No. 28, The Church Of Christ

The Church Of Christ,
No. 28,
A Sermon Delivered On Sabbath Morning, June 3, 1855,
By The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon,
At New Park Chapel, Southwark.
“And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing and I will cause the shower
to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.”
Ezekiel 34:26.
The Chapter that I read at the commencement of the service is a prophetical one. I understand it’s meaning
to refer to the relation, not to the condition of the Jews during the captivity and their subsequent happiness when
they should return to their land, but to a state into which they should fall after they had been restored to their country
under Nehemiah and Ezra and in which state they still continue to the present day. The Prophet tells us that the shepherds
then, instead of feeding the flock, fed themselves. They trod the grass, instead of allowing the sheep to eat it and
they fouled the waters with their feet. This is an exact description of the state of Judea after the captivity. For then there
arose the Scribes and Pharisees who took the key of knowledge and would not enter themselves nor allow others to enter.
They laid heavy burdens on men’s shoulders and would not touch them with one of their fingers. They made religion to
consist entirely in sacrifices and ceremonies and imposed such a burden on the people that they cried out, “What a weariness
it is!” That same evil has continued with the poor Jews to the present day. Should you read the nonsense of the Talmud
and the Gemara and see the burdens they laid upon them, you would say, “Verily, they have idle shepherds.” They
give the sheep no food. They trouble them with fanciful superstitions and silly views and instead of telling them that the
Messiah is already come, they delude them with the idea that there is a Messiah yet to come who shall restore Judea and
raise it to its glory. The Lord pronounces a curse upon these Pharisees and Rabbis. These who “thrust with side and with
shoulder,” those evil shepherds who will not suffer the sheep to lie down, neither will feed them with good pasture. But
after having described this state, Ezekiel prophecies better times for the poor Jew. The day is coming when the careless
shepherds shall be as nothing. Then the power of the Rabbis shall cease. Then the traditions of the Mishna and the Talmud
shall be cast aside. The hour is approaching when the tribes shall go up to their own country, when Judea, so long a
howling wilderness, shall once more blossom like the rose. Then, if the Temple, itself, is not restored, yet on Zion’s hill
shall be raised some Christian building where the chants of solemn praise shall be heard, as of old the Psalms of David
were sung in the Tabernacle. Not long shall it be before they shall come—shall come from distant lands, wherever they
rest or roam. And she who has been the off-scouring of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a byword, shall
become the glory of all lands! Dejected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from dust, darkness and the dead. Then
shall the Lord feed His people and make them and the places round about His hill a blessing. I think we do not attach
sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything
promised in the Bible, it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual
restoration of the children of Israel. “There they shall go up. They shall come with weeping unto Zion and with supplications
unto Jerusalem.” May that happy day soon come! For when the Jews are restored, then the fullness of the Gentiles
shall be gathered in. And as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign with His ancients
gloriously and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn. We shall then know every man to be a brother and a
friend. Christ shall rule with universal sway!
This, then, is the meaning of the text—that God would make Jerusalem and the places round about His hill a blessing.
I shall not, however, use it so this morning—I shall use it in a more confined sense—or, perhaps, in a more enlarged
sense—as it applies to the Church of Jesus Christ and to this particular Church with which you and I stand connected. “I
will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing. And I will cause the shower to come down in his season.
There shall be showers of blessing.”

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!”

One thought on “No. 28, The Church Of Christ”

admin on May 26, 2012 at 11:54 pm said:

The Church Of Christ,
No. 28,
A Sermon Delivered On Sabbath Morning, June 3, 1855,
By The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon,
At New Park Chapel, Southwark.
“And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing and I will cause the shower
to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessing.”
Ezekiel 34:26.
The Chapter that I read at the commencement of the service is a prophetical one. I understand it’s meaning
to refer to the relation, not to the condition of the Jews during the captivity and their subsequent happiness when
they should return to their land, but to a state into which they should fall after they had been restored to their country
under Nehemiah and Ezra and in which state they still continue to the present day. The Prophet tells us that the shepherds
then, instead of feeding the flock, fed themselves. They trod the grass, instead of allowing the sheep to eat it and
they fouled the waters with their feet. This is an exact description of the state of Judea after the captivity. For then there
arose the Scribes and Pharisees who took the key of knowledge and would not enter themselves nor allow others to enter.
They laid heavy burdens on men’s shoulders and would not touch them with one of their fingers. They made religion to
consist entirely in sacrifices and ceremonies and imposed such a burden on the people that they cried out, “What a weariness
it is!” That same evil has continued with the poor Jews to the present day. Should you read the nonsense of the Talmud
and the Gemara and see the burdens they laid upon them, you would say, “Verily, they have idle shepherds.” They
give the sheep no food. They trouble them with fanciful superstitions and silly views and instead of telling them that the
Messiah is already come, they delude them with the idea that there is a Messiah yet to come who shall restore Judea and
raise it to its glory. The Lord pronounces a curse upon these Pharisees and Rabbis. These who “thrust with side and with
shoulder,” those evil shepherds who will not suffer the sheep to lie down, neither will feed them with good pasture. But
after having described this state, Ezekiel prophecies better times for the poor Jew. The day is coming when the careless
shepherds shall be as nothing. Then the power of the Rabbis shall cease. Then the traditions of the Mishna and the Talmud
shall be cast aside. The hour is approaching when the tribes shall go up to their own country, when Judea, so long a
howling wilderness, shall once more blossom like the rose. Then, if the Temple, itself, is not restored, yet on Zion’s hill
shall be raised some Christian building where the chants of solemn praise shall be heard, as of old the Psalms of David
were sung in the Tabernacle. Not long shall it be before they shall come—shall come from distant lands, wherever they
rest or roam. And she who has been the off-scouring of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a byword, shall
become the glory of all lands! Dejected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from dust, darkness and the dead. Then
shall the Lord feed His people and make them and the places round about His hill a blessing. I think we do not attach
sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything
promised in the Bible, it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual
restoration of the children of Israel. “There they shall go up. They shall come with weeping unto Zion and with supplications
unto Jerusalem.” May that happy day soon come! For when the Jews are restored, then the fullness of the Gentiles
shall be gathered in. And as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign with His ancients
gloriously and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn. We shall then know every man to be a brother and a
friend. Christ shall rule with universal sway!
This, then, is the meaning of the text—that God would make Jerusalem and the places round about His hill a blessing.
I shall not, however, use it so this morning—I shall use it in a more confined sense—or, perhaps, in a more enlarged
sense—as it applies to the Church of Jesus Christ and to this particular Church with which you and I stand connected. “I
will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing. And I will cause the shower to come down in his season.
There shall be showers of blessing.”

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!”

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