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The God of Peace
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, November 4, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen,"Romans 15:33.
Paul once advised the Romans to strive. Three verses
before our text he actually gives them an exhortation to strive, and yet he here utters a
prayer that the God of peace might be with them all. Lest you should think him to be a man
of strife, you must read the verse. He says: "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the
Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the spirit, that ye strive together with me
in your prayers to God for me." That is a holy strife, and such a strife as that we
wish always to see in the church, a strife in prayer, a surrounding the throne together,
besieging God's mercy seat, a crying out before God, until it actually amounts to a
striving together in our prayers. There is also another kind of striving which is allowed
in the church, and that is striving earnestly after the best gifts: a sweet contention
which of us shall excel all others in love, in duty, and in faith. May God send us more
strife of that kind in our churches, a strife in prayer, a strife in duty; and when we
have mentioned these strifes we find them of so peaceable a kind that we come back to the
benediction of our text: "Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen." Without
any preface, we shall consider, first, the title"the God of peace;"
and secondly, the benediction"the God of peace be with you all.
Amen."
I. First of all, the title. Mars amongst the heathens was called the god of war;
Janus was worshipped in periods of strife and bloodshed; but our God Jehovah styles
himself not the God of war, but the God of peace. Although he permits ware in this world,
sometimes for necessary and useful purposes; although he superintends them, and has even
styled himself the Lord, mighty in battle, yet his holy mind abhors bloodshed and strife;
his gracious spirit loves not to see men slaughtering one another, he is emphatically,
solely, and entirely, and without reserve, "the God of peace." Peace is his
delight; "peace on earth and goodwill towards men." Peace in heaven (for that
purpose he expelled the angels): peace throughout his entire universe, is his highest wish
and his greatest delight.
If you consider God in the trinity of his persons for a few moments, you will see that in
eachFather, Son, and Holy Ghostthe title is apt and correct, "the God of
peace." There is God the everlasting Father, he is the God of peace, for he
from all eternity planned the great covenant of peace, whereby he might bring rebels nigh
unto him, and make strangers and foreigners fellow-heirs with the saints, and joint-heirs
with his Son Christ Jesus. He is the God of peace, for he justifies, and thereby implants
peace in the soul, he accepted Christ, and, as the God of peace, he brought him again from
the dead; and he ordained peace, peace eternal with his children, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant; he is the God of peace. So is Jesus Christ, the second
person, the God of peace for "he is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us." He makes peace between God and man.
His blood sprinkled on the fiery wrath of God turned it to love, or rather that which must
have broken forth in wrath, though it was love for ever, was allowed to display itself in
loving-kindness through the wondrous mediatorship of Jesus Christ; and he is the God of
peace because he makes peace in the conscience and in the heart. When he says, "Come
unto me all ye that are heavy laden "he gives "rest," and with that rest he
gives; the peace of God which passeth all understanding," which keeps our heart and
mind. He is moreover the God of peace in the Church, for wherever Jesus Christ dwells, he
creates a holy peace. As in the case of Aaron of old, the ointment poured upon the head of
Christ trickles down to the very skirts of his garments, and thereby he gives
peace,peace by the fruit of the lips, and peace by the fruit of the heart, unto all
them that love Jesus Christ in sincerity. So is the Holy Ghost the God of peace. He
of old brought peace, when chaotic matter yeas in confusion, by the brooding of his wings:
he caused order to appear where once there was nothing but darkness and chaos. So in dark
chaotic souls he is the God of peace. When winds from the mountains of Sinai, and gusts
from the pit of hell sweep across the distressed soul; when, wandering about for rest, our
soul fainteth within us, he speaks peace to our troubles, and gives rest to our spirits.
When by earthly cares we are tossed about, like the sea-bird, up and down, up and down,
from the base of the wave to the billows' crown, he says, "Peace be still." He
it is who on the Sabbath-day brings his people into a state of serenity, and bids them
enjoy
"That holy calm, that sweet repose
Which none but he that feels it knows."
And he shall be the God of peace when at
life's latest hour he shall still the current of Jordan, shall hush all the howlings of
the fiends, shall give us peace with God through Jesus Christ, and land us safe in heaven.
Blessed Trinity! however we consider thee, whether as Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, still is
thy name thrice well deserved, the God of peace, and the God of love.
Let us now enter into the subject, and see wherein God is a God of peace. We remark that
he is the God of peace, for he created peace originally. He is the God of peace, for he is
the restorer of it; though wars have broken out through sin. He is the God of peace,
because he preserves peace when it is made; and he is the God of peace because he shall
ultimately perfect and consummate peace between all his creatures and himself. Thus he is
the God of peace.
First of all, he is the God of peace because he created nothing but peace. Go back
in your imagination to the time when the majestic Father stepped from his solitude and
commenced the work of creation. Picture to yourself the moment when he speaks the word and
the first matter is formed. Before that time there had been neither space, nor time, nor
aught existing, save himself. He speaks and it is done, he commands and it stands fast.
Behold him scattering from his mighty hands stars as numerous as the sparks from an anvil.
Witness how by his word worlds are fashioned, and ponderous orbs roll through that
immensity which first of all he had decreed to be their dwelling place. Lift up now your
eyes and behold these great things which he has created already, let the wings of your
fancy carry you through the immensity of space and the vast profound, and see if you can
discover anywhere the least sign or trace of war. Go through it from the north even to the
south, from the east even unto the west, and mark well if ye can discover one sign of
discord; whether there is not one universal harmony, whether everything is not lovely,
pure, and of good report. See if in the great harp of nature, there is one string which
when touched by its Maker's finger giveth forth discord, see if the pipes of this great
organ God has made do not all play harmoniously, mark ye well, and note it. Are there
bulwarks formed for war? Are there spears and swords? Are there clarions and trumpets?
Hath God created any material with which to destroy his creatures and desolate his realms?
No; everything is peaceable above, beneath, and all around; all is peace, there is nothing
else but calm and quietness. Hark when he makes the angels. He speakswinged seraphs
fly abroad, and cherubs flash through the air on wings of fire. He speaks, and multitudes
of angels in their various hierarchies are brought forth, while Jesus Christ as a mighty
Prince of angels is decreed to be their head. Is there now in any one of those angels one
sign of sorrow? When God made them did he make one of them to be his enemy? Did he fashion
one of them with the least implacability or ill-will within his bosom? Ask the shining
cohorts, and they tell you, "We were not made for war, but for peace. He has not
fashioned us spirits of battle, but spirits of love, and joy, and quietness." And if
they sinned, he made them not to sin. They did so; they brought woe into the world of
their own accord. God created no war. The evil angel brought it first. Left to his free
will, he fell. The elect angels being confirmed by grace, stood fast and firm; but God was
not the author of any war, or any strife. Satan of himself conceived the rebellion, but
God was not the author of it. He may from all eternity have foreseen it, and it may even
be said in some sense that he ordained it to manifest his justice and his glory, and to
show his mercy and sovereignty in redeeming man; but God had no hand in it whatsoever. The
Eternal abjures war; he was not the author of it. Satan led the van, that morning star who
sang together with the rest, fell of himself, God was not the author of his confusion, but
the author of eternal and blessed order. Look, too at God in the creation of this world.
Go into the garden of Eden: walk up and down its bowers; recline under its trees, and
partake of its fruits. Roam through the entire world. Sit down by the sea-shore, or
stretch yourself upon the mountain. Do you see the least sign of war? Nothing like it.
There is nothing of tumult and of noise no preparation of destruction. See Adam and Eve:
their days are perpetual sunshine, their nights are balmy evenings of sweet repose. God
has put nothing in their hearts which can disturb them; he has no ill will towards them,
but on the contrary, he walks with them in the evening under the trees in the cool of the
day. He condescends to talk with his creatures, and hold fellowship with them. He is in no
sense whatever the author of the present confusion in this world; that was brought about
by our first parents through the temptation of the evil one. God did not create this world
for strife. When he first fashioned it, peace, peace, peace, was the universal order of
the day. May there come a time when peace once more shall be restored to this great earth,
and tranquility to this world! Do you not observe that God is the God of peace because he
created it originally? When he pronounced his creation "very good," it was
entirely without the slightest exception, a peaceful creation. God is the God of peace.
But, secondly, he is the God of peace because he restores it. Nothing shows a man
to be much fonder of peace than when he seeks to make peace between others; or, when
others have offended him, he endeavors to make peace between himself and them. If I should
be able at all times to maintain peace with myself, and should never provoke a quarrel, I
should of course be considered a peaceful spirit, but if other persons choose to quarrel
and disagree with me, and I desire and purposely set to work to bring about a
reconciliation, then everyone says I am a man of peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they are the children of God." God is the great Peacemaker; and thus he is indeed
the God of peace. When Satan fell, there was war in heaven. God made peace there, for he
smote Satan and cast him and all his rebel hosts into eternal fire. He made peace by his
might and power and majesty, for he drove him out of heaven, and expelled him by his
flaming brand, never again to pollute the sacred floor of bliss, and never more to
endanger Paradise by misleading his peers in heaven. So he made peace in heaven by his
power. But when man fell, God made peace not by his power, but by his mercy. Man
transgresses. Poor man! Mark how God goes after him to make peace with him! "Adam,
where art thou?" Adam never said "God, where art thou?" But God came after
Adam, and he seemed to say with a voice of affection and pity, "Adam, poor Adam,
where art thou? Hast thou become a God? The evil spirit said thou wouldst be a God, art
thou so? Where art thou now poor Adam? Thou wast once in holiness and perfection, where
art thou now?" And he saw the truant Adam running away from his Master, running away
from the great Peacemaker, to hide himself beneath the trees of the garden. Again God
calls, "Adam, where art thou?" But he says, "I heard thy voice in the midst
of the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." And God
says, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" How kind it is. You can see he is a
Peacemaker even then; but when after having cursed the serpent, and sent the cursed
obliquely on the ground, he comes to talk to Adam, you see him as the Peacemaker still
more. "I will," said he, "put enmity between thee and the woman, between
thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
There he was making peace through the blood of the cross. Do not conceive, however that
that was the first preparation of peace God ever made. That was the first display of it,
but he had been making peace from all eternity. Through the covenant he made with Jesus
Christ from all eternity, God's people were at peace with God. Although God saw that man
shall fall; though he foresaw that his elect would with the rest depart from rectitude,
and become his enemies, yet he did long before the fall draw up a covenant with Jesus,
wherein Jesus stipulated that he would pay the debts of all his people, and the Father on
their behalf did actually and positively forgive their sins, and justify their persons,
take away their guilt, acquit them, accept and receive them unto peace with him. Though
that was never developed until the fall, and though to each of us it is not known until we
believe, yet there was always peace between God and the elect. I must tell you a tale of a
poor bricklayer who met with an accident, and every one thought he was going to die, and
he did die. A clergyman said to him, "My poor fellow, I am afraid you will die. Try
to make your peace with God." With tears in his eyes, he looked the clergyman in the
face, and said, "Make my peace with God, sir? I thank God that was made for me in the
eternal covenant by Jesus Christ, long before I was born." So beloved, it was. There
was a peace, a perfect peace which God made with his Son. Jesus was not our ambassador
merely, but he was our peace; not the maker of peace merely, but our peace;
and since there was a Christ before all worlds, there was peace before all worlds. Since
there always will be a Christ, so there always will be peace between God and all those
interested in the covenant. Oh, if we can but feel we are in the covenant, if we know we
are numbered with the chosen race, and purchased with redeeming blood, then we can
rejoice, because God has been to us the Restorer of breaches, the Builder of cities to
dwell in, and hath given us peace which once we lost; he is the Restorer of peace.
Thirdly, he is the preserver of peace. Whenever I see peace in the world, I
ascribe it to God, and if it is continued, I shall always believe it is because God
interferes to prevent war. So combustible are the materials of which this great world is
made, that I am ever apprehensive of war. I do not account it wonderful that one nation
should strive against another, I account if far more wonderful that they are not all at
arms. Whence come wars and fightings? Come they not from your lusts? Considering how much
lust there is in the world, we might well conceive that there would be more war than we
see. Sin is the mother of wars; and remembering how plentiful sin is, we need not marvel
if it brings forth multitudes of them. We may look for them. If the coming of Christ be
indeed drawing nigh, then we must expect wars and rumors of wars through all the nations
of the earth; but when peace is preserved, we consider it to be through the immediate
interposition of God. If then we desire peace between nations, let us seek it of God, who
is the great Pacificator; but there is an inward peace which God alone can keep. Am
I at peace with myself, with the world, and with my Maker? Oh! if I want to retain that
peace, God alone can preserve it. I know there are some people who once enjoyed peace, who
do not possess it now. Some of you once had confidence in God, but may have lost it; you
once thought yourselves to be in a glorious state from which now you seem to have somewhat
departed. Beloved, no one can maintain peace in the heart but God, as he is the only one
who can put it there. Some people talk about doubts and fears and seem to think they are
very allowable. I have heard some say, "Well a sailor in the sunshine knows his
reckoning, and can tell where he is, he has no doubt; but if the sun withdraws, he cannot
tell his longitude and latitude, and he knows not where he is." That is not however a
fair description of faith. Always wanting the sun is wanting to live by sight; but living
by faith is to say, "I cannot tell my longitude and my latitude, but I know the
Captain is at the helm, and I will trust him everywhere." But still you cannot keep
in that peaceful state of mind unless you have God in the vessel to help you to smile at
the storm. We can be peaceful at times, but if God goes away, how we begin quarrelling
with ourselves! God alone can preserve peace. Backslider! hast thou lost it? Go and seek
it again of God. Christian! is thy peace marred? Go to God, and he can say to every doubt,
"tie down doubt," and to every fear, "Begone."He can speak to
every wind that can blow across thy soul, and can say, "Peace, be still; "for he
is the God of peace, since he preserves it. Trust in him.
Fourthly, God is the God of peace because he shall perfect and consummate it at last.
There is war in the world now; there is an evil spirit walking to and fro, a restless
being, eager, like a lion to devour, walking through dry places, seeking rest and finding
none; and there are men bewitched by that evil spirit who are at war with God, and at war
with one another; but there is a time cominglet us wait a little longerwhen
there shall be peace on earth and peace throughout all God's dominions. In a few more
years we do look for a lasting and perpetual peace on earth. Perhaps, to-morrow, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God will come again, without a sin offering unto salvation. We know not
either the day or the hour wherein the Son of man shall come; but by-and-bye he shall
descend from heaven with a shout, and with the noise of a trumpet; he shall come, but not
as once he came, a lowly and humble man, but a glorious and exalted monarch. Then he will
cause wars to cease. From that day forth and for ever they will hang the useless helm on
high, and study war no more; the lion shall lie down with the kid and eat straw like the
ox; the cockatrice and the serpent shall lose their hurtful powers; the weaned child shall
lead the lion and the leopard, each one by his beard with his little hands. The day is
coming, and that speedily, when there shall not be found on earth a single man who hates
his brother, but when each one shall find in every other a brother and a friend; and we
shall be able to say, as the old poet did, but in a larger sense, "I know not that
there is one Englishman alive with whom I am one jot at odds more than the infant that is
born to-night." We shall all be united; rationalities will be levelled, because made
into one, and the Lord Jesus Christ shall be king of the entire earth. After that time
shall come the consummation of peace, when the last great day shall have passed away, and
the righteous have been severed from the wicked, when the monster battle of Armageddon
shall have been fought and won when all the righteous shall have been gathered into
heaven, and the lost sent down to hell. Where will be the room for the battle then? Look
at the foemen, bruised and mangled in the pit, perpetually howling, the victims of God's
vengence; there is no fear of war from them. There is Satan himself, crest-fallen, bruised
battered, slain; his head is broken; there he lies despoiled a king without his crown;
there can be no fear of war from him; and mark the angels, who were once under his
supremacy, can they arise? No; they writhe in tortures, and bite their iron bands in
misery; they have no power to lift a lance against the God of heaven; and look on sinful
man, condemned for his sin to dwell with those fallen being; can he again provoke his
Maker? Will he again blaspheme? Can he oppose the gospel? No, injured in dungeons of hot
iron, there he is, an abject, ruined spirit; ten thousand times ten thousand lost and
perished sinners are there; but could all unite in solemn league and covenant to break the
bands of death and sever the laws of justice, he that sitteth in the heavens would laugh
at them, the Lord would have them in derision. Peace is consummated because the enemy is
crushed. They look up yonder; there is no fear of war from those bright spirits; the
angels cannot fall now; their period of probation is passed for ever, a second Satan shall
never drag with him a third part of the stars of heaven; no angel will totter any more,
and the ransomed spirits, blood-bought, and washed in the fountain of Jesu's blood, will
never fall again. Universal peace is come, the olive branch hath outlived the laurel the
sword is sheathed, the banners are furled, the stains of blood are washed out of the
world; again it moves in its orb, and sings like its sister stars; but the one song is
peace, for the God who made it is the God of peace.
II. Now we come to the benediction. "The God of peace be with you all." I
am not about to address you concerning that inward peace which rests in the heart. I am
sure I wish above all things that you may always enjoy a peace with your conscience, and
be at peace with God. May you always know that you have the blood of Jesus to plead, that
you have his righteousness to cover you, that you have his atonement to satisfy for you,
and that there is nothing which can hurt you; but I wish to address you as a church, and
exhort you to peace.
First, I will remind you that there is great need to pray this prayer for you all, because
there are enemies to peace always lurking in all societies. Petrarch says there are
five great enemies to peaceavarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride. I shall alter
them a little, but use the same number. Instead of avarice I shall commence with error.
One of the greatest means of destroying peace is error. Error in doctrine leads to the
most lamentable consequences with regard to the peace of the church. I have noticed that
the greatest failings out have been among those who are most erroneous in doctrine. Though
I admit that some called Calvinists are the most quarrelsome set breathing, this is the
reasonwhile they have the main part of the truth, many of them are leaving out
something important, and therefore God chastices them because they are some of his best
children. It may be a sign of life that they are so eager after truth, that they kill one
another in order to get it; but I wish they would leave off their quarrelling for it is a
disgrace to our religion. If they had more peace I might hope better for the progress of
truth. Everyone says to me"Look there at your brethren! I never saw such a set
of cut-throats in my life. I never saw a church, where they have the gospel, where they
are not always falling out." Well, that is nearly the truth, and I am ashamed to
confess it. I pray God, however, to send a little more peace where he has sent the gospel.
There are, however, strifes among our opponents which we do not see. The bishop uses his
strong hand, and the people dare not disagree; the pastor has such power and authority,
that the crush of his mailed hand is sufficient to put down everything because there is no
freedom. Now, I would rather have a row in the church than have the members all asleep. I
would rather have them falling to ears than sitting down in indifference. You never expect
dead churches to have strife, but where there is a little life, if there is error, it
always begets strife. What is the most litigious denomination now existing? No one would
have a difficulty in pointing to our excellent friends the Wesleyans, for just at this
moment they are quarrelling and finding fault with one another, splitting up into
numberless sections, and making reformed churches, and so on. What is the cause of it?
Because they are in the wrong track altogether with regard to church government, and with
regard to some other things. John Wesley was a good man at making churches, I dare say;
but he did not understand what the church ought to be in these days. He might do for a
hundred years ago but he bound his poor followers too tightly, and now they are trying to
break out into freedom and liberty. If they had been right at first they might have gone
on, and a thousand years would not have spoiled their system. It would have done now as
well as then. Error is the root of bitterness in the church. Give us sound doctrine, sound
practice, sound church government, and you will find that the God of peace will be with
us. My brethren, seek to uproot error out of your own hearts. If one of you do not really
believe the great cardinal doctrines of the gospel, I beseech you, then, for the good of
the church to leave it, for we want those who love the truth.
The next enemy to peace is ambition. "Diotrephes loveth to have the
pre-eminence," and that fellow has spoiled many a happy church. A man does not want,
perhaps, to be pre-eminent, but then he is afraid that another should be, and so he would
have him put down. Thus brethren are finding fault, they are afraid that such an one will
go too fast, and that such another will go too fast. The best way is to try to go as fast
as he does. It is of no use finding fault because some may have a little
pre-eminence. After all, what is the pre-eminence. It is the pre-eminence of one little
animalcule over another. Look in a drop of water. One of these little fellows is five
times as big as another, but we never think of that. I dare say he is very large, and
thinks, "I have the pre-eminence inside my drop." But he does not think the
people of Park Street ever talk about him. So we live in this little drop of the world,
not much bigger in God's esteem than a drop of the bucket, and one of us seems a little
larger than the other, a worm a little above his fellow worm; but, O how big we get! and
we want to get a little bigger, to get a little more prominent but what is the use of it?
for when we get ever so big we shall then be so small teat an angel would not find us out
if God did not tell him where we were. Whoever heard up in heaven anything about emperors
and kings? Small tiny insects: God can see the animalculae, therefore he can see us, but
if he had not an eye to see the most minute he would never discover us. O may we never get
ambition in this church. The best ambition is, who shall be the servant of all. The
strangers seek to have dominion, but children seek to let the father have dominion, and
the father only.
The next enemy to peace is anger. There are some individuals in the world that
cannot help getting angry very quickly. They grow on a sudden very wrathful; while others
who are not passionate, who take a longer time to be angry, are fearful enough when they
do speak. Others who dare not speak at all, are worse still, for they get brewing their
anger.
"Nursing their wrath to keep it warm."
They go into a sulky fit, disagreeing with everybody, eternally grumbling; they are like dogs in the flockonly barking, and yielding no fleece. O that nasty anger! If it gets into the church it will split it to pieces. Somehow or other we cannot help getting angry sometimes. O that we could come into the church and leave ourselves behind us! There is nobody I should like to run away from half so much as from myself. Try, beloved, to curb your tempers; and when you do not exactly see with another brother, do not think it necessary to knock him on the eyes to make him see, that is the worst thing in all the world to do, he will not see any the better for it, for
"The man convinced against his will,
Is of the same opinion still."
Then envy is another fearful evil.
One minister, perhaps, is envious of another, because one church is full and the other
not. How can teachers agree in the Sunday-school if there is any envy there? How can
church members agree if envy creeps in? One member thinks another is thought more highly
of than he deserves. Why, beloved, you are all too much thought of; but, after all, it
does not matter what you are thought of by man, it only matters what God thinks of
youand God thinks as much of Little-faith as of Great-heart; he thinks as much of
Mrs. Despondency as of Christiana herself. Drive, then, that "green-eyed
monster" away, and keep him at a distance.
Again, there is pride, which gives rise to ill-feeling and bad blood. Instead of
being affable to one another, and "condescending to men of low estate," we want
that every punctilio of respect should be given to us, that we should be made lords and
masters. That I am sure can never exist in a peaceable church.
Here, then, are our five great enemies. I would I could see the execution of them all
Banish them, transport them for ever, send them away amongst lions and tigers; we do not
want any of them amongst us; but though I thus speak, it is not because I conceive that
any of these have thoroughly crept in amongst you, but because I would have kept them
away. I am most jealous in this matter. I am always afraid of the slightest contention,
and I desire the God of peace to be ever with us.
Now let me briefly show you the appropriateness of this prayer. We indeed ought to have
peace amongst ourselves. Joseph said to his brethren when they were going home to his
father's house, "See that ye fall not out by the way." There was
something extremely beautiful in that exhortation. "See that ye fall not out by
the way." Ye have all one father, ye are of one family. Let men of two nations
disagree; but you are of the seed of Israel, you are of one tribe and nation; your home is
in one heaven. "See that ye fall not out by the way." The way is rough; there
are enemies to stop you. See that if ye fall out when ye get home, ye do not fall
out by the way Keep together; stand by one another, defend each other's character,
manifest continual affection, for recollect you will want it all. The world hateth you
because you are not of the world. Oh! you must take care that you love one another. You
are all going to the same house. You may disagree here, and not speak to one another, and
be almost ashamed to sit at the same table even at the sacrament; but you will all have to
sit together in heaven. Therefore do not fall out by the way. Consider, again, the great
mercies you have all shared together. You are all pardoned, you are all accepted, elected,
justified, sanctified, and adopted. See that ye fall not out when ye have so many mercies,
when God has given you so much. Joseph has filled your sacks, but if he has put some extra
thing into Benjamin's sack, do not quarrel with Benjamin about that, but rather rejoice
because your sacks are full. You have all got enough, you are all secure, you have all
been dismissed with a blessing, and, therefore, I say once more, "See that ye fall
not out by the way."
Now, dear brethren is there anything I can plead with you this morning, in order that you
may always dwell in peace and love? God has happily commenced a blessed revival amongst
us, and under our means, by the help of God, that revival will spread through the entire
kingdom. We have seen that "the word of the Lord is quick and powerful." We know
that there is nothing that can stop the progress of his kingdom, and there is nothing that
can impede your success as a church except this. If the unhappy day should arrivelet
the day be accursed when it does comewhen you amongst yourselves should disagree,
there would be a stop to the building of the Lord's house at once, when those that carry
the trowel and bear the spears do not stand side by side, then the work of God must tarry.
It is sad to think how much our glorious cause has been impeded by the different failings
out amongst the disciples of the Lamb. We have loved one another, brethren, up till now,
with a true heart and fervently and I am not afraid but that we shall always do so. At the
same time, I am jealous over you, lest there should come in by any possibility any root of
bitterness to trouble you. Let us this morning throw around you the bands of a man, let us
unite you together with a three-fold cord that cannot be broken, let us entreat you to
love one another; let us entreat you by your one Lord, one faith, one baptism, to continue
one; let us beg of you, by our great success, to let our unity be commensurate therewith.
Remember "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity!" The devil wants you to disagree, and nothing will please him better than for
you to fall at ears among yourselves. The Moabites and Anmonites cut down one another. Do
not let us do that.
"Those should in strictest concord
dwell,
Who the same God obey."
It is continual bickering and jealousy that
has brought disgrace upon the holy name of Christ. He has been wounded in the house of his
friends. The arrows we have shot at one another have hurt us more than all that ever came
from the bow of the devil. We have done more injury to the escutcheon of Christ by our
contentions than Satan has ever been able to do. I beseech you, brethren, love one
another. I know not how I could endure anything like discord among you. I can bear
the scoff of the world, and the laughter of the infidel, methinks I could bear martyrdom;
but I could not bear to see you divided. I beseech my God and Master to suffer me first to
wear my shroud, before I ever wear a garment of heaviness on account of your divisions.
While I feel that I have your love and affection, and that you are bound to one another, I
care not for the devils in hell, nor for men on earth. We have been, and we shall be
omnipotent, through God; and by faith we will stand firm to one another and to his truth.
Let each one resolve within himself"if there is strife, I will have nothing to
do with it." "The beginning of strife is like the letting out of water,"
and I will not turn the tap. If you will take care not to let the first drop in, I will be
surety about the second. Brethren, again I say, for the gospel's sake, for the truth's
sake, that we may laugh at our enemies, and rejoice with joy unspeakable, let us love one
another.
Though I may not have preached to the worldly this morning, I have been asking you to
preach to them, for when you love one another, that is a beautiful sermon to them. There
is no sermon like what you can see with your own eyes. I went to the Orphan-house, last
Wednesday, on Ashley Down, near Bristol, and saw that wonder of faithI had some
conversation with that heavenly-minded man Mr. Muller. I never heard such a sermon in my
life as I saw there. They asked me to speak to the girls, but I said, "I could not
speak a word for the life of me." I had been crying all the while to think how God
had heard this dear man's prayer, and how all those three hundred children had been fed by
my Father through the prayer of faith. Whatever is wanted, comes without annual
subscriptions, without asking anything, simply from the hand of God. When I found that it
was all correct that I had heard, I was like the queen of Sheba, and I had no heart left
in me. I could only stand and look at those children, and think, did my heavenly Father
feed them, and would he not feed me and all his family? Speak to them? They had spoken to
me quite enough, though they had not said a wordSpeak to them? I thought myself ten
thousand fools that I did not believe God better. Here am I, I cannot trust him day by
day; but this good man can trust him for three hundred children. When he has not a
sixpence in hand he never fears. "I know God," he might say, "too well to
doubt him. I tell my God, thou knowest what I want to-day to keep these children, and I
have not anything. My faith never wavers, and my supply always comes." Simply by
asking of God in this way, he has raised (I believe) ?17,000 towards the erection of a
new orphan-house. When I consider that, sometimes think we will try the power of faith
here, and see if we should not get sufficient funds whereby to erect a place to hold the
people that crowd to hear the Word of God. Then we may have a tabernacle of faith as well
as an orphan-house of faith. God send us that, and to Him shall be all the glory.
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