The Squawking Cockatiel

A conversion story - Part 1

2008-01-29T17:51:00.000+09:00

From the Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan:

True conversion: Hopeful’s testimony.

Hopeful is telling Christian how he was converted - as he and Christian are walking across the enchanted ground - On their way to Mount Zion (Heaven).

Part 1: Hopeful as an unsaved, unregenerate sinner.

Christian began and said, I will ask you a question. How came you to think at first of so doing as you do now?”

Hopeful: Do you mean, how came I at first to look after the good of my soul?

Christian: Yes, that is my meaning.

Hopeful: I continued a great while in the delight of those things which were
seen and sold at our fair; things which, I believe now, would have, had I
continued in them, still drowned me in perdition and destruction.

Christian: What things are they?

Hopeful: All the treasures and riches of the world. Also, I delighted much in rioting, revelling, drinking, swearing, lying, uncleanness, Sabbath-breaking, and what not, that tended to destroy the soul.

2006-08-14T18:57:00.000+08:00

From Salvation by Knowing the Truth – Sermon 1516 MTP.

“When a man comes in very deed to a knowledge of the truth about faith in Christ, he trusts Christ, and he is there and then saved from the guilt of sin; and he begins to be saved altogether from sin. God cuts the root of the power of sin that very day; hut yet it has such life within itself that at the scent of water it will bud again. Sin in our members struggles to live. It has as many lives as a cat: there is no killing it. Now, when we conic to a knowledge of the truth, we begin to learn how sin is to be killed in us-how the same Christ that justifies, sanctifies, and works in us according to his working who worketh in us mightily, that we may he conformed to the image of Christ, and made meet to dwell with perfect saints above. Beloved, many of you that are saved from the guilt of sin, have a very hard struggle with the power of sin, and have much more conflict, perhaps, than yon need to have, because you have not come to a knowledge of all the truth about indwelling sin. I therefore beg you to study much the word of God upon that point, and especially to see the adaptation of Christ to rule over your nature, and to conquer all your corrupt desires, and learn how by faith to bring each sin before him that, like Agag, it may be hewed in pieces before his eyes. You will never overcome sin except by the blood of the Lamb. There is no sanctification except by faith. The same instrument which destroys sin as to its guilt must slay sin as to its power. “They overcame by the blood of the Lamb,” and so must you. Learn this truth well, so shall you find salvation wrought in you from day to day.”

Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit.

2006-08-01T20:03:00.000+08:00

Quoted from Receiving The Holy Ghost : Sermon 1790 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit

“You know, dear friends, when the Holy Spirit was given in the earliest ages he showed his presence by certain miraculous signs. Some of those who received the Holy Spirit spake with tongues; others began to prophesy, and a third class received the gifts of healing, so that wherever they laid their hands disease fled before them. I am sure that if these powers were given now in connection with the reception of the Holy Spirit and your believing, you would all be anxious to possess them. I can hardly imagine a single Christian who would not put to himself the enquiry, “Have I received the Holy Spirit in that fashion?” You would want to be healing, or to be speaking with tongues, or to be working miracles by which you could benefit your fellow-men and glorify God: would you not? Now, be it never forgotten that those works of the Holy Spirit which are permanent must assuredly be of greater value than those which were transitory. We cannot suppose that the Holy Ghost brought forth the best wine at first, and that his operations gradually deteriorated. It is a rule of the kingdom to keep the best wine to the last, and therefore I conclude that you and I are not left to partake of the dregs, but that those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit, by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to the power which made men speak with tongues. The work of the Holy Spirit, when he comforts men and makes them glad in Christ, is by no means second to the opening of the eyes of the blind. Why, sirs, men might have the gifts of the Spirit as to miracle, and yet might perish after all; but he that hath the spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost shall never perish: they are saving blessings, and where they come they lift the man out of his sinful estate, and make him to be a child of God. I would therefore press it upon you this morning that, as you would certainly enquire whether you had the gifts of healing and miracle-working, if such gifts were now given to believers, much more should you enquire whether you have those more permanent gifts of the Spirit which are this day open to you all by the which you shall work no physical miracle, but shall achieve spiritual wonders of the grander sort. If we come to weigh spiritual operations, they are by no means secondary in the judgment of enlightened servants of God. Have ye then received the Spirit since you believed? Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power?”

2006-07-09T16:29:00.000+08:00

From "Scriptural Salvation". Sermon 2145 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

"I am not ashamed of my hope; I love to state it, to glory in it, and to make it widely known. I heard of a “modern-thought” minister of some repute, that a person asked him, “Sir, what is your theory of the atonement?” He replied, “My dear sir, I have never told that to any living person, although I have been a preacher for years, and I am not going to commit myself now.” He seemed to think that this was rather a wise thing. My course runs in the opposite direction: I believe in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, and I am not ashamed of the old-fashioned doctrine. “He loved me, and gave himself for me”; why should I be ashamed to own it? I will not believe anything that I dare not preach. I have a grave suspicion that it will go ill at last with the man who has one faith for the public and another for himself. We should be ashamed at being ashamed of Christ and his truth."

Quoting Spurgeon 22

2005-09-12T10:46:00.000+08:00

This is my favorite Spurgeon quote.

From “Where to Find Fruit” Sermon #557.

“From me is thy fruit found.” Now there may be some saint here who has lost his evidences, and he dare not approachthe throne of grace as he used to do, because he says “I have sinned-I must produce fresh fruit before I dare come.” My dear friend! My dear friend! Bring fruit to Christ! How can you talk in so legal a fashion? All the fruit you ever will have you must first get from him! Come to him as you areand get your fruit out of him. Never suppose that you must bring Christ a present or else you must not come to him. He does not want your money.If he takes it he will give it back to you in your sack’s mouth. He will receive your fruit as an offering, but never as a reconciliation. There arethose here this morning who are not converted as yet. They are saying, “I dare not seek the Lord, I dare not trust Christ. I know the gospel is, trustChrist and you are saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but I must not trust him, I am a drunkard, I have been a swearer, I am a Sabbath-breaker, I will wait until I am better and then I will come to Christ.” Why how can you talk thus? “From him is thy fruit found.” If there be any fruit you must come to Jesus Christ for it. Am I, if I am poor and ragged, am I to buy a new coat before I may beg a garment? What astrange proposal that I should do for myself what Christ came to do. How can that be reasonable? If I saw a man standing outside the baths andwash-houses, and he should say, “Well really, I’ve just come home from my work and am as black as a sweep, but I dare not go into those bathsuntil I have washed my face first.” I should say, “How foolish! it is in the bath that your washing is to be found.” There is no fitness wanted forChrist but that which is in Christ: nothing wanted in you, everything is in him. To use the old proverb,” Why carry coals to Newcastle?” Who wouldthink it a profitable business for our London merchants, in the cold winter time, when the price of coals is very high, to charter all the ships they can,and send them laden with coals to Newcastle? If they did so, you would think them mad. And yet there are many sinners penniless, comfortless,with no good thing of their own, who want to bring good works to Jesus! This is carrying coals to Newcastle with a vengeance. Oh! folly! folly!folly! Go with your ship all black and empty, sail up the harbor, and the pit’s mouth will soon yield to you an abundance of precious store. Go toJesus as you are. Do you want faith to-day-repentance-grace? Go to Christ for it. Go to him, resting on him, dependent on him, believing that he isready to save you, to begin, to carry on, and finish your salvation. He will be as good as you ever believe him to be, and infinitely better. If thou canst believe him princely enough to put all thy sins away, and to cover thee with his righteousness, he will do it, for never man thought too well of Christ. Ifthou canst get a big thought of Christ, thou big sinner — if thou canst believe on the eternal Son of the eternal Father, who once poured out hisblood in streams on Calvary thou art secure. God help thee. Amen.

Quoting Spurgeon 21

2005-09-01T18:55:00.000+08:00

quoted from "WHITHER GOEST THOU? " Sermon #2098.

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me,
I shall come forth as gold.”—Job 23:10.

IV. Fourthly, HAVE YOU CONFIDENCE IN GOD AS TO THESE STORMS?
Can you say, in the language of the text, “When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”? If you are really trusting in Jesus, if he is everything to you, you may say this confidently; for you will find it true to the letter. If you have really given yourself up to be saved by grace, do not hesitate to believe that you will be found safe at the last. I do not like people to come and trust Christ with a temporary faith as though he could keep them for a day or two, but could not preserve them all their lives. Trust Christ for everlasting salvation: mark the word everlasting.” I thank God, that when I believed in His Son Jesus Christ, I laid hold upon final perseverance: I believed that where He had begun a good work He would carry it on and perfect it in the day of Christ. I believed in the Lord Jesus, not for a year or two, but for all the days of my life, and to eternity. I want your faith to have a hand of that kind, so that you grasp the Lord as your Savior to the uttermost. I cannot tell what troubles may come, nor what temptations may arise; but I know in whose hands I am, and I am persuaded that He is able to preserve me, so that when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. I go into the fire, but I shall not be burned up in it; “I shall come forth.” Like the three holy children, though the furnace be heated seven times hotter, yet the Son of man will be with me in the furnace, and “I shall come forth” with not even the smell of fire upon me. Yes, “I shall come forth,” and none can hinder me. It is good to begin with this holy confidence, and to let that confidence increase as you get nearer to the recompense of the reward. Hath He not promised that we shall never perish? shall we not, therefore, come forth as gold? This confidence is grounded on the Lord’s knowledge of us. “He knoweth the way that I take”: therefore, “when he hath tried me, shall come forth as gold.” If something happened to us which the Lord had not foreseen and provided for, we might be in great peril; But He knows our way even to the end, and is prepared for its rough places. If some amazing calamity could come upon us which the Lord had not reckoned upon, we might well be afraid of being wrecked; but our Lord’s foreseeing eye hath swept the horizon and prepared us for all weathers. He knows where storms do lurk and cyclones hide away; and He is at home in managing tempests and tornadoes. If His far-seeing eye has spied out for us a long sickness and a gradual and painful death, then He has prepared the means to bear us through. If He has looked into the mysterious unknown of the apocalyptic revelation, and seen unimaginable horrors and heartmelting terrors, yet He has forestalled the necessity which He knows is coming on. It is enough for us that our Father knows what things we have need of and “when he hath tried us, we shall come forth as gold.”

Quoting Spurgeon 20

2005-08-31T18:37:00.000+08:00

Sayings from “Salt Cellars” – Don’t be a donkey.

If a donkey brays at you, don’t bray at him.

Which you will do if you answer railing by railing. Take as a specimen and a warning the following: An American editor speaks of his rival as “mean enough to steal the swill from a blind hog!” That rival retorts by saying, “He knows he lies: I never stole his swill.” Do not fall into the style (we had almost said sty) of these editors.

Quoting Spurgeon 19

2005-08-26T18:52:00.000+08:00

Quoted from "Divine Love and Its Gifts" #1096 MTP.

When a man sees that Jesus Christ took all his sins, and was punished for them, so that the man himself never can be punished again-when he understands that wondrous mystery of substitution, then he gets a consolation which serves him at all times, and in all weathers. Whatever may occur to him he flies to this refuge; and even though he may have fallen into great sin, he knows that the atonement was not made for sham sin, but for real sin; and he resorts again to that same fountain filled with blood, wherein he was once washed, resting fully assured that it will be equal to the washing of him as long as he shall be capable of sin. “Everlasting consolation!” There are some here present who have tried this consolation for forty or fifty years; dear brethren and sisters, I am sure you do not find it is any the weaker, but on the contrary you understand more of its strength. You are more happy to-day in falling back upon the love of God than you were, and at this moment you feel that in the absence of all other comforts it would suffice you to know that everlasting consolation which is given you in Christ Jesus.

The sauciest dog that ever barked in a pulpit.

2005-08-22T19:25:00.000+08:00

Spurgeon quote 18.

Quoted from Spurgeon’s autobiography – Chapter 24 –
Memorable services from Waterbeach.

"Another singular character with whom I became acquainted early in my ministry, was old Mr. Sutton, of Cottenham. He had never seen me, but he heard that I was a popular young minister, so he invited me over to preach his anniversary sermons. I was in the vestry of the chapel before the morning service, and when the aged man came in, and saw me, he seemed greatly surprised to find that I was so young. After gruffly exchanging the usual greetings, he remarked, “I shouldn’t have asked you here, had I known you were such a bit of a boy. Why, the people have been pouring into the place all the morning in wagons, and dickey-carts, and all kinds of vehicles! More fools they!” he added. I said, “Well, sir, I suppose it will be so much the better for your anniversary; still, I can go back as easily as I came, and my people at Waterbeach will be very glad to see me.” “No, no,” said the old pastor; “now you are here, you must do the best you can. There is a young fellow over from Cambridge, who will help you; and we shan’t expect much from you;” and thereupon he paced the room, moaning out, “Oh, dear! what a pass the world is coming to when we get as
preachers a parcel of boys who have not got their Mother’s milk out of their mouths!” I was in due time conducted to the pulpit, and the old minister sat upon the stairs, — I suppose, ready to go on with the service in case I should break down. After prayer and singing, I read, from the Book of Proverbs, the chapter containing the words, “The hoary head is a crown of glory.” When I had gone so far, I stopped, and remarked, “I doubt it, for, this very morning, I met with a man who has a hoary head, yet he has not learnt common civility to his fellow-men.” Proceeding with the reading, I finished the verse, — “if it be found in the way of righteousness.” “Ah!” I said, “that’s another thing; a hoary head would then be a crown of glory, and, for the
matter of that, so would a red head, or a head of any other colour.” I went on with the service, and preached as best I could, and as I came down from the pulpit, Mr. Sutton slapped me on the back, and exclaimed, “Bless your heart! I have been a minister nearly forty years, and I was never better pleased with a sermon in all my life; but you are the sauciest dog that ever barked in a pulpit.” All the way home from the chapel, he kept on going across the road to speak to little groups of people who were discussing the service. I heard him say, “I never knew anything like it in all my life; and to think that I should have talked to him as I did!” We had a good time for the rest of the day, the Lord blessed the Word, and Mr. Sutton and I were ever afterwards the best of friends. "

Quoting Spurgeon 17

2005-08-18T19:45:00.000+08:00

Quoted from Sermon 1278. Reasons for Parting with Sin.

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though theybe red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” — Isaiah 1:18.

"I have never preached that you shall be saved without being purified in heart. No, the salvation which this pulpit has proclaimed is not salvation in sin but Salvation from sin, not a licence to evil but a deliverance from evil. The two-edged sword of our gospel divides between men and sin, and slays all the hopes of the impenitent and disobedient. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord”: this holiness is his gift to you. Deliverance from sin is not a work of the flesh, but a work of grace: it does not spring from legal bondage, but from the gracious work of the blessed Spirit: but you must have it, you must have it, and if you will not have holiness neither shall you have heavens. There shall be no blotting out of sin unless there is a ransom from the dominion of sin. May God hell? you to be honest with yourself and honest with your God, who again invites you to reason with him, and entreats you not to be so unreasonable as to continue in sin and yet expect forgiveness. He invites you to cast out that evil, which is as much your enemy as it is his. He points to this stumbling-block which lies at your door, and bids you will to have it removed. He begs you to come to your senses, and awake from your dreams. Your past sin he is fully prepared to obliterate for ever, but it is your love of sin which lies in the way. O that you would from your heart give it up, and follow after letter things. May he help you now to say, “O Lord, I desire to be made pure and holy; give me strength, I pray thee, to overcome temptation, and walk in the way of thy commandments. I would be holy, even as thou art holy. To will is present with me, “give me also power to do that which I would. O Lord, I would renounce my old sins, my constitutional sins, my once beloved sins. I do not ask to be tolerated in any one of them, but would be delivered from every false way, for Jesus’ sake. Help me, O Lord.” Your heavenly Father stands ready to help you, prepared to help you. Though you are as yet a great way off, he comes to meet you and opens his arms to embrace you. For the sake of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus he has passed an act of amnesty and oblivion for all the past, and he will rule over you for the future with the gentle scepter of his holy love. “If ye be willing and obedient” — are you indeed so? May God grant you a subdued will and a submissive mind, for Jesus’ sake. Amen."

Quoting Spurgeon 16

2005-08-14T15:51:00.000+08:00

Quoted from "The Blood" Sermon 228 MTP

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” — Exodus 12:13.

"Rely on Jesus only, and thou canst not perish; but rely on anything with him, and thou art as surely damned as if thou shouldst rely upon thy sins. Jesus only — Jesus only — Jesus only — this is the rock of our salvation. And here let me stop, and combat a few forms and shapes which our self-righteousness always takes. “Oh,” says one, “I could trust in Christ if I felt my sins more.” Sir, that is a damning error. Is thy repentance, thy sense of sin, to be a part-Savior? Sinner! The blood is to save thee, not thy tears, Christ’s death, not thy repentance. Thou art bidden this day to trust in Christ; not in thy feelings, not in thy pangs on account of sin. Many a man has been brought into great soul distress, because he has looked more at his repentance than at the obedience of Christ —

“Could thy tears for ever flow,
Could thy zeal no respite know;
All for sin could not atone,
Christ must save and Christ alone.”

“Nay, says another, “but I feel that I do not value the blood of Christ as I ought, and therefore I am afraid to believe.” My friend, that is another insidious form of the same error. God does not say, “When I see your estimate of the blood of Christ, I will pass over you; no, but when I see the blood.” It is not your estimate of that blood; it is the blood that saves you. As I said before, that magnificent, solitary blood must be alone.
“Nay,” says another, “but if I had more faith then I should have hope.” That, too, is a very deadly shape of the same evil. You are not to be saved by the efficacy of your faith, but by the efficacy of the blood of Christ. It is not your believing, it is Christ’s dying. I bid you believe, but I bid you not to look to your believing as salvation. No man will go to heaven if he trusts to his own faith you may as well trust to your own good works as trust to your faith. Your faith must deal with Christ not with itself. The world hangs on nothing, but faith cannot hang upon itself, it must hang on Christ. Sometimes, when my faith is vigorous, I catch myself doing this. There is joy flowing into my heart, and after awhile I begin to find that my joy suddenly departs. I ask the causes, and I find that the joy came because I was thinking of Christ; but when I begin to think about my joy, then my joy fled. You must not think of your faith but of Christ. Faith comes from meditation upon Christ. Turn, then, your eye, not upon faith but upon Jesus. It is not your hold of Christ that saves you; it is his hold of you. It is not the efficacy of your believing in him; it is the efficacy of his blood applied to you through the Spirit."

Spurgeon on Universalism (Spurgeon quote 15).

2005-08-14T14:12:00.000+08:00

Phil mentioned universalism

Here is Spurgeon on the same subject.

Quoted from sermon #1697 - The Word of a King

"When Jesus Christ’s deity is denied in any chapel, it soon becomes a howling wilderness. If Christ, the son of God, is gone, all is gone. A certain minister preached Universalism, or the doctrine that everybody would be saved in the end, and after a time his chapel became empty. His neighbour, who preached that those who did not believe would be lost for ever, had his house full. One day the Universalist met his neighbour, and asked him, “How is it that the people come to you when you preach that unbelievers will be sent to hell, and they do not come to me though I tell them that in the end they will all be in heaven?” The other replied, “They suspect that what I tell them is true, and that what you tell them is false.” Where gentlemen of this order have been preaching, people have sense enough to come to the conclusion that if what they say is false it is not wise to hear them, and if what they say is true there is no need to hear them. Certain gentlemen are proving to the world that there is no need of themselves, for if men are not lost what need is there of a preacher to tell them how they can be saved? He that crieth peace and safety, if he be a watchman, might as well hold his tongue. If the watchman woke you up in the middle of the night crying out, “All’s well! A fine starlight night!” you would be very much inclined to exclaim, “Why on earth do you go about disturbing people when there is nothing the matter? Go home and get to bed with you!” And thus these smooth-speaking gentlemen are finding out that they are not wanted, and people are ready to say of them, “Let them go home to bed, and there let them abide.” But on the other hand, if you preach Jesus
Christ, and even the terrible things of his word, there will be a fall house, for conscience bids men hear. When you preach the gospel, souls will be saved. To secure that end you must stick to the gospel, for that is the one means ordained by God for the conversion of sinners. The other day a gospel minister ‘spoke to a woman who had attended certain revival services, in which there was much shouting of “Come to Jesus,” but nothing about Jesus. She said, “I heard you preach this afternoon, and if what you preached is true, then I am a lost woman. I have been converted ten times already.” Ah me! what is the use of such poor work as this? We must teach the King’s word if our work is to be blessed to the salvation of souls. We must plough with the law, and let the people know what sin means, and what repentance means; then we may hopefully sow them with the gospel. Some time ago we were told that there was no need of repentance, and that repentance only meant a change of mind: but what tremendous change of mind true repentance does mean! "

Quoted from Sermon 1873 – The Dream of the Bakery Cake

"Behold the host of doubters, and heretics, and revilers, who, at the present time, have come up into the inheritance of Israel, hungry from their deserts of rationalism and atheism! They are eating up all the corn of the land. They cast a doubt upon all the verities of our faith. But we need not fear them; for if we heard their secret counsels, we should perceive that they are afraid of us. Their loud blustering and their constant sneers, are the index of real fear. Those who preach the cross of our Lord Jesus are the terror of modern thinkers. In their heart of hearts they dread the preaching of the old-fashioned gospel, and they hate what they dread. On their beds they dream of the coming of some evangelist into their neighborhood. What the name of Richard was to the Saracens, that is the name of Moody to these boastful intellects. They wish they could stop those Calvinistic fellows and those evangelical old fogies. Brethren, so long as the plain gospel is preached in England there will always be hope that these brigands will yet be scattered, and the church be rid of their intrusion. Rationalism, Socinianism, Ritualism, and Universalism will soon take to their legs, if the clear, decided cry of “the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon” be once more heard."

Quoting Spurgeon 14

2005-08-12T22:11:00.000+08:00

Quoted from “A Cheerful Giver Beloved of God” #835 MTP – A Merchant's vision.

“God loveth a cheerful giver.”-2 Corinthians 9:7.

And, last of all, we have need of a giving God, and therefore let us be cheerful givers. Remember that story which Mrs. Stowe has so well written. I am afraid I cannot tell it again, certainly not in her words, but it is something to this effect. There was a merchant, says she, who had prospered a great deal in business. He had built a house in the country, and he had enlarged it, and had laid out his grounds at great expense. When he went to his office he was called upon by a collector for some society, and he replied to his requests, “I really cannot afford to give anything; I have so many calls, I cannot do it.” Well, he was a man who had usually been very generous, and it touched his conscience a little afterwards to think that he should begin to stint in what he gave to his Lord. At night, when the wife and family had retired to rest, he sat by the fire-side meditating, and he said to himself, “I really do not know whether I was wise to build this house; it has brought a deal of expense; new furniture is wanted; I have been introduced into a new rank of society, expenses have increased, the girls want more for dress; everything is on a more lavish scale, and yet I have been stinting the Lord. I fear I have done amiss; I do not feel easy about it at all.” As he was so thinking it is supposed that he fell asleep, but if so it was well for him that he did so, for suddenly the door opened, and there came into the room a very meek and lowly stranger, who advancing to him said, “Sir, I have called upon you to ask your help for a society which sends the gospel to the heathen; they are perishing, perishing for lack of knowledge; you are wealthy, will you give me help to send them the word of life?” He said, “You must excuse me, really; my expenses are so great, and I must curtail; I am quite unable to give you anything; I must decline.” The stranger looked at him with a mournful glance and said, “Perhaps you think that the work is too far away, and you do not give because the money is to be sent beyond the seas; I will then tell you that there is a ragged school down a part of the city, near your house of business, and it is about to be shut up for want of funds, and there are the poor little ragged children, the Arabs of your streets, ignorant of the right way, will you give me a subscription to that object?” The merchant was a little vexed to be asked again, and he said, “Forbear to trouble me; I cannot afford it, I cannot give you anything.” The stranger brushed a tear from his eye, and he said, “Well, then, I must ask you at least for something for the Bible Society; that, you see, lies at the root of everything; it gives away the word of God, and surely if you cannot afford it for the Missionary Society, or the Ragged School, you will give it for the word of God itself.” “No,” he said, “I have told you I cannot do it,” and then-and then the aspect of the stranger seemed to change, and though he still was meek and lowly, yet withal his countenance became majestic. There was a glory in his face, and yet there were lines of grief, and he said, softly and very sternly, “Five years ago that little daughter of yours, with the fair ringlets, lay sick of the fever, and you prayed in the bitterness of your soul that the darling of your heart might not be taken from you, but that you might be spared that heavy stroke. Who heard that prayer, and gave you back your child?” The merchant covered his face with his hands, and felt ashamed. “Ten years ago,” said the same voice, “you were in great difficulties; bills were returned upon you; you were on the verge of bankruptcy; your hair seemed as if it would turn grey with care. To whom did you apply in the hour of trouble, and who heard you, and who found you friends who tided you over your difficulties when other houses were crashing, and wealthier men than you were failing on every side? Who did that for you? Once more,” said the stranger, “fifteen years ago you felt the burden of your sins, you went up and down the world wringing your hands with fear, and crying, ‘God have mercy upon me!’ your heart was overwhelmed within you; who in that hour spoke the forgiving word which cancelled all your sins? Who took all your iniquities upon himself?” The merchant sobbed aloud and trembled much, when the voice said, “If thou wilt never ask anything of me again I will never ask anything of thee.” The man fell on his face before the august visitant, and said, “Take all, my blessed Lord; forgive my shameful ingratitude to thee, and help me never in the future to deny thee anything.” Whether it were a dream or not, it is certain that that merchant became one of the Christian princes of America, and gave to the cause of Christ as few had ever done before.

Quoting Spurgeon 13 - Praising God.

2005-08-10T21:15:00.000+08:00

Quoted from "The Happy duty of Daily Praise" . NO. 1902

“I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for

ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy

name for ever and ever.” — Psalm 114:1, 2.

“IF I were to put to you the question, “Do you pray?” the answer would be very quickly given by every Christian person, “Of course I do.” Suppose I then added, “And do you pray every day?” the prompt reply would be, “Yes; many times in the day. I could not live without prayer.” This is no more than I expect, and I will not put the question. But let me change the enquiry, and say, “Do you bless God every day? Is praise as certain and constant a practice with you as prayer?” I am not sure that the answer would be quite so certain, so general, or so prompt. You would have to stop a little while before you gave the reply; and I fear, in some cases, when the reply did come, it would be, “I am afraid I have been negligent in praise.” Well, then, dear friend, have you not been wrong? Should we omit praise any more than we omit prayer? And should not praise come daily and as many times in the day as prayer does? It strikes me that to fail in praise is as unjustifiable as to fail in prayer. I shall leave it with your own heart and conscience, when you have asked and answered the question, to see to it in the future that far more of the sweet frankincense of praise is mingled with your daily oblation of devotion. Praise is certainly not at all so common in family prayer as other forms of worship. We cannot all of us praise God in the family by joining in song, because we are not all able to raise a tune, but it would be well if we could. I agree with Matthew Henry when he says, “They that pray in the family do well; they that pray and read the Scriptures do better; but they that pray, and read, and sing do best of all.” There is a completeness in that kind of family worship which is much to be desired. Whether in the family or not, yet personally and privately, let us endeavor to be filled with God’s praise and with his honor all the day. Be this our resolve — “I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.” Brethren, praise cannot be a second-class business; for it is evidently due to God, and that in a very high degree. A sense of justice ought to make us praise the Lord; it is the least we can do, and in some senses it is the most that we can do, in return for the multiplied benefits which he bestows upon us. What, no harvest of praise for him who has sent the sunshine of his love and the rain of his grace upon us! What, no revenue of praise for him who is our gracious Lord and King! He doth not exact from us any servile labor, but simply saith, “Who so offereth praise glorifieth me.” Praise is good, and pleasant, and delightful. Let us rank it among those debts which we would not wish to forget, but are eager to pay at once. Praise is an act which is pre-eminently characteristic of the true child of God. The man who doth but pretend to piety will fast twice in the week, and stand in the temple and offer something like prayer; but to praise God with all the heart, this is the mark of true adoption, this is the sign and token of a heart received by divine grace. We lack one of the surest evidences of pure love to God if we live without presenting praise to his ever-blessed name. Praising God is singularly beneficial to ourselves. If we had more of it we should be greatly blest. What would lift us so much above the trials of life, what would help us to bear the burden and heat of the day, so well as songs of praise unto the Most High? The soldier marches without weariness when the band is playing inspiriting strains; the sailor, as he pulls the rope or lifts the anchor, utters a cheery cry to aid his toil; let us try the animating power of hymns of praise. Nothing would oil the wheels of the chariot of life so well as more of the praising of God. Praise would end murmuring, and nurse contentment. If our mouths were filled with the praises of God, there would he no room for grumbling. Praise would throw a halo of glory around the head of toil and thought. In its sunlight the commonest duties of life would be transfigured. Sanctified by prayer and praise, each duty would be raised into a hallowed worship, akin to that of heaven. It would make us more happy, more holy, and more heavenly, if we would say, “I will extol thee, my God, O King.”

Quoting Spurgeon 12 - Final Perseverance

2005-08-07T20:16:00.000+08:00

Quoted from "The Death of Christ for His People - Sermon 2656 MTP"

“He laid down his life for us.”—1 John 3:16.

Did my Savior lay down his life for me? Then, HOW SAFE I AM! We will have no controversy to-night with those who do not see this truth; the Lord open their blind eyes, and show it to them! That is all we will say.
We, who know the gospel, see, in the fact of the death of Christ, a reason that no strength of logic can ever shake, and no power of unbelief can remove, why we should be saved. There may be men, with minds so distorted that they can conceive it possible that Christ should die for a man who afterwards is lost; I say, there may be such. I am sorry to say that there are still to be found some such persons, whose brains have been so addled, in their childhood, that they cannot see that what they hold is both a preposterous falsehood and a blasphemous libel. Christ dies for a man, and then God punishes that man again; Christ suffers in a sinner’s stead, and then God condemns that sinner after all! Why, my friends, I feel quite shocked in only mentioning such an awful error; and were it not so current as it is, I should certainly pass it over with the contempt that it deserves. The doctrine of Holy Scripture is this, that God is just, that Christ died in the stead of his people, and that, as God is just, he will never punish one solitary soul of Adam’s race for whom the Savior did thus shed his blood. The Savior did, indeed, in a certain sense, die for all, all men receive many a mercy through his blood, but that he was the Substitute and Surety for all men, is so inconsistent, both with reason and Scripture, that we are obliged to reject the doctrine with abhorrence. No, my soul, how shalt thou be punished if thy Lord endured thy punishment for thee? Did he die for thee? O my soul, if Jesus was not thy Substitute, and did not die in thy very stead, then he is no Savior to thee! But, if he was thy Substitute, if he suffered as thy Surety, in thy stead, then, my soul, “Who is he that condemneth?” Christ hath died, yea, rather, hath risen again, and sitteth at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us. There stands the master-argument: Christ “laid down his life for us,” and “if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life? If the agonies of the Savior put our sins away, the everlasting life of the Savior, with the merits of his death added there unto, must preserve his people, even unto the end. This much I know,—ye may hear men stammer when they say it,—but what, I preach is the old Lutheran, Calvinistic, Augustinian, Pauline, Christian truth,—there is not one sin in the Book of God against anyone that believeth. Our sins were numbered on the Scapegoat’s head, and there is not one sin that ever a believer did commit, that hath any power to damn him, for Christ hath taken the damning power out of sin, by allowing it, to speak by a bold metaphor, to damn himself, for sin did condemn him; and, inasmuch as sin condemned him, sin cannot, condemn us. O believer, this is thy security, that all thy sin and guilt, all thy transgressions and thine iniquities have been atoned for, and were atoned for before they were committed; so that thou mayest come with boldness, though red with all crimes, and black with every lust, and lay thine hand on that Scapegoat’s head, and when thou hast put thine hand there, and seen that Scapegoat driven into the wilderness, thou mayest clap thine, hands for joy, and say, “It is finished, sin is pardoned.”
“Here’s pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their cast;
And oh, my soul, with wonder view, For sifts to come, here’s pardon too!” This is all I want to know; did the Savior die for me? Then I will not continue in sin that grace may abound; but nothing shall stop me of thus glorying, in all the churches of the Lord Jesus, that my sins are entirely removed from me; and, in God’s sight, I may sing, as Hart did sing,— “With Christ’s spotless vesture on, Holy as the Holy One.”

Quoting Spurgeon 11.

2005-08-07T20:01:00.000+08:00

Quoted from "CHRIST — OUR SUBSTITUTE. NO. 310"

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” — 2 Corinthians 5. 21.

"In fact, books now appear which teach us that there is no such thing as the Vicarious Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. They use the word Atonement, it is true, but in regard to its meaning they have removed the ancient landmark. They acknowledge that the Father has shown his great love to poor sinful man by sending his Son, but not that God was inflexibly just in the exhibition of his mercy, not that he punished Christ on the behalf of his people, nor that, indeed, God ever will punish anybody in his wrath, or that there is such a thing as justice apart from discipline. Even sin and hell are but old words employed henceforth in a new and altered sense. Those are old-fashioned notions, and we poor souls who go on talking about election and imputed righteousness are behind our time. I have often thought the best answer for all these new ideas is, that the true gospel was always preached to the poor — “The poor have the gospel preached to them.” I am sure that the poor will never learn the gospel of these new divines, for they cannot make head or tail of it, nor the rich either; for after you have read through one of their volumes, you have not the least idea of what the book is about, until you have read it through eight or nine times, and then you begin to think you are a very stupid being for ever having read such inflated heresy, for it sours your temper and makes you feel angry, to see the precious truths of God trodden under foot. Some of us must stand out against these attacks on truth, although we love not controversy. We rejoice in the liberty of our fellow-men, and would have them proclaim their convictions; but if they touch these precious things, they touch the apple of our eye. We can allow a thousand opinions in the world, but that which infringes upon the precious doctrine of a covenant salvation, through the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, against that we must, and will, enter our hearty and solemn protest, as long as God spares us. Take away once from us those glorious doctrines, and where are we, brethren? We may lay us down and die, for nothing remains that is worth living for. We have come to the valley of the shadow of death, when we find these doctrines to be untrue. If these things be not the verities of Christ, if they be not true, there is no comfort left for any poor man under God’s sky, and it were better for us never to have been born. I may say what Jonathan Edwards says at the end of his book, “If any man could disprove the doctrines of the gospel, he should then sit down and weep to think they were not true, for,” says he, “it would be the most dreadful calamity that could happen to the world, to have a glimpse of such truths, and then for them to melt away in the thin air of fiction, as having no substantiality in them.” Stand up for the truth of Christ; I would not have you be bigoted, but I would have you be decided. Do not give countenance to any of this trash and error which is going abroad, but stand firm. Be not turned away from your steadfastness by any pretence of intellectuality and high philosophy, but earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, and hold fast the form of sound words which you have heard of us, and have been taught, even as ye have read in the Book, which is the way of everlasting life."

Quoting Spurgeon 10 - Particular Redemption

2005-08-04T20:09:00.000+08:00

From Sermon 181 - Particular Redemption.

"Now, beloved, when you hear any one laughing or jeering at a limited atonement, you may tell him this. General atonement is like a great wide bridge with only half an arch; it does not go across the stream: it only professes to go half way, it does not secure the salvation of anybody. Now, I had rather put my foot upon a bridge as narrow as Hungerford, which went all the way across, than on a bridge that was as wide as the world, if it did not go all the way across the stream. I am told it is my duty to say that all men have been redeemed, and I am told that there is a Scriptural warrant for it — “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” Now, that looks like a very, very great argument indeed on the other side of the question. For instance, look here. “The whole world is gone after him.” Did all the world go after Christ? “Then went all Judea and were baptized of him in Jordan.” Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem baptized in Jordan ? “Ye are of God, little children,” and “the whole world lieth in the wicked one.” Does “the whole world” there mean everybody? If so, how was it, then, that there were some who were “of God?” The words “world” and “all” are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture; and it is very rarely that “all” means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts —
some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted his redemption to either Jew or Gentile. Leaving controversy, however, I will now answer a question. Tell me then, sir, who did Christ die for? Will you answer me a question or two and I will tell you whether he died for you. Do you want a Savior? Do you feel that you need a Savior? Are you this morning conscious of sin? Has the Holy Spirit taught you that you are lost? Then Christ died for you, and you will be saved. Are you this morning conscious that you have no hope in the world but Christ? Do you feel that you of yourself cannot offer an atonement that can satisfy God’s justice? Have you given up all confidence in yourselves? And can you say upon your bended knees “Lord, save, or I perish?” Christ died for you. If you are saying this morning “I am as good as I ought to be; I can get to heaven by my own good works,” then, remember, the Scripture says of Jesus, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” So long as you are in that state I have no atonement to preach to you. But if this morning you feel guilty, wretched, conscious of your guilt, and are ready to take Christ to be your only Savior, I can not only say to you that you may be saved, but what is better still, that you will be saved. When you are stripped of everything but hope in Christ, when you are prepared to come empty-handed and take Christ to be your all and to be yourself nothing at all, then you may look up to Christ, and you may say, “Thou dear, thou bleeding Lamb of God! Thy griefs were endured for me, by thy stripes I am healed and by thy sufferings I am pardoned.” And then see what peace of mind you will have for if Christ has died for you, you cannot be lost. God will not punish twice for one thing. If God punished Christ for your sin, he will never punish you. “Payment, God’s justice cannot twice demand, first, at the bleeding surety’s hand, and then again at mine.” We can today, if we believe in Christ, march to the very throne of God, stand there, and if it is said, “Art thou guilty?” we can say, “Yes, guilty.” But if the question is put, “What have you to say why you should not be punished for your guilty” We can answer, “Great God, thy justice and thy love are both our guarantees that thou wilt not punish us for sin; for didst thou not punish Christ for sin for us? How canst thou, then, be just — how canst thou be God at all, if thou dost punish Christ the substitute, and then punish man himself afterwards?” Your only question is, “Did Christ die for me?” And the only answer we can give is — “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Can you write your name down among the sinners — not among the complimentary sinners, but among those that feel it, bemoan it, lament it, seek mercy on account of it? Are you a sinner? That felt, that known, that professed, you are now invited to believe that Jesus Christ died for you, because you are a sinner; and you are bidden to cast yourself upon this great immovable rock, and find eternal security in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Spurgeon on Christian fads 1 – (Spurgeon Quote 9)

2005-08-01T21:14:00.000+08:00

From “Rubbish” (Sermon number 1156 MTP) (An appropriate title).

(Quoting Spurgeon must be worth a blogspot). :-)

I am afraid, dear brethren, that in the work of building up the church the rubbish does not lie all with the sinners, but there is much of it also with the saints. There is very much rubbish among professors, so that we cannot build the wall. I would be very patient with all men, for I need much patience toward myself, but there are far too many dear brethren in Christ who seem to me to spend all their time in diligently doing nothing. I have heard of a man who had, by dint of great patience and much skill, after many days of work, very splendidly carved the image of Caesar on a cherry-stone. What a splendid result to have achieved! The exploit was duly reported and chronicled. But what of it? Truly, I have read books which seemed to me to be elaborately learned about nothing of any
practical value, and to amount to about as much as a carving on a cherrystone, and no more. What good was to come of it I am sure I could not tell. Brethren come out every now and then in the religious world so splendidly with some new fad and fancy of theirs, some grand discovery that they have made, some wonderful point of doctrine, some marvelous soul-stirring discovery, as it seems to be to them; and all the world is to stand still; and all the churches to be broken up, and I don’t know what, until they have exhibited this precious thing, which when you have carefully looked at it, turns out to be very like the mouse which was the famous product of the labor of the mountain. It comes to nothing more. There is very much rubbish about, brethren; and, therefore, for the present distress, if every minister were to keep to preaching Christ and him crucified, and nothing else, I think he would do well; and if every Christian man were to just keep to the plain truths of Scripture, and have them worked into his own soul by the Holy Spirit, and then speak them out with power, and fire for soul, winning, and care for nothing else, he would do well. But there is very much rubbish. A whole evening will be spent by brethren in discussing a question just about as valuable as the famous inquiry of the schoolmen, as to how many angels would be able to stand on the point of a single needle. After discussing it with some little temper, perhaps, and having prayed over it a good deal, too — though I wonder how they dare do so — the whole of it ends in a bag of wind or a bottle of smoke, and nothing else. Had that same time been spent in the visitation of
the sick, and reclaiming the Arabs of our streets, the lifting up of the ruffianism and the blackguardism of London into something like decency, morality, and Christianity, it might have been much better. But there is very much rubbish, and I am very much afraid we all of us contribute to that rubbish heap a little. We have all some favourite notion, some conceit, some invention of our own, some addition to the Word, some subtraction
from it, some impossible theory, some dogma or doctrine rather of our own inventing than of Bible teaching, and so there is very much rubbish, so that we cannot build the wall. Does not one feel inclined, full often, to say, “Oh, how I wish I could get at it — really get at it — get to doing something for God, and Christ, and the souls of men.” Just let the dust cart come and clear the way. These very excellent works upon futurity, and
profound books upon nothing — yet, let them go, beautifully written as they are, and let us plunge into the middle of affairs, and say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Quoting Spurgeon 8.

2005-08-01T20:25:00.000+08:00

quoted from Spurgeon’s Autobiography chapter 49.

Titled: Meeting in the unfinished Tabernacle – year 1860.

“One thing I saw here I must mention, as it is a type of a prevailing evil in Belgium. When there were barges of ironstone to be unloaded, the women bore the heavy baskets upon their backs. If there were coals or bricks to be carried, the women did it; they carried everything; and their lords; and masters sat still, and seemed to enjoy seeing them at work, and hoped it might do them good, while they themselves were busily engaged in the important occupation of smoking their pipes. When we came to a landing-place, if the rope was to be thrown off so that the steamboat might be secured, there was always a woman to run and seize it, and there stood a big, lazy fellow to give directions as to how she should do it. We joked with each other upon the possibility of getting our wives to do the like; but, indeed, it is scarcely a joking matter to see poor women compelled to work like slaves, as if they were only made to support their husbands in idleness. They were lagged and worn; but they looked more fully developed than the men, and seemed to be more masculine. If I had been one of those women, and I had got a little bit of a husband sitting there smoking his pipe, if there is a law in Belgium that gives a woman two months for beating her husband, I fear I should have earned the penalty. Anyhow, I would have said to him, ‘ I am very much obliged to you for doing me the honor of marrying me; but, at the same time, if I am to work and earn your living and my own, too, you will smoke your pipe somewhere else.’ The fact is,
my dear friends, to come to something that may be worth our thinking about, employment for women is greatly needed in our country, and the want of it is a very great evil; but it is not so much to be deplored as that barbarity which dooms women to sweep the streets, to till the fields, to carry heavy burdens, and to be the drudges of the family. We greatly need that watch making, printing, telegraphing, bookselling, and other indoor occupations should be more freely open to female industry, but may Heaven save our poor women from the position of their Continental sisters! The gospel puts woman where she should be, gives her an honorable position in the house and in the Church; but where women become the votaries of superstition, they will soon be made the burden-bearers of society. Our best feelings revolt at the idea of putting fond, faithful, and affectionate women to oppressive labor. Our mothers, our sisters, our wives, our daughters are much too honorable in our esteem to be treated otherwise than as dear companions, for whom it shall be our delight to live and labor."

Quoting Spurgeon 7

2005-07-29T19:17:00.000+08:00

From Good Cheer for the New Year. Sermon 728 MTP.

"If we could abide in a spirit of prayerfulness or thankfulness, devout, consecrated, loving, tender, it would be a high thing to attain unto. Brethren, we believe in a great God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we ask or even think, why not expect great things from him? I do think of this blessing, and I dare to ask for it; surely then he is able to give it. Do not let us stand back because of unbelief, let us ask that as God’s eyes will be upon us our eyes may be upon him. What a blessed meeting of eyes when the Lord looks us full in the face, and we look at him through the Mediator Christ Jesus, and the Lord declares, “I love thee,” and we answer, “We also love thee, O our God!” Oh that we may be in harmony with the Lord our God, and find ourselves drawn upwards and bound to him! May the Lord be the Sun, and we the dewdrops which sparkle in his rays and are exhaled and drawn aloft by the heat of his love! May God look down from heaven, and we look up to heaven, and both of us be happy in the sight of each other, delighting and rejoicing in mutual affection! This is what communion means."

Quoting Spurgeon 6

2005-07-29T19:02:00.000+08:00

From Good Cause for Great Zeal. (Sermon 1097 MTP).

"Then there have been attacks made in modern times upon the doctrine of substitution. If the doctrine of substitution be not true, I am a lost man; therefore, tooth and nail, will I fight for it. No other hope beneath the skies have I, except in the expiatory substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he did not suffer in my stead, the just for the unjust, then flames of hell must be my portion. Therefore I can never give up that truth, for it is giving up my own salvation. But it has been revealed, and I cling to it with the most implicit credit. Do you tell me that “modern thought” assails it. How, and with what weapons, I ask? Is it with argument, with proof, or with any counter-suggestion? Oh, no, it is merely met with vague questionings, idle quibbles, and impertinent sneers-a style of answer that affects much, though it affirms nothing. I pray you, brethren, wherever you are, defend this fundamental doctrine of our most holy faith-that the Lord Jesus Christ has laid down his life to make atonement for the sins of his people."

A Spurgeon Sermon - The Prayer of Jabez (quoting Spurgeon part 5).

2005-07-28T18:56:00.000+08:00

After all the discussions on fads on the different blogs - I thought tonight I would post the entire Spurgeon sermon on the Prayer of Jabez - As the book "Prayer of Jabez" was one of the recent evangelical fads. (To see how big a fad it was -
Here is the link to my local Christian bookstore" If you type in "Prayer of Jabez" in the search box it comes up with about 79 items. But I have noticed that several items are out of print - This fad is dying out.)

(I wonder if I taught my bird to parrot out the prayer of Jabez enought times - Would I wake up one morning and find that God has blessed the bird with a gold cage? - I know that sounds silly but I think that is similar to what some people who were caught up in the Prayer of Jabez fad thought God would do for them).

I remember going into my local Christian bookstore a couple of years ago and finding dozens of copies of the prayer of Jabez available. At the same time I had to wait weeks to order one of my Spurgeon books from the same bookstore - because they had none in stock.

At Fatbaptist there is a good post on the Prayer of Jabez - see Real Prayer of Jabez

(Quoting Spurgeon must be worth a blogspot). :-)

This sermon was not taken from Phil's spurgeon site - it was taken from my own collection. However more great Spurgeon sermons can be found here

THE PRAYER OF JABEZ.

NO. 994

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” — 1 Chronicles 4:10.

WE know very little about Jabez, except that he was more honorable than his brethren, and that he was called Jabez because his mother bare him with sorrow. It will sometimes happen that where there is the most sorrow in the antecedents, there will be the most pleasure in the sequel. As the furious storm gives place to the clear sunshine, so the night of weeping precedes the morning of joy. Sorrow the harbinger; gladness the prince it ushers in. Cowper says: —

“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.”

To a great extent we find that we must sow in tears before we can reap in joy. Many of our works for Christ have cost us tears. Difficulties and disappointments have wrung our soul with anguish. Yet those projects that have cost us more than ordinary sorrow, have often turned out to be the most honorable of our undertakings. While our grief called the offspring of desire “Benoni,” the son of my sorrow, our faith has been afterwards able to give it a name of delight, “Benjamin,” the son of my right hand. You may expect a blessing in serving God if you are enabled to persevere under many discouragements. The ship is often long coming home, because detained on the road by excess of cargo. Expect her freight to be the better when she reaches the port. More honorable than his brethren was the child whom his mother bore with sorrow. As for this Jabez, whose aim was so well pointed, his fame so far sounded, his name so lastingly embalmed — he was a man of prayer. The honor he enjoyed would not have been worth having if it had not been vigorously contested and equitably won. His devotion was the key to his promotion. Those are the best honors that come from God, the award of grace with the acknowledgment of service. When Jacob was surnamed Israel, he received his princedom after a memorable night of prayer. Surely it was far more honorable to him than if it had been bestowed upon him as a flattering distinction by some earthly emperor. The best honor is that which a man gains in communion with the Most High. Jabez, we are told, was more honorable than his brethren, and his prayer is forthwith recorded, as if to intimate that he was also more prayerful than his brethren. We are told of what petitions his prayer consisted. All through it was very significant and instructive. We have only time to take one clause of it — indeed, that one clause may be said to comprehend the rest: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” I commend it as a prayer for yourselves, dear brethren and sisters; one which will be available at all seasons; a prayer to begin Christian life with, a prayer to end it with, a prayer which would never be unseasonable in your joys or in your sorrows. Oh that thou, the God of Israel, the covenant God, would bless me indeed! The very pith of the prayer seems to lie in that word, “indeed.” There are many varieties of blessing. Some are blessings only in name: they gratify our wishes for a moment, but permanently disappoint our expectations. They charm the eye, but pall on the taste. Others are mere temporary blessings: they perish with the using. Though for awhile they regale the senses, they cannot satisfy the higher cravings of the soul. But, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” I wot whom God blesseth shall be blessed. The thing good in itself is bestowed with the good-will of the giver, and shall be productive of so much good fortune to the recipient that it may well be esteemed as a blessing “indeed,” for there is nothing comparable to it. Let the grace of God prompt it, let the choice of God appoint it, let the bounty of God confer it, and then the endowment shall be something godlike indeed; something worthy of the lips that pronounce the benediction, and verily to be craved by every one who seeks honor that is substantial and enduring. “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” Think it over, and you will see that there is a depth of meaning in the expression. We may set this in contrast with human blessings: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” It is very delightful to be blessed by our parents, and
those venerable friends whose benedictions come from their hearts, and are backed up by their prayers. Many a poor man has had no other legacy to leave his children except his blessing, but the blessing of an honest, holy, Christian father is a rich treasure to his son. One might well feel it were a thing to be deplored through life if he had lost a parent’s blessing. We like to have it. The blessing of our spiritual parents is consolatory. Though we believe in no priestcraft, we like to live in the affections of those who were the means of bringing us to Christ, and from whose lips we were instructed in the things of God. And how very precious is the blessing of the poor! I do not wonder that Job treasured that up as a sweet thing. “When the ear heard me, then it blessed me.” If you have relieved the widow and the fatherless, and their thanks are returned to you in benediction, it is no mean reward. But, dear friends, after all — all that parents, relatives, saints, and grateful persons can do in the way of blessing, falls very far short of what we desire to have. O Lord, we would have the blessings of our fellowcreatures, the blessings that come from their hearts; but, “Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed!” for thou canst bless with authority. Their blessings may be but words, but thine are effectual. They may often wish what they cannot do, and desire to give what they have not at their own desposal, but thy will is omnipotent. Thou didst create the world with but a word. O that such omnipotence would now bespeak me thy blessing! Other blessings may bring us some tiny cheer, but in thy favor is life. Other blessings are mere tittles in comparison with thy blessing; for thy blessing is the title “to an inheritance incorruptible” and unfading, to “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” Well therefore might David pray in another place, “With thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.” Perhaps in this place, Jabez may have put the blessing of God in contrast with the blessings of men. Men will bless thee when thou doest well for thyself. They will praise the man who is successful in business. Nothing succeeds like success. Nothing has so much the approval of the general
public as a man’s prosperity. Alas! they do not weigh men’s actions in the balances of the sanctuary, but in quite other scales. You will find those about you who will commend you if you are prosperous; or like Job’s comforters, condemn you if you suffer adversity. Perhaps there may be some feature about their blessings that may please you, because you feel you deserve them. They commend you for your patriotism: you have been a patriot. They commend you for your generosity: you know you have been self-sacrificing. Well, but after all, what is there in the verdict of man? At a trial, the verdict of the policeman who stands in the court, or of the spectators who sit in the court-house, amounts to just nothing. The man who is being tried feels that the only thing that is of importance at all will be the verdict of the jury, and the sentence of the judge. So it will little avail us whatever we may do, how others commend or censure. Their blessings are not of any great value. But, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me,” that thou wouldest say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Commend thou the feeble service that through thy grace my heart has rendered. That will be to bless me indeed. Men are sometimes blessed in a very fulsome sense by flattery. There are always those who, like the fox in the fable, hope to gain the cheese by praising the crow. They never saw such plumage, and no voice could be so sweet as yours. The whole of their mind is set, not on you, but on what they are to gain by you. The race of flatterers is never extinct, though the flattered usually flatter themselves it is so. They may conceive that men flatter others, but all is so palpable and transparent when heaped upon themselves, that they accept it with a great deal of self-complacency, as being perhaps a little exaggerated, but after all exceedingly near the truth. We are not very apt to take a large discount off the praises that others offer us; yet, were we wise, we should press to our bosom those who censure us; and we should always keep at arm’s length those who praise us, for those who censure us to our face cannot possibly be making a market of us; but with regard to those who extol us, rising early, and using loud sentences of praise, we may suspect, and we shall very seldom be unjust in the suspicion, that there is some other motive in the praise which they render to us than that which appears on the surface. Young man, art thou placed in a position where God honors thee? Beware of flatterers. Or hast thou come into a large estate? Hast thou abundance? There are always flies where there is honey. Beware of flattery. Young woman, art thou fair to look upon? There will be those about thee that will have their designs, perhaps their evil designs, in lauding thy beauty. Beware of flatterers. Turn thou aside from all these who have honey on their tongue, because of the poison of asps that is under it. Bethink thee of Solomon’s caution, “meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.” Cry to God, “Deliver thou me from all this vain adulation, which nauseates my soul.” So shalt thou pray to him the more fervently, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” Let me have thy benediction, which never says more than it means; which never gives less than it promises. If you take then the prayer of Jabez as being put in contrast with the benedictions which come from men, you see much force in it. But we may put it in another light, and compare the blessing Jabez craved with those blessings that are temporal and transient. There are many bounties given to us mercifully by God for which we are bound to be very grateful; but we must not set too much store by them. We may accept them with gratitude, but we must not make them our idols. When we have them we have great need to cry, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and make these inferior blessings real blessings;” and if we have them not, we should with greater vehemence cry, “Oh that we may be rich in faith, and if not blessed with these external favors, may we be blessed spiritually, and then we shall be blessed indeed.” Let us review some of these mercies, and just say a word or two about them. One of the first cravings of men’s hearts is wealth. So universal the desire to gain it, that we might almost say it is a natural instinct. How many have thought if they once possessed it they should be blessed indeed! but there are ten thousand proofs that happiness consists not in the abundance which a man possesseth. So many instances are well known to you all, that I need not quote any to show that riches are not a blessing indeed. They are rather apparently than really so. Hence, it has been well said, that when we see how much a man has we envy him; but could we see how little he enjoys we should pity him. Some that have had the most easy circumstances have had the most uneasy minds. Those who have acquired all they could wish, had their wishes been at all sane, have been led by the possession of what they had to be discontented because they had not more.

“Thus the base miser starves amidst his store,
Broods o’er his gold, and griping still at more,
Sits sadly pining, and believes he’s poor.”

Nothing is more clear to any one who chooses to observe it, than that riches are not the chief good at whose advent sorrow flies, and in whose presence joy perennial springs. Full often wealth cozens the owner. Dainties are spread on his table, but his appetite fails, minstrels wait his bidding, but his ears are deaf to all the strains of music; holidays he may have as many as he pleases, but for him recreation has lost all its charms: or he is young, fortune has come to him by inheritance, and he makes pleasure his pursuit till sport becomes more irksome than work, and dissipation worse than drudgery. Ye know how riches make themselves wings; like the bird that roosted on the tree, they fly away. In sickness and despondency these ample means that once seemed to whisper, “Soul, take thine ease,” prove themselves to be poor comforters. In death they even tend to make the pang of separation more acute, because there is the more to leave, the more to lose. We may well say, if we have wealth, “My God, put me not off with these husks; let me never make a god of the silver and the gold, the goods and the chattels, the estates and investments, which in thy providence thou hast given me. I beseech thee, bless me indeed. As for these worldly possessions, they will be my bane unless I have thy grace with them.” And if you have not wealth, and perhaps the most of you will never have it, say, “My Father, thou hast denied me this outward and seeming good, enrich me with thy love, give me the gold of thy favor, bless me indeed; then allot to others whatever thou wilt, thou shalt divide my portion, my soul shall wait thy daily will; do thou bless me indeed, and I shall be content.” Another transient blessing which our poor humanity fondly covets and eagerly pursues is fame. In this respect we would fain be more honorable than our brethren, and outstrip all our competitors. It seems natural to us all to wish to make a name, and gain some note in the circle we move in at any rate, and we wish to make that circle wider if we can. But here, as of riches, it is indisputable that the greatest fame does not bring with it any equal measure of gratification. Men, in seeking after notoriety or honor, have a degree of pleasure in the search which they do not always possess when they have gained their object. Some of the most famous men have also been the most wretched of the human race. If thou hast honor and fame, accept it; but let this prayer go up, “My God, bless thou me indeed, for what profit were it, if my name were in a thousand mouths, if thou shouldest spue it out of thy mouth? What matter, though my name were written on marble, if it were not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? These blessings are only apparently blessings, windy blessings, blessings that mock me. Give me thy blessing: then the honor which comes of thee will make me blessed indeed.” If you happen to have lived in obscurity, and have never entered the lists for honors among your fellow-men, be content to run well your own course and fulfill truly your own vocation. To lack fame is not the most grievous of ills; it is worse to have it like the snow, that whitens the ground in the morning, and disappears in the heat of the
day. What matters it to a dead man that men are talking of him? Get thou the blessing indeed. There is another temporal blessing which wise men desire, and legitimately may wish for rather than the other two — the blessing of health. Can we
ever prize it sufficiently? To trifle with such a boon is the madness of folly.
The highest eulogiums that can be passed on health would not be extravagant. He that has a healthy body is infinitely more blessed than he who is sickly, whatever his estates may be. Yet if I have health, my bones well set, and my muscles well strung, if I scarcely know an ache or pain, but can rise in the morning, and with elastic step go forth to labor, and cast myself upon my couch at night, and sleep the sleep of the happy, yet, oh let me not glory in my strength! In a moment it may fail me. A few short weeks may reduce the strong man to a skeleton. Consumption may set in,
the cheek may pale with the shadow of death. Let not the strong man glory in his strength. The Lord “delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not leasure in the legs of a man.” And let us not make our boast concerning these things. Say, thou that are in good health, “My God, bless me indeed. Give me the healthy soul. Heal me of my spiritual diseases. Jehovah Rophi come, and purge out the leprosy that is in my heart by nature: make me healthy in the heavenly sense, that I may not be put aside among the unclean, but allowed to stand amongst the congregation of thy saints. Bless my bodily health to me that I may use it rightly, spending the strength I have in thy service and to thy glory; otherwise, though blessed with health, I may not be blessed indeed.” Some of you, dear friends, do
not possess the great treasure of health. Wearisome days and nights are appointed you. Your bones are become an almanac, in which you note the changes of the weather. There is much about you that is fitted to excite pity. But I pray that you may have the blessing indeed, and I know what that is. I can heartily sympathise with a sister that said to me the other day, “I had such nearness to God when I was sick, such full assurance, and such joy in the Lord, and I regret to say I have lost it now; that I could almost wish to be ill again, if thereby I might have a renewal of communion with God.” I have oftentimes looked gratefully back to my sick chamber. I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have
upon the bed of pain. It ought not to be so. Our joyous mercies ought to be great fertilizers to our spirit; but not unfrequently our griefs are more salutary than our joys. The pruning knife is best for some of us. Well, after all, whatever you have to suffer, of weakness, of debility, of pain, and anguish, may it be so attended with the divine presence, that this light affliction may work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and so you may be blessed indeed.
I will only dwell upon one more temporal mercy, which is very precious — I mean the blessing of home. I do not think any one can ever prize it too highly, or speak too well of it. What a blessing it is to have the fireside, and the dear relationships that gather round the word “Home,” wife, children, father, brother, sister! Why, there are no songs in any language that are more full of music than those dedicated to “Mother.” We hear a great deal about the German “Fatherland” — we like the sound. But the word, “Father,” is the whole of it. The “land” is nothing: the “Father” is key to the music. There are many of us, I hope, blessed with a great many of these relationships. Do not let us be content to solace our souls with ties that must ere long be sundered. Let us ask that over and above them may come the blessing indeed. I thank thee, my God, for my earthly father; but oh, be thou my Father, then am I blessed indeed. I thank thee, my God, for a mother’s love; but comfort thou my soul as one whom a mother comforteth, then am I blessed indeed. I thank thee, Savior, for the marriage bond; but be thou the bridegroom of my soul. I thank thee for the tie of brotherhood; but be thou my brother born for adversity, bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. The home thou hast given me I prize, and thank thee for it; but I would dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, and be a child that never wanders, wherever my feet may travel, from my Father’s house with its many mansions. You can thus be blessed indeed. If not domiciled under the paternal care of the Almighty, even the blessing of home, with all its sweet familiar comforts, does not reach to the benediction which Jabez
desired for himself. But do I speak to any here that are separated from kith and kin? I know some of you have left behind you in the bivouac of life graves where parts of your heart are buried, and that which remains is bleeding with just so many wounds. Ah, well! the Lord bless you indeed! Widow, thy maker is thy husband. Fatherless one, he hath said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Oh, to find all your relationships made up in him, then you will be blessed indeed! I have perhaps taken too long a time in mentioning these temporary blessings, so let me set the text in another light. I trust we have had human lessings and temporary blessings, to fill our hearts with gladness, but not to foul our hearts with worldliness, or to distract our attention from the things that
belong to our everlasting welfare. Let us proceed, thirdly, to speak of imaginary blessings. There are such in the world. From them may God deliver us. “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” Take the Pharisee. He stood in the Lord’s house, and he
thought he had the Lord’s blessing, and it made him very bold, and he spoke with unctuous self-complacency, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,” and so on. He had the blessing, and well indeed he supposed himself to have merited it. He had fasted twice in the week, paid tithes of all that he possessed, even to the odd farthing on the mint, and the extra halfpenny on the cummin he had used. He felt he had done everything. His the blessing of a quiet or a quiescent conscience; good,
easy man. He was a pattern to the parish. It was a pity everybody did not live as he did; if they had, they would not have wanted any police. Pilate might have dismissed his guards, and Herod his soldiers. He was just one of the most excellent persons that ever breathed. He adored the city of which he was a burgess! Ay; but he was not blessed indeed. This was all his own overweening conceit. He was a mere wind-bag, nothing more and the blessing which he fancied had fallen upon him, had never come. The poor publican whom he thought accursed, went to his home justified rather
than he. The blessing had not fallen on the man who thought he had it. Oh,
let every one of us here feel the sting of this rebuke, and pray: “Great God,
save us from imputing to ourselves a righteousness which we do not possess. Save us from wrapping ourselves up in our own rags, and fancying we have put on the wedding garments. Bless me indeed. Let me have the true righteousness. Let me have the true worthiness which thou canst accept, even that which is of faith in Jesus Christ.”
Another form of this imaginary blessing is found in persons who would scorn to be thought self-righteous. Their delusion, however, is near akin. I hear them singing —
“I do believe, I will believe That Jesus died for me, And on his cross he shed his blood, From sin to set me free.” You believe it, you say. Well, but how do you know? Upon what authority
do you make so sure? Who told you? “Oh, I believe it.” Yes, but we must mind what we believe. Have you any clear evidence of a special interest in the blood of Jesus? Can you give any spiritual reasons for believing that Christ has set you free from sin? I am afraid that some have got a hope that has not got any ground, like an anchor without any fluke — nothing to grasp, nothing to lay hold upon. They say they are saved, and they stick to it they are, and think it wicked to doubt it; but yet they have no reason to warrant their confidence. When the sons of Kohath carried the ark, and touched it with their hands, they did rightly; but when Uzzah touched it he
died. There are those who are ready to be fully assured; there are others to whom it will be death to talk of it. There is a great difference between presumption and full assurance. Full assurance is reasonable: it is based on solid ground. Presumption takes for granted, and with brazen face pronounces that to be its own to which it has no right whatever. Beware, I pray thee, of presuming that thou art saved. If with thy heart thou dost trust in Jesus, then art thou saved; but if thou merely sayest, “I trust in Jesus,” it doth not save thee. If thy heart be renewed, if thou shalt hate the things that thou didst once love, and love the things that thou didst once hate; if thou hast really repented; if there be a thorough change of mind in thee; if thou be born again, then hast thou reason to rejoice: but if there be no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be no love to God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying, “I am saved,” is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it will not deliver thee. Our prayer ought to be, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, with real faith, with real salvation, with the trust in Jesus that is the essential of faith; not with the conceit that begets credulity. God preserve us from imaginary blessings!” I
have met with persons who said, “I believe I am saved, because I dreamt it.” Or, “Because I had a text of Scripture that applied to my own case. Such and such a good man said so and so in his sermon.” Or, “Because I took to weeping and was excited, and felt as I never felt before.” Ah! but nothing will stand the trial but this, “Dost thou abjure all confidence in everything but the finished work of Jesus, and dost thou come to Christ to be reconciled in him to God?” If thou dost not, thy dreams, and visions, and fancies, are but dreams, and visions, and fancies, and will not serve thy turn when most thou needest them. Pray the Lord to bless thee indeed, for of that sterling verity in all thy walk and talk there is a great scarcity.
Too much I am afraid, that even those who are saved — saved for time and eternity — need this caution, and have good cause to pray this prayer that they may learn to make a distinction between some things which they think to be spiritual blessings, and others which are blessings indeed. Let me show you what I mean. Is it certainly a blessing to get an answer to your prayer after your own mind? I always like to qualify my most earnest prayer with, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Not only ought I to do it, but I would like to do it, because otherwise I might ask for something which it would be dangerous for me to receive. God might give it me in anger, and I might find little sweetness in the grant, but much soreness in the grief it caused me. You remember how Israel of old asked for flesh, and God gave
them quails; but while the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God came upon them. Ask for the meat, if you like, but always put in this: “Lord, if this is not a real blessing, do not give it me.” “Bless me indeed.” I hardly like to repeat the old story of the good woman whose son was ill — a little child near death’s door — and she begged the minister, a Puritan, to pray for its life. He did pray very earnestly, but he put in, “If it be thy will, save this child.” The woman said, “I cannot bear that: I must have you pray that the child shall live. Do not put in any ifs or buts.” “Woman,” said the minister, “it may be you will live to rue the day that ever you wished to set your will up against God’s will.” Twenty years afterwards, she was carried away in a fainting fit from under Tyburn gallows-tree, where that son was put to death as a felon. Although she had lived to see her child grow up to be a man, it would have been infinitely better for her had the child died, and infinitely wiser had she left it to God’s will. Do not be quite so sure that what you think an answer to prayer is any proof of divine love. It may leave much room for thee to seek unto the Lord, saying, “Oh that thou wouldest blessed me indeed!” So sometimes great exhilaration of spirit, liveliness of heart, even though it be religious joy, may not always be a blessing. We delight in it, and oh, sometimes when we have had gatherings for prayer here, the fire has burned, and our souls have glowed! We felt at the time how we could sing —

“My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss.”

So far as that was a blessing we are thankful for it; but I should not like to set such seasons up, as if my enjoyments were the main token of God’s favor; or as if they were the chief signs of his blessing. Perhaps it would be a greater blessing to me to be broken in spirit, and laid low before the Lord at the present time. When you ask for the highest joy, and pray to be on the mountain with Christ, remember it may be as much a blessing; yea, a blessing indeed to be brought into the Valley of Humiliation, to be laid very low, and constrained to cry out in anguish, “Lord, save, or I perish!” “If to-day he deigns to bless us With a sense of pardon’d sin,
He to-morrow may distress us, Make us feel the plague within, All to make us Sick of self, and fond of him.” These variable experiences of ours may be blessings indeed to us, when, had we been always rejoicing, we might have been like Moab, settled on
our lees, and not emptied from vessel to vessel. It fares ill with those who have no changes; they fear not God. Have we not, dear friends, sometimes envied those persons that are always calm and unruffled, and are never perturbed in mind? Well, there are Christians whose evenness of temper deserves to be emulated. And as for that calm repose, that unwavering assurance which comes from the Spirit of God, it is a very delightful attainment; but I am not sure that we ought to envy anybody’s lot because it is more tranquil or less exposed to storm and tempest than our own.
There is a danger of saying, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace, and there is a calmness which arises from callousness. Dupes there are who deceive their own souls. “They have no doubts,” they say, but it is because they have little heart searching. They have no anxieties, because they have not much enterprise or many pursuits to stir them up. Or it may be they have no pains, because they have no life. Better go to heaven, halt and maimed, than go marching on in confidence down to hell. “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” My God, I will envy no one of his gifts or his graces, much less of his inward mood or his outward circumstances, if only thou wilt “bless me indeed.” I would not be comforted unless thou comfortest me, nor have any peace but Christ my peace, nor any rest but the rest which cometh from the sweet savor of the sacrifice of Christ. Christ shall be all in all, and none shall be anything to me save himself. O that we might always feel that we are not to judge as to the manner of the blessing, but must leave it with God to give us what we would have, not the imaginary blessing, the superficial and apparent blessing, but the blessing indeed! Equally too with regard to our work and service, I think our prayer should always be, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” It is lamentable to see the work of some good men, though it is not ours to judge them, how very pretentious, but how very unreal it is. It is really shocking to think how
some men pretend to build up a church in the course of two or three evenings. They will report, in the corner of the newspapers, that there were forty-three persons convinced of sin, and forty-six justified, and sometimes thirty-eight sanctified; I do not know what besides of wonderful statistics they give as to all that is accomplished. I have observed congregations that have been speedily gathered together, and great additions have been made to the church all of a sudden. And what has become of them? Where are those churches at the present moment? The dreariest deserts in Christendom are those places that were fertilised by the patent manures of
certain revivalists. The whole church seemed to have spent its strength in one rush and effort after something, and it ended in nothing at all. They built their wooden house, and piled up the hay, and made a stubble spire that seemed to reach the heavens, and there fell one spark, and all went away in smoke; and he that came to labor next time — the successor of the great builder — had to get the ashes swept away before he could do any good. The prayer of every one that serves God should be, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed.” Plod on, plod on. If I only build one piece of masonry in my life, and nothing more, if it be gold, silver, or precious
stones, it is a good deal for a man to do; of such precious stuff as that, to build even one little corner which will not show, is a worthy service. It will not be much talked of, but it will last. There is the point: it will last. “Establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” If we are not builders in an established church, it is of little use to try at all. What God establishes will stand, but what men build without his establishment will certainly come to nought. “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed !” Sunday-school teacher, be this your prayer. Tract distributer, local preacher, whatever you may be, dear brother or sister, whatever your form of service, do ask the Lord that you may not be
one of those plaster builders using sham compo that only requires a certain amount of frost and weather to make it crumble to pieces. Be it yours, if you cannot build a cathedral, to build at least one part of the marvellous temple that God is piling for eternity, which will outlast the stars. I have one thing more to mention before I bring this sermon to a close. The blessings of God’s grace are blessings indeed, which in right earnest we ought to seek after. By these marks shall ye know them. Blessings indeed, are such blessings as come from the pierced hand; blessings that come from calvary’s bloody tree, streaming from the Savior’s wounded side — thy pardon, thine acceptance, thy spiritual life: the bread that is meat indeed,
the blood that is drink indeed — thy oneness to Christ, and all that comes of it — these are blessings indeed. Any blessing that comes as the result of the Spirit’s work in thy soul is a blessing indeed; though it humble thee, though it strip thee, though it kill thee, it is a blessing indeed. Though the harrow go over and over thy soul, and the deep plough cut into thy very heart; though thou be maimed and wounded, and left for dead, yet if the Spirit of God do it, it is a blessing indeed. If he convinceth thee of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, even though thou hast not hitherto been brought to Christ, it is a blessing indeed. Anything that he does, accept it; do not be dubious of it; but pray that he may continue his blessed operations in thy soul. Whatsoever leads thee to God is in like manner a blessing indeed. Riches may not do it. There may be a golden wall between thee and God. Health will not do it: even the strength and marrow of thy bones may keep thee at a distance from thy God. But anything that draws thee nearer to him is a blessing indeed. What though it be a cross that raiseth thee? yet if it raise thee to God it shall be a blessing indeed. Anything that reaches into eternity, with a preparation for the world to come, anything that we can carry across the river, the holy joy that is to blossom in those fields beyond the swelling flood, the pure cloudless love of the brotherhood which is to be the atmosphere of truth for ever — anything of this kind that has the eternal broad arrow on it — the immutable mark — is a blessing indeed. And anything which helps me to glorify God is a blessing indeed. If I be sick, and that helps me to praise him, it is a blessing indeed. If I be poor, and I can serve him better in poverty than in wealth, it is a blessing indeed. If I be in contempt, I will rejoice in that day and leap for joy, if it be for Christ’s sake — it is a blessing indeed. Yea, my faith shakes off the disguise, snatches the vizor from the fair forehead of the blessing, and counts it all joy to all into divers trials for the sake of Jesus and the recompense of reward that he has promised. “Oh that we may be blessed indeed!” Now, I send you away with these three words: “Search.” See whether the blessings are blessings indeed, and be not satisfied unless you know that they are of God, tokens of his grace, and earnests of his saving purpose. “Weigh” — that shall be the next word. Whatever thou hast, weigh it in the scale, and ascertain if it be a blessing indeed, conferring such grace upon you as causeth you to abound in love, and to abound in every good word and work. And lastly, “Pray.” So pray that this prayer may mingle with all thy prayers, that whatsoever God grants or whatever he withholds thou mayest be blessed indeed. Is it a joy-time with thee? O that Christ may mellow thy joy, and prevent the intoxication of earthly blessedness from leading thee aside from close walking with him! In the night of sorrow, pray that he will bless thee indeed, lest the wormwood also intoxicate thee and make thee drunk, lest thy afflictions should make thee think hardly of him. Pray for the blessing, which having, thou art rich to all the intents of bliss, or which lacking, thou art poor and destitute, though plenty fill thy store. “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” But “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!”

Quoting Spurgeon 4 - Serving God

2005-07-27T20:56:00.000+08:00

A C.H Spurgeon quote from THE EXETER-HALL SERMON TO
YOUNG MEN. NO. 1740 – Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

"If you become the servant of God, become the servant of God truly. God is not mocked. It is the curse of our churches that we have so many merely nominal Christians in them. It is the plague of this age that so many put on Christ’s livery, and yet never do him a hand’s turn. Oh, if you serve God, mean it! If a man serves the devil, let him serve the devil; but if he serves God, let him serve God. Some people serve their business very actively, but not their God. There was, years ago, a brother who used to pray at the prayer meeting occasionally in a low tone, as if he had no lungs left. Seldom could you hear what he said, and if you listened and strained your ear there was still nothing to hear. I thought that the brother had a bad voice, and so I never called on him to pray any more. But, stepping one day into his shop, I heard him say in a commanding voice, “John, fetch that half-hundred!” “Oh, dear!” I thought, “that is the kind of voice he has in his business, but when he comes into the service of God, that little squeak is all he can give.” Laugh again, sirs! Laugh again! It deserves to be laughed at. But is there not much of this hypocrisy abroad? God is to have the cheese-parings of a man’s life, and he flings these down as if they were all that God was worth. But as for the world, that is to have the vigor of his life and the cream of his being. God does not want nominal servants; nor do I invite them in his name to night. “O Lord, truly I am thy servant,”
said David; and he that does not mean to be truly God’s servant, let him not pretend to be one at all. If you would be God’s servant, then count the cost. You must leave all others. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Ye cannot serve Christ and Belial. He is not God’s who is not God’s only.
(Quoting Spurgeon must be worth a blogspot). :-)

A C.H. Spurgeon quote 3 – Encouraging us to read.

2005-07-25T21:25:00.000+08:00

(From sermon PAUL — HIS CLOAK AND HIS BOOKS. #542 MTP).
:-)

“We will LOOK AT HIS BOOKS. We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them. Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains — oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience
than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading.” The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either
reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, “Bring the books” — join in the cry.”

A C.H. Spurgeon quote 2 - Leaning on Jesus

2005-07-23T20:05:00.000+08:00

(From sermon #877 –Leaning on our Beloved - MTP).
:-)

"Yes, I repeat it, this is the true Christian life — to leave everything that troubles me with him who loves me better than I love myself; to leave all that depresses me with him whose wisdom and whose power are more than a match for all emergencies. Herein is wisdom, never to try to stand alone by my own strength, never to trust to creatures, for they will fail me if I rest upon them, but to make my ever blessed Lord Christ, in his manhood and in his Godhead, the leaning place of my whole soul, casting every burden upon him who is able to bear it."

A Charles Spurgeon quote 1 - Substitution

2005-07-23T19:50:00.000+08:00

(From sermon #361 - None but Jesus - MTP).
:-)

"But take care if your faith save you, that while you look to Christ in all these matters you view him as being a substitute. This doctrine of substitution is so essential to the whole plan of salvation that I must explain it here for the thousandth time. God is just, he must punish sin; God is merciful, he wills to pardon those who believe in Jesus. How is this to be done? How can he be just and exact the penalty — merciful, and accept the sinner? He doeth it thus: he taketh
the suns of his people and actually lifteth them up from off his people to Christ, so that they stand as innocent as though they had never sinned, and Christ is looked upon, by God all though he had been all the sinners in the world robed into one. The sin of his people was taken from their persons, and really and actually, not typically and metaphorically, but ready and actually laid on Christ. Then God came forth with his fiery sword to meet the sinner and to punish him. He met Christ. Christ was not a sinner himself, but the sins of his people were all imputed to him. Justice, therefore, met Christ as though he had been the sinner — punished Christ
for his people’s sins — punished him as far as its rights could go, — exacted from him the last atom of the penalty, and left not a dreg: in the cup. And now, he who can see Christ as being his substitute, and puts his trust in him, is thereby delivered from the curse of the law. Soul, when thou seest Christ obeying the law"

Welcome

2005-06-30T20:51:00.000+08:00

Hello and welcome to my blog site.
This site is currently under construction.

2005-06-30T20:43:00.000+08:00

Beautiful birdy loves to sleep on my fan.