We have shown this morning, according to the text of St. Paul, that if we will know the free mercy of our God in saving us, we must come to His everlasting counsel: whereby He chose us before the world began. For there we see, He had no regard to our persons, neither to our worthiness, nor to any deserts that we could possibly bring. Before we were born, we were enrolled in His register; He had already adopted us for His children. Therefore let us yield the whole to His mercy, knowing that we cannot boast of ourselves, unless we rob Him of the honor which belongs to Him.
Men have endeavored to invent cavils, to darken the grace of God. For they have said, although God chose men before the world began, yet it was according as He foresaw that one would be diverse from another. The Scripture showeth plainly that God did not wait to see whether men were worthy or not when He chose them: but the sophisters thought they might darken the grace of God by saying, though He regarded not the deserts that were passed, He had an eye to those that were to come. For, say they, though Jacob and his brother Esau had done neither good nor evil, and God chose one and refused the other, yet notwithstanding He foresaw, (as all things are present with Him) that Esau would be a vicious man, and that Jacob would be as he afterwards showed himself.
But these are foolish speculations: for they plainly make St. Paul a liar who saith, God rendered no reward to our works when He chose us, because He did it before the world began. But though the authority of St. Paul were abolished, yet the matter is very plain and open, not only in the Holy Scripture, but in reason; insomuch that those who would make an escape after this sort, show themselves to be men void of all skill. For if we search ourselves to the bottom, what good can we find? Are not all mankind cursed? What do we bring from our mother?s womb, except sin?
Therefore we differ not one whit, one from another; but it pleaseth God to take those to Himself whom He would. And for this cause, St. Paul useth these words in another place, when he saith, men have not whereof to rejoice, for no man finds himself better than his fellows, unless it be because God discerneth him. So then, if we confess that God chose us before the world began, it necessarily follows, that God prepared us to receive His grace; that He bestowed upon us that goodness, which was not in us before; that He not only chose us to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, but He likewise justifies us, and governs us by His Holy Spirit. The Christian ought to be so well resolved in this doctrine, that he is beyond doubt.
There are some men at this day, that would be glad if the truth of God were destroyed. Such men fight against the Holy Ghost, like mad beasts, and endeavor to abolish the Holy Scripture. There is more honesty in the papists, than in these men: for the doctrine of the papists is a great deal better, more holy, and more agreeable to the sacred Scripture, than the doctrine of those vile and wicked men, who cast down God?s holy election; these dogs that bark at it, and swine that root it up.
However, let us hold fast that which is here taught us: God having chosen us before the world had its course, we must attribute the cause of our salvation to His free goodness; we must confess that He did not take us to be His children, for any deserts of our own; for we had nothing to recommend ourselves into His favor. Therefore, we must put the cause and fountain of our salvation in Him only. and ground ourselves upon it: otherwise, whatsoever and howsoever we build, it will come to nought.
We must here notice what St. Paul joineth together; to wit, the grace of Jesus Christ, with the everlasting counsel of God the Father: and then he bringeth us to our calling, that we may be assured of God?s goodness. and of His will, that would have remained hid from us, unless we had a witness of it. St. Paul saith in the first place, that the grace which hangeth upon the purpose of God, and is comprehended in it, is given in our Lord Jesus Christ. As if he said, seeing we deserve to be cast away, and hated as God?s mortal enemies, it was needful for us to be grafted, as it were, into Jesus Christ; that God might acknowledge, and allow us for His children. Otherwise, God could not look upon us, only to hate us; because there is nothing but wretchedness in us; we are full of sin, and stuffed up as it were with all kinds of iniquity.
God, who is justice itself, can have no agreement with us, while He considereth our sinful nature. Therefore, when He would adopt us before the world began, it was requisite that Jesus Christ should stand between us and Him; that we should be chosen in His person, for He is the well beloved Son: when God joineth us to Him, He maketh us such as pleaseth Him. Let us learn to come directly to Jesus Christ. if we will not doubt God?s election: for He is the true looking glass, wherein we must behold our adoption.
If Jesus Christ be taken from us, then is God a judge of sinners; so that we cannot hope for any goodness or favor at His hands, but look rather for vengeance: for without Testis Christ. His majesty will always be terrible and fearful to us. If we hear mention made of His ever-lasting purpose, we cannot but be afraid, as though He were already armed to plunge us into misery. But when we know that all grace resteth in Jesus Christ, then we may be assured that God loved us, although we were unworthy.
In the second place, we must notice that St. Paul speaketh not simply of God?s election, for that would not put us beyond doubt; but we should rather remain in perplexity and anguish: but he adds, the calling; whereby God hath opened His counsel, which before was unknown to us, and which we could not reach. How shall we know then that God hath chosen us, that we may rejoice in Him, and boast of the goodness that He hath bestowed upon us? They that speak against God?s election, leave the gospel alone; they leave all that God layeth before us, to bring us to Him; all the means that He hath appointed for us, and knoweth to be fit and proper for our use. We must not go on so; but according to St. Paul?s rule, we must join the calling with God?s everlasting election.
It is said, we are called; and thus we have this second word, calling. Therefore God calleth us: and how? Surely, when it pleaseth Him to certify us of our election; which we could by no other means attain unto. For who can enter into God?s counsel? as saith the prophet Isaiah; and also the apostle Paul. But when it pleaseth God to communicate Himself to us familiarly, then we receive that which surmounteth the knowledge of all men: for we have a good and faithful witness, which is the Holy Ghost; that raiseth us above the world, and bringeth us even into the wonderful secrets of God.
We must not speak rashly of God?s election, and say, we are predestinate; but if we will be thoroughly assured of our salvation, we must not speak lightly of it; whether God hath taken us to be His children or not. What then? Let us look at what is set forth in the gospel. There God showeth us that He is our Father; and that He will bring us to the inheritance of life, having marked us with the seal of the Holy Ghost in our hearts, which is an undoubted witness of our salvation, if we receive it by faith.
The gospel is preached to a great number, which notwithstanding, are reprobate; yea, and God discovereth and showeth that He hath cursed them: that they have no part nor portion in His kingdom, because they resist the gospel, and cast away the grace that is offered them. But when we receive the doctrine of God with obedience and faith, and rest ourselves upon His promises, and accept this offer that He maketh us, to take us for His children, this, I say, is a certainty of our election. But we must here remark, that when we have knowledge of our salvation, when God hath called us and enlightened us in the faith of His gospel, it is not to bring to nought the everlasting predestination that went before.
There are a great many in these days that will say, who are they whom God hath chosen, but only the faithful? I grant it; but they make an evil consequence of it; and say faith is the cause, yea, and the first cause of our salvation. If they called it a middle cause, it would indeed be true; for the Scripture saith, “By grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). But we must go up higher; for if they attribute faith to men?s free will, they blaspheme wickedly against God, and commit sacrilege. We must come to that which the Scripture showeth; to wit, when God giveth us faith, we must know that we are not capable of receiving the gospel, only as He hath framed us by the Holy Ghost.
It is not enough for us to hear the voice of man, unless God work within, and speak to us in a secret manner by the Holy Ghost; and from hence cometh faith. But what is the cause of it? Why is faith given to one and not to another? St. Luke showeth us: saying, “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13 :48). There were a great number of hearers, and yet but few of them received the promise of salvation. And what few were they? Those that were appointed to salvation. Again, St. Paul speaketh so largely upon this subject, in his epistle to the Ephesians, that it cannot be but the enemies of God?s predestination are stupid and ignorant, and that the devil hath plucked out their eyes; and that they have become void of all reason, if they cannot see a thing so plain and evident.
St. Paul saith, God hath called us, and made us partakers of His treasures and infinite riches, which were given us through our Lord Jesus Christ: according as He had chosen us before the world began. When we say that we are called to salvation because God hath given us faith, it is not because there is no higher cause; and whosoever cannot come to the everlasting election of God, taketh somewhat from Him, and lesseneth His honor. This is found in almost every part of the Holy Scripture.
That we may make a short conclusion of this matter, let us see in what manner we ought to keep ourselves. When we inquire about our salvation, we must not begin to say, Are we chosen? No, we can never climb so high; we shall be confounded a thousand times, and have our eyes dazzled, before we can come to God?s counsel. What then shall we do? Let us hear what is said in the gospel: when God hath been so gracious, as to make us receive the promise offered, know we not that it is as much as if He had opened His whole heart to us, and had registered our election in our consciences!
We must be certified that God hath taken us for His children, and that the kingdom of heaven is ours; because we are called in Jesus Christ. How may we know this? How shall we stay ourselves upon the doctrine that God hath set before us? We must magnify the grace of God, and know that we can bring nothing to recommend ourselves to His favor; we must become nothing in our own eyes, that we may not claim any praise; but know that God hath called us to the gospel, having chosen us before the world began. This election of God is, as it were, a sealed letter; because it consisteth in itself, and in its own nature: but we may read it, for God giveth a witness of it, when He called us to Himself by the gospel and by faith.
For even as the original or first copy taketh nothing from the letter or writing that is read, even so must we be out of doubt of our salvation. When God certifieth us by the gospel that He taketh us for His children, this testimony carries peace with it; being signed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sealed by the Holy Ghost. When we have this witness, have we not enough to content our minds? Therefore, God?s election is so far from being against this, that it confirmeth the witness which we have in the gospel. We must not doubt but what God hath registered our names before the world was made, among His chosen children: but the knowledge thereof He reserved to Himself.
We must always come to our Lord Jesus Christ, when we talk of our election; for without Him (as we have already shown), we cannot come nigh to God. When we talk of His decree, well may we be astonished, as men worthy of death. But if Jesus Christ be our guide, we may with cheerfulness depend upon Him; knowing that He hath worthiness enough in Him to make all His members beloved of God the Father; it being sufficient for us that we are grafted into His body, and made one with Him. Thus we must muse upon this doctrine, if we will profit by it aright: as it is set forth by St. Paul; when he saith, this grace of salvation was given us before the world began. We must go beyond the order of nature, if we will know how we are saved, and by what cause, and from whence our salvation cometh.
God would not leave us in doubt, neither would He hide His counsel, that we might not know how our salvation was secured; but hath called us to Him by His gospel, and hath sealed the witness of His goodness and fatherly love in our hearts. So then, having such a certainty, let us glorify God, that He hath called us of His free mercy. Let us rest ourselves upon our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that He hath not deceived us, when He caused it to be preached that He gave Himself for us, and witnessed it by the Holy Ghost. For faith is an undoubted token that God taketh us for His children; and thereby we are led to the everlasting election, according as He had chosen us before.
He saith not that God hath chosen us because we have heard the gospel, but on the other hand, he attributes the faith that is given us to the highest cause; to wit, because God hath fore-ordained that He would save us; seeing we were lost and cast away in Adam. There are certain dolts, who, to blind the eyes of the simple and such as are like themselves, say, the grace of salvation was given us because God ordained that His Son should redeem mankind, and therefore this is common to all.
But St. Paul spake after another sort; and men cannot by such childish arguments mar the doctrine of the gospel: for it is said plainly, that God hath saved us. Does this refer to all without exception? No; he speaketh only of the faithful. Again, does St. Paul include all the world? Some were called by preaching, and yet they made themselves unworthy of the salvation which was offered them: therefore they were reprobate. God left others in their unbelief, who never heard the gospel preached.
Therefore St. Paul directed himself plainly and precisely to those whom God had chosen and reserved to Himself. God?s goodness will never be viewed in its true light, nor honored as it deserveth, unless we know that He would not have us remain in the general destruction of mankind; wherein He hath left those that were like unto us: from whom we do not differ; for we are no better than they: but so it pleased God. Therefore all mouths must be stopped; men must presume to take nothing upon themselves, except to praise God, confessing themselves debtors to Him for all their salvation.
We shall now make some remarks upon the other words used by St. Paul in this place. It is true that God?s election could never be profitable to us, neither could it come to us, unless we knew it by means of the gospel; for this cause it pleased God to reveal that which He had kept secret before all ages. But to declare His meaning more plainly, he adds, that this grace is revealed to us now. And how? “By the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.” When he saith that this grace is revealed to us by the appearing of Jesus Christ, he showeth that we should be too unthankful, if we could not content and rest ourselves upon the grace of the Son of God. What can we look for more? If we could climb up beyond the clouds, and search out the secrets of God, what would be the result of it? Would it not be to ascertain that we are His children and heirs?
Now we know these things, for they are clearly set forth in Jesus Christ. For it is said, that all who believe in Him shall enjoy the privilege of being God?s children. Therefore we must not swerve from these things one jot, if we will be certified of our election. St. Paul hath already shown us, that God never loved us, nor chose us, only in the person of His beloved Son. When Jesus Christ appeared He revealed life to us, otherwise we should never have been the partakers of it. He hath made us acquainted with the everlasting counsel of God. But it is presumption for men to attempt to know more than God would have them know.
If we walk soberly and reverently in obedience to God, hearing and receiving what He saith in the Holy Scripture, the way will be made plain before us. St. Paul saith, when the Son of God appeared in the world, He opened our eyes, that we might know that He was gracious to us before the world was made. We were received as His children, and accounted just; so that we need not doubt but that the kingdom of heaven is prepared for us. Not that we have it by our deserts, but because it belongs to Jesus Christ, who makes us partakers with Himself.
When St. Paul speaketh of the appearing of Jesus Christ, he saith, “He hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” It is not only said that Jesus Christ is our Savior, but that He is sent to be a mediator, to reconcile us by the sacrifice of His death; He is sent to us as a lamb without blemish; to purge us and make satisfaction for all our trespasses; He is our pledge, to deliver us from the condemnation of death; He is our righteousness; He is our advocate, who maketh intercession with God that He would hear our prayers.
We must allow, all these qualities to belong to Jesus Christ, if we will know aright how He appeared. We must look at the substance contained in the gospel. We must know that Jesus Christ appeared as our Savior, and that He suffered for our salvation; and that we were reconciled to God the Father through His means; that we have been cleansed from all our blemishes, and freed from everlasting death. If we know not that He is our advocate, that He heareth us when we pray to God, to the end that our prayers may be answered, what will become of us; what confidence can we have to call upon God?s name, who is the fountain of our salvation? But St. Paul saith, Jesus Christ hath fulfilled all things that were requisite for the redemption of mankind.
If the gospel were taken away, of what advantage would it be to us that the Son of God had suffered death, and risen again the third day for our justification? All this would be unprofitable to us. So then, the gospel putteth us in possession of the benefits that Jesus Christ hath purchased for us. And therefore, though He be absent from us in body, and is not conversant with us here on earth, it is not that He hath withdrawn Himself, as though we could not find Him; for the sun that shineth doth no more enlighten the world, than Jesus Christ showeth Himself openly to those that have the eyes of faith to look upon Him, when the gospel is preached. Therefore St. Paul saith, Jesus Christ hath brought life to light, yea, everlasting life.
He saith, the Son of God hath abolished death. And how did He abolish it? If He had not offered an everlasting sacrifice to appease the wrath of God, if He had not entered even to the bottomless pit to draw us from thence; if He had not taken our curse upon Himself, if He had not taken away the burden wherewith we were crushed down, where should we have been? Would death have been destroyed? Nay, sin would reign in us, and death likewise. And indeed, let every one examine himself, and we shall find that we are slaves to Satan, who is the prince of death. So that we are shut no in this miserable slavery, unless God destroy the devil, sin, and death. And this is done: but how? He hath taken away our sins by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, though we be poor sinners, and in danger of God?s judgment, yet sin cannot hurt us; the sting, which is venomous, is so blunted that it cannot wound us, because Jesus Christ has gained the victory over it. He suffered not the shedding of His blood in vain; but it was a washing wherewith we were washed through the Holy Ghost, as is shown by St. Peter. And thus we see plainly that when St. Paul speaketh of the gospel, wherein Jesus Christ appeared, and appeareth daily to us, he forgetteth not His death and passion, nor the things that pertain to the salvation of mankind.
We may be certified that in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ we have all that we can desire; we have full and perfect trust in the goodness of God, and the love He beareth us. But we see that our sins separate us from God, and cause a warfare in our members; yet we have an atonement through our Lord Jesus Christ. And why so? Because He hath shed His blood to wash away our sins; He hath offered a sacrifice whereby God hath become reconciled to us; to be short, He hath taken away the curse, that we may be blessed of God. Moreover, He hath conquered death, and triumphed over it; that He might deliver us from the tyranny thereof; which otherwise would entirely overwhelm us.
Thus we see that all things that belong to our salvation are accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that we may enter into full possession of all these benefits we most know that He appeareth to us daily by His gospel. Although He dwelleth in His heavenly glory, if we open the eyes of our faith we shall behold Him. We must learn not to separate that which the Holy Ghost hath joined together. Let us observe what St. Paul meant by a comparison to amplify the grace that God showed to the world after the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; as if He said, the old fathers had not this advantage, to have Jesus Christ appear to them, as He appeared to us.
It is true, they had the self-same faith; and the inheritance of heaven is theirs, as well as ours; God having revealed His grace to them as well as us, but not in like measure, for they saw Jesus Christ afar off, under the figures of the law, as St. Paul saith to the Corinthians. The veil of the temple was as yet stretched out, that the Jews could not come near the sanctuary, that is, the material sanctuary. But now, the veil of the temple being removed, we draw nigh to the majesty of our God: we come most familiarly to Him, in whom dwelleth all perfection and glory. In short, we have the body, whereas they had but the shadow (Col. 2:17).
The ancient fathers submitted themselves wholly to bear the affliction of Jesus Christ; as it is said in the 11th chapter of the Hebrews; for it is not said, Moses bore the shame of Abraham, but of Jesus Christ. Thus the ancient fathers, though they lived under the law, offered themselves to God in sacrifices, to bear most patiently the afflictions of Christ. And now, Jesus Christ having risen from the dead, hath brought life to light. If we are so delicate that we cannot bear the afflictions of the gospel, are we not worthy to be blotted from the book of God, and cast off? Therefore, we must be constant in the faith, and ready to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ, whatsoever God will; because life is set before us, and we have a more familiar knowledge of it than the ancient fathers had.
We know how the ancient fathers were tormented by tyrants, and enemies of the truth, and how they suffered constantly. The condition of the church is not more grievous in these days, than it was then. For now hath Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. As often as the grace of God is preached to us, it is as much as if the kingdom of heaven were opened to us; as if God reached out His hand, and certified us that life was nigh; and that He will make us partakers of His heavenly inheritance. But when we look to this life, which was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should not hesitate to forsake all that we have in this world, to come to the treasure above, which is in heaven.
Therefore, let us not be willingly blind; seeing Jesus Christ layeth daily before us the life and immortality here spoken of. When St. Paul speaketh of life, and addeth immortality, it is as much as if he said, we already enter into the kingdom of heaven by faith. Though we be as strangers here below, the life and grace of which we are made partakers through our Lord Jesus Christ shall bring its fruit in convenient time; to wit, when He shall be sent of God the Father to show us the effect of things that are daily preached, which were fulfilled in His person when He was clad in humanity.

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
II Timothy 1:8-9

Although God shows His glory and majesty in the gospel, yet the unthankfulness of men is such, that we have need to be exhorted, not to be ashamed of this gospel. And why so? Because God requires all creatures to do Him homage: yet the greater part rebel against Him; despise, yea, and are at defiance with the doctrine whereby He would be known and worshipped. Although men are so wicked as to lift up themselves against their Maker, let us, notwithstanding, remember that which is taught us in this place; to wit, that we be not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the witness of God.
If the gospel be not preached, Jesus Christ is, as it were, buried. Therefore, let us stand as witnesses, and do Him this honor, when we see all the world so far out of the way; and remain steadfast in this wholesome doctrine. St. Paul here setteth his own person before us: not that he wished particularly to be approved, but because we often get in difficulty, if we separate ourselves from the servants of God. When there is a minister of the Word of God troubled, molested, and persecuted, we are apt to forsake him in time of need, thinking it is but mortal man: but in doing this, we offend God; because this man that suffereth, beareth the mark of the gospel: thus the cause of God is betrayed. Therefore, St. Paul saith to Timothy, be not ashamed of me.
The mind of Timothy might have been shaken; therefore, St. Paul saith to him, though the world despise me, though they mock and hate me, yet must thou not be moved by these things; for I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Let the world speak evil of me; it is not for my of fences: God alloweth my cause; for indeed it is His. I suffer not for mine own evil doings, having His truth always on my side. Therefore, the cause of my persecution is, because I have maintained the Word of God, and continue to maintain it. Thou shouldest not be guided by the world’s judgment, for men are carried away with evil affections. Let it be sufficient for thee then, that I am as it were a pledge for the Son of God; that He magnifieth my person; that if it be reproachful to the world, it ceases not to be honored before God, and His holy angels.
Let us not deceive Jesus Christ in the testimony we owe Him, by stopping our mouths, when it is needful to maintain His honor, and the authority of His gospel. Yea, and when we see our brethren afflicted for the cause of God, let us join with them, and assist them in their affliction. Let us not be shaken by the tempests that arise, but let us always remain constant in our purpose; and stand as witnesses for the Son of God, seeing He is so gracious as to use us in such a good cause. Let us mark well, whether men suffer for their sins, or for the truth of God. When we see one oppressed, we must not despise him, lest we do injury to God: we must ascertain for what cause men suffer. If they have walked in a good conscience, and are blamed, if they are tormented because they serve God, this is enough to remove whatever the wicked world can say against them. Therefore St. Paul adds, “Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel.”
There is no man but what would willingly escape affliction; this is according to human nature; and although we confess, without dissembling, that it is a singular grace which God bestows, when He enables men to bear affliction, and maintain His cause, yet there is not one of us, but what would willingly draw his neck out of persecution. For we look not at the lesson given by St. Paul, which saith. the gospel bringeth troubles. Jesus Christ was crucified in His own person, and His doctrine is joined with many miseries. He could, if it pleased Him, cause His doctrine to be received without any gainsaying. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies” (Psalm 110).
We must come to Him upon this condition; to be willing to suffer many bickerings; because the wicked lift up themselves against God, when He calleth them to Him. Therefore, it is impossible for us to have the gospel without affliction. We must be exercised; we must fight under our Lord Jesus Christ. Doth he not then renounce his salvation, that would get rid of the cross of Christ? What is the hope of life? Only in this, that we are bought by the sacrifice of the Son of God. Then will He have us made like unto Him, and have us transformed into His image.
We must not be ashamed of our brethren; when we hear evil reports of them, and see them cast off by the world, let us always be with them, and endeavor to strengthen them; for the gospel cannot be without affliction; as I have already said. It pleaseth God, that men should be so divided. But He calleth all to the unity of faith; and the doctrine of the gospel is the message of atonement; but yet the faithful are drawn by the virtue of His Holy Spirit (as we shall notice more particularly hereafter) ; but the unbelievers remain in their hardness: thus the fire kindleth; as when thunder engendereth in the air, there must needs be trouble; so it is when the gospel is preached.
Now, if the gospel bring affliction, and it be the mind of Jesus Christ, that what He suffered in His person, shall be fulfilled in His members, and be daily crucified, is it lawful for us to withdraw ourselves from that situation? Seeing it is so, that all hope of salvation is in the gospel, we must rest thereon; and mark what St. Paul saith; to wit, we must assist our brethren when we see them in trouble, and when they are reviled by the wicked; and choose rather to be their companions, and suffer the rebukes and scoffs of the world, than to be otherwise honored with a good reputation, having our faces turned from them that suffer for that cause, which is ours, as well as theirs.
We are apt to be weak, and think we shall be swallowed tip by persecutions, as soon as our enemies assail us: but St. Paul observes, we shall not be destitute of the aid and succour of our God. He armeth us forthwith, and giveth us an invincible power, that we may remain sure and stedfast. For this reason St. Paul adds, “according to the power of God.” But as we have said, every man would be glad to have some cover or cloak, whereby he might withdraw himself from persecution. If God would give me grace. I would gladly suffer for His name; I know it is the greatest blessing that I could receive.
Every man will confess this: hut they add, we are weak, and shall quickly be beaten down by the cruelty of our enemies. But St. Paul taketh away this excuse, by saying, God will strengthen us, and that we must not look to our own strength. For it is certain, if we never come into conflicts with our enemies, we shall be afraid of our own shadows. Seeing we know this weakness, let us come to the remedy. We must consider how hard it is to withstand our enemies; therefore let us humble ourselves before God, and pray Him to extend His hand, and uphold us in all our afflictions. If this doctrine were well imprinted in our hearts, we should be better prepared to suffer than we are.
But we are apt to forget it; yea, we stop our ears, and close our eyes, when we hear it spoken of. We pretend that we wish God to strengthen us, but we cannot bring our sight to the power that St. Paul speaks of; we are apt to think, that we have nothing to do with it; although the Lord hath shown us, that His power will always uphold us. Therefore, let not our weakness cause us to withdraw ourselves from the cross, and from persecution; seeing God hath received us into His hands, and promised to supply our needs. St. Paul here addeth a lesson to make us greatly ashamed, if we be not enticed to glorify Jesus Christ by suffering persecution; he saith, “God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.”
Behold! God hath drawn us out of the gulf of hell! We were utterly cast away and condemned: but he hath brought us salvation, and hath called us to be partakers of it. Therefore, seeing God hath showed Himself so liberal, if we on our parts turn our backs to Him, is not this a shameful malice? Let us mark well the accusation of St. Paul against those that are inconstant; those that are unwilling to stiffer the assaults made against them for the sake of the gospel. Undoubtedly his mind was to comfort the faithful, for the time to come; he therefore showeth what God hath done for them already.
When God giveth us any token of His goodness, it is to the end we should hope for the like at His hands again; and wait till He bring to pass what He hath begun. Therefore, if God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, do we think that He will leave us at midway? When He hath showed us our salvation, and given us His gospel whereby He calleth us to His kingdom, and openeth the gates unto us; when He hath done all this, do we think He will leave us here, and mock us, and deprive us of His grace, or make it unprofitable? No, no; but let us hope that He will bring his work to a perfect end.
Therefore, let us go on with good courage; for God hath already displayed His power toward us. Let us not doubt but what He will continue it, and that we shall have a perfect victory over Satan and our enemies; and that God the Father hath given all power into the hands of Jesus Christ, who is our head and captain; that we may be partakers of it. Thus we see St. Paul’s meaning. God hath witnessed, and we know it by experience, that He will never fail us in time of need. And why so? For He hath already saved us, in that He hath called us to the gospel, and redeemed us from sin. He hath called us with an holy calling; that is to say, He hath chosen us to Himself, out of the general confusion of mankind.
The Lord having drawn us to Him, will He not up-hold us, and guide us to the end? This is a sure confirmation of the power of God; that we always find Him ready to help us: therefore we put our trust in Him, knowing that we have already felt His power. That we may profit by this doctrine, let us know first of all, that whereas God hath given us the knowledge of His truth, it is as much as if He had shown us already that we belonged to His heavenly inheritance, and that we were His, and of His flock. If we are persuaded of this, and resolved therein, we shall always go forward in the cause, knowing that we are under His protection. He hath sufficient strength to overcome all our enemies, which makes our salvation sure.
Let us not fear, on account of our weakness, for God hath promised to assist us. We should think upon this, and endeavour to receive that which is said to us. The Lord will bring our salvation to an end! He will assist us in the midst of persecutions, and enable us to overcome them. When we are once convinced of these things, it will not require much power of rhetoric to strengthen us against temptations. We shall triumph over all our enemies: notwithstanding we seem to the world to be trodden under foot, and utterly overwhelmed. But we must come to this declaration which St. Paul addeth, concerning the salvation of which we have spoken, and the holy calling. He saith, “Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace.”
For He had no respect to our works or dignity, when He called us to salvation. He did it of mere grace. Therefore we shall be less excusable, if we disobey His requirements, seeing we have not only been purchased by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, but He had a care of our salvation before the world was made. Let us here observe that St. Paul condemns our unthankfulness, if we be so unfaithful to God, as not to bear witness of His gospel; seeing He hath called us to it. And that He may better express this purpose, the apostle adds, that this “was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; before the world had its course, or beginning: it was revealed at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When this great Savior made His appearance, the grace that was hid before, yea, and could not be reached by the knowledge of man, was made clear and manifest. And how so? The Son of God destroyed death, and also brought everlasting life! And we need not go afar off to find it, for the gospel leadeth us to it. When God sendeth us this message of salvation, we have only to receive the inheritance which He promised us. Let us open our mouths, that He may fill them; let us open our hearts, and give this testimony of the gospel leave to enter; and the immortality of the kingdom of heaven shall dwell within us; though we be poor, frail vessels, and have nothing but corruption and rottenness in us; yet notwithstanding, we do already lay hold upon this immortality, and have a sure witness of it, when we can accept this grace that is offered in the gospel.
That we may better understand what is here contained, let us remark that this word purpose, signifieth the everlasting decree of God; which hath no causes whatsoever. For when we speak of God’s counsels, we need not dispute about who moved Him: as though we should imagine reasons, and say, this is the reason why God hath determined after this sort; this is the cause why He would have it so. FM God will have us use such soberness, that His bare will may suffice us for all reason. When it is said, God hath thus appointed it, though our eyes be dazzled, and the matter seem strange to us, and we see no reason why it should thus be, yet we must not find fault. It is wisdom in us to do whatever God appointeth, and never ask why.
But because men have busy heads, and given much to curiosity, St. Paul bringeth us to God’s purpose; and telleth us plainly, that we must consider it so deep that we cannot enter into it, to know who moved Him. He was moved only by His just will; which is a rule of all justice. Therefore, we are hereby informed, that our salvation depends not upon our deserts: God never examined what we were, nor what we were worthy of, when He chose us to Himself; but He had His purpose; that is, He sought no cause of our salvation but in Himself. St. Paul showeth evidently that this word purpose signifieth this decree. But because men cannot by reason of the pride that is in them withhold themselves from imagining some worthiness of their own, they think that God is under an obligation to seek them: but St. Paul saith pointedly, purpose and grace. This is as much as if he had said free purpose.
This is therefore to beat down all our works: that we be not so foolish and stubborn, as to think God chose us because there was something in us worthy of it. No, no; but we must know that God never went farther than Himself, when He chose us to salvation. For He saw that there was nothing but condemnation in us: therefore He contented Himself, by mere grace and infinite mercy, to look upon our misery, and help us; although we were not worthy. For better proof hereof, St. Paul saith that this grace was given us before the world began.

We perceive by this, how void of sense men are when they vaunt themselves of believing that they are the cause of their own salvation; and have prevented God’s goodness, or were before Him, and met with Him. Whereupon hangeth our salvation? Is it not upon the election and choice that hath been from everlasting? God chose us before we were. What could we do then? We were made fit, we were well disposed to come to God. Nay, we see that our salvation doth not begin after we have knowledge, discretion, and good desires; but it is grounded in God’s everlasting decree, which was before any part of the world was made.
What can we do then? Have we any means to put forth ourselves? Can we give God occasion to call us, and separate us from the rest of the world? Are we not then marvellously mistaken, when we think we have some worthiness of our own, and exalt our deserts to darken God’s grace, and be thus prepared of ourselves to have access to Him? We must mark well for what purpose St. Paul here mentions the election of God; saying, that grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. They that think to abolish the doctrine of God’s election, destroy as much as possible the salvation of the world.
This is the most fit instrument, used by the devil, to deface the virtue of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; to bring to nought, and destroy the gospel; yea, and to put the goodness of God out of man’s memory. The devil hath no fitter instruments than those who fight against predestination; and cannot in their rage suffer it to be spoken of, or preached as it ought to be. If we detest the papists (as indeed they ought to be detested), because they have profaned the Holy Scripture, and have marred and depraved the truth of the gospel and the service of God, by infecting all the world with superstition and idolatry, much more are they to be detested who go about to bring to nought God’s election; and endeavour, by indirect and crooked ways, to stop men from speaking of it plainly and openly, and of preaching it as it ought to be.
Wherein consisteth the salvation of the faithful, only in God’s free election? Would we not have men preach that God hath chosen His, of mere goodness, without regard to any thing whatsoever? Will we not admit this to be such a mystery as cannot be attained to, showed and declared to us as far as God wished to reveal it? If we do not admit this, we enter into a conspiracy with Satan; as though Jesus Christ suffered in vain, and the passion that He suffered profited the world nothing. We may here remark that the gospel cannot be preached, that it is a profane gospel, or the doctrine of Mahomet, that there is no church nor Christianity, if God’s election be abolished.
The Holy Ghost that speaketh here must needs be proved a liar, if this doctrine be not received. Therefore, let us fight constantly; for it is the groundwork of our salvation. How can we build, and maintain the building, if the foundation be destroyed? St. Paul showeth us here with what virtue we must fight, and how we shall come to this inheritance which was so dearly purchased for us: he showeth us how we shall enter into the possession of the glory of God and make an end of this building and faith. My friends, we must be grounded upon the grace that was given us, not today nor yesterday, but before the world began.
It is true, God calleth us at this day, but His election goeth before; yea, and God chose us without any respect to our works, as we could have done nothing before: but we are debtors to Him for all; for He drew us out of the bottomless pit of destruction, wherein we were cast, and past all hope of recovery. Therefore, there is good reason for us to submit ourselves wholly to Him, and rely upon His goodness, and be thoroughly ravished with it. Let us hold fast this foundation, as I said before, unless we will have our salvation perish and come to nought. This doctrine is profitable for us if we can apply it well to our own use.
They that would not have us speak of God’s election will say, it is not necessary. But such men never tasted God’s goodness, neither do they know what it is to come to our Lord Jesus Christ. If we know not that we are saved because it pleased God to choose us before the world began, how can we know that which St. Paul saith to us; to wit, that we should give ourselves wholly to God, to be disposed of at His will, and to live and die in His service? How can we magnify His name? How can we confess that our salvation cometh from Him only, that He is the beginning of it, and that we have not helped Him therein? We may say it with our mouths, but unless we believe it, as here set forth, it will only be hypocrisy.
Therefore, let us learn that the doctrine of God’s election, whereby we are taught that He predestinated us before the world began, ought to be preached openly and fully, in despite of all the world that would stand against it. And not only so, but we should know that it is a very profitable doctrine for us; because we cannot lay hold upon the inf3nite goodness of God, until we come thither. Unless this point be well cleared, God’s mercy will be always disguised. I say, unless this be made plain to us, that He hath chosen us before we were born, and before we could prevent Him.
Men will frequently say that we were bought with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are not worthy that God should show us such great mercy: they will likewise say, who hath part and portion in such a redemption as God hath made in the person of His Son? Even they that will; they that seek God; even they that submit themselves to Him. They that have some good motives, and are not rude; those that are good natured, and have some good devotion. When men make such a mixture, and think they are called to God, and to His grace, for something that is in themselves, that they bring something to recommend them to the favor of God whereby they may attain salvation, the grace of God is darkened, and rent asunder.
This is a sacrilege that ought not to be countenanced. For this cause, I said the goodness of God shall never be thoroughly known until this election be laid before us; and we are taught that we are called at this time, because it pleased God to extend His mercy to us before we were born. This doctrine must be explained more at large; but as time will not admit at present, we shall attend to it in the latter part of the day.

There are two things here spoken of. First, Christ’s Church is to be a blessing. Secondly, Christ’s Church is to be
blessed. These two things you will find in the different sentences of the text.
First, Christ’s Church Is To Be A Blessing. “I will make them and the places round about My hill a
blessing.” The objective of God in choosing a people before all worlds was not only to save that people, but through
them to confer essential benefits upon the whole human race. When He chose Abraham He did not elect him simply to be
God’s friend and the recipient of peculiar privileges. But He chose him to make him, as it were, the conservator of Truth.
He was to be the ark in which the Truth should be hid. He was to be the keeper of the Covenant in behalf of the whole
world! And when God chooses any men by His Sovereign Electing Grace and makes them Christ’s, He does it not only for
their own sake, that they may be saved, but for the world’s sake. For know you not that, “you are the light of the
world”?—“A city set upon a hill which cannot be hid”? “You are the salt of the earth.” And when God makes you salt,
it is not only that you may have salt in yourselves but that, like salt, you may preserve the whole mass. If He makes you
leaven it is that like the little leaven, you may leaven the whole lump. Salvation is not a selfish thing. God does not give it
for us to keep to ourselves, but that we may thereby be made the means of blessing to others! And the great day shall declare
that there is not a man living on the surface of the earth but has received a blessing in some way or other through
God’s gift of the Gospel. The very keeping of the wicked in life and granting of the reprieve was purchased with the death
of Jesus. Through His sufferings and death the temporal blessings which both we and they enjoy are bestowed on us. The
Gospel was sent that it might first bless those that embrace it and then expand, so as to make them a blessing to the whole
human race!
In thus speaking of the Church as a blessing, we shall notice three things. First, here is Divinity—“I will make them
a blessing.” Secondly, here is personality of religion—“I will make them a blessing.” And, thirdly, here is the development
of religion—“and the places round about My hill.”
First, with regard to this blessing which God will cause His Church to be, here is Divinity. It is God, the Everlasting
Jehovah, speaking—He says, “I will make them a blessing.” None of us can bless others unless God has first blessed
us. We need Divine workmanship. “I will make them a blessing by helping them and by constraining them.” God makes
His people a blessing by helping them. What can we do without God’s help? I stand and preach to thousands, or it may
be hundreds. What have I done, unless a greater than man has been in the pulpit with me? I work in the Sunday
schools—what can I do, unless the Master is there, teaching the children with me? We want God’s aid in every position.
And once give us that assistance, there is no telling with how little labor we may become a blessing, Ah, a few words,
sometimes, will be more of a blessing than a whole sermon. You take some little prattler on your knee—and some few
words that you say to him he remembers and makes use of in later years. I knew a gray-headed old man who was in the
habit of doing this. He once took a boy to a certain tree and said, “Now, John, you kneel down at that tree and I will
kneel down with you.” He knelt down and prayed and asked God to convert him and save his soul. “Now,” he said,
“perhaps you will come to this tree again and if you are not converted you will remember that I asked under this tree that
God would save your soul.” That young man went away and forgot the old man’s prayer. But it chanced as God would
have it, that he walked down that field, again, and saw a tree. It seemed as if the old man’s name was cut in the bark. He
recollected what he prayed for, but the prayer was not fulfilled. But he dared not pass the tree without kneeling down to
pray, himself—and there was his spiritual birthplace! The simplest observation of the Christian shall be made a blessing,
if God helps him. “His leaf also shall not wither”—the simplest word he speaks shall be treasured up. And whatever he
does shall prosper.
But there is constraint here. “I will make them a blessing.” I will give them to be a blessing. I will compel them to be
a blessing. I can say myself that I never did anything which was a blessing to my fellow creatures without feeling compelled
to do it. I thought of going to a Sunday school to teach. On a certain day, someone called—asked me—begged
me—prayed me to take his class. I could not refuse to go. And there I was held hand and foot by the superintendent and
was compelled to go on. I was asked to address the children. I thought I could not, but no one else was there to do it, so I
stood up and stammered out a few words. And I recollect the first occasion on which I attempted to preach to the people—
I am sure I had no wish to do it—but there was no one else in the place. And should the congregation go away
without a single word of warning or address? How could I allow it? I felt forced to address them. And so it has been with
whatever I have laid my hand to. I have always felt a kind of impulse which I could not resist, but, moreover felt placed

by Providence in such a position that I had no wish to avoid the duty and if I had desired it, could not have helped myself.
And so it is with God’s people. As they go through their lives, wherever they have been made a blessing, they will find
that God seems to have thrust them into the vineyard. Such-and-such a man was once rich. What good was he in the
world? He did but loll in his carriage. He did but little good and was of little service to his fellow creatures. Says God, “I
will make him a blessing”—so He strips away his riches and brings him into low circumstances. He is then brought into
association with the poor and his superior education and intellect make him a blessing to them. God makes him a blessing!
Another man was naturally very timid. He would not pray at the Prayer Meeting, he would hardly like to join the
Church. Soon he gets into a position in which he cannot help himself. “I will make him a blessing.” And as sure as ever
you are a servant of God, He will make you a blessing! He will have none of His gold in the lump. He will hammer it out
and make it a blessing. I verily believe there are some in my congregation to whom God has given power to preach His
name. They do not know it, perhaps, but God will make it known by-and-by. I would have every man look and see
whether God is making him do a certain thing. And when once he feels the impulse, let him by no means ever check it. I
am somewhat of a believer in the doctrine of the Quakers as to the impulses of the Spirit and I fear lest I should check one
of them. If a thought crosses my mind, “Go to such a person’s house,” I always like to do it, because I do not know but
what it may be from the Spirit. I understand this verse to mean something like that. “I will make them a blessing. I will
force them to do good. If I cannot make a sweet scent come from them in any other way, I will pound them in the mortar
of affliction! If they have seed and the seed cannot be scattered in any other way, I will send a rough wind to blow the
downy seed everywhere.” “I will make them a blessing.” If you have never been made a blessing to anyone, depend upon
it, you are not a child of God! For Jehovah says, “I will make them a blessing.”
But notice, next, the personality of the blessing. “I will make them a blessing.” “I will make each member of the
Church a blessing.” Many people come up to the House of Prayer where the Church assembles and you say, “Well, what
are you doing at such-and-such a place where you attend?” “Well, we are doing so-and so.” “How do you spell we?” “It
is a plain monosyllable,” you say. “Yes, but do you put I in ‘we’?” “No.” There are a great many people who could easily
spell “we” without an I in it, for though they say, “We have been doing so-and-so,” they do not say, “How much have I
done? Did I do anything in it? Yes. This Chapel has been enlarged. What did I subscribe? Two pence!” Of course it is
done. Those who paid the money have done it. “We preach the Gospel.” Do we, indeed? Yes, we sit in our pew and listen
a little and do not pray for a blessing. “We have got such a large Sunday school.” Did you ever teach in it? “We have got
a very good working Society.” Did you ever go to work in it? That is not the way to spell, “we.” It is “I will make them a
blessing.” When Jerusalem was built, every man began nearest his own house. That is where you must begin to build, or
to do something. Do not let us tell a lie about it. If we do not have some share in the building, if we neither handle the
trowel nor the spear, let us not talk about our Church. For the text says, “I will make them a blessing,” everyone of
them.
“But, Sir, what can I do? I am nothing but a father at home. I am so full of business, I can only see my children a little.”
But in your business, do you ever have any servants? “No—I am a servant myself.” You have fellow servants? “No, I
work alone.” Do you work alone, then, and liv alone, like a monk in a cell? I don’t believe that. But you have fellow
servants at work, cannot you say a word to their conscience? “I don’t like to intrude religion into business.” Quite right,
too, so say I. When I am at business, let it be business. When you are at religion, let it be religion. But do you ever have
an opportunity? Why, you cannot go into an omnibus, or a railway carriage, but what you can say something for Jesus
Christ! I have found it so and I don’t believe I am different from other people. Cannot do anything? Cannot you put a
tract in your hat and drop it where you go? Cannot you speak a word to a child? Where does this man come from that
cannot do anything? There is a spider on the wall. He takes hold on kings’ palaces and spins his web to rid the world of
noxious flies. There is a nettle in the corner of the churchyard. The physician tells me it has its virtues. There is a tiny star
in the sky. That is noted in the chart and the mariner looks at it. There is an insect under water. It builds a rock. God
made all these things for something! But here is a man that God made and gave him nothing at all to do? I do not believe
it! God never makes useless things. He has no superfluous workmanship. I care not what you are. You have something to
do. And oh, may God show you what it is and then make you do it, by the wondrous compulsion of His Providence and
His Grace.
But we have to notice, in the third place, the development of Gospel blessing. “I will make them a blessing,” but it
does not end there—“And the places round about My hill.” Religion is an expansive thing. When it begins in the heart,
at first it is like a tiny grain of mustard seed. But it gradually increases and becomes a great tree, so that the birds of the
air lodge in its branches. A man cannot be religious to himself. “No man livs to himself and no man dies to himself.”
You have heard, a score of times, that if you do but drop a pebble in a brook it causes a small ring at first, then another
outside of that and then another, and another, till the influence of the pebble is perceptible over the entire bosom of the
water. So it is when God makes His people a blessing. “I will make a minister a blessing to one or two. I will then make
him a blessing to a hundred. I will then make him a blessing to thousands. And then I will make those thousands a blessing.
I will make each one, individually, a blessing—and when I have done that, I will make all the places round about a
blessing. I will make them a blessing.” I hope we shall never be satisfied, as members of Park Street, until we are a blessing
not only to ourselves, but to all the places round about our hill. What are the places round about our hill? I think
they are first, our agencies, secondly, our neighborhood and thirdly, the churches adjacent to us.
First, there are our agencies. There is our Sunday school—how near that is to our hill? I speak a great deal about
this, because I want it to be brought into notice. I intend to preach a practical sermon this morning, to move some of you
to come and teach in the Sunday school, for there we require some suitable men to “come up to the help of the Lord, to
the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Therefore I mention the Sunday school as a place very near to the hill. It ought
to be just at the very foot of it. Yes, it ought to be so near the hill that very many may pass from it to the Church. Then
there is our Visiting and Christian Instruction Society which we have for the visiting of this neighborhood. I trust that
has been made a blessing. God has sent among us a man who labors zealously and earnestly in visiting the sick. I have, as
the superintendent of my beloved Brother, the missionary, a regular account of his labors. His report has most highly
gratified me and I am able to bear testimony to the fact that he is very efficiently laboring around us. I want that Society
to have all your sympathy and strength. I consider him as a Joshua, with whom you are to go forth by hundreds to those
who liv in the neighborhood. Do you not know what dark places there are? Walk down a street a little to the right. See
the shops open on a Sunday. Some, thank God, that used to open them, now come and worship with us. We shall have
more yet. For “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” and why should not we have it? My Brothers and Sisters,
as you visit the sick, or distribute tracts from door to door, make this your prayer—that this Society, being one of the
places round about our hill, may be made a blessing! Let me not forget any agency connected with this Church. There are
several more which are places round about our hill—and the Lord has just put it into my heart to fashion other societies,
which shall be made a blessing to this hill—and in a little while you shall hear of them. We have several Brothers in this
congregation to whom God has given a mouth of utterance. These are about to form themselves into a society for proclaiming
the Word of God. Where God has so blessed His Church and made us to be so noted and named among the people,
why should we not keep on? We have been brought up to a great pitch of fervency and love. Now is the time for doing
something. While the iron is hot, why not strike and fashion it? I believe we have the materials not only for making a
Church, here, that shall be the glory of the Baptist churches in London, but for making churches everywhere throughout
the metropolis! And we have more plans on hand, which matured by sober judgment and backed by prudence, shall yet
make this metropolis more honored than it has been by the sound of the pure Gospel and the proclamation of the pure
Word of God. May God make all our Agencies—the places round about our hill—a blessing!
But next, there is the neighborhood. I am paralyzed, sometimes when I think that we are of so little service to the
neighborhood, though this is a green oasis in the midst of a great spiritual desert. Just at the back of us we could find you
hundreds of Roman Catholics and men of the very worst character. And it is sad to think that we cannot make this place
a blessing to them. It is made a great blessing to you, my Hearers. But you do not come from this district. You come from
anywhere and nowhere, some of you, I suppose. People say, “There is something doing in that Chapel—look at the
crowd—but we cannot get in!” This one thing I ask—never come here to gratify your curiosity. You that are members
of other congregations, just consider it your duty to stay at home. There are many stray sheep about. I would rather have
them than you. Keep to your own place. I do not want to rob other ministers. Do not come here from charity. We are
much obliged to you for your kindly intentions. But we would rather have your seat than your company if you are members
of other Churches. We want sinners to come—sinners of every sort. But do not let us have that sort of men whose
ears are everlastingly itching for some new preacher—who are saying, “I need something else, I need something else.”

Oh, I beseech you, for God’s sake, be of some good! And if you are running about from one place to another, you can
never expect to be. Do you know what is said of rolling stones? Ah, you have heard of that. They “gather no moss.”
Now, don’t be rolling stones but stay at home. God help to make us a blessing to the neighborhood! I long to see something
done for the people around here. We must open our arms to them. We must go out into the open air to them. We
must and will preach God’s Gospel to them. Let, then, the people around listen to the word of the Gospel. And may it be
said, “That place is the cathedral of Southwark!” So it is now. Out of it goes a blessing—God is pouring out a blessing
upon it!
What else do we mean by the places round about our hill? We mean the churches adjacent. I cannot but rejoice in the
prosperity of many churches around us. But as our beloved Brother, Mr. Sherman, said last Thursday morning, “It is not
invidious to say that there are very few churches that are in a prosperous state, but that taking the churches at large, they
are in a deplorable condition. It is only here and there,” he said, “that God is pouring out His Spirit. But most of the
churches are lying like barges at Black Friars Bridge when the tide is down—right in the mud—and all the king’s horses
and all the king’s men cannot pull them off till the tide comes and sets them afloat.” Who can tell, then, what good may
be done by this Church? If there is a light in this candlestick, let others come and light their candles by it! If there is a
flame here, let the flame spread until all the neighboring churches shall be lit up with the glory. Then indeed, shall we be
made the rejoicing of the earth—for there is never a revival in one spot, but it shall affect others. Who shall tell, then,
where it shall end?
“Fly abroad, you mighty Gospel!
Win and conquer, never cease!”
And it never will cease, when God once makes the places round about His hill a blessing.
The second point is that God’s people are not only to be a blessing but THEY ARE TO BE BLESSED. For read
the second part of the verse. “And I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.”
It is somewhat singular, as a prediction of the showers of blessings we hope to receive here, that God sent us showers
on the first day of opening. If I were a believer in omens, I would pray that as it rained the first day, so may it rain
every day since! When it stops, may the Chapel be shut up. For we only want it open so long as showers of Grace continue
to descend.
First, here is Sovereign Mercy. Listen to these words; “I will give them the shower in its season.” Is it not Sovereign,
Divine Mercy, for who can say, “I will give them showers,” except God? Can the false prophet who walks among the benighted
Hottentots? He says he is a rainmaker and can give them showers. But can he do it? Is there an imperial monarch,
or the most learned man on earth, who can say, “I will give them the showers in their season?” No. There is only one.
There is only one hand in which all the channels of the mighty ocean above the firmament are contained. There is only
one voice that can speak to the clouds and bid them beget the rain! “Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary
frost of Heaven, who has gendered it?” “Who sends down the rain upon the earth? Who scatters the showers upon the
green herb? Do not I, the Lord?” Who else could do it? Is not rain in God’s power? And who could send it except Him?
We know that Catholics pretend that they can get grace without getting it directly from God. For they believe that God
puts all His Grace into the pope and then that runs down into smaller pipes, called cardinals and bishops, through which
it runs into the priests. And by turning the tap with a shilling you can get as much “grace” as you like! But it is not so
with God’s Grace. He says, “I will give them showers.” Grace is the gift of God and is not to be created by man.
Notice next, it is needed Grace. “I will give them showers.” What would the ground do without showers? You may
break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? Ah, you may prepare your barn and
sharpen your sickles. But your sickles will be rusted before you have any wheat, unless there are showers. They are needed.
So is the Divine blessing—
“In vain Apollos sows the seed,
And Paul may plant in vain.”
In vain you come here, in vain you labor, in vain you give your money—
“Till God the plenteous shower bestows,
And sends salvation down.”
Then, next, it is plenteous Grace. “I will send them showers.” It does not say, “I will send them drops,” but “I will
send them showers.” “It seldom rains but it pours.” So it is with Grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in

such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Where are we going to hold God’s blessing that we have already
obtained? I told the people on Thursday that God had promised us that if we brought the tithes into the storehouse
He would send us such a blessing that we would not have room to hold it. We have tried it. And the promise has been
fulfilled, as it always will be as long as we rely upon it. Plenteous Grace! Ah, we shall need plenteous Divine Grace, my
Friends. Plenteous Grace to keep us humble, plenteous Grace to make us prayerful, plenteous Grace to make us holy,
plenteous Grace to make us zealous, plenteous Grace to make us truthful, plenteous Grace to preserve us through this life
and, at last, to land us in Heaven! We cannot do without showers of Grace! How many are there here that have been dry
in a shower of Grace? Why, there is a shower of Divine Grace here. But how is it that it does not fall on some of the people?
It is because they put up the umbrella of their prejudice. And though they sit here, even as God’s people sit, even
when it rains they have such a prejudice against God’s Word they do not want to hear it! They do not want to love it and
it runs off their prejudices. Nevertheless, the showers are there—and we will thank God for them where they do fall!
Again, it is seasonable Grace. “I will give them the shower in its season.” There is nothing like seasonable Grace.
There are fruits, you know, that are best in their season and they are not good at any other time. And there are Graces
that are good in their season but we do not always require them. A person vexes and irritates me. I need Grace just at that
moment to be patient! I have not got it and I get angry. Ten minutes after I am ever so patient. But I have not had Grace
in its season. The promise is, “I will give them the shower in its season.” Ah, poor waiting Soul, what is your season this
morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the seasons for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black
clouds? Then that is the season for showers! What is your season this morning, business man? Lost money all the week,
have you? Now is the season to ask for showers. It is nighttime. Now the dew falls. The dew does not fall in the day—it
falls in the night. The night of affliction, trial and trouble. There stands the promise—only go and plead it. “I will give
them the shower in its season.”
We have one more thought and then we have done. Here is a varied blessing. “I will give you showers of blessing.”
The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. The rain is all of one kind when it comes. But Divine
Grace is not all of one kind, or it does not produce the same effect. When God sends rain upon His Church, He “sends
showers of blessing.” There are some ministers who think that if there is a shower on their church, God will send a shower
of work. Yes, but if He does, He will send a shower of comfort. Others think that God will send a shower of Gospel
Truth. Yes, but if He sends that, He will send a shower of Gospel holiness. For all God’s blessings go together! They are
like the sweet sister graces that danced hand in hand. God sends showers of blessings!
If He gives comforting Grace, He also gives converting Grace. If He makes the trumpet blow for the bankrupt sinner,
He will also make it sound a shout of joy for the sinner that is pardoned and forgiven. He will send “showers of blessing.”
Now, then, there is a promise in that Bible. We have tried to explain and enlarge upon it. What shall we do with
it?—
“In that book there lies hidden
A pearl of price unknown.”
Well, we have examined this rich promise. We as a Church are looking at it. We are saying, “Is that ours?” I think most
of the members will say, “It is, for God has poured out upon us showers of blessing in their season.” Well, then, if the
promise is ours, the precept is ours as much as the promise! Ought we not to ask God to continue to make us a blessing?
Some say I did so-and-so when I was a young man. But supposing you are fifty, you are not an old man now. Is there not
something you can do? It is all very well to talk about what you have done. But what are you doing now? I know what it
is with some of you. You shined brightly, once, but your candle has not been trimmed lately and so it does not shine so
well. May God take away some of the worldly cares and trim the candles a little! You know there were scissors and scissors
trays provided in the Temple for all the candles, but no extinguishers. And if there should be a poor candle here this
morning with a wick that has not given light for a long while, you will have no extinguisher from me—but I hope you
will always have a trimming. I thought the first time when I came to the lamps this morning it would be to trim them.
That has been the intention of my sermon—to trim you a little—to set you to work for Jesus Christ.
O Zion, shake yourself from the dust! O Christian, raise yourself from your slumbers! Warrior, put on your armor!
Soldier, grasp your sword! The captain sounds the alarm of war! O sluggard, why do you sleep? O heir of Heaven, has
not Jesus done so much for you that you should liv to Him? O beloved Brothers and Sisters, purchased with redeeming
mercies, girt about with loving kindness and with tenderness—
“Now for a shout of sacred joy,’’
and after that to the battle! The little seed has grown to this—who knows what it shall be? Only let us strive together
without variance! Let us labor for Jesus. Never did men have so fair an opportunity, for the last hundred years, “There is
a tide that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Shall you take it at the flood? Over the bar, at the harbor’s mouth! O
ship of Heaven, let your sails be out. Let not your canvass be furled. And the wind will blow us across the Sea of Difficulty
that lies before us. Oh, that the latter day might have its dawning even in this despised habitation! O my God! From
this place cause the first wave to spring which shall move another and then another, till the last great wave shall sweep
over the sands of time and dash against the rocks of eternity, echoing as it falls, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! the
Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 1:5.
Seek ye rest from your distresses ye children of woe and sorrow ? This is the place where ye may lighten your burden, and lose your cares. Oh, son of affliction and misery, wouldst thou forget for a time thy pains and griefs? This is the Bethesda the house of mercy; this is the place where God designs to cheer thee, and to make thy distresses stay their never ceasing course; this is the spot where his children love to be found, because here they find consolation in the midst of tribulation, joy in their sorrows, and comfort in their afflictions. Even worldly men admit that there is something extremely comforting in the sacred Scriptures, and in our holy religion; I have even heard it said of some, that after they had, by their logic, as they thought, annihilated Christianity, and proved it to be untrue, they acknowledged that they had spoilt an excellently comforting delusion, and that they could almost sit down and weep to think it was not a reality.
Ay, my friends, if it were not true, ye might weep. If the Bible were not the truth of God – if we could not meet together around his mercy seat, then ye might put your hands upon your loins and walk about as if ye were in travail. If ye had not something in the world beside your reason, beside the fleeting joys of earth – if ye had not something which God had given to you, some hope beyond the sky, some refuge that should be more than terrestrial, some deliverance which should be more than earthly, then ye might weep; – ah! weep your heart out at your eyes, and let your whole bodies waste away in one perpetual tear. Ye might ask the clouds to rest on your head, the rivers to roll down in streams from both your eyes, for your grief would “have need of all the watery things that nature could produce.” But, blessed be God, we have consolation, we have joy in the Holy Ghost. We find it nowhere else. We have raked the earth through, but we have discovered ne’er a jewel; we have turned this dunghill-world o’er and o’er a thousand times, and we have found nought that is precious; but here, in this Bible, here in the religion of the blessed Jesus we the sons of God, have found comfort and joy; while we can truly say, “As our afflictions abound, so our consolations also abound by Christ.”  
There are four things in my text to which I invite your attention: the first is the sufferings to be expected – “The sufferings of Christ abound in us;” secondly, the distinction to be noticed – they are the sufferings of Christ; thirdly, a proportion to be experienced – as the sufferings of Christ abound, so our consolations abound; and fourthly, the person to be honored – “So our consolation aboundeth by Christ.”
1. Our first division then is, The Sufferings To Be Excpected.
Our holy Apostle says “The sufferings of Christ abound in us.” Before we buckle on the Christian armor we ought to know what that service is which is expected of us. A recruiting sergeant often slips a shilling into the hand of some ignorant youth, and tells him that. Her Majesty’s Service is a fine thing, that he has nothing to do but walk about in his flaming colors, that he will have no hard service – in fact, that he has nothing to do but to be a soldier, and go straight on to glory. But the Christian sergeant when he enlists a soldier of the cross, never deceives him like that. Jesus Christ himself said, “Count the cost.” He wished to have no disciple who was not prepared to go all the way – “to bear hardness as a good soldier.” I have sometimes heard religion described in such a way that its high coloring displeases me. It is true “her ways are ways of pleasantness;” but it is not true that a Christian never has sorrow or trouble. It is true that light-eyed cheerfulness, and airy-footed love, can go through the world without much depression: and tribulation: but it is not true that Christianity will shield a man from trouble; nor ought it to be so represented. In fact, we ought to speak of it in the other-way. Soldier of Christ, if thou enlisteth, thou wilt have to do hard battle. There is no bed of down for thee; there it no riding to heaven in a chariot; the rough way must be trodden; mountains must be climbed, rivers must be forded, dragons must be fought, giants must be slain, difficulties must be overcome, and great trials must be borne. It is not a smooth road to heaven, believe me; for those who have gone but a very few steps therein have found it to be a rough one.
It is a pleasant one; it is the most delightful in all the world, but it is not easy in itself; it is only pleasant because of the company, because of the sweet promises on which we lean, because of our Beloved who walks with us through all the rough and thorny brakes of this vast wilderness. Christian, expect trouble: “Count it not strange concerning the fiery trial, and as though some strange thing had happened unto thee;” for as truly as thou art a child of God, thy Savior hath left thee for his legacy, – “In the world, ye shall have tribulation; in me ye shall have peace.” If I had no trouble I would not believe myself one of the family. If I never had a trial I would not think myself a heir of heaven. Children of God must not, shall not, escape the rod. Earthly parents may spoil their children but the heavenly Father never shall his. “Whom he loveth he chasteneth,” and scourgeth every son whom he hath chosen. His people must suffer; therefore, expect it Christian; if thou art a child of God believe it, look for it, and when it comes, say, “Well suffering, I foresaw thee; thou art no stranger; I have looked for thee continually.” You cannot tell how much it will lighten your trials, if you await them with resignation. In fact, make it a wonder if you get through a day easily. If you remain a week without persecution, think it a remarkable thing; and if you should, perchance, liv a month without heaving a sigh from your inmost heart, think it a miracle of miracles. But when the trouble comes, say, “Ah! this is what I looked for; it is marked in the chart to heaven; the rock is put down; I will sail confidently by it; my Master has not deceived me.”  
“Why should I complain of want or distress,
Temptation or pain? he told me no less.”
But why must the Christian expect trouble? Why must he expect the sufferings of Christ to abound in him? Stand here a moment, my brother, and I will show thee four reasons wherefore thou must endure trial. First look upward, then look downward, then look around thee, and then look within thee; and thou wilt see four reasons why the sufferings of Christ should abound in thee.  
Look upward. Dost thou see thy heavenly Father, a pure and holy being, spotless, just, perfect? Dost thou know that thou art one day to be like him? Thinkest thou that thou wilt easily come to be conformed to his image? Wilt thou not require much furnace work, much grinding in the mill of trouble, much breaking with the pestle in the mortar of affliction, much being broken under the wheels of agony? Thinkest thou it will be an easy thing for thy heart to become as pure as God is? Dost thou think thou canst so soon get rid of thy corruptions, and become perfect, even as thy Father which is in heaven is perfect?  
Lift up thine eye again; dost thou discern those bright spirits clad in white, purer than alabaster, more chaste, more fair than Parian marble? Behold them as they stand in glory. Ask them whence their victory came. Some of them will tell you they swam through seas of blood. Behold the scars of honor on their brows; see, some of them lift up their hands and tell you they were once consumed in fire; while others were slain by the sword, rent in pieces by wild beasts; were destitute afflicted, tormented. 0 ye noble army of martyrs, ye glorious hosts of the living God. Must ye swim through seas of blood, and shall I hope to ride to heaven wrapped in furs and ermine? Did ye endure suffering, and shall I be pampered with the luxuries of this world? Did ye fight and then reign, and must I reign without a battle. Oh, no. By God’s help I will expect that as ye suffered so must I, and as through much tribulation ye entered the kingdom of heaven, so shall I.  
Next, Christian, turn thine eyes downward. Dost thou know what foes thou hast beneath thy feet? There are hell and its lions against thee. Thou wast once a servant of Satan and no king will willingly lose his subjects. Dost thou think that Satan be pleased with thee? Why, thou hast changed thy country. Thou wast once a liege servant of Apollyon, but now thou art become a good soldier of Jesus Christ; and dost thou think the devil is pleased with thee? I tell thee nay. If thou hadst seen Satan the moment thou wast converted, thou wouldst have beheld a wondrous scene. As soon as thou gavest thy heart to Christ, Satan spread his bat-like-wings: down he flew into hell, and summoning all his councilors, he said “Sons of the pit, true heirs of darkness; ye who erst were clad in light, but who fell with me from high dignities, another of my servants has forsaken me; I have lost another of my family; he is gone over to the side of the Lord of Hosts. Oh ye, my compeers, ye fellow-helpers of the powers of darkness, leave no stone unturned to destroy him. I bid you all hurl all your fiercest darts at him; plague him; let hell-dogs bark at him; let fiends besiege him; give him no rest, harrass him to the death; let the fumes of our corrupt and burning lake ever rise in his nostrils; persecute him; the man is a traitor; give him no peace; since I cannot have him here to bind him in chains of adamant, since I ne’er can have him here to torment and afflict him, as long as ye can, till his dying day, I bid you howl at him; until he crosses the river, afflict him, grieve him, torment him; for the wretch has turned against me, and become a servant of the Lord.” Such may have been the scene in hell, that very day when thou didst love the Lord. And dost thou think Satan loves thee better now? Ah! no. He will always be at thee, for thine enemy, “like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.” Expect trouble therefore, Christian, when thou lookest beneath thee.  
Then, man of God, look around thee. Do not be asleep. Open thine eyes, and look around thee. Where art thou? Is that man a friend next to thee? No; thou art in an enemy’s country. This is a wicked world. Half the people, I suppose, profess to be irreligious, and those who profess to be pious, often are not. “Cursed is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm.” – Blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” – “As for men of low degree, they are vanity;” the voice of the crowd is not worth having; and as for “men of high degree, they are a lie,” which is worse still. The world is not to be trusted in, not to be relied upon. The true Christian treads it beneath his feet, with “all that earth calls good or great.” Look around thee my brother; thou wilt see some good hearts, strong and valiant; thou wilt see some true souls, sincere and honest; thou wilt see some faithful lovers of Christ; but I tell thee O child of light, that where thou meetest one sincere man, thou wilt meet twenty hypocrites; where thou wilt find one that will lead thee to heaven, thou wilt find a score who would push thee to hell. Thou art in a land of enemies, not of friends.
Never believe the world is good for much. Many people have burned their fingers by taking hold of it. Many a man has been injured by putting his hand into a nest of the rattlesnake – the world; thinking that the dazzling hues of the sleeping serpent were securities from harm. O Christian! the world is not thy friend. If it is, then thou art not God’s friend; for he who is the friend of the world is the enemy of God; and he who is despised of men, is often loved of Jehovah. Thou art in an enemy’s country, man: therefore, expect trouble: expect that the man who “eats thy bread will lift up his heel against thee;” expect that thou shalt be estranged from those that love thee; be assured that since thou art in the land of the foe, thou shalt find foemen everywhere. When thou sleepest, think that thou sleepest on the battle-field; when thou walkest believe that there is an ambush in every hedge. Oh! take heed, take heed: this is no good world to shut thine eyes in. Look around thee, man; and when thou art upon the watch-tower, reckon surely that trouble cometh.  
But then, look within thee. There is a little world in here, which is quite enough to give us trouble. A Roman once said he wished he had a window to his heart, that all people might see what was going on there. I am very glad I have not; if I had I would shut it up as closely as Apsley House used to be; I would take care to have all the shutters up. Most of us would have great need of shutters if we had such a window. However, for one moment, peep into the window of thine heart, to observe what is there. Sin is there – original sin and corruption; and what is more, self is still within. Ah! if thou hadst no devil to tempt thee, thou wouldest tempt thyself; it there were no enemies to fight thee, thyself would be thy worst foe; if there were no world, still thy self would be bad enough; for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
Look within thee, believer; know that thou bearest a cancer in thy very vitals; that thou carriest within thee a bomb-shell, ready to burst at the slightest spark of temptation; know that thou hast inside thy heart an evil thing, a coiled-up viper, ready to sting thee and bring thee into trouble, and pain, and misery unutterable. Take heed of your heart, Christian; and when thou findest sorrow, trouble, and care, look within and say, “Verily, I may well receive this, considering the evil heart of unbelief which I carry about with me.” Now dost thou see, brother Christian? No hope to escape trouble, is there. What shall we do then? There is no chance for us. We must bear suffering and affliction; therefore, let us endure it cheerfully. Some of us are the officers in God’s regiments, and we are the mark of all the riflemen of the enemy. Standing forward, we have to bear all the shots. What a mercy it is that not one of God’s officers ever fall in battle! God always keeps them. When the arrows fly fast, the shield of faith catches them all; and when the enemy is most angry, God is most pleased. So, for aught we care, the world may go on, the devil may revile, flesh may rise; “for we are more than conquerors through him that hath loved us.” Therefore, all honor be unto God alone. Expect suffering – this is our first point.  
2. Now, secondly, there is A Distinction To Be Noticed.
Our sufferings are said to be the sufferings of Christ. Now, suffering in itself is not an evidence of Christianity. There are many people who have trials and troubles who are not children of’ God. I have heard some poor whining people come and say, “I know I am a child of God because I am in debt, because I am in poverty, because I am in trouble.” Do you indeed? I know a great many rascals in the same condition; and I don’t believe you are a child of God any the more because you happen to be in poor circumstances. There are abundance who are in trouble and distress besides God’s children. It is not the peculiar lot of God’s family; and if I had no other ground of my hope as a Christian, except my experience of trials, I should have but very poor ground indeed. But there is a distinction to be noticed. Are these sufferings the sufferings of Christ, or are they not? A man is dishonest, and is put in jail for it; a man is a coward and men hiss at him for it; a man is insincere, and, therefore, persons avoid him. Yet he says he is persecuted. Persecuted! Not at all; it serves him right. He deserves it. But such persons will comfort themselves with the thought, that they are “the dear people of God,” because other people avoid them; when it so happens that they just deserve it. They do not liv as they ought to do; therefore the world’s punishment is their desert. Take heed, beloved, that your sufferings are true sufferings of Christ; be sure they are not your own sufferings; for if they are, you will get no relief. It is only when they are the sufferings of Jesus that we may take comfort.  
“Well,” you say, “What is meant by our sufferings being the sufferings of Christ?” You know the word “Christ” in the Bible sometimes means the whole Church with Christ, as in 1 Corinthians 12:12, and several other passages which I cannot just now remember; but you will call to mind a scripture where it says, “I fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ, for his body’s sake, which is the Church.” Now, as Christ, the head, had a certain amount of suffering to endure, so the body must also have a certain weight laid upon it. Our afflictions are the sufferings of Christ mystical, the sufferings of Christ’s body, the sufferings of Christ’s church; for you know that if a man could be so tall as to have his head in heaven and his feet at the bottom of the sea, it would be the same body, and the head would feel the sufferings of the feet. So, though my head is in heaven, and I am on earth, my griefs are Christ’s griefs; my trials are Christ’s trials, my afflictions, he suffers.  
“I feel at my heart all thy sighs and thy groans,
For thou art most near me, my flesh and my bones;
In all thy distresses, thy Head feels the pain,
Yet all are most needful, not one is in vain.”
 
The trials of a true Christian are as much the sufferings of Christ, as the agonies of Calvary.  
Still you say, “We want to discern whether our troubles are the trials of Christ.” Well, they are the trials of Christ, if you suffer for Christ’s sake. If you are called to endure hardness for the sake of the truth, then those are the sufferings of Christ. If you suffer for your own sake, it may be a punishment for your own sins; but if you endure for Christ’s sake, then they are the trials of Christ. “But,” say some, “is there any persecution now-a-days? Do any Christians have to suffer for Christ’s sake now?” Suffer, sirs! Yes. “I could a tale unfold” this morning, if I pleased, of bigotry insufferable, of persecution well nigh as bad as that in the days of Mary; only our foes have not the power and the law on their side. I could tell you of some who, from the simple fact, that they choose to come and hear this despised young man, this ranting fellow, are to be looked upon as the offscouring of all things.
Many are the persons who come to me, who have to lead a miserable and unhappy life, simply because from my lips they heard the word of truth. Still, despite of all that is said, they will hear it now. I have, I am sure, many before me, whose eyes would drop with tears, if I were to tell their history – some who have privately sent me word of how they have to suffer for Christ’s sake, because they choose to hear whom they please. Why, is it not time that men should choose to do as they like. If I do not care to do just as other ministers do, have not I a right to preach as I please? If I havn’t I will – that is all. And have not other parties a right to hear me if they like, without asking the lords and governors of the present day, whether the man is really clerical or not. Liberty! liberty! Let persons do as they please. But liberty – where is it? Ye say it is in Britain. It is, in a measure, but not thoroughly. However, I rejoice that there are some who say, “Well, my soul is profited: and let men say what they will, I will hold hard and fast to truth, and to the place where I hear the word to my soul’s edification.” So, dear hearts, go on, go on; and if ye suffer for Christ’s sake, they are Christ’s sufferings. If ye came here simply because ye gained anything by it, then your sufferings would be your own; but since there is nothing to gain but the profit of our own souls, still hold on; and whate’er is said, your persecution will but win you a brighter crown in glory.  
Ah! Christian, this ennobles us. My brethren, this makes us proud and happy to think that our trials are the trials of Jesus. Oh! I think it must have been some honor to the old soldier, who stood by the Iron Duke in his battles, to be able to say, “We fight under the good old Duke, who has won so many battles: and when he wins, part of the honor will be ours.” Christian, thou fightest side by side with Jesus; Christ is with thee; every blow is a blow aimed at Christ; every slander is a slander on Christ; the battle is the Lord’s; the triumph is the Lord’s, therefore, still on to victory! I remember a story of a great commander, who, having won many glorious victories, led his troops into a defile, and when there, a large body of the enemy entirely surrounded him. He knew a battle was inevitable on the morning, he therefore went round to all the tents, to hear in what condition his soldier’s minds were – whether they were dispirited or not. He came to one tent, and as he listened, he heard a man say, “There is our general; he is very brave, but he is very unwise this time; he has led us into a place where we are sure to be beaten; there are so many of the enemy’s cavalry, so many infantry:” and then the man counted up all the troops on their own side, and made them only so many. Then the commander, after he had heard the tale, gently drew aside a part of the tent, and said, “How many do you count me for? You have counted the infantry and cavalry; but how many do you count me for – me, your mighty captain, who have won so many victories.” Now, Christian, I say, how many do you count one? He is not one, nor a thousand: he is the “chief among ten thousand.” But he is more than that. Oh! put him down for a high figure; and when thou countest up thine aids and auxiliaries, put down Christ for all in all, for in him victory is certain – the triumph is secure.
3. Our third point is, A Proportion To Be Experienced.
As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so the consolations of Christ abound. Here is a blessed proportion. God always keeps a pair of scales – in this side he puts his people’s trials and in that he puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, even so shall consolation abound by Christ. This is a matter of pure experience. Some of you do not know anything at all about it. You are not Christians, you are not born again, you are not converted; ye are unregenerate, and, therefore, ye have never realized this wonderful proportion between the sufferings and the consolations of a child of God. Oh! it is mysterious that, when the black clouds gather most, the light within us is always the brightest. When the night lowers and the tempest is coming on, the heavenly captain is always closest to his crew. It is a blessed thing, when we are most cast down, then it is that we are most lifted up by the consolations of Christ. Let me show you how.  
The first reason is, because trials make more room, for consolation. There is nothing makes a man have a big heart like a great trial. I always find that little, miserable people, whose hearts are about the size of a grain of mustard-seed, never have had much to try them. I have found that those people who have no sympathy for their fellows – who never weep for the sorrows of others – very seldom have had any woes of their own. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation. God comes into our heart – he finds it full – he begins to break our comforts and to make it empty; than there is more room for grace. The humbler a man lies, the more comfort he will always have. I recollect walking with a ploughman one day – a man who was deeply taught, although he was a ploughman; and really ploughmen would make a great deal better preachers than many college gentlemen – and he said to me, “Depend upon it, my good brother, if you or I ever get one inch above the ground, we shall get just that inch too high.” I believe it is true; for the lower we lie, the nearer to the ground we are – the more our troubles humble us – the more fit we are to receive comfort; and God always gives us comfort when we are most fit for it. That is one reason why consolations increase in the same ratio as our trials.  
Then again, trouble exercises our graces, and the very exercise of our graces tends to make us more comfortable and happy. Where showers fall most, there the grass is greenest. I suppose the fogs and mists of Ireland make it “the Emerald Isle;” and wherever you find great fogs of trouble, and mists of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts: full of the beautiful verdure of the comfort and love of God. O Christian, do not thou be saying, “Where are the swallows gone? they are gone: they are dead.” They are not dead; they have skimmed the purple sea, and gone to a far off land; but they will be back again by-and-by. Child of God, say not the flowers are dead; say not the winter has killed them, and they are gone. Ah! no; though winter hath coated them with the ermine of its snow; they will put up their heads again, and will be alive very soon. Say not, child of God, that the sun is quenched, because the cloud hath hidden it. Ah! no; he is behind there, brewing summer for thee; for when he cometh out again, he will have made the clouds fit to drop in April showers, all of them mothers of the sweet May flowers. And oh! above all, when thy God hides his face, say not, that he has forgotten thee. He is but tarrying a little while to make thee love him better; and when he cometh, thou shalt have joy in the Lord, and. shalt rejoice with joy unspeakable. Waiting, exercises our grace; waiting, tries our faith; therefore, wait on in hope; for though the promise tarry, it can never come too late.  
Another reason why we are often most happy in our troubles is this – then we have the closest dealing with God. I speak from heart knowledge and real experience. We never have such close dealings with God as when we are in tribulation. When the barn is full, man can liv without God; when the purse is bursting with gold, we somehow can do without so much prayer. But once take your gourds away, you want your God; once cleanse away the idols out of the house, then you must go and honor Jehovah. Some of you do not pray half as much as you ought. If you are the children of God, you will have the whip, and when you have that whip, you will run to your Father. It is a fine day, and the child walks before its father; but there is a lion in the road, now he comes and takes his father’s hand. He could run half-a-mile before him when all was fine and fair; but once bring the lion, and it is “father! father!” as close as he can be.
It is even so with the Christian. Let all be well, and he forgets God. Jeshurun waxes fat, and he begins to kick against God; but take away his hopes, blast his joys, let the infant lie in the coffin, let the crops be blasted, let the herd be cut off from the stall, let the husband’s broad shoulder lie in the grave, let the children be fatherless – then it is that God is a God indeed. Oh, strip me naked; take from me all I have; make me poor, a beggar, penniless, helpless: dash that cistern in pieces; crush that hope; quench the stars; put out the sun; shroud the moon in darkness, and place me all alone in space, without a friend, without a helper; still, “Out of the depths will I cry unto thee, O God.” There is no cry so good as that which comes from the bottom of the mountains; no prayer half so hearty as that which comes up from the depths of the soul, through deep trials and afflictions. Hence they bring us to God, and we are happier; for that is the way to be happy – to liv near to God. So that while troubles abound, they drive us to God, and then consolations abound.  
Some people call troubles weights. Verily they are so. A ship that has large sails and a fair wind, needs ballast. Troubles are the ballast of a believer. The eyes are the pumps which fetch out the bilge-water of his soul, and keep him from sinking. But if trials be weights I will tell you of a happy secret. There is such a thing as making a weight lift you. If I have a weight chained to me, it keeps me down; but give me pulleys and certain appliances, and I can make it lift me up. Yes, there is such a thing as making troubles raise me towards heaven. A gentlemen once asked a friend, concerning a beautiful horse of his, feeding about in the pasture with a clog on its foot, “Why do you clog such a noble animal?” “Sir,” said he, “I would a great deal sooner clog him than lose him: he is given to leap hedges.” That is why God clogs his people. He would rather clog them than lose them; for if he did not clog them, they would leap the hedges and be gone. They want a tether to prevent their straying, and their God binds them with afflictions, to keep them near to him, to preserve them, and have them in his presence. Blessed fact – as our troubles abound, our consolations also abound.  
4. Now we close up with our last point; and may the Holy Ghost once more strengthen me to speak a word or two to you. There Is A Person To Be Honored.
It is a fact that Christians can rejoice in deep distress; it is a truth, that put them in prison, and they still will sing; like many birds, they sing best in their cages. It is true that when waves roll over them, their soul never sinks. It is true they have a buoyancy about them which keeps their heads always above the water, and helps them to sing in the dark, dark night, “God is with me still.” But to whom shall we give the honor? To whom shall the glory be given? Oh! to Jesus, to Jesus; for the text says it is all by Jesus. It is not because I am a Christian that I get joy in my trouble – not necessarily so; it is not always the fact that troubles bring their consolations; but it is Christ who comes to me. I am sick in my chamber; Christ cometh up stairs, he sitteth by my bedside, and he talketh sweet words to me. I am dying; the chilly cold waters of Jordan have touched my foot, I feel my blood stagnate and freeze. I must die; Christ puts his arms around me, and says, “Fear not, beloved; to die is to be blessed; the waters of death have their fountain head in heaven; they are not bitter, they are sweet as nectar, for they flow from the throne of God.”
I wade in the stream, the billows gather around me, I feel that my heart and flesh fail but there is the same voice in my ears, “Fear not, I am with thee! be not dismayed; I am thy God.” Now, I come to the borders of the infinite unknown, that country “from whose bourne no traveler returns;” I stand almost affrighted to enter the realm of shades; but a sweet voice says, “I will be with thee whithersoever thou goest; if thou shouldst make thy bed in Hades I will be with thee;” and I still go on, content to die, for Jesus cheers me; he is my consolation and my hope. Ah! ye who know not that matchless name, Jesus, ye have lost the sweetest note which e’er can give melody. Ah! ye who have never been entranced by the precious sonnet contained in that one word Jesu, ye who know not that Jesu means, I-ES-U, (“I ease you”); ye have lost the joy and comfort of your lives, and ye must liv miserable and unhappy. But the Christian can rejoice, since Christ will never forsake him, never leave him, but will be with him.  
A word or two to characters – First, I have a word with you who are expecting troubles, and are very sad because you are looking forward to them. Take the advice of the common people, and “never cross a bridge till you get to it.” Follow my advice: never bring your troubles nearer than they are, for they will be sure to come down upon you soon enough. I know that many persons fret themselves about their trials before they come. What on earth is the good of it? If you will show me any benefit in it, I will say go on; but to me it seems quite enough for the Father to lay the rod on the child without the child chastising itself. Why should you do so? You, who are afraid of trouble, why should you be so? The trial may never overtake you; and if it does come, strength will come with it. Therefore, up with thee, man, who are sitting down groaning, because of forebodings.  
“Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.”
 
Out on thee! Up! up! Why wilt thou sit down and be frozen to death? When trouble comes, then fight it; with manful heart and strong, plunge into the stream, accoutred as thou art, and swim it through; but oh! do not fear it before it comes.  
Then Christian in trouble, I have a word to say with thee. So my brother, thou art in trouble; thou art come into the waves of afflitio, art thou? No strange thing, is it brother? Thou hast been there many times before. “Ah,” but sayest thou, “this is the worst I ever had. I have come up here this morning with a millstone round my neck; I have a mine of lead in my heart: I am miserable, I am unhappy, I am cast down exceedingly.” Well, but brother, as thy troubles abound, so shall thy consolation. Brother, hast thou hung thy harp upon the willows? I am glad thou hast not broken the harp altogether. Better, to hang it on the willows than to break it; be sure not to break it. Instead of being distressed about thy trouble, rejoice in it; thou wilt then honor God, thou wilt glorify Christ, thou wilt bring sinners to Jesus, if thou wilt sing in the depths of trouble, for then they will say, “There must be something in religion after all, otherwise the man would not be so happy.”
Then one word with you who are almost driven to despair. I would stretch my hands out, if I could, this morning – for I believe a preacher ought to be a Briareus, with a thousand hands to fetch out his hearers one by one, and speak to them. There is a man here quite despairing – almost every hope gone. Brother, shall I tell thee what to do? Thou hast fallen off the main deck, thou art in the sea, the floods surround thee; thou seemest to have no hope; thou catchest at straws; what shalt thou do now? Do? why lie upon the sea of trouble, and float upon it; be still, and know that God is God, and thou wilt never perish. All thy kicking and struggling will sink thee deeper; but lie still, for behold the life-boat cometh; Christ is coming to thy help; soon he will deliver thee, and fetch thee out of all thy perplexities.  
Lastly, some of you have no interest in this sermon at all. I never try to deceive my hearers by making them believe that all I say belongs to all who hear me. There are different characters in God’s word; it is yours to search your own hearts this day, and see whether ye are God’s people, or not. As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, there are two classes here. I do not own the distinction of aristocratic and democratic; in my sight, and in God’s sight, every man is alike. We are made of one flesh and blood; we do not have china gentlemen and earthenware poor people; we are all made of the same mould of fashion. There is one distinction, and only one. Ye are all either the children of God, or children of the devil; ye are all either born again, or dead in trespasses and sins. It is yours to let the question ring in your ears: “Where am I? Is yon black tyrant, with his fiery sword, my king; or do I own Jehovah-Jesus as my strength, my shield, my Savior?” I shall not force you to answer it; I shall not say anything to you about it. Only answer it yourselves; let your hearts speak; let your souls speak. All I can do is to propose the question. God apply it to your souls! I beseech him to send it home! and make the arrow stick fast!  
“Is Jesus mine! I am now prepared,
To meet with what I thought most hard;
Yes, let the winds of trouble blow,
And comforts melt away like snow,
No blasted trees, nor failing crops,
Can hinder my eternal hopes;
Tho’ creatures change, the Lord’s the same;
Then let me triumph in his name.

“For so he giveth his beloved sleep.” – Psalm 127:2.
The sleep of the body is the gift of God. So said Homer of old, when he described it as descending from the clouds and resting on the tents of the warriors around old Troy. And so sang Virgil, when he spoke of Palinurus falling asleep upon the prow of his ship. Sleep is the gift of God. We think that we lay our heads upon our pillows, and compose our bodies in a peaceful posture, and that, therefore we naturally and necessarily sleep. But it is not so. Sleep is the gift of God; and not a man would close his eyes, did not God put his fingers on his eyelids; did not the Almighty send a soft and balmy influence over his frame which lulled his thoughts into quiescence, making him enter into that blissful state of rest which we call sleep. True, there be some drugs and narcotics whereby men can poison themselves well nigh to death, and then call it sleep; but the sleep of the healthy body is the gift of God. He bestows it; he rocks the cradle for us every night; he draws the curtain of darkness; he bids the sun shut up his burning eyes; and then he comes and says, “Sleep, sleep, my child; I give thee sleep.”
Have you not known what it is at times to lie upon your bed and strive to slumber? and as it is said of Darius, so might it be said of you: “The king sent for his musicians, but his sleep went from him.” You have attempted it, but you could not do it; it is beyond your power to procure a healthy repose. You imagine if you fix your mind upon a certain subject until it shall engross your attention, you will then sleep; but you find yourself unable to do so. Ten thousand things drive through your brain as if the whole earth were agitated before you. You see all things you ever beheld dancing in a wild phantasmagoria before your eyes. You close your eyes, but still you see; and there be things in your ear, and head, and brain, which will not let you sleep. It is God alone, who alike seals up the sea boy’s eyes upon the giddy mast, and gives the monarch rest: for with all appliances and means to boot, he could not rest without the aid of God. It is God who steeps the mind in lethe, and bids us slumber, that our bodies may be refreshed, so that for tomorrow’s toil we may rise recruited and strengthened. O my friends, how thankful should we be for sleep. Sleep is the best physician that I know of. Sleep hath healed more pains of wearied bones than the most eminent physicians upon earth. It is the best medicine; the choicest thing of all the names which are written in all the lists of pharmacy. There is nothing like to sleep!
What a mercy it is that it belongs alike to all! God does not make sleep the boon of the rich man, he does not give it merely to the noble, or the rich, so that they can keep it as a peculiar luxury for themselves; but he bestows it upon all. Yea, if there be a difference, the sleep of the laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much. He who toils, sleeps all the sounder for his toil. While luxurious effeminacy cannot rest, tossing itself from side to side upon a bed of eider down, the hard-working laborer, with his strong and powerful limbs, worn out and tired, throws himself upon his hard couch and sleeps: and waking, thanks God that he has been refreshed. Ye know not, my friends, how much ye owe to God, that he gives you rest at night. If ye had sleepless nights, ye would then value the blessing. If for weeks ye lay tossing on your weary bed, ye then would thank God for this favor. But as it is the gift of God, it is a gift most precious, one that cannot be valued until it is taken away; yea, even then we cannot appreciate it as we ought.  
The Psalmist says there are some men who deny themselves sleep. For purposes of gain, or ambition, they rise up early and sit up late. Some of us who are here present may have been guilty of the same thing. We have risen early in the morning that we might turn over the ponderous volume, in order to acquire knowledge; we have sat at night until our burned-out lamp has chidden us, and told us that the sun was rising; while our eyes have ached, our brain has throbbed, our heart has palpitated. We have been weary and worn out; we have risen up early, and sat up late, and have in that way come to eat the bread of sorrow. Many of you business men are toiling in that style. We do not condemn you for it; we do not forbid rising up early and sitting up late; but we remind you of this text: – “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.” And it is of this sleep, that God gives to his beloved, that we mean to speak this morning, as God shall help us – a sleep peculiar to the children of God – a sleep which he gives to “his beloved.”  
Sleep is sometimes used in a bad sense in the Word of God, to express the condition of carnal and worldly men. Some men have the sleep of carnal ease and sloth: of whom Solomon tells us, they are unwise sons that slumber in the harvest, causing shame; so that when the harvest is spent, and the summer is ended, they are not saved. Sleep often expresses a state of sloth, of deadness, of indifference, in which all ungodly men are found, according to the words, “It is time for us to awake out of sleep. – “Let us not sleep as do others, but let us who are of the day be sober.” There be many who are sleeping the sluggard’s sleep, who are resting upon the bed of sloth; but an awful waking shall it be to them, when they shall find that the time of their probation has been wasted; that the golden sands of their life have dropped unheeded from the hourglass; and that they have come into that world where there are no acts of pardon passed, no hope, no refuge, no salvation.  
In other places you find sleep used as the figure of carnal security, in which so many are found. Look at Saul, lying asleep in fleshly security – not like David, when he said, “I will lay me down and sleep, for thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety.” Abner lay there, and all the troops lay around him, but Abner slept. Sleep on, Saul, sleep on. But there is an Abishai standing at thy pillow, and with a spear in his hand he says, “Let me smite him even to the earth at once.” Still he sleeps; he knows it not. Such are many of you, sleeping in jeopardy of your soul; Satan is standing, the law is ready, vengeance is eager, and all saying, “Shall I smite him? I will smite him this once, and he shall never wake again.” Christ says, “Stay, vengeance, stay.” Lo, the spear is even now quivering – “Stay, spare it yet another year, in the hope that he may yet wake from the long sleep of his sin.” Like Sisera, I tell thee, sinner, thou art sleeping in the tent of the destroyer; thou mayest have eaten butter and honey out of lordly dish; but thou art sleeping on the doorstep of hell; even now the enemy is lifting up the hammer and the nail, to smite thee through thy temples, and fasten thee to the earth, that there thou mayest lie for ever in the death of everlasting torment – if it may be called a death.  
Then there is also mentioned in the Scripture, a sleep of lust, like that which Samson had when he lost his locks, and such sleep as many have when they indulge in sin, and wake to find themselves stripped, lost, and ruined. There is also the sleep of negligence, such as the virgins had, when it is said, “they all slumbered and slept;” and the sleep of sorrow, which overcame Peter, James, and John. But none of these are the gifts of God. They are incident to the frailty of our nature; they come upon us because we are fallen men; they creep over us because we are the sons of a lost and ruined parent. These sleeps are not the benisons of God; nor does he bestow them on his beloved. We now come to tell you what those sleeps are, which he does bestow.  
First, there is a miraculous sleep which God has sometimes given to his beloved – which he does not now vouchsafe.
Into that kind of miraculous sleep, or rather trance, fell Adam, when he slept sorrowfully and alone; but when he awoke he was no more so, for God had given him that best gift which he had then bestowed on man. The same sleep Abram had, when it is said that a deep sleep came on him, and he laid him down, and saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, while a voice said to him, “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Such a hallowed sleep also was that of Jacob, when, with a stone for his pillow, the hedges for his curtains, he laid him down and slumbered. Dreaming, he saw a ladder set upon the earth, the top of which reached to heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. Such a sleep had Joseph, when he dreamed that the other sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf, and that the sun, moon, and seven stars were subject unto him. So ofttimes did David rest, when his sleep was sweet unto him, as we have just read. And such a sleep was that of Daniel, when he said, “I was asleep upon my face, and behold the Lord said unto me, Arise, and stand upon thy feet.” And such, moreover, was the sleep of the reputed father of our blessed Lord, when in a vision of the night, an angel said to him, “Arise, Joseph, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” These are miraculous slumbers. God’s angel hath touched his servants with the magic wand of sleep, and they have slept, not simply as we do, but slept a wondrous sleep; they have dived into the tenfold depths of slumber; they have plunged into a sea of sleep, where they have seen the invisible, talked with the unknown, and heard mystic and wondrous sounds: and when they awoke, they have said, “What a sleep! Surely, my sleep was sweet unto me.” “So he giveth his beloved sleep.”  
But, now-a-days, we do not have such sleeps as these. Many persons dream very wonderful things, but most people dream nonsense. Some persons put faith in dreams: and, certainly God doth warn us in dreams and visions even now. I am sure he does. There is not a man but can mention one or more instances of a warning, or a benefit, he has received in a dream. But we never trust dreams. We remember what Rowland Hill said to a lady, who knew she was a child of God, because she dreamed such- and-such a thing: “Never mind, ma’am, what you did when you were asleep; let us see what you will do when you are awake.” That is my opinion of dreams. I never will believe a man to be a Christian merely because he has dreamed himself one; for a dreamy religion will make a man a dreamer all his life – and such dreamers will have an awful waking at last, if that is all they have to trust in.  
second. He gives his beloved, in the second place, the sleep of a quiet conscience.
I think most of you saw that splendid picture, in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy – the Sleep of Argyle – where he lay slumbering on the very morning before his execution. You saw some noblemen standing there, looking at him, almost with compunction; the jailer is there, with his keys rattling; but positively the man sleeps, though tomorrow morning his head shall be severed from his body, and a man shall hold it up, and say, “This was the head of a traitor.” He slept because he had a quiet conscience: for he had done no wrong. Then look at Peter. Did you ever notice that remarkable passage, where it is said that Herod intended to bring out Peter on the morrow; but, behold, as Peter was sleeping between two guards, the angel smote him? Sleeping between two guards, when on the morrow he was to be crucified or slain! He cared not, for his heart was clear; he had committed no ill. He could say, “If it be right to serve God or man, judge ye;” and, therefore, he laid him down and slept. O sirs! do ye know what the sleep of a quiet conscience is?
Have you ever stood out and been the butt of calumny – pelted by all men; the object of scorn – the laugh, the song of drunkards? And have ye known what it is, after all, to sleep, as if you cared for nothing, because your heart was pure? Ah! ye who are in debt – ah! ye who are dishonest – ah! ye who love not God, and love not Christ – I wonder ye can sleep, for sin doth put pricking thorns in the pillow. Sin puts a dagger in a man’s bed, so that whichever way he turns it pricks him. But a quiet conscience is the sweetest music that can lull the soul to sleep. The demon of restlessness does not come to that man’s bed who has a quiet conscience – a conscience right with God – who can sing –  
With the world, myself, and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace shall be.  
“So he giveth his beloved sleep.”  
But let me tell you who have no knowledge of your election in Christ Jesus, no trust in the ransom of a Savior’s blood – you, who have never been called by the Holy Ghost – you, who were never regenerated and born again – let me tell you that you do not know this slumber. You may say your conscience is quiet; you may say, you do no man any wrong, and that you believe at the bar of God you shall have little to account for. But, sirs, you know that the soul that sinneth, if it sins but once, must die. If the picture has a single flaw, it is not a perfect one. If ye have sinned but once, ye shall be damned for it, unless ye have something to take away that one sin. Ye do not know this sleep, but the Christian does, for all his sins were numbered on the “scape-goat’s head of old.” Christ has died for all his sins however great or enormous; and there is not now a sin written against him in the Book of God. “I, even I,” says God, “am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name’s sake, and I will not remember thy sins.” Now thou mayest sleep; for “so he giveth his beloved sleep.”  
third. Again: there is the sleep of contentment which the Christian enjoys.
How few people in this world are satisfied. No man ever need fear offering a reward of a thousand pounds to a contented man; for if any one came to claim the reward, he would of course prove his discontent. We are all in a measure, I suspect, dissatisfied with our lot; the great majority of mankind are always on the wing; they never settle; they never light on any tree to build their nest; but they are always fluttering from one to the other. This tree is not green enough, that is not high enough, this is not beautiful enough, that is not picturesque enough; so they are ever on the wing, and never build a peaceful nest at all. The Christian builds his nest; and as the noble Luther said, “Like yon little bird upon the tree, he hath fed himself tonight – he knoweth not where his breakfast is tomorrow. He sitteth there while the winds rock the tree; he shuts his eyes, puts his head under his wing, and sleeps; and, when he awakes in the morning sings,
Mortals cease from toil and sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow.”  
How few there are who have that blessed contentment – who can say, “I want nothing else; I want but little here below – yea, I long for nothing more – I am satisfied – I am content.” You sung a beautiful hymn just now; but I suspect that many of you had no right to it, because you did not feel it.  
With thy will I leave the rest,
Grant me but this one request;
Both in life and death to prove
Tokens of thy special love.
 
Could you say there was nothing you wanted on earth, save Jesus? Did you mean that you are perfectly content – that you had the sleep of contentment? Ah! no. You, who were apprentices, are sighing till you shall be journeymen; you who are journeymen, are groaning to be masters; masters are longing till they shall retire from business, and when they have retired, they are longing that all their children shall be settled in life. Man always looks for a yet-beyond; he is a mariner who never gets to port; an arrow which never reaches the target. Ah! the Christian hath this text and communed with it: – “So he giveth his beloved sleep.” In my reverie, as I was on the border of the land of dreams, methought I was in a castle. Around its massive walls there ran a deep moat. Watchmen paced the walls both day and night. It was a fine old fortress, bidding defiance to the foe; but I was not happy in it. I thought I lay upon a couch; but scarcely had I closed my eyes, ere a trumpet blew, “To arms! To arms!” and when the danger was overpast I lay me down again. “To arms! To arms! once more resounded, and again I started up. Never could I rest. I thought I had my armor on, and moved about perpetually clad in mail, rushing each hour to the castle top, aroused by some fresh alarm. At one time a foe was coming from the west; at another from the east.
I thought I had a treasure somewhere down in some deep part of the castle, and all my care was to guard it. I dreaded, I feared, I trembled lest it should be taken from me. I awoke, and I thought I would not liv in such a tower as that for all its grandeur. It was the castle of discontent, the castle of ambition, in which man never rests. It is ever “To arms! To arms! To arms!” There is a foe here or a foe there. His dear-loved treasure must be guarded. Sleep never crosses the drawbridge of the castle of discontent. Then I thought I would supplant it by another reverie. I was in a cottage. It was in what poets call a beautiful and pleasant place, but I cared not for that. I had no treasure in the world, save one sparkling jewel on my breast; and I thought I put my hand on that and went to sleep, nor did I wake till morning light. That treasure was a quiet conscience and the love of God – “the peace that passeth all understanding.” I slept, because I slept in the house of content, satisfied with what I had. Go ye, overreaching misers! Go ye, grasping ambitious men! I envy not your life of inquietude. The sleep of statesmen is often broken; the dream of the miser is always evil; the sleep of the man who loves gain is never hearty; but God “giveth,” by contentment, “his beloved sleep.”  
forth. Once more: God giveth his beloved the sleep of quietness of soul as to the future.
O that dark future! that future! The present may be well; but ah! the next wind may wither all the flowers, and where shall I be? Clutch thy gold, miser; for “riches make to themselves wings and fly away.” Hug that babe to thy breast, mother; for the rough hand of death may rob thee of it. Look at thy fame and wonder at it, O thou man of ambition! But one slight report shall wound thee to the heart, and thou shalt sink as low as e’er thou hast been lifted high by the voices of the multitude. The future! All persons have need to dread the future, except the Christian. God giveth to his beloved sleep with regard to the events of coming time.  
What may be the future lot,
High or low concerns me not;
This doth set my heart at rest,’
What my God appoints is best.
 
Whether I am to liv or die is no matter to me; whether I am to be the “offscouring of all things,” or “the man whom the king delighteth to honor,” matters not to me. All is alike, provided my Father doth but give it. “So he giveth his beloved sleep.” How many of you have arrived at that happy point that you have no wish of your own at all? It is a sweet thing to have but one wish; but it is a better thing to have no wish at all – to be all lost in the present enjoyment of Christ and the future anticipation of the vision of his face. O my soul! what would the future be to thee, if thou hadst not Christ? If it be a bitter and a dark future, what matters it, so long as Christ thy Lord sanctifies it, and the Holy Ghost still gives thee courage, energy, and strength? It is a blessed thing to be able to say with Madame Guyon -
 
To me ’tis equal, whether love ordained,
My life or death, appoint me pain or ease;
My soul perceives no real ill in pain,
In ease or health, no real good she sees.
 
One good she covets, and that good alone,
To choose thy will, from selfish bias free,
And to prefer a cottage to a throne,
And grief to comfort, if it pleases thee.
 
That we should bear the cross is thy command – 
Die to the world, and liv to sin no more;
Suffer unmoved beneath the rudest hand,
As pleased when shipwrecked, as when safe on shore.
 
It is a happy condition to attain. “So he giveth his beloved sleep.” Ah! if you have a self-will in your hearts, pray to God to uproot it. Have you self-love? Beseech the Holy Spirit to turn it out; for if you will always will to do as God wills, you must be happy. I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little wafer, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, “What! all this, and Christ too?” It is “all this,” compared with what we deserve. And I have read of some one dying, who was asked if he wished to liv or die; and he said, “I have no wish at all about it.” “But if you might wish, which would you choose?” “I would not choose at all.” “But if God bade you choose?” “I would beg God to choose for me, for I should not know which to take.” Happy state! happy state! to be perfectly acquiescent -
To lie passive in his hand,
And to know no will but his.
 
“So he giveth his beloved sleep.”
 
fift. In the fifth place: there is the sleep of security.
Solomon slept with his armed men round his bed, and thus slumbered securely; but Solomon’s father slept one night on the bare ground – not in a palace – with no moat round his castle wall, – but he slept quite as safely as his son, for he said, “I laid me down and slept, and I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.” Now, some persons never feel secure in this world at all; I query whether one half of my hearers feel themselves so. Suppose I burst out in a moment, and sing this – 
 
I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
Are the glorified spirits in heaven.
 
You would say, that is too high doctrine; and I would reply, very likely it is for you, but it is the truth of God, and it is sweet doctrine for me. I love to know, that if I am predestinated according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, I must be saved; if I was purchased by the Son’s blood, I cannot be lost, for it would be impossible for Jesus Christ to lose one whom he has redeemed, otherwise he would be dissatisfied with his labors. I know that where he has begun the good work he will carry it on. I never fear that I shall fall away, or be lost; my only fear is, lest I should not have been right at first; but, provided I am right, if I be really a child of God, I might believe that the sun would be smitten with madness, and go reeling through the universe like a drunken man – I might believe that the stars would urn form their courses, and instead of marching with their measured tramp, as now they do, whirl on in wild courses like the dance of Bacchanals – I could even conceive that this great universe might all subside in God, “even as a moment’s foam subsides again upon the wave that bears it;” but neither reason, heresy, logic, eloquence, nor a conclave of divines, shall make me pay a moment’s attention to the vile suggestion that a child of God may ever perish.
Hence I tread this earth with confidence. Arguing a little while ago with an Arminian, he said, “Sir, you ought to be a happy man; for if what you say be true, why you are as secure of being in heaven as if you were there.” I said, “Yes, I know it.” “Then you ought to liv above cares and tribulations, and sing happily from morning to night.” I said, “So I ought, and so I will, God helping me.” This is security. “He giveth his beloved sleep.” To know that if I died I should enter heaven – to be as sure as I am of my own existence that God, having loved me with an everlasting love, and he being immutable, will never hate me if he has once loved me – to know that I must enter the kingdom of glory – is not this enough to make all burdens light, and give me the hind’s feet wherewith I may stand upon my high places. Happy state of security! “So he giveth his beloved sleep.”  
And there is a sleep, my dear friends, of security, which is enjoyed on earth even in the midst of the greatest troubles. Do you remember that passage in the book of Ezekiel, where it is said, “They shall dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods?” A queer place to sleep in! “In the woods.” There is a wolf over yonder; there is a tiger in the jungle; and eagle is soaring in the air; a horde of robbers dwell in the dark forest. “Never mind,” says the child of God:
 
He that hath made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode;
Shall walk all day beneath his shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.
 
I have often admired Martin Luther, and wondered at his composure. When all men spoke so ill of him, what did he say? Turn to that Psalm – “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble; therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” In a far inferior manner, I have been called to stand up in the position of Martin Luther, and have been made the butt of slander, a mark for laughter and scorn; but it has not broken my spirit yet; not will it, while I am enabled to enjoy that quiescent state of – “So he giveth his beloved sleep.” But thus far I beg to inform all those who choose to slander or speak ill of me, that they are very welcome to do so till they are tired of it. my motto is cedo nulli – I yield to none. I have not courted any man’s love; I asked no man to attend my ministry; I preach what I like, and when I like, and as I like. Oh! happy state – to be bold, though downcast, and distressed – to go and bend my knee and tell my Father all, and then to come down from my chamber, and say -
If on my face, for thy dear name,
Shame and reproach shall be;
I’ll hail reproach, and welcome shame,
For thou’lt remember me.
 
sixth. The last sleep God giveth his beloved is the sleep of a happy dismission.
I have stood by the graves of many servants of the Lord. I have buried some of the excellent of the earth; and when I bid farewell to my brother down below there slumbering in his coffin, I usually commence my speech with those words, “So he giveth his beloved sleep.” Dear servants of Jesus! There I see them! What can I say of them, but that “so he giveth his beloved sleep?” Oh! happy sleep! This world is a state of tossing to and fro; but in that grave they rest. No sorrows there; no sighs, no groans, to mingle with the songs that warble from immortal tongues. Well may I address the dead thus: – “My brother, oftentimes hast thou fought the battles of this world; thou hast had thy cares, thy trials, and thy troubles; but now thou art gone – not to worlds unknown, but to yonder land of light and glory. Sleep on, brother! Thy soul sleepeth not, for thou art in heaven; but thy body sleepeth. Death hath laid thee in thy last couch; it may be cold, but it is sanctified; it may be damp, but it is safe; and on the resurrection morning, when the archangel shall set his trumpet to his mouth, thou shalt rise. `Blessed are they dead that die in the Lord: yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.’ Sleep on in thy grave, my brother, for thou shalt rise to glory.” “So he giveth his beloved sleep.”
Some of you fear to die, and have good reason to do so, for death for you would be the beginning of sorrows; and on its approach ye might hear the voice of the angel of the Apocalypse: “One woe is past, but behold two woes more are to come.” If, sirs, ye were to die unprepared, and unconverted, and unsaved, “There remaineth nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.” I need not speak like a Boanerges, for it is to you a well known truth, that without God, without Christ, “strangers from the commonwealth of Israel,” your portion must be amongst the damned – the fiends – the tortured – the shrieking ghosts – the wandering souls who find no rest -
 
On waves of burning brimstone toss’d,
For ever, O for ever lost!
 
“The wrath to come!” “The wrath to come!” “The wrath to come!”  
But beloved Christian brother, wherefore dost thou fear to die? Come let me take thy hand:
 
To you and me by grace ’tis given,
To know the Savior’s precious name;
And shortly we shall meet in heaven,
Our end, our hope, our way the same.
 
Do you know that heaven is just across that narrow stream? Are you afraid to plunge in and swim across? Do you fear to be drowned? I feel the bottom – it is good. Dost thou think thou shalt sink? Hear the voice of the Spirit: “Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, I am thy God: when thou passest through the river, I will be with thee, and the floods shall not overflow thee.” Death is the gate of endless joys, and dost thou dread to enter there? What! fear to be emancipated from corruption? Oh! say not so! but rather, gladly lay down and sleep in Jesus, and be blessed.  
I have finished expounding my subject. There is only one question I want to ask of you before you pass out of those doors. Do you seriously and solemnly believe that you belong to the “beloved” here mentioned? I may be impertinent in asking such a question; I have been accused of that before now, but I have never denied it. I rather take the credit of it than not. But seriously and solemnly I ask you – Do you know yourselves to be amongst the beloved? And if it happens that you want a test, allow me to give you three tests, very briefly, and I have done. It has been said that there are three kinds of preachers – doctrinal preachers, experimental preachers, and practical preachers. Now I think there are three things that make up a Christian – true doctrine, real experience, and good practice.  
Now, then, as to your doctrine. You may tell whether you are the Lord’s beloved partly by that. Some think it matters not what a man believes. Excuse me: truth is alway precious, and the least atom of truth is worth searching out. Now- a-days the sects do not clash so much as they did. Perhaps that is good; but there is one evil about it. People do not read the Bibles so much as they did. They think we are all right. Now, I believe we may be all right in the main, but we cannot be all right where we contradict one another; and it becomes every man to search the Bible to see which is right. I am not afraid to submit my Calvinism, or my doctrine of believer’s baptism, to the searching of the Bible. A learned lord, an infidel, once said to Whitfield, “Sir I am an infidel, I do not believe the Bible, but if the Bible be true, you are right, and your Arminian opponents are wrong. If the Bible be the Word of God, the doctrines of grace are true;” adding that if any man would grant him the Bible to be the truth, he would challenge him to disprove Calvinism. The doctrines of original sin, election, effectual calling, final perseverance, and all those great truths which are called Calvinism – though Calvin was not the author of them, but simply an able writer and preacher upon the subject – are, I believe, the essential doctrines of the Gospel that is in Jesus Christ.
Now, I do not ask you whether you believe all this – it is possible you may not; but I believe you will before you enter heaven. I am persuaded, that as God may have washed your hearts, he will wash your brains before you enter heaven. He will make you right in your doctrines. But I must enquire whether you read your Bibles. I am not finding fault with you this morning for differing from me, I may be wrong; but I want to know whether you search the Scriptures to find what is truth. And, if you are not a reader of the Bible, if you take doctrines second-hand, if you go to chapel, and say, “I do not like that:’ what matters your not liking it, provided it is in the Bible? Is it Biblical truth, or is it not? If it is God’s truth, let us have it exalted. It may not suit you; but let me remind you, that the truth that is in Jesus never was palatable to carnal men, and I believe never will be. The reason you love it not, is because it cuts too much at your pride; it lets you down too low. Search yourselves, then, in doctrine.  
Then take care that you remember the experimental test. I am afraid there is very little experimental religion amongst us; but where there is true doctrine, there ought always to be a vital experience. Sirs, try yourselves by the experimental test. Have you ever had an experience of your wretchedness, of your depravity, your inability, your death in sin? Have you ever felt life in Christ, an experience of the light of God’s countenance, of wrestling with corruption? Have you had a grace-given Holy Ghost-implanted experience of a communion with Christ? If so, then you are right on the experimental test.  
And, to conclude, take care of the practical test. “Faith without works is dead, being alone.” He that walketh in sin is a child of the devil; and he that walketh in righteousness is a child of light. Do not think, because you believe the right doctrines, therefore you are right. There are many that believe right, act wrong, and they perish. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”  
I have done. Now let me beseech thee, you, by the frailty of your own lives – by the shortness of time – by the dreadful realities of eternity – by the sins you have committed – by the pardon that you need – by the blood and wounds of Jesus – by his second coming to judge the world in righteousness – by the glories of heaven – by the awful horrors of hell – by time – by eternity – by all that is good – by all that is sacred – let me beg of you, as you love your own souls, to search and see whether ye are amongst the beloved, to whom he giveth sleep. God bless you.

“I have exalted one chosen out of the people.”—psalm 89:19.

originally, i have no doubt, these words referred to david. he was chosen out of the people. his lineage was respectable, but not illustrious; his family were holy, but not exalted: the names of jesse, obed, boaz, and ruth, awoke no royal recollections, and stirred up no remembrances of ancient nobility or glorious pedigree. as for himself, his only occupation had been that of a shepherd-boy, carrying lambs in his bosom, or gently leading the ewes great with young—a simple youth of a right royal soul, and undaunted courage, but yet a plebeian—one of the people. but this was no disqualification for the crown of judah. in god’s eye the extraction of the young hero was no barrier to his mounting the throne of the holy nation, nor shall the proudest admirer of descent and lineage dare to insinuate a word against the valour, wisdom, and the justice of the government of this monarch of the people. we do not believe that israel or judah ever had a better ruler than david; and we are bold to affirm that the reign of the man “chosen out of the people” outshines in glory the reigns of high-bred emperors, and princes with the blood of a score of kings running in their veins. yea, more, we will assert that the humility of his birth and education, so far from making him incompetent to rule, rendered him, in a great degree, more fit for his office, and able to discharge its mighty duties. he could legislate for the many, for he was one of themselves—he could rule the people, as the people should be ruled, for he was “bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh “—their friend, their brother, as well as their king.
however, in this sermon we shall not speak of david, but of the lord jesus christ; for david, as referred to in the text, is an eminent type of jesus christ, our lord and saviour, who was chosen out of the people; and of whom his father can say “i have exalted one chosen out of the people.”
before i enter into the illustration of this truth i wish to make one statement, so that all objections may be avoided as to the doctrine of my sermon. our saviour jesus christ, i say, was chosen out of the people; but this merely respects his manhood. as “very god of very god” he was not chosen out of the people; for there was none save him. he was his father’s only-begotten son, “begotten of the father before all worlds.” he was god’s fellow, co-equal, and co-eternal; consequently when we speak of jesus as being chosen out of the people, we must speak of him as a man. we are, i conceive, too forgetful of the real manhood of our redeemer, for a man he was to all intents and purposes, and i love to sing,
“a man there was, a real man, who once on calvary died.”
he was not man and god amalgamated—the two natures suffered no confusion—he was very god, without the diminution of his essence or attributes; and he was equally, verily, and truly, man. it is as a man i speak of jesus this morning; and it rejoices my heart when i can view the human side of that glorious miracle of incarnation, and can deal with jesus christ as my brother—inhabitant of the same mortality, wrestler with the same pains and ills, companion in the march of life, and,for a little while, a fellow-sleeper in the cold chamber of death.
there are three things spoken of in the text: first of all, christ’s extraction—he was one of the people; secondly, his election—he was chosen out of the people; and thirdly, christ’s exaltation—he was exalted. you see i have chosen three words, all commencing with the letter e, to ease your memories that you may be able to remember them the better—extraction, election, exaltation.
i. we will commence with our saviour’s extraction.
we have had many complaints this week, and for some weeks past, in the newspapers, concerning the families. we are governed—and, according to the firm belief of a great many of us, very badly governed,—by certain aristocratic families. we are not governed by men chosen out of the people, as we ought to be; and this is a fundamental wrong in our government,—that our rulers, even when elected by us, can scarcely ever be elected from us. families, where certainly there is not a monopoly of intelligence or prudence, seems to have a patent for promotion; while a man, a commoner, a tradesman, of however good sense, cannot rise to the government. i am no politician, and i am about to preach no political sermon; but i must express my sympathy with the people, and my joy that we, as christians, are governed by one chosen out of the people.” jesus christ is the people’s man; he is the people’s friend—ay, one of themselves. though he sits high on his father’s throne, he was “one chosen out of the people. christ is not to be called the aristocrat’s christ, he is not the noble’s christ, he is not the king’s christ; but he is “one chosen out of the people.” it is this thought which cheers the hearts of the people, and ought to bind their souls in unity to christ, and the holy religion of which he is the author and finisher. let us now beat out this wedge of gold into leaf, and narrowly inspect its truthfulness.
christ, by his very birth, was one of the people. true, he was born of a royal ancestry. mary and joseph were both of them descendants of a kingly race, but the glory had departed; a stranger sat on the throne of judah; while the lawful heir grasped the hammer and the adze. mark ye well the place of his nativity. born in a stable—cradled in a manger where the horned oxen fed—his only bed was their fodder, and his slumbers were often broken by their lowings. he might be a prince by birth; but certainly he had not a princely retinue to wait upon him. he was not clad in purple garments, neither wrapped in embroidered clothing; the halls of kings were not trodden by his feet, the marble palaces of monarchs were not honored by his infant smiles. take notice of the visitors who came around his cradle. the shepherds came first of all. we never find that they lost their way. no, god guides the shepherds, and he did direct the wise men too, but they lost their way. it often happens, that while shepherds find christ wise men miss him. but, however, both of them came, the magi and the shepherds; both knelt round that manger, to show us that christ was the christ of all men; that he was not merely the christ of the magi, but that he was the christ of the shepherds—that he was not merely the saviour of the peasant shepherd, but also the saviour of the learned, for
“none are excluded hence, but those
who do themselves exclude;
welcome the learned and polite,
the ignorant and rude,”
in his very birth he was one of the people. he was not born in a populous city; but in the obscure village of bethlehem, “the house of bread,” the son of man made his advent, unushered by pompous preparations, and unheralded by the blast of courtly trumpets. his education, too, demands our attention. he was not taken as moses was, from his mother’s breast, to be educated in the halls of a monarch; he was not brought up with all those affected airs which are given to persons who have golden spoons in their mouths, at their births. he was not brought up as the lordling, to look with disdain on every one; but his father being a carpenter, doubtless he toiled in his father’s workshop. “fit place,” a quaint author says, “for jesus; for he had to make a ladder that should reach from earth to heaven. and why should he not be the son of a carpenter?” full well he knew the curse of adam: “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” had you seen the holy child jesus, you would have beheld nothing to distinguish him from other children, save that unsullied purity which rested in his very countenance. when our lord entered into public life, still he was the same. what was his rank? did he array himself in scarlet and purple? oh! no: he wore the simple garb of a peasant—that robe “without seam from the top to the bottom,” one simple piece of stuff, without ornament or embroidery. did he dwell in state, and make a magnificent show in his journey through judea? no; he toiled his weary way, and sat down on the curb-stone of the well of sychar. he was like others, a poor man; he had not courtiers around him; he had fishermen for his companions; and when he spoke, did he speak with smooth and oily words? did he walk with dainty footsteps, like the king of amalek? no, he often spoke like the rough elijah; he spoke what he meant, and he meant what he said. he spoke to the people as the people’s man. he never cringed before great men; he knew not what it was to bow or stoop; but he stood and cried, “woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! woe unto you, whitewashed sepulchres.” he spared no class of sinners: rank and fortune made no difference to him. he uttered the same truths to the rich men of the sanhedrim, as to the toiling peasants of galilee. he was “one of the people.”
notice his doctrine. jesus christ was one of the people in his doctrine. his gospel was never the philosopher’s gospel, for it is not abstruse enough. it will not consent to be buried in hard words and technical phrases: it is so simple that he who can spell over, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” may have a saving knowledge of it. hence, worldly-wise men scorn the science of truth, and sneeringly say, ‘why, even a blacksmith can preach now-a-day, and men who were at the plough tail may turn preachers,’ while priestcraft demands, ‘what right have they to do any such thing, unauthorized by us?’ oh! sad case, that gospel truth should be slighted because of its plainness, and that my master should be despised because he will not be exclusive—will not be monopolised by men of talent and erudition. jesus is the ignorant man’s christ as much as the learned man’s christ; for he hath chosen “the base things of the world and the things that are despised.” ah! much as i love true science and real education, i mourn and grieve that our ministers are so much diluting the word of god with philosophy, desiring to be intellectual preachers, delivering model sermons, well fitted for a room full of college students and professors of theology, but of no use to the masses, being destitute of simplicity, warmth, earnestness, or even solid gospel matter.
i fear our college training is but a poor gain to our churches, since it often serves to wean the young man’s sympathies from the people, and wed them to the few, the intellectual, and wealthy of the church. it is good to be a fellow-citizen in the republic of letters, but better far to be an able minister of the kingdom of heaven. it is good to be able like some great minds, to attract the mighty; but the more useful man will still be he, who, like whitfield, uses “market language,” for it is a sad fact that high places and the gospel seldom well agree; and, moreover, be it known that the doctrine of christ is the doctrine of the people. it was not meant to be the gospel of a caste, a clique, or any one class of the community. the covenant of grace is not ordered for men of one peculiar grade, but some of all sorts are included. a few there were of the rich followed jesus in his own day, and it is so now. mary, and martha, and lazarus were well to do, and there was the wife of herod’s steward, with some more of the nobility. these, however, were but a few: his congregation was made up of the lower orders—the masses—the multitude. “the common people heard him gladly;” and his doctrine was one which did not allow of distinction, but put all men as sinners naturally, on an equality in the sight of god. one is your father, “one is your master, even christ, and all ye are brethren.” these were words which he taught to his disciples, while in his own person he was the mirror of humility, and proved himself the friend of earth’s poor sons, and the lover of mankind.
o ye purse proud! o ye who cannot touch the poor even with your white gloves! ah! ye with your mitres and your croizers! ah! ye with your cathedrals and splendid ornaments! this is the man whom ye call master—the people’s christ—one of the people! and yet ye look down with scorn upon the people;ye despise them. what are they in your opinion? the common herd—the multitude. out on ye! call yourselves no more the ministers of christ. how can ye be, unless, descending from your pomp and your dignity, ye come amongst the poor and visit them—ye walk amongst our teeming population and preach to them the gospel of christ jesus. we believe you to be the descendants of the fishermen? ah! no, until ye doff your grandeur, and, like the fishermen, come out, the people’s men, and preach to the people, speak to the people, instead of lolling on your splendid seats, and making yourselves rich at the expense of your pluralites! christ’s ministers should be the friends of manhood at large, remembering that their master was the people’s christ. rejoice! o rejoice! ye multitudes. rejoice! rejoice! for christ was one of the people.
ii.our second point was election. god says, “i have exalted one chosen out of the people.” jesus christ was elected—chosen.
somehow or other, that ugly doctrine of election will come out. oh! there be some, the moment they hear that word, election, put their hands upon their foreheads, and mutter, “i will wait till that sentence is over; there will be something i shall like better, perhaps.” some others say, “i shall not go to that place again; the man is a hyper-calvinist.” but the man is not a hyper-calvinist; the man said what was in his bible—that is all. he is a christian, and you have no right to call him by those ill-names, if indeed an ill-name it be, for we never blush at whatever men do call us. here it is: “one chosen out of the people.” now, what does that mean, but that jesus christ is chosen? those who do not like to believe that the heirs of heaven were elect, cannot deny the truth proclaimed in this verse,—that jesus christ is the subject of election—that his father chose him, and that he chose him out of the people. as a man, he was chosen out of the people, to be the people’s saviour, and the people’s christ. and now let us gather up our thoughts, and try to discover the transcendent wisdom of god’s choice. election is no blind thing. god chooses sovereignly, but he always chooses wisely. there is always some secret reason for his choice of any particular individual; though that motive does not lie in ourselves, or in our own merits, yet there always is some secret cause far more remote than the doings of the creature; some mighty reason unknown to all but himself. in the case of jesus, the motives are apparent; and without pretending to enter the cabinet council of jehovah, we may discover them.
1. first, we see that justice is thereby fully satisfied by the choice of one out of the people.
suppose god had chosen an angel to make satisfaction for our sins—imagine that an angel were capable of bearing that vast amount of suffering and agony which was necessary to our atonement; yet after the angel had done it all, justice would never have been satisfied, for this one simple reason, that the law declares,—” the soul that sinneth it shall die.” now, man sins, and therefore man must die. justice required, that as by man came death, by man also should come the resurrection and the life. the law required, that as man was the sinner, man should be the victim—that as in adam all died, even so in another adam should all be made alive. consequently, it was necessary that jesus christ should be chosen out of the people; for had yon blazing angel near the throne, that lofty gabriel, laid aside his splendours, descended to our earth, endured pain, suffered agonies, entered the vault of death, and groaned out a miserable existence in an extremity of woe, after all that, he would not have satisfied inflexible justice, because it is said, a man must die, and otherwise the sentence is not executed.
2. but there is another reason why jesus christ was chosen out of the people.
it is because thereby the whole race receives honor. do you know i would not be an angel, if gabriel would ask me. if he would beseech me to exchange places with him, i would not, i should lose so much by the exchange, and he would gain so much. poor, weak, and worthless, though i am, yet i am a man, and being a man, there is a dignity about manhood—a dignity lost one day in the garden of the fall but regained in the garden of resurrection. it is a fact, that a man is greater than an angel—that in heaven humanity stands nearer the throne than angelic existence. you will read in the book of the revelation, of the four-and-twenty elders who stood around the throne, and in the outer circle stood the angels. the elders, who are the representatives of the whole church, were honored with a greater nearness to god than the ministering spirits. why man—elect man—is the greatest being in the universe, except god. man sits up there—look! at god’s right hand, radiant with glory, there sits a man! ask me who governs providence, and directs its awfully mysterious machinery; i tell you it is a man—the man christ jesus. ask me who has during the past month bound up the rivers in chains of ice, and who now has loosed them from the shackles of winter, i tell you a man did it—christ. ask me who shall come to judge the earth in rigteousness, and i say a man. a real, veritable man is to hold the scales of judgment, and to call all nations around him. and who is the channel of grace? who is the emporium of all the father’s mercy? who is the great gathering up of all the love of the covenant? i reply a man—the man christ jesus. and christ, being a man, has exalted you, and exalted me, and put us into the highest ranks. he made us, originally, a little lower than the angels, and now despite our fall in adam, he bath crowned us, his elect, with glory and honor, and hath set us at his right hand in heavenly places, in christ jesus, that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through christ jesus.
3. but, my brethren, let us take a sweeter view than that. why was he chosen out of the people?
speak, my heart! what is the first reason that rushes up to thyself? for heart thoughts are best thoughts. thoughts from the head are often good for nothing; but thoughts of the heart, deep musings of the soul, these are priceless as pearls of ormuz. if it be a humbler poet, provided that his songs gush from his heart, they shall better strike the cords of my soul than the lifeless emanations of mere brain. here, christian: what dost thou think is the sweet reason for the election of thy lord, he being one of the people? was it not this—that he might be able to be thy brother, in the blest tie of kindred blood? oh! what relationship there is between christ and the believer? the believer can say
“one there is above all others
well deserves the name of friend;
his is love beyond a brother’s,
faithful, free, and knows no end.”
i have a great brother in heaven. i have heard boys say sometimes in the street that they would tell their brother; and i have often said so when the enemy has attacked me—” i will tell my brother in heaven.” i may be poor, but i have a brother who is rich; i have a brother who is a king; i am brother to the prince of the kings of the earth; and will he suffer me to starve, or want, or lack, while he is on his throne? oh! no; he loves me; he has fraternal feelings towards me; he is my brother. but, more than that: think, o believer! christ is not merely thy brother, but he is thy husband. “thy maker is thy husband; the lord of hosts is his name.” it rejoices the wife to lean her head on the broad breast of her husband, in full assurance that his arms will be strong to labor for her, or defend her; that his heart ever throbs with love to her, and that all he has, and is, belongs to her, as the sharer of his existence. oh! to know by the influence of the holy ghost, that the sweet alliance is made between my soul and the ever precious jesus; sure, tis enough to quicken all my soul to music, and make each atom of my frame a grateful songster to the praise of christ. come, let me remember when i lay like an infant in my blood, cast out in the open field; let me recollect the notable moment when he said, “liv!” and let me never forget that he has educated me, trained me up, and one day will espouse me to himself in righteousness, crowning me with a nuptial crown in the palace of his father. oh! it is bliss unspeakable! i wonder not that the thought doth stagger my words to utter it!—that christ is one of the people, that he might be nearly related to you and to me, that he might be the goel, or kinsman, next of kin.
“in ties of blood with sinners one,
our jesus is to glory gone;
hath all his foes to ruin hurled—
sin, satan, earth, death, hell, the world.”
saint, was this blessed thought, like a necklace of diamonds, around the neck of thy memory; put it, as a golden ring, on the finger of recollection; and use it as the king’s own seal, stamping the petitions of thy faith with confidence of success.
4. but now another idea suggests itself. christ was chosen out of the people—that he might know our wants and sympathize with us.
you know the old tale, that one half the world does not know how the other half livs; and that is very true. i believe some of the rich have no notion whatever of what the distress of the poor is. they have no idea of what it is to labor for their daily food. they have a very faint conception of what a rise in the price of bread means. they do not know anything about it; and when we put men in power who never were of the people, they do not understand the art of governing us. but our great and glorious jesus christ is one chosen out of the people; and therefore he knows our wants. temptation and pain he suffered before us; sickness he endured, for when hanging upon the cross, the scorching of that broiling sun brought on a burning fever; weariness—he has endured it, for weary he sat by the well; poverty—he knows it, for sometimes he had not bread to eat, save that bread of which the world knows nothing; to be houseless—he knew it, for the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but he had not where to lay his head. my brother christian, there is no place where thou canst go, where christ has not been before thee, sinful places alone excepted. in the dark valley of the shadow of death thou mayest see his bloody footsteps—footprints marked with gore; ay, and even at the deep waters of the swelling jordan, thou shalt, when thou comest hard by the side, say, “there are the footprints of a man: whose are they?” stooping down, thou shalt discern a nail-mark, and shalt say. “those are the footsteps of the blessed jesus.” he hath been before thee; he hath smoothed the way; he hath entered the grave, that he might make the tomb the royal bedchamber of the ransomed race, the closet where they lay aside the garments of labor, to put on the vestments of eternal rest. in all places whithersoever we go, the angel of the covenant has been our forerunner; each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the shoulders of immanuel.
“his way was much rougher and darker than mine;
did christ my lord suffer, and shall i repine?”
i am speaking to those in great trial. dear fellow-traveller! take courage: christ has consecrated the road, and made the narrow way the king’s own road to life.
one thought more, and then i will pass on to my third point. there is a poor soul over there, who is desirous of coming to jesus, but he is in very great trouble, lest he should not come right; and i know many christians who say, “well, i hope i have come to christ; but i am afraid i have not come right.” there is a little foot-note to one of the hymns in dear mr. denham’s collection, in which he says, “some people are afraid they do not come right. now, no man can come except the father draw him; so i apprehend, if they come at all, they cannot come wrong.” so do i apprehend, if men come at all, they must come right. here is a thought for thee, poor coming sinner. why art thou afraid to come?” “oh!” sayest thou, “i am so great a sinner, christ will not have mercy upon me.” oh! you do not know my blessed master; he is more loving than you think him to be. i was once wicked enough to think the same; but i have found him ten thousand times more kind than i thought, i tell you, he is so loving, so gracious, so kind, there ne’er was one half so good as he. he is kinder than ever you can think; his love is greater than your fears, and his merits are more prevalent than your sins. but still you say, “i am afraid i shall not come aright; i think i shall not use acceptable words.” i tell you why that is: because you do not remember that christ was taken out of the people. if her majesty were to send for me to-morrow morning, i dare say i should feel very anxious about what kind of dress i should wear, and how i should walk in, and how i should observe court etiquette, and so on; but if one of my friends here were to send for me, i should go straight off and see him, because he is one of the people, and i like him.
some of you say, “how can i go to christ? what shall i say? what words shall i use?” if thou wert going to one above thee, thou mightest say so: but he is one of the people. go as thou art, poor sinner—just in thy rags, just in thy filth—in all thy wickedness, just as thou art. o conscience-stricken sinner, come to jesus! he is one of the people. if the spirit has given thee a sense of sin, do not study how thou art to come; come anyhow; come with a groan, come with a sigh, come with a tear,—any come, if thou dost but come, will do, for he is one of the people. “the spirit and the bride say, come; let him that heareth say, come.” here i cannot resist giving an illustration. i have heard, that in the deserts, when the caravans are in want of water, and they are afraid they shall not find any, they are accustomed to send on a camel, with its rider, some distance in advance, then after a little space follows another; and then, at a short interval, another: as soon as the first man finds water, almost before he stoops down to drink, he shouts aloud, “come!” the next one, hearing the voice, repeats the word, “come!” while the nearest again takes up the cry, “come!” until the whole wilderness echoes with the word “come!” so in that verse, “the spirit and the bride say, first of all, come: then let him that heareth say, come: and whosoever is athirst, let him come, and take of the water of life freely.” with this picture i leave our survey of the reasons for the election of christ jesus.
iii. and now i am to close up with his exaltation. “i have exalted one chosen out of the people.”
you will recollect, whilst i am speaking upon this exaltation, that it is really the exaltation of all the elect in the person of christ; for all that christ is, and all that christ has, is mine. if i am a believer, whatever he is in his exalted person, that i am, for i am made to sit together with christ in heavenly places.
1. first, dear friends, it was exaltation enough for the body of christ to be exalted into union with the divinity.
that was honor which none of us can ever receive. we never hope to have this body united with a god. it cannot be. once has incarnation been done—never but once. of no other man can it be said, “he was one with the father, and the father was one with him.” of no other man shall it be said, that the deity tabernacled in him, and that god was manifest in his flesh, seen of angels, justified of the spirit, and carried up to glory.
2. again: christ was exalted by his resurrection.
oh! i should have liked to have stolen into that tomb of our saviour, i suppose it was a large chamber; within it lay a massive marble sarcophagus, and very likely a ponderous lid was laid upon it. then outside the door there lay a mighty stone, and guards kept watch before it. three days did that sleeper slumber there! oh! i could have wished to lift the lid of that sarcophagus, and look upon him. pale he lay; blood-streaks there were upon him, not all quite washed away by those careful women who had buried him. death exulting cries, ‘i have slain him: the seed of the woman who is to destroy me is now my captive!’ ah! how grim death laughed! ah! how he stared through his bony eye-lids, as he said, ‘i have the boasted victor in my grasp.’ ‘ah!’ said christ, ‘but i have thee!’ and up he sprang, the lid of the sarcophagus started up; and he, who has the keys of death and hell, seized death, ground his iron limbs to powder, dashed him to the ground and said, “o death, i will be thy plague; o hell, i will be thy destruction.” out he came, and in turn the watchmen fled away. startling with glory, radiant with light, effulgent with divinity, he stood before them. christ was then exalted in his resurrection.
3. but how exalted was he in his ascension!
he went out from the city to the top of the hill, his disciples attending him while he waited the appointed moment. mark his ascension! bidding farewell to the whole circle, up he went gradually ascending, like the exaltation of a mist from the lake, or the cloud from the steaming river. aloft he soared: by his own mighty buoyancy and elasticity he ascended up on high—not like elijah, carried up by fiery horses; nor like enoch of old, it could not be said he was not, for god took him. he went himself; and as he went, i think i see the angels looking down from heaven’s battlements, and crying, ‘see the conquering hero comes!’ while at his nearer approach again they shouted, ‘see the conquering hero comes!’ so his journey through the plains of ether is complete—he nears the gates of heaven—attending angels shout, “lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors!” the glorious hosts within scarce ask the question, “who is the king of glory;” when from ten thousand thousand tongues there rolls an ocean of harmony, beating in mighty waves of music on the pearly gates and opening them at once, “the lord strong and mighty, the lord mighty in battle.” lo! heaven’s barriers are thrown wide open and cherubim are hastening to meet their monarch.
“they brought his chariot from afar,
to bear him to his throne;
clapp’d their triumphant wings and said,
’the saviour’s work is done.’”
behold he marches through the streets. see how kingdoms and powers fall down before him! crowns are laid at his feet, and his father says, ‘well done, my son, well done!’ while heaven echoes with the shout, ‘well done! well done!’ up he climbs to that high throne, side by side with the paternal deity. “i have exalted one chosen out of the people.” 4. the last exaltation of christ which i shall mention is that which is to come, when he shall sit upon the throne of his father david, and shall judge all nations. you will observe i have omitted that exaltation which christ is to have as the king of this world during the millennium. i do not profess to understand it, and therefore i leave that alone. but i believe jesus christ is to come upon the throne of judgment, “and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” sinner! thou belevest that there is a judgment; thou knowest that the tares and wheat cannot always grow together—that the sheep and the goats shall not always feed in one pasture; but dost thou know of that man who is to judge thee—that he who is to judge thee is a man? i say a man—a man once despised and rejected.
“the lord shall come, but not the same
as once in lowliness he came:
a humble man before his foes;
a weary man, and full of woes.”
ah! no. rainbows shall be about his head; he shall hold the sun in his right hand as the token of his government; he shall put the moon and stars beneath his feet, as the dust of the pedestal of his throne, which shall be of solid clouds of light. the books shall be opened—those massive books, which contain the deeds of both quick and dead. ah! how shall the despised nazarene sit triumphant over all his foes. no more the taunt, the jeer, the scoff; but one hideous cry of misery, “hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.” oh, ye, my hearers, who now look with contempt on jesus and his cross, i tremble for you. oh, fiercer than a lion on his prey, is love when once incensed. oh, despisers! i warn ye of that day when the placid brow of the man of sorrows shall be knit with frowns; when the eye which once was moistened by dew-drops of pity, shall flash lightning on its enemies; and the hand, which once was nailed to the cross for our redemption, shall grasp the thunderbolt for your damnation; while the mouth which once said, “come unto me, ye weary,” shall pronounce in words louder and more terrible than the voice of the thunder, “depart ye cursed!” sinners! ye may think it a trifle to sin against the man of nazareth, but ye shall find that in so doing ye have offended the man who shall judge the earth in righteousness; and for your rebellion ye shall endure waves of torment in the eternal ocean of wrath.
from that doom may god deliver you! but i warn you of it. you have all read the story of the lady, who, on her marriage-day stepped up stairs, and seeing an old chest, in her fun and frolic stepped inside, thinking to hide herself an hour, that her friends might hunt for her; but a spring lock lay in ambush there, and fastened her down for ever; nor did they ever find her, until years had passed, when moving that old lumbering chest, they found the bones of a skeleton, with here and there a jewelled ring and some fair thing. she had sprung in there in pleasantry and mirth, but was locked down for ever. young man! take heed that you are not locked down for ever by your sins. one jovial glass—it is all. “one moment’s step.” so said she. but there’s a secret lock lays in ambush. one turn into that house of ill-fame—one wandering from the paths of rectitude—that is all. oh, sinner! it is all. but dost thou know what that all is? to be fastened down for ever. oh! if thou wouldst shun this, list to me, whilst—for i have but one moment more—i tell thee yet again of the man who was “chosen out of the people.”
ye proud ones! i have a word for you. ye delicate ones, whose footsteps must not touch the ground! ye who look down in scorn upon your fellow mortals—proud worms despising your fellow worms, because ye are somewhat more showily dressed! what think ye of this? the man of the people is to save you, if you are saved at all. the christ of the crowd—the christ of the mass—the christ of the people—he is to be your saviour! thou must stoop, proud man! thou must bow, proud lady! thou must lay aside thy pomp, or else thou wilt ne’er be saved; for the saviour of the people must be thy saviour.
but to the poor trembling sinner, whose pride is gone, i repeat the comforting assurance. wouldst thou shun sin? wouldst thou avoid the curse? my master tells me to say this morning,—”come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and i will give you rest.” i remember the saying of a good old saint. some one was talking about the mercy and love of jesus, and concluded by saying, “ah, is it not astonishing?” she said, “no, not at all.” but they said it was. “why,” she said, “it is just like him: it is just like him!” you say, can you believe such a thing of a person? “oh yes!” it may be said, “that is just his nature.” so you, perhaps, cannot believe that christ would save you, guilty creature as you are. i tell you it is just like him. he saved saul—he saved me—he may save you. yea, what is more, he will save you. for whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out.

A Sermon,
No. 10,
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 28th, 1855, by
C. H. Spurgeon,
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.”—Revelation 5:10.

music hath charms.” I am sure sacred music has; for I have felt something of its charms whilst we have been singing that glorious hymn just now. There is a potency in harmony; there is a magic power in melody, which either melts the soul to pity, or lifts it up to joy unspeakable. I do not know how it may be with some minds; they possibly may resist the influence of singing; but I cannot. When the saints of God, in full chorus, “chaunt the solemn lay,” and when I hear sweet syllables fall from their lips, keeping measure and time, then I feel elevated; and, forgetting for a time everything terrestrial, I soar aloft towards heaven. If such be the sweetness of the music of the saints below, where there is much of discord and sin to mar the harmony, how sweet must it be to sing above, with cherubim and seraphim. Oh, what songs must those be which the Eternal ever hears upon his throne! What seraphic sonnets must those be which are thrilled from the lips of pure immortals, untainted by a sin, unmingled with a groan: where they warble ever hymns of joy and gladness, never intermingled with one sigh, or groan, or worldly care. Happy songsters! When shall I your chorus join? There is one of your hymns that runs—

“Hark! how they sing before the throne!”

and I have sometimes thought I could “hark! how they sing before the throne.” I have imagined that I could hear the full burst of the swell of the chorus, when it pealed from heaven like mighty thunders, and the sound of many waters, and have almost heard those full-toned strains, when the harpers harped with their harps be fore the throne of God; alas, it was but imagination. We cannot hear it now; these ears are not fitted for such music; these souls could not be contained in the body, if we were once to hear some stray note from the harps of angels. We must wait till we get up yonder. Then, purified, like silver seven times, from the defilement of earth, washed in our Saviour’s precious blood, sanctified by the purifying influence of the Holy Spirit—

“We shall, unblemished and complete,
Appear before our Father’s throne,
With joys divinely great.”
“Then loudest of the crowd we’ll sing,
Whilst heaven’s resounding mansions ring
With shouts of sovereign grace.”

Our friend John, the highly favoured apostle of the Apocalypse, has given us just one note from heaven’s song; we shall strike that note, and sound it again and again. I shall strike this tuning-fork of heaven, and let you hear one of the key notes. “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” May the great and gracious Spirit, who is the only illumination of darkness, light up my mind whilst I attempt, in a brief and hurried manner, to speak from this text. There are three things in it: first, the Redeemer’s doings—” and hast made us; secondly, the saints’ honors—” and hast made us kings and priests unto our God;” and, thirdly, the world’s future—” and we shall reign upon the earth.”
I. First, then, we have THE REDEEMER’S DOINGS. They who stand before the throne sing of the Lamb—the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who took the book and broke the seals thereof—” Thou hast made us kings and priests unto our God.” In heaven they do not sing

“Glory, honor, praise, and power
Be unto ourselves for ever;
We have been our own Redeemers;—Hallelujah!”

They never sing praise to themselves; they glorify not their own strength; they do not talk of their own free-will and their own might; but they ascribe their salvation, from beginning to end, to God. Ask them how they were saved, and they reply, “The Lamb hath made us what we are.” Ask them whence their glories came, and they tell you, “They were bequeathed to us by the dying Lamb.” Ask whence they obtained the gold of their harps, and they say, “It was dug in mines of agony and bitterness by Jesus,” Inquire who stringed their harps, and they will tell you that Jesus took each sinew of his body to make them. Ask them where they washed their robes and made them white, and they will say—

“In yonder ‘fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins.’”

Some persons on earth do not know where to put the crown; but those in heaven do. They place the diadem on the right head; and they ever sing—” And he hath made us what we are.”
Well, then, beloved, would not this note well become us here? For ” what have we that we have not received?” Who hath made us to differ? I know, this morning, that I am a justified man; I have the full assurance that

“The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.”

There is not a sin against me in God’s book they have all been for ever obliterated by the blood of Christ. and cancelled by his own right hand. I have nothing to fear; I cannot be condemned. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ. for he hath died. But if I am justified, who made me so? I say—”And hath made me what I am.” Justification from first to last. is of God. Salvation is of the Lord alone.
Many of you are sanctified persons, but you are not perfectly sanctified, you are not redeemed altogether from the dross of earth; you have still another law in your members, warring against the law of your mind; and you always will have that law while you tabernacle in faith; you never will be perfect in your sanctification until you get up yonder before the solemn throne of God, where even this imperfection of your soul will be taken away, and your carnal depravity rooted out. But yet, beloved, there is an inward principle imparted; you are growing in grace—you are making progress in holiness. Well, but who made you have that progress? Who redeemed you from that lust? Who ransomed you from that vice? Who bade you say farewell to that practice in which you indulged? Cannot you say of Jesus, “And hath made us!” It is Christ who hath done it all, and to his name be honor, and glory, and praise, and dominion.
Let us dwell one moment on this thought, and show you how it is that it can be said that Christ hath made us this. When did Christ make his people kings and priests? When could it be said, “And hath made us kings and priests unto our God?”
1. First of all, he made us kings and priests, virtually, when he signed the covenant of grace. Far, far back in eternity, the Magna Charta of the saints was written by the hand of God, and it needed one signature to make it valid. There was a stipulation in that covenant that the Mediator should become incarnate should liv a suffering life, and at last endure a death of ignominy; and it needed but one signature, the signature of the Son of God, to make that covenant valid, eternal, and “ordered in all things and sure.” Methinks I see him now, as my imagination pictures the lofty Son of God grasping the pen. See how his fingers write the name; and there it stands in everlasting letters—” THE SON!” O sacred ratification of the treaty; it is stamped and sealed with the great seal of our father in heaven. O glorious covenant, then for ever made secure! At the moment of the signature of this wondrous document, the spirits before the throne—I mean the angels—might have taken up the song, and said of the whole body of the elect, “And hast made you kings and priests unto your God;” and could all the chosen company have started into existence, they could have clapped their hands and sung, “Here we are by that very signature constituted kings and priests unto our God.”
2. But he did not stop there. It was not simply agreeing to the terms of the treaty; but in due time he filled it all—yes, to its utmost jot and tittle. Jesus said, “I will take the cup of salvation;” and he did take it—the cup of our deliverance. Bitter were its drops;gall lay in its depths;there were groans, and sighs, and tears, within the red mixture but he took it all, and drank it to its dregs, and swallowed all the awful draught. All was gone. He drank the cup of salvation, and he ate the bread of affliction. See him, as he drinks the cup in Gethsemane, when the fluid of that cup did mingle with his blood, and make each drop a scalding poison. Mark how the hot feet of pain did travel down his veins. See how each nerve is twisted and contorted with his agony. Behold his brow covered with sweat; witness the agonies as they follow each other into the very depths of his soul. Speak, ye lost, and tell what hell’s torment means; but ye cannot tell what the torments of Gethsemane were. Oh! the deep unutterable! There was a depth which couched beneath, when our Redeemer bowed his head, when he placed himself betwixt the upper and nether millstones of his Father’s vengeance, and when his whole soul was ground to powder. Ah! that wrestling man-God—that suffering man of Gethsemane! Weep o’er him, saints—weep o’er him; when ye see him rising from that prayer in the garden, marching forth to his cross; when ye picture him hanging on his cross four long hours in the scorching sun, overwhelmed by his Father’s passing wrath—when ye see his side streaming with gore—when ye hear his death-shriek, “It is finished,”—and see his lips all parched, and moistened by nothing save the vinegar and the gall,—ah! then prostrate yourselves before that cross, bow down before that sufferer, and say, “Thou hast made us—thou hast made us what we are; we are nothing without thee.” The cross of Jesus is the foundation of the glory of the saints; Calvary is the birth-place of heaven; heaven was born in Bethlehem’s manger; had it not been for the sufferings and agonies of Golgotha we should have had no blessing. Oh, saint! in every mercy see the Saviour’s blood; look on this Book—it is sprinkled with his blood; look on this house of prayer—it is sanctified by his sufferings; look on your daily food—it is purchased with his groans. Let every mercy come to you as a blood-bought treasure; value it because it comes from him; and ever more say, “Thou hast made us what we are.”
3. Beloved, our Saviour Jesus Christ finished the great work of making us what we are, by his ascension into heaven. If he had not risen up on high and led captivity captive, his death would have been insufficient. He “died for our sins,” but he “rose again for our justification.” The resurrection of our Saviour, in his majesty, when he burst the bonds of death, was to us the assurance that God had accepted his sacrifice; and his ascension up on high, was but as a type and a figure of the real and actual ascension of all his saints, when he shall come in the clouds of judgment, and shall call all his people to him. Mark the man-God, as he goes upward towards heaven; behold his triumphal march through the skies, whilst stars sing his praises, and planets dance in solemn order; behold him traverse the unknown fields of ether till he arrives at the throne of God in the seventh heaven, Then hear him say to his Father, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; behold me and the children thou hast given me; I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course; I have done all; I have accomplished every type; I have finished every part of the covenant; there is not one iota I have left unfulfilled, or one tittle that is left out; all is done.” And hark, how they sing before the throne of God when thus he speaks: “Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
Thus have I briefly spoken upon the dear Redeemer’s doings. Poor lips cannot speak better; faint heart will not rise up to the height of this great argument. Oh! that these lips had language eloquent and lofty, that they might speak more of the wondrous doings of our Redeemer!

” Crown him! crown him!
Crowns become the Saviour’s brow.”

II. Now, secondly, THE SAINT’S HONORS: “and hast made us unto our God kings and priests.” The most honorable of all monarchs have ever been esteemed to be those who had a right not only to royal, but to sacerdotal supremacy—those kings who could wear at one time the crown of loyalty, and at another the mitre of the priesthood, who could both use the censer and hold the sceptre—who could offer intercession for the people, and then govern the nations. Those who are kings and priests are great indeed; and here you behold the saint honored, not with one title, or one office, but with two. He is made not a king merely, but a king and a priest; not a priest merely, but a priest and a king. The saint has two offices conferred upon him at once, he is made a priestly monarch, and a regal priest.
I shall take, first of all, the royal office of the saints. They are KINGS. They are not merely to be kings in heaven, but they are also kings on earth; for if my text does not say so, the Bible declares it in another passage: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” We are kings even now. I want you to understand that, before I explain the idea. Every saint of the living God, not merely has the prospect of being a king in heaven, but positively, in the sight of God, he is a king now; and he must say, with regard to his brethren and himself, “And hast made us,” even now, “unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign upon the earth.” A Christian is a king. He is not simply like a king, but he is a king, actually and truly. However, I shall try and show you how he is like a king.
Remember his royal ancestry. What a fuss some people make about their grand fathers and grandmothers, and distant ancestors. I remember seeing in Trinity College, the pedigree of some great lord that went back just as far as Adam, and Adam was there digging the ground—the first man. It was traced all the way up. Of course I did not believe it. I have heard of some pedigrees that go back further. I leave that to your own common sense, to believe it or not. A pedigree in which shall be found dukes, marquises, and kings, and princes. Oh! what would some give for such a pedigree? I believe, however, that it is not what our ancestors were, but what we are, that will make us shine before God; that it is not so much in knowing that we have royal or priestly blood in our veins, as knowing that we are an honor to our race—that we are walking in the ways of the Lord, and reflecting credit upon the church, and upon the grace that makes us honorable. But since some men will glory in their descent, I will glory that the saints have the proudest ancestry in all the world. Talk of Caesars, or of Alexanders, or tell me even of our own good Queen: I say that I am of as high descent as her majesty, or the proudest monarch in the world. I am descended from the King of kings. The saint may well speak of his ancestry—he may exult in it, he may glory in it—for he is the son of God, positively and actually. His mother, the Church, is the Bride of Jesus; he is a twice-born child of heaven: one of the blood royal of the universe. The poorest woman or man on earth, loving Christ, is of a royal line. Give a man the grace of God in his heart, and his ancestry is noble. I can turn back the roll of my pedigree, and I can tell you that it is so ancient, that it has no beginning; it is more ancient than all the rolls of mighty men put together; for, from all eternity my Father existed: and, therefore, I have indeed a right royal and ancient ancestry.
And then, again, the saints, like monarchs, have a splendid retinue. Kings and monarchs cannot travel without a deal of state. In olden times, they had far more magnificence than they have now; but even in these days we see much of it when royalty is abroad. There must be a peculiar kind of horse, and a splendid chariot, and outriders; with all the etceteras of gorgeous pomp. Ay! and the kings of God, whom Jesus Christ has made kings and priests unto their God, have also a royal retinue. “Oh!” say you, “but I see some of them in rags; they are walking through the earth alone, sometimes without a helper or a friend.” Ah! but there is a fault in your eyes. If you had eyes to see, you would perceive a body-guard of angels always attending every one of the blood-bought family. You remember Elijah’s servant could not see anything around Elijah, till his master opened his eyes; then he could see that there were horses and chariots round about Elijah. Lo! there are horses and chariots about me. And thou, saint of the Lord: where’er thou art, there are horses and chariots. In that bed-chamber, where I was born, angels stood to announce my birth on high. In seas of trouble, when wave after wave seems to go over me, angels are there to lift up my head; when I come to die, when sorrowing friends shall, weeping, carry me to the grave, angels shall stand by my bier; and, when put into the grave, some mighty angel shall stand and guard my dust, and contend for its possession with the devil. Why should I fear? I have a company of angels about me; and whenever I walk abroad, the glorious cherubim march in front. Men see them not, but I see them; for “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We have a royal retinue: we are kings, not merely by ancestry, but by our retinue.
Now, notice the insignia and regalia of the saints. Kings and princes have certain things that are theirs by perspective right. For instance, Her Majesty has her Buckingham Palace, and her other palaces, her crown royal, her sceptre, and so on. But, has a saint a palace? Yes. I have a palace! and its walls are not made of marble, but of gold; its borders are carbuncles and precious gems; its windows are of agates; its stones are laid with fair colours; around it there is a profusion of every costly thing; rubies sparkle here and there; yea, pearls are but common stones within it. Some call it a mansion; but I have a right to call it a palace too, for I am a king. It is a mansion when I look at God, it is a palace when I look at men; because it is the habitation of a prince. Mark where this palace is. I am not a prince of Inde—I have no inheritance in any far-off hand that men dream of—I have no El Dorado, or Home of Prester John; but yet I have a substantial palace. Yonder, on the hills of heaven it stands; I know not its position among the other mansions of heaven, but there it stands; and “I know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Have Christians a crown too? O yes; but they do not wear it every day. They have a crown, but their coronation day is not yet arrived. They have been anointed monarchs, they have some of the authority and dignity of monarchs; but they are not crowned monarchs yet. But the crown is made. God will not have to order heaven’s goldsmiths to fashion it in after-time; it is made already hanging up in glory. God bath “laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” Oh, saint, if thou didst just open some secret door in heaven, and go into the treasure chamber, thou wouldst see it filled with crowns. When Cortes entered the palace of Montezuma, he found a secret chamber bricked up, and he thought the wealth of all the world was there, so many different things were there stowed away. Could you enter God’s secret treasure-house, what wealth would you see!” ” Are there so many monarchs,” you would say, “so many crowns, so many princes?” Yes, and some bright angel would say, “Mark you that crown? It is yours;” and if you were to look within, you would read, “Made for a sinner saved by grace, whose name was—;” and then you would hardly believe your eyes, as you saw your own name engraved upon it. You are indeed a king before God; for you have a crown laid up in heaven. What ever other insignia belong to monarchs, saints shall have. They shall have robes of whiteness; they shall have harps of glory; they shall have all things that become their regal state; so that we are indeed monarchs, you see; not mock-monarchs, clothed in purple garments of derision, and scoffed at with “Hail, king of the Jews;” but we are real monarchs. “He hath made us kings and priests unto our God.”
There is another thought here. Kings are considered the most honorable amongst men. They are always looked up to and respected. If you should say, “a monarch is here!” a crowd would give way. I should not command much respect if I were to attempt to move about in a crowd; but if any one should shout, “here is the Queen!” every one would step aside and make room for her. A monarch generally commands respect. Ah! beloved, we think that worldly princes are the most honorable of the earth; but if you were to ask God, he would reply, “my saints, in whom I delight, these are the honorable ones.” Tell me not of tinsel and gewgaw; tell me not of gold and silver; tell me not of diamonds and pearls; tell me not of ancestry and rank; preach to me not of pomp and power; but oh! tell me that a man is a saint of the Lord, for then he is an honorable man. God respects him, angels respect him, and the universe one day shall respect him, when Christ shall come to call him to his account, and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” You may despise a child of God now, sinner; you may laugh at him; you may say he is a hypocrite; you may call him a saint, a methodist, a cant, and everything you like; but know that those titles will not mar his dignity—he is the honorable of the earth, and God estimates him as such.
But some persons will say, “I wish you would prove what you affirm, when you say that saints are kings; for, if we were kings, we should never have any sorrows; kings are never poor as we are, and never suffer as we do.” Who told you so? You say if you are kings, you would liv at ease. Do not kings ever suffer? Was not David an anointed king? and was lie not hunted like a partridge on the mountains? Did not the king himself pass over the brook Kedron, and all his people weeping as he went, when his son Absalom pursued him? And was he not a monarch when he slept on the cold ground, with no couch save the damp heather? O yes, kings have their sorrows—crowned heads have their afflictions. Full oft

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Do not expect that because you are a king, you are to have no sorrows. “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink.” And it is often so. The saints get but little wine here. It is not for kings to drink the wine of pleasure; it is not for kings to have much of the intoxicating drink and the surfeits of this world’s delight. They shall have joy enough up yonder, when they shall drink it new in their Father’s kingdom. Poor saint! do dwell on this. Thou art a king! I beseech thee, let it not go away from thy mind; but in the midst of thy tribulation, still rejoice in it. If thou hast to go through the dark tunnel of infamy, for Christ’s name; if thou art ridiculed and reviled, still rejoice in the fact, “I am a king, and all the dominions of the earth shall be mine!”
That last idea, and I have done with this part of the subject. Kings have dominion. Do you know I am a fifth monarchy man? In Cromwell’s time some said there had been four monarchies, and the fifth would come and overturn every other. Well, I never wish to do as they did; but I believe with them, that a fifth monarchy shall come. There have now existed four great empires, arrogating universal dominion, and there never shall be another world-wide monarchy until Christ shall come. Jesus, our Lord, is to be King of all the earth, and rule all nations in a glorious spiritual, or personal reign. The saints, as being kings in Christ, have a right to the whole world. Here am I this morning, and my congregation before me. Some persons say, “Keep to your own place and preach,” and I have heard the advice, “Do not go out of your parish.” But Rowland Hill used to say he never went out of his parish in his life; his parish was England, Scotland, and Wales, and he never went out of it. I suppose that is my parish, and the parish of every gospel minister. When we see a city full of sin and iniquity, what should we say? That is ours, we will go and storm it. When we see a street or some crowded area, where the people are very bad and wicked, we should say, “That is our alley, we will go and take it.” When we see a house where people will not receive the gospel, we should say, “That is our house, we will go and attack it.” We will not go with the strong arm of the law; we will not ask the policeman, or government to help us; but take with us “the weapons of our warfare.” which “are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.” We will go, and by God’s Spirit we shall overcome. There is a town where the children are running about the street, uneducated; we will go and take those children—kidnap them for Christ. We will have a Sabbath school. If they are ragged urchins who cannot come to a Sabbath school, we will have a ragged school. There is a part of the world where the inhabitants are sunk in ignorance and superstition: we will send a missionary to them. Ah! those who do not like missionary enterprise, do not know the dignity of the saint. Talk of India; talk of China.; “it is mine,” saith the saint. All the kingdoms of the earth are ours. “Africa is my washpot—I will triumph over Asia. They are mine! they are mine!” “Who shall bring me into the strong city?” Is it not thou, O Lord? God shall give us the kingdom of Christ. The whole earth is ours; and by the power of the Holy Ghost, Bel shall bow, Nebo shall stoop, the gods of the heathen, Budha and Brahma, shall be cast down, and all nations bow before the sceptre of Christ. “He has made us kings.”
Our second point, upon which I shall be very brief, is, “He hath made us kings and PRIESTS.” Saints are not only kings, but priests. I shall go to it at once, without any preface.
We are priests, because priests are divinely chosen persons, and so are we. “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” But we have that calling and election; we were all ordained to it from the foundations of the world. We were predestinated to be priests, and in process of time we had a special effectual call, which we could not and did not resist, and which at last so overcame us, that we became at once the priests of God. We are priests, divinely constituted. When we say we are priests, we do not talk as certain parties do, who say they are priests, wishing thereby to arrogate to themselves a distinction. I always have an objection—I must state it strongly—to calling a clergyman, or any man that preaches, a priest. We are no more so than you are. All saints are priests. But, for a man to stand up and say he is a priest, any more than those he preaches to, is a falsehood. I detest the distinction of clergy and laity. I like scriptural priestcraft; for that is the craft or work of the people, who are all priests; but all other priestcraft I abhor. Every saint of the Lord is a priest at God’s altar, and is bound to worship God with the holy incense of prayer and praise. We are priests, each one of us, if we are called by divine grace; for thus we are priests by divine constitution.
Then, next, we are priests, because we enjoy divine honors. None but a priest might enter within the vail; there was a court of the priests into which none might ever go, except the called ones. Priests had certain rights and privileges which others had not. Saint of Jesus! heir of heaven! thou hast high and honorable privileges, which the world wots not of! Hast thou ever been within the vail in communion with Christ? Hast thou ever been in the court of the Lord’s house, the court of the priests, where he has taught thee, and manifested himself to thee? Hast thou? Yes, thou knowest thou hast; thou enjoyest constant access to God’s throne; thou hast a right to come and tell thy griefs and sorrows into the ear of Jehovah. The poor worldling must not come there; the poor child of wrath has no God to tell his troubles to. He must not go within the veil; he has no wish to go: but thou mayest; thou mayest come to God’s ear, swing the censer before the throne, and offer thy petition in the name of Jesus. Others have not these divine honors. Thou art divinely honored, and divinely blessed.
Then another remark, to finish up with, shall be, we have a divine service to perform; and as I want you all, this morning, to turn this chapel into one great altar—as I want to make you all working priests, and this the temple for sacrifice—hook earnestly at your service. You are all priests, because you love his dear name and have a great sacrifice to perform; not a propitiation for your sins, for that has been once offered, but a sacrifice this day of holy thanksgiving. Oh! how sweet in God’s ear is the prayer of his people! That is the sacrifice that he accepts; and when their holy hymn swells upwards towards the sky, how pleasant it is in his ears; because then he can say, “My hosts of priests are sacrificing praise.” And do you know, beloved, there is one point in which most of us fail in our oblations before God? We offer our prayer, we present our praise; but how little do we sacrifice of our substance unto the Lord! I had thought this morning, seeing I desire to make you amazingly liberal, to have made this my text, “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine;” and I had thought of showing that our substance was the Lord’s, that we were bound to devote no small portion of it to him, and that if we did do so we might expect prosperity even in worldly business, for he would make our barns full and our presses burst with new wine. However, I conceive it to be needless to preach a collection sermon—I thought I would rather tell your about your honor and dignity, and then you shall just give what you like, for the only free-will I like, is a free-will offering. Suffer, ye beloved, a few words. God has said in his Word that you are to honor him with your substance. As a priest of the Lord, will you not sacrifice something to the Lord this day? Here we have a great object before us; we want more room for the crowds who come to hear the gospel. It seems important, when such a throng is gathered, that none should go away. Ought we not to bless God that they come? There was a time you were few indeed, and the cry was,” Who hath believed our report?” But God has given us great success, the ministry here has been blessed to the conversion of not a few souls; I have many cases, now in this chapel, of broken hearts and contrite spirits; doubtless, there are many more than I know of, and I believe the blessed Spirit will bring them out in due time. Oh! do you not grieve that any should have to turn away from the voice of the ministry—that any who come here should have to go away, perhaps to spend the Sabbath in sin. You know not where they have to go, when they cannot get within these walls. The thing is, we have come to the resolution that this chapel should be enlarged, so that there should be accommodation for a larger number. Now, ye priests, sacrifice to the Lord. Let the priests build the house of Lord; let those who worship in the sanctuary take up the trowel today; let the mortar and the brick be laid, and let this house be once more filled with the glory of the Lord, and an abundant congregation.
III. Now, I have to close up with THE WORLD’S FUTURE. “We shall reign on the earth.” I have not much time for this, and I dare say it is expected that I shall tell you about the millennium and the personal reign of Christ. I shall not at all, because I don’t know anything about it. I have heard a great many people talk of it; and, if anybody shows me a book on the millennium, I say, “I cannot read it just yet.” A good man has lately written a book on it, and a gentleman recommended it to me so strongly, that I could not but buy it out of courtesy; but I elevated it to the aristocratic region of library, in the higher ranks, and there it rests in quiet repose. I do not think myself capable of threading the labyrinths of the subject, and I do not believe the very respectable author can do it. It is a subject so dark, and I have read so many different views upon it, that it is all a phantasmagoria with me. I believe all the Bible says of a glorious future, but I cannot pretend to be a maker of charts for all time. Only this I gather as a positive fact, that the saints will one day reign on the earth. This truth appears to me clear enough, whatever may be the different views on the millennium. Now, the saints do not reign visibly; they are despised. They were driven, in old times, into dens and caves of the earth: but the time is coming when kings will be saints, and princes the called ones of God—when queens shall be the nursing mothers, and kings the nursing fathers of Christ’s church. The hour is coming when the saint, instead of being dishonored, shall be honored; and monarchs, once the foes of truth, shall become its friends. The saints shall reign. They shall have the majority; the kingdom of Christ shall have the upper hand; it shall not be cast down—this shall not be Satan’s world any longer—it shall again sing with all its sister stars, the never ceasing song of praise. Oh! I believe there is a day coming when Sabbath bells shall sprinkle music over the plains of Africa—when the deep thick jungle of India shall see the saints of God going up to the sanctuary; and, I am assured that the teeming multitudes of China shall gather together in temples built for prayer, and, as you and I have done, shall sing, to the ever glorious Jehovah,

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Happy day! happy day! May it speedily come!
Now, to close up, one very practical inference. Ye are kings and priests unto your God. Then how much ought kings to give to the collection this morning? Thus speak ye to yourselves. “I am a king; I will give as a king giveth unto a king.” Now, mark you, no paltry subscriptions! We don’t expect kings to put down their names for trifles. Then, again: you are a priest. Well, priest, do you mean to sacrifice? “Yes.” But you would not sacrifice a broken-legged lamb, or a blemished bullock, would you? Would you not select the best of the flock? Very right, then select the very best of the Queen’s coins, and offer, if you can, sheep with golden fleece. Excuse my pressing this subject. I want to get this chapel enlarged; so do you; we are all agreed about it; we are all rowing in one boat. I have set my mind on £50, and I must, and will, have it to-day, if possible. I hope you won’t disappoint me. It is not my own cause, but my Master’s—at other times you have given liberally—I am not afraid of you—but hope to come forward, next Sabbath morning, with the cheering announcement that the £50 is all raised, and then I think my spirits will be so elevated, that, by the help of God, I will venture to promise you one of the best sermons I am capable of delivering.