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Good Works
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 16, 1856, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark
"Zealous of good works."Titus 2:14.
We shall not be afraid of leading any of you into a legal
spirit this morning through what we shall say, for after our frequent exhortations to
avoid anything like trusting in your works, attended as they have been, we trust, by the
Holy Spirit, we are not afraid that you will so misunderstand us, as to suppose that when
we speak of good works, to-day, we shall in any way whatsoever wish you to imagine that
they can promote your eternal salvation. We laboured when here the Sabbath morning before
last, to let you know the difference between the two covenants, the covenant of grace and
the covenant of works; we shall beg you to remember what we then said, and if by any slips
of the tongue we should say anything that should look like legality, we beg you will put
the two together, and wherein we shall err from the great truth of justification by faith,
to reject our testimony.
"Zealous of good works." There are some who hear us preach high
doctrine, and constantly declare that we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of
ourselves, it is the gift of God, who, therefore, suppose that we cannot preach good
works, and that we could not preach a good sermon of exhortation to Christians, to live in
holiness. Well, we will not say that we can preach a good sermon, but we will say that we
will try and preach one as to that matter that shall be as good as theirs, and as much
lead the children of God to live in holiness as any of their exhortations can do, grounded
as they are on trusting in the flesh, and based as they are on threatenings, regulations
and promises, which they hope will induce God's children, but which are well enough for
slaves, though of little avail in operating on the true-born believer. The children of God
are a holy people;for this very purpose were they born and brought into the world,
that they should be holy; for this they were redeemed with blood and made a peculiar
people. God's end in election, the end of all his purposes, is not answered until they
become a people "zealous of good works."
Now, this morning, we shall first of all tell you the nature of good
works, for there are many things called good works that are not so at all; secondly,
we shall trace good works to their originfind where good works come from;
thirdly, we shall attempt to show you the use of good works; and we shall close up
by endeavoring to prove that our doctrines, those of free, distinguishing,
discriminating grace, have a tendency to make us who believe them "zealous of good
works."
I. First, then, we are about to answer the question, WHAT ARE GOOD WORKS?
Now, I dare say we shall offend many here when we tell them what good works are; for in
our opinion good works are the rarest things in the world, and we believe we might walk
for many a mile before we should see a good work at all. We use the word good now in its
proper sense. There are many works which are good enough between man and man, but we shall
use the word good in a higher sense to-day as regards God. We think we shall be able to
show you that there are very few good works anywhere, and that there are none out of the
pale of Christ's church. We think, if we read Scripture rightly, that no work can be good
unless it is commanded of God. How this cuts off a large portion of what men will do in
order to win salvation! The Pharisee said he tithed mint, anise, and cummin; could he
prove that God commanded him to tithe his mint, his anise, and his cummin? Perhaps not. He
said he fasted so many times a week; could he prove that God told him to fast? If not, his
fasting was no obedience. If I do a thing that I am not commanded to do, I do not obey in
doing it. Vain, then, are all the pretences of men, that by mortifying their bodies, by
denying their flesh, by doing this, that, or the other, they shall therefore win the
favour of God. No work is good unless God has commanded it. A man may build a long row of
almshouses, but if he build without reference to the commandment, he has performed no good
work.
Again: nothing is a good work unless it is done with a good motive;
and there is no motive which can be said to be good but the glory of God. He who performs
good works with a view to save himself, does not do them from a good motive, because his
motive is selfish. He who does them also to gain the esteem of his fellows and for the
good of society, has a laudable motive, so far as man is concerned; but it is, after all,
an inferior motive.What end had we in view? If for the benefit of our
fellow-creatures, then let our fellow-creatures pay us; but that has nought to do with
God. Work is not good, unless a man does it with a view to God's glory, and he has been
brought into subjection to God's divine will, so that in everything he has an eye to the
Most High, and works in order to promote his glory and honor in the world. And even,
beloved, when our works are done from the best motives, nothing is a good work unless it
is done with faith; for "without faith it is impossible to please God." Like
Cain, we may build the altar, and lay the first fruits of the salt of faith, there it will
lieit will not be accepted by God, for without faith it is impossible to please him.
Bring me a man who all his life long has been spending his health and strength for his
fellow-creatures; fetch me some public officer, who has fully discharged his trust, who
has laboured night and day, even to the wearing down of his constitution, because he
believed that England expected every man to do his duty, and he wished to do it; bring me
that man; let me see all his charitable works; let me witness the most lavish benevolence,
the most profuse bounty; tell me that he has always, with a consistent motive, laboured
for his country; and then, if he cannot answer this question. "Dost thou believe in
the Son of God?" I shall be bound in all honesty to tell him that he has not done a
solitary good work in all his life, so far as God is concerned.
Furthermore, when we have faith in God, and perform all our works with
the best of motives, even then we have not so much as a solitary good work, until the
blood of Christ is sprinkled thereon. Looking on all that we have ever done in our
lives, can we find a solitary thing which we dare call good until Christ's blood is put
upon it? Grant there is something good about it, for the Spirit wrought it in our souls;
there is much also that is evil about it, for even our best exercises are so terribly
spoiled, marred, and ruined by the sins and imperfections that are in them, that we dare
not call them good, until Jesus Christ hath sprinkled them with his blood, and taken the
stain away. Oh how often have I thought to myself, "Now, I have laboured to preach
God's word; I have not spared, at all times, before friends or foes, and I hope I have not
shunned to declare the whole counsel of God!" And yet, beloved, how many of those
sermons have not been good works at all, because I had not an eye to my Master's honor at
the time, or because there was not faith mixed with them but I preached in a desponding,
low, miserable frame; or, perhaps, I had some natural aim, even in the winning of souls;
for I have often feared, even when we rejoice to see souls converted, that we may have
some evil motive, such as honoring ourselves, that the world may say, "See how many
souls are brought to God by him!" And even when the church associates in doing holy
works, have you not noticed that something selfish creeps ina wish to exalt our own
church, to glorify our own people, and to make ourselves mighty. I am sure, beloved, if
you sit down and pull your good works to pieces, you will find so many bad stitches in
them that they need to be all unstitched and done over again. There are so many spots and
blurs about them, that you need to have them washed in the blood of Christ to make them
good for anything.
And now, beloved, do you think you have any good works? "Oh!" you
say "I am afraid I have not many myself-nay, I know I have not; but thanks be unto
his love, he who accepted my person in Christ, accepts my works through Christ; and he who
blessed me in him, that I should be a chosen vessel, has been pleased to accept that which
he himself poured into the vessel, 'to the praise of the glory of his grace, where he hath
made me accepted in the beloved.'"
And now, ye moralists, ye who have trusted in yourselves that ye are
righteous, if what I have said be true, what has become of all your holiness? You are
saying "I am a charitable man." Grant that you are! I tell you to go and appeal
to your fellow-creatures, and let them pay you for your charity. You say, "Ay, but I
am a consistent and moral man. I am a great credit to the country; if all men would act as
I do, what a good thing for this world and generation!" Of course you have served
your generation. Then send in your bill, and let your generation pay you. I tell you, you
have toiled for nought; you have only sown the wind, and likely enough you will reap the
whirlwind. God owes you nothing; you have not lived to his honor; you must honestly
confess that you have not performed a single action with a desire to please him; you have
laboured to please yourselfthat has been the highest motive you have had; you felt
that if you were good you would go to heaven, and that if you were evil you would be sure
to go to hell. You have been thoroughly selfish, from first to last. Reckon up your
accounts and settle with yourself. God owes you nothing; you have done nothing for him;
and if you have, then consider within yourself, you have so much violated God's commands,
and so frequently done all you could to injure your Maker, if it were possible, that all
your accounts are easily struck off. And as for your good works, where are they? Where are
they? Ah! it is a figment and a fiction, a laugh and a dream. Good works in sinners? There
are no such things. Augustine well said, "Good works, as they are called, in sinners,
are nothing but splendid sins." This is true of the best works of the best man, who
is out of Christ, they are nothing but splendid sinsvanished sins. God forgive you,
dear friends, for your good works! You have as great need to be forgiven for your good
works as you have for your bad ones, if you are out of Christ; for I reckon they are both
alike, bad, if they come to be sifted.
II. And now, secondly, WHERE DO GOOD WORKS COME FROM?
It is an old maxim, that nature can never rise above itself. Water, coming
from the top of a hill, will rise as high as its source; but unless there is some
extraordinary pressure put upon it, it will never rise higher. So of human nature,
Scripture says it is exceedingly vile; we cannot expect good works out of an evil nature.
Can a bitter well send forth sweet water? As poison groweth not on healthful trees, with
healthful fruit, so cannot healthy fruit grow on poisonous trees. We must not look for
good works in an evil nature any more than we should look for the grapes of Sorek on the
vines of Gomorrah. We cannot expect to find good works coming from nature; truly it is
vain and idle to think that good works can arise from the natural man. "Where,
then," you ask, "do they come from?" We answer, good works come from a real
conversion, brought about by the Spirit of God. Until our conversion, there is not the
shadow of goodness about us. In the eye of the world we may be reputable and respectable,
but in the eye of God we are nothing of the sort. Could we look into our hearts, as we
sometimes look into other people's faces, we should see very much there which would drive
out of our souls the very imagination of good works before our heart is changed. How many
things there are in the world, which we have upon our tables and which we even eat, that
if we were to put beneath our microscope we should be afraid to touch, for we should see
all kinds of loathsome creatures creeping and crawling about in themsuch things as
we never conceived! and so it is with human nature. When once the human heart is put under
the microscope of Scripture, and we see it with a spiritual eye, we see it to be so vile
and filthy, that we are quite sure that until we have a new heart and a right spirit, it
would be just as impossible to expect to find good works in an unrighteous, unconverted
man, as to hope to see fire burning in the midst of the ocean. The two things would be
incongruous. Our good works, if we have any, spring from a real conversion; yet more, they
spring also from a constant spiritual influence exercised upon us, from the time of
conversion even until the hour of death. Ah! Christian, thou wouldst have no good works if
thou hadst no fresh influence day by day. Thou wouldst not find the grace given thee at
the first hour sufficient to produce fruit to-day. It is not like the planting of a tree
in our hearts, which naturally of itself bringeth forth fruit; but the sap cometh up from
the root of Jesus Christ. We are not trees by ourselves, but we are branches fixed on the
living vine. Good works, I know whence you come! Ye come floating down on the stream of
grace, and if I did not have that stream of grace always flowing, I should never find good
works coming from me. Good works from the creature? Impossible! Good works are the gifts
of God, his choice pearls, which he sendeth down with his grace.
And again: we think that good works spring from union with Christ. We
believe that the more a man knows and feels himself to be one with Jesus, the more holy
will he be. The very fact that Christ and the Christian become one, makes the Christian
Christ-like. Why is a Christian's character like Christ's character? Only for this reason,
that is joined and united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why doth that branch bring forth
grapes? Simply because it has been engrafted into the vine, and therefore it partakes of
the nature of the stem. So, Christian, the only way whereby thou canst bring forth fruit
to God is by being grafted into Christ and united with him. You Christians who think you
can walk in holiness without keeping up perpetual fellowship with Christ have made a great
mistake. If you would be holy, you must live close to Jesus. Good works spring only
thence. Hence we draw the most powerful reasons against anything like trusting in works;
for as works are only the gift of God, how utterly impossible does it become for an
unrighteous, unconverted, ungodly man, to produce any such good works in himself. And if
they are God's gifts, how little merit can there be in them.
III. We have thus tried to trace good works to their origin and foundation.
And now we come to the third point, which is, WHAT IS THE USE OF GOOD WORKS?
I am rather fond of being called an Antinomian, for this reason, that the
term generally applied to those who hold truth very firmly and will not let it go. But I
should not be fond of being an Antinomian. We are not against the law of God. We believe
it is no longer binding on us as the covenant of salvation; but we have nothing to say
against the law of God. "The law is holy; we are carnal, sold under sin." None
shall charge us truthfully with being Antinomians. We do quarrel with Antinomians; but as
for some poor souls, who are so inconsistent as to say the law is not binding, and yet try
to keep it with all their might, we do not quarrel with them! they will never do much
mischief; but we think they might learn to distinguish between the law as a covenant of
life and a direction after we have obtained life.
Well, we do love good works. Do you ask, of what use are they? I reply,
first: Good works are useful as evidences of grace. The Antinomian says,But I
do not require evidences; I can live without them. This is unreasonable. Do you see yonder
clock? That is the evidence of the time of day. The hour would be precisely the same if we
had not that evidence. Still, we find the clock of great use. So we say, good works are
the best evidence of spiritual life in the soul. Is it not written, "We know that we
have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren?" Loving the brethren
is a good work. Again, "If any man abide in me, he shall bring forth fruit."
Fruits of righteousness are good works, and they are evidence that we abide in Christ. If
I am living in sin day by day, what right have I to conclude I am a child of God? A man
comes to this chapel, and while he hears the gospel, he exclaims, "What delicious
truth! what heavenly doctrine!" Yet when he leaves the place, you may see him enter
one public-house for another, and get intoxicated. Has this man any right to think himself
an heir of heaven? The man who comes to God's house, and drinks "wine on the lees,
well refined," and then goes away and drinks the cup and enjoys the company of the
ungodly, gives no evidence that he is a partaker of divine grace. He says, "I do not
like good works." Of course he does not. "I know I shall not be saved by good
works." Of this we are certain, for he has none to be saved by. Many are ready enough
to say,
"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;"
who believe they are children of God,
because, though they have no good works as evidence, they think they have faith. Ah, sir!
you have faith, and there is another gentleman quite as respectable as you are, who has
faith; I shall not tell you his name this morning, but he is better than you are, for it
is said, "He believes and trembles," while you sit unmoved by the most powerful
appeals. Yes you who think you are children of God while you live in sin, you are in the
most dreadful error. There is no delusion, if you except the delusion of the Pharisee,
which is more dreadful than the delusion of a man, who thinks that sin and grace can reign
together. The Christian has sins of heart, over which he groans and laments, but as
regards his outward life, he is kept, so that the evil one touches him not; the Lord keeps
him under the shadow of his wing; he doth not, except in some falls, allow him to turn out
of the way. Works are the evidence of our faith; by faith our souls are justified before
God; by works our faith is justified before ourselves and fellow-men.
Secondly, we think good works are the witnesses or testimony to other
people of the truth of what we believe. Every Christian was sent into the world to be
a preacher; and just like every other creature that God has made, he will always be
preaching about his Lord. Doth not the whole world preach God? Do not the stars, while
they shine, look down from heaven and say there is a God? Do not the winds chaunt God's
name in their mighty howling? Do not the waves murmur it upon the shore, or thunder it in
the storms? Do not the floods and the fields, the skies and the plains, the mountains and
the valleys, the streamlets and the rivers, all speak for God? Assuredly they do; and a
new-born creaturethe man created in Christmust preach Jesus Christ wherever he
goes. This is the use of good works. He will preach, not with his mouth always, but with
his life. The use of good works is, that they are a Christian's sermon. A sermon is not
what a man says, but what he does. You who practice are preaching; it is not preaching and
practising, but practising is preaching. The sermon that is preached by the mouth is soon
forgotten, but what we preach by our lives is never forgotten. There is nothing like
faithful practice and holy living, if we would preach to the world. The reason why
Christianity does not advance with a mightier stride, is simply this:that professors
are in a large measure a disgrace to religion, and many of those who are joined to the
church have no more godliness than those who are out of it. If I preached such a
contradictory sermon on a Sunday as some of you have preached the most part of your lives,
you would go out and say, "We will not go again till he can be a little more
consistent with himself." There is a difference in the very tone of the voice of some
people when they are in the chapel engaged in prayer, and when they are in the workshop;
you would hardly think them the same persons. Out upon your inconsistency! Professors,
take heed lest your inconsistencies should blot your evidence, and some of you should be
found manifesting, not inconsistency, but a most fearful consistency, because living in
sin and iniquity, and therefore being consistent with yourselves in hypocrisy.
In the third place, good works are of us to a Christian as an adornment.
You will all remember that passage in the Scriptures, which tells us how a woman should
adorn herself. "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the
hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of
the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit." The adornment of good works, the adornment in which we hope to enter heaven,
is the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ; but the adornment of a Christian here
below, is his holiness, his piety, his consistency. If some people had a little more
piety, they would not require such a showy dress; if they had a little more godliness, to
set them off, they would have no need whatever to be always decorating themselves. The
best ear-rings that a woman can wear, are the ear-rings of hearing the Word with
attention. The very best ring that we can have upon our finger is the ring which the
father puts upon the finger of the prodigal son, when he is brought back; and the very
best dress we can ever wear, is a garment wrought by the Holy Spirit, the garment of a
consistent conduct. But it is marvellous, while many are taking all the trouble they can
to array this poor body, they have very few ornaments for their soul; they forgot to dress
the soul. Oh! no; they are too late at chapel, all because of that other pin, which they
might have left out. They come here just when the service is beginning, because, forsooth,
they have so much to put on, they could not be expected to be here in time. And there are
Christian men and Christian women, who forget what God has written in his word, which is
as true now as ever it was, that Christian women should array themselves with modesty. It
would be a good thing, perhaps, if we went back to Wesley's rule, to come out from the
world in our apparel, and to dress as plainly and neatly as the Quakers, though alas! they
have sadly gone from their primitive simplicity. I am obliged to depart a little
sometimes, from what we call the high things of the gospel; for really the children of God
cannot now be told by outward appearance from the children of the devil, and they really
ought to be; there should be some distinction between the one and the other; and although
religion allows distinction of rank and dress, yet everything in the Bible cries out
against our arraying ourselves, and making ourselves proud, by reason of the goodliness of
our apparel. Some will say, "I wish you would leave that alone!" Of course you
do, because it applies to yourself. But we let nothing alone which we believe to be in the
Scriptures; and while I would not spare any man's soul, honesty to every man's conscience
and honesty to myself demands, that I should always speak of that which I see to be an
evil breaking out in the Church. We should always take care that in everything we keep as
near as possible to the written Word. If you want ornaments here they are. Here are
jewels, rings, dresses, and all kinds of ornament; men and women, ye may dress yourselves
up till ye shine like angels. How can you do it? By dressing yourselves out in
benevolence, in love to the saints, in honesty and integrity, in uprightness, in
godliness, in brotherly-kindness, in charity. These are the ornaments which angels
themselves admire, and which even the word will admire; for men must give admiration to
the man or the woman who is arrayed in the jewels of a holy life and godly conversation. I
beseech you, brethren, "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things."
IV. Thus have I told you the use of good works. Now just a moment or two to
tell you that the religion which we profess in this place, and which we preach, is
CALCULATED TO PRODUCE GOOD WORKS IN THE CHILD OF GOD.
Some say that what is called Calvinism, which is an alias for the
true gospel, is calculated to lead men into sin. Now, we will refute that, just by
reminding them, that the holiest people in the world have been those who professed the
doctrine which we hold. If you ask who in the dark ages were the great moral lights of the
world, the answer will be, such as Athanasius, Ambrose, Chrysostom; and then coming lower
still, such men as Wickliffe, Jerome of Prague, and Calvin; and every one of these held
the doctrines which we love to proclaim. And just let me remind you, there never were
better men in the world than the Puritans, and every one of them held fast the truth we
love. I happened to find in a book the other day a statement which pleased me so much,
that I thought I would read it to you. The writer says, "The Puritans were the most
resolved Protestants in the nation; zealous Calvinists; warm and affectionate preachers.
They were the most pious and devout people in the land; men of prayer in secret and in
public, as well as in their families. Their manner of devotion was fervent and solemn,
depending on the assistance of the Divine Spirit. They had a profound reverence for the
holy name of God, and were great enemies not only to profane swearing, but to foolish
talking and jesting. They were strict observers of the Lord's day, spending the whole of
it in public and private devotion and charity. It was the distinguishing mark of a
Puritan, in these times, to see him going to church twice a day, with his Bible under his
arm; and while others were at plays and interludes, at revels, or walking in the fields,
or at the diversions of bowling, fencing, &c., on the eve of the Sabbath, these with
their families were employed in reading the Scriptures, singing psalms, repeating sermons,
catechising their children, and prayer. Nor was this the work only of the Lord's day, but
they had their hours of family devotion in the week days; they were circumspect, as to all
excess in eating and drinking, apparel, and lawful diversions; being frugal, industrious,
exact in their dealings, and solicitous to give every one his own." That is a noble
testimony to puritanic truth and the power of the gospel. But I have one, which I think
will please you, in another part of the book. A learned Infidel says of the modern
Calvinists and Jansenists, that "When compared with their antagonists, they have
excelled, in no small degree, in the most rigid and respectable virtues; that they have
been an honor to their own age, and the best model for imitation to every age
succeeding." Only think of an infidel speaking like that. I think it was an infidel
that said, "Go the Arminians to hear about good works; but go to the Calvinists to
see them exhibited." And even Dr. Priestly, who was a Unitarian, admits that,
"They who hold the doctrines of grace, have less apparent conformity to the world,
and more of a principle of real religion, than his own followers: and that they who, from
a principle of religion, ascribe more to God and less to man than others, have the
greatest elevation of piety."
And just now, as the Unitarians are bringing up all their great menso
great that we never heard their names to this dayand endeavouring to do all they can
in London, to bring people to Unitarianism, we would just tell them this fact. Dr.
Priestly ascribes the coolness of Unitarianism to their becoming more indifferent to
religious doctrineand accounts for the fact of their chapels not being well
attended, by saying that Unitarians have a very slight attachment to their religious
doctrines. What a mercy! for if they continued to hold them, they would inevitably be
lost. A man who denies the divinity of Christ is sure to be lost. It is idle for them to
talk of their being Christians; they might as well talk of being holy angels. The best
proof I can give you of the holy tendency of our doctrines is this great fact,
viz.:That in every age those who have held the doctrines of grace have exhibited in
their lives a holy walk and conversation.
But once more: in just hastily running over the doctrines, we ask, what
could more tend to make men holy, than the truths we preach? Do we not teach you, that
God has chosen to himself a people who must be holy? Is that an unholy doctrine? Do we not
tell you that God has chosen to himself a people who in this world shall show forth his
praise, by holy living? Is that an unholy doctrine? And we have told you that the Holy
Ghost gives a new heart, and a right spirit, and that there is something more required
than you can do yourselves; that you are unable to perform such good things as God expects
from you, therefore God the Spirit must renovate you. Do you call that an unholy doctrine?
Is the doctrine, that men by nature are vile and need renewing grace, unholy? And the
doctrine that the true saints will certainly hold on to the end: is that unholy? Methinks
the contrary to these doctrines are the most unholy in the world. Is the doctrine that
only those who believe have an interest in the blood of Christ an unholy thing? Is the
doctrine that I preach, that Christ has redeemed only such as live in holiness, having
been brought thereto by the Holy Ghost, an unholy thing? Methinks not. We challenge all
those who love to speak against our doctrines to prove that there is a single one of them
which has an unholy tendency. Charge us with not holding good works? Come and try to get
into our church, and you will soon have a proof that you are wrong. Why, we would not have
you, sir, if you would give us a thousand pounds, unless we considered you were a holy
man. If you have not good works, it will be a long time before we will receive you; and if
you were to steal into our church, you would be turned out in a week, if you lived in sin
and unrighteousness; for it would soon be reported to the pastor and deacons, and you
would see whether we did not hold the necessity of good works. If you did not exhibit them
every day we would cast you out from amongst us, and have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Our church order is the best
refutation of the calumny.
What more can we say, then? We hope we have proved our points to all honest
and consistent men. We only send you away, ye hypocrites, with this ringing in your ears,
"Except ye have the spirit of Christ, ye are none of his." Except ye live like
Christ, ye shall not be with Christ at last; if your spirit be not sanctified in this
world, you will not find that God will sanctify you when you come before his throne. But
you, poor sinners, who have no holiness of your own, and no good works at all; I know you
have not any, because you are not a child of God. Do you feel that you have not? Come
then, and Christ will give you some: he will give you himself. If you believe on the Lord
Jesus, he will wash you from all your sins, give you a new heart, and henceforth your life
shall be holy, your conduct shall be consistent, he shall keep you to the end, and you
shall most assuredly be saved. God bless this testimony to any such as are living in sin,
that they may be reclaimed from it; for Christ's sake! Amen.
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