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The Comforter
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Evening, January 21, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."John 14:26.
Good old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of Israel;
and so he was. Before his actual appearance, his name was the Day-Star; cheering the
darkness, and prophetic of the rising sun. To him they looked with the same hope which
cheers the nightly watcher, when from the lonely castle-top he sees the fairest of the
stars, and hails her as the usher of the morn. When he was on earth, he must have been the
consolation of all those who were privileged to be his companions. We can imagine how
readily the disciples would run to Christ to tell him of their griefs, and how sweetly,
with that matchless intonation of his voice, he would speak to them, and bid their fears
be gone. Like children, they would consider him as their Father; and to him every want,
every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would at once be carried; and he, like a wise
physician, had a balm for every wound; he had mingled a cordial for their every care; and
readily did he dispense some mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their troubles. Oh!
it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ. Surely sorrows were then but joys in
masks, because they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them removed. Oh! would to
God, some of us may say, that we could have lain our weary heads upon the bosom of Jesus,
and that our birth had been in that happy era, when we might have heard his kind voice,
and seen his kind look, when he said, "Let the weary ones come unto me."
But now he was about to die. Great prophecies were to be fulfilled; and great purposes
were to be answered; and therefore Jesus must go. It behoved him to suffer, that he might
be made a propitiation for our sins. It behoved him to slumber in the dust awhile, that he
might perfume the chamber of the grave to make it
"No more a charnel house to fence
The relics of lost innocence."
It behoved him to have a resurrection, that
we, who shall one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first, and in glorious bodies
stand upon earth. And if behoved him that he should ascend up on high, that he might lead
captivity captive; that he might chain the fiends of hell; that he might lash them to his
chariot wheels, and drag them up high heaven's hill, to make them feel a second overthrow
from his right arm, when he should dash them from the pinnacles of heaven down to the
deeper depths beneath. "It is right I should go away from you," said Jesus,
"for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come." Jesus must go. Weep, ye
disciples; Jesus must be gone. Mourn, ye poor ones, who are to be left without a
Comforter. But hear how kindly Jesus speaks: "I will not leave you comfortless, I
will pray the Father, and he shall send you another Comforter, who shall be with you, and
shall dwell in you forever." He would not leave those few poor sheep alone in the
wilderness; he would not desert his children, and leave them fatherless. Albeit that he
had a mighty mission which did fill his heart and hand; albeit he had so much to perform,
that we might have thought that even his gigantic intellect would be overburdened; albeit
he had so much to suffer, that we might suppose his whole soul to be concentrated upon the
thought of the sufferings to be endured. Yet it was not so; before he left, he gave
soothing words of comfort; like the good Samaritan, he poured in oil and wine, and we see
what he promised: "I will send you another Comforterone who shall be just what
I have been, yea, even more; who shall console you in your sorrows, remove your doubts,
comfort you in your afflictions, and stand as my vicar on earth, to do that which I would
have done had I tarried with you."
Before I discourse of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter, I must make one or two remarks on
the different translations of the word rendered "Comforter." The Rhenish
translation, which you are aware is adopted by Roman Catholics, has left the word
untranslated, and gives it "Paraclete." "But the Paraclete, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things."
This is the original Greek word, and it has some other meanings besides
"Comforter." Sometimes it means the monitor or instructor: "I will send you
another monitor, another teacher." Frequently it means "Advocate;" but the
most common meaning of the word is that which we have here: "I will send you another Comforter."
However, we cannot pass over those other two interpretations without saying something upon
them.
"I will send you another teacher." Jesus Christ had been the official
teacher of his saints whilst on earth. They called no man Rabbi except Christ. They sat at
no men's feet to learn their doctrines; but they had them direct from the lips of him who
"spake as never man spake." "And now," says he, "when I am gone,
where shall you find the great infallible teacher? Shall I set you up a pope at Rome, to
whom you shall go, and who shall be your infallible oracle? Shall I give you the councils
of the church to be held to decide all knotty points?" Christ said no such thing.
"I am the infallible paraclete, or teacher, and when I am gone, I will send you
another teacher, and he shall be the person who is to explain Scripture; he shall be the
authoritative oracle of God, who shall make all dark things light, who shall unravel
mysteries, who shall untwist all knots of revelation, and shall make you understand what
you could not discover, had it not been for his influence." And, beloved, no man ever
learns anything aright, unless he is taught of the Spirit. You may learn election, and you
may know it so that you shall be damned by it, if you are not taught of the Holy Ghost;
for I have known some who have learned election to their soul's destruction; they have
learned it so that they said they were of the elect, whereas, they had no marks, no
evidences, and no works of the Holy Ghost in their souls. There is a way of learning truth
in Satan's college, and holding it in licentiousness; but if so, it shall be to your souls
as poison to your veins and prove your everlasting ruin. No man can know Jesus Christ
unless he is taught of God. There is no doctrine of the Bible which can be safely,
thoroughly, and truly learned, except by the agency of the one authoritative teacher. Ah!
tell me not of systems of divinity; tell me not of schemes of theology; tell me not of
infallible commentators, or most learned and most arrogant doctors; but tell me of the
Great Teacher, who shall instruct us, the sons of God, and shall make us wise to
understand all things. He is the Teacher; it matters not what this man or that man
says; I rest on no man's boasting authority, nor will you. Ye are not to be carried away
with the craftiness of men, nor sleight of words; this is the authoritative
oraclethe Holy Ghost resting in the hearts of his children.
The other translation is advocate. Have you ever thought how the Holy Ghost can be
said to be an advocate? You know Jesus Christ is called the wonderful, the counsellor, the
mighty God; but how can the Holy Ghost be said to be an advocate? I suppose it is thus; he
is an advocate on earth to plead against the enemies of the cross. How was it that Paul
could so ably plead before Felix and Agrippa? How was it that the Apostles stood unawed
before the magistrates, and confessed their Lord? How has it come to pass, that in all
times God's ministers have been made fearless as lions, and their brows have been firmer
than brass; their hearts sterner than steel, and their words like the language of God?
Why, it was simply for this reason; that it was not the man who pleaded, but it was God
the Holy Ghost pleading through him. Have you never seen an earnest minister, with hands
uplifted and eyes dropping tears, pleading with the sons of men? Have you never admired
that portrait from the hand of old John Bunyan?a grave person with eyes lifted up to
heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written on his lips, the world
behind his back, standing as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold hanging over his
head. Who gave that minister so blessed a manner, and such goodly matter? Whence came his
skill? Did he acquire it in the college? Did he learn it in the seminary? Ah, no. He
learned it of the God of Jacob; he learned it of the Holy Ghost; for the Holy Ghost is the
great counsellor who teaches us how to advocate his cause aright.
But, beside this, the Holy Ghost is the advocate in men's hearts. Ah! I have known men
reject a doctrine until the Holy Ghost began to illuminate them. We, who are the advocates
of the truth, are often very poor pleaders; we spoil our cause by the words we use; but it
is a mercy that the brief is in the hand of a special pleader, who will advocate
successfully, and overcome the sinner's opposition. Did you ever know him fail once?
Brethren, I speak to your souls; has not God in old times convinced you of sin? Did not
the Holy Ghost come and prove that you were guilty, although no minister could ever get
you out of your self-righteousness? Did he not advocate Christ's righteousness? Did he not
stand and tell you that your works were filthy rags? And when you had well-nigh still
refused to listen to his voice, did he not fetch hell's drum and make it sound about your
ears; bidding you look through the vista of future years, and see the throne set, and the
books open, and the sword brandished, and hell burning, and fiends howling, and the damned
shrieking forever? And did he not convince you of the judgment to come? He is a mighty
advocate when he pleads in the soulof sin, of righteousness, and of the judgment to
come. Blessed advocate! Plead in my heart; plead with my conscience. When I sin, make
conscience bold to tell me of it; when I err, make conscience speak at once; and when I
turn aside to crooked ways, then advocate the cause of righteousness, and bid me sit down
in confusion, knowing by guiltiness in the sight of God.
But there is yet another sense in which the Holy Ghost advocates, and that is, he
advocates our cause with Jesus Christ, with groanings that cannot be uttered. O my soul!
thou art ready to burst within me. O my heart! thou art swelled with grief. The hot tide
of my emotion would well-nigh overflood the channels of my veins. I long to speak, but the
very desire chains my tongue. I wish to pray, but the fervency of my felling curbs my
language. There is a groaning within that cannot be uttered. Do you know who can utter
that groaning? who can understand it, and who can put it into heavenly language, and utter
it in a celestial tongue, so that Christ can hear it? O yes; it is God the Holy spirit; he
advocates our cause with Christ, and then Christ advocates it with his Father. He is the
advocate who maketh intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered.
Having thus explained the Spirit's office as a teacher and advocate, we now come to the
translation of our versionthe Comforter; and here I shall have three
divisions: first, the comforter; secondly, the comfort; and thirdly, the comforted.
I. First, then, the COMFORTER. Briefly let me run over in my mind, and in your minds too,
the characteristics of this glorious Comforter. Let me tell you some of the attributes of
his comfort, so that you may understand how well adapted he is to your case.
And first, we will remark, that God the Holy Ghost is a very loving Comforter. I am
in distress, and I want consolation. Some passer-by hears of my sorrow, and he steps
within, sits down, and essays to cheer me; he speaks soothing words, but he loves me not;
he is a stranger; he knows me not at all; he has only come in to try his skill. And what
is the consequence? His words run o'er me like oil upon a slab of marblethey are
like the pattering rain upon the rock; they do not break my grief; it stands unmoved as
adamant, because he has no love for me. But let some one who loves me dear as his own
life, come and plead with me, then truly his words are music; they taste like honey; he
knows the password of the doors of my heart, and my ear is attentive to every word; I
catch the intonation of each syllable as it falls, for it is like the harmony of the harps
of heaven. Oh! there is a voice in love, it speaks a language which is its own; it has an
idiom and a brogue which none can mimic; wisdom cannot imitate it; oratory cannot attain
unto it; it is love alone which can reach the mourning heart; love is the only
handkerchief which can wipe the mourner's tears away. And is not the Holy Ghost a loving
comforter? Dost thou know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves thee? Canst thou
measure the love of the Spirit? Dost thou know how great is the affection of his soul
towards thee? Go measure heaven with thy span; go weigh the mountains in the scales; go
take the ocean's water, and tell each drop; go count the sand upon the sea's wide shore;
and when thou hast accomplished this, thou canst tell how much he loveth thee. He has
loved thee long, he has loved thee well, he loved thee ever, and he still shall love thee;
surely he is the person to comfort thee, because he loves. Admit him, then, to your heart,
O Christian, that he may comfort you in your distress.
But next, he is a faithful Comforter. Love sometimes proveth unfaithful. "Oh!
sharper than a serpent's tooth" is an unfaithful friend! Oh! far more bitter than the
gall of bitterness, to have a friend turn from me in my distress! Oh! woe of woes, to have
one who loves me in my prosperity, forsake me in the dark day of my trouble. Sad indeed;
but such is not God's Spirit. He ever loves, and loves even to the enda faithful
Comforter. Child of God, you are in trouble. A little while ago, you found him a sweet and
loving Comforter; you obtained relief from him when others were but broken cisterns; he
sheltered you in his bosom, and carried you in his arms. Oh, wherefore dost thou distrust
him now? Away with thy fears; for he is a faithful Comforter. "Ah!, but," thou
sayest, "I fear I shall be sick, and shall be deprived of his ordinances."
Nevertheless he shall visit thee on thy sick bed, and sit by thy side, to give thee
consolation. "Ah! but I have distresses greater than you can conceive of; wave upon
wave rolleth over me; deep calleth unto deep, at the noise of the Eternal's
waterspouts." Nevertheless, he will be faithful to his promise. "Ah! but I have
sinned." So thou hast, but sin cannot sever thee from his love; he loves thee still.
Think not, O poor downcast child of God, because the scars of thine old sins have marred
thy beauty, that he loves thee less because of that blemish. O no! He loved thee when he
foreknew thy sin; he loved thee with the knowledge of what the aggregate of thy wickedness
would be; and he does not love thee less now. Come to him in all boldness of faith; tell
him thou hast grieved him, and he will forget thy wandering, and will receive thee again;
the kisses of his love shall be bestowed upon thee, and the arms of his grace shall
embrace thee. He is faithful; trust him, he will never deceive you; trust him, he will
never leave you.
Again, he is an unwearied Comforter. I have sometimes tried to comfort persons, and
have been tired. You, now and then, meet with a case of a nervous person. You ask,
"What is your trouble?" You are told; and you essay, if possible, to remove it;
but while you are preparing your artillery to battle the trouble, you find that it has
shifted its quarters, and is occupying quite a different position. You change your
argument and begin again; but lo, it is again gone, and you are bewildered. You feel like
Hurcules, cutting off the evergrowing heads of the Hydra, and you give up your task in
despair. You meet with persons whom it is impossible to comfort, reminding one of the man
who locked himself up in fetters, and threw the key away, so that nobody could unlock him.
I have found some in the fetters of despair. "O, I am the man," say they,
"that has seen affliction; pity me, pity me, O, my friends;" and the more you
try to comfort such people, the worse they get; and, therefore, out of all heart, we leave
them to wander alone among the tombs of their former joys. But the Holy Ghost is never out
of heart with those whom he wishes to comfort. He attempts to comfort us, and we run away
from the sweet cordial; he gives us some sweet draught to cure us, and we will not drink
it; he gives some wondrous potion to charm away all our troubles, and we put it away from
us. Still be pursues us; and though we say that we will not be comforted, he says we shall
be, and when he has said, he does it; he is not to be wearied by all our sins, nor by all
our murmurings.
And oh, how wise a Comforter is the Holy Ghost. Job had comforters, and I think he
spoke the truth when he said, "Miserable comforters are ye all." But I dare say
they esteemed themselves wise; and when the young man Elihu rose to speak, they thought he
had a world of impudence. Were they not "grave and reverend seigniors?" Did not
they comprehend his grief and sorrow? If they could not comfort him, who could? But they
did not find out the cause. They thought he was not really a child of God, that he was
self-righteous, and they gave him the wrong physic. It is a bad case when the doctor
mistakes a disease and gives a wrong prescription, and so perhaps kills the patient.
Sometimes, when we go and visit people, we mistake their disease; we want to comfort them
on this point, whereas they do not require any such comfort at all, and they would be
better left alone, than spoiled by such unwise comforters as we are. But oh, how wise the
Holy Spirit is! He takes the soul, lays it on the table, and dissects it in a moment; he
finds out the root of the matter, he sees where the complaint is, and then he applies the
knife where something is required to be taken away, or puts a plaster where the sore is;
and he never mistakes. O how wise is the blessed Holy Ghost; from ever comforter I turn,
and leave them all, for thou art he who alone givest the wisest consolation.
Then mark, how safe a Comforter the Holy Ghost is. All comfort is not safe, mark
that. There is a young man over there very melancholy. You know how he became so. He
stepped into the house of God and heard a powerful preacher, and the word was blessed, and
convinced him of sin. When he went home, his father and the rest found there was something
different about him, "Oh," they said, "John is mad, he is crazy;" and
what said his mother? "Send him into the country for a week; let him go to the ball
or the theatre." John, did you find any comfort there? "Ah no; they made me
worse, for while I was there I thought hell might open and swallow me up." Did you
find any relief in the gayeties of the world? "No," say you, "I thought it
was idle waste of time." Alas! this is miserable comfort, but it is the comfort of
the worldling; and, when a Christian gets into distress, how many will recommend him this
remedy and the other. "Go and hear Mr. So-and-so preach;" "have a few
friends at you house;" "Read such-and-such a consoling volume;" and very
likely it is the most unsafe advice in the world. The devil will sometimes come to men's
souls as a false comforter; and he will say to the soul, "What need is there to make
all this ado about repentance? you are no worse than other people;" and he will try
to make the soul believe, that what is presumption, is the real assurance of the Holy
Ghost; thus he deceives many by false comfort. Ah! there have been many, like infants,
destroyed by elixirs, given to lull them to sleep; many have been ruined by the cry of
"peace, peace," when there is no peace; hearing gentle things, when they ought
to be stirred to the quick. Cleopatra's asp was brought in a basket of flowers; and men's
ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy Ghost's comfort is safe, and you
may rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a reality about it; let him give the
cup of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom; for in its depths there are no
dregs, nothing to intoxicate or ruin, it is all safe.
Moreover, the Holy Ghost is an active Comforter; he does not comfort by words, but
by deeds. Some comfort by, "Be ye warmed, and be ye filled, giving nothing." But
the Holy Ghost gives, he intercedes with Jesus; he gives us promises, he gives us grace,
and so he comforts us. Mark again, he is always a successful Comforter; he never
attempts what he cannot accomplish.
Then, to close up, he is an ever-present Comforter, so that you never have to send
for him. Your God is always near you; and when you need comfort in your distress, behold
the word is nigh thee; it is in thy mouth, and in thy heart. He is an ever-present help in
time of trouble. I wish I had time to expand these thoughts, but I cannot.
II. The second thing is the COMFORT. Now there are some persons who make a great mistake
about the influence of the Holy Spirit. A foolish man, who had a fancy to preach in a
certain pulpit, though in truth he was quite incapable of the duty, called upon the
minister, and assured him solemnly, that it had been revealed to him by the Holy Ghost
that he was to preach in his pulpit. "Very well," said the minister, "I
suppose I must not doubt your assertion, but as it has not been revealed to me that I am
to let you preach, you must go your way, until it is." I have heard many fanatical
persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to them. Now, that is very generally
revealed nonsense. The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh now. He brings old things
to our remembrance. "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have told you." The canon of revelation is closed, there is
no more to be added; God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old one. When
it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and
cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old
ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts.
He does so by telling us old things over again; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the
treasures hidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in which the truth has long
lain, and he points to secret chamber filled with untold riches; but he coins no more, for
enough is done. Believer! there is enough in the Bible for thee to live upon forever. If
thou shouldst outnumber the years of Methuselah, there would be no need for a fresh
revelation; if thou shouldst live till Christ should come upon the earth, there would be
no need for the addition of a single word; if thou shouldst go down as deep as Jonah, or
even descend as David said he did into the belly of hell, still there would be enough in
the Bible to comfort thee without a supplementary sentence. But Christ says, "He
shall take of mine, and show it unto you." Now, let me just tell you briefly what it
is the Holy Ghost tells us.
Ah! does he not whisper to the heart, "Saint, be of good cheer; there is one who died
for thee; look to Calvary, behold his wounds, see the torrent gushing from his
sidethere is thy purchaser, and thou art secure. He loves thee with an everlasting
love, and this chastisement is meant for thy good; each stroke is working thy healing; by
the blueness of the wound thy soul is made better." "Whom he loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Doubt not his grace, because
of thy tribulation; but believe that he loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble, as in
times of happiness. And then, moreover, he says, "What is all thy suffering compared
with that of thy Lord's? or what, when weighed in the scales of Jesus' agonies, is all thy
distress? And especially at times does the Holy Ghost take back the veil of heaven, and
lets the soul behold the glory of the upperworld! Then it is that the saint can say,
"O thou art a Comforter to me!"
"Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall;
May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all."
Some of you could follow, were I to tell of
manifestations of heaven. You, too, have left sun, moon, and stars at your feet, while, in
you flight, outstripping the tardy lightning, you have seemed to enter the gates of pearl,
and tread the golden streets, borne aloft on wings of the Spirit. But here we must not
trust ourselves; lest, lost in reverie, we forget our theme.
III. And now, thirdly, who are the comforted persons? I like, you know, at the end of my
sermon to cry out, "Divide! divide!" There are two parties heresome who
are comforted, and others who are the comfortless onessome who have received the
consolations of the Holy Ghost, and some who have not. Now let us try and sift you, and
see which is the chaff and which is the wheat; and may God grant that some of the chaff
may, this night, be transformed into his wheat!
You may say, "How am I to know whether I am a recipient of the comfort of the Holy
Ghost?" You may know it by one rule. If you have received one blessing from God, you
will receive all other blessings too. Let me explain myself. If I could come here as an
auctioneer, and sell the gospel off in lots, I should dispose of it all. If I could say,
here is justification through the blood of Christfree; giving away, gratis; many a
one would say, "I will have justification; give it to me; I wish to be justified; I
wish to be pardoned." Suppose I took sanctification, the giving up of all sin, a
thorough change of heart, leaving off drunkenness and swearing; many would say, "I
don't want that; I should like to go to heaven, but I do not want that holiness; I should
like to be saved at last, but I should like to have my drink still; I should like to enter
glory, but then I must have an oath or two on the road." Nay, but, sinner, if thou
hast one blessing, thou shalt have all. God will never divide the gospel. He will not give
justification to that man, and sanctification to anotherpardon to one, and holiness
to another. No, it all goes together. Whom he call, them he justifies; whom he justifies,
them he sanctifies; and whom he sanctifies, them he also glorifies. Oh; if I could lay
down nothing but the comforts of the gospel, ye would fly to them as flies do to
honey. When ye come to be ill, ye send for the clergyman. Ah! you all want your minister
then to come and give you consoling words. But, if he be an honest man, he will not give
some of you a particle of consolation. He will not commence pouring oil, when the knife
would be better. I want to make a man feel his sins before I dare tell him anything about
Christ. I want to probe into his soul and make him feel that he is lost before I tell him
anything about the purchased blessing. It is the ruin of many to tell them, "Now just
believe on Christ, and that is all you have to do." If, instead of dying, they get
better, they rise up white-washed hypocritesthat is all. I have heard of a city
missionary who kept a record of two thousand persons who were supposed to be on their
death-bed, but recovered, and whom he should have put down as converted persons had they
died; and how many do you think lived a Christian life afterwards out of the two thousand?
Not two. Positively he could only find one who was found to live afterwards in the fear of
God. Is it not horrible that when men and women come to die, they should cry,
"Comfort, comfort?" and that hence their friends conclude that they are children
of God, while, after all, they have no right to consolation, but are intruders upon the
enclosed grounds of the blessed God. O God, may these people ever be kept from having
comfort when they have no right to it! Have you the other blessings? Have you had the
conviction of sin? Have you ever felt your guilt before God? Have your souls been humbled
at Jesus' feet? And have you been made to look to Calvary alone for your refuge? If not,
you have no right to consolation. Do not take an atom of it. The Spirit is a convincer
before he is a Comforter; and you must have the other operations of the Holy Spirit,
before you can derive anything from this.
And now I have done. You have heard what this babbler hath said once more. What has it
been? Something about the Comforter. But let me ask you, before you go, what do you know
about the Comforter? Each one of you, before descending the steps of this chapel, let this
solemn question thrill through your soulsWhat do you know of the Comforter? O! poor
souls, if ye know not the Comforter, I will tell you what you shall knowYou shall
know the Judge! If ye know not the Comforter on earth, ye shall know the Condemner in the
next world, who shall cry, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell."
Well might Whitefield call out, "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the
Lord!" If ye were to live here forever, ye might slight the gospel; if ye had a lease
of your lives, ye might despise the Comforter. But, sirs, ye must die. Since last we met
together, probably some have gone to their long last home; and ere we meet again in this
sanctuary, some here will be amongst the glorified above, or amongst the damned below.
Which will it be? Let you soul answer. If to-night you fell down dead in your pews, or
where you are standing in the gallery, where would you be? in heaven or in hell?
Ah! deceive not yourselves; let conscience have its perfect work; and if in the sight of
God, you are obliged to say, "I tremble and fear lest my portion should be with
unbelievers," listen one moment, and then I have done with thee. "He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned."
Weary sinner, hellish sinner, thou who art the devil's castaway, reprobate, profligate,
harlot, robber, thief, adulterer, fornicator, drunkard, swearer,
Sabbath-breakerlist! I speak to thee as well as to the rest. I exempt no man. God
hath said there is no exemption here. "Whosoever believeth on the name of
Jesus Christ shall be saved." Sin is no barrier; thy guilt is no obstacle.
Whosoeverthough he were as black as Satan, though he were filthy as a
fiendwhosoever this night believes, shall have every sin forgiven, shall have every
crime effaced; shall have ever iniquity blotted out; shall be saved in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and shall stand in heaven safe and secure. That is the glorious gospel. God apply
it to your hearts, and give you faith in Jesus!
"We have listened to the
preacher
Truth by him has now been shown;
But we want a GREATER TEACHER,
From the everlasting throne;
APPLICATION
Is the work of God alone."
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