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The Form of Sound Words
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, May 11, 1856, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark
"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."2 Timothy 1:13.
My incessant anxiety for you, dearly beloved in the faith
of Jesus Christ, is that I may be able, in the first place, to teach you what God's truth
is; and then, trusting that I have to the best of my ability taught you what I believe to
be God's most holy gospel, my next anxiety is, that you should "hold fast the form of
sound words;" that whatever may occur in the future, should death snatch away your
pastor, or should anything occur which might put you in perilous circumstances, so that
you were tempted to embrace any system of heresy, you might every one of you stand as firm
and as unmoved as rocks, and as strong as mountains be, abiding in "the faith which
was once delivered unto the saints," whereof ye have heard, and which we have
proclaimed unto you. If the gospel be worth your hearing, and if it be a true gospel, it
is worth your holding, and our anxiety is, that you should be so established in the faith,
that you may, "hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering, for he is
faithful that has promised."
The Apostle most earnestly admonished Timothy to "hold fast the form of sound words
which he had heard of him in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." I do not
suppose that by this it is intended that Paul ever wrote out for Timothy a list of
doctrines; or that he gave him a small abstract of divinity, to which he desired him to
subscribe his name, as the articles of the church over which he was made a pastor. If so,
doubtless the document would have been preserved and enrolled in the canons of Scripture
as one of the writings of an inspired man. I can scarce think such a creed would have been
lost, whilst other creeds have been preserved and handed down to us. I conceive that what
the Apostle meant was this:"Timothy, when I have preached to you, you have
heard certain grand outlines of truth; you have heard from me the great system of faith in
Jesus Christ; in my writings and public speakings you have heard me continually insist
upon a certain pattern or form of faith; now I bid you, my dearly beloved son in the
gospel, "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and
love which is in Christ Jesus."
This morning I shall first attempt to tell you what I conceive to be a "form of
sounds words," which we are to hold fast. In the second place, I shall endeavour
to urge upon you the strong necessity of holding fast that form. In the third
place, I shall warn you of some dangers to which you will be exposed, tempting you to
give up the form of sound words. Then, in the last place I shall mention the two
great holdfasts, faith and love in Christ Jesus, which are the great means of
"holding fast the form of sound words."
1. What is a "FORM OF SOUND WORDS?" Ten thousand persons will quarrel upon this.
One will say, "My creed is a form of sound words;" another will declare that his
creed also is sound, if not infallible. We will not, therefore, enter into all the
minutiae which distinguish creeds from each other, but just simply say, that no system can
be a form of sound words unless it is perfectly scriptural. We receive no doctrines
as the doctrines of men; whatever authority come to us which is not the authority of the
Holy Spirit, and inspired by God, is no authority at all to us. We laugh to scorn all the
dogmatism of men; we care for nothing they assert, however strongly they declare it, or
however eloquently they plead for it; we utterly reject and discard it; we hold it a sin
to "take for doctrines the commandments of men;" we give no heed to the
traditions that are handed down to us. If our opponent cannot quote text or verse for
anything he advances, we hold no argument with him. Scripture is the only weapon we can
acknowledge.
But since it is said that texts may be found to prove almost everything, we must remark,
that a form of sound words must be one that exalts God and puts down man. We dare
not for a moment think that any doctrine is sound that does not put the crown upon the
head of Jesus, and does not exalt the Almighty. If we see a doctrine which exalts the
creature, we do not care one fig about what arguments may be brought to support it; we
know that it is a lie, unless it lays the creature in the very dust of abasement, and
exalts the Creator. If it does not do this, it is nothing but a rotten doctrine of pride;
it may dazzle us with the brilliant malaria rising from its marshes, but it never can shed
a true and healthful light into the soul; it is a rotten doctrine, not fit to be builded
on the gospel, unless it exalts Jehovah Jesus, Jehovah the Father, and Jehovah the Holy
Spirit.
We think, also, that we may judge of the soundness of doctrine by its tendency. We
can never think a doctrine sound, when we see plainly upon its very surface that it has a
tendency to create sin in men. Unless it be a doctrine according to godliness, we cannot
conceive it to be a doctrine of God. Unless the believer of it, earnestly and truthfully
believing it, doth give himself to virtueunless that doctrine has in itself a
natural tendency to promote in him a love to the rightwe are at first sight
suspicious of it; and if we find on examination that it is a licentious doctrineit
may have all the glitter and the glare of novelty, but we cast it away as not being the
doctrine of Christianity, because it does not promote holiness in the soul.
We shall, perhaps, be asked what we do regard as a form of sound words, and what
those doctrines are which are scriptural, which at the same time are healthful to the
spirit and exalting to God. We answer, we believe a form of sound words must embrace,
first of all, the doctrine of God's being and nature, we must have the Trinity in
Unity, and the Unity in Trinity. Any doctrine, which hath not the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, as equal persons in one undivided essence, we cast aside as being unsound, for we
are sure that such doctrines must be derogatory to God's glory; and if they be so it is
enough for us. If any man despise either Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, we despise him, and
despise his teachings, and cannot even say to him, "I wish you God speed."
Now, we hold, that a form of sound words must look upon man aright as well as upon God
aright; it must teach that man is utterly fallen, that he is sinful, and for his sin
condemned, and in himself altogether hopeless of salvation. If it exalts man by giving him
a character which is not a true one, and clothing him with a spurious robe of
righteousness, woven by his own fingers, we reject and discard it utterly.
And next, we think that a doctrine that is sound must have right views of salvation, as
being of the Lord alone; unless we find in it everlasting, unchanging love, working
out a salvation for a people "who were not a people," but were made a people by
special grace; unless we find discriminating love, others may say what they willwe
cannot consider such a creed to be a form of sound words, unless we discern redeeming
mercy openly and boldly taught; unless we see final perseverance, and all those great and
glorious truths which are the very bulwarks of our religion, others may embrace the
doctrine as being a form of sound words; but we cannot, and we dare not. We love the old
system of our forefathers; we love the old truths of Scripture, not because they are old,
but because we cannot consider anything to be truth which doth not hold the scriptural
view of salvation. Methinks Paul himself, in this very chapter, gives us a form of sound
words, where he speaks of "God who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began."
I need not stop this morning to prove to you that which I have briefly hinted at as a form
of sound words, because you believe it, and believe it firmly. I am not about to urge you
to receive it, because I know you have already received it; but what I have to say is,
"Hold fast," I beseech you, "the form of sound words, which thou hast heard
of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
II. Now let me show you THE NECESSITY OF HOLDING FAST THIS FORM OF SOUND WORD, AND KEEPING
IT FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, FOR THE CHURCH'S SAKE, FOR THE WORLD'S SAKE.
First, for your own sake, hold it fast, for thereby you will receive ten thousand
blessings; you will receive the blessing of peace in your conscience. I protest, before
God, that if at any time I ever doubt one of the great things I receive from God,
instantly there comes an aching void which the world can never fill, and which I can never
get filled until I receive that doctrine again, and believe it with all my heart. When at
any time I am cast down and dejected, I always find comfort in reading books which are
strong on the doctrines of the faith of the gospel; if I turn to some of them that treat
of God's eternal love, revealed to his chosen people in the person of Christ; and if I
remember some of the exceeding great and precious promises made to the elect in their
covenant head, my faith at once becomes strong, and my soul, with wings sublime, mounts
upwards towards its God. You cannot tell, beloved, if you have never tasted, how sweet is
the peace which the doctrines of grace will give to the soul; there is nothing like them.
They are
"A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears."
They are God's sweet lullaby, wherewith he
singeth his children to sleep, even in storms. They are God's sheet anchors, which are
cast out into the sea, to hold our little vessels fast in the midst of tempests. There is
a "peace of God which passeth all understanding," which accrues to a man who is
strong believer, but you know the tendency of the day is to give up old land marks and to
adopt new ones, and to avow anything rather than the old-fashioned divinity. Well, my dear
friends, if any of you like to try new doctrines, I warn you, that if you be the children
of God you will soon be sick enough of those new-fangled notions, those newly invented
doctrines, which are continually taught. You may, for the first week, be pleased enough
with their novelty; you may wonder at their transcendental spirituality, or something
else, which entices you on; but you will not have lived on them long, before you will say,
"Alas! alas! I have taken in my hands the apples of Sodom; they were fair to look
upon, but they are ashes in my mouth." If you would be peaceful, keep fast to the
truth, hold fast the form of sound words: so shall "your peace be like a river, and
your righteousness like the waves of the sea."
"Hold fast the form of sound words," again, let me say, because it will tend
very much to your growth. He who holds fast the truth will grow faster than he who is
continually shifting from doctrine to doctrine. What a mighty number of spiritual
weathercocks we have in this world now. We have men who in the morning hear a Calvinistic
preacher, and say, "Oh, it is delightful;" in the evening they hear an Arminian,
and they say, "Oh, it is just as good; and no doubt they are both true, though one
contradicts the other!" The glorious charity of the present day is such, that it
believes lies to be as good as truth; and lies and truth have met together and kissed each
other; and he that telleth truth is called a bigot, and truth has ceased to be honourable
in the world! Ah! beloved, we know better than to profess such unlimited, but false
charity; the truth is, we know how to "hold fast the form of sounds words,"
which has been given to us, because in this way we grow. Changeable people cannot grow
much. If you have a tree in your garden plant it in one place to-day, and tomorrow place
it somehwere else, how much bigger will it be in six months? It will be dead very likely;
or if it does not die, it will not be very much grown; it will be marvellously stunted. So
it is with some of you: you plant yourselves there; then you are persuaded that you are
not quite right, and you go and plant yourself somewhere else. Why, there are men who are
anythingarians; who go dodging about from one denomination to another, and cannot tell
what they are; our opinion is, of these people, that they believe nothing, and are good
for nothing, and anybody may have them that likes; we do not consider men to be worth
much, unless they have settle principles, and "hold fast the form of sound
words." You cannot grow unless you hold it fast. How should I know any more of my
faith in ten years' time, if I allowed it to take ten forms in ten years? I should be but
a smatterer in each, and know nothing thoroughly of one. But he that hath one faith, and
knoweth it to be the faith of God, and holdeth it fast, how strong he becomes in his
faith? Each wind or tempest doth but confirm him, as the fierce winds root the oaks, and
make them strong, standing firmly in their places; but if I shift and change, I am none
the better, but rather the worse. For your own peace sake then, and for your growth,
"hold fast the form of sound words."
But, my beloved, I would beseech you to hold it fast for your own sakes, from a
remembrance of the great evils which will follow the contrary course. If you do not
"hold fast the form of sound words," listen to me while I tell you what you will
do.
In the first place, every deviation from truth is a sin. It is not simply a sin for
me to do a wrong act, but it is a sin for me to believe a wrong doctrine. Lately our
ministers have absolved us all from obeying God in our judgments; they have told us point
blank, many of them, in their drawing-rooms, and some of them in the pulpit, that we shall
never be asked in the day of judgment what we believed. We have been told that for our
acts we shall be responsible, but for our faith we shall be irresponsible, or something
very much like it; they have told us plainly, that the God who made us, although he has
authority over our hands, our feet, our eyes and our lips, hath but little authority over
our judgments; they have told us, that if we make ever such blunders in divinity, they are
no sins, so long as we can live right lives. But is that true? No; the whole man is bound
to serve God; and if God gives me a judgment, I am bound to employ that judgment in his
service; and if that judgment receive an untruth, it has received stolen goods, and I have
sinned as much as if I put forth my hand to take my neighbour's goods. There may be
degrees in the sin. If it be a sin of ignorance, it is nevertheless a sin; but it is not
so heinous as a sin of negligence, which I fear it is with many. I tell you, beloved, if,
for instance, baptism be not by immersion, I commit a sin every time I practice it; and if
it be, my brother commits a sin who does not practise it. If Election be true, I am
committing a sin if I do not believe it; and if Final Perseverance be true, I am
committing a sin before Almighty God, if I do not receive it; and if it be not true, then
I sin in embracing what is not scriptural. Error in doctrine is as much a sin as error in
practice. In everything we are bound to serve our God with all our might, exercising those
powers of judging and believing which he has given unto us; and I warn you, Christians,
not to think it is a little thing to hold faith with a feeble hand: it is a sin every time
you do aught which makes you waver in the faith of Jesus Christ. Remember, too, that error
in doctrine is not only a sin, but a sin which has a great tendency to increase. When a
man once in his life believes a wrong thing, it is marvellous how quickly he believes
another wrong thing. Once open the door to a false doctrineSatan says it is but a
little oneay, but he only puts the little one in like the small end of the wedge,
and he means to drive in a larger one; and he will say it is only a little more, and a
little more, and a little more. The most damnable heretics who ever perverted the faith of
God erred by littles and littles; those who have gone the widest from truth have only gone
so by degrees. Whence came the Church of Rome, that mass of abominations? Why, from
gradual departures. It did not become abominable at first; it was not the "mother of
harlots" all at once; but it first did deck itself in some ornaments, then in others,
and by-and-bye it went on to commit its fornications with the kings of the earth. It fell
by little and little, and in the same way it separated itself from the truth. For
centuries it was a Church of Christ, and it is difficult to say, looking at history, when
was the exact point in which it ceased to be numbered with Christian Churches. Take care,
Christians, if you commit one error, you cannot tell how many more you will commit.
"Hold fast the form of sound words," because error in doctrine almost
inevitably leads to error in practice. When a man believes wrongly, he will soon act
wrongly. Faith has a great influence on our conduct. As a man's faith, so is he. If you
begin to imbibe erroneous doctrines, they soon have an effect on your practice. Keep fast
to the bulwarks of your fathers' faith. If you do not, the enemy will make sad havoc with
you. "Hold fast the form of sound words which was delivered unto you."
2. And now, for the good of the Church itself, I want you all to "hold fast
the form of sound words." Would you wish to see the Church prosperous? Would you wish
to see it peaceful? Then "hold fast the form of sound words." What is the cause
of divisions, schisms, quarrels, and bickerings amongst us? It is not the fault of the
truth; it is the fault of the errors. There would have been peace in the Church, entire
and perpetual peace, if there had been purityentire and perpetual purityin the
Church. Going down to Sheerness on Friday, I was told by some one on board that during the
late gale several of the ships there had their anchors rent up, and had gone dashing
against the other ships, and had done considerable damage. Now, if their anchors had held
fast and firm, no damage would have been done. Ask me the cause of the damage which has
been done to our churches by the different denominations, and I tell you, it is because
all their anchors did not hold fast. If they had held fast by the truth, there would have
been no disputing; disputing comes from errors. If there be any ill feeling, you must not
trace it to the truthyou must trace it to the error. If the Church had always kept
firm to the faith, and had always been united to the great doctrines of the truth, there
would have been no disputes. Keep firm to you belief, and you will prevent discord in the
Church.
Keep to your faith, I say again, for the Church's sake, for so you will promote
strength in the Church. I saw lying between Chatham and Sheerness a number of ships
that I supposed to be old hulks; and I thought how stupid Government was to let them
remain there, and not chop them up for firewood, or something else; but some one said to
me, those ships can soon be fitted for service; they look old now, but they only want a
little paint, and when the Admiralty requires them, they will be commissioned and made fit
for use. So we have heard some people say, "There are those old doctrineswhat
good are they?" Wait; there is not a doctrine in God's Bible that has not its use.
Those ships that you may think are not wanted, will be useful by-and-bye. So it is with
the doctrines of the Bible. Do not say, Break up those old doctrines, you can do without
them." Nay, we want them, and we must have them. Some people say, "Why do you
preach against Arminians? we have not much to fear from them now." But I like to
practice my men against the time comes for action. We are not going to burn our ships;
they will be wanted by-and-bye, and when we sail out of harbour, the men will say,
"Whence came these old ships?" "Why," we will reply, "they are
just the doctrines you thought good for nothing; now we bring them out, and we will make
good use of them." Now-a-days we are having new and marvellous hymn-books, full of
perfect nonsense; and we are having new theories, and new systems; and they say, "Why
be so stringent? our Christian brethren may believe what they like on those points just
now;" but as certain as there is a church in this land, they will want our old ships
to fight their battles; they may do very well in times of peace, but they will not do in
the time of war. They will then need our broadside to support the faith of the gospel,
though now they laugh at us. For the strength of the church, my brethren, I bid you
"hold fast the form of sound words."
"Well," says one, "I think we ought to hold the truth firmly; but I do not
see the necessity for holding the form of it; I think we might cut and trim a
little, and then our doctrines would be received better." Suppose, my friends, we
should have some valuable egg, and some one should say, "Well, now, the shell is good
for nothing; there will never be a bird produced by the shell certainly, why not break the
shell? I should simply smile in his face and say, "My dear friend, I want the shell
to take care of what is inside. I know the vital principle is the most important, but I
want the shell to take care of the vital principle." You say, "Hold fast the
principle, but do not be so severe about the form. You are an old Puritan, and want to be
too strict in religion; let us just alter a few things, and make it a little
palatable." My dear friends, do not break the shell; you are doing far more damage
than you think. We willingly admit the form is but little; but when men attack the form,
what is their object? They do not hate the form; they hate the substance. Keep the
substance then, and keep the form too. Not only hold the same doctrines, but hold them in
the same shapejust as angular, rough and rugged as they were, for if you do not, it
is difficult to change the form and yet to keep fast the substance. "Hold fast the
form of sound words, which thou has heard of me, in faith and love which is in Jesus
Christ."
3. Again, I say, "hold fast the form of sound words," for the world's sake.
Pardon me when I say that, speaking after the manner of men, I believe that the progress
of the gospel has been awfully impeded by the errors of its preachers. I never wonder when
I see a Jew an unbeliever in Christianity, for this reason, that the Jew very seldom sees
Christianity in its beauty. For hundreds of years what has the Jew thought Christianity to
be? Why, pure idolatry. He has seen the Catholic bow down to blocks of wood and stone; he
has seen him prostrating himself before the Virgin Mary and all saints; and the Jew has
said, "Ah! this is my watchwordhear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is our Lord; I
could not be a Christian, for to worship one God is the essential part of my
religion." So the heathen, I believe have seen a false system of Christianity, and
they have said, "What! is that your Christianity?" and they did not receive it.
But I believe that when the gospel is purged from all the rudiments of men, and all the
chaff and dust have been winnowed from it, and it is presented in all its naked
simplicity, it will be sure to win the day; and I say again, speaking as a man, the gospel
might have made a ten thousand fold greater progress, if it had been preached in all its
simplicity, instead of that diluted or rather distorted form in which it is commonly
proclaimed. If ye would see sinners saved, if ye would see God's elect gathered in,
"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus."
III. And now, very briefly, in the third place, LET ME WARN YOU OF TWO DANGERS.
One is, that you will be very much tempted to give up the form of sound words that you
hold, on account of the opposition you will meet with. I do not prophesy that you
will have corporeal persecution, though I know there are some poor creatures here that
have to endure that from ungodly husbands, and such like; but you will all of you, in some
measure, if you hold the truth, meet with the persecution of the tongue. You will be
laughed at: your doctrine will be held up to ridicule, exhibited in a grotesque manner;
you will be caricatured in all that you believe, and you will be sometimes tempted to say,
"No I do not believe that," though all the while you do. Or if you do not
positively say it, you will at times be led to turn a little, because the laughter you
cannot stand, and the scoff of the worldly-wise is rather too hard for you. Oh! my
beloved, let me warn you against being thus drawn aside. "Hold fast the form of sound
words" in the midst of all ridicule. But the greatest obstacle you will have is a
sort of slight and cunning, trying to pervert you to the belief, that your doctrine is the
same with one which is just the very opposite. The enemy will try to persuade you that
something he holds is quite harmless, though opposed to what you hold; and he will say,
"You do not want to be broaching these things, that must bring forth controversy;
there is a way of squaring your sentiments with mine." And you know we all like to be
thought so liberal! The greatest pride in the world now is to be thought liberal in
sentiment; and some of us would run a hundred miles, rather than be called a bigot or an
Antinomian. I beseech you, be not drawn aside by those who are so ready to subvert your
faith, not by openly attacking it, but by insidiously undermining every doctrine, saying,
this does not signify, and that does not signify, while all the while they are trying to
pull down every castle and fortress wherewith God has guarded his truth and his Church.
IV. And now, in the last place, I am to tell you of THE GREAT HOLDFASTS, WHEREBY YOU ARE
TO HOLD FAST THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.
If I might be allowed to mention one or two before coming to those in the text, I should
say, in the first place, if you want to hold fast the truth, seek to get an
understanding of it. A man cannot hold a thing fast, unless he has a good
understanding of it. I never want you to have the faith of the collier who was asked what
he believed; he said he believed what the Church believed. "Well, but what does the
Church believe?" He said the Church believed what he believed, and he believed what
the Church believed; and so it went all the way round. We do not want you to have that
faith. It may be a very pertinacious faith, a very obstinate faith, but it is a very
foolish faith. We want you to understand things, to get a true knowledge of them. The
reason why men forsake truth for error is, that they have not really understood that
truth; in nine cases out of ten they have not embraced it with enlightened minds. Let me
exhort you, parents, as much as lieth in you, to give your children sound instruction in
the great doctrines of the gospel of Christ. I believe that what Irving once said is a
great truth. He said, "In these modern times you boast and glory, and you think
yourselves to be in a high and noble condition, because you have your Sabbath-schools and
British-schools, and all kinds of schools for teaching youth. I tell you," he said,
"that philanthropic and great as these are, they are the ensigns of your disgrace;
they show that your land is not a land where parents teach their children at home. They
show you more is a want of parental instruction; and though they be blessed things, these
Sabbath-schools, they are indications of something wrong, for it we all taught our
children there would be no need of strangers to say to our children 'Know the Lord.'"
I trust you will never give up that excellent puritanical habit of catechising your
children at home. Any father or mother who entirely gives up a child to the teaching of
another has made a mistake. There is no teacher who wishes to absolve a parent from what
he ought to do himself. He is an assistant, but he was never intended to be a substitute.
Teach your children; bring up your old catechisms again, for they are after all blessed
means of instruction, and the next generation shall outstrip those that have gone before
it; for the reason why many of you are weak in the faith is this, you did not receive
instruction in your youth in the great things of the gospel of Christ. If you had, you
would have been so grounded, and settled, and firm in the faith, that nothing could by any
means have moved you. I beseech you, then, understand truth, and then you will be more
likely to hold fast by it.
But, then, Christian men, above all things, if you would hold fast the truth, pray
yourselves right into it. The way to get a doctrine is to pray till you get it. An old
divine says, "I have lost many things I learned in the house of God, but I never lost
anything I ever learned in the closet." That which a man learns on his knees, with
his Bible open, he will never forget. Well, have you ever bowed your knees, and said,
"Open thou mind eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law?" If you
have seen that wondrous thing you will never forget it. He that prays himself into a
truth, will never be got out of it by the very devil himself, though he were to put on the
garb of an angel of light. Pray yourselves into the truth.
But the two great holdfasts are here givenfaith and love. If ye would hold
the truth fast, put your faith in Jesus Christ, and have an ardent love towards him.
Believe the truth. Do not pretend to believe it, but believe it thoroughly. And he who
does believe it, and fixes his faith first in Christ, and then in all Christ says, will
not be likely to let it go. Why, we do not believe religion, most of us. We pretend to
believe it, but we do not believe it with all our heart and all our soul, with all our
might and all our strengthnot with that "faith which is in Christ Jesus;"
for if we did, come storms, come trials, like Luther of old, we should not flinch because
of persecution, but stand fast in the evil day, having our faith fixed upon a rock.
And then the second holdfast is love. Love Christ and love Christ's truth because
it is Christ's truth, for Christ's sake, and if you love the truth you will not let it go.
It is very hard to turn a man away from the truth he loves. "Oh!" says one,
"I cannot argue with you about it, but I cannot give it up: I love it, and cannot
live without it; it is a part of myself, woven into my very nature; and though my opponent
says that bread is not bread, and I cannot prove that it is, yet I know I go and eat it;
it is wonderfully like it to me, and it takes away my hunger. He says that stream is not a
pure stream; I cannot prove that it is, but I go and drink of it, and find it the river of
the water of life to my soul." And he tells me that my gospel is not a true one:
well, it comforts me, it sustains me in my trials, it helps me to conquer sin and to keep
down my evil passions, and brings me near to God, and if my gospel be not a true one, I
wonder what sort of thing a true one is: mine is wonderfully like it, and I cannot suppose
that a true gospel would produce better effects. That is the best thing to do, to believe
the Word, to have so full a belief in it, that the enemy cannot pull you away. He may try
to do it, but you will say,
"Amidst temptations sharp and long,
My soul to the same refuge flies;
Faith is my anchor, firm and strong
When tempests blow or billows rise."
Hold on then, Christian, to "faith and
love which are by Christ Jesus"two blessed holdfasts, wherewith we grasp the
truth.
And now, brethren and sisters. I pray that my Master will enable you to see the importance
of what I have uttered. Perhaps you may not think it so important now, especially those of
you who are young; but there are some here, the fathers of this church, who will tell you
that the older they grow and the longer they live, the more they find truth to be
valuable. They may perhaps in their youth have had a little radicalism in them with regard
to truth, but they are conservative in their regard to the truth, we began to be
conservative as soon as we believed it, and held it fast and never let it go. I think the
chief fault of the present day is, that in seeking to be liberal we do not hold the truth
firmly enough. I met some time ago with the case of an eminent minister in the gospel, a
brother whom I respect and esteem, who preached a sermon from the text, "Prove all
things." A young man was there who was professedly a believer in Christianity; but
such was the style in which the subject was handled, that after hearing that sermon he
went home and bought some infidel works, and the consequence is, that he has become
entirely apostate even from virtue itself, and has forsaken everything that he once held
to be true. I say, send your anchor right down, young Christian, and let whatever may come
against you, hold on still by that truth; and you may yet even then "prove all
things." But while you are doing it, remember to "hold fast that which is
good." Do not "prove all things" by giving up that which is good to do it.
Now such of you as know not the Lord, if you ever are saved, let me tell you that the most
likely place for you to meet with salvation is under a pure gospel ministry. Therefore
there is a lesson for you. Attend where the gospel is preached.
Again: the most likely way for you ever to receive God's grace is to believe God's truths.
Never kick against God's doctrines, but receive them. And I have one thing to say to thee
this morning, if in thy heart, poor sinner, thou canst say, "I believe God's gospel
to be a glorious gospel," thou art not far from something else. If thou canst say,
"I submit to all its demands, I believe God just if he destroys me, and if he saves
me, it will be of his sovereign mercy only," then, sinner, there are good hopes of
thee; thou hast proceeded some way on the road to heaven. If thou canst but do one thing
more, and say, "Though he slay me yet I trust in him," and if thou canst come to
the cross of Christ, and say, "Jesus, I love thy gospel and I love thy truth; if I
perish, I will perish believing all thy truth, I will perish clasping thy cross; if I die,
I will die owning that thou art a just and gracious God, and still in my poor way, holding
fast the form of sound words," I tell thee, poor soul, God will never damn thee. If
thou dost believe in Jesus Christ, and holdest fast his words, he will look upon thee in
love, he will say, "Poor soul! though he does not know that these truths are his, yet
he thinks them precious; though he dares not hope that they belong to him, yet he will
fight for them; though he does not know that he is really a soldier of the cross, chosen
of me ere time began, yet see how valiantly he strives for me;" and the Lord will
say, "Poor soul, thou lovest the things that thou thinkest are not thine ownI
will make thee rejoice in them as thine own, by my grace; thou lovest election, though
thou thinkest thou art not electthat is an evidence that thou art mine."
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and thou shalt be saved."
And now, my brethren, stand fast, I beseech you. If my tears, if my bended knees, if my
cries, yea, if my blood could prevail with you to lay to heart what I have said this
morning, here should be tears, and cries, and blood tooif I could but make you all
hold fast in these evil, perilous times. Hold fast, ah! with the tenacity of the dying
hand of the sinking mariner"Hold fast," I beseech you, "the form of
sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus."
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