Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, DECEMBER 26, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15.

TIMOTHY was to divide rightly the Word of God. Every Christian minister
must do this if he would make full proof of his ministry and if he
would be clear of the blood of his hearers at the Last Great Day. Of
the whole 20 years of my printed sermons, I can honestly say that this
has been my aim–rightly to divide the Word of Truth. Wherein I have
succeeded, I magnify the name of the Lord. In which I have failed I
lament my faultiness. And now once more we will try, again, and may God
the Holy Spirit, without whose power nothing can be done aright, help
us rightly to divide the Word of Truth.

The expression is a very remarkable one because it bears so many phases
of meaning. I do not think that any one of the figures by which I shall
illustrate it will be at all strained, for they have been drawn from
the text by most eminent expositors, and may be fairly taken as honest
comments, even when they might be challenged as correct interpretations
of the text. "Rightly dividing the word of truth" is our authorized
version, but we leave it for a little to consider other renderings.
Timothy was neither to mutilate, nor twist, nor torture, nor break in
pieces the Word of God, nor keep on the outside of it, as those do who
never touch the soul of a text, but rightly to divide it, as one taught
of God to teach others.

I. The Vulgate version translates it–and with a considerable degree of
accuracy–"Rightly HANDLING the word of truth." What is the right way,
then, to handle the Word of Truth? It is like a sword and it was not
meant to be played with. That is not rightly to handle the Gospel. It
must be used in earnest and pushed home. Are you converted, my Friends?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you saved, or not? Swords are meant
to cut and hack, wound and kill–and the Word of God is for pricking
men in the heart and killing their sins. The Word of God is not
committed to God's ministers to amuse men with its glitter, nor to
charm them with the jewels in its hilt, but to conquer their souls for
Jesus!

Remember, dear Hearers, if the preacher does not push you to this–that
you shall be converted, or he will know the reason why. If he does not
drive you to this–that you shall either willfully reject, or
cheerfully accept Christ–he has not yet known how rightly to handle
the great "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Now, then,
where are you personally at this moment? Are you unbelievers, upon whom
the wrath of God abides, or are you Believers who may lay claim to that
gracious Word, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in Me
has everlasting life"? Oh that the Lord would make His all-discerning
Word go round this place and strike at every conscience and lay bare
every heart with its mighty power!

He that rightly handles the Word of God will never use it to defend men
in their sins, but to slay their sins! If there is a professing
Christian here who is living in known sin, shame upon him! And if there
is a non-Christian man who is living in sin, let his conscience upbraid
him! What will he do in that day when Christ comes to judge the hearts
of men? Remember, the books shall be opened and every thought shall be
read out before an assembled universe! I desire to handle the Word of
God so that no man may ever find an excuse in my ministry for his
living without Christ and living in sin, but may know clearly that sin
is a deadly evil and unbelief the sure destroyer of the soul! He has,
indeed, been made to handle the word aright who plunges it like a
two-edged sword into the very heart of sin!

The Gospel ought never to be used for frightening sinners from Christ.
I believe it is so handled sometimes. Sublime doctrines are rolled like
rocks in the sinner's way and dark experiences set up as a standard of
horror which must be reached before a man may believe in Jesus–but to
rightly handle the Word of Life is to frighten men to Christ rather
than from Him–yes, to woo them to Him by the sweet assurance that He
will cast out none that come! That He asks no preparations of them, but
if they come at once, as they are, He will assuredly receive them. Have
I not handled the Word of Truth in this way hundreds of times in this
house? Has it not been a great magnet attracting sinners? As a magnet
has

two poles, and with one pole it repels, so, no doubt, the Truth of God
repels the prejudiced, rebellious heart–and thus it is a savor of
death unto death. But our object is so to handle it that the attractive
pole may come into operation through the power of the Spirit of
God–and men may be drawn to Christ.

Moreover, if we rightly handle the Word of God we shall not preach it
so as to send Christians into a sleepy state. That is easily done. We
may preach the consolations of the Gospel till each professor feels "I
am safe enough. There is no need to watch, no need to fight, no need
for any exertion whatever! My battle is fought, my victory is won. I
have only to fold my arms and go to sleep." No, no! This is not how we
handle the Word of God, but our cry is, "Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling; for it is God which works in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure. Watch and pray that you enter not into
temptation. Reckon not yourselves to have attained unto perfection, but
forget the things that are behind, and reach forward to that which is
before, looking unto Jesus."

This is rightly to handle the Word of God. And, oh, Beloved, there is
one thing that I dread above all others–that I should ever handle the
Word of God so as to persuade some of you that you are saved when you
are not. To collect a large number of professors together is one thing.
But to have a large number of true saints built together in Christ is
quite another. To get up a whirl of excitement and to have people
influenced by that excitement so that they think, full surely, that
they are converted, has been done a great many times. But the bubble,
has, by-and-by, vanished. The balloon has been filled until it has
burst. God save us from that! We want sure work–lasting work–a work
of Divine Grace in the heart.

If you are not converted, do not pretend that you are. If you have not
known what it is to be brought down to see your own nothingness and
then to be built up by the power of the Spirit upon Christ as the only
foundation, O, remember that whatever is built upon the quicksand will
fall with a crash in the hour of trial! Do not be satisfied with
anything short of a deep foundation, cut in the solid rock of the work
of Jesus Christ. Ask for real vital godliness, for nothing else will
serve your turn at the Last Great Day. Now, this is rightly to handle
the Word of God–to use it to push the Truth of God home upon men for
their present conversion, to use it for the striking down of their
sins–to use it to draw men to Christ, to use it to arouse sinners and
to use it to produce, not mere profession, but a real work of Grace in
the hearts of men

May the Holy Spirit teach all the ministers of Christ after this
fashion to handle the two-edged sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God.

II. But now, secondly, my text has another meaning. It has an idea in
it which I can only express by a figure. "Rightly dividing, or STRAIGHT
CUTTING. A plowman stands here with his plow and he plows right along
from this end of the field to the other, making a straight furrow. And
so Paul would have Timothy make a straight furrow right through the
Word of Truth. I believe there is no preaching that God will ever
accept but that which goes decidedly through the whole line of Truth
from end to end, is always thorough, honest and downright. As the Truth
of God is a straight line, so must our handling of the Truth be
straightforward and honest, without shifts or tricks.

There are two or three furrows which I have labored hard to plow. One
is the furrow offree Grace. "Salvation is of the Lord"–He begins it,
He carries it on, He completes it. Salvation is not of man, neither by
man, but of Grace alone. Grace in election, Grace in redemption, Grace
in effectual calling, Grace in final perseverance, Grace in conferring
the perfection of Glory–it is all Grace from beginning to end! If we
say, at any time, anything which is really contrary to this distinct
testimony that salvation is of Grace, do not believe us! This furrow
must be plowed fairly, plainly and beyond all mistake.

Sinner, you cannot be saved by any merit, penance, preparation, or
feeling of your own! The Lord, alone, must save you as a work of gratis
mercy, not because you deserve it, but because He wills to do it to
magnify His abundant love. That is the straight furrow of the Word. We
endeavor always to make a straight furrow upon the matter of human
depravity–to preach that man is fallen, that every part and passion of
his nature is perverted, that he has gone astray altogether, is sick
from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet–yes, is dead in
trespasses and sins, and corrupt before God. "There is none that does
good, no, not one."

I have noticed some preachers plowing this furrow very crookedly, for
they say, "There are still some very fine points about man and many
good things in him which only need developing and educating." You may
have read, in the history of Mr. Whitfield's time, what a howl was made
at him because he once said that man was half beast and half devil. I
do

not think he ever got nearer the truth than when he said that–only I
would beg the beast's pardon–for a beast would scarcely become so evil
and vile as human nature becomes when it is left alone to fully develop
itself! O pride of human nature, we plow right over you!

The hemlock stands in your field and must be cut up by the roots. Your
weeds smile like fair flowers, but the plow must go right through them
till all human beauty is shown to be a painted Jezebel, and all human
glorying a bursting bubble. God is everything, man is nothing! God in
His Grace saves man, but man by his sin utterly ruins himself until
God's Grace interposes. I like to plow a straight furrow here. Another
straight furrow is that offaith. We are sent to tell men that he that
believes and is baptized shall be saved, and our duty is to put it so.
"Salvation is not of works"–works is not the furrow. Not of
prayers–that is not the furrow. Not of feelings–that is not the
Gospel Arrow. Not of preparations and amendments and reforms–but by
faith in Jesus Christ. He that believes on Him is not condemned.

As we begin the new life by faith, we must abide in it by faith. We are
not to be saved by faith up to a certain point and then to rely upon
ourselves. Having begun in the Gospel we are not to be perfected by the
Law. "The just shall live by faith." We live by faith at the wicket
gate and we live by faith until we enter into our eternal rest.
Believe!–that is the grand Gospel precept and we trust we have never
gone out of this furrow, but have tried to plow right across the Gospel
field from end to end, crying, "Look unto Me and be you saved, all you
ends of the earth, for Jehovah is God, and beside Him there is none
else."

Another furrow which some do not much like to plow, but which must be
distinctly marked if a man is an honest plowman for God, is that of
repentance. Sinner, you and your sins must part! You have been married
long and you have had a merry time of it, perhaps, but you must part.
You and your sins must separate, or you and your God will never come
together! You may not keep one sin. They must all be given up! They
must be brought out like the Canaanite kings from the cave and hanged
up before the sun. Not one darling must be spared. You must forsake
them, loathe them, abhor them and ask the Lord to overcome them. Do you
not know that the furrow of repentance runs right through the
Christian's life? He sins, and as long as he sins he repents of his
sin. The child of God cannot love sin–he must loathe it as long as he
sees any of it in existence!

There is the furrow of holiness, that is the next turn the plowman
takes. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." We have preached
salvation by Grace, but we do not preach salvation to those who still
continue in sin. The children of God are a holy people–washed, purged,
sanctified and made zealous for good works. He who talks about faith,
and has no works to prove that his faith is a living faith, lies to
himself and lies before God. It is faith that saves us, not works–but
the faith that saves us always produces works. It renews the heart,
changes the character, influences the motives and is the means in the
hand of God of making the man a new creature in Christ Jesus. No
nonsense about it, Sirs– you may be baptized and re-baptized, you may
attend to sacraments, or you may believe in an orthodox creed–but you
will be damned if you live in sin.

You may become a deacon, or an elder, or a minister, if you dare, but
there is no salvation for any man who still harbors his sins. "The
wages of sin is death"–death to professors as well as to
non-professors. If they hug their sins in secret, God will reveal those
sins in public and condemn them according to the strict justice of His
Law. These are the furrows we have tried to plow–deep, sharp cut and
straight. O, that God might plow them, Himself, in all your hearts,
that you may know, experimentally, how the Truth of God is rightly
divided!

III. There is a third meaning to the text. "Rightly dividing the word
of truth" is, as some think, an expression taken from the priests
dividing the sacrifices. When they had a lamb or a sheep, a ram or a
bullock to offer, after they had killed it, it was cut in pieces,
carefully and properly. And it requires no little skill to find out
where the joints are, so as to cut up an animal discreetly. Now, the
Word of Truth has to be taken to pieces wisely–it is not to be hacked
or torn as by a wild beast–but rightly divided.

There has to be DISCRIMINATION AND DISSECTION. It is a great part of a
minister's duty to be able to dissect the Gospel–to lay one piece
there, and another there, and preach with clearness, distinction and
discrimination. Every Gospel minister must divide between the Covenant
of Works and the Covenant of Grace. It is a very nice point, that, and
many fail to discern it well, but it must always be kept clear, or
great mischief will be done. Confusion worse confounded follows upon
confusing Grace and Law. There is the Covenant of Works–"This do, and
you shall live," but its voice is

not that of the Covenant of Grace which says, "Hear and your soul shall
live." "You shall, for I will"–that is the Covenant of Grace.

It is a covenant of pure promise unalloyed by terms and conditions. I
have heard people put it thus–"Believers will be saved if, from this
time forth, they are faithful to Grace given." That smells of the
Covenant of Works! "God will love you"–says another–"if you–." Ah,
the moment you get an "if" in it, it is the Covenant of Works and the
Gospel has evaporated! Oil and water will sooner mix than merit and
Grace! When you find the Covenant of Works anywhere, what are you to do
with it? Why, do what Abraham did and what Sarah demanded, "Cast out
the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be
heir with my son, even with Isaac."

If you are a child of the Free-Grace promise, do not suffer the Hagar
and Ishmael of legal bondage and carnal hope to live in your house. Out
with them! You should have nothing to do with them. Let Law and Gospel
keep their proper places. The Law is master to bring us to Christ, but
when we have come to Christ we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Let
the Law principle go its way to work conviction in sinners and destroy
their ill-grounded hopes, but you abide in Christ Jesus even as you
have received Him. If you are to be saved by works then it is not of
Grace, otherwise work is no more work. And if saved by Grace, then it
is not of human merit, otherwise Grace is no more Grace. To be
absolutely clear, here, is of the first importance, for on the rocks of
legality many a soul has been cast away.

We need, also, to keep up a clear distinction between the efforts of
nature and the work of Grace. It is commendable for men to do all they
can to improve themselves, and everything by which people are made more
sober, more honest, more frugal, better citizens, better husbands,
better wives is a good thing. But that is nature and not Grace.
Reformation is not regeneration. "You must be born again," still stands
for the good as well as for the bad. To be made a new creature in
Christ Jesus is as necessary for the moral as for the debauched, for
when flesh has done its best, "that which is born of the flesh is
flesh"–and men must be born of the Spirit or they cannot understand
spiritual things, or enter into Heaven.

I have always tried to keep up this distinction and I trust none of you
will ever mistake the efforts of nature for the works of Divine Grace.
Do what you can for human reformation, for whatever things are honest
and of good repute you are to foster, but, still, never put the most
philanthropic plan, or the most elevating system in the place of the
work of Sovereign Grace, for, if you do, you will do 10 times as much
mischief as you can possibly do good. We must rightly divide the Word
of Truth.

It is always well, too, for Christian men to be able to distinguish one
Truth of God from another. Let the knife penetrate between the joints
of the work of Christ for us and the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
Justification, by which the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us,
is one blessing. Sanctification, by which we, ourselves, are made
personally righteous, is another blessing. I have known some describe
Sanctification as a sort of foundation, or at least a buttress for the
work of Justification. Now, no man is justified because he is
sanctified–he is justified because he believes in Him that justifies
the ungodly. Sanctification follows Justification. It is the work of
the Spirit of God in the soul of a Believer, who, first of all, was
justified by believing in Jesus while as yet he was unsanctified. Give
Jesus Christ all the glory for His great and perfect work and remember
that you are perfect in Christ Jesus and accepted in the Beloved. But,
at the same time, give glory to the Holy Spirit and remember that you
are not yet perfect in holiness, but that the Spirit's work is to be
carried on and will be carried on all the days of your life.

One other point of rightly dividing should never be forgotten–we must
always distinguish between the root and the fruit. He is a very poor
botanist who does not know a bulb from a bud–but I believe that there
are some Londoners who do not know which are roots and which are
fruits, so little have they seen of anything growing! And I am sure
there are some theologians who hardly know which is the cause and which
is the effect in spiritual things. Putting the cart before the horse is
a very absurd thing, but many do it. Hear how people will say–"If I
could feel joy in the Lord I would believe." Yes, that is the cart
before the horse, for joy is the result of faith, not the reason for
it! "But I want to feel a great change of heart, and then I will
believe." Just so–you wish to make the fruit the root. "Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ," that is the root of the matter! Change of life and
joy in the Lord will spring up as gracious fruits of faith and not
otherwise. When will you discriminate?

Thus I have given you three versions of my text–rightly handling,
straightly furrowing, and wisely discriminating.

IV. The next interpretation of the Apostle's expression is practically
CUTTING OUT the Word for holy uses. This is the sense given by
Chrysostom. I will show you what I mean here. Suppose I have a skin of
leather before me and I want to

make a saddle. I take a knife and I begin cutting out the shape. I do
not want those parts which are dropping off on the right and round this
corner–they are very good leather–but I cannot, just now, make use of
them. I have to cut out my saddle and I make that my one concern.

Or, suppose I have to make a pair of reins out of the leather. I must
take my knife round and work away with one object, keeping clearly
before me what I am aiming at. The preacher, to be successful, must
also have his wits about him. And when he has the Bible before him he
must use those portions which will have a bearing upon his grand aim.
He must make use of the material laid ready to his hand in the Bible.
Every portion of the Word of God is very blessed and exceedingly
profitable, but it may not happen to be connected with the preacher's
immediate subject and, therefore, he leaves it to be considered another
time. And, though some will upbraid him for it, he is much too sensible
to feel bound to preach all the doctrines of the Bible in each sermon!

He wants to have souls saved and Christians quickened and, therefore,
he does not forever pour out the vials and blow the trumpets of
prophecy. Some hearers are crazy after the mysteries of the future.
Well, there are two or three Brothers in London who are always
trumpeting and vialing. Go and hear them if you want to! I have
something else to do. I confess I am not sent to decipher the
Apocalyptic symbols–my errand is humbler but equally as useful–I am
sent to bring souls to Jesus Christ!

There are preachers who are always dealing with the deep things, the
very deep things. For them the coral caves of mystery and the far
descending shafts of metaphysics have a mighty charm. I have no quarrel
with their tastes, but I do not think the Word of God was given us to
be a riddle book. To me the plain Gospel is the part which I cut out
and rightly cut out of the Word of God. There is a soul that needs to
know how to find peace with God. Some other Brother can tell him where
predestination falls in with free agency, I do not pretend to know. But
I do know that faith in Jesus brings peace to the heart. My business is
to bring forth that which will save souls, build up saints and set
Christians to work for Christ. I leave the mysteries, not because I
despise them, but because the times demand that we, first, and above
all other things, seek the souls of men!

Some Truths of God press to be heard. They must be heard now, or men
will be lost. The other Truths they can hear tomorrow, or by-and-by,
but now escape from Hell and fitness for Heaven are their immediate
business! Fancy the angels sitting down with Lot and his daughters,
inside Sodom, and discussing predestination with them, or explaining
the limits of free agency! No, no! They cry, "Come along," and they
take them by the arm and lead them out, saying, "Flee, flee, flee, for
fire is coming down from Heaven and this city is to be destroyed!"

This is what the preacher has to do–leaving certain parts of the Truth
of God for other times, he is now rightly dividing the Word of Truth
when he brings out that which is of pressing importance. In the Bible
there are some things that are essential, without which a man cannot be
saved at all. There are other things which are important, but still,
men are saved, notwithstanding their ignorance of those things. Is it
not clear that the essentials must have prominence? Every Truth ought
to be preached in its turn and place, but we must never give the first
place to a second Truth, or push that to the front which was meant to
be in the background of the picture.

"We preach Christ," said the Apostle, "Christ and Him crucified." And I
believe that if the preacher is rightly to divide the Word, he will say
to the sinner, "Sinner, Christ died, Christ rose again, Christ
intercedes. Look to Him. As for the difficult questions and nice
points, leave them for awhile. You shall discuss them by-and-by, so far
as they are profitable to you, but just now, believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ is the main matter." The preacher must, thus, separate the
vital from the secondary, the practical from the speculative and the
pressing and immediate from that which may be lawfully delayed. And in
that sense he will rightly divide the Word of Truth.

V. I have given you four meanings. Now I will give you another, leaving
out some I might have mentioned. One thing the preacher has to do is to
ALLOT TO EACH ONE HIS PORTION. And here the figure changes. According
to Calvin, the intention of the Spirit, here, is to represent one who
is the steward of the house and has to apportion food to the different
members of the family. He has rightly to divide the loaves so as not to
give the little children and the babes all the crust. He has to rightly
supply each one's necessities, not giving the strong men milk, nor the
babes hard diet– not casting the children's bread to the dogs, nor
giving the swine's husks to the children–but placing before each his
own portion.

Let me try and do it. Child of God, your portion is the whole Word of
God. Every promise in it is yours! Take it. Feed on it. Christ is
yours. God is yours. The Holy Spirit is yours. This world is yours and
worlds to come. Time is yours. Eternity is yours. Life is yours. Death
is yours. Everlasting Glory is yours! There is your portion! It is very
sweet to give you your royal meat. The Lord gives you a good appetite.
Feed on it! Feed on it! Sinner, you who believe not in Jesus, none of
this is yours! While you remain as you are, only the threats are yours.
If you refuse to believe in Jesus, neither this life nor the next is
yours, nor time, nor eternity. You have nothing good.

O, how dreadful is your portion now, for the wrath of God abides on
you! O, that you were wise, that your character might be changed, for
until it is, we dare not flatter you. There is not a promise for you,
nor a single approving sentence! You get your food to eat and your
raiment to put on, but even that is given to you by the abounding
long-suffering of God and it may become a curse to you unless you
repent. I am sorry to bring you such a portion but I must be honest
with you. That is all that I can give you. God has said it–it is an
awful sentence–"I will curse their blessings." O, Sinner, the curse of
the Lord is in the house of the wicked!

We have also to divide a portion to the mourners, and O, how sweet a
task that is, to say to those that mourn in Zion that the Lord will
give them beauty for ashes. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted." The Lord will restore peace unto His mourners!
Fear not, neither be dismayed, for the Lord will help you! But when we
have given the mourners their sweet meats we have to turn round upon
the hypocrites and say to them, "You may hang your heads like
bulrushes. You may rend your garments and pretend to fast, but the
Lord, who knows your heart, will suddenly come and unmask you! And if
you are not sincere before Him–if you are weighed in the balances and
found wanting–He will deal out the gall of bitterness to you forever!
For his mourners there is mercy, but for the deceiver and the hypocrite
there is judgment without mercy."

It is a very pleasant thing, moreover, to deal out a portion to the
seeker–when we say, "He that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it
shall be opened." "Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy
laden," says Christ, "for I will give you rest." Take your portion and
be glad! We have to turn round and say to others who think they are
seekers, but who are delaying, "How long will you wait between two
opinions?" How is it that you continually hesitate and refuse to
believe in Jesus, and stay in the condition of unbelief, when the
Gospel mandate is, "Believe–believe now and live"? So we have to give
to one comfort, to another counsel–to one reproof, to another
encouragement. We have to give to one the invitation–to another the
warning. This is to rightly divide the Word of Truth.

Yes, and sometimes God enables His servants to give the Word very
remarkably to some men. I believe that if I were to tell a few of the
things which have happened to me during the last 21 years they would
not be believed. Or if I were to tell you of passages of history which
are known to me that have occurred in this Tabernacle to people who
have come here and to whom I have spoken the exact Word, not knowing
them for a moment, the facts would sound like fictions. I will give you
one instance. Some of you may remember my preaching from the text,
"What if your father answers you roughly?" There came into the vestry,
after that sermon, a venerable Christian gentleman, bringing with him a
young foreigner whom he was anxious to satisfy upon one point.

He said, "Sir, I want you kindly to answer this question–have you seen
me, concerning this young gentlemen?" "No, Sir, certainly not," I said.
And assuredly, though I knew the gentleman who addressed me, he had
never spoken to me about the foreign stranger whose very existence was,
up to that moment, unknown to me. Said he, "This young gentleman is
almost persuaded to be a Christian. His father is of quite another
faith and worships other gods. And our young friend knows that if he
becomes a Christian he will lose his father's love. I said to him, when
he conversed with me, come down and hear Mr. Spurgeon this morning.
"Here he came, and your text was, 'What if your father answers you
roughly?' Now, have you ever heard a word from me about this young
gentleman?" "No, never," I said. "Well," said the young man, "it is the
most extraordinary thing I ever heard in my life." I could only say, "I
trust it is the voice of God to your soul. God knows how to guide His
servants to utter the Word most fitted to bless men."

Some time ago a town missionary had, in his district, a man who never
would suffer any Christian person to come into his house. The
missionary was warned by many that he would get a broken head if he
ventured on a visit. He therefore kept from the house though it
troubled his conscience to pass it by. He made a matter of prayer of
it, and one morning he boldly ventured into the lion's den and the man
said, "What have you come here for?" "Well, Sir," he said, "I

have been conversing with people in all the houses along here, but I
have passed you by because I heard you objected to it. But somehow I
thought it looked cowardly to avoid you and therefore I have called."

"Come in," the man said. "Sit down, sit down. Now, you are going to
talk to me about the Bible. Perhaps you do not know much about it
yourself. I am going to ask you a question and if you can answer me you
shall come again. If you do not answer it, I will bundle you
downstairs. Now," he said, "do you understand me?" "Yes," said the
other, "I do understand you." "Well, then," he said, "this is the
question–where do you find the word, 'girl,' in the Bible, and how
many times do you find it?" The city missionary said, "The word,
'girl,' occurs only once in the Bible, and that is in the Book of Joel,
the third chapter and the third verse. 'They sold a girl for wine.'"

"You are right," he said, "but I would not have believed you knew it,
or else I would have asked you some other question. You may come
again." "But," said the missionary, "I should like you to know how I
came to know it. This very morning I was praying for direction from God
and when I was reading my morning chapter I came upon this passage,
'And they sold a girl for wine,' and I took down my Concordance to see
whether the word, 'girl,' was to be found anywhere else. I found that
the word, 'girls,' occurs in the passage, 'There shall be girls and
boys playing in the streets of Jerusalem,' but the word did not occur
as, 'girl,' anywhere but in Joel."

The result, however, of that story, however odd it seems, was that the
missionary was permitted to call and the man took an interest in his
visits. And the whole family were the better–the man and his wife, and
one of his children becoming members of a Christian Church some time
afterwards. What an extraordinary thing it seems, yet, I can assure you
that such extraordinary things are as commonplaces in my experience.
God does help His servants rightly to divide the Word, that is to say,
to allot a special portion to each special case, so that it comes upon
the man as if everything about him was known.

Before I came to London, a man met me one Sunday, in a dreadful state
of rage. He vowed he would horsewhip me for bullying him from the
pulpit. What had I said, I asked. "What have you said? You looked me in
the face and said, 'What more can God do for you? Shall He give you a
good wife? You have had one–you have killed her by bad treatment! You
have just got another and you are likely to do the same by her.'"
"Well," I said, "did you kill your first wife by your bad treatment?"
"They say so, but I was married on Saturday," said he. "Did you not
know it?" "No, I did not, I assure you," I replied. "I have no
knowledge whatever of your family matters, and I am sure I wish you joy
with your new wife." He cooled down a great deal but I believe that I
had struck the nail on the head that time–that he had killed his wife
with his unkindness and he scarcely liked to bring his new wife to the
place of worship to be told of it.

The cap fit him. And if any cap fits you, I pray you wear it, for so
far from shrinking from being personal, I do assure you I try to be as
personal as I can, for I long to see the Word go home to every man's
conscience, and convict him and make him tremble before God and confess
his sin and forsake it!

VI. You must give me a few more minutes while I take the last point,
which is this. Rightly to divide the Word of

Truth means to TELL EACH MAN WHAT HIS LOT AND HERITAGE WILL BE IN
ETERNITY. Just as when Canaan was conquered, it was divided by lot
among the tribes, so the preacher has to tell of Canaan, that happy
land, but he has to also tell of the land of darkness and of
death-shade, and to let each man know where his last abode will be. You
know it. You who come here know it.

Need I repeat a story that we have gone over and over a thousand times?
As many as believe in Jesus and are renewed in heart, and are kept by
the Grace of God through faith unto salvation, shall inherit eternal
life. But as for those who believe not on God, who reject His Son, who
abide in their sins–there remains nothing for them but "a fearful
looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation." "The wicked shall be
turned into Hell with all the nations that forget God." "These shall go
away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."
"Beware," says God–"Beware, you that forget God, lest I tear you in
pieces and there be none to deliver." O, the wrath to come! The wrath
to come!

Believer, there is your portion–in the blessed land! Sinner, unless
you repent, there is your portion–in the land of darkness and of
weeping–of wailing and of gnashing of teeth! I take a religious
newspaper from America and the last copy I had of it bore on it these
words at the end, in good large type, printed in a practical,
business-like, American way–"If you do not want to have this paper,
discontinue it NOW. If you wish to have it for the year 1876, send your
subscription NOW. If you have any complaint against it, send your
complaint NOW. If you have removed, send a notice of your change of
residence NOW."

There was a big "NOW" at the end of every sentence! As I read it, I
thought, well, that is right. That is common sense. And it struck me
that I would say to you on this last Sunday night of the year, if you
wish to forsake your sins, forsake them NOW. If you would have mercy
from God through Jesus Christ, believe on Him NOW. What fitter time
than before the dying year is gone–NOW, NOW, NOW? In that very paper I
read a story concerning Messrs. Moody and Sankey on the same point.

The story is that while they were preaching in Edinburgh, there was a
man sitting opposite to them who was very deeply interested, and was
drinking it all in. There was a pause in the service and the man went
out with his friend, but when he reached the door he stopped and his
friend said, "Come away, Jamie." "No," he said, "I will go back. I came
here to get good to my soul and I have not taken it all in yet, I must
go back again." He went back, and sat in his old place and listened
again. The Lord blessed him. He found Christ and so found salvation.
Being a miner, he went down the pit the next day, to his work, and a
mass of rock fell on him. He was taken out, but he could not recover.
He said to the man who was helping him out, "O, Andrew, I am so glad it
was all settled last night. Oh, Mon," said he, "it was all settled last
night."

Now, I hope those people who were killed in the railway accident on
Christmas Eve could say–"It was all settled the night before." What a
blessed thing it will be for you, if you should meet with an accident
tomorrow, to say, "Blessed be God, it was all settled last night. I
gave any heart to Jesus, I yielded myself to His Divine Love and Mercy,
and I am saved." O Holy Spirit, grant it may be so, and You shall have
the praise. Amen and amen!

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–2 Timothy 2. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–1,041, 960.