The Sphere Of Instrumentality

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 26, 1872,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Jesus said, Take away the stone." John 11:39.

"Jesus said to them, Loose him, and let him go." John 11:44.

THERE lay Lazarus in the grave, dead. His restoration to life was
utterly hopeless upon any ordinary principles. Certainly Lazarus could
not raise himself! His affectionate sisters could not, with all their
weeping, give him a resurrection nor could the disciples call back the
departed spirit and reanimate the decaying corpse. If was a hopeless
case, for who could revive a dead man who had lain in the grave so long
that he had begun to stink?

This is a parallel case with that of every unconverted sinner in the
world. He is dead in trespasses and sins–not a little sick or somewhat
wounded, or in a swooning fit–but spiritual death reigns over him. The
sinner never gives life to himself. The thing is inconceivable. There
are persons who imagine that the natural will of man sometimes inclines
towards good, but, alas, this flattering supposition is far from the
fact. Jesus said, "You will not come unto Me, that you might have
life." Neither will they come, now, any more than they did then! Until
we see dead men raising themselves, we do not expect to meet with
sinners who have spontaneously and without Divine assistance turned
themselves towards righteousness.

Neither can relatives or friends regenerate the soul in which they take
an interest, nor can the most earnest ministers bestow the quickening
spirit. Those whom God has blessed in other instances are yet quite
powerless in any fresh case unless the same power shall again be put
forth through them. Death is a terrible picture of our natural state,
but it is by no means an exaggerated one. The whole world lies before
us as a valley of dry bones, according to Ezekiel's vision, and if ever
the dry bones are to live, it will not be through an energy innate
within themselves nor through a power resident in the most zealous of
men, nor through any might which even a Prophet could exert apart from
God.

Education cannot develop life out of death. Persuasion cannot excite
it. Reasoning cannot infuse it–the Divine arm must be revealed, or the
case is past hope. Jesus must come to the tomb of Lazarus and His voice
must cry, "Lazarus, come forth," or else the corpse shall remain
inanimate and increase in putrefaction. All that can be done by mortal
man may be done, but nothing will be effected unless Jesus, who is the
Resurrection and the Life, shall speak the quickening word! In His
Omnipotent voice lies the power, but only there.

Now, let this be taken as a plain statement of our belief as to the
Lord's work in salvation, and taken without any mitigation or dilution.
We believe that in every case, salvation is of the Lord alone and
altogether! Regeneration is a supernatural work. Man must be born-again
from above–any power short of that from Heaven will be ineffectual.
The new creation is as much and entirely the work of God as the old
creation–

"Can anything beneath a power Divine

The stubborn will subdue?

'Tis Your Eternal Spirit, Yours

To form the heart anew.

To chase the shades of death a way,

And bid the sinner live!

A beam of Heaven, a vital ray

'Tis Yours alone to give."

And, having said this, we proceed to bear witness that what can be done
by us ought to be done, since what can be done by man will not be done
by Christ. It is a rule with our Lord never to work needless miracles.
Indeed, He only

begins the miraculous when the ordinary means can go no further. He
follows the ordinary up to its verge, and then the extraordinary comes
in. If a multitude are to be fed, so long as there are barley loaves
and fishes to be had, Jesus will use them. He will multiply them and
make them go further than they naturally could, but He will use them as
far as they will go. Had there been neither loaf nor fish I do not
doubt He would have commenced with an act of creation, but as it was,
since there were a few loaves and fishes, He does not ignore them, but
makes them the basis of a work of multiplication.

What a man can do for himself God will not do for him, and what
Christian people can do for sinners they must not expect the Lord to
do–they must work themselves according to the ability God has given
them up to the point of possibility–and then they may look for Divine
interposition. Observe in this instance that there was a stone before
the mouth of the cave in which Lazarus was interred. Could not our Lord
have removed that stone with a word? Could not He have said, "Be you
removed, O stone," and it would have been done?

Yes, He could have consumed the stone with a glance if He had so
minded. But He did not choose to do so, because the bystanders were
quite competent to take away the stone. Therefore He said to them,
"Take away the stone." And when Lazarus was raised, when he had come
forth from the niche in which his friends had laid him, he was
enshrouded with the cerements of the tomb. Rolls of linen were about
his body, and a napkin wrapped around his head–and Jesus did not, by
Divine power, remove the vestments of the grave.

It would have been, if miracles may be compared, a smaller miracle to
loose the living with a word than it was to quicken the dead, but since
it could be done without a miracle, it must be done without a miracle.
And Jesus said to those who stood by, "Loose him, and let him go." The
analogy teaches us that there are some things which we can do for the
unconverted, and we are bound to do them–and there are certain other
things in which we can aid those who are newly converted–and these we
should hasten to perform. While we look alone to the life-giving Lord
to quicken the soul, we do not fold our arms in indifference or excuse
ourselves from all effort upon the ground of inability–we are on the
watch to see where instrumentality is applicable, and ready at all
times to be made useful wherever we can be.

We cannot turn the dry bones into living men, but we can prophesy to
them, and, blessed be God, we can also prophesy to the four winds and
so, by our means, the dead may live! The sphere of human action in
connection with regeneration is my subject this morning. Help us, O
Divine Spirit! First, there are some things which we can do for the
unconverted before they are quickened. He said, "Take away the stone."
Secondly, there are some things which we can do for them after they
have been quickened. He said, "Loose him, and let him go."

I. First, then, dear Brethren, THERE ARE SOME THINGS WHICH WE CAN DO
FOR THE UNCONVERTED

BEFORE THEIR QUICKENING. I am sure, if our hearts are right, all that
can be done we are most anxious to do. Jesus Christ is our Model, and
observe how He labored in the work of blessing the sons of men! In this
case He took a long journey. He wept. He groaned. He was troubled in
spirit. He prayed and then He spoke with a loud voice. True picture of
what every Christian should be, and especially every Christian
minister. We should journey after souls! We should weep over their
ruined estate! We should groan for them and be troubled at heart on
their account! We should be incessant in our prayers and when God
speaks through us to the awaking of the dead, it should not be with
unearnest tones, but with a voice tender with love and vehement with
zeal.

We are to be imitators of Christ in this. We ought to throw our whole
heart into the blessed work which He honors us to do in His name.
Brethren, all of us can do for the ungodly what the sisters did for
their brother. Mary and Martha called in the Master to minister to
their sorrow. Being well-assured when their brother was ill that they
had no more sympathizing or able Friend in all the world than the
Master whom they loved, they sent a message to Jesus. And though they
did not send another afterwards, yet I doubt not they felt that the one
sufficed. So you and I ought, in the case of all the unconverted over
whom our spirit yearns, to call the Savior to the rescue. Let us send a
message to Him about them.

You may word it in some such terms as these–"O Lord, I grieve to tell
you that my dear child is still unsaved." Or thus–"Lord, You know Your
servant's heart breaks because my wife, or my husband, is still
unconverted." Or, you may put it thus–"O Savior, You know that in my
Sunday school class the children are not yet brought to You." Or, I may
send it as my message–"My God, You know I have preached to many of
these people for many years, and yet they still remain unmoved and
abide strangers to You." We must earnestly intercede with the Lord for
souls! Jesus is the Wonderworker. He is the Resurrection and the Life,
and our wisdom is to lay hold upon His strength and beseech Him to
reveal His saving might!

In addition to this we must, then, express our confident faith in
Jesus, that even now whatever He will ask of God, God will give it to
Him. We must believe that He is able to raise the spiritually dead. We
must never allow ourselves to despair of any person, since the matter
is in the hands of an Almighty Savior. Though the sinner by this time
stinks and has become immoral, as well as unholy, yet it is not too
late to ask the Lord Jesus to work. We ought never to say of any
person, "It would be vain for us to labor for his conversion, he is so
vicious as to be incapable of Divine Grace." We are not thus to
forestall man's condemnation, but rather to obey the Master's message
and go into all the world with good news for every creature, for the
Gospel is without limitation when it declares, "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." Beloved, have faith in the Lord Jesus! Tell
Him how desperate the case is for you, but say to Him, "Lord, it is not
impossible with You." Assure Him that while you feel yourself to have
no power, you are sure that one single word from Him will accomplish
all that your soul desires. Now, every Believer can do this–God
helping us we can repair by faith to the Lord Jesus.

But our first text indicates yet more clearly the line of our capacity.
Jesus employed others in the rolling away of the stone. You cannot make
the dead live, but you can take the stone away from the mouth of their
sepulcher. Let us speak of certain stones which we should, with all
diligence, remove. The first is the stone of ignorance. This heavy
weight lies at the mouth of many a spiritual grave at this day. I think
we take for granted too high an attainment of knowledge among the
people at this present time. I am sure that many sermons are preached
to people as though they perfectly understood the plan of salvation,
whereas, if the preacher did but know his hearers better, he would
discover that even upon the elements of the Gospel of Christ many of
them are deplorably ignorant.

In fact, I fear that the elementary truths of Christianity are not
preached sufficiently often because too much is taken for granted. It
is to be feared that the alphabet of the Gospel is unknown to thousands
whose teachers are trying to instruct them in the classics of
theology–a waste of effort and a dangerous experiment. Why, in this
city of London you shall find persons who frequent Protestant places of
worship who yet believe in salvation by their own works and are
horrified at justification by faith! You shall discover, if you go
among the masses, an indifference to salvation so great as to be
appalling, and this originates largely in ignorance. Salvation? Why
thousands do not know what you mean by the term, and here, in this
century of light and advancement as we boastfully call it, gross
darkness covers the minds of a large proportion of our countrymen!

Brethren, the time has not come for you to cease distributing the most
plain tracts. The time has not arrived for you to be silent at the
street corners even upon the first principles of the faith. You must
still proclaim Atonement by the sacrifice of Christ, and the simple
doctrine of Justification by Faith. Possibly there may come an age when
it will be wise to expatiate mainly upon the deep things of God, but
for this present distress we may wisely give our whole strength to
telling out the foundation fact–that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Our sermons must repeat times out of number the story
of the Cross.

The hymns most commonly sung should be of the same order as–"Rock of
ages, cleft for me." "Jesus, lover of my Soul." "Come, you sinners,
poor and wretched." and "Just as I am, without one plea." We have even
need of such simple ditties as–"I do believe, I will believe, that
Jesus died for me." For upon that point ignorance and unbelief still
cloud the mass of the people among whom we dwell. Let not the people be
destroyed for lack of knowledge! Let none go down to Hell because they
know not of a Savior. Let me say here that even with those who have
heard the Gospel well preached, this ignorance may still remain–as it
did in my own case.

I believe if I had known that all I had to do was to look to Christ and
I should live. If I had really understood that there was nothing for me
to be, nor feel, nor do–but I had only to rest in a finished work and
take from God's mercy that which Christ had completed–I think if I had
known that Truth of God, I should have found peace with God much
earlier. But I did not understand the Gospel, and therefore remained in
distress of mind. Do, then, tell everybody about Jesus! Tell them of
the Son of God made flesh! Tell them about Substitution! Speak the word
plainly. Tell them–

"He bore that we might never bear His Father's righteous ire."

Assure them that whoever believes in Him is not condemned, and that to
believe is to trust. Open up that word, for even plain and simple words
get to be technical and men dream that there is some other meaning in
them than that which they

ordinarily have. You cannot put the Gospel too plainly, but anyway, put
it before them, and then roll away this stone from the mouth of the
sepulcher.

Alas, a second stone is often there, namely that of absolute error. The
mind without knowledge is not good, for if we sow not wheat, weeds will
assuredly spring up. Men ignorant of God's righteousness always go
about to establish their own righteousness in some way or other.
Thousands think that if they are sober, honest, upright, and so on,
they have done all that is required of them. They assume at least a
little spice of attendance at Church or Chapel, and just a little
addition of religious ceremonies may eke out any deficiencies of their
practice. And, certainly, to call in a clergyman or minister when they
shall lie dying, and to have prayers said or read to them will complete
the structure which they have themselves begun.

Brothers and Sisters, this great stone covers many an Englishman's
grave! Seek to roll it away! Bear your own personal protest against the
idea that the Law of God will ever be satisfied by an imperfect
obedience. Teach men that God's commandments are exceedingly broad,
that they deal with the thoughts and intents of the heart as well as
with men's outward actions. And when they see this, perhaps they will
perceive the impossibility of ever keeping the Law of God and they will
leave off attempting to work out salvation by an obedience of their
own. Show them plainly, lovingly, tenderly–but honestly–that by the
works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified, for by the Law is
the knowledge of sin.

You know well, my Brethren, that there are attempts made continually to
place a huge stone of error over men's minds in the form of
Sacramentarianism. Regeneration, to what do they degrade it? They make
it a ceremony in which drops of water effect marvels! Feeding upon
Christ, what is that with these men? It is nothing but the eating of
bread and drinking of wine. They put ceremonial foolishnesses into the
place of spiritual truths! They steal the substance, and, as a
substitute they do not even give us so fair a shadow as that of the
days of Moses! They give a mere smoke–a shade of a shade, rather
blinding to the eyes than suggestive to the mind–and yet myriads of
our fellow men are quite content with such vanities! They suppose that
there is some mystic efficacy in outward rites. Tell them, oh, tell
them, that–

"Not all the outward forms of earth,

Nor rites that God has given, or will of man,

Nor blood, nor birth,

Can raise a soul to Heaven."

Declare the need of Divine Grace and the uselessness of outward show.
Point out the spirituality of acceptable worship and the childishness
of ritualism. You will have done good service if you roll away this
huge obstruction.

Very frequently the sepulcher of men's souls is closed up by the stone
of prejudice. Men cannot really find anything faulty in Christ Jesus,
or in His Gospel, but still they will persist in stumbling at this
stumbling stone. They invent reasons for declining the Gospel
invitation. They prejudge the Revelation of God and make up their minds
that it is unworthy of their acceptation. They shut their eyes and then
are obstinate in their assertion that there is no light. For instance,
how common is the notion that religion is associated with melancholy?
In every sphere of life you will find a number of persons who fight shy
of understanding religion because they believe it to be the mother of
mental miseries. They quote someone who went insane and took to
Biblical speculations–and another who is morose, and yet is a great
stickler for devotion.

They infer that religion is the science of making long faces, the art
of being gloomy. Therefore men refuse to be soured by "crabbed
divinity," and decline to imitate the morose and melancholy Puritans.
An amazing mistake, that, about the Puritans, for there is evidence
enough, and more than enough, to show that they were among the most
happy of men with a robust joy to which the Cavaliers' noisy mirth was
mere froth. At this present moment if you desired to find a happy
people, I would advise you to search in the Church of God for them! It
were a strange thing if to have one's sins forgiven would make one
unhappy! It were a very odd thing if being at peace with God caused a
man to be wretched! It were a very turning of the world upside down if
the possession of a good hope of Heaven should be the source of gloom
in the soul!

And it is not so. Brethren, by your continual happiness and manifest
cheerfulness, roll away this stone, and especially remove it from the
minds of young people. Make them see, in the brightness of your
countenance, the practical answer to the common calumny. Convince them
that you have an inward joy which they do not understand. Tempt them,
as it were, to Christ, by telling them of the sweetness which you
experience in Him. Many have the notion, too, that true religion

makes a man unmanly and effeminate. Perhaps certain professors have
lent a color to this charge by affectation of manners and absence of
common sense. Certain religionists are always dwelling upon the "must
nots" of religion, as if godliness was a set of negatives, a garden
enclosed with thorns!

The manufacture of new commandments is a very fascinating occupation
for some people. You must not do this, and that, and the other, till
one feels like a baby in leading strings. I find ten commandments are
more than I can keep without a great deal of Grace, and I do not mean
to pay the slightest regard to any beyond. Liberty is the genius of our
faith, nor do we mean to barter it away for the esteem of modern
Pharisees. They say to us, "You shall not laugh on Sunday. You shall
never create a smile in the House of God. You shall walk to public
service as though you were going to the whipping post, and you shall
take care when you preach that you always make your discourse as dull
as it can possibly be."

We do not reverence these precepts! Anything which is of God we honor,
but not the sickening decrees of cant. We are men, and not slaves. Our
manhood is not annihilated by Grace. We think, and speak, and act for
ourselves and are not the serfs of custom and fashion. We speak our
minds even when propriety is shocked and respectability is enraged. I
would always give to young men this piece of advice–Quit yourselves
like men, let nobody have to say that your religion is mamby-pamby, and
your conversation affected. Do not be always sugaring every person you
speak of as, "Dear this," and, "Dear that," for this savors of nauseous
hypocrisy! Do not whine or turn up your eyes, or affect to be very
devout. Be holy, but not showy–true, but not obtrusive. Be men, be
manly, be Christians, be like Christ! He was the very highest type of
man! You never see anything stilted or unnatural in Him. He is always
Himself, transparent, outspoken, brave, honest, true, and manly. Redeem
religion from the reproach of stiltedness and so roll away one of the
stones from the sepulcher.

Some, we know, have a notion that religion is a mere sentiment. They
think that it is only about being affected about your dead children and
your parents in Heaven–in weeping over death-bed scenes. In fact, it
is best seen in excited meetings and their consequent emotions.
Religion is judged by worldlings to consist in womanly feeling, to have
no truth, no facts, no philosophy at its back. Oh, but it is not so! We
can give as good a reason for the hope that is in us as though our
religion never brought a tear to our eye and never stirred the emotion
of joy within our souls. I venture to say it, that our religion is as
much based on facts as astronomy or geology–I mean indisputable
historical facts! And I assert that the doctrines of Revelation are
Truths of God as certain as the demonstrations of mathematics!

The Gospel reveals certainties and they are worthy of the contemplation
of men of the most enlarged minds. Our Gospel is not mere platitude and
baby talk–there is a depth in it which no intellect can fathom.
Titanic intellects have found their match in the things of God. The
genius of Newton and Locke did not complain of need of room in the
wondrous Truths of God–to them they were waters to swim in. There is
room for all the high culture, and all the thought and all the training
that this world shall ever see! Room for it, yes, and at its utmost it
shall only stand upon the shore of the main ocean of Divine Truth and
cry, "O the depths of the wisdom of the Lord!" By intelligently setting
forth the great matters of the Gospel, let us roll this stone away, for
to some it has been a crushing obstruction.

Very commonly among our working classes another stone lies over their
graves, namely, the opinion that the Gospel is not for the likes of
them. I have frequently heard it expressed by them that it is very
proper, indeed, for ladies and gentlemen–persons of money and leisure,
to be religious–but it is quite out of the question for a man who has
to earn his living and tuck up his shirt sleeves to hard work. "Why,"
they say, "what have dockyard laborers, cabdrivers, and costermongers
to do with religion?"

Now, of all the strange prejudices in existence, this is one of the
strangest because from time immemorial it has been the boast of the
Gospel that, "thepoor have the Gospel preached to them." If there is
one class of the population to whom the Gospel is gladder tidings than
to any other, it is to them that labor and are heavy laden! Why, dear
Friends, if you have little in this life, that is the more reason why
you should seek the boundless treasures of the life to come! And if you
have much trouble and sorrow here, the more reason why you should seek
Christ to be the balm of all your wounds and the cordial of your cares!
Christianity drew its Apostles from the working classes, and from the
same source it has gathered numberless martyrs. Though the Lord has had
a remnant in the upper ranks, yet it has still been true, that, "not
many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen."

The great mass of Christian discipleship has been taken from among the
poor and the working men. Besides, Christ is the people's Christ. What
a grand sentence is that of the Psalm, "I have exalted One chosen out
of the people." Jesus is the people's Man by birth, by education, and
by sympathy! He was ordained of God to be a Leader and Commander for
the people. Jesus Christ is just such a Friend as the people need! Tell
the people this–especially you who belong to them and know it! Make
your houses preaching places to your fellow workmen, and make your
conduct a constant sermon upon the adaptation of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to their needs! So much for the stone of prejudice. I must pass
on.

Frequently, over the graves of spiritually dead persons, there lies a
stone of solitariness. They feel as if no man cared for their soul. I
have known that happen in this Tabernacle. Persons have come in for
months and nobody has spoken to them because they were strangers–and
therefore the Gospel did not enter into their hearts because they said,
"The Church of God does not care for us–we are unknown and unvalued."
Half a word from some kind Christian sitting near them has been the
means of melting them down, and the very next sermon they have heard
has been in God's hands the means of bringing them to Christ!

In this city a man may lose himself more effectually than he could in
the desert of Sahara. You may get away into one of our streets, yes,
and work in one of our factories, and nobody will interest himself
about you. While happily few pry into their neighbor's affairs,
unhappily few have any sympathy for their neighbor's griefs. Hearts may
be breaking around us and we may be as merry as May. Children of God, I
charge you in the name of the quickening Savior, never let this stone
lie two Sundays together over the grave of a single attendant of this
house! Prove to those who sit with you here that you have a loving care
for their souls!

Another stone that can be rolled away is that of degradation. Some
bring themselves into the ditch by their sins. They break the rules of
society, they become dangerous, and, at length are treated as outcasts.
When a person feels himself outlawed, there is little hope of raising
him. Many sink themselves to poverty by their vices and extravagances,
and thousands degrade themselves by abominable drunkenness. The
Christian Church does well when it rises its utmost power to deliver
the drunkard from his besetting sin. Temperance will not suffice
instead of godliness, but it may put men in the way of Gospel
influences. God forbid we should stop short in any reforms, for these
will only roll away the stone from the grave, but yet, let no stone
remain!

Many a man has first been delivered from the habit of intoxication and
then his ears have been opened to listen to the Truth as it is in
Jesus. The poor harlot, too, when Christian love has followed her and
spoken to her of our Father who is in Heaven who bids the wandering
return to Him–how often have her feelings of degradation been overcome
and she has fled to Christ for mercy! Brothers and Sisters, none are
outcasts to us! If the world says to the fallen, "Get out of here, you
are not good enough for us," let the Church of God open her door and
invite the outcasts in! The Church is the true Hospital for incurables,
among whom Jesus delights to work! Those whom the world calls lepers
and drives away into contempt, it is our glory to restore! Come here,
you chief of sinners, for Jesus waits to receive you! Do not tarry, for
you, and such as you He came to save! The Pharisees repel you, but this
Man receives sinners and eats with them!

We will mention one more stone, and that is despair. Some men are not
only spiritually dead, but they are buried fathoms deep in despair.
They have signed their own death warrants, though the Lord has not yet
written them out. You people of God, look out for those who think
themselves beyond all hope–and when you meet with them argue the point
with them! Tell them that you were once in the same plight as they are
and show them what Grace did for you. Point them to the promises of God
which are so suitable to their condition. Above all, tell them of the
precious Savior who does not quench the smoking flax, and who is able
to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. You will have
done good service if in any case you roll away the stone of despair.

I exhort you, dear fellow laborers in Christ, yourselves saved, to do
all that lies in you to take away every one of these hindrances from
sinners' souls, and then pray the Lord to speak the quickening Word!

II. But my time goes too swiftly, and therefore I must come to my
second point with brevity. AFTER A MAN IS CONVERTED he labors under
many disabilities, and Christian love should help him. When lambs are
born the shepherd takes care of them. Christ's word is, "Feed My
lambs." When plants are put into the ground they must be watered. It is
not enough that the child is born–it needs a mother's care. "Take this
child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages," is God's
word to His people whenever a new convert is born into the Church.

Lazarus is alive, but he is encumbered with grave clothes and it is the
business of those who are his friends to loose him and let him go. New
converts need loosing for the sake of their own comfort. It was a very
uncomfortable thing for Lazarus to be tied up in his
winding-sheets–for his own ease they must be taken off. When a man is
saved, perhaps he does not grasp all that is involved in salvation. He
thinks, "I am a Christian, but I may fall from Grace." Unwrap that band
at once and let him know that the Lord does not cast away His people
whom He did foreknow.

The new Christian, I say, thinks that he is pardoned, but that some sin
may still remain upon him. Unwind that cerement! Let him know that "the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Perhaps he
fancies, when he feels a strife within him, that he cannot be a child
of God. Tear off that bandage and tell him that all the children of God
experience an inward strife and feel a battle raging between life and
death within their souls! You will find young converts apt to be the
victims of doubts and fears–perplexing themselves about this, and
fretting themselves about that! And you who are instructed in the faith
must lay out yourselves to loose them, and let them go! They need,
also, loosing for their own freedom. Lazarus might as well be in the
cave as be in bonds. Men may be converted and yet be far from enjoying
the full liberty of the children of God.

Perhaps the saved one is fettered by bad habits and he does not know
that they are bad. Tell him gently, but let him know that these things
are not consistent with Christian life. I know at this time some real
Christians who are going about with relics of their grave clothes upon
them, and they appear very unseemly. Those grave clothes stick to all
of us more or less–and I suppose till we enter Heaven the loosing
operation will need to be continued! But let us help our Brethren in
this by example and by precept. Let us take away from them that which
hinders them from the liberty of holiness.

Moreover, Lazarus wanted loosing for the sake of fellowship. He could
not talk with Mary and Martha yet, for he had a napkin about his
head–he could scarcely move or speak. So many of our dear converts do
not like to join the Church just yet. They say they are not perfect.
Poor souls, if they were we should not need them in our churches! Being
all imperfect ourselves, they would be out of place if they joined with
us! They plead that they are not fit to come, imagining that something
of fitness is needed beyond believing in Christ–as if that which Jesus
laid down as the Gospel of salvation was not also a sufficient basis
for fellowship with saints on earth! Still, the timid hold back and do
not like to communicate to others what the Lord has done for them.

Encourage them, compel them to come in! Do not let them wander in
solitude, but introduce them to the fellowship of the saints. We have
known cases in which the liberty was needed to enable them to bear
testimony. Lazarus could not even say, "I live and blessed be the name
of God," for the napkin was about his head. He must be loosed that he
may tell what God had done! Oh, what amazing testimonies the Church
might have if saints were but encouraged to deliver them! But there are
some who carry wet blankets about with them, and the moment a young
Christian talks about Christ, because he does not speak exactly
according to orthodoxy, they try to silence him. Let it never be so
among us! Let us encourage the babes to cry, that by-and by they may
learn to speak! Let us encourage them to prattle, for perhaps before
long they shall correctly speak the language of the kingdom.

As for testimony, so for service, help is needed. Paul was converted on
the road to Damascus, but he did not know what God meant to do with
him–and he was not fit for God to use till Ananias had instructed him.
So with Apollos. He was a true Christian, but he needed further
teaching–he needed loosing and being let go, and therefore Aquila and
Priscilla became the instruments thereof. There was the eunuch on his
way to Ethiopia–he needed to learn more about the Scriptures–to have
the meaning of the Prophet Isaiah opened up to him and to be baptized
on profession of his faith in Christ. Do not suffer any of God's dear
living ones to be waiting, bound up and captive, because we are so
devoid of brotherly love that we will not do for them the necessary
offices of heavenly charity! The Lord help us, Brothers and Sisters, to
be earnest about this!

Once more, after Lazarus was unbound, we read that he sat at the table
with Jesus–so he needed loosing for the enjoyment of communion with
Christ! The trembling convert thinks himself as yet unwarranted to lay
hold upon the nearer, dearer, and sweeter joys which surround the
Person of Christ. He dreams that these are reserved for old saints,
that these wines on the lees well refined are for men who have fought
the good fight and almost finished their course. But, indeed, he errs
and deprives himself of joy! The songs of Zion are for the early
morning as well as for the shades of evening. Go and tell young
Christians so! Encourage them to commune with Jesus! Tell them He loves
all His people with

an equal love and is ready to manifest Himself to them as He does not
unto the world. In this respect you will loose them and let them go.

I will not prolong my talk, but finish with two inquiries which I
desire to put very plainly. The first is this–Dear Brethren, I have
told you what can be done for sinners before conversion. I have told
you what can be done for them afterwards. I beg to inquire how many of
you are doing either the one or the other? I will not take the writer's
inkhorn and make a list of the diligent among you, but I will ask each
man's conscience to officiate as a scribe and to put down his name if
he is really serving Christ. For, mark you, Beloved, it is idle to talk
about our duty–the thing is to be daily and constantly doing it!

Time is gliding away, men are dying, Hell is filling, Christ's name is
being dishonored! There are but 12 hours in the day–are we walking
while we have the light, and working for God while we have the
opportunity? If every one of us will give an honest answer to that
question it will do us good, even if we have to confess that we have
been sluggards. It may lead to shame, and that to confession–and that
to prayer, and that to a renovation of life! If we are, indeed, the
Lord's, let us live while we live! Much of professing life nowadays is
a thing to be ashamed of–it is cold, weak, narrow, and timid. I see
enthusiasm everywhere, except in the Church! I see stir and push and
vigor in business! I see the world girdled that men may send the
messages of commerce with lightning speed–while the message of the
Gospel lags! I see the mountains bored, I know not next but the sea's
deep bed may be tunneled! Earth for earth can do anything, but for
Heaven how little will earth perform? May God quicken us that we may be
a living, earnest people.

The other inquiry is this, how far is the Lord Jesus working in our
families, and among our connections in the matter of raising the
spiritually dead? Are your children saved? Are your servants
regenerated? Brothers and Sisters, are they saved? Husbands and
wives–has God quickened them? Come, let us pass the question round.
The angel said to Lot, "have you here any beside?" A very weighty
question. Oh, that God may grant that you and I may be like Noah who
had all his sons, and his sons' wives, and his own wife in the ark with
him! May we never leave off praying till it is so! If there is but one
unconverted one in any way linked with us, let us pray day and night
till that soul is saved and then let us take up the neighborhood in
which we dwell, and the streets where we reside!

This great city, this perishing city–God help it, and in mercy visit
it! I believe He will if He finds us willing to do the work of rolling
away the stone, and equally willing to unloose the bands. God will not
send children to us if we cannot nurse them! He will not send lambs to
us if we will not shepherd them! God is not so unkind to new-born souls
as to send them among a people that do not care for them. He will make
us travail in birth before children shall be born to God here, because
soul travail is the means by which love is worked in us towards them,
and so we are taught to handle them affectionately, cherish them
carefully, and bring them up for the Lord.

O Church beloved, over whom Christ rejoices, I charge you serve the
Lord Jesus with diligence in this Divine service of doing good to the
sons of men. God bless you, Beloved, for Christ's sake. Amen.
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Testimony And Experience