The Secret of a Happy Life

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JULY 16, 1876,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I have set the Lord always before Me: because He is at My right hand,
I shall not be moved." Psalm 16:8.

IN the preceding verses we read, "The lines are fallen unto Me in
pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage." The speaker,
therefore, is a very contented and happy man. It is not the most usual
thing in the world to find persons extolling their lot and manifesting
a conspicuous emphasis of satisfaction. Far more common is it to hear
men surrounded with favors lamenting the hardness of their case!
Contented minds are almost as scarce as snowflakes in harvest. The man
who rejoices in his goodly heritage deserves attention and we shall do
well to learn his secret. How is it that he is able to feel so happy?
Let us seek out the way by which he arrived at this peace and discover
the silken clue which led him into such a bower of delight. Perhaps his
road may fit our feet and, by following it, we may become as perfectly
content as he was. O Lord and Giver of peace, help us in the search!

But, first, who is this person who is thus singularly content? To our
astonishment we find that the Spirit speaks here by prophecy in the
name and Person of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is He, who, by the Spirit,
here said, "The lines have fallen unto Me in pleasant places; yes, I
have a goodly heritage!" He was the "Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
grief." He was "despised and rejected of men." He had not where to lay
His head. He was often subject to hunger and thirst. He had few friends
and those proved faithless in the time of His extremity. So how could
He speak thus? All this is so much the more encouraging for us, because
if this most sorrowful of men, was, nevertheless, able to feel an
inward calm, a sweet contentment, then it must be possible for us to do
so whose lot is not so bitter!

We are not sent to make atonement for sin and, therefore, our sorrows
are few compared with our Lord's. There was a special reason for His
being distressed, for He took our griefs and carried our sorrows. But
no atoning griefs are demanded of us, nor have we afflictions to bear
from the hand of God as punishments for sin, for the Lord has laid all
these upon Him and we are clear. If the Lord Jesus, the Man of grief, a
mourner all His days, yet said the lines had fallen unto Him in
pleasant places and He had a goodly heritage, it must be the more
possible for us to rise to the same contentment if we follow His rules
and live according to His example.

What, then, is the secret of perfect peace and happiness here below?
The price is above rubies–where shall this be learned? The magic lamps
and wonderful rings of which children read in fairy stories are as
nothing in value compared with this true philosopher's stone, this
mystic secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him–by which
His saints are enabled to enjoy the peace of God which passes all
understanding–which keeps their hearts and minds by Jesus Christ. O
Prince of Peace, grant us this rest!

Our text clearly imparts to us the secret of the greatest happiness to
be found below the skies and, indeed, it reveals the hidden source of
those pleasures above which are at God's right hand forevermore. The
first part of the excellent method lies in always living in the Lord's
Presence–"I have set the Lord always before Me." The second is found
in always trusting in the Lord's Presence–"Because He is at My right
hand, I shall not be moved."

I. The secret, then, of peace, is, first, ALWAYS LIVING IN THE LORD'S
PRESENCE–"/ have set the Lord always before Me." We shall try, in
order to understand what this means, to keep our eyes upon the life of
Jesus and, at the same time, apply the text to the saints. Though this
passage is pre-eminently fulfilled in Jesus, yet since the members
partake of the nature of the Head, each one, in his own degree, who
does that which Jesus did and thereby obtains a holy joy and rest, may
enter into the joy of our Lord.

Does not our Lord Jesus bid us take His yoke upon us and learn of Him,
that we may find rest unto our souls? I take it that our text means
first, that we should make the Lord's Presence the greatest of all
facts to us. Of all things that are,

God chiefly /S, and we should regard Him in that light. It was so with
our Lord Jesus Christ. He, as a Man, was cognizant of the existence of
all the things that are seen, but even more did He recognize the
existence of God, who cannot be seen–that great Spirit who is alike
invisible and incomprehensible. How vividly the Presence of God must
have been realized by Christ at all times, for He was in the Father and
the Father in Him!

You and I have never seen and understood the Father in the same degree
as He did, though the Son has revealed Him to us. He entered into a
fuller and more constant recognition of God's Presence in all places
and things, than we, as yet, have done. Yet truly we have seen the
Father, for we have seen Jesus by faith. We have mounted up on wings as
eagles and with the eagle's eyes have looked the sun in the face and
have not been blinded! Is it not written, "The pure in heart shall see
God"? We have been taught to see God around us in all things that exist
and in all events that happen. And we bless the Lord that we live not
as those who are "without God in the world," that we are taught by the
Spirit to recognize our Father's loving, all-pervading Presence!

Yet I know we do not discern it so constantly, clearly and impressively
as our Lord Jesus did. He looked upon the mountains and the sunlight on
their brows was the smile of His Father. He saw the plains and their
harvests were His Father's bounty. To Him the waves of the sea were
tossed in tempest by His Father's breath, or calmed by His Father's
whisper. He fed the multitude, but it was with His Father's bread. He
healed the sick, but His Father did the works. In all things about Him,
He continually and distinctly recognized the active Presence of the
Most High. Other men remarked that the ravens were fed, but He said,
"Your heavenly Father feeds them." Other men noticed that the lilies
were fair to look upon, but He discerned that, "God so clothes the
grass of the field." The heavenly Father was in every place and in
every thing to Jesus.

Now, I pray our Lord to grant that by the blessed Spirit we may always
be sensitive of the Presence of God wherever we are. Is it not a sad
proof of the alienation of our nature that though God is everywhere, we
have to school ourselves to perceive Him anywhere? His are the beauties
of Nature. His the sunshine which is bringing on the harvest. His the
waving grain which cheers the farmer. His the perfume which loads the
air from multitudes of flowers. His the insects which glitter around us
like living gems! And yet the Creator and Sustainer of all these is far
too little perceived! Everything in the temple of Nature speaks of His
Glory, but our ears are dull of hearing. Everything, from the dewdrop
to the ocean, reflects the Deity, and yet we largely fail to see the
eternal brightness. I beseech you, my Brothers and Sisters, to pray
that you may have this text worked into your very souls–"I have set
the Lord always before Me."

Refuse to see anything without seeing God in it. Regard the creatures
as the mirror of the great Creator. Do not imagine that you have
understood His works till you have felt the Presence of the great
Worker, Himself. Do not reckon that you know anything till you know
that of God which lies within it, for that is the kernel which it
contains. Wake in the morning and recognize God in your chamber, for
His goodness has drawn back the curtain of the night and taken from
your eyelids the seal of sleep. Put on your garments and perceive the
Divine care which provides you with raiment from the herbs of the field
and the sheep of the fold.

Go to the breakfast room and bless the God whose bounty has, again,
provided for you a table in the wilderness. Go out to business and feel
God with you in all the engagements of the day. Always remember that
you are dwelling in His house when you are toiling for your bread or
engaged in merchandise. At length, after a well-spent day, go back to
your family and see the Lord in each one of the members of it!
Acknowledge His goodness in preserving life and health. Look for His
Presence at the family altar, making the house to be a palace wherein
king's children dwell. At last, fall asleep at night as in the embraces
of your God or on your Savior's breast. This is happy living!

The worldling forgets God, the sinner dishonors Him, the atheist denies
Him, but the Christian lives in Him! "In Him we live and move and have
our being; we are also His offspring." Visible things we look upon as
shadows. The things which we touch and taste and handle, perish in the
using. The elements of this solid earth shall dissolve with fervent
heat, but the ever-present God, whom we cannot see, is the same, and of
His years there is no end, and His existence is the only real and true
and eternal one to us. He has been our dwelling place in all
generations and it were evil, indeed, not to know our own eternal home.
This is a main ingredient in the oil of joy–to always realize that the
Lord is round about us "as the mountains are round about Jerusalem,
from now on even for evermore."

Secondly, the words of the text signify the making of God's Glory the
one object of our lives. As a prize is set before the runners in a
race, so the Believer's heart sets God's Glory before it as the prize
for which the race of life is run. It was even

so with our dear Redeemer–from the first to the last He set the Lord
always before Him as the object of His life on earth. Do you ever find
in Him a selfish motive? Is He ever moved by any groveling ambition? Is
He not always seeking the good of men and, by that means, the Glory of
God? While yet a youth He goes up to the temple, not to display His
precocity, nor, like other children, to gratify Himself with the
admiration heaped upon Him for His early wisdom, but He says, "Know you
not that I must be about My Father's business?"

In later days, when He has been anointed to His work, He sits by a well
and takes His rest. A woman comes and converses with Him, but He speaks
upon no idle theme–He talks to her of the Living Water, seeks her soul
to save it and then tells His disciples that He has meat to eat that
they know not of–for it was His meat and His drink to do the will of
Him that sent Him. He presses forward with changeless intensity of
purpose towards the completion of the work which the Father had
committed to Him.

You see Him present at a wedding, or meeting a funeral procession, but
He is found, in both cases, aiming at God's Glory. If you find Him
battling with the crowd, or in the chamber, shut in with two or three
raising the dead. If you read of His prayers upon the lone
mountainside, or listen to His groans in the Garden of Gethsemane,
still, evermore–this one thing He does–He glorifies His Father on the
earth. Despising shame and trampling under foot the world's honor, He
lives to God and to God, alone. Not sometimes and now and then, or as
the general aggregate of His life is He found setting God before
Himself, but always and without exception! In every thought, in every
word, in every deed, God was before Him and He lived for God.

Oh, that we could reach to this–whether we eat or drink, or whatever
we do, we would do all to the Glory of God! Oh, that we never dared to
do what would dishonor the name of God! Oh, that we walked in all
things so as to please Him who loved us and gave Himself for us! I am
sure, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you have aimed at this, though you
may have fallen far short of your desire, yet in such a path you have
found peace unto your souls. This is the king's highway, the way of
holiness where no lion shall be found! To know that God is present and
to live, by His Grace, wholly to please Him–this is the way of great
pleasantness–take care that you keep therein! Never do anything which
would dishonor the holy name with which you are called! Leave nothing
undone, however hard to the flesh, which would serve the cause of God
and so you shall be like your Lord and become partakers of His peace.
This is the mode of life by which a man shall have foretastes of the
feasts of Heaven while yet in this wilderness world–may the Holy
Spirit lead us into it!

A further meaning of setting the Lord always before us is to live so
that the Presence of God shall be the rule and support of our
obedience. So Jesus did. You know right well that to many servants the
master's eye is most important in order to make them careful and
industrious. How many are eye-servers and men pleasers? Take away the
master's eye and how slowly the labor drags along–how often is it
slurred over in a slovenly manner–or left undone altogether? The old
proverb declares that the master's eyes do more than both his hands and
it is too sadly true! Yet it is not wrong to say that our Master's eyes
ought to have a great influence over the servants of God. "Behold, as
the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the
eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon
the Lord our God."

Beloved, how would you live if God were seen looking on? He is looking
on! So live. Suppose that in some action of tomorrow you were specially
warned–"The Lord will carefully observe you. The Omniscient will fix
all His thoughts upon you and detect your motives and scan your spirit,
as well as weigh the deed, itself." If you had such a revelation, how
would you act? So should you act at all times, for it is always true.
"You, God, see me" is an exclamation for every moment of day and night!
Can you put your finger upon any part of Christ's life and say, "He
forgot that the Father beheld Him in this act"? Is not the whole of
Christ's life such a picture that God Himself looked at every line and
tint of it with infinite admiration? Have you not, yourself, traversed
the gallery of the Savior's life, and pausing at each picture and
scene, been filled with amazement and led to exclaim, "He has done all
things well!"?

When your mind has been most devout and most holy, have you not more
than ever admired every little trait in your Savior's Character, every
separate feature of every action of His life, whether public or
private? The Father was always with Him and He always did those things
which pleased Him. Oh, Beloved, would to God that your obedience were
in like manner measured out under the profound consciousness that the
great God is watching you in all that you do! He has beset you behind
and before, and laid His hands upon you. If you take the wings of the
morning and fly to the utter-

most parts of the sea, He is there! Even darkness hides not from Him.
Everything that you have done has been enacted in the Presence of your
heavenly Father!

Have you felt this? Ah, when you dishonored the Lord Jesus He was,
Himself, looking on. He to whom belong those pierced hands heard your
cowardly words and saw your traitorous acts. He gazed in wondering
sorrow at you, His Friend, betraying Him. When you mingled with the
ungodly world and was as one of them, He, too, was there, and now He
shows you His wounds and sorrowfully exclaims, "These are the wounds
which I received in Your place, the place of My Friend." The blows of
friends smite in a tender place! Their wounds are the cruelest that can
be received, for enemies pierce sharply, but friends stab with poisoned
daggers! When we bring dishonor upon Him whom we profess to love, it is
dishonor, indeed! Oh, how much would be left undone and, on the other
hand, how much more of another kind would be diligently executed, if in
very deed we set the Lord always before us!

Not yet, however, have we completely expounded our text. The words must
also mean that we are to set the Lord before us as the Source from
which we are to derive solace and comfort under every trial. Jesus
could say, "I have set the Lord always before Me," for this, it was,
that made Him suffer poverty and never complain. This, it was, that
made Him encounter shame and spitting and yet remain dumb with wondrous
patience, like a sheep before her shearers. You never hear our Lord cry
out until His Father's face is hidden from Him. Then, indeed, He cries,
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" When, because of His
standing as our Surety, God Himself withdrew the manifestation of His
favor, then His pangs were bitter and His grief was overflowing–but
you and I will never have to bear the same.

God forsook Him that He might never forsake us. You shall always find
the Lord near in the day of trouble and, therefore, if ever you have a
Gethsemane, and the bitter cup cannot be passed from you except you
drink it, you shall set the Lord before you and in that cheering
Presence you shall be able to say, "Not as I will, but as You will,"
and patiently drink your appointed cup even to the dregs. Are you
saying today, "How much I wish that I had more of the comforts of life,
but my means are sadly scant and I am very sick and very heavy in
spirit"? Your Savior was tempted in all points just as you are, but He
set the Lord always before Him and, therefore, He was content and said,
"The Lord is My portion, said My soul, therefore will I hope in Him.
The lines are fallen unto Me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly
heritage."

Let all else go, my Brothers and Sisters, for if God is with you, you
will still be upheld. Let friends die, one after another, and let
earthly comforts fade like autumn leaves, but if you set the Lord
always before you–there is such a fullness of joy in every attribute
of God, there is such a Heaven in every glimpse of Jesus' face, there
is such overwhelming bliss in every drop of Jehovah's everlasting
love–you shall not fail nor be discouraged, but you shall sing His
praises even in the fiercest fire! To you He will say, "Fear not, I am
with you; be not dismayed, I am your God. When you pass through the
rivers I will be with you, the floods shall not overflow you. When you
go through the fires you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame
kindle upon you." The Presence of God makes even death delightful!
"Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for You are with me." Thus you see that setting the Lord
always before us ensures us never ceasing consolation.

Yet, further, these words mean that we are to hold perpetual communion
with God. When Jesus said, "I have set the Lord always before Me," He
meant that He was always in fellowship with the Father. Very frequently
the fellowship was exercised in prayer, for our Lord, though He is
described as praying very much, no doubt prayed infinitely more than
any Evangelist has recorded, for He was praying when no one knew it but
Himself and His God, when even His lips did not move. His public
prayer, or the prayer which could be observed by others, was made
manifest for our sakes and their sakes who stood with Him, but it was
only a cropping up upon the surface of the great rock of prayer which
laid the foundation of His holy living. Right well did He say, when at
the grave of Lazarus, "And I know that You hear Me always: but because
of the people which stand by, I said it."

He was always talking with the Father, who was, indeed, the only One
upon whom He could cast Himself. What consolation could He gather from
Peter and James and John? He was like a father with a number of little
children around Him who could not so much as understand their father's
troubles, much less support Him under them! As our Lord was always in
sacred fellowship with God, He had great sorrow from beholding the sin
of mankind, knowing, as He did, how grievous it was to God! He would
mourn before His Father, the people's sin, but continue, still, to
intercede, praying all His life as He prayed at last, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." Thus was He at all times in
deepest sympathy with the God of Love.

I doubt not that our Lord often spoke with the Father in the form of
praise, for while, on one occasion, it is only recorded that He
rejoiced, yet doubtless He rejoiced evermore in God. How could His pure
Nature do otherwise than joy in the Lord? His whole heart and soul and
mind ran in one line with the mind of God! I am, of course, now
speaking of Him as Man and as Man His heart was in perfect harmony with
the heart of God–there was nothing in Him contrary to the will and
design of the Father–His whole human nature was carried along in a
parallel course with the mind of the Most High and, therefore, that is
why He was always at peace.

Oh, Brothers and Sisters, may God grant us Grace to commune constantly
with Himself! Prayer should not be a matter of mornings and evenings,
alone, but all day our spirit should commune with God! Father, You are
so near us and yet how slow we are to speak to You! Teach us, Your
children, to be always talking with You so that while we walk on earth
our conversation may be in Heaven! The Lord grant us to hold holy
commerce with Heaven, hearing what God, the Lord, will speak, and
speaking to Him in return. Be it ours to hear the Words of the inspired
Book and to regard the advice of the gracious Spirit! And then may our
spirit, in its turn, speak with God and make known its requests unto
Him. I hope you will be reaching out towards this by the Divine
anointing of the Holy Spirit. For this is the grand secret, the sure
foundation of a happy life. Perpetual communion with God is the highest
state of joy which can be known on earth! Learn to say truthfully," I
have set the Lord always before me," and you have the Lord's secret!

Once again upon this point, dear Friends. If we are to be happy, we
must follow this life of nearness to God because of our delight in it
and from the joy which we feel in it. Indeed, such a life cannot be
lived in any other manner. Mere duty and law cannot operate here. If
any man shall say, "What a dreary affair this communion with God must
be! How dull must be this walking continually with God!" then I reply,
your speech betrays you–you have not the first essentials of such a
life–neither can you so much as guess what it means. Indeed, I am not
talking to you at all, it would be useless to press such a theme upon
you! Excuse me, you know nothing of the spiritual life, nothing of what
it is to be a child of God, or else communion would not be despised by
you! You must be born again and, till you are born again, such
exhortations as these which I am now giving will not apply to you at
all.

Does some mere professor sneeringly enquire, "What? Are we always to
live to God's Glory and are we to do nothing but what would glorify
Him? This is laying down very straight rules and making the road to
Heaven very narrow, indeed." Do you think so, Friend? Then I will tell
you plainly my solemn suspicion about you–I am persuaded that you do
not know the Lord, for if you did, the way of holiness would be your
delight and you would not ask for license to sin. I can understand your
sinning, but I cannot understand your finding pleasure in it if you are
a real Christian! The pleasures of the world are, to a true Believer,
as the husks which the swine eat. And if you find them to be good bread
for your soul, then assuredly you are none of His!

The hogs may be satisfied with hogs' food, for Providence meant it for
them, but the child of God, even when he is a prodigal, cannot be
satisfied so! He would gladly fill his belly with the husks, but it is
impossible that he should thus be satisfied. I am sure if you are the
Lord's, you will look upon living near to God and delighting in Him,
not as being a severe task, or a weariness, but as a luxury and a
delightful privilege after which your soul hungers and thirsts. You
will say with David, "My soul pants for God, for the living God: when
shall I come and appear before God?" To you the choicest place is that
which is nearest to your Lord, though it may be in the dust of
contempt, or in the furnace of affliction. It is your ambition to be
subdued by the Lord Jesus unto Himself, most completely, and then to
be, from now on, the place of His abode, the instrument for His use
and, best of all, the object of His love! I would dwell in the house of
the Lord forever, as a child at home, considering the present world to
be a lower room of that house and Heaven above as the upper story of
the same abode. The Presence of God is our bliss!

Now, is there anything about our Lord's life which looks like being
under restraint, or being compelled to act otherwise than He would have
wished? Can you suspect in His whole career that He was, at any time,
acting against His inclination? Was His life constrained and unnatural?
Did He walk like a man in irons? Did He live as one pressed into the
army of the righteous, denied pleasures which would have been His
choice and forced to forms of piety which were distasteful to Him? Not
at all! Christ is a free man, living out His inmost, following His
heart's best desires. You can see that wherever He is, He acts
according to His Nature and is as free in what He does as the fish are
free in the sea, or the birds in the air!

Now, such is the Christian in this matter of setting the Lord always
before him. He acts not of constraint but willingly, for the Lord has
given him a nature which delights in that which God delights in. He
does not say, "Woe is me, I am caged like a bird! My life is so precise
and Puritanical that I am weary of it." No, he says, "if I had these
worldly joys, and might indulge in them, there is nothing in them to
please me. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Others are saying, 'Who
will show us any good?' But my one petition is, 'Lord, lift up the
light of Your Countenance upon me.'" He says, "Let others do as they
will, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The
Christian is never so free as when he is most under Law to Christ! He
is never so much himself as when he denies himself, and never so
delighted as when he delights himself in the Lord and lives only for
the Glory of God!

Now, if such is the case with you, dear Brothers and Sisters, you have
learned the secret of joy. The text may be read in the Hebrew, "I have
set the Lord equally before Me," that is equally at all times. He
speaks of the solitary night watches and then His reins instructed Him,
for He was with God. In the morning He exclaims, "When I awake I am
still with You." We are to have the Lord equally before us under all
circumstances–in our business pursuits as well as in Prayer Meetings
and hearings of sermons–in seasons of recreation as well as in hours
of devotion–in the day of health as well as in the hour of death. If
you break the chain of communion by going where you cannot expect to
have the Lord's Presence, or doing what the Lord cannot sanction, the
broken link can be restored, but it will always show the rivets.

You may lose your roll like Christian in the arbor and you may go back
and find it, again, but it is very hard going back over the same
ground. And after going back, it is difficult to take to the onward
path again. The hardest part of the road to Heaven is that which has to
be traversed three times–once when you go over it at first, a second
time when you have to return with weeping to find your lost
evidences–and then again when you have to make up for lost time.
Backsliding causes unhappiness, but abiding with God creates peace like
a river, flowing on and on in one long-continued stream. Dear Friends,
here is the method of a blissful life! Try it, and the result is
certain!

II. I will speak very briefly upon the second head. The second part of
the secret follows upon the first–that is TRUSTING ALWAYS IN THE
LORD'S PRESENCE. Here is confidence in God–"Because He is at My right
hand, I shall not be moved." Here is confidence that God is near us.
Confidence that God loves us, for He is not only near us, but in the
place of friendly fellowship. And here is confidence that God will
practically help us, for the right hand is the dexterous hand, the hand
which does the work, and thus God is near unto His people with
practical assistance to sustain and to deliver them. How blessed it
must be to feel that we have nothing to be afraid of in all the world,
for God stands at our right hand to take care of us whatever may
happen.

David says, and Christ says through David, "I shall not be moved," that
is, first, I shall not be moved with any regret or remorse as to the
past. Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if we have set the Lord always before
us, we can sit down and meditate upon our course of action and it will
bear reflection! The man who knows that he has lived as in the sight of
God will not have to wish that he had never been born. On the contrary,
he will bless the Lord at all times for all that happens to him. Christ
had many sorrows, but no regrets. What a life was His! He never had to
look back upon a single act and repent of it. All was done with the
Lord before Him and He was not moved.

A lady once told a minister that she was attending the theater, and she
remarked, "There are so many pleasures connected with seeing a play.
There is the pleasure of anticipation before you go. There is the
pleasure of enjoying it when you are there. And there is the third
pleasure of reflecting upon it afterwards." The good man replied, "Ah,
Madam, there is another pleasure which you have not mentioned and that
is the comfort it will afford you upon a dying bed." The irony was well
deserved. I may mention this as being the greatest recommendation of
setting the Lord always before you–that it will bear reflection and
yield comfort amid sickness and death!

If, by Divine Grace, you are able to live a life of unbroken communion
with God, constantly having an eye to His Presence, you will not have
to mourn over a misspent life. Your retrospect will be full of
pleasure. As for sin, that is already covered by the blood of Christ
and, besides that, you will have been kept from a thousand snares by
having the fear of God always before your eyes. And so, in reviewing
the past, you shall not be moved with bitter remorse. Many things which
we now do, we may have to lament in the future, though now we think we
are acting very wisely and well. But if the Lord is always before us,
our steps will be established because they are ordered by the Lord.
Even if you make a mistake as to policy, you will be comforted by the
knowledge that it was a fault of your judgment and not of your heart,
if, indeed, you desired to serve the Lord.

Beloved, it is well for us to live near God that we may not be moved
from our consistency in the way of true religion. There are many
professors whose lives are jerky–they are walking with God, after a
fashion, today, but soon they wander into crooked paths. Then they
begin again, but before long they start aside as a deceitful bow. Like
Reuben, they are unstable as water and do not excel. In our Lord's life
there is no break, it is one continuous harmony. The unities are
observed in His grand career, it is like His garment–without seam and
woven from the top throughout. Now, Brothers and Sisters, if you set
the Lord always before you, you will not be moved, but your path will
be like that of the sun in the heavens, rising from dawn till noon!

Setting the Lord before us prevents our being moved with terror. It is
said of the Believer, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His
heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." The Believer is not moved with
staggering fear. A great trouble is coming upon him, but he has set the
Lord before him, and he is not cast down. If like Jesus, Himself, he is
for the moment swayed with exceedingly great sorrow, yet does he say,
"What time I am afraid I will trust in You," and when he prays he is
heard in that he feared. Such a man is not moved by temptation so as to
be swept into surprising sin. If I set the Lord always before me, I
shall not be carried away by a sudden temptation. It is when you are
off your guard that sin comes and you fall.

You speak unadvisedly, you get into a hot temper, you make sad havoc of
your Christian life–and all because your eyes were off your Lord. If
you could but have known that the trial was coming, you would have been
protected against it. And if you had set the Lord always before you,
you would have been prepared for the world, the flesh and the devil–
and shielded from every fiery dart of the Evil One. Let us dwell in God
and He will be a wall of fire round about us. He will keep us every
moment, lest any hurt us. He will keep us night and day. Thus you will
not be moved so as to fall into failure at the last. You must all have
felt the dread lest, after all, at the end of life it should turn out
that you are not saved. Have you not feared that you have deceived
yourselves and were not converted when you thought you were?

What if it should turn out to be so? What will you do when the bubble
of false hope shall burst? Ah, but if you set the Lord always before
you, you shall not be moved by that fear, for you will know that your
Redeemer lives! You will have such a consciousness of the Divine
Presence that you will commit your departing spirit unto God as to a
faithful Creator! You will not be afraid to die, for as Jesus said, "My
flesh, also, shall rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in
Hell; neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption." So will
you say, "My flesh, also, shall rest in hope, for You will not leave my
soul in Hell, and though I see corruption as to my body, yet shall I be
raised in incorruption in the likeness of my Lord, for I know that my
next of kin lives and though after my skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall behold for myself, and
not another." Oh, the joy of thus abiding in God and trusting in His
present power–having the Lord at your right hand–and then abiding in
calm assurance that you cannot be moved!

Just four things and I have done. First, to any of you who are unhappy.
Some of you are not Christian people, but altogether of the world. You
are not happy and yet I dare say you have a great many things to make
you so. You are placed in easy circumstances where you can enjoy
yourselves as much as you like. The sorriest thing in the world to
enjoy is yourself! I can enjoy other people better than I can myself.
To enjoy yourself needs a very depraved appetite, for selfishness is
sordid and, like the serpent, has dust appointed to be its meat. If you
think that you will find pleasure in worldli-ness, I should like you to
remember one who tried that method very thoroughly.

I mean Solomon of old, who had all the wealth a heart could wish and
all the wisdom a brain could hold–and yet was both poor and foolish!
He ransacked the world for joy, but found it not. At one time he gave
all his thoughts to architecture and built splendid palaces. And after
he had built them all, he said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." He
took to his books and studied very hard, but after he had poured over
them a long time, he said, "Of making many books there is no end; and
much study is a weariness of the flesh."

He tried singing men and singing women, and the peculiar delights of
kings, but when he had enjoyed himself in this manner to the utmost
possibilities of human nature, he said, "Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity." He planted gardens and laid out water courses and practiced
engineering. He inclined, at one time, to the pleasures of a fool, and
soon he was eager in the nobler pursuits of a wise man! Sometimes he
was sober with science and at other seasons he was excited with
laughter–he tried everything and found all earthly joy to be as
deceitful as the apples of Sodom which are fair to look upon but turn
to ashes in the hand.

Nothing beneath the skies and nothing above the skies can make any man
happy apart from God, search as you will! Apart from God you may make a
Hell, but you cannot make a Heaven, do what you please! Oh, I beseech
you, unhappy man, if you have grown weary of the world and are sick of
everything–if you are in the sere and yellow leaf though not 40 years
of age–remember that there is a place where your leaf can be made
green! If you will set the Lord always before you, you shall find peace
in Him.

And, next, I may be addressing some who think themselves perfectly
happy in the world. I confess I do not envy you, but still, I like to
hear you sing your song and tell the tale of what bliss the world
affords. Yet note on what frail pillars this fairy palace of yours is
erected! You are healthy, that is at the bottom of it–your bodily
frame is in good order and you are merry. But suppose you should fall
sick? Or suppose those few gray hairs should, before long, be
multiplied, where only lie your mirth? Or if your wealth should take to
itself wings and fly away–what then? Or if you come before the Lord in
judgement, what then? Oh, Sir, let this frail foundation go! It is not
meet to rest your eternal hopes upon! You are like a little child
building his little sand house by the seaside! The tide is coming up, O
child, leave your sand and flee from the waves! There is a Rock on
which you may build a house eternal with massive stones, a palace of
happiness that never shall be dissolved! Go there!

Now, you Christian people, if any of you are unhappy, I wish I could
preach you out of it by reminding you of this test, but, as I cannot, I
leave you in the hands of the Holy Spirit. If you draw near to God, you
will be as happy as the days are long in midsummer! Your doubts and
fears will flee and you will be as merry as birds of the air! And you
happy Christians, you of the bright eyes and the elastic footsteps, you
can be happier, still, by coming yet nearer to God and abide in fuller
communion with Him. And though you are already singing–

"How happy is the pilgrim's lot," you shall be yet more blessed if you
become more obedient, more submissive to the Divine will, more in
sympathy with Jesus and more abidingly in communion with the Father.
This is Heaven below! God grant it to you for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 16. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–16, 708.

Adapted from The C.H. Spurgeon Collection, Ages Software,
1.800.297.4307.
__________________________________________________________________

Fat Things, Full of Marrow