The Road to Honor

The Road to Honor

(No. 1811)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1884,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be
lightly esteemed." 1 Samuel 2:30.

OUR chickens generally come home to roost. Our thoughts of other men
become other men's thoughts of us. According as we measure out to our
fellows, so do they measure back into our bosoms, for good or for evil.
So especially, in reference to the Lord, Himself, the God of Justice
sooner or later causes a man to reap his own sowing and gather his own
scattering. See how the Lord keeps touch with His friends and foes and
pays them in their own coin–"Those who honor Me I will honor, and
those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." A man's life is often
its own echo. He sinned and he suffered after the likeness of his
sin–you may see the sin in the punishment–as you see, today the
footprint of the Egyptian dog in the brick which he trod upon when it
was yet soft clay. The man sinned again, for it is the nature of sin to
repeat itself and grow into habit and, behold, another sorrow was born
in the likeness of that other sin! Thus the man lived in the present
and formed his future life by one and the same act. He spoke and the
echoes spoke to him in the years following. So does life repeat itself.
So does the seed develop the flower and the flower again produce the
seed. It is an endless chain, for the thing that has been, is the thing
which shall be! A man may live to see a grim procession of all his old
sins marching past him, robed in the sackcloth and ashes wherein
Justice dooms them to be arrayed.

So is it also with our joys. God gives us joy after the similitude of
our service. Godly Fear fills her garden with many flowers and her
house with music of different kinds. And the Lord appoints to her that
she shall live of her ministry and that her oxen shall eat of the good
corn which they tread out for others. When we have been faithful to
God, He is always faithful to us and sends us a full reward. If we walk
contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us. But if we delight
ourselves in Him, He will delight Himself in us to do us good. There is
goodwill to men of good will, and evil shall slay those whose lives are
evil.

If you wish to see this exemplified in Scripture, how many instances
rise before you! Enoch walks with God because God pleases him and then
we find that he pleases God! Noah obediently rests the issues of his
life upon the Truth of God and God gives him rest. Abraham was famous
for trusting God and it is wonderful how God trusted him! The Lord
seemed to put His honor as well as His oracles into the guardianship
and custody of Abraham. "Shall I," says God, "hide this thing that I
will do from Abraham, my friend?" Oh, no! God spills His heart out to
Abraham, for Abraham has spilled out his heart to God! See, on the
other hand, Jacob. He is a good man and true–and I do not like to
speak of the failings of the faithful. There is a Ham-like propensity
in some, to point out the nakedness of God's saints, and it is much
better to go backward and cover them with the garment of love. Yet we
cannot help seeing that Jacob was not so in harmony with God as he
should have been and, therefore, his life lacked the majestic serenity
which attended Abraham's.

He begins life by bargaining and by cheating his brother and all his
life he was bargained with and cheated beyond his heart's content. His
cunning came home to him–what he was to Esau, Laban was to him. Yet,
as he wrestled with the Angel in mighty prayer, the Lord gave him the
wrestler's name of honor. And as he trusted in the Lord, even in his
saddest estate, the Lord preserved him to the end. As an instance on
the other side, take Moses. He would not be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, but gave up all prospect of a kingdom in Egypt. But what did
he get? He became a greater king than any Pharaoh! He led, through the
wilderness, a nation compared with which the Egyptians are mere
barbarians! He had all the rank and dignity that could fall to the
greatest ruler of his age or of any other age–and his honor after
death is, to this day, infinitely beyond that of all the Pharaohs
rolled into one. Moses is an imperial name– among them that are born
of woman, whose fame is greater? He is no loser–he honored God and he
was honored.

Take David, on the other side, and see how his transgressions came home
to him. I will not speak of the better character of David, just now,
though that would abundantly illustrate how God repays His faithful
ones. But, when David sinned, the sorrows that embittered the latter
end of his life were the reflection of his own offenses. One is struck
with the family likeness between David's sins and sorrows. Remember the
names of Absalom and Adonijah and you cannot forget the lust and the
falsehood of him to whom these young men were both sons and
punishments.

Very striking as an instance of the retaliation of Providence is the
case of Adonibezek. When they cut off his thumbs and his big toes, so
that he might lose all power to draw the bowstring and all power,
indeed, to go to battle at all because he could not stand safely in the
conflict, he confessed that 40 kings to whom he had done the same thing
had picked up crumbs under his table. It was his own remark that, as he
had done, God had requited him. Samuel, when he smote Agag, told him
that, as his sword had made women childless, so should the sword of the
Lord, that day, make his mother childless by slaying him. Most
memorable of all is the instance of Haman and his gallows, 50 cubits
high. See how he swings on it! He built the gallows for Mordecai. Ah,
no–he built it for himself!

Thus are deeds reflected upon those who do them! Thus do the cruel fall
into the pits which their own hands have dug! Malice uses a sort of
Providential boomerang. The man flings it with all his force at the foe
and it comes back to him–not into his hand, that he may use it again,
but across his brow to smite him even to the dust! Take heed what you
put into the measure that you mete out to others–and especially to
God–for, "with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you,
again." "Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me
shall be lightly esteemed."

I want to speak, this evening, very practically and to the point. I
shall therefore allow but little garnishing and simply deal out the
plain truth. May the Spirit of God make the meditation useful to us
all!

I. And, first, we will speak upon THE DUTY INCUMBENT UPON US ALL, but
especially upon God's people, OF HONORING THE LORD. As we are God's
creatures, we are bound to honor God. Think of what He is in Himself.
He is such a One that if we had no relation to Him, but had simply
heard of Him by the hearing of the ears, we should be bound to honor
Him. So perfectly holy, so inconceivably gracious, so full of
everything that makes up perfection, so devoid of any fault or failure,
the infinitely glorious Jehovah should be–must be–honored by every
right-minded man. But then, as He is our Creator and we owe our very
existence to Him, it becomes us to pay Him reverence. "It is He that
made us, and not we, ourselves."

He is our Preserver–"We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture."
He feeds and leads us every day. Some of you people of God ought,
indeed, to honor God with all your hearts because you know that you are
His children–and to you, adoption yields a fullness of rich comfort.
He asks, "If I am a Father, where is My honor?" He has chosen you and
put you among His children–will you not honor Him? The Father has
loved you with an infinite love! The Son of God has poured out His
heart's blood for you! The Spirit of God has tenderly strived with you
and, even now, dwells in you–will you not honor the Triune Jehovah?
Think of the relationship which Grace has established between you and
the Ever-Blessed One and, in deepest gratitude, you will confess that
you are bound to honor the Lord your God!

Among those who bow lowest before Him, let us be found. If we have
crowns of any sort. If any honor or good repute belongs to us, let us
cast all at His feet! Angels with veiled faces adore the Lord–let us
veil our faces with the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ and
worship Him that lives forever and ever! To Him, the cherubim and
seraphim lift up their ceaseless cry–let us, also, unite in joyous
praise before the Lord our God! Surely none of you would deny the
obligation that rests upon every creature, but especially upon every
regenerate creature, to bless and praise and honor the Lord our God! I
shall not stop, dear Friends, to enter into any argument upon a subject
which commends itself to every conscience. If your hearts are right,
you feel that to honor God is your joy. I know that you love to glorify
Him. His praise is viewed by you, not only as a duty, but as a
privilege and a delight! Oh for more of the power of the Holy Spirit,
that we may glorify God by His own Spirit!

Just notice how we ought to honor Him and consider wherein this duty
lies. We should honor Him by confessing His Deity–I mean the Deity of
the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Athanasian Creed is
too long and it enters too much into details, but, in the essence of
it, it is most solemn Truths of God and, though I should not dare to
say that the man who did not believe every word of it would, "without
doubt, perish everlastingly," yet I should feel great trembling for
myself if I could not, from the depths of my heart, subscribe to the
blessed Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity– one God–Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. "The Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is
God; and yet there

are not three Gods but one God." In the way in which God reveals
Himself, let us honor Him by accepting His own Revelation.

We must honor God by receiving that view of Him which He deigns to
grant us. What know you and I of God? We are nothing–how should we
comprehend the All in All? We are insects begotten and buried within a
few hours–how shall the creatures of a day understand the Eternal? Men
talk about what God must be or should be. What do they know? Can the
dust beneath our feet form a just judgment of the stars? It might do so
much more readily than we can form any idea of God save that which He
is pleased to impart to us by His own Revelation. Let us adore Jehovah
as we find Him in the Old and New Testaments! If there are any that
deny the Deity of the Lord Jesus, let us not come into their secret,
nor in any respect be joined with their error. Assuredly the Lord
Jesus, whom men called the Nazarene, is to us none other than "God over
all, blessed forever. Amen."

If men deny the Personality or Deity of the Holy Spirit, let us the
more reverently yield to all His sacred movements within our bosoms and
rejoice to adore Him as intensely as if we strove to make up for the
many slights which grieve Him! We should honor God in our worship both
in public and in private, intensely paying homage unto the God of
Israel–Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We need not perpetually repeat a
form of words, but it will be well for all our private and public
worship to flame with the great Truth of God which sparkles in these
words–"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without
end. Amen."

Let us further honor God by acknowledging His rule. This is more
difficult, by far, to most minds. Let it be to you and to me a fixed
matter that whatever God forbids, we will loathe, and whatever God
commands, we will follow after. Our failures as to His will should
greatly grieve us. When we are conformed to His mind, we shall give Him
the glory of our sanctification, but we shall be deeply thankful that
it has pleased God to make us well-pleasing in His sight! Beloved, I
want you, especially, that are members of the visible Church, to take
care that the rule of Christ over you is supreme. Never hesitate when
the command is plain. Evident duties should never be the subjects of
questioning. It is not yours to reason why–it is yours, if necessary,
to dare and die in your loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ! He is our
supreme Lord and we would not wish, even, to breathe apart from Him! It
is rebellion against Him, even, to begin to reckon whether obedience
will be profitable or not! What greater profit can you desire than to
do His will? His sovereign's pleasure is the soldier's best reward.
Shall we not think it joy enough to live for Him who died for us? The
price of blood was paid for us by His five wounds on the tree of
Calvary–are we not, henceforth, Christ's very own? Yes, let us honor
God by a definite, prompt, joyous and constant obedience as Grace shall
help us.

Next to that, let me add a very important thing. Let us honor the
holiness of God and the justice of God and the mercy of God by
repentance whenever we feel that we have done wrong. You remember how
Joshua bade Achan confess and so give glory to God? There is a measure
of honor paid to God by the man who, being conscious of having done
wrong, laments it, acknowledges the wrong and prays for pardon. The
prayer of a penitent is true adoration. When I seek for mercy of God, I
do thereby confess the rightness of His Law and the justice of its
threatened punishment. And I also confess my belief in the goodness of
the heart of God and the graciousness of His Nature and, therefore, I
appeal to Him, for Jesus' sake, to put away my sin. A guilty heart
cannot better honor the Lord than by a frank acknowledgment of sin and
by casting itself upon the abounding mercy of the God of Grace. Do not
hesitate, you guilty ones, to do this! You can make no reparation for
the wrong you have done, but the very least thing and, at the same
time, the very greatest thing you can do, is to say, "I have sinned and
done this evil in Your sight, but O, most gracious God, be merciful to
me, a sinner." Thus may the sinner give honor unto God.

But, oh, Beloved, if you have rejoiced in pardoning love, I would press
upon you to honor God by acknowledging the wisdom of His teaching, and
by a teachableness which accepts His doctrine. I am afraid that many
ministers are training men to set aside faith and to live by carnal
reason. This is flat treason against the Lord and His Christ! Faith, to
me, means this–whatever God says in His Word I believe–and if I do
not understand the fullness of its meaning, I wait for further light,
knowing that it must be true if God has said it. But now men judge the
Scriptures instead of being judged by the Scriptures! Their own
consciousness is to be "the judge that ends the strife," and this part
of Scripture is put aside, and that is lifted into undue prominence,
according as human judgment questions or approves. This must not be! We
live not by thinking, but by believing, as it is written–"The just
shall live by faith." We live, not by excogitating fresh ideas

of what God ought to be and original conceptions of what God ought to
do, but by looking into the Book and believing the facts!

We honor God when we believe Holy Scripture to be Inspired–infallibly
Inspired! And, taking it as such, say, "It is not mine to question it,
or to argue against it, but simply to accept it." It is, to me, the
delight of my life to admit into my very soul great master Truths of
God which I am unable to understand and yet receive into myself by
affection and humble reverence! I cannot comprehend the Truth of God by
my understanding, but I apprehend it by my faith, and thus it becomes
mine. To love is to understand–at least, it is so to me. Choice food
of mysterious Truth is received into the mouth of my faith–it
gradually dissolves within the stomach of my thought, till I take it by
an assimilating and digesting faculty into my very self–and know it
even as I am known! This inward sense of the Truth of God is a more
real knowledge than mere reason can ever obtain.

I know the philosopher sneers. What of it? He is not worth sneering at!
Brothers and Sisters, our whole nature must honor God and worship at
His footstool. Is my intellect to play the monarch before God? No, but
that crown, that royalty of man–his understanding–must be cast before
Jehovah's feet! The subjugation of the intellect, seems to me, to be a
great part of conversion–and I question whether men are converted at
all unless their reasoning powers bow down at Jehovah's feet as
subjects and disciples. Oh that we might honor God by vindicating His
truth against all comers, saying, "Let God be true and every man a
liar"!

Further, we honor God's love by a daily trust in Him. You honor God,
you that scarcely know where tomorrow's bread shall come from, when,
having said, "Give us this day our daily bread," you work for it and
bless His name that you have work to do! You that suffer sickness, but
patiently yield yourselves up to the Divine will, believing that even
your pains are for your good and that all is for the best–you are
honoring God by trusting His love! Unbelief dishonors Him, but a simple
childlike confidence pays homage to Him, as true and as acceptable as
the song of Cherubim and Seraphim. Trust God about domestic cares,
bodily pains, daily frets–and you most truly honor Him!

And, lastly, upon this point, we also honor God, dear Friends, when we
confess His goodness by patiently enduring His will and especially by
rejoicing in it. The other night our subject was, "We joy in God," and
I wish we could keep it as our standing motto. It is such an honoring
of God when we take great delight in Him. Pulling long faces, pining
over our troubles and whining over our fears–this does not honor God!
But in the midst of darkness and gloom, if we can still say, "The Lord
is good and His mercy endures forever, therefore will I sing unto the
Lord as long as I live"–this is to honor Him! If I am in prison, God
shall be my liberty! If I am sick, He shall be my health! If I am poor,
He shall be my riches! If I am cast down, His smile shall lift me up! I
will praise Him while I have any being. This it to honor the Lord and
to all who thus praise Him, the promise of our text is made, "Those who
honor me I will honor."

II. Now this brings me, secondly, to notice THE INFLUENCE UPON OUR
DAILY LIFE OF THIS HABIT OF

HONORING GOD. A man who honors God does this practically–it is no form
or farce with him, but a deep practical reality. He does it often by
consulting with God. What shall I do? Here are two ways that may be
equally right or equally wrong. I do not know which to take. The answer
is, "Bring here the ephod." I like that old Scotsman's word when he was
puzzled about a matter of duty and wanted to end the debate–"Give me
yon Bible. That settles all." Go to your knees and cry to God in
prayer–and crooked things shall be made straight! Be willing to be
guided and you shall be guided. If you blunder on in your
self-sufficiency, you will soon be in a slough, but if you will wait
upon God, your steps shall be ordered of the Lord. We honor God by
taking counsel of Him. Do this about all things and all things will go
right. It is wonderful how very easily things move when the Lord
directs and how wearily they drag when we trust to our own
understanding.

We honor God in our daily life when we confess Him. It is comparatively
a small matter to confess Christ before the Church, though I have known
some of you rather frightened of doing that. Some are almost afraid to
come and talk to me about their own salvation. If anybody is afraid of
me, he must be a great goose, I am sure, for there is nothing in me
that should frighten anybody! I am too glad and too delighted to see
anybody about his soul to be frightful to anyone. If you go to see any
of the elders, you will find them more tender still. At any rate, do
not be afraid of them. But the real tug of war is to confess Christ
before the world. For the merchant, for instance, to stand up for that
which is good and right when he is in a web of false trading and
surrounded by unscrupulous dealers–this is honoring the Lord.

For the workman in the shop, when the men are making fun of every holy
thing, to say, "Well, now, I believe in all that and if you want to
laugh at anybody you may laugh at me, for I am on the Lord's
side"–this is honoring God! But the tendency is to sneak away and
remain quite quiet. Christ seems to have nobody to speak up for Him! Is
it really so? Is that dark hour being repeated, "Then all the disciples
forsook Him and fled"? Everybody will speak up for the devil. You can
hear them in the street far into the night–but as to Christ, how many
are there to give Him a good word in this time of rebuke? The bulk of
religious professors are cowards! Let it not be so with you! Honor God,
dearly Beloved, by making a confession of Christ even though it may
involve you in ridicule. Be all the more decidedly gracious because it
will bring you into ill odor. Be firm for that which is right, not
wishing to provoke opposition, but being quite able to bear it if it
must be borne. Be men! Men are scarce creatures nowadays–men, I mean,
who set their faces like a flint and are not to be moved from their
integrity and their love to Christ, come what may. Honor God daily by a
holy manliness.

Sometimes you can honor Christ by some distinct service that you can do
for Him, or by some special obedience to His will. I know times where
there are great temptations put in the way of men. Now, mind that you
honor God at such times by an unhesitating allegiance. There is wealth,
apparently, to be had for the putting out of your hand–only you could
not do it with a clean conscience. Now, honor God and be bravely poor
rather than be shamefully rich! "Get you behind me, Satan," must be
ready in the trial hour. You have an opportunity of making a great
change in your position in life, but, at the same time, you would be
deprived of opportunities of usefulness, both of giving and of getting
good–then let your choice be made promptly.

I have always admired the example of the pious Jew who was told that a
certain city on the Continent would excellently suit his business.
"But," he asked, "is there a synagogue there?" And when they said that
there was no synagogue, he preferred to stay in another place so that
he might worship God, though he would do less business. I do not know
that this is often the case among Jews, any more than it is among
Gentiles and, I am sorry to say that I know many Gentiles to whom God's
worship is no consideration whatever–they would go to the bottomless
pit if they could make large profits! It does not matter where they go,
or what becomes of them, so long as gain can warm the palms of their
hands. They trample on the name of God and upon Christ's Cross, as the
Dutch are said to have done in Japan, in order that they may conduct
their business. This spirit is from beneath! God Save us from it! Say
to yourself, young man, in the very beginning of life, "I will serve
God. If I can make money, very well. But my first objective is to honor
God. If I can gain a competence; if I can have sufficient to retire
upon in my old age, I will be very thankful. But I am going to do right
and to serve God as long as I live, come wealth or come poverty, come
honor or come shame." You are the man that God will honor–I am sure of
it.

Then you can honor God with your substance when He gives it to you. I
will not say much about this, but all through Scripture it is laid down
as one mark of a child of God that he holds what he has as a steward
and that he uses it for the promotion of the Kingdom of God and the
helping of the poor and the needy. Wherever he is, he does not seek
substance merely to aggrandize himself, but with all his getting, he
desires to get a liberal heart, without which the richest man is still
a pauper. He longs to be useful to the cause and the Kingdom of Christ.
He believes in the joy of dedicating his tithe and more unto the Lord.
He has heard a voice in his ears, saying, "Honor the Lord with your
substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase: so shall
your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with
new wine."

In a word, the man that really honors God seeks to praise Him. He
wishes to make the Lord's name great throughout all the world. His main
objective in living is that he may make Jesus known–that he may win
more hearts to God, the blessed Father, more minds to Jesus, the
Brother of humanity and more souls to the Holy Spirit, the Quickener of
the Heaven-born race. Oh for a thousand hearts with which to love our
Lord God, a thousand tongues with which to speak for Him, a thousand
lives with which to glorify Him!

But, alas! There are many, I grieve to say, who do not seem to care
about honoring God at all. And what is the influence of this upon their
lives? Two or three words only upon this sorrowful business.

The influence of this upon their lives is, first, that they do not care
to know anything about God and His Christ, or His Spirit, or His Gospel
and His way of salvation. So, if they have a Bible, they look at it,
now and then, but they never seriously read it–never sit down to study
it–never turn to God in prayer that they may be instructed in the
inner meaning of the Word. They live much the same as they would live
if God were dead. It would not make any very great difference to them
if there were no God and no Savior, for they so utterly forget Jehovah
and His Anointed. They do not

take the trouble to go across the street to hear about Him, whom they
call Redeemer! If there were a lecture upon geol-ogy–if there were a
great gathering upon politics and the extension of the franchise, they
would be there! But as to serving God–well, they do not seem to think
that there is any weight in His claims or importance in His will.

They show in their lives that they do not honor God because they attach
no importance to anything that He commands or forbids, or to His grand
purposes of Grace for our fallen race. Whether men are saved or lost
does not matter to them! Whether Christ died or did not die is no
concern of theirs! Those wonderful things which hold angels spell-bound
with admiration have no attraction for these men, for whom they ought
to have every attraction. Christ dies for men and yet men pass by and
say, "It is nothing to us." These are not only the baser and more
thoughtless sort–persons of intellect and culture do the same!

Hence it comes to pass that these people do not obey God. They obey the
laws of their country; they respect the rules of civilized society; but
as to the Laws of God, they have no care about them. God is so
insignificant a factor in their life-thoughts that what Laws He may
have made or may not have made are no concern to them at all. He may
threaten them with Hell, but they defy His wrath. He may put before
them the joys of Heaven, but they would not care for bliss that meant
holiness and communion with God. They utterly despise God and,
therefore, depend upon it, they will be despised by Him at the last!

In that day when they will be swept away as the offal of the
universe–in that day when they shall be driven from His Presence and
from the glory of His power, then shall they know how He has them in
derision. He shall say–even He of the tender lips and of the pierced
heart and tearful eyes–even He shall say from the Throne, "Depart you
cursed," for they have proved their cursedness by their despising God,
whom they ought to have loved and sought and trusted above all things!
He will despise them and banish them into shame and everlasting
contempt, for they despised His mercy and poured contempt upon His
justice. The contempt of God and of holy angels and of redeemed spirits
must forever and ever rest on those who showed a contempt of God while
here below!

Oh, take heed, dear Friends, that you do not despise God! Eli, who was
God's High Priest, fell into this sin because he thought more of
displeasing his sons than he did of displeasing his God. He said to
himself, "I cannot speak sharply to Hophni. He is my eldest son and a
man of ripe years. He does behave very badly, but what can I do? I fear
I must speak a word to him, but I will do it softly. And
Phinehas–Phinehas has some fine points about him. I think he will come
right by gentle means–I must not say anything sharp to him." Now in
this, he honored his sons with a false honor and did not truly honor
the Lord. I sometimes tremble, myself, lest I deal too gently with some
here present. And I would pray to be forgiven when, in tenderness of
heart, I have not liked to speak sharply upon evil things which I know
must grieve the Spirit of God in some that are the Lord's people.

I would to God you would take more care of yourselves and watch
yourselves, and not grieve the spirit of your minister by things that
are not consistent with the will of God and the holiness of Christ. Do
see to it, Beloved members of this Church, that you do not dishonor my
Lord! Do not bring me under this great temptation to speak timidly
about these things. We can easily do it, you know, and so can you, when
you see sin in a Brother and do not rebuke that Brother when you ought
to do so, or when those that are put by God under your care are allowed
to sin with impunity. God help us to be found honoring Him, for if we
do not rebuke sin, we shall be dishonoring Him–and that may spoil our
life as sadly as Eli spoiled his.

In a word, Friends, if we do not honor God, we shall not make God our
guiding star. We shall not make His Glory to be our chart and compass,
but we shall live to get money–to get money by fair means or foul,
cost what it may. What a Gradgrind a man becomes when he forgets God
and only remembers gold! Oh, the wretches there are who do not care how
many poor people are starved so long as they can make a larger profit!
Into their little miserable souls it never enters that it is a shame to
starve the needle-woman or the worker of any kind, by putting them to a
killing toil in order to earn the scantiest of food. Some make ambition
their guiding star and when this is the case, they do not care what
they say in the House of Commons or elsewhere, so long as they can keep
themselves before the public. They make a speech today which they
contradict tomorrow!

They blurt out of their mouths the first thing that comes into their
heads, whether it is mischievous or beneficial. Whether it is false or
true, it is no odds to them, so long as their speech will catch the
ear. Only for themselves do many politicians live. And so with other
men, too. The poet will sing that he may show what a poet he is, but he
does not dedi-

cate his magic of language to the God who is only to be praised. All
gifts should be used for God–all art of genius, science of mind and
skill of hand. These talents come from Him and to Him should they be
devoted. But alas, in most cases they are used for meaner ends!

There are men whose guiding star is licentiousness–they live to please
themselves and to gratify the flesh. Wretched, dung-hill breed as they
are, they will go back to the oblivion where they came, after having, I
fear, polluted many who otherwise might have escaped from these
corruptions. God save men of this corrupt kind, while yet forgiveness
can be found! And may we all come to this resolve–that we will honor
God.

III. Now mark–and this is the last point–THE REWARD OF ALL THIS.
"Those who honor Me I will honor."

Is not this a grand reward? It is not, "They that honor Me shall be
honored," but, "Those who honor Me I will honor." Does God honor men?
He promises to do so! Compared with the honor which the Lord is able to
give, there is no honor which is worth naming in the same day. When God
honors a man, the glory is glory, indeed. One of the French kings gave
to a conquering general some £600 a year, or thereabouts, for a
wonderful deed of prowess, but the soldier told the king that he would
have preferred the gold cross. I do not think I should have had such
preference for a bauble, but honor is a precious commodity. To get
honor from God is very different from getting it from a king. It was
said of Alexander that of two nobles who had served him well, he gave
to one 10,000 talents and to the other a kiss–and he that had the
money envied him who received the kiss! One kiss from the mouth of God
would outweigh kingdoms! Honor from God–favor from God–this is a high
reward which cannot be weighed against 10,000 worlds and all the glory
thereof. "Those who honor Me I will honor."

Suppose that a man is a preacher and in his preaching he seeks to
glorify God only, and sets forth the finished work of Jesus and cries,
earnestly, "Behold the Lamb of God," God will honor him. He shall not
labor in vain, or spend his strength for nothing. Suppose another man
is living in the midst of his family, praying for the conversion of his
children, setting them a holy example, chiding them for their faults
and encouraging them in all good things? Shall he be without a
blessing? No! "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is
old, he will not depart from it." Some of us know the blessing of
honoring God in our families. Where there is family prayer, where God
is set before the young as the chief end of their being, God will
surely honor such parents by giving them a believing household.

The man who honors God shall be honored in his own heart by peace of
conscience–honored in his own spirit by the conviction that it must be
wisdom to be right and true and honest–and that it can never be, under
any circumstances, right to do wrong, or wise to break a Divine
command. The highest policy a man can pursue, if he must pursue policy
at all, is never to deviate from the strict path of right. A straight
line is the shortest distance between any two places and the shortest
way to true happiness and prosperity is to do right though the heavens
should fall.

Such a man honoring his God among his brethren shall be honored by God
in the Church. If he has glorified God in the Church by his earnestness
and zeal and holy living, his brethren shall mark him and esteem him.
His godliness shall give him weight and influence. And though he may
always prefer to take the lowest place, yet shall he be had in honor of
them that sit at meals with him.

And in the world it shall be the same. I do not believe that a man
truly serves God without, in the long run, winning the esteem of his
fellow citizens. They burned such men of old, but when they burned
them, they still honored them, for all over this nation, when Popery
was in its prime and saints were persecuted, the country people sat at
their firesides and they talked of holy Master Taylor, or godly old
Latimer who had suffered for Christ's sale! Though they hardly dared
speak, for fear some spy would hear, yet they said what a shame it was
and they muttered to one another what a detestable religion that must
be which killed the saints of God! This kind of feeling went through
all the tradesmen of London and even affected the apprentices and
serving-men.

In country towns and villages everybody said, "What a horrible system
this must be which burns our pastors for preaching the Gospel!" Then,
all of a sudden, they shouted, "Down with it!" The fire, long
smothered, at last broke out and again they said of Popery, "Down with
it!" Away went crucifix and pyx and priest–the mass and the
mass-makers all went packing, as they had a right to do, for they never
brought good to England or to any other land which harbored them!
Indignation burned quietly in the land and though, for years, it
scarcely appeared, at last it found vent–and that thing was done for
which it were worth while for all of us to die and 10,000 more–Popery
went down and the Gospel went up! The Gospel of Christ was proclaimed
and the Bible was unchained that every man might read it! Brothers and

Sisters, you will be honored in your turn as those men are honored
today if, when the worst comes to the worst, you are found faithful as
they were!

Therefore stand to your guns! Stand to your guns if you die there, for
the Lord is coming! I see the banner, I mark the white horse, I hear
the Captain's voice. The trumpet rings out, "Behold, He comes!" Honored
shall that man be who stands with loins girt in his place in the
battle, in the day when the Captain is saluted as Conqueror all along
the line!

What will become of the sneaking coward in the day of Christ's
appearing? Where will the fearful stand, who did not dare to wear the
name of Christ for fear of being laughed at? Where will the
false-hearted be when the Lord Jesus flames forth in His majesty? Then
shall they ask the rocks to cover them and the mountains to fall upon
them to hide them from His face! Dastards that they were, they shall
not know where to fly.

Oh come, let us seek our Savior's face, tonight, by humble prayer and
holy faith! Let us bow before the redeeming Lord and yield ourselves to
Him–and then, from this day forward, let this be our one objective–to
crown Him with many crowns who left His crown for us and to honor God
who, in infinite mercy, has delivered us from going down into the Pit!
How I wish I might stir some young heart to give itself up to Christ
tonight! How I wish I might win some old heart for my Lord! Oh,
shipmate, you have had that black pirate flag flying at the masthead
long enough. Down with it, now, and sail under the blood-red Cross for
Christ and for God, tonight! Let all the old cargo be turned out and
the new be taken in. May the Lord make a clean sweep of everything that
is displeasing to Him and then come on board and take the helm and
steer you till He brings you to the port of Everlasting Peace!

"Who is on the Lord's side?" Who, that has not been on His side, will
enlist tonight? How is the enlisting to be managed? It is to be done as
all enlisting is done. In our army, they enlist a man by making him
take a shilling. You are not enlisted by giving anything, but by
receiving the King's money. Take Christ by faith. Receive Him! Stretch
out your hands. He shall be the earnest-money to you of the great
reward that God will give His saints in the day of His Glory when He
shall honor them and make them to "shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father." God bless you and may we meet at the right
hand of the Throne of God in the coming of the Lord. Amen.