LivePrayerSermon 154. Fast-Day Service
(No. 154-55)
Held at the
CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM,
On Wednesday, October 7th, 1857, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON,
Being the Day appointed by Proclamation for a Solemn Fast, Humiliation, and Prayer before Almighty God: in order to obtainPardon of our Sins, and for imploring His Blessing and Assistance on our Arms for the Restoration of Tranquillity in India.
BRIEF INVOCATION.
O GOD, the God of heaven and of earth, we do this day pay Thee reverence, and meekly bow our heads in adoration before Thineawful throne. We are the creatures of Thine hand; Thou hast made us, and not we ourselves. It is but just and right that weshould pay unto Thee our adoration. O God I we are met together in a vast congregation for a purpose which demands all thepower of piety, and all the strength of prayer. Send down Thy Spirit upon Thy servant, that he, whilsttrembling in weakness, may be made strong to preach Thy Word, to lead forth this people in holy prayer, and to help themin that humiliation for which this day is set apart. Come, O God, we beseech Thee; bow our hearts before Thee; instead ofsackcloth and ashes give us true repentance, and hearts meekly reverent; instead of the outward guise, to which some pay theironly homage, give us the inward spirit; and may we really pray, really humiliate ourselves, and really tremble before theMost High God. Sanctify this service; make it useful unto us and honorable to Thyself. And O Thou dread Supreme, untoThee shall be the glory and the honor, world without end. Amen.
Let us now praise God by singing the first Hymn. I shall read it through; and then, perhaps, you will be kind enough to singit through.
BEFORE Jehovah's awful throng,
Ye nations bow with sacred joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone;
He can create and he destroy.
His sovereign power, without our aid,
made us of clay and form'd us men!
And when like wand'ring sheep, we stray'd,
He brought us to his fold again.
We are his people, we his care,
Our souls and all our mortal frame;
What lasting honors shall we rear,
Almighty Maker to thy name?
We'll crowd thy gates with thankful songs,
High as the heavens our voices raise;
And earth with her ten thousand tongues,
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.
Wide as the world is thy command;
Vast as eternity thy love;
Firm as a rock thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.
EXPOSITION.
DANIEL 9:1-19.
"In the first year of Darius the Son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
"In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came toJeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
"And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, withfasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
"And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenantand mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
"We have sinned, and have committed, iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy preceptsand from thy judgments:
"Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers,and to all the people of the land.
"O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to theinhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thouhast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
"O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned againstthee.
"To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him."
There is the first bright star which shines in the midst of the darkness of our sins. God is merciful. He is just-as justas if he were not merciful. He is merciful-as merciful as if he were not just, and in very deed more merciful than if he weretoo lenient; instead of blending a wise severity of justice with a gracious clemency of long-suffering. My brethren, we shouldrejoice that we have not this day to address the gods of the heathens. You have not to-day to bow downbefore the thundering Jove; you need not come before implacable deities, who delight in the blood of their creatures,or rather, of the creatures whom it is pretended that they have made. Our God delights in mercy, and in the deliverance ofBritain from its ills. God will be as much pleased as Britain; yea, when Britain shall have forgotten it, and only the pageof history shall record his mercies, God will still remember what he did for us in this day of our straits and our difficulties.As tothe hope that he will help us it is a certainty. There is no fear that when we unite in prayer God will refuse to hear.It is as sure as that there is a God, that God will hear us; and if we ask him aright, the day shall come when the world shallsee what Britain's God has done, and how he has heard her cry, and answered the voice of her supplications.
"Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
"Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse ispoured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
"And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us agreat evil: for under this whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
"As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God,that we might turn front our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
"Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his workswhich he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
"And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gottenthee renoun, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly."
The prophet in his prayer pleads what God has done for them, as the reason why he should make bare his arm; he tells how Goddelivered Israel out of Egypt; and he therefore prays that God would deliver them from their present trouble. And, my brethren,not Israel itself could boast a nobler history than we, measuring it by God's bounties. We have not yet forgotten an armadascattered before the breath of heaven, scattered upon the angry deep as a trophy of what God can doto protect his favored Isle. We have not yet forgotten a fifth of November, wherein God discovered divers plots that wereformed against our religion and our commonwealth. We have not yet lost the old men, whose tales of even the victories in warare still a frequent story. We remember how God swept before our armies the man who thought to make the world his dominion,who designed to cast his shoe over Britain, and make it a dependency of his kingdom. God wrought for us; he wrought with us;andhe will continue to do so. He hath not left his people, and he will not leave us, but he will be with us even to the end.Cradle of liberty! Refuge of distress! Storms may rage around thee, but not upon thee, nor shall all the wrath and fury ofmen destroy thee, for God hath pitched his tabernacle in thy midst, and his saints are the salt in the midst of thee.
"O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem,thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproachto all that are about us.
"Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to thine upon thy sanctuarythat is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
"O my God, incline thins ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name:for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy peopleare called by thy name."
And now for a few moments let us endeavor to pray:-
PRAYER
OUR Father, which art in heaven," we will be brief, but we will be earnest if Thou wilt help us. We have a case to spreadbefore Thee this day. We will tell out our story, and we will pray that Thou wouldst forgive the weakness of the words inwhich it shall be delivered, and hear us, for Jesus' sake. O Father, Thou hast smitten this our land, not in itself, but inone of its dependencies. Thou hast allowed a mutinous spirit to break out in our armies, and Thou hastsuffered men who know not Thee, who fear neither God nor man, to do deeds for which earth may well blush, and for whichwe, as men, desire to cover our faces before Thee. O Lord God, Thou couldst not bear the sin of Sodom; we are sure Thou canstnot endure the sin which has been committed in India. Thou didst rain hell out of heaven upon the cities of the plain. Thecities of Inde are not less vile than they, for they have committed lust and cruelty, and have much sinned against the Lord.Remember this, O God of Heaven.
But, O Lord our God, we are not here to be the accusers of our fellow-mall; we are here to pray that Thou wouldst remove thescourge which this great wickedness has brought upon us. Look down from heaven, O God, and behold this day the slaughteredthousands of our countrymen. Behold the wives, the daughters of Britain, violated, defiled! Behold her sons, cut in piecesand tormented in a manner which earth hath not beheld before. O God, free us, we beseech Thee, from thisawful scourge! Give strength to our soldiers to execute upon the criminals the sentence which justice dictates; and then,by Thy strong arm, and by Thy terrible might, do Thou prevent a repetition of so fearful an outrage.
We pray Thee, remember this day the widow and the fatherless children; think Thou of those who are this day distressed evento the uttermost. Guide the hearts of this great multitude, that they may liberally give and this day bestow of their substanceto their poor destitute brethren. Remember especially our soldiers, now fighting in that land. God shield them! Be Thou acovert from the heat! Wilt Thou be pleased to mitigate all the rig ours of the climate for them! Leadthem on to battle; cheer their hearts; bid them remember that they are not warriors merely, but executioners; and maythey go with steady tramp to the battle, believing that God wills it that they should utterly destroy the enemy, who havenot only defied Britain, but thus defiled themselves amongst men.
But, O Lord, it is ours this day to humble ourselves before Thee. We are a sinful nation; we confess the sins of our governorsand our own particular iniquities. For all our rebellions and transgressions, O God have mercy upon us! We plead the bloodof Jesus. Help every one of us to repent of sin, to fly to Christ for refuge and grant that each one of us may thus hide ourselvesin the rock, till the calamity be overpass, knowing that God will not desert them that put theirtrust in Jesus. Thy servant is overwhelmed this day; his heart is melted like wax in the midst of him; he knoweth nothow to pray. Yet Lord if Thou canst hear a groaning heart which cannot utter itself in words, thou hearest his strong impassionedcry, in which the people join. Lord save us! Lord arise and bless us; and let the might of Thine arm and the majesty of Thystrength be now revealed in the midst of this land, and throughout those countries which are in our dominion God save theQueen! A thousand blessings on her much-loved head! God preserve our country! May every movement that promotes libertyand progress be accelerated, and may everything be done in our midst, which can shield us from the discontent of the masses,and can protect the masses from the oppression of the few. Bless England, O our God. "Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine;"and make her still glorious Britain, "beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth." Lord accept our confessions; hearourprayers, and answer us by Thy Holy Spirit! Help Thy servant to preach to us; and all the glory shall be unto Thee, O Father,to Thee, O Son, and Thee, O Holy Spirit; world without end. Amen and Amen.
Let us now sing the second hymn. It is made up of verses selected from different psalms, which I thought to be appropriateto the occasion
OUR God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
Under the shadow of thy throne,
Thy saints have dwelt secure
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.
Our foes insult us, but our hope
In thy compassion lies
This thought shall bear our spirits up,
That God will not despise.
In vain the sons of Satan boast
Of armies in array;
When God has first despised their host,
They fall an easy prey.
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.
Hoping to receive help from God's Holy Spirit, I shall now proceed to address you from a part of the 9th verse of the 6thchapter of Micah:-
SERMON.
"Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it."-Micah 6:9.
THIS world is not the place of punishment for sin; not the place; it may sometimes be a place, but not usually. It is very customary among religious people, to talk of every accident which happens to men in theindulgence of sin, as if it were a judgment. The upsetting of a boat upon a river on a Sunday is assuredly understood to bea judgment for the sin of Sabbath-breaking. In the accidental fall of a house, in which persons were engaged in any unlawfuloccupation, the inference is at once drawn that the house fell because they were wicked. Now, however some religionistsmay hope to impress the people by such childish stories as those, I, for one, forswear them all. I believe what my Mastersays is true, when he declared, concerning the men upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, that they were not sinners above allthe sinners that were upon the face of the earth. They were sinners; there is no doubt about it; but the falling of the wallwas notoccasioned by their sin, nor was their premature death the consequence of their excessive wickedness. Let me, however,guard this declaration, for there are many who carry this doctrine to an extreme. Because God does not usually visit eachparticular offense in this life upon the transgressor, men are apt to deny altogether the doctrine of judgments. But herethey are mistaken. I feel persuaded that there are such things as national judgments, national chastisements for nationalsins-greatblows from the rod of God, which every wise man must acknowledge to be, either a punishment of sin committed, or a monitionto warn us to a sense of the consequences of sins, leading us by God's grace to humiliate ourselves, and repent of our sin.
O, my friends, what a rod is that which has just fallen upon our country! My poor words will fall infinitely short of thefearful tale of misery and woe which must be told before you can know how smartly God hath smitten, and how sternly he hathchidden us. We have to-day to mourn over revolted subjects, for to-day a part of our fellow-countrymen are in open arms againstour government. That, of itself, were a heavy blow. Happily the government of this land is soconstituted that we know little of revolutions except by name; but the horrors of anarchy, the terrors of a governmentshaken to its foundations, are so great, that should I preach alone upon that subject, you might hear the rod, and cry aloudbeneath its strokes. But this is as but the letting forth of water. A flood succeedeth. The men that have revolted were oursubjects, and I challenge all the world to deny what I am going to say: they were our subjects rightly. Whatever the inhabitantsofIndia might be (and undoubtedly that people have grave faults to find with us), the Sepoys had voluntarily given themselvesup to our dominion, they had themselves taken oaths of fealty to Her Majesty and their officers, and they have no cause tomurmur if they are made to endure the sentence uttered by a government of which they were the sworn and willing supporters.They were always petted, always dandled upon the knee of favoritism. Their revolt is not the revolt of a nation. If Indiahadrevolted, history might perhaps have taught us that she had patriots in her midst, who were delivering her from a tyrannicalnation; but in the present cave it is only men who are impelled by a lust and ambition for empire, who have risen againstus. And, ah I my friends, what crimes have they committed! Not to-day shall I detail their acts of debauchery, bloodshed,and worse than bestiality-this tongue will not venture to utter what they have dared to do. Ye would rise from your seatsand hissme from the pulpit which I now occupy, if I should but dare to hint at the crimes which have been done of them, not insecret, but in the very streets of their cities.
And, again, equally as painful, we have now rebels to be executed. I look upon every gallows as a fearful chastisement. Iregard every gibbet as being a dreadful visitation upon our land; and I think that whenever the arm of the ruler is outstretchedfor the punishment of death, it must always be looked upon by the country as a serious affliction to it. Just as the fatherthinks it a high affliction to chastise his child, so should a country ever esteem it to be avisitation when they have to punish, especially with the punishment of death. Now, these men must be punished; both heavenand earth demand it. I am no soldier, I love not war; I do not believe that this is a war at all, in the proper sense of theterm. We are not fighting with enemies; our troops are going forth against revolted subjects-against men who, by their crimes,by their murder, and by other unmentionable sins, have incurred the punishment of death; and as the arrest of a murderer byauthority of the law is not war, so the arrest of Indian Sepoys, and their utter destruction is not war-it is what earthdemands, and what I believe God sanctions. But it is a horrible necessity. It is a dreadful thing to think of taking awaythe lives of our fellow-subjects; we must look upon it as being an affliction: and, to-day, amongst the other evils that we bemoan, we must bemoan this-that the sword must be takenout of its sheath, to cut off our fellow-subjects by theirthousands. The rod, the rod, THE ROD hath indeed fallen heavily; no mortal tongue can tell the anguish it hath caused, nor perhaps can we yet dream whereits ill effects shall end.
Remember, however, the words of my text. It is a rod; but it is an appointed rod. Every deed that has been done against us has been appointed by God. God is most fully to be cleared from the sin ofit, but it is undoubtedly true that he has overruled and permitted it. The rod was ordained of God. I myself see God everywhere.I believe that "the foreknown station of a rush by the river is as fixed as the station of a king, and the chaff from thehand of the winnoweras steered as the stars in their courses." And I see God in this war. The wheels of providence may revolve in a mysteriousmanner, but I am certain that wisdom is the axle upon which they revolve, so that at last it shall be seen that God, who ordainedthe rod, only permitted it that greater good might follow, and that his name might be exalted through the earth. The sin isman's own deed, but the affliction that we suffer through it, God hath ordained. Let us bow before it, and let us nowhearken to the exhortation of the text-"Hear ye the rod, and him that hath appointed it."
I shall have your attention whilst as briefly as I can I endeavor to bid you hear this rod of God.
First, let me remark, it would have been as well if we had heard this rod BEFORE IT FELL upon us. God's rod by the wise manmay be heard before it smiteth. He that understandeth God's moral government, knows that sin carries punishment in its bowels.A wise man believing revelation, could have prophesied that God would visit us. The sins of the government of India have beenblack and deep. He who has heard the shrieks of tormented natives, who has heard the well-provokedcursing of dethroned princes, might have prophesied that it would not be long before God would unsheath his sword to avengethe oppressed. With regard to India itself, I am no apologist for our dominion there; with regard to the Sepoys, they areour voluntary subjects, they deserve the utmost rigour of the law. From their own oath they were our subjects; and if theyhave revolted let them suffer the punishment of their treason. But had it been the Indian nation that had revolted, I wouldhaveprayed God that they might have been brought under British rule again, for the sake of civilization, but I would not havepreached a crusade against them, lest haply we should have been smiting patriots who were but delivering an oppressed country.My brethren, I say it would have been as well if the rod had been heard before it fell. If in the midst of sin the Indiangovernment had paused, and endeavored to undo the evil, it would have been well for them-if instead of following the policyofcreed they had followed the policy of right, they might have looked for divine support. They never ought to have toleratedthe religion of the Hindoos at all. I believe myself (for it in no way infringes the law of right) entitled to my religion;but if my religion consisted in bestiality, infanticide, and murder, I should have no right to my religion, unless I wereprepared to be hanged for it. Now, the religion of the Hindoos is neither more nor less than a mass of the rankest filth thateverimagination could have conceived. The gods they worship are not entitled to the least atom of respect. Had they givena decent character to their demons, we might have tolerated their idolatry; but when their worship necessitates everythingthat is evil, not religion, but morality must put it down. I do not believe that in this land there ever ought to have beenany toleration for the Agapemone, a place of lust and abomination, where sin is committed before which God's sun might blush,neverought to be tolerated. Any religion that does not infringe upon morality is beyond the force of legislature. But whenonce religious teachers teach immorality, and when once a religion compels men to sin, down with it; no toleration to it.It is impossible that there should be any quarter strewn to vice, even though embellished with the name of religion. If itbe any man's religion to blow my brains out, I shall not tolerate it. If it be any man's religion to meet me as the Thugsdo, andgarotte me, and murder me, I shall not tolerate his Thugism. If it be a man's religion to commit bestial acts in public,I for one would touch his conscience, but believing that he has none, I would touch him somewhere else. Such a religion asthe religion of the Hindoo, the Indian Government were bound, as in the sight of God, to put down with all the strength oftheir hand. But they have allowed it, in some cases they have even aided and abetted their filthy deeds; and now God visitsthem;and, I repeat, it would have been well if they had heard the rod before it fell; they might have perhaps avoided all thisevil, and certainly they would have avoided the remorse which some of them must feel in having thus brought it upon themselves.
But it has fallen. The rod has smitten; the scourge has ploughed deep furrows upon India's back. What then? "Hear ye the rod" that hasfallen. Now, it is an opinion published by authority-and who am I, that I should dispute the great authorities of England?-thatone part of the reason for this dreadful visitation, is the sin of the people of England themselves. We are exhorted thisday to humble ourselves for sin. Granting me that as being a truth-and mark, I am notthe originator of it; it is in the Proclamation-who am I, that I should dispute such a high authority as that?-it is oursin that has brought it us, so they say-what, then, are our sins? Now, I will be honest with you-as honest as I can, and Iwill try and tell you. What are the most glaring sins for which, if it be true that God is now punishing us, are the mostlikely to have brought this visitation upon us?
First, there are sins in the community that never ought to have been allowed. O Britain, weep for deeds which thy governorshave not yet strength of mind to stop. We have long been allowing the infamous nuisances of Holywell-street; bless God theyare pretty well done for! But now what do I see every night? If I return from preaching in the country, in the Haymarket andin Regent-street, what stares me before my eyes? If there be a crime for which God will visit England,it is the sin of allowing infamy to walk before our eyes thus publicly. I do not know whose fault it is-some say it isthe fault of the police: it is somebody's fault, that I do know, and against that somebody I do now most solemnly protest.It is a most fearful thing that those who are honest and moral cannot walk the streets, without being insulted by sin in therobes of the harlot. My voice perhaps this day may reach some who have power to repeat this protest powerfully and successfully.Isee before me gentlemen who are the representatives of the press. I believe they will do their duty in that matter; andif they will sting as some of them can sting, right sharply, they perhaps may be able to sting a little virtue into some ofour governors, and that will be a good thing. But I do protest that this has been one of the causes why God has visited us,if indeed our sins have brought this evil upon us, as I verily believe. Look ye too, men and brethren, at some of those amusementsof yours, in which ye are wont to indulge. God forbid I should deny you those of your amusements which are innocent, butI must maintain that they should be always moral; when we know that lords and ladies of the land, have sat in playhouses,and listened to plays that were a long way from decent, it is time that some voice should be lifted up against them. Theseare glaring sins. I am not raking now for private faults; we have had these things before our eyes, and there have been somethathave dared to protest against them long ago. I say, these sins of the community in part have brought the rod upon us.
But, my friends, I am inclined to think that our class sins are the most grievous. Behold this day the sins of the rich. How are the poor oppressed! How are the needy down-trodden!In many a place the average wage of men is far below their value to their masters. In this age there is many a great man wholooks upon his fellows as only stepping-stones to wealth. He builds a factory as he would make a cauldron. He is about tomake a brew for his own wealth. "Pitch himin." He is only a poor clerk, he can live on a hundred a year. Put him in! There is a poor time-keeper: he has a large family; it does not matter; a man can be had for less: in with him! Here are the tens, the hundreds, and the thousands that must do the work. Put them in; heap the fire; boil the cauldron; stir them up; never mind their cries. The hire of the laborers kept back may go up to heaven:it does not matter, the millions of gold are safe. The law of demand andsupply is with us, who is he that would interfere? Who shall dare to prevent the grinding of the faces of the poor? Cotton-lordsand great masters ought to have power to do what they like with the people: ought they not? "Ah! but ye great men of the earth,there is a God, and that God has said he executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. And yet the sempstressin her garret, and yet the tailor in his den, and yet the artizan in his crowded factory, and yet the servantswho earn your wealth, who have to groan under your oppression, shall get the ear of God, and he will visit you. "Hearye the rod." It is for this the rod falleth on you.
Mark, again, the sins of merchants. Was there ever an age when the merchants of England had more fallen from their integrity?The mass of them, I believe, are honest to the core; but I do not know who among them are so. We can trust none in these times.Ye heap up your companies, and ye delude your myriads; ye gather the money of fools; ye scatter it to the winds of heaven,and when the poor call upon you ye tell them it is gone: but where? O! England, thou wast once true,upright, honest; men could not rightly call thee, then, "Perfidious Albion;" but now, O Britain, alas! for thee! Unlessthou dost recover thyself, who can trust thee? God will visit the nation for this, and it shall be seen that this alone isone of the things which God would have us hear, when we hear the rod.
There are many of you that are poor. I saw you smile when I spoke to the rich. I will have at you also. If we are to humbleourselves this day as a nation, ye have cause also to humble. Ah, my God, what multitudes there are of men who deserve butlittle of their employers, for they are eye-servers, men-pleasers, and do not with singleness of heart serve the Lord. Weremen better workmen, their masters would be better. There are hundreds of you that are here to-day who arethe best hands in all the world to prop up walls, when you ought to be busy at your own work-who, when your time is boughtand paid for, steal it for something else. And how many there are in what are called the lower ranks-and God forgive the manthat invented that word, for we are none of us lower than the other before the Judge of all the earth-how many are there thatdo not know what it is to look up to God, and say, "Though he has made me a servant, I will discharge my duty, and I willserve my master and serve my God with all my might." Many are the sins of the poor. Humble yourselves with the rich; bowyour heads and weep for your iniquities; for these things God doth visit us, and ye should hear the rod.
It is impossible for me to-day to enter into all the sins of illiberality, of deceit, of bigotry, of lasciviousness, of carnality,of pride, of covetousness, and of laziness which infest this land. I have tried to indicate some of the chief, and I prayGod humble us all for them.
And now, "Hear ye the rod." O church of God, the rod has fallen, and the church ought to hear it. I am afraid that it is the church that has been the greatest sinner. Do I mean by "the church" that establishedby law? No, I mean the Christian church as a body. We, I believe, have been remiss in our duty; for many and many a year pulpits never condescended to men of low estate. Our ministerswere great and haughty; they understood the polish of rhetoric, theyhad all the grandeur of logic; to the people they were blind guides and dumb dogs, for the people knew not what they said,neither did they regard them. The churches themselves slumbered; they wrapped themselves in a shroud of orthodoxy, and theyslept right on; and, whilst Satan was devouring the world, and taking his prey, the church sat still, and said, "Who is myneighbor?" and did not arouse herself to serve her God. I do hope that we have already seen the beginning of a revival. Thelastyear has seen more preaching than any year since the days of the apostles. We are stirring in ragged schools, and in variousefforts for doing good; but still the church is only half awake; I fear she still slumbers. O church of God! awake I awakeI awake! for verily the rod has fallen for thy sake. "Hear thou the rod, and him that hath appointed it."
We have had many rods, friends; we have had many great afflictions, and we did bear them for a time; and now I close my sermonby saying, "Hear ye the rod, when the rod SHALL AGAIN BE STILL." We trust that in a little while our soldiers will carve usout peace and victory with their triumphant swords; we trust that, perhaps this very day a great fight is being fought, anda great victory being won. I seem to hear to-day the shout of the triumphant warrior; I think I hearthe trump of victory even now. The hour of prayer is often the hour of deliverance. At any rate, we hope that ere longthis black cloud will be overblown, and then I fear you will all forget it. You will pray to-day: will you pray when victorycomes? You will buy some fireworks, will you not? That is how you will thank God! You had a victory over a potent enemy, andpeace was established: your votive offerings consisted of rockets and illuminations-grand offerings to the Dread Supreme!If aheathen were here he would say, "Their God is the God of humiliation, not the God of victory: their God is a God of trouble,certainly not the God of blessings, for they forget him when they receive deliverance." I remember, when last time the choleraswept through your streets, ye hurried to your churches, and ye prayed; terror sat upon your countenances, and many of youcried aloud for deliverance. It came. What did you do? Alas! for your piety! It was as the morning cloud, and as the earlydew it passed away. It will be so again. It is but as the lashing of the water; it is smitten, but it soon recovers itself,and all marks are effaced. It is so with this land; I fear it is so with each of us to a degree. How often have you and Ibeen laid upon our beds with cholera, or with fever, or with some other disease which threatened to take us away! We prayed;we sent for the minister; we devoted ourselves to God; we vowed, if he would spare us, we would live better. Here thou art,myhearer, just what thou wast before thy sickness. Thou hast forgotten thy vow; but God hath not forgotten it. Thy resolutions were filed in heaven, and in the day of judgment God shall take them forth, and say, "Here is one solemncovenant broken; here is another vow forgotten, another resolution made in sickness broken after recovery!" I do think thatto-day will be a most solemn mockery if our humiliation ends to-day. With some of you it will not even begin to-day, and,therefore, itwill not end, for it is not begun. But the mass who will pray to-day, will they pray in a week? Not they; they will gotheir way, to heap again the faggots of their sins upon the pile of vengeance, and still stand by and weep, because the fireis burning, the fire which they themselves have kindled. Oh! my hearers, permit me to charge home to your hearts; and wouldGod that he would make the charge of my language against your consciences as heavy as the charge of British soldiery againsttheenemy! How many of you have been awakened, convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement! How many times have youvowed you would repent! How many times have you declared that you did hear the rod, and that you would turn to God! And yetyou have been liars to the Almighty; you have defrauded the Most High; and whilst the bill is due it still stands dishonored.Tremble! God may smite you yet; and if to-day you are despisers of Christ, remember, you have no guarantee that you will beinthis world another hour. You may before this sun is set stand before your Maker's bar. What then? what then? what then?To perish for ever is no light matter; to be cast into the flames of hell is no little consideration. "Turn ye, turn ye, turnye; why will ye die, O house of Israel!" Repent! "The times of your ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhereto repent." And remember that when he gives repentance and faith he has appended the blessing to them. "Jesus Christ ofthe seed of David" was nailed to a cross; he died that we might not die, and to every believer heaven's gate is open,to every penitent the path to paradise is free. Sinner I dost thou believe? If so, Christ hath blotted out thy sin. Be happy!Soul! dost thou repent? Thou art safe. God has helped thee to repent, and inasmach as he hath done that, he hath proved thathe loves thee.
Oh! if I might but have some souls won to Christ to-day, what would I give? What is all this great gathering to me? It isan extra labor, that is all. For this I do not labor. God is my witness, I sought you not; never once have I said a thingto court a smile from any man. When God first sent me to the ministry he bade me fear no man, and I have not yet met the manto whom I have feared to tell of God's truth. Nor you have I sought to please, nor you have I sought togather here. I would preach the gospel; may God give me some souls as my reward! And if but one poor sinner shall lookto Jesus, clap your wings, ye angels! enough is done, for God is honored.
I have done my sermon, but I want to make an appeal to you to give liberally.
Lives there a man in England who will this day refuse his help to those of his countrymen who have suffered? No; there doesnot live such a man-not such a Briton. Is there a miserable miscreant without a heart, who will, when God has given him enough,shut up his bowels of compassion against those whose sons and daughters have been murdered, and who themselves have escapedas by the skin of their teeth? No, I will not slander you by such a supposition. I cannotthink that I have such a monster here. When the box shall pass round, give-give as you can afford; if it be a penny, letthe working man give. You that are rich must not give pence, however. Many a man has said, "There is my mite." He was wortha hundred thousand pounds, and it was not a mite at all; if he had given a thousand it would only have been a mite to him.Give as ye can afford it; may God be pleased to grant a liberal spirit.
The following Chorus was then sung-
GLORY, honor, praise, and power,
Be unto the Lamb for ever;
Jesus Christ is our Redeemer,
Hallelujah, Amen.
After which, the benediction having been pronounced, the service terminated.
There were upwards of 24,000 persons present at this service; and the amount collected towards the Indian Relief Fund amountedto nearly £500, of which £25 was given by Miss Nightingale. The Crystal Palace Company contributed £200 in addition-makinga total of nearly £700.
"To God be all the glory."