Sarah and Her Daughters

DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 28, 1881,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bore you." Isaiah
51:2.

"Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters you
are, as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement." 1
Peter3:6.

I DESIRE to thank God for having had the privilege of preaching in
Exeter Hall, yesterday, to a large congregation from the whole of the
second verse of the 51st of Isaiah–"Look unto Abraham your father, and
unto Sarah that bore you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and
increased him." [See No. 1596, HEARKEN AND LOOK–OR, ENCOURAGEMENT FOR
BELIEVERS preached on behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society on the
morning of April 27,1881.] On that occasion I confined my remarks to
Abraham and tried to make prominent the facts that God called him while
he was a heathen man, one man and a lone man–and yet He blessed him
and made him the founder of His people, multiplying his seed as the
stars and as the sand of the seashore. I devoutly beseech the Lord to
accept my testimony to His power and to increase the faith of the many
of His servants to whom I spoke on that occasion. His Holy Spirit gave
me the word–may He cause His saints to feed upon it!

Now, I never like to do an injustice to anybody and I feel that I did
not, in that sermon, speak sufficiently about Sarah, though I did not
quite forget her. Let us make up for our omissions. If we had Abraham
at Exeter Hall yesterday morning, we will have Sarah at the Tabernacle,
tonight, and maybe we shall learn a lesson from her holy character as
well as from that of her husband. And the two lessons combined may go
to the perfecting of each other. May our great Teacher, the Holy
Spirit, now instruct us! To begin with, let us note what a happy
circumstance it is when a godly, gracious man has an equally godly and
gracious wife.

It is ill when there is a difference, a radical difference, between
husband and wife–when one fears God and the other has no regard for
Him. What a pain it is to a Christian woman to be yoked with an
unbelieving husband! In a case which I remember, the husband lived all
his life indifferent to Divine things, while the wife was an earnest
Christian woman and saw all her children grow up in the ways of the
Lord. The father lived unregenerate and died without giving any
testimony of a change of heart. When our Sister speaks of him, it is
with fearful anguish. She does not know what to say, but leaves the
matter in the hands of God, often sighing, "O that by a word or a look
I could have been enabled to indulge a hope that my poor husband looked
to Jesus at the last."

The same must be the case of a husband who has an ungodly wife. However
much God may bless him in all other respects, there seems to be a great
miss there–as if a part of the sun were eclipsed–that a part of life
which should be all light is left in thick darkness. Oh, let those of
us who have the happiness of being joined together in the Lord thank
and bless God every time we remember each other! Let us pray God, that
having such a privilege–that our prayers are not hindered by
irreligious partners–we may never hinder our prayers ourselves! God
grant that we may give unto His name great glory because of His choice
favor to us in this respect.

Abraham had cause to praise God for Sarah and Sarah was grateful for
Abraham. I have not the slightest doubt that Sarah's character owed its
excellence very much to Abraham. I should not wonder, however, if we
discover, when all things are revealed, that Abraham owed as much to
Sarah! They probably learned from each other. Sometimes the weaker
comforted the stronger and often the stronger sustained the weaker. I
should not wonder if a mutual interchange of their several Graces
tended to make them both rich in the things of God. Perhaps Abraham had
not been all that Abraham was if Sarah had not been all that Sarah was.

Our first text bids us, "Look to Sarah," and we do look on her and we
thank God if we, like Abraham, are favored with holy consorts, whose
amiable tempers and characters tend to make us better servants of God.
We notice, next, as we look to Sarah, that God does not forget the
lesser lights. Abraham shines like a star of the first magnitude and we
do not, at first sight, observe that other star with light so bright
and pure, shining with milder radiance but with kindred luster, close
at his side. The light of Mamre, which is known under the name of
Abraham, resolves itself into a double star when we apply the telescope
of reflection and observation. To the common eye, Abraham is the sole
character and ordinary people overlook his faithful spouse, but God
does not!

Our God never omits the good who are obscure. You may depend upon it
that there is no such difference in the love of God towards different
persons as should make Him fix His eyes only upon those that are strong
and omit those who are weak. Our eyes spy out the great things, but
God's eyes are such that nothing is great with Him and nothing is
little. He is infinite and, therefore, nothing bears any comparison to
Him. You remember how it is written that He who counts the stars and
calls them by name also binds up the broken in heart, and heals all
their wounds. He who treasures the names of His Apostles, notes, also,
the women that followed in their train. He who marks the brave
confessors and the bold preachers of the Gospel also remembers those
helpers who labor quietly in the Gospel in places of retirement into
which the hawk's eyes of history seldom pries.

Let, therefore, those here present who count themselves to be of the
tribe of Benjamin, to be little in Israel, never be discouraged on that
account–for the Lord is too great to despise the little ones! You are
not forgotten of God, O you who are overlooked by men! The Lord's eyes
are upon innumerable the creeping things in the great sea as well as
upon leviathan–He will observe you. If He sends the deluging showers
that make strong the cedars, which are full of sap and adorn the brow
of Lebanon, so does He send to each tiny blade of grass its own drop of
dew. God forgets not the less in His care for the greater! Sarah was in
life covered with the shield of the Almighty as well as Abraham, her
husband–in death she rested in the same tomb–in Heaven she has the
same joy! In the Book of the Lord she has the same record!

Next, notice that it would be well for us to imitate God in this–in
not forgetting the lesser lights. I do not know that great men are
often good examples. I am sorry when, because men have been clever and
successful, they are held up to imitation, though their motives and
morals have been questionable. I would sooner men were stupid and
honest than clever and tricky! It is better to act rightly and fail
altogether than succeed by falsehood and cunning. I would sooner bid my
son imitate an honest man who has no talent and whose life is
unsuccessful, than point him to the most clever and greatest that ever
lived–whose life has become a brilliant success–but whose principles
are condemnable.

Learn not from the great but from the good! Be not dazzled by success,
but follow the safer light of truth and right! But so it is that men
mainly observe that only which is written in big letters. But you know
the choicest part of God's books are printed in small characters. They
who would only know the rudiments may spell out the words in large type
which are for babes, but those who want to be fully instructed must sit
down and read the small print of God, given us in lives of saints whom
most men neglect! Some of the choicest virtues are not so much seen in
the great as in the quiet, obscure life. Many a Christian woman
manifests a glory of character that is to be found in no public man. I
am sure that many a flower that is "born to blush unseen" and, as we
think, to "waste its fragrance on the desert air," is fairer than the
beauties which reign in the conservatory and are the admiration of all!

God has ways of producing very choice things on a small scale. As rare
pearls and precious stones are never great masses of rock, but always
lie within a narrow compass, so full often the fairest and richest
virtues are to be found in the humblest individuals. A man may be too
great to be good, but he cannot be too little to be gracious. Do not,
therefore, always be studying Abraham, the greater character. Does not
the text say, "Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah that bore
you"? You have not learned the full lesson of patriarchal life until
you have been in the tent with Sarah, as well as among the flocks with
her husband.

Furthermore, another reflection arises, namely, that faith reveals
itself in various ways. Faith makes one person this and another that.
Faith in Noah makes him a shipbuilder and the second of the world's
great fathers. Faith in Abraham makes him a pilgrim and a stranger.
Faith in Moses makes him plague Egypt and feed a nation for 40 years in
the wilderness. Faith in David makes him kill a giant, save a kingdom
and ascend a throne. Faith in Samson makes him slay a thousand
Philistines and in Rahab it makes her save two Israelites. Faith has
many ways of working and it works according to

the condition and position of the person in whom it dwells. Sarah does
not become Abraham, nor does Abraham become Sarah.

Faith in Isaac does not make him the same royal man as Abraham–he is
always tame and gentle rather than great and noble–he comes in like a
valley between the two great hills of Abraham and Jacob. Isaac is Isaac
and Isaac has such virtue as becomes him whom the Lord loved. And
Jacob, too, is Jacob and not his father. He is active, energetic and
far-seeing. God does not, by His Grace, lift us out of our place. A man
is made gentle, but he is not made a fool. A woman is made brave, but
Divine Grace never made her masterful and domineering. Grace does not
make the child so self-willed that he disobeys his father–it is
something else that does that. Grace does not take away from the father
his authority to command the child. It leaves us where we were, in a
certain sense, as to our position, and the fruit it bears is congruous
to that position.

Thus Sarah is beautified with the virtues that adorn a woman, while
Abraham is adorned with all the excellences which are becoming in a
godly man. According as the virtue is required, so is it produced. If
the circumstances require courage, God makes His servant heroic. If the
circumstances require great modesty and prudence, modesty and prudence
are given. Faith is a wonderful magician's wand! It works marvels, it
achieves impossibilities, it grasps the incomprehensible. Faith can be
used anywhere–in the highest Heaven touching the ear of God and
winning our desire of Him–and in the lowest places of the earth among
the poor and fallen, cheering and upraising them. Faith will quench the
violence of fire, turn the edge of the sword, snatch the prey from the
enemy and turn the alien to flight.

There is nothing which it cannot do. It is a principle available for
all times, to be used on all occasions, suitable to be used by all men
for all holy ends. Those who have been taught the sacred art of
believing God are the truly learned–no degree of the foremost
university can equal in value that which comes with much boldness in
the faith. We shall see, tonight, that if Abraham walks before God and
is perfect–if he smites the kings that have carried Lot captive, if he
does such deeds of prowess as become a man–the same faith makes Sarah
walk before God in her perfectness and she performs the actions which
become her womanhood. And she, too, is written among the worthies of
faith who magnified the Lord!

We are led by our second text to look at the fruit of faith in Sarah.
There were two fruits of faith in Sarah–she did well and she was not
afraid with any amazement. We will begin with the first. It is said of
her that SHE DID WELL, "whose daughters you are as long as you do
well." She did well as a wife. She was all her husband could desire
and, when, at the age of 127 years, she at last fell asleep, it is said
that Abraham not only mourned for her, but the old man wept for her
most true and genuine tears of sorrow. He wept for the loss of one who
had been the life of his house. As a wife she did well. All the duties
that were incumbent upon her as the queen of that traveling company
were performed admirably and we find no fault mentioned concerning her
in that respect.

She did well as a hostess. It was her duty, as her husband was given to
hospitality, to be willing to entertain his guests. And the one
instance recorded is, no doubt, the representation of her common mode
of procedure. Though she was truly a princess, yet she kneaded the
dough and prepared the bread for her husband's guests. They came
suddenly, but she had no complaint to make. She was, indeed, always
ready to lay herself out to perform that which was one of the highest
duties of a God-fearing household in those primitive times. She did
well, also, as a mother. We are sure she did, because we find that her
son Isaac was so excellent a man–and you may say what you will, but in
the hands of God the mother forms the boy's character!

Perhaps the father unconsciously influences the girls, but the mother
has evidently most influence over the sons. Any of us can bear witness
that it is so in our own case. There are exceptions, of course, but for
the most part, the mother is the queen of the son and he looks up to
her with infinite respect if she is at all such as can be respected.
Sarah, by faith, did her work with Isaac, well, for from the very
first, in his yielding to his father when he was to be offered up as a
sacrifice, we see in him evidence of a holy obedience and faith in God
which were seldom equaled–and were never surpassed. Besides that, it
is written that God said of Abraham, "I know Abraham, that he will
command his children and his household after him."

There is one trait in Abraham's character that, wherever he went, he
set up an altar unto the Lord. His rule was a tent and an altar. Dear
Friends, do you always make these two things go together–a tent and an
altar? Where you dwell, is there sure to be family worship there? I am
afraid that many families neglect it and often it is so because husband
and wife are not agreed about it. And I feel sure that there would not
have been that invariable setting up of the worship

of God by Abraham in his tent unless Sarah had been as godly as
himself. She did well, also, as a Believer, and that is no mean point.
As a Believer, when Abraham was called to separate himself from his
kindred, Sarah went with him. She would adopt the separated life, too,
and the same caravan which traveled across the desert with Abraham for
its master had Sarah for its mistress.

She continued with him, believing in God with perseverance. Though they
had no city to dwell in, she continued the roaming life with her
husband, looking for "a city which has foundations, whose Builder and
Maker is God." She believed God's promise with all her heart, for
though she laughed, once, because when the promise neared its
realization it overwhelmed her–it was but a slip for the moment, for
it is written by the Apostle in the 11th of Hebrews–"Through faith,
also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was
delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him
faithful who had promised." It was not by nature, but by faith, that
Isaac was born, the child of another sort of laughter than that of
doubt–the child according to the promise of God. She was a believing
woman, then, and she lived a believing life and so she did well.

She did well to her parents, well to her husband, well to her
household, well to her guests, well before her God. Oh, that all
professing Christian people had a faith that showed itself in doing
well! But never let it be forgotten that though we preach faith, faith,
faith, as the great means of salvation, yet we never say that you are
saved unless there is a change worked in you and good works are
produced in you, for "faith without works is dead, being alone." Faith
saves, but it is the faith which causes men to do well. And if there is
a faith (and there is such a faith) which leaves a man just what he was
and permits him to indulge in sin, it is the faith of devils!

Perhaps not so good as that, for, "the devils believe and tremble,"
whereas these hypocrites profess to believe and yet dare to defy God!
They seem to have no fear of Him whatever! Sarah had this testimony
from the Lord, that she did well. And you are her daughters, all of you
who believe, if you do well. Be no discredit to your queenly mother.
Take care that you honor your spiritual parentage and maintain the high
prestige of the elect family.

The point that I am to dwell upon just now is this–that she proved her
faith by a second evidence–SHE WAS "NOT AFRAID WITH ANY AMAZEMENT."
The text says, "whose daughters you are, as long as you do well, and
are not afraid with any amazement." She was calm and quiet and was not
put in fear by any terror. There were several occasions in which she
might have been much disquieted and put about. The first was in the
breaking up of her house life. You see, her husband, Abraham, gets a
call to go from Ur of the Chaldees. Well, it is a considerable journey
and they move to Haran. There are some women–unbelieving women–who
would not have understood that.

Why does he want to go away from the land in which he lives and from
all our kindred, away to Haran? That would have been her question had
she not been a partaker in her husband's faith. An unbelieving woman
would have said, "A call from God? Nonsense! Fanaticism! I do not
believe it!" And when she saw that her husband would go, she would have
been afraid with great amazement. When Abraham went to Haran with his
father Terah, and Terah died in Haran, and then God called him to go
further, they had to cross the Euphrates and get right away into a land
which he knew nothing of, and this must have been a still sterner
trial.

When they packed up their goods on the camels and on the asses and
started with their train of servants and sheep and cattle, she might
very naturally have said, if she had been an unbelieving woman, "Where
are you going?" "I do not know," says Abraham. "Why are you going? What
are you going to get?" "I do not know," says Abraham, "God has bid me
go, but where I am going, I do not know. And what I am going for, I
cannot exactly say, except that God has said, 'Get you out from your
country and your kindred, and I will bless you and multiply you, and
give you a land wherein you shall dwell.'" We do not read that Sarah
ever asked these questions, or was ever troubled at all about them. The
things were put on the camels' backs and away she journeyed, for God
had called her husband to go and she resolved to go with him. Through
floods or flames, it mattered not to her–she felt safe with her
husband's God and calmly journeyed on. She was not afraid with any
amazement.

Then, though we do not hear much about her, we know that all those
years she had to live in a tent. You know the man is out abroad
attending to his business and he does not know much about the
discomforts of home, not even in such homes as ours. But if you were
called to give up your houses and go and live in tents, well, the
master might not mind it, but the mistress would! It is a very trying
life for a housewife. Sarah traveled from day to day and what with the
constant moving of the tent, as the cattle had to be taken to fresh
pastures, it must have been a life of terrible discomfort. Yet

Sarah never said a word about it. Up tomorrow morning; every tent-pin
up; and all the canvas rolled away, for you must move to another
station. The sun scorches like an oven, but you must ride across the
plain, or if the night is cold with frost and heavy dews, still, canvas
is your only wall and roof.

Remember, they were dwelling in tents as pilgrims and strangers, not
for one day, or two, nor for a few days in a year, but for scores of
years at a stretch! It was bravely done by this good woman that she was
not afraid with any amazement. Besides, they did not live in a country
where they were all alone, or surrounded by friends, for the tribes
around them were all of other religions and of other tastes and
ways–and they would have slain Abraham and killed the whole company if
it had not been for a sort of fear that fell upon them–by which
Jehovah seemed to say to them, "Touch not My anointed and do My
Prophets no harm." The Patriarch and his wife dwelt in the midst of
enemies and yet they were not afraid! But if she had not been a
believing woman, she must have often been afraid with great amazement!

And then there was a special time when the old man, Abraham, put on his
harness and went to war. He hears that Chedorlaomer has come down with
tributary kings and swept away the cities of the plain and taken
captive his nephew, Lot. Abraham says, "I will go and deliver him." And
she might have said, "My husband, you are an old man. Those gray locks
should not be touched with the stains of warfare." She said nothing of
the sort, but doubtless cheered him on and smiled as he invited some of
his neighbors that dwelt near to go with him. She is under no distress
that her husband is gone and all the herdsmen and servants round about
the tents all gone, so that she is left alone with her women servants.
No, she sits at home as a queen and fears no robbers, calmly confident
in her God!

Abraham has gone to battle and she fears not for him. And she needs
not, for he smites the kings and they are given like driven stubble to
his bow. And he comes back laden with spoil. God was pleased with
Sarah's quiet faith, because in troublous times she was not afraid with
any amazement. Then there came, a little while after, that great trial
of faith which must have touched Sarah, though its full force fell on
her husband. She observed the sadden disappearance of her husband and
his servant. "Where is your master? He does not come into breakfast."
The servants say, "He was up a great while before day and he has gone
with the servant, and with the ass, and with Isaac."

He had not told her, for Abraham had struggled enough with himself to
take Isaac away to the mountain and offer him! He could not bear to
repeat the struggle in Sarah. He was gone without telling Sarah of his
movements. This was a new state of things for her. He did not return
all day. "Where has your master gone? I never knew him go away, before,
without informing me. And where is Isaac?" Oh, that Isaac! How she
feared for her jewel, her delight, the child of promise, the wonder of
her old age! He did not come home that night, nor Abraham either. Nor
the next day, nor the next. Three days passed and I can hardly picture
the anxiety that would have fallen upon any one of you if you had been
Sarah, unless you had enjoyed Sarah's faith–for by faith in this
trying case she was not afraid with any amazement.

I dare say it took three days for Abraham to come back, so that it was
nearly a week, and no Abraham and no Isaac. One would have thought she
would have wandered about, crying, "Where is my husband, and where is
my son?" But not so. She calmly waited and said within herself, "If he
has gone, he has gone upon some necessary errand, and he will be under
God's protection. And God, who promised to bless him and to bless his
seed will not suffer any evil to harm him. So she rested quietly, when
others would have been in dire dismay. She was not afraid with any
amazement. We hear so little said about Sarah that I am obliged, thus,
to picture what I feel she must have been, because human nature is so
like itself and the effect of events upon us is very like the effect
which would have been produced upon the mind of Sarah.

Now, this is a point in which Christian women and, for that matter,
Christian men, also, should seek to imitate Sarah. We should not let
our hearts be troubled, but rest in the Lord and wait patiently for
Him. What is this virtue? It is a calm, quiet trusting in God. It is
freedom from fear, such as is described in another place in these
words–"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed,
trusting in the Lord." Or, as we read in David's words, the other
night, "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they
comfort me." It is composure of mind, freedom from anxiety, the absence
of fretfulness and clean deliverance from alarm, so that, whatever
happens, trepidation does not seize upon the spirit, but the heart
keeps on at its own quiet pace, delighting itself in a faithful God.

This is the virtue which is worth a king's ransom and Sarah had it!
"Whose daughters you are if you are not afraid with any amazement."
When is this virtue to be exercised by us? Well, it should be exercised
at all times. If we are not self-composed when we are happy we are not
likely to be calm when we are sad. I notice that if I am at all pleased
with the

praise of a friend, I become in that degree open to be grieved by the
censure of a foe. By so much as you are elated by prosperity, by so
much are you likely to be depressed when adversity comes. But if you
are calm, quiet, happy–no, more than that–when everything goes well,
then you will be calm, quiet, happy–not less than that–when
everything goes ill. To keep up an equable frame of mind is a thing to
aim at, even as the gardener desires an even temperature for his choice
flowers.

You ask, Who are to exercise this virtue? We are all to do so! But the
text is specially directed to the sisterhood. I suppose women are
exhorted to it because some of them are rather excitable, a little
hysterical and apt to be fearfully depressed and utterly carried away.
I am not saying that this fault is general or common among women,
neither am I blaming them, but only stating the fact that some are thus
afflicted and it is a happy, happy thing if they can master it so that
they are not afraid with any amazement. But this virtue especially
serves in time of trouble when a very serious trial threatens us. Then
the Christian is not to say, "What shall I do? I shall never endure it.
I cannot live through it. Surely God has forgotten me. This trouble
will crash me. I shall die of a broken heart." No. No. No! Do not talk
so! My dear Friend, do not talk so.

If you are God's child do not even think so. Try in patience to lift up
your head and remember Sarah, "whose daughters you are if you are not
afraid with any amazement." And so must it be in times of personal
sickness. How many are the pains and sufferings that fall to the lot of
the sisterhood! But if you have faith, you will not be afraid with any
amazement. I saw one, the other day, who was about to suffer from the
surgeon's knife. It was a serious operation, about which all stood in
doubt. but I was happy to see her as composed in the prospect of it as
though it bad been a pleasure rather than a pain. Thus calmly resigned
should a Christian be! I went to see, yesterday, an aged Sister–a
member of this Church, close upon fourscore years of age. She is dying
with dropsy and, being unable to lie down in bed, is obliged to always
sit up–a posture which allows little or no rest.

When I entered her room she welcomed me most heartily, which, perhaps
was not amazing, for she is greatly attached to her minister. The
wonder lay in the fact that she expressed herself as being full of
happiness, full of delight, full of expectancy of being with Christ! I
went to comfort her but she comforted me! What could I say? She talked
of the goodness of God with an eye as full of pleasure as if she had
been a maiden speaking to her young companion of her marriage day! Our
Sister used to sit just there, in yonder pew. I seem to see her sitting
there now, but she will soon sit among the bright ones in Heaven! I was
charmed to see one with such evident marks of long-continued pain upon
her face, but with such sweet serenity there, too! Yes, with more than
serenity–with unspeakable joy in the Lord–such, as I fear, some in
health and strength have not yet learned! A Christian woman should not
be afraid with any amazement either in adversity or in sickness, but
her holy patience should prove her to be a true daughter of Sarah and
Abraham.

Christian women in Peter's day were subject to persecution as much as
their husbands. They were shut up in prison, scourged, tortured,
burned, or slain with the sword. One holy woman in the early days of
the Church was tossed upon the horns of bulls. Another was made to sit
in a red-hot iron chair. Thus were they tortured, not accepting
deliverance. In the early days of martyrdom the women played the man as
well as the men! They defied the tyrant to do his worst upon their
mortal bodies, for their conquering spirits laughed at every torment!
If persecuting times should come again, or if they are here, already,
in some measure, O daughters of Sarah, do well and be not afraid with
any amazement! And so, if you should be called to some stern duty; if
you should be bound to do what you feel you cannot do, remember that
anybody can do what he can do. It is the believing man who does what he
cannot do. We achieve impossibilities by the power of the Almighty God.
Be not afraid, then, of any duty, but believe that you will be able to
do it, for Grace will be sufficient for you.

At the last, in the prospect of death, my dear Friends, may you not be
afraid with any amazement! Oftentimes a deathbed is vantage ground for
a Christian. Where others show their fear and, sometimes their terror,
there should the Believer show his peacefulness and his happy
expectancy, not afraid with any amazement, whatever the form of death
may be! Now, what is the excellence of this virtue? I shall answer that
question by saying it is due to God that we should not be afraid with
any amazement. Such a God as we have ought to be trusted. Under the
shadow of such a wing, fear becomes a sin! If God were other than He
is, we might be afraid. But while He is such a God, it is due to Him
that fear is banished. Peacefulness is true worship. Quiet under
alarming conditions is devotion. He worships best who is most calm in
evil times.

Moreover, the excellence of this virtue is that it is most impressive
to men. I do not think anything is more likely to impress the ungodly
than the quiet peace of mind of a Christian in danger or near death. If
we can be happy, then, our friends will ask, "What makes them so calm?"
Nor is the usefulness confined to others. It is most useful to
ourselves, for he who can be calm in time of trouble will be most
likely to make his way through it. When you once become afraid, you
cannot judge wisely as to your best course. You generally do wrong when
you are frightened out of your confidence in God. When the heart begins
palpitating, then the whole system is out of order for the battle of
life. Be calm and wait for your opportunity. Napoleon's victories were,
to a large extent, due to the serenity of that masterly warrior and,
depend upon it, it is so with you Christian people–you will win if you
can wait. Do not be in a hurry. Consider what you should do.

Do not be so alarmed as to make haste. Be patient; be quiet; wait God's
time and so wait your own time. Wait upon God to open your mouth. Ask
Him to guide your hand and to do everything for you. Calmness of mind
is the mother of prudence and discretion. It gives the firm foothold
which is necessary for the warrior when he is about to deal a
victorious blow. Those who cannot be amazed by fear shall live to be
amazed with mercy! "How," asks one, "can we obtain it?" That is the
question! Remember, it is an outgrowth of faith and you will have it in
proportion as you have faith! Have faith in God and you will not be
afraid with any amazement.

Very early in my preaching days I had faith in God in times of
thunderstorms. When I have walked out to preach, it has happened that I
have been wet through and through with the storm and yet I have felt no
annoyance from the thunder and lightning. On one occasion I turned in,
by reason of the extreme severity of the rain, to a little cottage and
I found a woman there with a child who seemed somewhat relieved when
she had admitted me, but previously she had been crying bitterly with
sheer alarm and terror. "Why," she said, "this is a little round lodge
house and the lightning comes in at every window. There is no place
into which I can get to hide it from my eyes."

I explained to her that I liked to see the lightning, for it showed me
that an explosion was all over and, since I had lived to see the flash,
it was clear it could now do me no harm. I told her that to hear the
thunder was a splendid thing, it was only God saying, "It is all over."
If you live to see the lightning flash, there is nothing to be afraid
of–you would have been dead and never have seen it if it had been sent
to kill you! I tried to console her on religious grounds and I remember
well praying with her and making her happy as a bird! It was my being
so calm and quiet and praying with her that cheered her up and, by
God's Grace, when I went on my way I left her in peace. You may depend
upon it, my dear Friends, that unless our own souls have peace we
cannot communicate it to others.

In this way we must believe in God about everything. It so happened
that about that matter–the thunder and light-ning–I did believe in
God up to the very last degree and, therefore, I could not be alarmed
on that score. So if you believe in God upon any other subject,
whatever it is, you will have perfect peace with God about it. If you
can believe God when you are in a storm at sea, that He holds the water
in the hollow of His hand, you will be at peace about the tempest. It
is the thing that troubles you that you must believe about–and when
Faith makes an application of her hand to the particular trial–then
will peace of mind come to you.

This holy calm comes, also, from walking with God. No spot is so serene
as the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Commune with
God and you will forget fear. Keep up daily fellowship with Christ in
prayer, in praise, in service, in searching the Word, in submitting
your heart to the work of the eternal Spirit–and as you walk with God,
you will find yourself calm. You know how our poet puts it–

"Oh for a closer walk with God, A calm and heavenly frame."

These go together. If you would feed upon certain Truths of God which
will produce this calm of mind, remember, first, that God is full of
love and, therefore, nothing that God sends can harm His child. Take
everything from the Lord as a token of love, even though it is a stroke
of His rod, or a cut of His knife. Everything from that dear hand must
mean love, for He has said, "I have engraved you upon the palms of My
hands." When you accept every affliction as a love token, then will
your fear be ended.

Next, remember the faithfulness of God to His promises and the fact
that there is a promise for your particular position. The Lord is, at
this moment, under promise to you, and that promise is registered in
His Book. Search it out and then grasp it, and say, "He must keep it!
He cannot break His Word." He has said, "In six troubles I will be with
you."

Have you got to number six? He has said, "I will never leave you, nor
forsake you," and how can He run back from His Word? If He does not
leave you nor forsake you, what can you fear? Whatever is
coming–poverty, sickness, shame, slander–if all the devils in Hell
are loosed and they are all coming up against us at once, yet, if the
Lord is with us, we will smite them hip and thigh and send them back to
the infernal deep as quickly as the swine of old ran down a steep place
into the sea and were drowned in the waters!

"Oh," says the devil, "I can overcome you." We say nothing to him but
this–"You know your Master! You know your Master. Lie down, Sir! You
know your Master and that Master is our Covenant Head, our Husband and
our Lord." Neither the world, the flesh, nor the devil shall be able to
overcome us since we have the promise of a faithful God to protect us!
Many of you here tonight have gray hair, or bald heads. I have always
such a large proportion of aged people in my congregation that I can
say to you what I might not say to the young folk. We, dear Friends,
ought not to be afraid, for trials are no novelties with us! We have
smelt powder and been grimed with the dust of the conflict times out of
mind! We ought not to be troubled–we have been to sea before.

And has not the Lord helped us? Tell it for His honor! He has been a
very present help. He has borne us through such things that to doubt
Him would be an impudent slander upon His Character! As for myself–and
I suppose the language I now use would come from the lips of many
here–my way has been strewn with wonders of Divine mercy! Trials have
abounded and I am glad that they have–they have been opportunities for
the display of Divine Grace. Labors have been attempted of which some
said, "these are visionary schemes." But God has always been better
than our faith! We have never been confounded and I think we ought, by
this time, to have ]earned that trusting in God is the most reasonable
thing that we ever do!

There are speculations in business, risks, even, in the most solid
trading. But there is no speculation in believing God, no risk in
trusting in Him! He that hangs the world upon nothing and yet keeps it
in its place, can bring His people to have nothing and yet to possess
all things! He that makes yon arch of Heaven stand secure without a
buttress or a prop–a mighty arch such as no human engineer could ever
contrive–He can make us stand without helpers, without friends,
without riches, without strength and stand, too, when all other things
except that which God supports shall have come down in the final crash!
"Trust you in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength."

I pray for you who are most timid, that from this day you may be true
daughters of Sarah and not be afraid with any amazement. God bless you
with this gracious help and you will praise His name. Amen.
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The Bride and Her Ornaments–the Sin of Forgetting God