PART I, SKETCH LXVII: A REVIVAL SERMON

“Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper” (Amos 9.13.)

Introduction. God’s promises are not exhausted when they are fulfilled. They continue to overflow as we draw from them. Frequently you find a promise literally fulfilled that shall be fulfilled spiritually, the promise this way continuing to overflow. This is true of the promise before us. The land of Canaan has been a rich and fruitful one. It is barren now, but it will flow with milk and honey again, if once the severity of Turkish rule is removed. The soil is not barren. Neglect and robbers are to blame. But, my dear friends, though Palestine will again thrive, I take it this verse holds more fully a spiritual than an earthly promise. 

(1) A Great Promise of Spiritual Revival. One season, by reason of the abundant harvest, shall run into another: souls will be gathered into the Church like in Whitfield’s time. (This will by no means clear the ministers who have been content with dull routine.) The revival will have in it converts who grow in grace amazingly fast: the plowman shall overtake the harvester. This fruitfulness will come by increased activity: preachers during a revival may preach ten or twelve times in a week. There seems to be no fatigue in being greatly blessed. We are experiencing such beginnings of revival right now. Seed is bringing forth a twenty fold, thirty fold result, yet we hope for a hundred. Anglicans, Independents, Methodists, and Baptists are all busy. “The mountains shall drop sweet wine”—this means that conversions will happen in unusual places. I have seen this, Roman Catholics and military men crowding in to hear the Word from a Puritanic minister. Sailors, men supposed to be the least likely to be reached by the gospel, are calling me brother! Out of one whole crew just three are unconverted. An eyewitness told me, “I never heard such praying before—they pray with such power as only a sailor can pray.” And “the mountains shall drop sweet wine”—this means that some extraordinary sinners will become extraordinary saints, and even, as in John Newton’s case, extraordinary ministers. 

(2) What Doctrinal Lesson is Taught by Revival. When God promises to bless his Church and to save sinners, he does not add, if men are willing. Man has a free will, and God does not abuse it. He just bends it as with a mighty rushing wind, by his grace. God’s power is the doctrine of revival. It is God who causes the increase, whether gradually by slow degrees, or suddenly all at once. 

(3) An Incentive for Further Exertion. If God withholds the dew, we are not to withhold the plow. But what an incentive to further work, when we are having such success! It is time to invest in the Lord! Sow the seed everywhere. There is a wondrous harvest coming. But we must not be proud even of God’s power. All the more in time of revival, God desires to work through instruments. Now clouds of blessing have come to us from America. God sent them. It is our duty to bring down the rain. It’s already falling on some parts of our country. Pray! The Church has often been plagued by God because she did not make proper use of his favor. 

(4) A Word of Warning. In any revival of religion it is often those who are totally unconnected to a church that are brought to hear the gospel, and to repentance. But let me give a warning: It would be the hell of hells to have been in the midst of a revival and die unconverted.  

Selection from Conclusion. “Ah! man, thou mayest laugh thyself into hell, but thou canst not laugh thyself out of it…Give up thy sins.”

PART I, SKETCH LXVI: REMEMBER DEATH

“Oh that they were wise…that they would consider their latter end” (Deuteronomy 32.29.)

Introduction. Man tries hard to put reminders of death from his sight. Perhaps no subject so important is so little thought of. A celebrated author named Drelincourt wrote a valuable piece of work on Death, but it commanded no sale. Men would not trouble themselves with death’s cross-bones. The old Egyptians were wiser. Their custom at feast-time was to place a skeleton at the head of the table to remind them that there was an end of life. Our text tells us that we would be wise to consider our latter end. It would cool our fever for wealth, keep us from evil acts, and maybe set our thoughts on God and convince us to prepare ourselves to meet him. Let’s walk arm in arm with Death—that skeleton teacher. May the Holy Spirit bend our thoughts downward to the tomb. 

(1) Let us Consider Death. Why must I die! So wonderfully made by God, only to return to dust? To have dominion over the earth, and then to waste away? Death is a penalty. If Adam had remained sinless, our life would be endless. Sin is the mother of death! Adam has dug all our graves! Death is certain. Die I must! I may run like the deer, but the dogs of Death will get me yet. The Arabs tell us that there is a black camel upon which Death rides, and that must kneel at every man’s door. My time of Death is already appointed, and the means thereof. It is known to God, unknown to me. From the present spot I stand in, there is a straight path to my grave. A sliver of hair is thicker than our thread of life. Let us then prepare to meet our God. Dying is terrible. To joke about it is no laughing matter. This awful moment of dying is what hell is like, for the second Death is a continual dying. Death is a leaving all you have and all you love. On the other side there is glory and reunion for the believer in Christ, but blackness and howling for the unconverted. There is no chance of repenting after Death. 

(2) The Warnings Death has Given Us. Brothers and sisters, Death has invaded some of our families. It is a warning for us to prepare to meet God. A few weeks ago we were shocked to learn that this captain who had sailed through many a storm died in calm waters. Then we heard about a mill in America that fell over and killed hundreds. Then we heard of passengers on a train, fully at ease in conversation, suddenly snatched from time as the iron horse came off the track. This last week a judge was carried right from his court and whisked away to a greater judgment-seat. Death is doing marvels at home, abroad, and on the sea. O Death! will you never be still? But Death is closer to us than this. You talk of a rotten tooth: it is just part of a rotting man. This is Death presenting its warrant. But Death gives a more thundering sermon: fever, cholera, and still you carelessly live in sin. Death says, “Lord, let me slay him.” The Lord replies, “Spare him a little longer.” What will become of you when Death is finally allowed to let fly his arrow? 

(3) Picture Yourself as Dying. Imagine your last day has come. Loved ones are gathering around your bed. A relative pleads with you to receive his Redeemer. Your lips refuse to speak. You can’t move. Someone whispers, “Is he dead?” There is a hush in the room. What must your sensations be in that solemn moment! Your soul looses from your body. Maybe you are then brother to the angels, if you believed in and loved Jesus. Or maybe the doctor has made it easy for your unbelieving soul to be damned by drugging you to sleep. 

Selection from Conclusion. “The way of salvation is plain: ‘He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved: he that believeth not, shall be damned.’”

PART I, SKETCH LXV: THE WAILING OF RISCA

“Suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment” (Jeremiah 4.20.)

Introduction. The crying prophet had a heavy heart when he spoke these words about his tents being ransacked. We can’t spare a moment of sympathy for griefs of the distant past today. There is a spot in South Wales, a favorite retreat of mine, where I worshiped and ministered too, which has just been spoiled very much. Oh! valley of Risca, I am like Jeremiah for you! The angel of death has overtaken some two hundred of your strongest men in the mine over there. Our little revival with you has been spoiled! Yes, this judgment speaks to us—there is a sorrowful lesson in each lost life.   

(1) Sudden Losses. Oh! how soon may God snap the ties of love! That is the world we live in. Our dear ones are loans to us from God. Love them, but hold them loosely. Thank God if your loved one is still with you. Treat the members of your family right and have no regrets. So love one another as if death will visit your home tomorrow. Tell your children, especially, about Christ. Work hard at it, tell them about death, even their own, and urge them to kneel down and pray. And when you hear your neighbor’s funeral bell, be guiltless concerning his destiny.

(2) Sudden Death. Death happened in the twinkle of an eye for these men. They did not expect it. There are a thousand gates of death for the rest of us. Satan would have us never mind about that. But God might not give us another tomorrow. Our days are not as many as the sands on the beach. Live for Christ then, and sincerely. Do not live so as to regret what little you did. Get more jewels for the crown of Jesus. You’ll never regret that. Do nothing, say nothing, think nothing, of which you might be ashamed if he appeared. Aim to die in the service of God. It seems, doesn’t it, that all men die but our own selves? But death is like a monster let loose in the city!—no, it’s worse! This monster called death is after each one of us! We must be thinking about it! If we visit the dying, that may help to impress us. I visited a lad once who was dying of alcohol poisoning. After he expired I went out in the streets, and all the bustle began right away to convince me that it was foolish to think about death. Oh, we must be careful of the trickery of activity! Maybe if we could see all who die, that would affect us more. 

(3) The Sudden Exchange at Death. When I think of death I almost long for it, to leave the Sabbath of work for that Sabbath of rest! The exchange will be so surprising. Then comes overwhelming joy, and gratitude to God! But what must the exchange be like for the unconverted man? “Good God,” he says, “I was in London last minute but now I’m in hell!” Have you ever seen someone die without a hope? I read about a woman on her death-bed who tried to repent.  But because of her former decision to live sinfully, she couldn’t. She prayed and fainted, prayed and fainted, and then with eyes bulging out of their sockets, she died with an awful look on her face, just as though she already felt the terrors of another world. 

Selection from Conclusion. “Now if such is the remorse of a spirit before it feels the wrath of God—if the first drops are sufficient thus to destroy all hope…what will the eternal hail be—what will the everlasting sleet of divine wrath be when once it is poured out? Sodom and Gomorrah! Why all their fiery hail from heaven shall be nothing compared with the eternal fire that must fall upon the sinner. Do you think I love to speak on such a theme as this? My soul trembles while I think of it…but it is needful that men may be awakened… I pray you think of these things…Oh that God would take up the work…’Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.’” 

PART I, SKETCH LXIV: WEAK HANDS AND FEEBLE KNEES

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees” (Isaiah 35.3.)

Introduction. In all flocks there must be weak and wounded sheep. If we ourselves have a lion-like spirit, let us never be as the king of beasts toward them. Do not say, as some do, “Ah, if such a person is foolish enough to be so sensitive, let him be.” O speak not so, but deal tenderly with the timid ones. This text especially commands the minister to deal tenderly. Many afflictions and tendencies of body and mind are not removed at conversion. And so among God’s best servants are those who always look to the dark side of every providence. I shall now speak to these persons. 

(1) Hands and Knees are Very Important in getting to Heaven. The root of fear lies in the heart. But the effects of fear are most easily seen in the hands and knees. Hands hang down; knees tremble. So by fear the hands of action grow weak, and the knees of prayer tremble. The Christian life is a life of work and service. But how to pull enemy walls down with trembling hands? How to carry a burden with a weak knee? There is much loss without strength. We would plead the promise, but the hand refuses to clutch it with an iron grasp. Bunyan reminds us that there are hills on our pilgrimage to heaven so steep that they must be climbed on our hands and knees. 

(2) The Ill Effect of Weak Hands and Knees. The ill effect is a stunted progress in the divine life. Some of you must acknowledge that you do not know much more about Christ than you did six years ago. Maybe you even know less. You have neglected prayer; not believed in promises; not trusted God enough. We are dwarfs, content with the small height we have reached. There is no reason for not standing as tall as Luther, or Calvin, or Henry Martin. Up! Christian, up! Another ill effect is that less good is done by us for the good of the world. The plow of divine grace must go through all the continents! Weak hands and feeble knees can’t handle this plow! If we had the strong knees of the apostles, and the mighty hands of the ancient martyrs, nothing could stand against us. Woe unto Rome and its castles once the children of God become strong! Let the fire of prayer begin in the pew, and will not the pulpit catch the flame? The whole church is weak at this time. A third ill effect is that Christ is dishonored. When the believer bows in prayer with a feeble knee, asking but believing weakly, he dishonors his Lord.

(3) Certain Causes of Weak Hands and Feeble Knees. One cause is being new-born. But God would not overdrive his lambs. Only seek to grow in grace by sucking on the milk of the word. A more frequent cause is starvation. There are some ministries by which you get no understanding of the doctrines of God at all, all year through! For example, some ministers believe in final perseverance, but persevere in keeping quiet about it. And all the while they yell, “Do this, do that!” And so church creatures are expected to live on a whip instead of corn. Feed God’s children with the old-fashioned doctrines that Owen, Charnock, and Goodwin preached, and then they’ll go to work. Only never forget, Christ’s soldiers always win their battles on their knees. The praying legion is the thundering legion. Prayer can move the arm that moves the world. We must not be lazy about it. Our prayers become stronger through use. 

Selection from Conclusion. “What a lazy corporation the church of Christ is!…Do not think it is enough to get good; do good…visit the sick, help the poor, teach the ignorant, succor the distressed; and in all these ways you will find that God will bless you, and your hands shall become strong, and your knees shall not totter.”

PART I, SKETCH LXIII: SATAN'S BANQUET

“The governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine…then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now” (John 2.9, 10.)

Introduction. ‘The good wine first, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse.’ This is the rule with men. Judas presents the dish of fair speech and kindness; then Judas the thief betrays his Master: ‘that which is worse.’ This morning I will introduce you to two houses of feasting.

(1) The Devil’s House. (I) At the first table sit the profligate. First, the governor of the feast brings in the wine cup of pleasure. The young man intends only to sip. But how the drink makes his blood tingle! He drinks deeper. He drinks till his brain begins to reel. He drinks with the harlot and sups with the lustful. Now the subtle governor brings another cup, not so sparkling, the cup of satiety. ‘What more can I do?’ says the man. ‘I have tried every cup of pleasure.’ Many of you are the jaded horses of the fiend of lust. You have gone the round, and like the blind horse at the mill, round you must go again. Next, the fiend bears a black goblet, the third course. The drink is like lava in your bowels! And the last cup, the grave, leads from disease to damnation. Profligate! be not so careless at your cups! Shun the house of sin and folly! (II) At the next table sit the self-righteous. Satan draws a curtain between this table and the first, lest these sanctimonious hypocrites guess what company they are in. First, Satan brings the wine of self-satisfaction. Around the brim you may see the bubbles of pride. Sin as other men do? Not you. If you are not saved, you ought to be, you think. Even many of God’s children admire you. Satan brings a second cup, which, sometimes, he does not like to serve, the cup of discontent. Now comes a shaking in the heart. But wait, there is the third cup, that of dismay at the discovery of your lost condition. Death is close behind you, and forces you onward, and you discover what it is to perish by your attempt to save yourself through your own good works. And your last course must be the same as that of the profligate, the wine-cup of the wrath of God. Put away your high looks. Humble yourselves under God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. (III) The table of worldliness. More great men sit at this table than at any other. ‘Well,’ says one, ‘I dislike the profligate. And I don’t care for religion. I like to know whether the funds rise or fall.’ Satan tells him to get rich quick. This is the first cup. But then mark the next draught, the care of money that sits upon his heart. After this comes the cup of avarice. I do not wonder that God abhors this man. Mammon builds its palace on his heart. You give him a drink, but his thirst increases. ‘More, more, more!’ His final course is to perish. (IV) In the secluded corner, a table for secret sinners. The first cup, how sweet! the cup of secret sin. Then comes the cup of an uneasy fear. He dreads being found out. At last the discovery comes—what a cup! The man who led religious meetings is unmasked, if not here, then at the bar of God. 

(2) The Saviour’s House. (I) His table of outward providences. The first course may include affliction, sorrow, and poverty, like it happened in the olden time for God’s people. After this the cup of consolation arrives. And the best wine comes last, when death leads to immortality. (II) The table of inward experience. First, the cup of conviction. But soon after the cup of forgiving love, filled with the rich crimson of his precious blood. And the best wine is the glory that follows grace. (III) The table of communion. First, the cup of sufferings, for we must suffer with him; then the cup of labor, for we must labor after souls; after that he will give us the cup of his anticipated honors. 

Selection from Conclusion. “O! Christian! thou shalt soon see the King in his beauty.” 

PART I, SKETCH LXII: THE VANGUARD AND THE REREWARD OF THE CHURCH

“The LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward” (Isaiah 52.12.)

Introduction. The church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army, yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace. The spirit of war is at the extreme opposite point to the spirit of the gospel, but truth must be a warring thing. The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies. Truth that is friends with error must be suspected of being false. Even so, a church that does not distinguish herself from things unholy must be a false church. The children of God in this world live in enemy territory. The church must always be armed, and always fighting. Our comfort is, that Jehovah God is at the front and at the rear, securing it from defeat. 

(1) The Whole Church is an Army. Remember that a large part of our host is standing upon the hills of glory, while members at the rear are not all in existence yet. The rearguard will be brought up in that day when the last vessel of mercy is full to the brim with grace. Now cast your eyes to the front and see this great truth: “Jehovah shall go before you.” Have you never heard of the eternal counsel and of the everlasting covenant? Before there were any creatures, God in Three Persons settled it that men should be redeemed. Yes, the gospel is older than the aged mountains. And God has gone before the church from the day it left Paradise until now. Floods have gathered round her, but she safely floats in Jehovah’s ark. How can we account for the triumphs of the church? God has gone before her! She has marched right through blood and flames! The time of persecution is the age of heroes. Why? Because God goes on before and provides stores of grace for stores of trouble. Now to the sweet part of the text, “The God of Israel will be your rereward.” This means that God ‘gathers up’ all the stragglers. Heretics and trials to come do not worry me, then. Can you imagine the church of God as completed? She will leave the earth in a world of flames when God gathers up the last of her members! 

(2) Two Troubles: the Future and the Past. We have had our mercies. But we have had years of trouble too. Do you tremble to go forward? Be encouraged! Your future has been marked out in the great orders of predestination. Your troubles have been weighed in the scales of God’s love. You are not a child of chance. If you were allowed to map out your own future, would you? God has gone before your future journey in the preparations of his providence. Old wines of grace are waiting for you to feast on. Jehovah has gone before you in the incarnation of Christ. Jesus has borne your future troubles; was tempted as you shall be; has felt infinitely more sorrows than you ever will. Going before, he has conquered every foe. Cheer up, faint-hearted warrior! Do you dread sin? He nailed it to the cross! Death? He has been the death of Death! Hell? You shall never go there! You may march safely on. Maybe it is the past that troubles you. Beloved, study the titles in our text. The LORD: Jehovah, full of knowledge and power, he goes before you. But it is the God of Israel: the Covenant God of forgiveness who takes up the rear, picking up all your old sins and casting them behind his back. Don’t ever be cast down because of past sin! 

Selection from Conclusion. “And now, are there any here to-day whose hearts God hath touched, who desire to join this great army? Have I one here who has been enlisted in the black army of the devil, and has long been fighting his way against God and against right? I pray that he may be compelled this day to ground his arms, and surrender at discretion of God. Sinner, if the Lord inclines thine heart this day to yield up thyself to him, the past shall all be blotted out…As for thy innumerable sins, leave them to Christ, he will make short work of them; by his blood he will slay them all.”

PART I, SKETCH LXI: THE CHRISTIAN'S HEAVINESS AND REJOICING

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (1 Peter 1.6.) 

Introduction. This verse to a worldly man looks amazingly like a contradiction. Even to a Christian, it is a paradox. Can there be in the same heart great rejoicing, and yet a temporary heaviness? Certainly there can! This is far from being the greatest paradox of the Christian life. Not only is the Christian’s condition a paradox. He is a paradox himself: corrupt and yet purified, mortal and yet immortal, fallen yet exalted far above principalities and powers. 

(1) The Christian’s Heaviness. I never understood this verse until a day or two ago. Commentaries, I’m afraid, have got it wrong. And notice that your friends often say by quoting this verse when you are in trouble, “There is a need for this affliction.” That is a correct scriptural statement. But it comes not out of this text at all. This text says something better. Not only is there a need for the temptation, but for the heaviness in it. Imagine a man of strong faith. He is slandered, or endures persecution, or maybe even gets condemned to death for the gospel, and you say to him, “There is a need for it all. The blood of the martyrs must be the seed of the church.” And suppose that he agrees with you, is unmoved by the slander, rejoices for persecution, and even kisses the stake he is to be burned on. Seek to have faith and love like that man! But our text is not for him. It is for a feebler grade of Christian who needs to go through a season of heaviness and weeping. I myself am such a man. Why is heaviness necessary? Our Lord and Saviour passed through much heaviness. We must too if we would be like him. Sometimes we are given to suffer heaviness to keep our pride down or to bring us thirsting after our Lord. And there are lessons that cannot be learned any other way but through heaviness. Some sights in the valley cannot be seen from on top of the Alps! Men will never become great in divinity until they become great in suffering. “Ah!” says Luther, “affliction is the best book in my library.” Finally, heaviness is necessary to anyone who would afterwards comfort others. A great many Christians could come by more sympathy by a journey through a furnace! God makes his sons of thunder anywhere; but his sons of consolation he makes in the fire. 

(2) The Christian’s Great Rejoicing. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” What is the cause of this rejoicing? In this passage the apostle is speaking of election. To be “elect according to the foreknowledge of God,” when meditated upon, can cause any infirmity to be as nothing. He is speaking also of “the blood of Jesus.” All my guilt and sin taken away, and shall I not greatly rejoice? Shall my depression cause me to break my harp, or shall it just hang on the willows for awhile? But the great cheering comfort from the apostle concerns our inheritance. Tell a dying Christian about the milk and the honey and the Lamb, and see his eyes light up! And the reason chiefly intended here for our rejoicing is in the 15th verse. We are kept by the power of God! I don’t know what a man does in affliction who does not believe this doctrine. What would we do in the day of darkness if left to keep ourselves? The Lord shall keep us safe through anything!

Selection from Conclusion. “There are some of you here to whom this precious passage has not a word to say. Our heaviness, O worldling, ‘our heaviness is but for a season.’ Your heaviness is to come; and it shall be a heaviness intolerable, because hopelessly everlasting…I beseech you, look at this matter. Search and see…whether it be well for you to venture into an eternal state as you are; and may God give you grace, that you may feel your need of a Saviour.”