure, it draws all their powers after
it. And if, indeed, it is so, (and who

shall contradict it?), that fellowship with Christ is the richest of
all joys, the most intense of all delights, why are we so hard to move?
Oh, how sluggish are our hearts, how dull our spirits, that we do not
fly after Jesus with rapture of desire and do not labor perpetually to
abide in Him!

While this should draw us, another consideration should drive us,
namely, that our daily necessities demand that we should live in
fellowship with Him. If we are foolish and ignorant, where should we
dwell, but with the Teacher? If always weak, to whom should we resort
but to the Strong for strength? Let the child abide by its parent, the
scholar with the master, the patient by his physician, the poor man
with his helper. To whom should we go in our hourly needs but to Him
who has, up to now, been our All in All? Israel could not afford to be
a single day without the manna, nor can we be satisfied for an hour
without the Bread of Life. "Without Me, you can do nothing," says our
Lord, and we have proven His words to be true. Do we need more
humiliating evidence? Are we willing to fall into a condition in which
we can do nothing else but sin? I hope not. We ought never be satisfied
except when, abiding in Jesus, we are clothed with His power and are
bringing forth much fruit to His praise.

Remember, yet further, that when out of fellowship with Christ our
perils are infinite. When unfaithful to His love we are readily seduced
by every temptation. Without His love in our hearts we become victims
to other loves which lead us into idolatry, plunge us into hurtful
lusts and poison the wells of our joy. We must either be enthralled by
the surpassing love of Jesus, or we shall be fascinated by the world's
deceits. One of the two masters must rule us, either the Prince of the
power of the air, or the King of Kings! When Christ is with us we are
safe, for what wolf can rend a sheep when it is close to the Shepherd's
hand? When we are away from Jesus, we are not only in peril, but are
already despoiled–to lose fellowship with Jesus is loss enough, in
itself–even if no further calamity occurs.

Ships without a pilot, cities without watchmen, babes without a nurse,
are we without Jesus. We cannot do without Him. The less we attempt it
the better. Samson without his locks is the sad type of a Believer out
of fellowship. How dare we go forth to business on any day without the
Presence of the Lord? As well might the warrior go to battle without
shield and buckler! Should we not daily pray, "If Your Presence go not
with me, carry me not up there"? How can we go to our beds till He has
kissed us with the kisses of His mouth? May not even the dreams and
visions of the night prove our downfall if our souls are not committed
to His keeping?

For my part, I love to murmur to myself, as I place my head on my
pillow, those charming lines–

"Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood, I lay me down to rest, As in
the embraces of my God, Or on my Sa vior's breast."

The benefits of fellowship with Christ should constrain us to abide in
it. If any man would grow in Grace. If he would be filled with the
Spirit. If he would know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge.
Especially if he would be made like to Him in all things who is the
Head, he must abide in Christ. The whole compass of a Christian's
permissible ambition is to be realized in fellowship with Jesus and
nowhere else. All that I ought to be, or can desire to be–when I am in
a right state–I can be in my Lord, by walking near to Him. Nothing
good can any Believer obtain by forsaking his Master. Following Christ
afar off is evil, only evil! And that continually abiding in Him is
peace, joy, holiness, Heaven!

Therefore, Beloved, I say again, let us strive after that which ought
to be the habitual position of every Christian, namely, abiding in
Christ–this is for babes in Grace as well as men in Christ Jesus, for
the obscure as well as the famous.

II. Our text, in the second place, reminds us of OUR FREQUENT SIN. "He
restores my soul"–He often does it. He is doing it now. Now, the Lord
would not do what is unnecessary and, therefore, this shows me that I
often wander from Him, or else I would not need to be brought back.
Beloved, I grieve to say that with man's professors of godliness,
suspended communion is the chronic state of things. I must confess my
inability to comprehend the Christian life of many who are called
Christians. It is not for us to judge their real condition before God,
nor will we attempt to do so, but we cannot help observing the
inconsistency of their acts.

They have believed in Christ, let us hope. Let us hope, also, that
their faith produces enough good works to prove itself to be a living
faith. But, for all that, their religion is cold, joyless, passionless.
There are thousands of Christian people whose religion seems to lie
entirely in attending religions services on Sunday, and occasionally,
perhaps, coming out on a weekday to a lecture. They observe private
devotions of a very stereotyped order and keep a Bible somewhere or
other, and this is about it. To them prayer is a formality, praise is
forgotten, the reading of the Bible is a drudgery,

meditation a mere memory and their whole Christianity more like a mummy
than a thing of life. With them the complaint that they are out of
communion with Jesus is superseded by the question, "Were they ever in
it?"

I am afraid we have in this Church and in all Churches, scores and
hundreds of members whose highest emotions in reference to love to the
Person of the Lord Jesus Christ reaches no higher than the inquiry–

"Do I love the Lord or not? Am IHis, or am Inot?"

Conscious enjoyment of the love of Jesus and familiar communion with
Him they know nothing of, and indeed, they look upon such things as the
luxuries of a high class of saints, very pleasant to read of in
biographies, but not matters of daily possession. They heartily admire
the good people who can attain to such eminent positions, but to dwell
there, themselves, has never occurred to them as at all possible.
Beloved, this is a sad state of things! It is a condition of life in
which I tremble for you, because you are starved in the midst of
plenty, you are willfully pinching yourselves with penury while
infinite wealth is all around you.

You live as hired servants and not as sons! You get the duty of
religion without the enjoyment of religion. You wear its yoke but do
not feed in its pasture. You seem to me to forego all the cream of our
holy faith and to partake of nothing but its skimmed milk. You leave
the sunny plains of communion for the frozen regions of negligent
living and therefore you shiver with fear while others exult with
gladness. You have chosen your position in the outer courts of the
temple. You never enter into the holy of holies. You do not pass within
the veil to behold the Glory of the Lord. You are sailing to Heaven,
but you are stowed away in the hold in the dark.

You appear to me in your religion to live like the beggars who come
round to our back doors for the bones and the stale crusts. And
therefore I am not very much surprised when I hear that some of you
feel a craving for amusements and say that you are very dull, and need
lively company and gaiety to make life bearable. If my child were to
say that he must go continually to the confectioner's or to the
eating-house, I should say to myself, "Surely the food on my table is
sufficient for him." But if upon inquiry I found that he did not eat at
my table except occasionally, and that he always made choice of the
barest bones and driest crusts, I should be at no loss to comprehend
why he was so frequently seen at other places of supply. If you are not
living upon Jesus, and rejoicing in the measureless bliss which He is
capable of bestowing upon you, I do not marvel if you go off to the
world for your sweetmeats and feel a leaning towards the leeks and the
garlic and the onions of Egypt!

Oh, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you are, indeed, His people, may the
Holy Spirit save you from the dull religion in which you live and bring
you into that condition in which you shall see your Lord, abide in Him,
and rejoice in Him! A miner who lives the most of his days underground
is not doing his country justice when he speaks of it as dourly, close,
and suffocating. It is so down below, but it is not so up above!
Religion wears but a grim aspect to those who know nothing of its
secret joys, its sacred banquets, its ecstasies, and its calm
satisfactions.

There is a bleak side and a sunny side to every hill. Those who are
careless in their fellowship will know the worst side of things. The
bright-eyed dweller in the sunny south is a very different man from the
Eskimo who drive their dogs among the ice fields and hide away through
long months of winter in which the sun never sends forth a glimmer to
cheer the earth. Who cares to be one of the Eskimos of Christianity, or
the Laps and Fins of the Church? Yet, alas, these abound on all sides!
We have to confess that others of us, in whom this departure from
Christ is not chronic, are, nevertheless, subject to acute attacks of
declension–and there are seasons when it is, indeed, well for us that
He restores our souls.

How soon are we turned out of the way! How little a thing may mar our
joyful fellowship with Christ! Have you been in worldly company in the
evening? Did you marvel that you could not enjoy communion at evening
prayer? Have you become fond of your possessions, or have you been
eager to increase them? Then your idols have grieved your Lord. Have
you been unreconciled to your losses and fretted against God for His
dark Providences? "If you walk contrary to Me," He says, "I will walk
contrary to you." When our proud spirits chafe and fret against our
heavenly Father, we cannot expect smiles and caresses from Him. We may
easily lose fellowship with Christ by pride and self-esteem–if He
indulges us with happy hours of sacred joy, we are very apt to think
that we are somebody–and straightway we hold our heads very high. And
whenever that happens we are very likely to fall into the mire and be
there until our own garments abhor us and we cry for help like the
sinners we are.

Christ delights to meet us on terms of Grace. He is to be fullness and
we emptiness! He the mighty Helper and we the fainting sinner. He the
Savior and we the lost ones. While we say that we are rich and
increased in goods, He knows that we are false and He leaves us. But
when we see that He has the gold and the white raiment, and we the
nakedness and the beggary, then are we arrived at terms which befit
both Him and us. Vain is it to boast, for we have no beauty! His are
the eyes which are as a flame of fire. His the countenance goodly as
Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His the crown of light and the mantle
of glory.

Unto Him must all honor be ascribed. Those who honor Him, He will
honor. Humility sits at Jesus' feet and that is the chosen place of
loving fellowship. We may lose the Presence of Christ by forgetfulness
of duty, or of His Truth. We may, on the other hand, lose it by evil
thoughts and absorption in fleeting cares. We may lose the company of
Christ by inconsistent actions or by idle conversations. "Oh," some of
you say, "is that so? Will Jesus be gone from us so soon?" It is even
so. Those who know Him best have found out that He is like His Father
and there is a trait in His Father's Character which is very
conspicuous in the Son. It is written, "The Lord your God is a jealous
God," and Jesus is a jealous Lover. He will not cast away His
people–He is faithful to the worst of them–but if we do not walk with
Him in holiness He will withdraw Himself from us for a while.

Can two walk together unless they are agreed? If we grieve Him He will
make us grieve. Cold, unloving, irreverent walking will soon cause the
beams of the Sun of Righteousness to glance no more upon us. Blessed be
the name of our Beloved, He comes back before long, and He says, "For a
small moment have I forsaken you, but with great mercy will I gather
you." But even the small moments of His forsaking are all too long! A
little of His absence is painful for a true spirit to bear. But I leave
this mournful point for something more consoling.

III. The text reminds us, also, of OUR LORD'S FAITHFUL LOVE. "He
restores my soul." This is not what He might have done, or would have
done had He been changeable as we are. There are some who teach that
Jesus leaves His roaming sheep to perish. As a punishment for their
wanderings He gives them up to the wolf. I hope that very few believe
that doctrine now–it is so dishonoring to the Good Shepherd that I
hope all God's people will give it up once and for all. Yet such was
the belief of many at one time.

Ah, I do not wonder that some believed it, for I have often been hard
pressed with the fear that it would turn out to be so in my own case.
But I am here this morning to say concerning my Lord, "He restores my
soul." He has not cast me off, or left me to myself, or abandoned me to
my own devices–but in love to my soul He has plucked my feet out of
the net, drawn me up from the horrible pit and set my feet upon the
Rock of His immutable love. To leave His sheep to perish is not like
our Savior. The heart refuses credence to such an idea, it so unlike
He. My witness is that, "He restores my soul." He has done this so
often that He may well be described as always doing it.

The Psalmist puts it in the present tense, as if the Lord were in the
habit of doing so, and were even at this moment in the act of restoring
his soul. Truly I must confess that I wander and He restores me. Child
of God, as numerous as your sins have been, so numerous have His
restorations been! After a hundred times erring, you might have
provoked Him to say–"He is given unto his idols, let him alone; My
Spirit shall no longer strive with him." But no, He turns His hands
again upon you and once more leads you in the paths of righteousness
for His name's sake.

The mother forgets not her suckling, though it is often fretful and
peevish. She still has compassion upon the son of her womb–and even
thus it is with Jesus. We are too deeply engraved on the palms of His
hands to be, at last, left to die. We have cost Him too dearly for Him
to relinquish us. Having restored our soul a hundred times, He still
restores it. It is the way of Him–it is the habit of His love. The
text lovingly insinuates that He is ready to restore us now. He is at
His old work again. Even now, "He restores my soul."

Where are you, dear Brother? Dear Sister? Have you grown very dull and
cold of late? Jesus is waiting to make your heart burn within you. Do
you feel half-dead spiritually? Your Lord and Master is even now ready
to quicken you by His Word and to restore unto you the joy of His
salvation! If you ask me why the Lord is thus quick to restore His
people, I can find no answer in them or their merits, but a little
further on the Psalmist gives you the reason why Christ thus acts in
faithfulness and tenderness. "He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for His name's sake." He would not restore us for our sakes. There is
nothing in us which could be pointed out to the eye of Justice as a
claim for restoration, though much might be remembered which, on the
footing of the Law, would ensure our ruin!

Here is our safety. The Lord Jesus has willed to save us, and He stands
to His purpose and decree. He has put forward His own veracity and
immutability as guarantees of the Covenant! His own honor would be in
jeopardy should one of His people be lost. Therefore for His own name's
sake He restores the wanderer, lest His enemies should say, "God has
forsaken His people," and lest the hosts of Hell should boast, saying,
"The Lord began to save them, but He was not able to finish the work."
"For His name's sake." Deep and blessed reason! Immutable, immovable
foundation of comfort! For His name's sake He restores our souls when
we wander from His way.

Strange are the means He uses. Sometimes it is a most heavy rod. At
other times a sweetly fascinating love call. Singular are the modes of
dealing with His people. He will break them in pieces and crush them
beneath His feet, apparently in hot displeasure, but all with the view
of making them sick of sin and eager after Himself. He will tear them
as a lion tears his prey, and this not to destroy, but to save them. Is
it not written, "I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal"? Often by
dispensations of terror He leads us into ways of Grace and frequently
that which appears to be our utter destruction ends in our complete
restoration, according to His Grace. Let the text stand as a type and
testimony of His immutable love. "He restores my soul."

IV. During the short time which remains for me to discourse to you, I
want to throw my whole strength into the last consideration. Our text,
emphasized as I have emphasized it, reminds us of HIS SUPREME POWER.
"HE restores my soul." HE, HE, HE alone restores my soul! From first to
last my revivals and refreshing come from Him. He Himself first made my
soul to live–yes, He was Life itself to me. You had no life, Beloved,
till Jesus passed by and saw you lying dead in sin and said to you,
"Live." You were like Lazarus in the tomb. You were beginning to stink
with corruption and sin, and His voice, when it said, "Lazarus, come
forth," was life to you.

You did not help the Savior in your quickening–how could you? You
exercised no concurrent action–He took the first step and quickened
you when you were dead in sin. He began to save you because He will
have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He will have compassion on whom
He will have compassion. You owe your regeneration entirely to Him and
it is not surprising that your revival should come from the same
source. Surely He who regenerated can restore! He who created can
renew! Restoration is not a more difficult work–no, it is but a
secondary work compared with the new creating of the soul. The Lord,
even Jesus Christ, who did at the first give you life, can revive you
again–and He can do it by Himself–being to your soul her medicine as
well as her physician.

All the evils under which a Christian smarts arise from the absence of
Jesus, or else obtain their power to injure from the fact of the Lord's
being away. There are corruptions which dwell always in us, but these
do not dare to show their faces when Jesus reigns within in revealed
Glory. The traitors lurk in their holes when the King is in the
city–they will not venture forth till they hear that He is offended
and is gone. While the flag flies on the castle to mark that my lord is
at home, His enemies are on their best behavior, for they have a dread
of His sword. When our fellowship with Jesus is active, sin lies
dormant, or is so thoroughly subdued that it makes but a struggling
gasp for life.

So, then, if at this time I have become proud, or petulant, or idle, or
cannot pray, or will not submit to the Divine will, or have fallen into
spiritual sickness–it is quite certain that all the mischief is
occasioned by the loss of my Lord's company–and it is clear that His
coming back to me will restore my soul. If His absence has developed
all this evil, then His Presence can surely put it away. Should it
happen that the temptation is outward, still no outward temptation has
any force when Christ is present. Let all the world's charms attempt to
seduce us, they are horrible distortions when contrasted with the
loveliness of Jesus. Only let us see His face and all earthly
witcheries have lost their enchantment.

Suppose that we were tempted to skepticism? Christ is the antidote for
that venom. No man doubts when Christ is present with him. At the sight
of Him even Thomas cries, "My Lord and my God." Can we despond while He
consoles? Can the children of the bride chamber mourn while the
Bridegroom is with them? On the other hand, pride cannot live where
Jesus is seen. "When I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead," said the
beloved Apostle. His Presence is the death of every sin, the life of
every Divine Grace. Therefore it is that the text says, "He restores my
soul."

The hunger, famine, and disease of war need but one cure, and that is
peace. The woes of the Believer's soul need but one remedy, and that
lies in the words, "Abide in Me." The Presence of Christ has everything
in it that the soul can possibly need. I see the green leaves of a
plant most dear to all who love the woods in spring. It is now nestling
under a hedge upon a shelving bank, just alone a trickling stream. I
ask it why it does not bloom and it whispers to me that it will

bloom by-and-by. "But, sweet primrose, why not put forth your lovely
flower at once and gladden us with your beauty?" She answers, "I am
waiting for him."

For whom do you tarry, you herald of spring?–

"All love on you to rest their weary eyes, Rending therein a history of
dearest ties." She meekly answers, "I am waiting for my lord, the sun."
Do you not need other friends and helpers? "No," she says, "the coming
of my lord will be enough, and when he puts forth his strength I shall
put on my beauty." But will you not need soft, pearly drops of dew to
glisten on the leaves? Are not your blossoms most frail to gaze upon
when all around keeps time and tune therewith, when the violet and
harebell are in your company, when the buds are swelling and "the
green-winged linnet sings"? To which she replies, "He will bring them,
he will bring them all." But are you not afraid of the killing frosts
and the dreary snowstorms? "He will chase them all away," says the
little plant. "I shall be safe enough when he brings on the spring."

Believer, you are that plant and Jesus is your Sun! He will bring you
healing beneath His wings and joy in the light of His Countenance. He
restores our entire manhood–every regenerated faculty grows strong
when He is near. Every Grace drinks in new life from communion with
Christ! Faith triumphs, love burns, hope prophesies, patience becomes
strong for endurance and courage is bold for conflict. Christ is such
fare that all the Graces can feed on Him, and all grow strong upon the
sacred viands. The best of all is that He is a restoration which is
available now, available at once. I felt, the other day, heavy at
heart, dull, dead. I thought of myself as though I were a branch of a
tree cut off and so I meditated thus with myself–"If I am a branch of
the vine, and have been removed from my stem, my only hope is to get
back into the place from where I came and be grafted in again, and
begin to suck the sap again, and feel the life flowing through me,"

Then was it sweet to remember that there is no possible state into
which a Believer could fall, even if it were the most desperate that
could be conceived, but what Christ can restore him perfectly and at
once! Then for my own comfort and renewal I began with my Lord thus–I
looked at Him upon the Cross. I stood before Him as a sinner and
wondered at Him that He should die for sinners. And I trusted Him and I
said to Him, "Lord, You know I trust You. I have no hope but in You and
I cling to You as a limpet clings to the rock. With all my heart and
soul I cling." I began to feel the sap flow from the stem into my
branch at once as soon as I had got into contact with my Lord! By a
simple faith, I felt that virtue went out of Him to heal my soul.

Once having established the flow of the sap, it flowed more, and more,
and more, for as I thought about my salvation through Him, being myself
guilty, and He my Righteousness, I began to love Him and my soul began
to glow with a passion towards Him. And I wanted to be telling others
what a dear, good Savior He was, and in a few moments after I had
bemoaned myself as dead to Him and a castaway, I felt as much warmth of
love to Him as ever I had done in all my life, and could say in the
language of the spouse, "Or ever I was aware, my Soul made me like the
chariots of Amminadib"!

Now, I believe that this is the natural process to go through for the
restoring of your soul. Some of you professors may be feeling, "I do
not know how it is, but I am not what I ought to be, I am out of gear
with Christ. I wish to act into a better state of heart, to be more
pleasing to God them I am, by walking nearer to Him." If such is your
state, mind what you do. Try what I have described, or, unless you are
wide awake, there will come to you Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, and tell you
there are other ways of getting your souls restored.

First, he says, you should repent bitterly of all this wandering of
heart. That is correct enough, but who is to give you this repentance?
And then, says he, you must be more attentive to the outward means of
Grace, you must set aside longer times for prayer and be more diligent
in searching the Scriptures privately. That also is all correct.
Whatever he bids you, that observe and do, as Christ said of the
Pharisees, but that is not the way to obtain restoration of soul! The
way to Heaven is never round by Sinai! Always be afraid of directors
who lead you in that direction. All our healing lies in Christ. Christ
is the Physician, and Christ is the Medicine, too.

The way to get your soul restored is not to try to restore it yourself,
nor to undergo any processes by which it may work itself right. No, but
go straight away to Christ and lay hold on Him, just as you are,
whatever your condition may be. Coming into contact with Him, you shall
soon have to sing in the words of the text, "He restores my soul." Let
others

talk of their sacraments, "He restores my soul." Let men boast and
glory of special ways of raising their souls to Heaven, "He restores my
soul." Let some rejoice because their souls need no restoring, but are
always strong, I cannot say that, but I can say, "He restores my soul."

I hope this morning I shall have many Beloved Brothers and Sisters of
like mind, who will go out of this house saying not only, "I knew He
could restore my soul," but, "He restores my soul. I was very cold when
I came in here, as cold as the weather itself, but Jesus has thawed the
ice of my heart." Perhaps you have to confess that you were in a very
bad state of mind–ugly-tempered–and I do not know what besides.
Perhaps you were worried out of anything like peace and rest. Now,
then, is the time to try the great Restorer. Before you leave your
seat, labor to get into contact with Christ by the power of His Holy
Spirit.

Do, I pray, return to Him as at the first. O Branch, come back to the
Stem! Let the sap flow again. "But I am not in a fit condition," you
say. What? Have you gone back to that old Sinai idea of fitness? Have
you gone back to that legal demand? Come as you are! Come as you are to
Jesus. I mean you saints. Are you going to play the fool as sinners do?
Sinners say they are to get ready for Christ, and fools they are for
saying it. Are you about to say the same? You will be worse fools
still! Come just now. Whatever you have been, let the connection
between you and Christ be consciously felt and quickened by an
immediate application to Him by simple faith, and you shall yet say, as
you rise into more than your former vigor, "He restores my soul."
__________________________________________________________________

Indexes
__________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

Genesis

[2]21:19

Exodus

[3]12:42

Ezra

[4]4:14

Job

[5]33:29-30

Psalms

[6]23:3 [7]27:9 [8]31:22 [9]51:12-13 [10]88:7 [11]92:2
[12]92:10 [13]94:19 [14]102:17 [15]103:12

Proverbs

[16]27:18

Ecclesiastes

[17]9:10

Song of Solomon

[18]1:7-8 [19]2:3 [20]3:10

Isaiah

[21]38:17 [22]43:25 [23]53:3 [24]61:11 [25]62:10 [26]63:7

Ezekiel

[27]36:26

Daniel

[28]10:19

Hosea

[29]4:17

Joel

[30]2:26

Zechariah

[31]8:21

Matthew

[32]5:14 [33]9:37-38 [34]10:1 [35]11:29 [36]12:19-21
[37]22:42

Mark

[38]4:5-6 [39]4:38

Luke

[40]11:9-10 [41]12:54-57 [42]19:10 [43]24:5-6

John

[44]6:35 [45]6:39-40 [46]15:13

Romans

[47]7:13 [48]8:9 [49]16:1-16

1 Corinthians

[50]15:58

2 Corinthians

[51]5:18-21

Galatians

[52]3:22

Ephesians

[53]5:20

Philippians

[54]1:19 [55]1:23 [56]3:13-14

2 Thessalonians

[57]2:16-17

James

[58]5:19-20

1 Peter

[59]2:24

2 Peter

[60]3:10-11

1 John

[61]3:22-24

3 John

[62]1:4

Revelation

[63]4:10
__________________________________________________________________

This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
generated on demand from ThML source.

References

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