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A Mighty Saviour
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 4, 1857, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"Mighty to save."—Isaiah 63:1.
This, of course, refers to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
who is described as "coming from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah," and who,
when it is questioned who he is, replies, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to
save." It will be well, then, at the commencement of our discourse to make one or two
remarks concerning the mysteriously complex person of the man and God whom we call our
Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Saviour. It is one of the mysteries of the Christian religion,
that we are taught to believe that Christ is God, and yet a man. According to Scripture,
we hold that he is "very God," equal and co-eternal with the Father,
possessing, as his Father doth, all divine attributes in an infinite degree. He
participated with his Father in all the acts of his divine might; he was concerned in the
decree of election, in the fashioning of the covenant; in the creation of the angels, in
the making of the world, when it was wheeled from nothing into space, and in the ordering
of this fair frame of nature. Before any of these acts the divine Redeemer was the eternal
Son of God. "From everlasting to everlasting he is God." Nor did he cease to be
God when he became man. He was equally "God over all, blessed for evermore,"
when he was "the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief," as before his
incarnation. We have abundant proof of that in the constant affirmations of Scripture,
and, indeed, also in the miracles which he wrought. The raising of the dead, the treading
of the billows of the ocean, the hushing of the winds and the rending of the rocks, with
all those marvellous acts of his, which we have not time here to mention, were strong and
potent proofs that he was God, most truly God, even when he condescended to be man. And
Scripture, most certainly teaches us, that he is God now, that he shares the throne of his
Father—that he sits "high above all principalities and powers, and every name
that is named," and is the true and proper object of the veneration, the worship, and
the homage of all worlds. We are equally taught to believe that he is man.
Scripture informs us that, on a day appointed, he came from heaven and did become man as
well as God, taking upon himself the nature of a babe in the manager in Bethlehem. From
that babe, we are told, he did grow to the stature of manhood, and became "bone of
our bone, and flesh of our flesh," in everything except our sin. His sufferings, his
hunger, above all, his death and burial, are strong proofs that he was man, most truly
man; and yet it is demanded of us by the Christians religion, to believe, that while he
was man he was most truly God. We are taught that he was a "child born, a son
given," and yet, at the same time, the "Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty
God, the everlasting Father." Whosoever would have clear and right view of Jesus,
must not mingle his natures. We must not consider him as a God diluted into deified
manhood, or as a mere man officially exalted to the Godhead, but as being two distinct
natures in one person; not God melted into man, nor man made into God, but man and God
taken into union together. Therefore, do we trust in him, as the Daysman, the Mediator,
Son of God, and Son of Man. This is the person who is our Saviour. It is this glorious,
yet mysterious being, of whom the text speaks, when it says, he is
mighty—"mighty to save."
That he is mighty we need not inform you; for as readers of the Scriptures
you all believe in the might and majesty of the Incarnate Son of God. You believe him to
be the Regent of providence, the King of death, the Conqueror of hell, the Lord of angels,
the Master of storms, and the God of battles, and, therefore, you can need no proof that
he is mighty. The subject of this morning is one part of his mightiness. He is
"mighty to save." May God the Holy Spirit help us in briefly entering upon this
subject, and make use of it to the salvation of our souls!
First, we shall consider what is meant by the words "to save;"
secondly, how we prove the fact that he is "mighty to save;", thirdly, the
reason why he is "mighty to save;" and then, fourthly, the inferences
which are to be deduced from the doctrine that Jesus Christ is "mighty to save."
I. First, then, WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE WORDS "TO SAVE?"
Commonly, most men, when they read these words, consider them to mean
salvation from hell. They are partially correct, but the notion is highly defective. It is
true Christ does save men from the penalty of their guilt; he does take those to heaven
who deserve the eternal wrath and displeasure of the Most High; it is true that he does
blot out "iniquity, transgression, and sin," and that the iniquities of the
remnant of his people are passed over for the sake of his blood and atonement. But that is
not the whole meaning of the words "to save." This deficient explanation lies at
the root of mistakes which many theologians have made, and by which they have surrounded
their system of divinity with mist. They have said that to save is to pluck men as brands
from the burning—to save them from destruction if they repent. Now, it means vastly,
I had almost said, infinitely more than this. "To save" means something more
than just delivering penitents from going down to hell. By the words "to save,"
I understand the whole of the great work of salvation, from the first holy desire, the
first spiritual conviction, onward to complete sanctification. All this done of God
through Jesus Christ. Christ is not only mighty to save those who do repent, but he is
able to make men repent; he is engaged not merely to carry those to heaven who believe,
but he is mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them; he is mighty not merely
to give heaven to one who wishes for it, but he is mighty to make the man who hates
holiness love it, to constrain the despiser of his name to bend his knee before him, and
to make the most abandoned reprobate turn from the error of his ways.
By the words "to save," I do not understand what some men say they
mean. They tell us in their divinity that Christ came into the world to put all men into a
salvable state—to make the salvation of all men possible by their own exertions. I
believe that Christ came for no such thing—that he came into the world not to put men
into a salvable state, but into a saved state; not to put them where they
could save themselves, but to do the work in them and for them, from the first even to the
last. If I believe that Christ came only to put you, my hearers, and myself into a state
where we might save ourselves, I should give up preaching henceforth and for ever; for
knowing a little of the wickedness of men's hearts, because I know something of my
own—knowing how much men naturally hate the religion of Christ—I should despair
of any success in preaching a gospel which I had only to offer, its effects depending upon
the voluntary acceptance of it by unrenewed and unregenerate men. If I did not believe
that there was a might power, and which turns them from the error of their ways by the
mighty, overwhelming, constraining force of a divine and mysterious influence, I should
cease to glory in the cross of Christ. Christ, we repeat, is mighty, not merely to put men
into a salvable condition, but mighty absolutely and entirely to save them. This fact I
regard as one of the grandest proofs of the divine character of the Bible revelation. I
have many a time had doubts and fears, as most of you have had; and where is the strong
believer that he not sometimes wavered? I have said, within myself, "Is this religion
true, which, day after day, I incessantly preach to the people? Is it the correct one? Is
it true that this religion has an influence upon mankind?" And I will tell you how I
have reassured myself. I have looked upon the hundreds, nay, upon the thousands whom I
have around me, who were once the vilest of the vile—drunkards, swearers, and such
like—and I now see then "clothed and in their right mind, "This must be the
truth, then, because I see its marvellous effects. It is true, because it is efficient for
purposes which error never could accomplish. It exerts an influence among the lowest order
of mortals, and over the most abominable of our race. It is a power, an irresistible agent
of good; who then shall deny its truth. I take it that the highest proof of Christ's power
is not that he offers salvation, not that he bids you take it if you will, but that when
you reject it, when you hate it, when you despise it, he has a power whereby he can change
your mind, make you think differently from your former thoughts, and turn you from the
error of your ways. This I conceive to be the meaning of the text: "mighty to
save."
But it is not all the meaning. Our Lord is not only mighty to make men
repent, to quicken the dead in sin, to turn them from their follies and their iniquities.
But he is exalted to do more than that: he is mighty to keep them Christians after he has
made them so, and mighty to preserve them in his fear and love, until he consummates their
spiritual existence in heaven. Christ's might doth not lie in making a believer, and then
leaving him to shift for himself afterwards; but he who begins the good work carries it
on; he who imparts the first germ of life which quickens the dead soul, gives afterwards
the life which prolongs the divine existence, and bestows that mighty power which at last
bursts asunder every bond of sin, and lands the soul perfected in glory. We hold and
teach, and we believe upon Scriptural authority, that all men unto whom Christ has given
repentance must infallibly hold on their way. We do believe that God never begins a good
work in a man without finishing it; that he never makes a man truly alive to spiritual
things without carrying on that work in his soul even to the end, by giving him a place
amongst the choirs of the sanctified. We do not think that Christ's power dwells in merely
bringing me one day into grace, and then telling me to keep myself there, but in so
putting me into a gracious state, and giving me such an inward life and such a power
within myself that I can no more turn back than the very sun in the heavens can stay
itself in its course, or cease to shine. Beloved, we regard this as signified by the terms
"mighty to save." This is commonly called Calvinistic doctrine; it is none other
than Christian doctrine, the doctrine of the holy Bible; for despite that it is now called
Calvinism, it could not be so called in Augustine's days; and yet in Augustine's works you
find the very same things. And it is not to be called Augustinism; it is to be found in
the writings of the apostle Paul. And yet it was not called Paulism, simple for this
reason, that it is the expansion, the fulness of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. To
repeat what we have before said, we hold and boldly teach that Jesus Christ is not merely
able to save men who put themselves in his way and who are willing to be saved, but that
he is able to make men willing—that he is able to make the drunkard renounce his
drunkenness and come to him—that he is able to make the despiser bend his knee, and
make hard hearts melt before his love. Now, it is ours to show that he is able to do so.
II. HOW CAN WE PROVE THAT CHRIST IS "MIGHTY TO SAVE?"
We will give you the strongest argument first; and we shall need but one.
The argument is, that he has done it. We need no other; it were superfluous to add
another. He has saved them, in the full extent and meaning of the word which we
have endeavoured to explain. But in order to set this truth in a clear light, we will
suppose the worst of cases. It is very easy to imagine, say some, that when Christ's
gospel is preached to some here who are amiable and lovely, and have always been trained
up in the fear of God, they will receive the gospel in the love of it. Very well, we will
not take such a case. You see this South Sea Islander. He has just been eating a
diabolical meal of human flesh; he is a cannibal; at his belt are slung the scalps of men
whom he has murdered, and in whose blood he glories. If you land on the coast he will eat
you, too, unless you mind what you are after. That man bows himself before a block of
wood. He is a poor ignorant debased creature, but very little removed from the brute. Now,
has Christ's gospel power to tame that man, to take the scalps from his girdle, to make
him give up his bloody practices, renounce his gods, and become a civilised and Christian
man? You know, my dear friends, you talk about the power of education in England; there
may be a great deal in it; education may do very much for some who are here, not in a
spiritual, but in a natural way; but what would education do with this savage: go and try.
Send the best schoolmaster in England over to him: he will eat him before the day is up.
That will be all the good of it. But if the missionary goes with Christ's gospel, what
will become of him? Why, in multitudes of cases, he has been the pioneer of civilisation,
and under the providence of God has escaped a cruel death. He goes with love in his hands
and in his eyes; he speaks to the savage. And mark ye, we are telling facts now, not
dreams. The savage drops his tomahawk. Says he, "It is marvellous; the things that
this man tells me are wonderful, I will sit down and listen." He listens, and the
tears roll down his cheeks; a feeling of humanity which never burned within his soul
before is kindled in him. He says, "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ;" and
soon he is clothed and in his right mind, and becomes in every respect a man—such a
man as we could desire all men to be. Now, we say, that this is proof that Christ's gospel
does not come to the mind that is prepared for it, but prepares the mind for itself; that
Christ does not merely put the seed into the ground that has been prepared beforehand, but
ploughs the ground too—ay, and harrows it, and does the whole of the work. He is so
able to do all this. Ask our missionaries who are in Africa, in the midst of the greatest
barbarians in the world—ask them whether Christ's gospel is able to save, and they
will point to the kraal of the Hottentot, and then they will point to the houses of the
Kuraman, and they will say, "What has made this difference, but the word of the
gospel of Christ Jesus?" Yes, dear brethren, we have had proofs enough in heathen
countries; and why need we say more, but merely to add this—we have had proofs enough
at home. There are some who preach a gospel which is very well fitted to train man in
morals, but utterly unfitted to save him, a gospel which does well enough to keep men
sober when they have become drunkards. It is a good thing enough to supply them with a
kind of life, when they have it already, but not to quicken the dead and save the soul,
and it can give up to despair the very characters whom Christ's gospel was most of all
intended to affect. I could a tale unfold, of some who have plunged head-first into the
blackest gulfs of sin, which would horrify you and me, if we could allow them to recount
their guilt. I could tell you how they have come into God's house with their teeth set
against the minister, determined that say what he would they might listen, but it would be
to scoff. They stayed a moment; some word arrested their attention; they thought within
themselves, "I will hear that sentence." It was some pointed, terse saying, that
entered into their souls. The knew not how it was, but they were spell-bound, and stood to
listen a little longer; and by-and-bye, unconsciously to themselves, the tears began to
fall, and when they went away, they had a strange, mysterious feeling about them that led
them to their chambers. Down they fell on their knees; the story of their life was all
told before God; he gave them peace through the blood of the Lamb, and they went to God's
house, many of them to say, "Come and hear what God hath done for my soul," and
to
"Tell to sinners round
What a dear Saviour they had found."
Remember the case of John Newton, the great
and mighty preacher of St. Mary, Woolnoth,—an instance of the power of God to change
the heart, as well as to give peace when the heart is changed. Ah! dear hearers, I often
think within myself, "This is the greatest proof of the Saviour's power." Let
another doctrine be preached: will it do the same? If it will, why not let every man
gather a crowd round him and preach it. Will it really do it? If it will, then the blood
of men's souls must rest upon the man who does not boldly proclaim it. If he believes his
gospel does save souls, how does the account for it that he stands in his pulpit from the
first of January till the last of December, and never hears of a harlot made honest, nor
of a drunkard reclaimed? Why? For this reason, that it is a poor dilution of Christianity.
It is something like it, but it is not the bold, broad Christianity of the Bible; it is
not the full gospel of the blessed God, for that has power to save. But if they do
believe that theirs is the gospel, let them come out to preach it, and let them strive
with all their might to win souls from sin, which is rife enough, God knows. We say again,
that we have proof positive in cases even here before us, that Christ is mighty to save
even the worst of men—to turn them from follies in which they have too long indulged,
and we believe that the same gospel preached elsewhere would produce the same results.
The best proof you can ever have of God's being mighty to save, dear
hearers, is that he saved you. Ah! my dear hearer, it were a miracle if he should
save thy fellow that stands by thy side; but it were more a miracle if he should save
thee. What art thou this morning? Answer! "I am an infidel," says one; "I
hate and despise Christ's religion." But suppose, sir, there should be such a power
in that religion that one day thou shouldst be brought to believe it! What wouldst thou
say then? Ah! I know thou wouldst be in love with that gospel for ever; for thou wouldst
say, "I above al men was the last to receive it; and yet here am I, I know now how,
brought to love it." Oh! such a man when constrained to believe makes the most
eloquent preacher in the world. "Ah! but," says another, "I have been a
Sabbath-breaker upon principle, I despise the Sabbath, I hate utterly and entirely
everything religious." Well, I can never prove religion to you to be true, unless it
should ever lay h old of you, and make you a new man. Then you will say there is something
in it. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." When we have
felt the change it works in ourselves, then we speak of facts, and not of fancies, and we
speak very boldly too. We say again, then, he is "mighty to save."
III. But now it is asked, WHY IS CHRIST "MIGHTY TO SAVE?" To this
there are sundry answers.
First, if we understand the word "save," in the popular
acceptation of the word, which is not, after all, the full one, though a true one—if
we understand salvation to mean the pardon of sin and salvation from hell, Christ is
mighty to save, because of the infinite efficacy of his atoning blood. Sinner!
black as thou art with sin, Christ this morning is able to make thee whiter than the
driven snow. Thou askest why. I will tell thee. He is able to forgive, because he has been
punished for thy sin. If thou dost know and feel thyself to be a sinner, if thou hast no
hope or refuge before God but in Christ, then be it known that Christ is able to forgive,
because he was once punished for the very sin which thou hast committed, and therefore he
can freely remit, because the punishment has been entirely paid by himself. Whenever I get
on this subject I am tempted to tell a story; and though I have told it times enough in
the hearing of many of you, others of you have never heard it, and it is the simplest way
I know of setting out the belief I have in the atonement of Christ. Once a poor Irishman
came to me in my vestry. He announced himself something in this way: "Your reverence,
I'm come to ax you a question." "In the first place," said I, "I am
not a reverend, nor do I claim the title; and in the next place, why don't you go and ask
your priest that question?" Said he "Well, your riv—sir, I meant—I did
go to him but he did not answer me to my satisfaction, exactly; so I have come to ask you,
and if you will answer this you will set my mind at peace, for I am much disturbed about
it." "What is the question?" said I. "Why this. You say, and others
say too, that God is able to forgive sin. Now, I can't see how he can be just, and yet
forgive sin: for," said this poor man, "I have been so greatly guilty that if
God Almighty does not punish me he ought; I feel that he would not be just if he
were to suffer me to go without punishment. How, then, sir, can it be true that he can
forgive, and still retain the title of just?" "Well," said I, "it is
through the blood and merits of Jesus Christ." "Ah!" said he, "but
then I do not understand what you mean by that. It is the kind of answer I got from the
priest, but I wanted him to explain it to me more fully, how it was that the blood of
Christ could make God just. You say it does, but I want to know how." "Well,
then," said I, "I will tell you what I think to be the whole system of
atonement, which I think is the sum and substance, the root, the marrow, and the essence
of the gospel. This is the way Christ is able to forgive. Suppose," said I, "you
had killed some one. You were a murderer; you were condemned to die, and you deserved
it." "Faith," said he, "Yes I should deserve it." "Well, her
Majesty is very desirous of saving your life, and yet at the same time universal justice
demands that some one should die on account of the deed that is done. Now, how is she to
manage?" Said he, "That is the question. I cannot see how she can be inflexibly
just, and yet suffer me to escape." "Well," said I, "suppose, Pat, I
should go to her and say, 'Here is this poor Irishman, he deserved to be hanged, your
Majesty; I don't want to quarrel with the sentence, because I think it just; but, if you
please, I so love him that if you were to hang me instead of him I should be very
willing.' Pat, suppose she should agree to it, and hang me instead of you; what then?
would she be just in letting you go?" "Ay," said he, "I should think
she would. Would she hang two for one thing? I should say not. I'd walk way, and there
isn't a policeman that would touch me for it." "Ah!" said I, "that is
how Jesus saves. 'Father,' he said, 'I love these poor sinners; let me suffer instead of
them!' 'Yes,' said God, 'thou shalt;' and on the tree he died, and suffered the punishment
which all his elect people ought to have suffered; so that now all who believe on him,
thus proving themselves to be his chosen, may conclude that he was punished for them, and
that therefore they never can be punished." "Well," said he, looking me in
the face once more, "I understand what you mean; but how is it, if Christ died for
all men, that notwithstanding, some men are punished again? For that is unjust."
"Ah!" said I, "I never told you that. I say to you that he has died for all
that believe on him, and all who repent, and that was punished for their sins so
absolutely and so really, that none of them shall ever be punished again."
"Faith," said the man, clapping his hands, "that's the gospel; if it isn't,
then I don't know anything, for no man could have made that up; it is so wonderful.
Ah!" he said, as he went down the stairs, "Pat's safe now; with all his sins
about him he'll trust in the man that died for him, and so he shall be saved." Dear
hearer, Christ is mighty to save, because God did not turn away the sword, but he sheathed
it in his own Son's heart; he did not remit the debt, for it was paid in drops of precious
blood; and now the great receipt is nailed to the cross, and our sins with it, so that we
may go free if we are believers in him. For this reason he is "mighty to save,"
in the true sense of the word.
But in the large sense of the word, understanding it to mean all that I have
said it does mean, He is "mighty to save." How is it that Christ is able to make
men repent, to make men believe, and to make them turn to God? One answers, "Why by
the eloquence of preachers." God forbid we should ever say that! It is "not by
might nor by power." Other replying, "It is by the force of moral suasion."
God forbid we should say "ay" to that; for moral suasion has been tried long
enough on man, and yet it has failed of success. How does he do it? We answer, by
something which some of you despise, but which, nevertheless, is a fact. he does it by the
Omnipotent influence of his Divine Spirit. Whilst men are hearing the word (in those whom
God will save) the Holy Spirit works repentance; he changes the heart and renews the soul.
True, the preaching is the instrument, but the Holy Spirit is the great agent. It is
certain that the truth is the means of saving, but it is the Holy Ghost applying the truth
which saves souls. Ah! and with this power of the Holy Ghost e may go to the most debased
and degraded of men, and we need not be afraid but that God can save them. If God should
be please, the Holy Spirit could at this moment make every one of you fall on your knees,
confess your sins, and turn to God. He is an Almighty Spirit, able to do wonders. In the
life of Whitfield, we read that sometimes under one of his sermons two thousand persons
would at once profess to be saved, and were really so, many of them. We ask why it was. At
other times he preached just as powerfully, and not one soul was saved. Why? Because in
the one case the Holy Spirit went with the Word, and in the other case it did not. All the
heavenly result of preaching is owing to the Divine Spirit sent from above. I am nothing;
my brethren in the ministry around are all nothing; it is God that doeth everything.
"Who is Paul, who is Apollos, and who is Cephas, but ministers by whom ye believed,
even as God gave to every man." It must be "not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord." Go forth, poor minister! Thou has no power to preach with
polished diction and elegant refinement; go and preach as thou canst. The Spirit can make
thy feeble words more mighty than the most ravishing eloquence. Alas! alas! for oratory!
Alas! for eloquence! It hath long enough been tried. We have had polished periods, and
finely turned sentences; but in what place have the people been saved by them? We have had
grand and gaudy language; but where have hearts been renewed! But now, "by the
foolishness of preaching," by the simple utterance by a child of God's Word, he is
pleased to save them that believe and to save sinners from the error of their ways. May
God prove his Word again this morning!
IV. The fourth point was, WHAT ARE THE INFERENCES TO BE DERIVED FROM THE
FACT THAT JESUS CHRIST IS MIGHTY TO SAVE?
Why, first, there is a fact for ministers to learn—that they should
endeavour to preach in faith, nothing wavering. "O God," cries the minister at
times, when he is on his knees, "I am weak; I have preached to my hearers, and have
wept over them; I have groaned for them; but they will not turn to thee. Their hearts are
like the nether mill-stone; they will not weep for sin, nor will they love the
Saviour." Then I think I see the angel standing at his elbow, and whispering in his
ear, "Thou art weak, but he is strong; thou canst do nothing, but he is 'mighty to
save.'" Bethink thyself of this. It is not the instrument, but the God. It is not the
pen wherewith the author writes which is to have the praise of his wisdom or the making of
the volume, but it is the brain that thinks it, and the hand that moves the pen. So in
salvation. It is not the minister, it is not the preacher, but the God who first designs
the salvation, and afterwards uses the preacher to work it out. Ah! poor disconsolate
preacher, if thou hast had but little fruit of thy ministry, go on still in faith,
remembering it is written, "My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Go on;
be of good courage; God shall help thee; he shall help thee, and that right early.
Again, here is another encouragement for praying men and women, who are
praying to God for their friends. Mother, you have been groaning for your son for many a
year; he is now grown up and has left your roof, but your prayers have not been heard. So
you think. He is as gay as ever; not yet has he made your breast rejoice. Sometimes you
think he will bring your grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. It was but yesterday you
said, "I will give him up, I will never pray for him again." Stop, mother, stop!
By all that is holy and that is heavenly, stop! Utter not that resolution again; begin
once more! Thou hast prayed over him; thou didst weep over his infant forehead, when he
lay in his cradle; thou didst teach him when he came to years of understanding and thou
hast often warned him since; but all of no avail. Oh! give not up thy prayers; for
remember, Christ is "mighty to save." It may be that he waits to be gracious,
and he keeps thee waiting, that thou mayest know more of his graciousness when the mercy
comes. But pray on. I have heard of mothers who have prayed for their children twenty
years; ay, and some who have died without seeing them converted, and then their very death
has been the means of saving their children, by leading them to think. A father once had
been a pious man for many years, yet never had he the happiness of seeing one of his sons
converted. He had his children round his bed, and he said to them when dying, "My
sons, I could die in peace, if I could but believe you would follow me to heaven; but this
is the most sorrowful thing of all—not that I am dying, but that I am leaving you to
meet you no more." They looked at him, but they would not think on their ways. They
went away. Their father was suddenly overtaken with great clouds and darkness of mind;
instead of dying peacefully and happily, he died in great misery of soul, but still
trusting in Christ. He said, when he died, "Oh! that I had died a happy death, for
that would have been a testimony to my sons; but now, O God, this darkness and these
clouds have in some degree taken away my power to witness to the truth of thy
religion." Well, he died, and was buried. The sons cam to the funeral. The day after,
one of them said to his brother, "Brother, I have been thinking, father was always a
pious man, and if his death was yet such a gloomy one, how gloomy must ours be, without
God and without Christ!" "Ah!" said the other, "that thought struck me
too." They went up to God's house, heard God's Word, they came home and bent their
knee in prayer, and to their surprise they found that the rest of the family had done the
same, and that the God who had never answered their father's prayer in his life had
answered it after his death, and by his death too, and by such a death as would appear to
be most unlikely to have wrought the conversion of any. Pray on, then, my sister; pray on,
my brother! God shall yet bring thy sons and daughters to his love and fear, and thou
shalt rejoice over them in heaven, if thou never dost on earth.
And finally, my dear hearers, there are many of you here this morning who
have no love to God, no love to Christ; but you have a desire in your hearts to love him.
You are saying, "Oh! can he save me? Can such a wretch as I be saved?" In the
thick of the crowd there you are standing, and you are now saying within yourself,
"May I one day sing among the saints above? May I have all my sins blotted out by
blood divine?" "Yes, sinner, he is 'mighty to save;' and this is comfort for
thee." Dost thou think thyself the worst of men? Does conscience smite thee as with a
mailed fist, and does he say it is all over with thee; thou wilt be lost; thy repentance
will be of no avail; thy prayers never will be heard; thou art lost to all intents and
purposes? My hearer, think not so. He is "mighty to save." If thou canst not
pray, he can help thee to do it; if thou canst not repent, he can give thee repentance; if
thou feelest it hard to believe, he can help thee to believe, for he is exalted on high to
give repentance, as well as to give remission of sins. O poor sinner, trust in Jesus; cast
thyself on him. Cry, and may God help thee to do it now, the first Sabbath of the year;
may he help thee this very day to cast thy soul on Jesus; and this will be one of the best
years of all thy life. "Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house of Israel?"
Turn unto Jesus, ye wearied souls; come unto him, for lo, he bids you come. "The
Spirit and the bride say come; and let him that heareth say come; and whosoever will let
him come and take of the water of life," and have Christ's grace freely. It is
preached to you, and to all of you who are willing to receive it, it has been already
given.
May God of his grace make you willing, and so save your souls, through Jesus
Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
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