HASTENING
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING,
APRIL 25TH, 1875.
“When the morning arose, then the angels hastened
I WILL not spend even a minute in considering whether these were divine
persons veiled in angelic form, or whether they were actually angels. In
either case, I should make the same remark, and lead to the same practical
result. Let us learn from these angels how to do our work. “Unto the
angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.”
As a rule, they are not sent to be the means of saving men. They are not
called to be teachers, or preachers, or pastors; but, on this occasion, they
were
sent to bring Lot out of
in our endeavors to win souls for Christ.
How
did these angels do their work? Well, first, they went to
they
got at
must, somehow or other, get at them. I have seen the fishermen, in the
Scotch rivers, stand right down in the water while they are fishing, and I
believe that is the best way to fish, and if we stand right down amongst
you, and come to you in your homes, we shall be likely to be the means of
blessing to your souls.
The angels told Lot
very distinctly what was going to happen in
They did not mince the matter, but revealed what its doom was to be. The
city was to be destroyed, and he must get out of it, or else he also would
be
destroyed. In like manner, we too must warn men of their danger; and
we must not at all flinch even if we have to utter words that have a very
harsh sound about them, for love does not manifest itself by lying, smooth
utterances, but by speaking the truth, speaking even most threatening words,
yet mixing sobs with them, predicting most sorrowful judgments in a most
sorrowful tone.
After
these angels had told
content with doing that, but began pressing and urging him to flee out of
the
doomed city: “The angels hastened
not seem to be sufficient to convince him, they laid hands upon him, and
upon his wife, and upon his daughters. And if, my brother, you and I, saved
ourselves, wish to be the means of saving others, we must not merely tell
them the old, old story, however simply, and earnestly, and often we tell it;
but we must come to wrestling with them. We must plead with them, we
must weep over them, and we must make up our minds that, if we cannot
break their hearts, we will break our own; and if we cannot get them to flee
out
of
our might to bring them out. Oh, that we might be as clear of the blood of
as
men as these angels were clear concerning the fate of
shall
not be able to rescue them all; even the angels did not do that.
wife was a signal example of a person perishing after the
best possible
instruction, and
the most earnest pleading may only end in mockery. Yes, dear friend, we
cannot wonder if some reject our message when so many rejected the
teaching
of the Master Himself; but we must so deliver it that, at any rate, if
they do refuse it, the
blame shall lie entirely at their own door.
The special point in the angelic ministry, to which I desire to call your
attention
on this occasion, is the fact that they hastened
going
to use that fact in two ways. First, I will try to show you that the
righteous
need to be hastened, for
notwithstanding his imperfections; and, secondly, that sinners — of whom,
being
in
earnest hastening. We must try not only to preach about these two things,
but to do them, as the Holy Spirit shall help us.
I. So my first remark is,
that EVEN THE
RIGHTEOUS NEED TO BE
HASTENED.
In
what? Well, in almost everything good, for Dr.
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“Look how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys;
Our souls can neither fly nor go
To reach eternal joys;” —
and old Francis Quarles, in one of his emblems, writes, —
“When our dull souls direct our thoughts
to thee,
As slow as snails are we:
But at the earth we dart our wing’d desire;
We burn, we burn like fire.”
Some Christians need quickening even concerning common matters of
Christian duty. I used to know a man, — he is dead now, — who
professed to have been converted for forty years, yet he had never made a
profession of his faith, in baptism, though he believed it to be his duty to do
so. When I stirred him up a little concerning his neglect, he said to me, “He
that believeth shall not make haste;” but I replied, “That is a shameful
perversion of Scripture; you profess to have been converted for forty years,
yet you have not obeyed your Savior’s command.” I explained to him the
meaning of the text which he had so wickedly perverted, and them I said to
him, “David says, ‘I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy
commandments.’ That is a more suitable text for you.” Why, if that good
brother had been baptized that very day on the next morning before
breakfast, I do not think he could have been considered guilty of any haste
after the long time that he had waited. Some people, when they are young,
know
that they ought to unite themselves with the
put it off; and when they grow older, they seem confirmed in continuing in
a condition which is not a right one for a Christian.
I do not lay undue stress upon baptism, as though it were the main thing in
a Christian’s life; still, it is an important matter, in which some Christians
need hastening, as they take such a long time over it. It seems to me that
half the beauty of obedience consists in obeying the command at once.
Suppose you have a boy, and you say to him, “John, I want you to go on
an errand,” and he says, “Very,- well, father, I will go next week;” what
sort of a lad is he? Suppose he says, “Yes, father, I really mean to go, but
not until to-morrow;” is not that virtually disobedience? Call it what you
may, delaying to obey is disobedience. Has it ever struck you, door friends,
that, when you postpone attendance to a duty, you sin in the
postponement? How many times do you sin?” I cannot calculate. If it is a
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duty you ought to do at this hour, yet you put it off hour after hour, do you
not sin as many times as there are hours in which you delay? Perhaps it
would be even more correct, to say that, for every moment that a duty is
neglected, there is a sin every time the clock ticks; certainly, you are
keeping on in one long-continued act of sin, and thereby provoking God to
anger.
Neglect of duty is continuous sin. Let that little sentence abide in your
memory, and let it get down into your heart, and irritate you into prompt
obedience, for there are some of you, who seem to fancy that, when you
have mace up your minds to do a certain thing, and have good intentions
concerning it, you have practically done the thing, and need not trouble
yourself any further about it. But it is not so, for “to him that knoweth to
do good, and doeth it not, to him” — particularly, and above other men,
— “it
is sin.” There was a certain prince of
that this inscription should be put on his grave, “Here lies So-and-so,
prince
of
about himself. He had not done anything, but he had intended to do
something; and this is the epitaph that will have to be put over some of you
unless you turn intention into action. But what is this but a confession that
you have the responsibility of knowing what you ought to do, but you lack
either the manliness, or the grace, or something else to impel you to do
what
you ought long ago to have done? As the angels hastened
Christian brother, who art slow to move in the path of duty, would I hasten
thee. Lie not down to-night with any duty undischarged if thou canst
attend to it to-night; rest not while there are any arrears of obedience due
to thy God. Even when thou hast done all thy duty, thou wilt be but an
unprofitable servant to thy God; but what shall be said of thee if precept
after precept shall be left neglected? At any rate, be not so foolish as to
imagine that intending to obey it the same thing as having really obeyed the
commandment of thy God.
Some Christians also need hastening concerning coming out from the
world,
and taking up the place of separation. Lot was in sinful
the great concern of the angels was to get him out of it. There are many
righteous
men still in
with Christ “without the camp, bearing his reproach.” Many a Christian
knows that there is a higher spiritual life than he, has ever yet reached. He
feels that his standard is too low, and that his household is too much
conformed to the world in its manners and customs. He knows that his
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business is not conducted as his Lord and Master would wish it to be, and
he intends that these things shall all be set right some time or other.
Possibly, there is one person in the household of whom he it afraid. If that
person should, in the order of God’s providence, be removed, then the way
would be cleared for him to make the necessary alteration, or it may be that
there is one engagement which has been made, which he thinks must be
fulfilled, and after that is over things will take quite a different complexion.
My dear brother, wherever you may be just now, I do charge you, before
the living God, never palter with your convictions, and never postpone the
coming away from sin and the world until it shall be more convenient for
you. Do you not see what it is that you thus say to the Lord? “I will follow
Jesus when it pleases me; I will follow him when it will not cost me
anything; I will follow him when everybody will clap hands at my doing it;
but when the task is difficult, I must decline it.” That is very like the talk of
a rebel, not like the talk of a true disciple of our blessed Lord. Oh, that you
might have the grace to say, —
“‘Through floods and flames, if Jesus
lead,
I’ll follow where he goes;’ —
“fashionable or unfashionable, condemned or applauded, loved or hated, I
will take up the cross for Christ and be as he would have me to be in the
midst of an ungodly world.” The angels are hastening you to this decision,
dear
brother, as once they hastened the lingering
Again, many good men need hastening with regard to their attempts to be
of
servants to others.
to
leave
daughters out of the doomed places. It is wonderful how long Christians
linger over the work of seeking the conversion of their own children. I
know, dear friend, that you have resolved in your heart to pray with your
boy; you say that you mean to do it, yet you never seem to screw yourself
up to the decisive point. I know, dear mother, that you do not intend that
your daughter Jane shall go away from home until you have talked with her
about her soul, and set forth Christ to her. You have that new Bible ready
to give to her as a kind of help to you — a thin end of the wedge — that
you may have some reason for getting her alone, and talking to fuel. But
why do you keep putting it off so? Should it ever be hard work for a
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mother to talk with her own child about her soul? Yet, to some parents,
this is a very difficult task. Should it ever be hard, good woman, for a wife
to put her arms about her unconverted husband’s neck, and plead with him
to see to his soul’s affairs, and lay hold on eternal life! Yet, perhaps, you
feel as if you cannot do it; you know that you ought, but you cannot.
Should it ever be hard, dear sister, for you to talk to that brother of yours,
who scoffs so much at sacred things that he often hurt your feelings? I
know it does seem hard, but ought it to be so? You love him, and if you
knew that he was in any bodily danger, you would not hesitate to warn
him; and now that you know that he is in spiritual and eternal peril, do not,
I pray you, delay to give the warning word. “I mean to do so;” says one.
Yes, you mean to, but I want you to do it to-night. “But perhaps I may not
have a suitable opportunity tonight.” Well, if there should be no
opportunity to-night, you may be excused; but do not make a pretext, let it
be a genuine want of opportunity that alone will excuse you; and, for
common humanity’s sake, far more for Christ’s sake, for his dear wounds
sake, do seek immediately the salvation of all that are round about you.
The
angels hastened
probably find your task a great deal easier than you think, and you may
receive a response that you little expect. I believe that, in nine cases out of
ten, when a Christian begins to speak thus to his unsaved friend, the friend
gratefully says, “I have been long expecting you to speak to me about my
soul; have is it that you have not done it before?”
I will tell you what happened in a case with which I was personally
connected. There was a young man, whose minister used to come to his
father’s house very frequently, and this young man was in great distress of
soul. Every time the minister came in, the young man used to say to
himself, “I hope Mr. So-and-so will speak to me about my soul to-day.” He
put himself in the minister’s way, but the minister never spoke to him as he
wished and hoped. After a time, that young man went to another place of
worship, and there found the Lord. He told his father, and the father told
the minister, and then the minister came to see him, and said, “My dear
brother, I am glad to hear that you have been converted; I have always felt
anxious about you.” “Have you?” asked the young man. “Yes, I have,”
replied the minister. “But, sir, you never said a word to me to show that
you were anxious.” There the interview ended, and I am afraid that they
have had little esteem for one another ever since, and I know that the
young man and, “When I was converted, the minister wanted to get me
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into his church; but as long as I was unconverted, he never made the
slightest effort to win me to Christ. “I should not like to have that said of
any minister here present, and I should not like to hear that you are always
looking after other people’s sheep. Those is a certain denomination which
is constantly engaged in stealing the sheep that are in other flocks; it would
be much better if such people would ask the Lord, by his almighty grace, to
turn lions into lambs and sheep, so that they might gather their own flocks.
That is the proper spirit in which all Christians should act; so, dear brethren
and sisters in Christ let us without delay set about the task of endeavoring,
in the name and in the strength of God, to bring our relatives and neighbors
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Putting a great many things under this general head, I may say that
Christians need hastening all round. Occasionally, I hear or read remarks
about the great excitement caused by our brethren Moody and Sankey in
their evangelistic services, but I must confess that I have failed to see the
excitement, although I have been to several of their meetings. We
Londoners do not know anything about real religious excitement; we have
not begun to be excited yet, though I pray God that we soon may. I would
like to see such a stir, all over the metropolis, that the press would rave and
rage about our fanaticism, and I shall not believe that God has done very
much among us until we are accused of something like that. We are
enjoying a spiritual spring-time; we have heard the cuckoo, and have seen
one swallow, but we must not, yet say that the summer has come. Our
friends
from
we ought to desire, and pray for, and expect; little indeed compared with
what we shall see if we are but true to God. We still need the angels to
come and hasten lingering Lots; may we be hastened ourselves!
Why is it that Christians need so mulch hastening? The best answer I can
make is, that their spirit is willing, but their flesh is weak. Another reason
is, that it is easier to run fast at first than to keep on at a rapid pace; and
perhaps they have found their breath failing them. If so, may they drink in
fresh air from the upper realm! Some Christians, too, are passing through
the Enchanted Ground, the air of which Bunyan says made the pilgrims
sleepy. Some Christian brethren appear to have taken up their residence in
that perilous place. In the case of others, the prevailing langour in the
hearts of so many professing Christians tends to make them idle, just as, in
a chilly atmosphere, we are colder than we should be if our surroundings
were warmer. I fear that some Christians need quickening for God’s
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service because they have so much to do for themselves. The shop shutters
are down so long that there is little time for anything but business, and the
ledger is such a big book that it quite hides the Bible. Some, on the other
hand, need to be hastened because they have not anything to do. Of the
two things, it is better to have too much to do than to have nothing to do;
and those people, who do not know how to occupy their time, are often
the most difficult to move to anything like earnestness in spiritual things.
Whatever may be the cause of the lingering, ministers are bound to be
continually hastening God’s people onward in the spiritual life and warfare.
Under what great obligations we are brethren! We are not our own, we are
bought with a price. How much Christ had done for us, brethren! What
manner of persons ought we to be! What a destiny awaits us! Ought we
not to walk worthily of that which is to be our heritage? See how fast time
is dying. We cannot make up for that which we have already lost, but let us
lose no more. See how rapidly our cemeteries are being crowded; and dare
even to look down, and see how hell is being thronged with souls that have
perished through ignorance. See how Christ’s name is being constantly
blasphemed, and how little power the ministry of the gospel seems to have,
and what great power we find attending erroneous teaching. Oh, may God
quicken us, dear friends! Sometimes, when I look at myself, and look at my
fellow-Christians, I can scarcely believe that we can be the result of such a
great
work as God has been carrying on. In
workshops where great wheels and much machinery were at work cutting
diamonds. They were very small things to have all that machinery operating
upon them; still, they were diamonds; and when I look at some Christians,
I suppose they must be diamonds, but they appear to be very insignificant
in comparison with the work which is being wrought upon them. Here is
Jesus Christ ploughing that field with his armies, watering it with his
bloody sweat, casting himself like a seed into it; and what comes up as the
result? Only that poor shrivelled thing! O God, must eternal election, and
immutable love, and a bleeding Savior’s heart, and the omnipotence of the
Holy Spirit all be set to work to produce such a result as that? - God forbid
that I should ever slight any of his work, the question naturally arises, “Can
it be his if it only comes to that?” Here is a man, who goes to a prayermeeting,
perhaps, once in seven years, gives a fourpenny piece to the
collection if he has not a threepenny piece in his purse, takes a sitting in the
place of worship, and then considers that all his work is done. He never
opens his mouth for the Lord Jesus Christ from the first of January to the
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last of December; he is, at home, about as worldly as other people, yet he
says that he is —
“A monument of grace,
A sinner saved by blood.”
We have heard of mountains bringing forth mice, but we can scarcely think
that
something better than this, brethren, and we must be. In the name of the
dying Savior, now exalted in heaven, whose disciples we profess to be, let
us arouse ourselves, and let us seek, with heart and soul and strength, to
glorify Christ throughout the rest of life that may be allotted to us, lest we
go back, dishonored, to the dust from whence we sprang, after having had
grand opportunities, and noble possibilities, and a divine calling, and yet
having lived beneath the dignity of any one of them.
II. Now I must turn to the second part of my subject, which is, that
SINNERS NEED TO BE HASTENED AS MUCH AS SAINTS DO, for sinners also
are very slow.
I thought, this afternoon, when my head was almost splitting with pain, and
I could not fix my thoughts upon my theme for this evening, “Oh, dear,
dear, dear, if these sinners were only sensible, preaching would be very
easy work, for all I should have to do would be just to set before them the
way of salvation, and they would at once walk in it!” But we have to rack
our brains, and to pour out our very heart in order to get you to attend to
your chief business, and to give heed to that which is for your lasting good.
Sometimes, our hearers say, “The preachers always tell us that same story,
and their sermons are not as polished as we should like them to be.” Ah,
but! if you would only believe in Jesus, and so be saved, we would polish
our sermons up for you. If you would only seek and find Jesus Christ as
your Savior, we would try to give you some eloquence then; but, so long
as you will not have Christ and resolve to remain as you are, the only thing
we can do is to keep on persuading, entreating, and even compelling you to
come in to the great gospel feast. We are obliged to put the old truth in
very much the same old way. It is not poetical work to be a Royal Humane
Society’s officer, seeking to pull drowning people out of the river; and
there is not much poetry about our work in trying to be the means of
saving your souls.
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But what makes you men and women so slow to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ which is the only way of salvation? Are you so fond of your sins that
you are not willing to give them up, or are you really so self-righteous that
you do not believe that you need to be saved? I think the most of you do
believe, in a way, that there is a hell, and that you will go there unless you
are converted, but you do not really believe it, you do not realize what it
means. You are very earnestly listening to me just now, but if somebody,
over there by the door, were to cry out because a piece of plaster had
dropped off the ceiling, how wide awake you would become compared
with what you are now when I am talking about your going to hell, and
being lost for ever. Somehow or other, there is a want of reality about you
when spiritual matters are being discussed. I fear that the same spirit is
getting into some good people’s prayers. We do not pray real prayers; at
least, not as real as they ought to be. I do try to preach to you as if I meant
it, and I would willingly lay down my life if, by doing so, I could save you;
yet you listen to me as if it were merely a very proper thing for me to
preach, and for you to hear, on Sunday, but as if you had nothing to do
with the gospel on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday. You hear that the city in which you are dwelling is to be
destroyed. You do not tell the angel that the prophecy is a lie; but you sit
down so comfortably that it is clear that you do not believe it, or if you do,
you need to be pressed again, and again, and again, to act, as if it were
true. Just now, as you took your seat, you missed a diamond ring off your
finger, and you will not be at all comfortable until you get home, and see if
it is there. You are concerned about the loss of a ring, yet your souls are
lost, and you are quite unconcerned about them. This terrible truth does
not fret and worry you; I wish it would, so that you would say, “I will
never rest again till I know that I am saved through Jesus Christ the
Savior.” Surely, madness is bound up in the heart of sinners, or else they
would not need to, be hastened to escape.
“Well,” say some of you, “we intend to think about this matter.” I know
you do, and that thought of yours is Satan’s biggest net. He has a number
of nets of different sorts and sizes; some of them are only meant for eagles,
and he does not often use them, for there are not many eagles about, but he
has a big not which he uses for catching small birds. I picture the great
enemy of souls going out with his big net, and I fancy I can hear him
whistling with unholy glee at the thought of the many birds he will take in
it. This is the style of his temptation, — you are not to cavil at the truth,
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you am not to be an avowed infidel, you are not to despise the Savior, you
are not to say that the salvation of your soul is an unimportant matter; but
you are to say to the minister, “Yes, sir, what you preach is all very true,
and I am glad you put it in the way that you do. I like earnest preaching; I
like to be told personally about my need of salvation, and I will attend to
the matter very soon; tomorrow, if possible. Oh, I just remember there is
something on that day which will be rather in the way; but, as soon as that
is over, I will give heed to what you say.” That is just what has happened a
long while with some of you, but you are no nearer the deciding point. A
gentleman in this neighborhood told me that he could not come to hear me
preach again. I asked him, “Why is that?” “Well,” he answered, “I only
came once, and then you pointed me out, and said, ‘There sits a grayheaded
old fool.’ At least, you said that a gray-headed old sinner is a grayheaded
old fool.” “Well,” I said, “I do not remember seeing you before; but
are you a grey-headed old sinner? Because, if you are, then you are the
other thing as well.” He just looked at me, and said nothing, and I have not
seen him since that time. I am afraid there are others here to whom I might
say just the same, and it would be true. They must be foolish, for they have
not done what they have admitted it would be wise for them to do. Again
and again, a man has said, “I will do it.” Now, sir, you are a fool to say, “I
will do it,” if it was a foolish thing; but if it was a wise thing, and you said,
“I will do it,” yet you have not done it, who are you?
Some of you are good arithmeticians; will you take your pencils, and work
out a sum for me? Here is a man of fifty years of age, and I want you to
calculate the probabilities of his ever being saved. He had an excellent early
training from a very godly father and mother, whose many prayers for him
he cannot forget, though he remained unsaved in spite of them all. He went
to a Sunday-school, and had a very gracious teacher, who set him a good
example, and was very earnest in pleading with him; but he would not
yield. As he grew up, he had many Christian friends, who wrote letters to
him, and used every possible opportunity to impress him. He resisted all
that, and for twenty years attended the ministry of a very earnest preacher.
There was a great revival, and many were saved, but he was not one of
them. Since then, he has been sitting under another very faithful minister of
God’s Word, and he has been impressed again and again. Put that down,
and figure it out if you can. He has been impressed fifty times, or a
hundred, perhaps a couple of hundred times, and he has got over all that;
what are the probabilities that he will ever be saved? To tell you the truth, I
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greatly fear that the probability is that the man will be lost, that he never
will be converted, but will continue as he has been already despite every
instrumentality that has been employed on his behalf.
O you sinners, with such terrible probabilities against you, you do indeed
need to be hastened, and fain would we put our hands upon you, and urge
you to escape for your lives, and to do it now, for it is now or never with
some of you who are present here tonight! I have no doubt that, if we
could read the past history of some who are here, we should see abundant
reasons for urging them to immediate decision. I have already shown you
where these reasons would be found, and the probabilities against their
conversion. But, as to the future, happily, that is hidden from all of us. I am
no prophet, nor the son of a prophet; and, therefore, I shall not attempt to
utter a prediction; but you all must know that, out of some six thousand
persons assembled here, there is a great probability that we shall not all be
alive next Lord’s day. It is a certainty that we shall never all of us meet
here again, and the probability that some of us will have gone from this
earth before next Sabbath is very great. In the membership of this church, I
notice, as regularly as the year rolls round, that our death-list comes to
between fifty and seventy. There is usually one death a week or, if there
should happen to be one week in which a member of the church does not
die, there will be two or three in the week following. The average is one a
week; so that, if not out of this present assembly, yet out of the usual
congregation at this Tabernacle, it is a certainty that two will die in a week.
Two, in a week!
I wonder where the two victims for this week are; perhaps at home, dying
by degrees, with a good hope in Jesus Christ. Blessed be God if that is the
case; we will shout the harvest home as they are gathered in. Possibly, they
are lying at home sick, yet without hope. Let us pray for them if that is
their condition. Lord, help them to believe in Jesus Christ this very night;
ere they tread death’s awful road, O Lord, save them! But perhaps one out
of the two may be here, in good health, and unconverted. I am not saying
what is at all improbable, am I? It may be so, and if I knew that someone
here would die before next Sabbath day, I would beg him to stop after the
service, that I might give him a squeeze of the hand, and say to him, “My
dear friend, do not let this day go by without your looking to Christ and
committing your soul into his hands.” “Now, as I do not know who it is to
be, give me your hands, all of you, all round the building. I should like to
look you dear men and women in the face, and say to each one of you,
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“Now, dear soul, do not live and die without the Savior. Do lay this matter
to heart. I am not an angel, but I am one who would fain do you good. If it
be right to believe in Jesus Christ the sooner you do it, the better; and if it
be right to love and serve God, the sooner you do it, the better. And if to
trust in Christ’s precious blood be the only safe course, the sooner you do
that, the better. May the eternal Spirit come, and lead you, even now, to
lay hold on Jesus Christ and find eternal life in him this very hour!”
Now, look me in the face, and say whether it shall be so or not. I will not
ask you to speak; there will be too much noise if you all do so. But, in your
heart, I ask you to say, will you, or will you not? This may be the turning
point,
in your life’s history. There is a spot, under the dome of
Cathedral, where there is a mark made by the chisel of a man, who fell
from the top, and was killed. There is also a mark, which angel eyes can
see, in that pew, or in that aisle, or up in that, gallery, where you have sat,
and said, “Not, tonight; I will decide to-morrow;” or where you have said,
“No, I will not have anything to do with Christ.” I wish that, instead of
such a mark as that, there could be a star let into the floor, which would
mean, “Here, a poor soul believed in Jesus.” I know a little Primitive
Methodist
chapel in
into the very pew where I sat, as a boy fifteen years of age, and heard a
sermon from the text, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth.” I should have liked to buy the seat, and take it home, for I love the
spot where Jesus met with me and saved me; and there are some of you
who feel like that concerning these pews. They are very sacred to you, and
always will be, for there you were born for God. Oh, that some of you
might be born here this very night! Some of you are in no need of
instruction; you need hastening. You do not need to be impressed
concerning the guilt of your sins so much as to be urged to give them up,
and to put your trust in Jesus Christ. You do not need to be brought to the
water so much as to be made to drink of it. There it is. Oh, that you would
open your mouths, and let the blessed stream flow in, for that is all that is
needed. Receive Christ; receive Christ now, by a simple act of faith, and he
will give you grace and strength to battle with your sins, and to make you
holy. Oh, that now, now, NOW, the great work may be done! I do not
suppose you can hear this clock tick; but when you get home, listen to
your odd clock on the stairs, or in your room, and it will say to you, “Now,
now, now, now.” I have sometimes thought that, in the night, I have heard
the clock say, “Now or never! Now or never! Now or never! Now or
453
never! Now or never!” You need not listen to me any longer, but listen to
that message from the clock. May the Holy Spirit speak to you through it,
and may you answer, “Now, even now, I will believe in Jesus Christ and be
saved.” May God bless you! May Christ save you! Amen.