"Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake
the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed;
and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills
shall melt."
Amos 9.13
[Editor's
Note: This is a very "personal" message by
Spurgeon to his people. He encourages them to look for
a spiritual awakening in their day. His basis for looking
for revival is, (1) the scripture itself, (2) the need,
(3) God's reviving work in the past. In
his introduction, he speaks of Israel as barren and miserable.
In 1860, Israel did lie barren under the rule of the Turks.
The biblical promise that Spurgeon quotes has been partially
fulfilled in our day and will be completely fulfilled in the
future. We have lived to see in Israel part of which Spurgeon
spoke of in this message. The
modern Christian can take much from this message.]
God's
promises are not exhausted when they are fulfilled, for when
once performed, they stand just as good as they did before,
and we may await a second accomplishment of them. Man's promises
even at the best, are like a cistern which holds but a temporary
supply; but God's promises are as a fountain, never emptied,
ever overflowing, so that you may draw from them the whole
of that which they apparently contain, and they shall be still
as full as ever. Hence it is that you will frequently find
a promise containing both a literal and spiritual meaning.
In
the literal meaning it has already been fulfilled to the letter;
in the spiritual meaning it shall also be accomplished,
and not a jot or tittle of it shall fail. This is true of
the particular promise which is before us. Originally, as
you are aware, the land of Canaan was very fertile; it was
a land that flowed with milk and honey. Even where no tillage
had been exercised upon it the land was so fruitful, that
the bees who sucked the sweetness from the wild flowers produced
such masses of honey that the very woods were sometimes flooded
with it. It was "A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and
fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey."
When,
however, the children of Israel thrust in the ploughshare
and began to use the divers arts of agriculture, the land
became exceedingly fat and fertile, yielding so much corn,
that they could export through the Phoenicians both corn,
and wine, and oil, even to the pillars of Hercules, so that
Palestine became, like Egypt, the granary of the nations.
It is somewhat surprising to find that now the land is barren,
that its valleys are parched, and that the miserable
inhabitants gather miserable harvests from the arid soil.
Yet the promise stands true, that one day in the very letter
Palestine shall be as rich and fruitful as ever it was.
There
be those who understand the matter, who assert that if once
the rigour of the Turkish rule could be removed, if men were
safe from robbers, if the man who sowed could reap, and keep
the corn which his own industry had sown and gathered, the
land might yet again laugh in the midst of the nations, and
become the joyous mother of children. There is no reason in
the soil for its barrenness. It is simply the neglect that
has been brought on, from the fact, that when a man has been
industrious, his savings are taken from him by the band
of rapine, and the very harvest for which he toiled is often
reaped by another, and his own blood spilt upon the soil.
But,
my dear friends, while this promise will doubtless be carried
out, and every word of it shall be verified, so that the hill-tops
of that country shall again bear the vine, and the land shall
flow with wine, yet, I take it, this is more fully a spiritual
than a temporal promise; and I think that the beginning of
its fulfilment is now to be discerned, and we shall see the
Lord's good hand upon us, so that the ploughman shall overtake
the reaper, the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all we
hills shall melt.
First,
I shall this morning endeavour to explain my text as a promise
of revival; secondly, I shall take it as a lesson of doctrine;
then as a stimulus for Christian exertion; and I shall conclude
with a word or two of warning to those whose hearts are not
given to Christ.
I.
First, I take the text as being A GREAT PROMISE OF SPIRITUAL
REVIVAL.
And here, in looking attentively at
the text, we shall observe several very pleasant things.
1.
In the first place, we notice a promise of surprising ingathering.
According to the metaphor here used, the harvest is to be
so great that, before the reapers can have fully gathered
it in, the ploughman shall begin to plough for the next crop--while
the abundance of fruit shall be so surprising that before
the treader of grapes can have trodden out all the juice of
the vine, the time shall come for sowing seed. One season,
by reason of the abundant fertility, shall run into another.
Now you all know, beloved, what this means in the church.
It prophecies that in the Church of Christ we shall see the
most abundant ingathering of souls. Pharaoh's dream has been
enacted again in the last century.
About
a hundred years ago, if I may look back in my dream, I might
have seen seven ears of corn upon one stalk, rank and strong;
anon, the time of plenty went away, and I have seen, and you
have seen, in your own lifetime, the seven ears of corn thin
and withered in the east wind. The seven ears of withered
corn have eaten up and devoured the seven ears of fat corn,
and there has been a sore famine in the land.
Lo,
I see in Whitfield's time, seven bullocks coming up from the
river, fat and well-favoured, and since then we have lived
to see seven lean kine come up from the same river; and lo!
the seven lean kine have eaten up the seven fat kine, yet
have they been none the better for all that they have eaten.
We read of such marvellous revivals a hundred years ago, that
the music of their news has not ceased to ring in our ears;
but we have seen, alas, a season of lethargy, of soul-poverty
among the saints, and of neglect among the ministers of God.
The product of the seven years has been utterly consumed,
and the Church has been none the better. Now, I take it, however,
we are about to see the seven fat years again. God is about
to send times of surprising fertility to his Church. When
a sermon has been preached in these modern times. if one sinner
has been converted by it, we have rejoiced with a suspicious
joy; for we have thought it something amazing.
But,
brethren, where we have seen one converted, we may yet see
hundreds; where the Word of God has been powerful to scores,
it shall be blessed to thousands. and where hundreds in past
years have seen it, nations shall be converted to Christ.
There is no reason why we should not see all the good that
God hath given us multiplied a hundred-fold; for there is
sufficient vigour in the seed of the Lord to produce a far
more plentiful crop than any we have yet gathered. God the
Holy Ghost is not stinted in his power. When the sower went
forth to sow his seed, some of it fell on good soil, and it
brought forth fruit, some twenty fold, some thirty fold, but
it is written, "Some a hundred fold."
Now,
we have been sowing this seed, and thanks be to God, I have
seen it bring forth twenty and thirty fold; but I do expect
to see it bring forth a hundredfold. I do trust that our harvest
shall be so heavy, that while we are taking in the harvest,
it shall be time to sow again; that prayer meetings shall
be succeeded by the enquiry of souls as to what they shall
do to be saved, and ere the enquirers' meeting shall be done,
it shall be time again to preach, again to pray; and then,
ere that is over, there shall be again another influx of souls,
the baptismal pool shall be again stirred, and hundreds of
converted men shall flock to Christ.
Oh!
we never can be contented with going on as the churches have
been during the last twenty years. I would not be censorious,
but solemnly in my own heart I do not believe that the ministers
of our churches have been free from the blood of men. I would
not say a hard word if I did not feel compelled to do it,
but I am constrained to remind our brethren that let God send
what revival he may, it will not exonerate them from the awful
guilt that rests upon them of having been idle and dilatory
during the last twenty years. Let all be saved who live now;
what about those that have been damned while we have
been sleeping? Let God gather in multitudes of sinners,
but who shall answer for the blood of those men who have been
swept into eternity while we have been going on in our canonical
fashion, content to go along the path of propriety, and walk
around the path of dull routine, but never weeping for sinners,
never agonizing for souls.
All
the ministers of Christ are not awake yet; but the most of
them are. There has come a glad time of arousing, the trumpet
bas been set to their ear, and the people have heard the sound
also, and times of refreshing are come from the presence of
the Lord our God; but they have not come before they were
needed, for much did we require them; otherwise surely the
Church of Christ would have died away into dead formality,
and if her name had been remembered, it would have been as
a shame and a hissing upon the face of the earth.
2.
The promise then, seems to me to convey the idea of surprising
ingatherings; and I think there is also the idea of amazing
rapidity. Notice how
quickly the crops succeed each other. Between the harvest
and the ploughing there is a season even in our country; in
the east it is a longer period. Bu here you find that no sooner
has the reaper ceased his work, or scarce has he ceased it,
ere the ploughman follows at his heels. This is a rapidity
that is contrary to the course of nature; still it is quite
consistent with grace. Our old Baptist churches in the country
treat young converts with what they call summering and wintering.
Any young believer who wants to join the church in summer,
must wait till the winter, and he is put off from time to
time, till it is sometimes five or six years before they admit
him; they want to try him, and see whether he is fit to unite
with such pious souls as they are.
Indeed
among us all there is a tendency to imagine that conversion
must be a slow work--that as the snail creeps slowly on its
way, so must grace move very leisurely in the heart of man.
We have come to believe that there is more true divinity in
stagnant pools than in lightning flashes. We cannot believe
for a moment in a quick method of travelling to the kingdom
of heaven. Every man who goes there must go on crutches and
limp all the way; but as for the swift beasts, as for the
chariots whose axles are hot with speed, we do not quite understand
and comprehend that.
Now,
mark, here is a promise given of a revival, find when that
revival shall be fulfilled this will be one of the signs of
it--the marvellous growth in grace of those who are converted.
The young convert shall that very day come forward to make
a profession of his faith; perhaps before a week has passed
over his head you will hear him publicly defending the cause
of Christ, and ere many months have gone you shall see him
standing up to tell to others what God has done for his soul.
There
is no need that the pulse of the Church should for ever be
so slow. The Lord can quicken her heart, so that her pulse
shall throb as rapidly as the pulse of time itself; her floods
shall be as the rushing of the Kishon when. it swept the hosts
of Sisera in its fury. As the fire from heaven shall the Spirit
rush from the skies, and as the sacrifice which instantly
blazed to heaven, so shall the Church burn with holy and glorious
ardour. She shall no longer drive heavily with her wheels
torn away, but as the chariot of Jehu, the son of Nimshi,
she shall devour the distance in her haste. That seems to
me to be one of the promises of the text--the rapidity of
the work of grace, so that the plougher shall overtake the
reaper.
3.
But a third blessing is very manifest here, and one indeed
which is already given to us. Notice the activity of labour
which is mentioned in the text.
God does not promise that there shall be fruitful crops
without labour; but here we find mention made of ploughmen,
reapers, treaders of grapes, and sowers of seed; and all these
persons are girt with singular energy. The ploughman does
not wait, because, saith he, the season has not yet
come for me to plough, but seeing that God is blessing theland,
he has his plough ready, and no sooner is one harvest shouted
home than he is ready to plough again. And so with the sower;
he has not to prepare his basket and to collect his seed;
but while he hears the shouts of the vintage, he is ready
to go out to work.
Now,
my brethren, one sign of a true revival, and indeed an essential
part of it is the increased activity of God's labourers. Why,
time was when our ministers, thought that preaching twice
on Sunday was the hardest work to which a man could be exposed.
Poor souls, they could not think of preaching on a week-day,
or if there was once a lecture, they had bronchitis, were
obliged to go to Jerusalem, and lay by, for they would soon
be dead if they were to work too hard. I never believed in
the hard work of preaching yet. We find ourselves able to
preach ten or twelve times a week, and find that we are the
stronger for it,--that in fact, it is the healthiest and most
blessed exercise in the world. But the cry used to be,
that our ministers were hardly done by, they were to be pampered
and laid by, done up in velvet, and only to be brought out
to do a little work occasionally, and then to be pitied when
that work was done. I do not hear anything of that talk now-a-days.
I
meet with my brethren in the ministry who are able to
preach day after day, day after day, and are not half so fatigued
as they were; and I saw a brother minister this week who has
been having meetings in his church every day, and the people
have been so earnest that they will keep him very often from
six o'clock in the evening to two in the morning. "Oh !" said
one of the members, "our minister will kill himself." "Not
he," said I, "that is the kind of work that will kill no man.
It is preaching to a sleepy congregation that kills good ministers,
but not preaching to earnest people." So when I saw him, his
eyes were sparkling, and I said to him, "Brother, you do not
look like a man who is being killed. "Killed, my brother,"
said he, "why I am living twice as much as I did before; I
was never so happy, never so hearty, never so well."
Said he, "I sometimes lack my rest, and want my sleep, when
my people keep me up so late, but it will never hurt me: indeed,"
he said, "I should like to die of such a disease as that--the
disease of being so greatly blessed."
There
was a specimen before me of the ploughman who overtook the
reaper,--of one who sowed seed, who was treading on the heels
of the men who were gathering in the vintage. And the like
activity we have lived to see in the Church of Christ. Did
you ever know so much doing in the Christian world before?
There are grey-headed men around me who have known the Church
of Christ sixty years, and I think they can bear me witness
that they never knew such life, such vigour and activity,
as there is at present. Everybody seems to have a mission,
and everybody is doing it. There may be a great many sluggards,
but they do not come across. my path now. I used to be always
kicking at them, and always being kicked for doing so. But
now there is nothing to kick at--every one is at work--Church
of England, Independents, Methodists, and Baptists--there
is not a single squadron that is behindhand; they have all
their guns ready, and are standing, shoulder to shoulder,
ready to make a tremendous charge against the common enemy.
This leads me to hope, since I see the activity of God's ploughmen
and vine dressers, that there is a great revival coming,--that
God will bless us, and that right early.
4.
We have not yet, however, exhausted our text. The latter part
of it says, "The mountains shall drop sweet wine." It is not
a likely place for wine upon the mountains. There may be freshets
and cataracts leaping down their sides; but who ever saw fountains
of red wine streaming from rocks, or gushing out from the
hills. Yet here we are told that, "The mountains shall drop
sweet wine;" by which we are to understand that conversions
shall take place in unusual quarters. Brethren,
this day is this promise literally fulfilled to us. I have
this week seen what I never saw before. It has been my lot
these last six years to preach to crowded congregations, and
to see many, many souls brought to Christ; it has been no
unusual thing for us to see the greatest and noblest of the
land listening to the word of God; but this week I have seen,
I repeat, what mine eyes have never before beheld, used as
I am to extraordinary things. I have seen the people of Dublin,
without exception, from the highest to the lowest, crowd in
to hear the gospel. I have known that my congregation has
been constituted in a considerable measure of Roman Catholics,
and I have seen them listening to the Word with as much attention
as though they had been Protestants.
I
have seen men who never heard the gospel before, military
men, whose tastes and habits were not likely to be those of
the Puritanic minister, who have nevertheless sat to listen;
nay, they have come again--have made it a point to find the
place where they could hear the best--have submitted to be
crowded, that they might press in to hear the Word, and I
have never before seen such intense eagerness of the people
to listen to the Gospel. I have heard, too, cheering news
of work going on in the most unlikely quarters--men who could
not speak without larding their conversation richly with oaths--have
nevertheless come to hear the Word; they have listened, and
have been convinced, and if the impression do not die away,
there has been something done for them which they will not
forget even in eternity.
But
the most pleasing thing I have seen is this, and I must tell
it to you. Hervey once said, "Each floating ship, a floating
hell." Of all classes of men, the sailor has been supposed
to be the man least likely to be reached by the gospel.
In crossing over from Holyhead to Dublin and back--two excessively
rough passages--I spent the most pleasant hours that I ever
spent. The first vessel that I entered, I found my hands very
heartily shaken by the sailors. I thought, "What can these
sailors know of me?" and they were calling me "brother." Of
course, I felt that I was their brother too; but I did not
know how they came to talk to me in that way. It was not generally
the way for sailors to call ministers, brother.
There
was the most officious attention given, and when I made the
enquiry "What makes you so kind?" "Why," said one, "because
I love your Master, the Lord Jesus." I enquired, and found
that out of the whole crew there were but three unconverted
men; that though the most of them had been before without
God. and without Christ, yet by a sudden visitation of the
Spirit of God they had all been converted. I talked to many
of these men, and more spiritual, heavenly-minded men I never
yet saw. They have a prayer-meeting every morning before the
boat starts, and another prayer-meeting after she comes to
port; and on Sundays, when they lay-to off Kingstown or Holyhead,
a minister comes on board and preaches the gospel; the cabins
are crowded; service is held, on deck when it can be; and
said an eyewitness to me, "The minister preaches very earnestly,
but I should like you to hear the men pray; I never
heard such praying before," said he, "they pray with such
power, as only a sailor can pray."My heart was lifted up with
joy, to think of a ship being made a floating Church-- very
Bethel for God.
When
I came back by another ship I did not expect to see the like;
but it was precisely the same. The same work had been going
on. I walked among them and talked to them. They all knew
me. One man took out of his pocket an old leather covered
book in Welch--"Do you know the likeness of that man in front?"
said he, "Yes," I said, "I think I do: do you read these sermons!"
"Yes, sir," replied he, "we have had your sermons on board
this ship, and I read them aloud as often as I can. If we
have a fine passage coming over, I get a few around me, and
read them a sermon."
Another
man told me a story of a gentleman who stood laughing when
a hymn was being sung; and one of the men proposed that they
should pray for him. They did, and that man was suddenly smitten
down, and began on the quay to cry for mercy, and plead with
God for pardon. "Ah! Sir," said the sailors, "we have the
best proof that there is a God here, for we have seen this
crew marvellously brought to a knowledge of the truth;
and here we are, joyful and happy men, serving the Lord."
Now,
what shall we say of this, but that the mountains drop sweet
wine? The men who were loudest with their oaths, are now loudest
with their songs; those who were the most darling children
of Satan, have become the most earnest advocates of the truth:
for mark you, once get sailors converted, and there is no
end to the good they can do. Of all men who can preach well,
sailors are the best. The sailor has seen the
wonders of God in the deep; the hardy British Tar has got
a heart that is not made of such cold stuff as many of the
hearts of landsmen; and when that heart is once touched, it
gives great big beats; it sends great pulses of energy right
through his whole frame; and with his zeal and
energy what may he not do, God helping him and blessing him?
5.
This seems to be in the text--that a time of revival shall
be followed by very extraordinary conversion.
But, albeit that in the time
of revival, grace is put in extraordinary places, and singular
individuals are converted, yet these are not a bit behind
the usual converts; for if you notice the text does not say,
"the mountains shall drop wine " merely, but they "shall drop
sweet wine." It does not say that the hill shall send forth
little streams; but all the hills shall melt. When sinners,
profligate and debauched persons, are converted to God,
we say, "Well, it is a wonderful thing, but I do not suppose
they will be very first class Christians." The most wonderful
thing is, that these are the best
Christians alive; that the wine which
God brings from the hills is sweet wine; that when the hills
do melt they all melt.
The
most extraordinary ministers of any time, have been most extraordinary,
sinners before conversion. We might never have had a John
Bunyan, if it had not have been for the profanity of
Elstow Green; we might never have heard of a John Newton,
if it had not have been for his wickedness on shipboard. I
mean, he would not have known the depths of Satan, nor the
trying experience, nor even the power of divine grace, if
he bad not been suffered wildly to stray, and then wondrously
to be brought back. These great sinners are not a whit behind
those who have been trained under pious influences,
and so have been brought into the Church. Always in revival
you will find this to be the case, that the converts
are not inferior to the best of the converts of ordinary seasons--that
the Romanist, and the men who have never heard the gospel,
when they are converted, are as true in their faith, as hearty
in their love, as accurate in their knowledge, and as
zealous in their efforts, as the best of persons who have
ever been brought to Christ. "The mountains shall drop sweet
wine, and all the hills shall melt."
II.
I must now go on to the other point very briefly--WHAT IS
THE DOCTRINAL LESSON WHICH IS TAUGHT IN OUR TEXT: AND WHAT
IS TAUGHT TO US BY A REVIVAL? I think it is just
this,--that God is absolute monarch of the hearts of men.
God does not say here if men are willing; but be gives an
absolute promise of a blessing. As much as to say, "I have
the key of men's hearts; I can induce the ploughman to overtake
the reaper; I am master of the soil-however hard and rocky
it may be I can break it, and I can make it fruitful." When
God promises to bless his Church and to save sinners, he does
not add, "if the sinners be willing to be saved?" No, great
God! thou leadest free will in sweet captivity, and thy free
grace is all triumphant. Man has a free will, and God does
not violate it; but the free will is sweetly bound with fetters
of the divine love till it becomes more free than it ever
was before.
The
Lord, when he means to save sinners, does not stop to ask
them whether they mean to be saved, but like a rushing mighty
wind the divine influence sweeps away every obstacle; the
unwilling heart bends before the potent gale of grace, and
sinners that would not yield are made to yield by God. I know
this, if the Lord willed it, there is no man so desperately
wicked here this morning that he would not be made now to
seek for mercy, however infidel he might be; however rooted
in his prejudices against the gospel, Jehovah hath but to
will it, and it is done. Into thy dark heart, O thou who hast
never seen the light, would the light stream; if he did but
say, "Let there be light," there would be light. Thou mayest
bend thy fist and lift up thy mouth against Jehovah; but he
is thy master yet--thy master to destroy thee, if thou goest
on in thy wickedness; but thy master to save thee now, to
change thy heart and turn thy will, as he turneth the rivers
of water.
If
it were not for this doctrine, I wonder where the ministry
would be. Old Adam is too strong for young Melanethon. The
power of our preaching is nought--it can do nothing in the
conversion of men by itself; men are hardened, obdurate, indifferent;
but the power of grace is greater than the power of eloquence
or the power of earnestness, and once let that power be put
forth, and what can stand against it? Divine Omnipotence is
the doctrine of a revival. We may not see it in ordinary days,
by reason of the coldness of our hearts; but we must see it
when these extraordinary works of grace are wrought. Have
you never heard the Eastern fables of the dervish, who wished
to teach to a young prince the fact of the existence of a
God!
The
fable hath it, that the young prince could not see any proof
of the Existence of a First Cause: so the dervish brought
a little plant and set it before him, and in his sight that
little plant grew up. blossomed, brought forth fruit, and
became a towering tree in an hour. The young man lifted up
his hands in wonder, and he said, "God must have done this."
"Oh, but," said the teacher, thou sayst, "God has done this,
because it is done in an hour: hath he not done it, when it
is accomplished in twenty years?" It was the same work in
both cases; it was only the rapidity that astonished his pupil.
So, brethren, when we see the church gradually built up and
converted, we lose the sense perhaps of a present God; but
when the Lord causes the tree suddenly to grow from a sapling
to a strong tall monarch of the forest, then we say,"This
is God."
We
are all blind and stupid in a measure, and we want to see
sometimes some of these quick upgoings, these extraordinary
motions of divine influence, before we will fully understand
God's power. Learn, then, O Church of God to-day, this
great lesson of the nothingness of man, and the Eternal All
Of God. Learn, disciples of Jesus, to rest on him: look for
your success to his power, and while you make your efforts,
trust not in your efforts, but in the Lord Jehovah. If ye
have progressed slowly, give him thanks for progress; but
if now he pleases to give you a marvellous increase, multiply
your songs, and sing unto him that worketh all things according
to the counsel of his will.
III.
I now desire, with great earnestness, as the Holy Ghost shall
help me, to make the text A STIMULUS FOR FURTHER EXERTION.
The duty of the Church is not to be measured by her success.
It is as much the minister's duty to preach the gospel in
adverse times as in propitious seasons. We are not to think,
if God withholds the dew, that we are to withhold the plough.
We are not to imagine that, if unfruitful seasons come, we
are therefore to cease from sowing our seed. Our business
is with act, not with result. The church has to do her duty,
even though that duty should bring her no present reward.
"If they hear thee not, Son of man, if they perish they shall
perish, but their blood will I not require at thine hands."
If we sow the seed, and the birds of the air devour
it, we have done what we were commanded to do, and the duty
is accepted even though the birds devour the seed. We
may expect to see a blessed result, but even if it did not
come we must not cease from duty.
But
while this is true so far, it must nevertheless be a divine
and holy stimulant to a gospel labourer, to know that God
is making him successful. And in the present day we have a
better prospect of success than we ever had, and we
should consequently work the harder. When a tradesman begins
business with a little shop at the corner, he waits
awhile to see whether he will have any customers. By-and-bye
his little shop is crowded; he has a name; he finds he is
making money. What does he do? He enlarges his premises; the
back yard is taken in and covered over; there are extra men
employed; still the business increases, but he will not invest
all his capital in it till he sees to what extent it will
pay. It still increases, and the next house is taken, and
perhaps the next: he says, "This is a paying concern, and
therefore I will increase it."
My
dear friends. I am using commercial maxims, but they are common-sense
rules, and I like to talk so. There are, in these days, happy
opportunities. There is a noble business to be done for Christ.
Where you used to invest a little capital, a little effort,
and a little donation, invest more. There never was such heavy
interest to be made as now. It shall be paid back in the results
cent. per cent.; nay, beyond all that you expected you shall
see God's work prospering. If a farmer knew that a bad year
was coming, he would perhaps only sow an acre or two; but
if some prophet could tell him, "Farmer, there will be such
a harvest next year as there never was," he would say, "I
will plough up my grass lands, I will stub up those hedges:
every inch of ground I will sow." So do you. There is a wondrous
harvest coming. Plough up your headlands; root up your hedges;
break up your fallow ground, and sow, even amongst the thorns.
Ye know not which shall prosper, this or that; but ye may
hope that they shall be alike good. Enlarged effort should
always follow an increased hope of success.
And
let me give you another encouragement. Recollect that even
when this revival comes, an instrumentality will still be
wanted. The ploughman is wanted, even after the harvest, and
the treader of grapes is wanted, however plentiful the vintage;
the greater the success the more need of instrumentality.
They began at first to think in the North of Ireland that
they could do without ministers; but now that the gospel is
spread, never was there such a demand for the preachers of
the gospel as now. Proudly men said in their hearts, "God
has done this without the intervention of man." I say, they
said it proudly, for there is such a thing as proud humility;
but God made them stoop. He made them see that after all be
would bless the Word through his servants--that he would make
the ministers of God "mighty to the pulling down of strongholds."
Brothers
and sisters, you need not think that if better times should
come, the world will do without you. You will be wanted. "A
man shall be precious as the gold of Ophir." They shall take
hold of your skirts, and they shall say, "Tell us what we
must do to be saved." They shall come to your house; they
shall ask your prayers; they shall demand your instructions;
and you shall find the meanest of the flock become precious
as a wedge of gold. The ploughman shall never be so much esteemed
as when be follows after the reaper, and the sower of seed
never so much valued as when be comes at the heels of those
that tread the grapes. The glory which God puts upon instrumentality
should encourage you to use it.
And
now I beseech and intreat you, my dear brothers and sisters,
inhabitants of this great City of London, let not this
auspicious gale pass away without singular effort. I sometimes
fear lest the winds should blow on us, and we should have
our sails all furled, and therefore the good ship should not
speed. Up with thecanvas now. Oh! put on every stitch of it.
Let every effort be used, while God is helping us. Let us
be earnest co-workers with him. Methinks I see the clouds
floating hither; they have come from the far west, from the
shore of America; they have crossed the sea, and the wind
has wafted them till the green isle received the showers in
its northern extremity. Lo!, the clouds are just now passing
over Wales, and are refreshing the abires that border on the
principality.
The
rain is falling on Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire; divine
grace is distilling, and the clouds are drawing nearer and
nearer to us. Mark, my brethren, they tarry not for men, neither
stay they for the sons of men. They are floating o'er our
heads to-day. Shall they float away, and shall we still be
left as dry as ever? 'Tis yours to-day to bring down the rain,
though 'tis God's to send the clouds.' God has sent this day,
over this great city a divine cloud of his grace.
Now,
ye Elijahs, pray it down! To your knees, believers, to your
knees. You can bring it down, and only you. "For this thing
will I be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them." "Prove me now herewith," saith the Lord of hosts, "and
see if I will not open the windows of heaven, and give you
such a blessing that you shall not have room to contain it."
Will you lose the opportunity, Christians? Will you let men
be lost for want of effort? Will you suffer this all-blessed
time to roll away unimproved? If so, the Church of one thousand
eight hundred and sixty is a craven Church, and is unworthy
of its time; and he among you, men and brethren, that has
not an earnest heart to-day, if he be a Christian, is a disgrace
to his Christianity. When there are such times as these, if
we do not every man of us trust in the plough, we shall indeed
deserve the worst barrenness of soul that can possibly fall
upon us. I believe that the Church has often been plagued
and vexed by her God, because when God has favoured her she
has not made a proper use of, the favour.
"Then,"
saith be, "I will make thee like Gilboa; on thy mount there
shall be no dew; I will bid the clouds that they rain no more
rain upon thee, and thou shalt be barren and desolate, till
once again I pour out the Spirit from on high." Let us spend
this week in special prayer. Let us meet together as often
as we can, and plead at the throne; and each man of you in
private be mighty with your God, and in public be diligent
in your efforts to bring your fellow-men to Christ.
IV.
I have done, when I have uttered a WORD OF WARNING to those
of you who know not Christ. I am aware that
I have many here on Sabbath mornings who never were in the
habit of attending a place of worship at all. There is many
a gentleman here to-day, who would be ashamed in any society,
to confess himself a professor of religion. He has never perhaps,
for a long time heard the gospel preached; and now there is
a strange sort of fascination that has drawn him here. He
came the first time out of curiosity--perhaps to make a joke
at the minister's expense; he has found himself enthralled;
he does not know how it is, but he has been all this week
uneasy, he has been wanting to come again, and when he goes
away to-day, he will be watching for next Sabbath.
He
has not given up his sins, but somehow they are not so pleasurable
as they used to be. He cannot swear as he did; if an oath
comes out edgeways, it does not roll out in the round form
it used to do: he knows better now. Now, it is to such persons
that I speak. My dear friends, allow me to express my hearty
joy that you are here, and let me also express the hope that
you are here for a purpose you do not as yet understand. God
has a special favour to you, I do trust, and therefore he
has brought you here. I have frequently remarked, that in
any revival of religion, it is not often the children of pious
parents that are brought in, but those who never knew anything
of Christ before.
The
ordinary means are usually blessed to those who constantly
attend them; but the express effort, and the extraordinary
influence of the Spirit, reach those who were outside the
pale of nominal Christians, and made no profession of religion.
I am in hopes it may meet you. But if you should despise the
Word which you have heard; if the impression that has been
made--and you know it has been made--should die away, one
of the most awful regrets you will ever have when you come
to your right sense and reason in another world will be the
feeling that you had an opportunity, but that you neglected
it.
I
cannot conceive a more doleful wail than that of the man who
cries at last in hell, "The harvest is past--there was a harvest;
the summer is ended--there was a summer--and I am not saved."
To go to perdition in ordinary times is hell; but to
go from under the sound of an earnest ministry, where you
are bidden to come to Christ, where you are entreated with
honest tears to come to Jesus--to go there after you have
been warned is to go not to hell merely, but to the very hell
of hell. The core and marrow of damnation is reserved for
men who hear the truth, and feel it too, but yet reject it,
and are lost.
Oh
I my dear hearer, this is a solemn time with you. I pray that
God the Holy Spirit may remind you that it may be now or never
with you. You may never have another warning, or if you have
it, you may grow so hardened that you may laugh at it and
despise it. My brother, I beseech thee, by God, by Christ
Jesus, by thine own immortal welfare, stop and think now whether
it be worth while to throw away the hallowed opportunity which
is now presented to thee. Wilt thou go and dance away thine
impressions, or laugh them out of thy soul? Ah! man, thou
mayest laugh thyself into hell, but thou canst not laugh
thyself out of it.
There
is a turning point in each man's life when his character becomes
fixed and settled. That turning point may be to-day. It may
be that there shall be some solemn seat in this hall, which
if a man knew its history he would never sit in it,--a seat
in which a man shall sit and hear the Word, and shall say,
"I will not yield; I will resist the impression; I will despise
it; I will have my sins, even if I am lost for them." Mark
your seat, friend, before you go; make a blood-red stain
across it, that next time we come here we may say," Here a
soul destroyed itself."
But
I pray the rather that God the Holy Spirit may sweetly whisper
in thy heart--"Man, yield, for Jesus invites thee to come
to him." Oh, may my Master smile into your face this morning,
and say,"I love thy soul; trust me with it. Give up thy sins;
turn to me." O Lord Jesus, do it! and men shall not resist
thee. Oh I show them thy love, and they must yield. Do it,
O thou Crucified One, for thy mercy's sake! Send forth
thine Holy Spirit now, and bring the strangers home; and in
this hall grant thou, O Lord, that many hearts may be fully
resigned to thy love, and to thy grace!