Your Own Salvation

Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, July 30th, 1871, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"Your own salvation."–Philippians 2:12.

WE SELECT THE WORDS, "your own salvation," as our text this morning,
not out of any singularity, or from the slightest wish that the brevity
of the text should surprise you; but because our subject will be the
more clearly before you if only these three words are announced. If I
had nominally taken the whole verse I could not have attempted to
expound it without distracting your attention from the topic which now
weighs upon my heart. O that the divine Spirit may bring home to each
one of your minds the unspeakable importance of "your own salvation"!

We have heard it said by hearers that they come to listen to us, and we
talk to them upon subjects in which they have no interest. You will not
be able to make this complaint to-day, for we shall speak only of "your
own salvation;" and nothing can more concern you. It has sometimes been
said that preachers frequently select very unpractical themes. No such
objection can be raised to-day, for nothing can be more practical than
this; nothing more needful than to urge you to see to "your own
salvation." We have even heard it said that ministers delight in
abstruse subjects, paradoxical dogmas, and mysterious surpassing
comprehension; but, assuredly, we will keep to plain sailing this
morning. No sublime doctrines, no profound questions shall perplex you;
you shall only be called on to consider "your own salvation:" a very
homely theme, and a very simple one, but for all that, the most weighty
that can be brought before you. I shall seek after simple words also,
and plain sentences, to suit the simplicity and plainness of the
subject, that there may be no thought whatever about the speaker's
language, but only concerning this one, sole, only topic, "your own
salvation." I ask you all, as reasonable men who would not injure or
neglect yourselves, to lend me your most serious attention. Chase away
the swarming vanities which buzz around you, and let each man think for
himself upon his "own salvation." O may the Spirit of God set each one
of you apart in a mental solitude, and constrain you each one, singly,
to face the truth concerning his own state! Each man apart, each woman
apart; the father apart, and the child apart: may you now come before
the Lord in solemn thought, and may nothing occupy your attention but
this: "your own salvation."

I. We will begin this morning's meditation by noting THE MATTER UNDER
CONSIDERATION–Salvation!

Salvation! a great word, not always understood, often narrowed down,
and its very marrow overlooked. Salvation! This concerns every one here
present. We all fell in our first parent; we have all sinned
personally; we shall all perish unless we find salvation. The word
salvation contains within it deliverance from the guilt of our past
sins. We have broken God's law each one of us, more or less flagrantly;
we have all wandered the downward road, though each has chosen a
different way. Salvation brings to us the blotting out of the
transgressions of the past, acquital from criminality, purging from all
guiltiness, that we may stand accepted before the great Judge. What man
in his sober senses will deny that forgiveness is an unspeakably
desirable blessing!

But salvation means more than that: it includes deliverance from the
power of sin. Naturally we are all fond of evil, and we run after it
greedily; we are the bondslaves of iniquity, and we love the bondage.
This last is the worst feature of the case. But when salvation comes it
delivers the man from the power of sin. He learns that it is evil, and
he regards it as such, loathes it, repents that he has ever been in
love with it, turns his back upon it, becomes, through God's Spirit,
the master of his lusts, puts the flesh beneath his feet, and rises
into the liberty of the children of God. Alas! there are many who do
not care for this: if this be salvation they would not give a farthing
for it. They love their sins; they rejoice to follow the devices and
imaginations of their own corrupt hearts. Yet be assured, this
emancipation from bad habits, unclean desires, and carnal passions is
the main point in salvation, and if it be not ours, salvation in its
other branches is not and cannot be enjoyed by us. Dear hearer, dost
thou possess salvation from sin? hast thou escaped the corruption which
is in the world through lust? If not, what hast thou to do with
salvation? To any right-minded man deliverance from unholy principles
is regarded as the greatest of all blessings. What thinkest thou of it?

Salvation includes deliverance from the present wrath of God which
abides upon the unsaved man every moment of his life. Every person who
is unforgiven is the object of divine wrath. "God is angry with the
wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword." "Be that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God." I frequently hear the statement
that this is a state of probation. This is a great mistake, for our
probation has long since passed. Sinners have been proved, and found to
be unworthy; they have been "weighed in the balances," and "found
wanting." If you have not believed in Jesus, condemnation already rests
upon you: you are reprieved awhile, but your condemnation is recorded.
Salvation takes a man from under the cloud of divine wrath, and reveals
to him the divine love. Be can then say, "O God, I will praise thee,
though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou
comfortest me." Oh, it is not hell hereafter which is the only thing a
sinner has to fear, it is the wrath of God which rests upon him now. To
be unreconciled to God now is an awful thing: to have God's arrow
pointed at you as it is at this moment, even though it fly not from the
string as yet, is a terrible thing. It is enough to make you tremble
from head to foot when you learn that you are the target of Jehovah's
wrath: "he hath bent his bow, and made it ready." Every soul that is
unreconciled to God by the blood of his Son is in the gall of
bitterness. Salvation at once sets us free from this state of danger
and alienation. We are no longer the "children of wrath, even as
others," but are made children of God and joint heirs with a Christ
Jesus. What can be conceived more precious than this?

And then, we lastly receive that part of salvation which ignorant
persons put first, and make to be the whole of salvation. In
consequence of our being delivered from the guilt of sin, and from the
power of sin, and from the present wrath of God, we are delivered from
the future wrath of God. Unto the uttermost will that wrath descend
upon the souls of men when they leave the body and stand before their
Maker's bar, if they depart this life unsaved. To die without salvation
is to enter into damnation. Where death leaves us there judgment finds
us; and where judgment finds us eternity will hold Us forever and ever.
"He which is filthy, let him be filthy still," and he that is wretched
as a punishment for being filthy, shall be hopelessly wretched still.
Salvation delivers the soul from going down into the pit of hell. We,
being justified, are no longer liable to punishment, because we are no
longer chargeable with guilt. Christ Jesus bore the wrath of God that
we might never bear it. He has made a full atonement to the justice of
God for the sins of all believers. Against him that believeth there
remaineth no record of guilt; his transgressions are blotted out, for a
Christ Jesus hath finished transgression, made an end of sin, and
brought in everlasting righteousness. What a comprehensive word then is
this–"salvation"! It is a triumphant deliverance from the guilt of
sin, from the dominion of it, from the curse of it, from the punishment
of it, and ultimately from the very existence of it. Salvation is the
death of sin, its burial, its annihilation, yea, and the very
obliteration of its memory; for thus saith the Lord: "their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more."

Beloved hearers, I am sure that this is the weightiest theme I can
bring before you and therefore I cannot be content unless I see that it
grasps you and holds you fast. I pray you give earnest heed to this
most pressing of all subjects. If my voice and words cannot command
your fullest attention, I could wish to be dumb, that some other
pleader might with wiser speech draw you to a close consideration of
this matter. Salvation appears to me to be of the first importance,
when I think of what it is in itself, and for this reason I have at the
outset set it forth before your eyes; but you may be helped to remember
its value if you consider that God the Father thinks highly of
salvation. It was on his mind or ever the earth was. He thinks
salvation a lofty business, for he gave his Son that he might save
rebellious sinners. Jesus Christ, the only Begotten, thinks salvation
most important, for he bled, he died to accomplish it. Shall I bide
with that which cost him his life? If he came from heaven to earth,
shall I be slow to look from earth to heaven? Shall that which cost the
Savior a life of zeal, and a death of agony, be of small account with
me? By the bloody sweat of Gethsemane, by the wounds of Calvary, I
beseech you, be assured that salvation must be worthy of your highest
and most anxious thoughts. It could not be that God the Father, and God
the Son, should thus make a common sacrifice: the one giving his Son
and the other giving himself for salvation, and yet salvation should be
a light and trivial thing. The Holy Ghost thinks it no trifle, for he
condescends to work continually in the new creation that he may bring
about salvation. He is often vexed and grieved, yet he continues still
his abiding labors that he may bring many sons unto glory. Despise not
what the Holy Ghost esteems, lest thou despise the Holy Ghost himself.
The sacred Trinity think much of salvation; let us not neglect it. I
beseech you who have gone on trifling with salvation, to remember that
we who have to preach to you dare not trifle with it. The longer I live
the more I feel that if God do not make me faithful as a minister, it
had been better for me never to have been bow. What a thought that I am
set as a watchman to warn your souls, and if I warn you not aright,
your blood will be laid at my door! My own damnation will be terrible
enough, but to have your blood upon my skirts as well–! God save any
one of his ministers from being found guilty of the souls of men. Every
preacher of the gospel may cry with David, "Deliver me from
bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation."

Bethink you, O careless hearers, that God's church does not consider
salvation to be a little matter? Earnest men and women, by thousands,
are praying day and night for the salvation of others, and are laboring
too, and making great sacrifices, and are willing to make many more, if
they may by any means bring some to Jesus and his salvation. Surely, if
gracious men, and wise men, think salvation to be so important, you who
have hitherto neglected it ought to change your minds upon the matter,
and act with greater care for your own interests.

The angels think it a weighty business. Bowing from their thrones, they
watch for repenting sinners; and when they hear that a sinner has
returned to his God, they waken anew their golden harps and pour forth
fresh music before the throne, for "there is joy in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." It is certain also that
devils think salvation to be a great matter, for their arch-leader
goeth about seeking whom he may devour. They never tire in seeking
men's destruction. They know how much salvation glorifies God, and how
terrible the ruin of souls is; and therefore they compass sea and land,
if they may destroy the sons of men. Oh, I pray you, careless hearer,
be wise enough to dread that fate which your cruel enemy, the devil,
would fain secure for you! Remember, too, that lost souls think
salvation important. The rich man, when he was in this world, thought
highly of nothing but his barns, and the housing of his produce; but
when he came into the place of torment, then he said: "Father Abraham,
send Lazarus to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he
may testify unto them, lest they also they come into this place of
torment." Lost souls see things in another light than that which
dazzled them here below; they value things at a different rate from
what we do here, where sinful pleasures and earthly treasures dim the
mental eye. I pray you then, by the blessed Trinity, by the tears and
prayers of holy men, by the joy of angels and glorified spirits, by the
malice of devils and the despair of the lost, arouse yourselves from
slumber, and neglect not this great salvation!

I shall not depreciate anything that concerns your welfare, but I shall
steadfastly assert that nothing so much concerns any one of you as
salvation. Your health by all means. Let the physician be fetched if
you be sick; care well for diet and exercise, and all sanitary laws.
Look wisely to your constitution and its peculiarities; but what
matters it, after all, to have possessed a healthy body, if you have a
perishing soul? Wealth, yes, if you must have it, though you shall find
it an empty thing if you set your heart upon it. Prosperity in this
world, earn it if you can do so fairly, but "what shall it profit a
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" A golden
coffin will be a poor compensation for a damned soul. To be cast away
from God's presence, can that misery be assuaged by mountains of
treasure? Can the bitterness of the second death be sweetened by the
thought that the wretch was once a millionaire, and that his wealth
could affect the polities of nations? No, there is nothing in health or
wealth comparable to salvation. Nor can honor and reputation bear a
comparison therewith. Truly they are but baubles, and yet for all that
they have a strange fascination for the soul of men. Oh, sirs, if every
harpstring in the world should resound your glories, and every trumpet
should proclaim your fame, what would it matter if a louder voice
should say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels"? Salvation! salvation! SALVATION! Nothing
on earth can match it, for the merchandise of it is better than silver,
and the gain thereof than fine gold. The possession of the whole
universe would be no equivalent to a lost soul for the awful damage it
has sustained and must sustain for ever. Pile up the worlds, and let
them fill the balance: ay, bring as many worlds as there are stars, and
heap up the scale on the one side; then in this other scale place a
single soul endowed with immortality, and it outweighs the whole.
Salvation! nothing can be likened unto it. May we feel its unutterable
value, and therefore seek it till we possess it in its fullness!

II. But now we must advance to a second point of consideration, and I
pray God the Holy Spirit to press it upon us, and that is, WHOSE MATTER
IS IT? We have seen what the matter is–salvation; now, consider whose
is it. "Your own salvation." At this hour nothing else is to occupy
your thoughts but this intensely personal matter, and I beseech the
Holy Spirit to hold your minds fast to this one point.

If you are saved it will be "your own salvation," end you yourself will
enjoy it. If you are not saved, the sin you now commit is your own sin,
the guilt your own guilt. The condemnation under which you fire, with
all its disquietude and fear, or with all its callousnees and neglect
is your own–all your own you may share in other men's sins, and other
men may become participators in yours, but a burden lies on your own
back which no one besides can touch with one of his fingers. There; is
a page in God's Book where your sins are recorded unmingled with the
transgressions of your fellows. Now, beloved, you must obtain for all
this sin a personal pardon, or you are undone for ever. No other can be
washed in Christ's blood for you; no one can believe and let his faith
stand instead of your faith. The very supposition of human sponsorship
in religion is monstrous. You must yourself repent, yourself believe,
yourself be washed in the blood, or else for you there is no
forgiveness, no acceptance, no adoption, no regeneration. It is all a
personal matter through and through: "your own salvation" it must be,
or it will be your own eternal ruin.

Reflect anxiously that you must personally die. No one imagines that
another can die for him. No man can redeem his brother or give to God a
ransom. Through that iron gate I must pass alone, and so must you.
Dying will have to be our own personal business; and in that dying we
shall have either personal comfort or personal dismay. When death is
past, salvation is still our "own salvation;" for if I am saved, mine
"eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that
is very far off." Mine eyes shall see him, and not another on my
behalf. No brother's head is to wear your crown; no stranger's hand to
wave your palm; no sister's eye to gaze for you upon the beatific
vision, and no sponsor's heart to be filled as your proxy with the
ecstatic bliss. There is a personal heaven for the personal believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be if you possess it, "your own
salvation." But if you have it not, reflect again, that it will be your
own damnation. No one will be condemned for you; no other can bear the
hot thunder bolts of Jehovah's wrath on your behalf. When you shall
say, "Hide me, ye rocks! Conceal me, O mountains!" No one will spring
forward, and say, "You can cease to be accursed, and I will become a
curse for you." A substitute there is to-day for every one that
believeth–God's appointed substitute, the Christ of God; but if that
substitution be not accepted by you, there can never be another; but
there remains only for you a personal casting away to suffer personal
pangs in your own soul and in your own body for ever. This, then, makes
it a most solemn business. O be wise, and look well to "your own
salvation."

You may be tempted to-day, and very likely you are to forget your own
salvation by thoughts of other people. We are all so apt to look abroad
in this matter, and not to look at home. Let me pray you to reverse the
process, and let everything which has made you neglect your own
vineyard be turned to the opposite account, and lead you to begin at
home, and see to "your own salvation." Perhaps you dwell among the
saints of God, and you have been rather apt to find fault with them,
though for my part, I can say these are the people I desire to live
with and desire to die with: "thy people shall be my people, and thy
God my God." But, O if you live among the saints ought it not to be
your business to see to "Your own salvation"? See that you are truly
one of them, not written in their church-book merely, but really graven
upon the palms of Christ's hands; not a false professor, but a real
possessor; not a mere wearer of the name of Christ, but a bearer of the
nature of Christ. If you live in a gracious family be afraid lest thou
should be divided from them for ever. How could you endure to go from a
Christian household to the place of torment! Let the anxieties of
saints lead you to be anxious. Let their prayers drive you to prayer.
Let their example rebuke your sin, and their joys entice you to their
Savior. O see to this! But perhaps you live most among ungodly men, and
the tendency of your converse with the ungodly is to make you think as
they do of the trifles and vanities, and wickednesses of this life. Do
not let it be so; but, on the contrary, say, "O God, though I am placed
among these people, yet gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life
with bloody men. Let me avoid the sins into which they fall, and the
impenitence of which they are guilty. Save me, I pray thee, O my God,
save me from the transgressions which they commit."

Perhaps to-day some of your minds are occupied with thoughts of the
dead who have lately fallen asleep. There is a little one unburied at
home, or there is a father not get laid in the grave. Oh, when you weep
for those who have gone to heaven, think of "your own salvation," and
weep for yourselves, for you have parted with them for ever unless you
are saved. You have said, "Farewell" to those beloved ones, eternally
farewell, unless you yourselves believe in Jesus. And if any of you
have heard of persons who have lived in sin and died in blasphemy, and
are lost, I pray you think not of them carelessly lest you also suffer
the same doom: for what saith the Savior: "Suppose ye that these were
sinners above all the sinners?" "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It seems to me as if everything
on earth and everything in heaven, and everything in hell, yea, and God
himself, calls upon you to seek "your own salvation," first, and
foremost, and above all other things.

It may be profitable to mention some persons upon whom this theme needs
much pressing. I will begin at home. There is great need to urge this
matter upon official Christians, such as I am, such as my brethren, the
deacons and elders, are. If there are any persons who are likely to be
deceived, it is those who are called by their office to act as
shepherds to the souls of others. Oh, my brethren I it is so easy for
me to imagine because I am a minister, and have to deal with holy
things, that therefore I am safe. I pray I may never fall into that
delusion, but may always cling to the cross, as a poor, needy sinner
resting in the blood of Jesus. Brother ministers, co-workers, and
officials of the church, do not imagine that office can save you. The
son of perdition was an apostle, greater than we are in office, and yet
at this hour he is greater in destruction. See to it, ye that are
numbered amongst the leaders of Israel, that you yourselves be saved.

Unpractical doctrinalists are another class of persons who need to be
warned to see to their own salvation. When they hear a sermon, they sit
with their mouths open, ready to snap at half a mistake. They make a
man an offender for a word, for they conclude themselves to be the
standards of orthodoxy, and they weigh up the preacher as he speaks,
with as much coolness as if they had been appointed deputy judges for
the Great King himself. Oh, sir, weigh yourself! It may be a great
thing to be sound in the head, in the faith, but it is a greater thing
to be sound in the heart. I may be able to split a hair between
orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and yet may have no part nor lot in the
matter. You may be a very sound Calvinist, or you may happen to think
soundness lies in another direction; but, oh, it is nought, it is less
than nought, except your souls feel the power of the truth, and ye
yourselves are born again. See to "your own salvation," O ye wise men
in the letter, who have not the Spirit.

So, too, certain persons who are always given to curious speculations
need warning. When they read the Bible it is not to find whether they
are saved or no, but to know whether we are under the third or fourth
vial, when the millenium is going to be, or what is the battle of
Armageddon. Ah, sir, search out all these things if thou hast time and
skill, but look to thine own salvation first. The book of Revelation,
blessed is he that understands it, but not unless, first of all, he
understands this, "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved."
The greatest doctor in the symbols and mysteries of the Apocalypse
shall be as certainly cast away as the most ignorant, unless he has
come to Christ, and rested his soul in the atoning work of our great
substitute.

I know some who greatly need to look to their own salvation. I refer to
those who are always criticising others. They can hardly go to a place
of worship but what they are observing their neighbour's dress or
conduct. Nobody is safe from their remarks, they are such keen judges,
and make such shrewd observations. Ye faultfinders and talebearers,
look to "your own salvation." You condemned a minister the other day
for a supposed fault, and yet he is a dear servant of God, who lives
near his Master; who are you, sir, to use your tongue against such a
one as he? The other day a poor humble Christian was the object of your
gossip and your slander, to the wounding of her heart. Oh, see to
yourself, see to yourself. If those eyes which look outward so
piercingly would sometimes look inward they might see a sight which
would blind them with horror. Blessed horror if it led them to turn to
the Savior who would open those eyes afresh, and grant them to see his
salvation.

I might also say that in this matter of looking to personal salvation,
it is necessary to speak to some who have espoused certain great public
designs. I trust I am as ardent a Protestant as any man living, but I
know too many red-hot Protestants who are but little better than
Romanists, for though the Romanists of old might have burnt them, they
would certainly withhold toleration from Romanists to-day, if they
could; and therein I see not a pin to choose between the two bigots.
Zealous Protestants, I agree with you, but yet I warn you that your
zeal in this matter will not save you, or stand in the stead of
personal godliness. Many an orthodox Protestant will be found at the
left hand of the Great Judge. And you, too, who are for ever agitating
this and that public question, I would say to you, "Let politics alone
till your own inward politics are settled on a good foundation." You
are a Radical Reformer, you could show us a system of political economy
which would right all our wrongs and give to every man his due; then I
pray you right you own wrongs, reform yourself, yield yourself to the
love of Jesus Christ, or what will it signify to you, though you knew
how to balance the affairs of nations, and to regulate the arrangement
of all classes of society, if you yourself shall be blown away like
chaff before the winnowing fan of the Lord. God grant us grace, then,
whatever else we take up with, to keep it in its proper place, and make
our calling and election sure.

III. And now, thirdly, and O for grace to speak aright, I shall try to
ANSWER CERTAIN OBJECTIONS. I think I hear somebody say, "Well, but
don't you believe in predestination? What have we to do with looking to
our own salvation? Is it not all fixed?" Thou fool, for I can scarce
answer thee till I have given thee thy right title; was it not fixed
whether thou shouldst get wet or not in coming to this place? Why then
did you bring your umbrella? Is it not fixed whether you shall be
nourished with food to-day or shall go hungry? Why then will you go
home and eat your dinner? Is it not fixed whether you shall live or not
to-morrow; will you therefore, cut your throat? No, you do not reason
so wickedly, so foolishly from destiny in reference to anything but
"your own salvation," and you know it is not reasoning, it just mere
talk. Here is all the answer I will give you, and all you deserve.

Another says, "I have a difficulty about this looking to our own
salvation. Do you not believe in full assurance? Are there not some who
know that they are saved beyond all doubt? Yes, blessed be God, I hope
there are many such now present. But let me tell you who these are not.
These are not persons who are afraid to examine themselves. If I meet
with any man who says, "I have no need to examine my self any more, I
know I am saved, and therefore have no need to take any further care,"
I would venture to say to him, "Sir, you are lost already. This strong
delusion of yours has led you to believe a lie." There are none so
cautious as those who possess full assurance, and there are none who
have so much holy fear of sinning against God, nor who walk so tenderly
and carefully as those who possess the full assurance of faith.
Presumption is not assurance, though, alas! many think so. No fully
assured believer will ever object to being reminded of the importance
of his own salvation.

But a third objection arises. "This is very selfish," says one. "You
have been exhorting us to look to ourselves, and that is sheer
selfishness." Yes, so you say; but let me tell you it is a kind of
selfishness that is absolutely needful before you can be unselfish. A
part of salvation is to be delivered from selfishness, and I am selfish
enough to desire to be delivered from selfishness. How can you be of
any service to others if you are not saved yourself? A man is drowning.
I am on London Bridge. If I spring from the parapet and can swim, I can
save him; but suppose I cannot swim, can I render any service by
leaping into sudden and certain death with the sinking man? I am
disqualified from helping him till I have the ability to do so. There
is a school over yonder. Well, the first enquiry of him who is to be
the master must he, "Do I know myself that which I profess to teach?"
Do you call that enquiry selfish? Surely it a most unselfish
selfishness, grounded upon common sense. Indeed, the man who is not so
selfish as to ask himself, "Am I qualified to act as a teacher?" would
be guilty of gross selfishness in putting himself into an office which
he was not qualified to fill. I will suppose an illiterate person going
into the school, and saying, "I will be master here, and take the pay,"
and yet he cannot teach the children to read or write. Would he not be
very selfish in not seeing to his own fitness? But surely it it is not
selfishness that would make a man stand back and say, "No, I must first
go to school myself, otherwise it is but a mockery of the children for
me to attempt to teach them anything." This is no selfishness, then,
when looked at aright, which makes us see to our own salvation, for it
is the basis from which we operate for the good of others.

IV. Having answered these objections, I shall for a minute attempt to
RENDER SOME ASSISTANCE to those who would fain be right in the best
things.

Has the Holy Spirit been pleased to make any one here earnest about his
own salvation? Friend, I will help you to answer two questions. Ask
yourself, first, "Am I saved?" I would help thee to reply to that very
quickly. If you are saved this morning, you are the subject of a work
within you, as saith the text, "Work out your own salvation; for it is
God which worketh in you." you cannot work it in, but when God works it
in you work it out. Have you a work of the Holy Ghost in your soul? Do
you feel something more than unaided human nature can attain unto? Have
you a change wrought in you from above? If so, you are saved. Again,
does your salvation rest wholly upon Christ? He who hangs anywhere but
upon the cross, hangs upon that which will deceive him. If thou
standest upon Christ, thou art on a rock; but if thou trustest in the
merits of Christ in part, and thy own merits in part, then thou hast
one foot on a rock but another on the quicksand; and thou mightest as
well have both feet on the quicksand, for the result will be the same.

"None but Jesus, none but Jesus

Can do helpless sinners good."

Thou art not saved unless Christ be all in all in thy soul, Alpha and
Omega, beginning and ending, first and last. Judge by this, again: if
you are saved, you have turned your back on sin. You have not left off
sinning–would to God we could do so–but you have left off loving sin;
you sin not wilfully, but from infirmity; and you are earnestly seeking
after God and holiness. You have respect to God, you desire to be like
him, you are longing to be with him. Your face is towards heaven. You
are as a man who journeys to the Equator. You are feeling more and more
the warm influence of the heavenly heat and light. Now, if such be your
course of life, that you walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit, and bring forth the fruits of holiness, then you are saved. May
your answer to that question he given in great honesty and candour to
your own soul. Be not too partial a Judge. Conclude not that all is
right because outward appearances are fair. Deliberate before you
return a favorable verdict. Judge yourselves that ye be not judged. It
were better to condemn yourself and be accepted of God, than to acquit
yourself and find your mistake at the last.

But suppose that question should have to be answered by any here in the
negative (and I am afraid it must be), then let those who confess that
they are not saved, hear the answer to another enquiry: "How can I be
saved?" Ah, dear hearer, I have not to bring a huge volume nor a whole
armful of folios to you, and to say, "It will take you months and Years
to understand the plan of salvation." No, the way is plain, the method
simple. Thou shalt be saved within the next moment if thou believest.
God's work of salvation is, as far as its commencement and essence is
concerned, instantaneous. If thou believes "that Jesus is the Christ,
thou art born of God now. If thou dost now stand in spirit at the foot
of the cross, and view the incarnate God suffering, bleeding, and dying
there, and if as thou dost look at him, thy soul consents to have him
for her Savior, and casts herself wholly on him, thou art saved. How
vividly there comes before my memory this morning the moment when I
first believed in Jesus! It was the simplest act my mind every
performed, and yet the most wonderful, for the Holy Spirit wrought it
in me. Simply to have done with reliance upon myself, and have done
with confidence in all but Jesus, and to rest alone, my undivided
confidence in him, and in what he had done. My sin was in that moment
forgiven me, and I was saved, and may it all be so with you, my friend,
even with you if you also, trust the Lord Jesus. "Your own salvation"
shall be secured by that one simple act of faith; and henceforward,
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, you shall tread
the way of holiness, till you come to be where Jesus is in everlasting
bliss. God grant that not a soul may go out of this place unsaved. Even
you, little children, who are here, you youngsters, you young boys and
girls, I pray that you may in early life attend to "your own
salvation." Faith is not a grace for old people only, nor for your
fathers and mothers only; if your little hearts shall look to him who
was the holy child Jesus, if you know but little yet, if you trust him
salvation shall be yours. I pray that to you who are young, "your own
salvation" may become, while you are yet in your youth, a matter of
joy, because you have trusted it in the hands of your Redeemer.

Now I must close: but one or two thoughts press me. I must utter them
ere I sit down. I would anxiously urge each person here to see to this
matter of his own salvation. Do it, I pray you, and in earnest, for no
one can do it for you. I have asked God for your soul, my hearer, and I
pray I may have an answer of peace concerning you. But unless you also
pray, vain are my prayers. You remember your mother's tears. Ah! you
have crossed the ocean since those days, and you have gone into the
deeps of sin, but you recollect when you used to say your prayers at
her knee, and when she would lovingly say "Amen," and kiss her boy and
bless him, and pray that he might know his mother's God. Those prayers
are ringing in the ears of God for you, but it is impossible that you
can ever be saved unless it is said of you, "Behold, he prayeth." Your
mother's holiness can only rise up in judgment to condemn your wilful
wickedness unless you imitate it. Your father's earnest exhortations
shall but confirm the just sentence of the Judge unless you hearken to
them, and yourselves consider and put your trust in Jesus. Oh I bethink
you each one of you, there is but one hope, and that one hope lost, it
is gone for ever. Defeated in one battle, a commander attempts another,
and hopes that he may yet win the campaign. Your life is your one
fight, and if it be lost it is lost for aye. The man who was bankrupt
yesterday commences again in business with good heart, and hopes that
he may yet succeed; but in the business of this mortal life, if you are
found bankrupt, you are bankrupt for ever and ever. I do therefore
charge you by the living God, before whom I stand, and before whom I
may have to give an account of this day's preaching ere another day's
sun shall shine, I charge you see to your own salvation. God help you,
that you may never cease to seek unto God till you know by the witness
of the Spirit that you have indeed passed from death unto life. See to
it now, now, NOW, NOW. This very day the voice of warning comes to
certain of you from God, with special emphasis, because you greatly
need it, for your time is short. How many have passed into eternity
during this week! You may yourself be gone from the land of the living
before next Sabbath-day. I suppose, according to the calculation of
probabilities, out of this audience there are several who will die
within a month. I am not conjecturing now, but according to all
probabilities these thousands cannot all meet again, it all have a mind
to do so. Who then among us will be summoned to the unknown land? Will
it be you, young woman, who have been laughing at the things of God?
Shall it be yonder merchant, who has not time enough for religion?
Shall it be you, my foreign friend, who have crossed the ocean to take
a holiday? Will you be carried back a corpse? I do conjure you bethink
yourselves, all of you. You who dwell in London will remember years ago
when the cholera swept through our streets, some of us were in the
midst of it, and saw many drop around us, as though smitten with an
invisible but deadly arrow. That disease is said to be on its way
hither again; it is said to be rapidly sweeping from Poland across the
Continent, and if it come and seize some of you, are you ready to
depart? Even if that form of death do not afflict our city, as I pray
it may not, yet is death ever within our gates, and the pestilence
walketh in darkness every night, therefore consider your ways. Thus
saith the Lord, and with his word I conclude this discourse: "Prepare
to meet thy God, O Israel."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hebrews 10:23-39.