Order Is Heaven’s First Law

Order Is Heaven's First Law

(No. 2976)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1906.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his
path." Joel 2:8.

THOSE who have been able to observe the marching of an army of locusts
have been amazed beyond measure with the marvelous regularity of their
advance. Agur, who must surely have seen them, says, "The locusts have
no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands." The wonder is that
creatures comparatively so insignificant in size, and so low down in
the scale of intelligence, should maintain such more than martial
order, both in their long flights and in their devouring marches. The
ablest commanding officers would be at their wits' end if ordered to
marshal a multitude numbering even a thousandth, or perhaps a millionth
part of the countless hordes of these destructive marauders and yet, by
instinct, the locust soldiery can and do keep rank better than the most
veteran regiments of the line, as I can personally testify, from having
seen miles of them in one of the Italian valleys. "They shall march
everyone on his ways," says the Prophet, "and they shall not break
their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone
in his path."

I. As I considered this remarkable fact in insect life, my meditations
led me to note THE ORDER WHICH REIGNS, not only among locusts, but
THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF GOD'S WORLD. And then I said within myself–
After this fashion should there be order and arrangement in the
Christian Church. God has trained His great insect army and among them
order reigns, but this is no exception to the general rule, for all the
hosts of God are marshaled in rank and file and are never left to be a
disorganized mob of forces. From the most minute to the most
magnificent, all creatures feel the sway of order and they well observe
the laws imposed by their Creator!

Look up to the heavens and observe the innumerable stars that glisten
there so plenteously that numeration fails. Looked at through the
telescope, stars are so abundant that the heavens appear to be covered
with dust of gold and yet we have no record that one of these bodies
has ever interfered with the orbit of its fellow sphere, or if such a
catastrophe has ever been permitted, it has been part of the
all-comprehending scheme. The majestic orbs move, each one in its own
orbit, and all in perfect harmony. Even the aberrations, as we call
them, are nothing but the result of regular law and the astronomer
finds that he can calculate them with the greatest possible accuracy.
There are no irregularities, discords, or failures among the
constellations! And if to the student of the heavens such should appear
to be the case, he has but more fully to master the universal law and
he discovers, with astonishment, that every eccentricity is a necessary
incident in a system grander than he had thought. Mere amateurs in
astronomy talked of irregularities, but Newton and Kepler found a
mathematical precision manifest in all. At no point need we be afraid
that the universe will be thrown out of gear! If a man had placed
innumerable wheels in a machine, there would be, in due time, a
breakdown somewhere. Oil would be needed here, a cog would be broken
there, a band would be snapped in this place, or a piston would be
immovable there–but God's great machine of the universe, whose wheels
are so high that the sublime Ezekiel, when he saw them, felt that they
were terrible, has continued to revolve these many thousands, perhaps
millions of years, and has never yet been stopped for cleaning or
repair because God has impressed upon every atom of it the most docile
spirit of submission–and His powerful hands are at work every instant
amidst the machinery giving force to His laws.

Nor is it so in the coarser inanimate forms of matter only, but the
same law holds good with the whole animal creation. Not locusts alone,
but the fish of the sea and the birds of the air all observe their
Maker's bidding and both live and move according to rule and order, all
forming portions of the perfect circle struck out by the Divine
compasses. What a wonderful thing it is that mighty streams of fish
should come, during certain seasons, from the North and swim near
enough to our coasts to afford our citizens so large a portion of their
daily food! If there is complaining in our

streets, there need not be, for extended fisheries could supply all the
inhabitants of Britain, even if they were multiplied a hundred times,
and yet there would be no perceptible declining in the teeming
population of all the sea, for God has so arranged it that there shall
be most of those kinds which are most required for food. But what a
marvel that at the fixed period, the unguided fish should migrate in
such countless shoals and should return again, in due season, to their
old abodes among the Arctic waves!

Mark, too, how every tribe of animals is necessary to all the rest. So
beautiful is the order of Nature that we cannot wantonly destroy a race
of little birds without suffering from their removal. When the small
birds were killed in France by the peasantry, who supposed that they
ate the corn, the caterpillars came and devoured the crops. Man made a
defect in an otherwise perfect circle–he took away one of the wheels
which God had made and the machine did not work perfectly. But leave it
alone and no jars or grindings will occur, for all animals know their
time and place and fulfill the end of their being. You spoil the
harmony of Nature's concert if even the sparrow's chirrup is unheard.
The stork and the crane fly at God's bidding, the swallow and the
martin know their pathway–the prowling beasts and ravenous birds, as
well as the domestic cattle, all hold their own in Nature's
arrangements. Like the bejeweled breastplate of the high priest, Nature
is full of gems, each one in its setting–and the glory is marred if
one is lacking. Be assured that the wild ass and coney, leviathan and
behemoth, eagle and dove, gnat and lizard are all arranged for the
highest good and are beautiful in their season. "Neither shall one
thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path."

Rising a little higher, there is also order in the Providence of God.
When you view the great world of human history, it looks like a skein
of thread much twisted and tangled. When you study it, you see nations
rise and fall, like boiling waves of a foaming sea. You read of
horrible wars, wantonly commenced and wickedly continued. The human
race seems to have destroyed its sons without a motive. Men rush upon
each other with all the fury of fiends and tear each other like
wolves–and yet they eat not that which they have killed! The history
of mankind appears at first sight to argue the absence of God. We ask,
"How is this? We expected to find, if God were in Providence, something
more orderly and regular than we see here. Instead of a grand volume
from a master-pen, we see words flung together without apparent
connection. We expected to find a sublime poem, such as angels might
love to read, but all this is confusion, void and
unintelligible–strokes and dashes without meaning to us." Yes, my
Brothers and Sisters, and so it is. But we are little children and do
not yet understand God's hieroglyphics! We write in large text and have
not the transcript of the celestial shorthand. Our limited field of
vision only lets us see a brick or two of the great house–and
straightway we begin to criticize the infinite Architect and His work.
After all, supposing this world to have existed six thousand years,
what is that? In God's sight, it is but as a day, or as yesterday when
it has passed. We see but one thread of history, a raveling of life,
and then we vainly fancy that we can form a fair judgment of the
tapestry curiously fashioned by the finger of the Lord!

Coming down from these great things to ourselves, depend upon it that
all the events in our own little lives are marching straight on to a
gracious consummation. You, child of God, sometimes say, "What can be
the design of this cross? What can be meant by that bereavement? Why am
I perplexed by this dilemma? Why is this difficulty piled like a
barricade across my path? Well, you know not now, but you shall know
hereafter! Meanwhile, settle it firmly in your faith that "all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose." Your affliction does not jostle your
prosperity, but promotes it. Your losses do not cause your loss–they
really increase your true riches! Onward still, laden with untold
blessings, every event is marching for the righteous and for the humble
spirit. God has His way in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of
His feet. Only be patient and wait upon Him with childlike confidence
and the day shall come when you shall wonder, and be astonished, that
there should have been such order in your life when you thought it was
all confusion–such love when you thought it unkindness, such
gentleness when you thought it severity, such wisdom when you were
wicked enough to impugn the rightness of your God! Brothers and
Sisters, the events of our history march on as rightly as a victorious
legion under a skillful Leader. Do not let us arraign the wisdom of
that which happens to us, or fancy that we could order our affairs in
better style. Our good and ill, our joy and grief, all keep their
places. "Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in
his path."

II. But we must rise still higher. We have come from the world of
matter to the world of living creatures and up to the world of
intellectual beings–NOW LET US THINK OF GOD HIMSELF.

We may say of all His attributes that "neither does one thrust another,
but each one walks in his path." Let us be careful at any time in
thinking of God, that we indulge not in reflections upon one attribute
to the forgetting of the rest. Many Christians are much soured in their
disposition by considering God only in the light of Sovereignty. Now,
that He is a Sovereign, is a great, deep, mysterious, but also most
blessed Truth of God, and we would defend Divine Sovereignty with all
our might against all comers. But, at the same time, absolute
Sovereignty is not the only attribute of God and those who keep their
eyes fixed upon that, to the exclusion of all other qualities and
prerogatives, get an ill-balanced idea of God–and very likely they
fall into errors of doctrine and, still more likely, they become
hardhearted towards their fellow men and forget that the Lord has no
pleasure in the death of sinners, but desires rather that they should
turn unto Him and live.

On the other hand, many injure their minds very greatly by reflecting
solely upon the one thought of God, that He is good. It is a blessed
Truth that He isgood and benevolent, and full of compassion–and Holy
Scripture tells us that "the Lord is good to all; and His tender
mercies are over all His works." God forbid that we should seek to
diminish the kindness of God, or think lightly of it, "for His mercy
endures forever." Yet some look at that one emerald ray as though it
were the whole of the spectrum! They gaze upon one star and regard it
as the Pleiades, Orion, and Arcturus, all in one. And, alas, worse
results follow, for they are tempted to think sin to be a mere trifle
since they ignore the Justice and Sovereignty of God. They so exclude
God's righteousness and vengeance from their minds so that when they
hear of Hell, and of the wrath that will come upon the impenitent, they
shudder with inward unbelief and try to doubt it–and, perhaps, manage
to find texts of Scripture which look as if they helped them in their
perverted and jaundiced view of the Most High! They think they are
glorifying God, but they are really dishonoring Him, for God is no more
altogether Mercy than He is altogether Sovereignty! And He is no more
altogether Sovereignty than He is altogether Mercy. The fact is that
every glory meets in God! All that is good, excellent and great may be
found in Him in complete perfection. God would have you so to think of
Him, for, in the Atonement, which is His grandest Revelation of
Himself, He has been pleased to show you–

"How Grace and Justice strangely join; Piercing His Son with sharpest
smart, To make the choicest blessings yours."

This leads me one step further to observe that the same order is
perceptible in the Doctrines of the Word of God. Doctrines, which look
as if they contradicted each other, are nevertheless fully agreed. It
is the defect in our mental vision which makes separate Truths of God
appear to cross each other's orbit, for it is certain that the Truths
of Scripture do not thrust each other, but each one goes on in its own
path. Perhaps the fiercest of fights has been waged over the great fact
that salvation is of Grace and the equally certain fact that man is
responsible to God under the Gospel, and that, if he perishes, his ruin
lies at his own door–and is not to be charged upon God in any sense
whatever. This has been the arena in which intellectual gladiators have
fought with each other age after age. If they had stood side by side
and fought the common enemy, they would have done good service, for I
believe in my soul that they both hold some Truth and that either of
them will hold error unless he will yield something to his rival. There
are some who read the Bible and try to systematize it according to
rigid logical creeds, but I dare not follow their method and I feel
content to let people say, "How inconsistent he is with himself!" The
only thing that would grieve me would be inconsistency with the Word of
God! As far as I know this Book, I have endeavored, in my ministry, to
preach to you not a part of the Truth of God, but the whole counsel of
God–but I cannot harmonize it, nor am I anxious to do so. I am sure
all Truth is harmonious and to my ear the harmony is clear enough–but
I cannot give you a complete score of the music, or mark the harmonies
on the gamut–I must leave the Chief Musician to do that.

You have heard of the two travelers who met opposite the statue of
Minerva and one of them remarked, "What a glorious golden shield
Minerva has!" The other said, "No, it is bronze." They argued with one
another. They drew their swords, they slew each other and, as they fell
dying, they each looked up and the one who said the shield was made of
bronze discovered that it had a golden side to it–and the other, who
was so bold in affirming that it was gold–found that it also had a
bronze side. The shield was made of two different metals and the
combatants had not either of them seen both sides. It is just so with
the Truth of God–it is many-sided and full of variety. Grand
three-fold lines run through it–it is one yet three, like the Godhead!
Perhaps you and I have only seen two of the lines–many persons refuse
to see

more than one–and there may be a third yet to be discovered, which
shall reconcile the apparently antagonistic two, when our eye shall be
clarified by the baptism in the last river and we shall ascend the Hill
of the Lord to read the Truth of God in the light of the Celestial
City!

However, it is clear that salvation is altogether of Grace and equally
clear that if any man perishes, it is not for lack of invitations on
God's side–honest invitations to come to Christ. We hear our Master
saying, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." Some friends are so afraid of that text that they
generally quote it "weary and heavy laden," which is not the true
reading–the laboringones are invited to Jesus! Many such invitations
did Christ give, yet did He not also say, "No man can come to Me,
except the Father which has sent Me draw him"? Amid the soft rain of
tenderness we hear the thundering of those solemn Truths of God–"So
then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that
shows mercy." "Therefore has He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and
whom He will, He hardens." As we listen to that thunder, we bow to the
Sovereignty of God yet, amid the pauses, we hear the Master say,
"Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely," and we also hear
Him say, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come
in, that My house may be filled." Let us believe both sets of Truths
and not oppose ourselves to friends who hold either the one or the
other, but seek to bring them to believe both–for as the Bible is
true, they are, both of them, the Truths of the living God! Observation
leads me to think that those persons who are willing to hold the whole
of revealed Truth, are generally Christians of a more active spirit and
more desirous for the conversion of souls than those who contract their
minds and only hold some one or two great theological dogmas. If we
will but lay aside our Chinese shoes and allow our feet to grow as they
should, we shall find it far better walking on the road to Heaven–and
we shall be more ready for any work which our Master may call us to do!

III. Now we turn to THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Dear Friends, you and I who have entered into the Kingdom of Grace and
have received a life which the worldling cannot understand, (for the
carnal mind knows nothing of the spiritual life), must remember that
our thoughts, graces, and actions ought all to keep their proper
position so that it may be said of them, "Neither shall one thrust
another; they shall walk everyone in his path."

As to our thoughts, we ought to endeavor, as God shall teach us by His
Spirit, to keep our thoughts of God's Word in their due harmony. Some
Brothers and Sisters, for instance, are altogether doctrinal in their
inclinations. Doctrinal study is admirable–may God send us much of it!
Yet doctrine is not all that we are taught in the Sacred Word. There
are also duties and promises–why despise these? Then again, other
professors of religion are altogether of a practical turn and, while
they value James, they depreciate Paul. They do not like an expository
sermon, they cannot endure it! But if you give them a precept, they
rejoice greatly. They are quite right as far as they go. The Lord send
us much more practical Christianity! But this is not all. There are
others who are altogether experimental and some of these will hear no
sermon unless it treats upon the corruption of the human heart, or upon
the dark frames of the child of God. Others will have no experience but
the bright side–you must always preach to them out of the Canticles,
inditing the good matter concerning the sweet love of Christ towards
His spouse.

Now, each of these forms of preaching is good in its season, but he who
would keep close to the Scriptures and preserve completeness in his
thoughts must weigh well the doctrine and seek to get a clear view of
the Covenant of Grace and the economy of salvation. He must study the
precepts and ask the Holy Spirit to give him the fleshy heart upon
which those precepts may be written as upon living tablets. And then he
must watch his experience, mourning over inbred sin, but also rejoicing
in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, through whose blood we have
the victory.

We must endeavor, as much as possible, to exercise our thoughts upon
all the subjects which God has given us to think upon in His Word and
has applied to our hearts by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Where
this is done, we shall avoid one thought thrusting another, and each
will go in its own path. I have heard of doctrinal preachers who hated
the very sound of the word, "duty.'' I have also heard the practical
Brother declare that he detested "election" while the experimental
Brother has affirmed that the doctrinal preacher was merely "a
dead-letter man." Oh, what naughty words for God's children to use to
describe one another–bitter sentences which they only use because they
know so little! Shame upon us that we say, "I am of Paul" and, "I am of
Apollos" and, "I am of Cephas," for all these are ours to profit by if
we are Christ's! Learn from the doctrinal, learn from the practical,
learn from the experimental! Blend the whole together and let not one
thrust another, but allow each to go straight on in its own path!

The same should hold good in the graces which we cultivate. The Lord
Jesus Christ is pleased to put, by His Holy Spirit, into the hearts of
those whom He has saved, certain lovely and precious things, but it is
not always easy to get these in due harmony. For instance, I know a
Brother who is very faithful. He does not mind telling you of your
faults, but then, he is not affectionate in spirit–and so he never
warns you of your infirmities in a way that does you good. Now, if that
Brother could get affection to balance his fidelity, what an admirable
man he would make! I remember well another Brother who was all
affection and nothing else. He was so affectionate as to be effeminate
and I, poor rough creature as I am, could never bear the sight of him.
He always reminded me of a pot of molasses and his office appeared to
be the anointing of everybody he met. If he could but have mixed a
little fidelity with his sweetness, he would have been a much better
and stronger man. Secker says that Christianity ought, first, "to make
a man more of a man and then, more than a man"–and so it would if we
sought, by the power of the Spirit, to cultivate all the graces!

The beauty of the human countenance does not consist exclusively in
having bright eyes–no, the fine eyes help, but all the other features
of the face must balance it. A man may have the finest possible
forehead and yet he may be extremely ugly because his other features
are out of proportion–so it is with character. Character must have all
the graces, but all the graces in harmony. Take, for instance, the
virtue of meekness. It is a lovely thing to be of a meek and quiet
spirit, but then, my Brothers and Sisters, how could reforms ever be
worked if all were so meek that they could not speak out against error?
Where would you find your Luthers and your Calvins? Meekness must be
balanced by the virtue which is its compensating quality, namely,
courage. Affection must be strengthened by fidelity. A man must be
patient under affliction, but he is not to be so patient as to be idle.
He must couple energy with his patience, in order to manifest a
practical faith. When we have each of these, we shall be what Paul and
James call, "perfect." Then shall we have come to be "entire, needing
nothing," having reached "the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ." Christian men should be men-Christians. If your child should
have a rapid growth in its arms, but not in its legs, or if its legs
should lengthen, but not its arms, what a strange being it would be!
What a monster! It is the growth of each limb in proportion that brings
a man to perfection. So, my Brothers and Sisters, when our heads grow
faster than our hearts, it is an ill sign– yet how many know a great
deal more than they feel, and criticize much more than they believe! It
is also an evil thing when a man's tongue grows bigger than his
head–when he has more to say than he knows or does–when, like Mr.
Talkative, he can talk about the road to Heaven, but makes no progress
on it!

The same proportions and balancing should be found in our Christian
duties. This is too large and difficult a subject to go fully into,
now, but we will have a word or two about it. A man is not in his
outward action a complete Christian because he is attentive to one
duty, for God would have His people attend to all. It will sometimes be
a question with you as to how much time should be given to private
devotion, how much to family worship and how much to worship–and you
may easily make great mistakes here. I recollect a Brother, a very
excellent man, too, who was always at Prayer Meetings and public
services, but, unfortunately, being always away from home, his family
was so neglected that the sons grew up, one after another, to be the
most precocious specimens of depravity that the parish could exhibit!
We thought and we hinted as much to our Brother that if he would be at
home, sometimes, to teach the children, whose mother was as neglectful
of them as the father was–and so the mischief became doubled–he would
be far more in the path of duty than in attending public services to
the neglect of family piety. I only wish he had been able to see the
propriety of our advice, for he has had to smart for his folly. It is
not often that a man's private devotions obtrude in this way, but I
know one professor who used to spend so long a period in private prayer
that he neglected his business and also the assembling of himself with
God's people. It was, indeed, an unusual vice, but it came to be quite
a sin in his case. This last is a very unusual fault and one that I
could almost excuse because it is so unusual–but I recommend far more
strongly the careful thinking of how much time is due to God in the
closet, how much at the family altar, how much at the Prayer Meeting
and how much to the weeknight services–for we must give to each
according to its due proportion.

Again, the difficulty will often occur to you, my Brothers and Sisters,
as to how much is due to diligence in business and how much to fervency
in spirit. No one can draw the line for another. Each one must judge
for himself, but this must be the law–"Neither shall one thrust
another; they shall walk everyone in his path." There may be a season
in which you may lawfully give all the hours of the day to business.
Your business may require it and there are times with commercial men
when to go to weekday services would be almost insanity–they must keep
to their work, or else there will become a failure–and then the name
of Christ will be evilly spoken of. There will be times, too, with
workingmen, when if they were to insist upon coming to the Monday
evening Prayer Meeting, or to the Thursday night lecture, they would be
altogether out of the path of duty–there is a demand for labor just at
some particular time and they must obey the call–and they are in the
path of duty in so doing. I am afraid that there are not many who fail
in that way, but crowds who err in the opposite direction. Some will
keep the shop open so late that there is no time for family prayer!
Others will confine their servants so strictly that they can never get
out on weeknights to hear a sermon. It does not strike the employer's
mind that some of the young people would perhaps like to be at the
Prayer Meeting on Monday night, nor will the employer be there himself.
Now, I cannot say to you, you must give so much time to God and so much
to the business–you yourself must ask God the Holy Spirit to guide
you! But remember, you must not let one thrust another. It is a good
saying of an old Divine, "Never bring to God one duty stained with the
blood of another." As much as lies in you, give to each distinct duty
its due proportion.

There is a still greater difficulty with regard to the arrangement of
distinct duties when they are likely to run counter to one another.
Here is a servant–his master expects him, after he has entered into an
engagement with him, to do such-and-such unnecessary work on the
Sabbath. The young man says, "No, I cannot do that. It is clearly
unscriptural and I must obey God rather than man." But there are
certain things which come somewhere between the necessary and the
unnecessary–and the servant may properly enquire, "What is my duty?"
You must settle it carefully within your own mind. Have you any sordid
or selfish motive for deciding in any particular way? If so, be very
cautious how you decide, but seek the Lord's Glory, and the Lord's
Glory, alone, and say, "While I am, as a servant, to serve man, yet I
am the Lord's free man and I must walk both as a servant and the Lord's
free man, and not forget either."

Sometimes the matter of the conduct of children towards parents has
come under our notice. A harsh parent has said, "My children shall not
carry out their religious convictions." In such cases we have had to
occasionally recommend the child to wait until he has grown a little
older. At other times, we have bid the child break through the parent's
evil command, since we cannot hold that the parent can have any right
to make his child disobey God. In the matter of the child's
religion–when it is able to judge for itself–it is as free as its
parents and has a right to choose for itself. And while the parent
should seek intelligently to guide it, coercion must never be tried. If
the parent is ungodly, the child is free from all obedience to wicked
commands and must then act in obedience to a higher Parent, and to a
greater Law, namely, the Law of God. The same happens, at times, with
regard to the husband and the wife. Of course, a good wife continually
wishes to do that which will please her husband and she is happy to be
subservient to him as far as may be. But when it comes to a point of
conscience and the two relations clash, the relations of the Heavenly
Bridegroom and the earthly husband–it is not always easy to decide
upon a fitting course of action. But we may at least be certain that we
must not be actuated by selfishness, nor by a desire to avoid
persecution, nor to please men–we must stand on the side of honesty to
God, fealty to the King of kings and a regard for the Truth as it is in
Jesus. Do try, if it is possible, and I believe it is possible in every
case, to harmonize all your relationships, so that neither one of them
shall thrust another, but each shall walk in its own path.

IV. So, Brothers and Sisters, my concluding remark shall be that as
this is to be true in the little commonwealth of the heart and the
home–IT OUGHT TO ALSO BE TRUE OF THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

It is a great blessing when the members of the church do not thrust one
another, but everyone goes in his own path. There are different orders
of workers and these must cooperate. Alas, workers in a Sunday school
do not always agree with one another. Then, workers in Sunday schools
are not always so fond of workers in Ragged schools as they might be
and, perhaps, the workers in Ragged schools may sometimes look down
with coldness upon the distributors of tracts. It should never be so.
We are like the different members of the body and the eye must not say
to the foot, "I have no need of you," neither must the hand say to the
ear, "I have no need of you." Every man must work according to the gift
of the Holy Spirit. When a man steps out of his proper office into
another, he makes a great mistake, both for himself and for the Church
at large–and when one Brother envies another and picks holes in his
coat, and finds fault with his service, he needs to hear that Inspired
question, "Who are you that judges another man's servant? To his own
master he stands or falls." I pray all the bands of workers to maintain
a holy unanimity, being of one accord, minding the same thing,
provoking one another to nothing but love and good works, striving for
nothing except that they together may promote the Glory of the Lord
Jesus!

And as it is true in any one church with regard to the laborers, so it
should be also with regard to the different ranks and classes of
Christians. The rich should never say, "We do not want so many poor in
the church," neither should the poor man say, "Our minister favors the
wealthy–there is more thought of the rich than there is of the poor."
There is just as much fault on one side as there is on the other in
these things. While we sometimes find the purse-proud man looking down
on the poor, it quite as often happens that the poor man takes umbrage
where there is no need for it and is much more wicked in his jealousies
than the other in his purse-pride. Let it never be so among Christians,
but let the Brother of high degree rejoice that he is exalted and the
poor that he is brought low! We need both and cannot do without
either–and having both in the church, neither should one thrust
another, but each should go in his own path.

So with the educated and the uneducated. I have been saddened,
oftentimes, when I have heard a sneer against a Brother who cannot
speak grammatically. The Brother who can speak grammatically, perhaps,
does not try to speak at all–and yet he sneers at the other and says,
"Well, really, I wonder that such fellows should preach! What is the
good of them?" Now, until you have done better than he does, do not
find fault with him! God uses him, so surely you ought not to despise
him! The fact is, Brothers and Sisters, that the learned and educated
minister is necessary and useful–we have no right to sneer at those
who have gone through a College and earned a high degree of learning,
for they are useful. But on the other hand, who among us hears of such
men as Richard Weaver and Mr. Carter, and others who are laboring among
the poor and dares to despise them? If I might have my choice, I should
prefer to work with them rather than with the fine-spun gentlemen, but
still, every man in his own order, each man after his own fashion–let
the one take his position and the other take his position–and never
say a jealous or an angry word of each other, neither let one thrust
another, but each one go straight on in his own path.

So it ought to be with all our churches. In this great city of London,
there is no excuse for anything like jealousy among the various
Christian churches. If we were to build as many places of worship as
would reach, set side by side, from here to London Bridge, on both
sides of the road and without a single house or shop in all the
distance–and if we were to put Gospel preachers into them all, I
believe they could all be filled without any of them being a hindrance
to another–for the millions in this city are so enormous that there is
no chance of our being jostled by one another! We are like fishermen in
the deep sea. Because there are a hundred boats, they need not, any of
them, come off the worse. If there were 50,000 boats, they could all be
full where the fish are so abundant. Perhaps you say, "I hear Mr.
So-and-So, and what a dear man he is!" Very likely he is, but so is
somebody else. It would be a great pity if everybody could hear only
one man. It would be a very sad thing if everybody wanted to come to
the Tabernacle, for we cannot make it any bigger than it is–and it
would be a very wretched thing if everybody wanted to go somewhere
else, for then we should have an empty house! But now, each one
listening according as his own spiritual taste may guide him, or as his
spiritual appetite may dictate to him, we are formed into different
communities which prosper individually, but which would glorify God
much more if all disunion were cast aside and if we sought each other's
good, profit and edification.

And so, to conclude, it ought to be with the different denominations. I
sometimes think that these will continue forever. They are of no hurt
to the Church of God, but a great blessing, for some of them take up
one point of the Truth of God which is neglected and others take up
another–and so, between them all, the whole of the Truth of God is
brought out! And it seems to me that the Church of Christ is even more
one than if all the various sections were brought together into one
grand ecclesiastical corporation, for this would, probably, feed some
ambitious person's vanity and raise up another dynasty of priestcraft,
like the old Babylon of Rome! Perhaps it is quite as well as it is, but
let each body of Christians keep to its own work and not sneer at the
work of others. Let all feel, "We have this to do, and we will do it in
the name of God." Let each body of Christians try to correct its
neighbor in its errors and mistakes, but let each work hand in hand and
stand foot to foot in the common battle and the common service, for, O
my Brothers and Sisters, the time will come when our little narrow
jealousies will all melt away like the hoar frost when the sun arises!
When the King shall come in His Glory, or we are carried to the other
side of the stream of death and see beyond the curtain which parts us
from the invisible world, we shall look with very different eyes upon
some things which seem so important now! We shall then see that God has
forbidden us to glory in anything but the Cross of Christ and that the
one thing necessary, after all, to contend for was, "By Grace are you
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God."

Now, may the Lord help us to go straight on in our own paths, not one
thrusting another, but all working together for God. And if there are
any among us who are not converted, let me remind them that they are
out of order–and let me tell them what comes of that. When a man sets
himself in opposition to God's Laws, they crush him as surely as he is
there! Throw yourself from the Monument and the law of gravitation will
not be suspended to save you. Even so, if you are out of order with
God, there is no help for it–and your destruction is certain if you
remain opposed to Him. Oh, that you may be led, by Divine Grace, to get
into order with God–to be reconciled unto God by the death of His Son!
He tells you the way to get into order. It is this–simply trust Jesus!
That is the way to rectify all errors. He that believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved! May God bless us all with that salvation,
for His name's sake! Amen.