Sermon 374. The Interest Of Christ And His People In Each Other

A SERMON DELIVERED ON GOOD FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 1861, DELIVERED BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,NEWINGTON.

"My Beloved is mine, and I am His." Song of Solomon 2:16. THE Church says concerning her Lord, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." No "ifs," no "buts." The two sentences are solemnassertions. Not, "I hope, I trust, I think." But, "my Beloved is mine, andI am His." "Yes," but you will say, "the Churchmust then have been gazing upon her husband's face. It must have been a season of peculiar enjoyment with Him, when she couldspeak thus." No, Brothers and Sisters, no! The Church, when she thus spoke, was in darkness, for in the very next verse shecries-"Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountainsof Bether." I say, Brothers and Sisters, this solemn certainty, this double assertion of her interest in Christ, and Christ'sinterest in her, is the utterance of the Church even in her darkness, in the cheerless season of His absence! So then, youand I, if we believe in Christ, ought, even when we do not see His face, still to cultivate full assurance of faith, and neverbe satisfied unless we can say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." When you cannot say this, my Hearer, give no sleep toyour eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Be not happy; take no solace find no comfort as long as there is any doubt about yourunion with the Beloved-His possession of you and your possession of Him! We will now, having thus prefaced the text, come at once to it. There are two members, you perceive, to the sentence, "MyBeloved is mine, and I am His." These two things come in a strange order, you will say, "Surely we are first Christ's, beforeChrist is ours." A right thought of yours. We shall take the text, then, this evening two ways. We shall first speak of itas it would be in the order of time. "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine." We shall afterwards speak in the order ofthe text, which is the order of experience. The words as Solomon penned them, are not the order of fact as far as God is concerned,but the order in which we find out God's great doings! You know God's first things are our second things, and our second things are God's first things. "Make your calling andelection sure." Calling is your first thing-election is the second. But election is God's first thing, and calling is thenext! You are not elected because you are called; and yet, at the same time, you shall never know your election until firstyou have made your calling and election sure! The order of the text is the order of experience. We shall take the membersof the sentence as they would be if they spoke in the order of fact. I. To begin, then. I AM MY BELOVED'S, AND MY BELOVED IS THEREFORE MINE. 1. "I am my Beloved's." Glorious assertion! I am His by His Father's gift Long before suns and moons were made, and starstwinkled in the midnight darkness, God the eternal Father had given the chosen to Christ, to be His heritage and marriagedowry. If God, then, has given my soul to Christ, I am my Beloved's. Who shall dispute the right of God to give, or who shalltake from Christ that which His Father has given to be His heritage? Fiends of Hell! Legions of the Pit! When God gives, canyou take back the gift? If He puts the souls of the chosen into the hands of Christ, can you pluck them from Him? If He makesthem Christ's sheep, can you pluck them out of His fold, and make them your own? God forbid we should indulge the blasphemousthought, that any can dispute the ownership which Christ has in His people, derived from His Father's gift! But I am my Beloved's, if I am a Believer, because of Jesus Christ's purchase of me. We were bought not with corruptiblethings, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Christ has an absolute right to all that He boughtwith His blood. I do not believe in that dreamy atonement, by which Christ redeems, and purchases, and yet the purchase isa fiction, and the redemption a metaphor! All that Christ bought with blood He will have. If a man buys with gold and silverof an honest man, he gets his own, nor will he be content until he does; but when Christ ransoms with His blood and buys ofGod Himself, and redeems His own people, it is not possible that He should be frustrated of His purpose or denied the objectiveof His death! I am my Beloved's then, because He has paid the full price for me, counted down the purple drops, and positivelyand surely has as much bought me with His money as ever Abraham of old bought flocks of sheep and oxen, or as ever of oldJacob served for Rachel and for Leah. No title deeds ever made estate more tru- ly the property of the purchaser, than didthe Resurrection guarantee the rights of Christ in the "purchased possession." "I am my Beloved's," by a double tie-by theFather's gift, and by the Son's Divine purchase. These two things are not easily reconcilable to some minds. But let it becarried in your hearts as a matter of fact, that there is as much Grace in the Father's giving the elect to Christ as if noprice were paid, and secondly, that there was as full and true a price paid to the Father as though the Father had been Justiceonly and not Love. The Grace of God and His justice are, both of them, full-orbed, they are never eclipsed; they are nevermade to you with divided luster; He is as gracious as though He were not just; He is as awfully severe as though there wereno Grace in His Nature. But more than this, "I am my Beloved's," for I am His by conquest. He fought for me, and He won me, let Him possess me.He went alone to that great battle. He defied all the hosts which had made me their prey, encountered first my sins, and slewthem with His blood, He encountered Satan himself next, and bruised the serpent's head, encountered Death, and slew him by"destroying him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." O Christ! You deserved to have those for whom You did wrestleand agonize even unto blood, and who by Your strong hand, You brought out of the land of their captivity! Never could a conquerorclaim a subject so justly as Christ claims His people; they were not only His, eternally His, by the purchase of His blood,but they are His because He has taken them by overwhelming might, having delivered them out of the hand of him who was strongerthan they! That word which He gird upon His thigh, is both the right by which He claims, and the might by which He keeps Hisransomed. Besides this, every true Believer can add, "I am my Beloved's," by a gracious surrender. "With full consent I give myselfto You." This is your language, Brothers and Sisters. It is mine. "I am my Beloved's." If I were never His before, I do desireto give myself up to Him now. His love shall be the fetters in which I, a happy captive, will walk at His triumphant chariotwheels. His Grace shall bind me with its golden chains so that I will be free, and yet His bondman forever. The mercies ofeach hour shall be fresh links, and the benefits of each day and night shall be new rivets to the chain. No Christian wouldlike to be his own; to be one's own is to be lost; but to be Christ's is to be saved! To be one's own is to be a wanderingsheep; to be Christ's is to return to the great Bishop and Shepherd of our souls. Do you not remember, many of you, the nightwhen you first surrendered to Christ? He stood at the door and knocked-the door was overgrown with brambles; the hinges hadrusted from long disuse; the key was lost; the keyhole of the lock was welded together with filth and rust. Yes, from withinthe door was bolted fast! He knocked-at first a gentle knock, enough to let you know who it was. You laughed. He knocked again.You heeded not; you heard His voice as he cried, "Open to Me, open to Me. My hair is wet with dew, and My locks with the dropsof the night." But you had a thousand frivolous excuses, and you would not open to Him! Oh, do you remember when at last Heput in his hand by the hole of the lock, and your heart was moved for Him? "Jesus! Savior! I yield, I yield! I can hold outno longer, my heart melts. My cruel soul relents. Come in! Come in! Please pardon me that I have kept You out so long; resistedso long the wooings of Your heavenly love." Well, you will say tonight, and set your solemn hand and seal to it, that youare Christ's because you do once again, voluntarily and freely, surrender yourself to Him! I think tonight would be a very proper occasion for each of us to renew our dedication vows. We are, many of us, Believers;let us go to our chamber and say thus-"O God! You have heard our prayers as a Church. We have entered into Your house; wehave seen it filled to the full. By this, the answer which You have given to our prayers, we rededicate ourselves to You,desiring to say with the spouse more fully than heretofore, 'I am my Beloved's.'"

Let us pause here an instant. We have seen how we came to be our Beloved's, let us enquire in what sense we are so now.

We are His, first of all, by a near affinity that never can be broken. Christ is the Head; we are His members. There is nothingwhich my Head possesses so truly as my hands, and my heart. Your head could not say that its helmet and plume are so trulyits own as the neck, the sinews, the veins,which are joined thereunto. The head manifestly has a distinct and peculiar property in every member. "I am my Beloved's,"then, even as my hands and feet are mine. "I am my Beloved's"-if He loses me, I will be mutilated. "I am my Beloved's," ifI am cut away, or even wounded, Hewill feel the pain. The Head must suffer, when the members are tempted and tried. There is nothing so true and real, inthe sense of property, as this! I would that you who doubt the perseverance of the saints would take these few words to heart.If once Christ should lose Hispeople, He would be a Head without a body. That would be a ghastly sight! No, if He lost one of His people, He would bethe Head of a mutilated body-that would not be a glorious sight. If you imagine the loss of one mystical member of Christ,you must suppose an imperfectChrist-one whose fullness is not full, whose glory is not glorious, whose completeness is not complete! Now I am sure youwould reject that idea. And it will be joy for you to say, "as the members belong to the Head, so am I my Beloved's."

Further than this-we are our Beloved's by a most affectionate relationship. He is the Husband, Believers are the spouse. Thereis nothing that a man has that is so much his property as his own wife, except it be his very life. A man's wealth may meltby losses; a man's estate may be sold to payhis debts; But a man's wife, as long as she lives, is his absolute property. She can say, "He is mine." He can say, "Sheis mine." Now Christ says of all His people, "You are mine, I am married to you; I have taken you unto Myself, and betrothedyou unto Me in faithfulness." What doyou say? Will you deny the celestial marriage bond? God forbid! Will you not say to your Lord tonight, "Yes, I am my Beloved's"?Ah, there is no divorce court in Heaven; there is no division; no separation bill possible, for He "hates divorce." If chosen,He will not reject; if onceembraced, He will never cast out; His she is, and His she shall be forevermore. In this sense, then, "I am my Beloved's."

Yet once more-"I am my Beloved's" by an indissoluble connection, just as a child is the property of his father. The fathercalls his child his own. Who denies it? What law is so inhuman as to allow another to tear away the offspring of his heartfrom the parent? There is no such law amongcivilized men! Among the aboriginal savages of the Southern States of America, such a thing may exist; but among civilizedmen there can never be any dispute but that the father's right to his child is supreme, and that no master, and no owner canoverride the rights of the parentsto his children. Come, then- even so are we His! "He shall see His seed." "He shall see of the travail of His soul." IfHe could lose His Glories, if He could be driven from His Kingdom, it He could be despoiled of His crown, if His Throne couldtotter, if all His might could meltaway as the snow wreath melts before the summer's sun-yet at least His seed would be His own! No law, human or Divine, couldunchild the believing child, or unfather Christ, the Everlasting Father. So then, it is a great joy to know that each Believermay say, in the highestsense-"I am my Beloved's. I am His child, and He is my Parent." I half wish that instead of my preaching now, we could standup, each of us who feel the force of this sweet sentiment, and say, "'Tis true, great God; by eternal donation, by completepurchase, by a full surrender,by a mighty conquest, I am my Beloved's. He is my Head, my Husband, my Father, and my All."

2. The second sentence in order of time is, "My Beloved is mine." Ah, you very poor men and women, you who could not callone foot of land your own, and probably never will till you get the space where you lie down to sleep the sleep of death!If you can say, "My Beloved is mine," you have greaterwealth than Croesus ever knew, or than a miser ever dreamed! If my soul can claim Christ, the eternal God and the perfectMan, as being my own personal property, then my soul is rich to all the intents of bliss-even if the body walks in rags, orshould the lips know hunger, or themouth be parched with thirst!

But how is my Beloved mine? He is mine, because He gave Himself to me of old. Long before I knew it, or had a being, He covenantedto bestow Himself on me-on all His chosen. When He said, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delightto do Your will, O God," He did in factbecome My Substitute, giving Himself to do my work, and bear my sorrow! Mine He is because that Covenant has been fulfilledi n the actual gift. For me (I speak in the first person, because I want you each to speak in the first person, too), foryou, my Soul, He laid aside His robesof Glory to become a Man; for you He was swaddled in the weakness of Infancy and lay in the poverty of the manger; for you,my Soul, He bore the infant body, the childish form, and the human flesh and blood; for you the poverty which made Him cry,"Foxes have holes and the birds ofthe air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have not where to lay My head." For you, my Soul, for you that shame and spitting,that agony and bloody sweat, that Cross, that crown of thorns, those expiring agonies, that dying groan! "My Beloved," inall this, "is mine." Yes, yours theburial; yours the Resurrection and its mystic meaning; yours the Ascension and its triumphant shouts; yours the sessionat the right hand of God; yes, and by holy daring we avow it, He who sits today, "God over all, blessed forever," is oursin the splendor of His majesty, in theinvincibility of His might, in the Omnipresence of His power, in all the Glory of His future Advent! Our Beloved is ours,because He has given Himself to us, just as He is.

But besides that, our Beloved is not only ours by His own gift, which is the reality of it all, but He is ours by a graciouslycompleted union. What a wonderful thing is the Doctrine of Union with Christ. "We are members of His body, of His flesh, andof His bones. For this cause shall a man leavehis father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speakconcerning Christ and the Church." Christ and His Church are one-one as the stones are one with the foundation; one, as thebranches are one with the vine;as the wife is one with the husband; one, as the members are one with the Head-as the soul is one with the body-no, if therecan be conceived a union closer, and there is but one, we are one with Christ, even as Christ is one with His Father! "I inthem, and You in Me;" for thusthe union stands. Now, as soon as ever we are one with Christ, you see at once that Christ must be ours. There is a commonproperty between Christ and His people. All theirs belongs to Him-His belongs to them. They have not two stocks, they havebut one. He has cast in His wealth,they have cast in their poverty-from that day they have common funds. They have but one purse-they have all things in common.All He is and all He has is theirs, and all they are or can be belong to Him.

I might add, but this is a high point, and needs to be experienced, rather than preached upon, Christ is ours by His indwelling.Ignatius used to call himself the God-bearer and when some wondered at the title, he said-"I carry God about within me; ourbodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit."That is an amazing text, amazing in the splendor of its meaning! Does the Holy Spirit dwell in a man? Yes, that He does!Not in this temple, "not in tabernacles made with hands." That is to say, of man's building, but within this soul, and inyour soul, and in the souls of all Hiscalled ones, He dwells. "Abide in Me," He said, "and I in you." Christ must be in you, the hope of Glory; Christ must beformed in you, as He was in Mary, or you have not come yet to know to the fullest, the Divine meaning of the spouse, whenshe said- "My Beloved is mine, and Iam His."

Now, tonight, I wish that we could get practical good, to our comfort, out of the thought that Christ is ours, if we are Believers.Hear me, then, a moment or two, while I dilate upon that thought. Christ is surelyyours. It is not a questionable property,a matter to be put into dispute withHeaven's chancery; beyond question Christ is the property-the rightful heritage-of every elect and called one!

Again-Christ is ours personally. We sometimes speak of severally and jointly. Well then, Christ is ours jointly; but, blessedbe His name, He is ours severally, too! Christ is as much yours tonight, however mean you may be, as though He did not belongto another man living. The whole of Christ isyours! He is not part mine, and part yours, and part another man's. He is all mine, all yours-personallymine, personallyyours! Oh that we could realize this fact!

And then, again, Christ is always ours. He is never more ours at one time, and less ours at another. The moment we believein Him, we may know our perfect and invariable right to Christ-a right which depends not upon the changes of the hour, orupon the temperature of our frames and feelings, butupon those two Immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie. Christ is ours tonight; and, Glory be to His namefor it, if we believe, He is ours forever-

"This sacred bond shall never break, Though earth's old columns bow! The strong, the feeble and the weak Can claim their Saviornow!"

And this they shall do, perhaps with greater joy, but not with greater right, when they stand before the Throne of God!

I cannot, tonight, in a place to which I am so little accustomed, bring all my thoughts together as I would. But, I thinkif I could but put this Truth of God before you, or rather, if the Spirit of God would put it so that you could feel Christto be yours, it would make you spring from your pewwith ecstasy! Why, it is enough to thrill every chord in a man; and if a man may be compared to a harp, make every stringin him pour forth an ocean of music! Christ mine- myselfChrist's-there cannot be a more joyous or more heavenly theme beneaththe skies!

II. I have thus completed the first work of this evening-taking the sentences of the text in the order of time. I shall nowtake the text IN THE ORDER IN WHICH IT IS GIVEN TO US, WHICH IS THE ORDER OF OUR EXPERIENCE.

Do you not see, that to a man's experience, God's order is reversed? We begin thus-"My Beloved is mine." I go to Him, takeHim up in the arms of my faith, as Simeon took up the little Child in the Temple, and pressing Him to my heart, I say-"Jesus,You are mine. All unholy and unclean, Inevertheless obey Your command; I believe You, I take You at Your word; I touch the hem of Your garment; I trust my soulwholly with You; You are mine and my soul can never part with You." What next? Why then, the soul afterwards says-"Now I amYours, tell me what You would haveme to do. Jesus, let me abide with You. Lord, I would follow You wherever You go; put me on any service, dictate to me anyCommandment; tell me what You would have me do to glorify You"-

"Through floods, through flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes."

For I am His! Christ is mine-this is faith. I am His-this is good works. Christ is mine-that is the simple way in which thesoul is saved! I am Christ's-that is the equally simple method by which salvation displays itself in its practical fruits.I am afraid some of you have never carriedout the last sentence, "I am Christ's." I know some, for instance, who believe (mark, I am not speaking to those who donot who believe it to be the duty of every Christian to profess his faith in Baptism, but nevertheless are not baptized. Theysay they are Baptists in principle.They are Baptists without any principle at all! They are men who know their Master's will, and do it not, and they shallsurely be beaten with many stripes. In other men it becomes a sin of ignorance; but with such men it is willful. They reply,"It is a non-essential." Thingsnon-essential to salvation are nevertheless essential to obedience As I said a few Sabbaths ago, you would not like a servantwho only did what he liked to do, and told you that some of your commands were non-essential. I am quite certain that if asoldier did not load his gun, orstand in rank, or shoulder arms at the word of command, the court martial would never listen for an instant to the pleaof non-essential! God's commands require obedience, and it is essential that every servant be found faithful. I say, it isexceedingly essential to a Christian todo what he is told to do. Whatever Jesus bids us do, if it save us from nothing, at any rate the fulfillment of it willsave us from the sin of being disobedient to Him!

Now will you try, my dear Friends, not in the one command only, which lies at the threshold of the house, but in all others,to feel that you are not your own? "Ah," says one man, "I am not my own; I have so much to do for my family." Another says,"I am not my own; I belong to a political party."Another, "I am not my own; I belong to a firm." Just so-all these are ways in which men are kept from saying, "I am my Beloved's,and my Beloved is mine." Oh that we could, by any means whatever, feel that we were all Christ's! I, though I had a drop ofblood in my veins that wasnot His, I would seek to have it let out; and if there were a single power I have-mental, physical, or spiritual which couldnot and would not serve God, though it might impair my comfort-I would devoutly pray that this Jonah might be thrown intothe sea, this Achan stoned withstones, this Haman hanged on the gallows! This cankered thing, it is a deadly thing-this damnable thing must be cut away,once and for all, for, "better to enter into Heaven halt and maimed, than having two eyes and two arms to be cast into Hellfire." We must have eyes that seeChrist! We must feel that we are all Christ's, and live as if we were all Christ's, for we have no right to say, "My Belovedis mine," unless we can add, "And I am His." Why look, Sirs, look at the great multitude of professors. How few there arewho live as if they belonged toChrist! They act independently of Hm! They buy, they sell on their own account-that they are stewardsnever penetrate theirthick brains; that all they have is not their own, but His, never seems to have come into their heart, though they have sungit with their lips-

"And if I might make some reserve, And duty did not call, I love my God with zeal so great, That I would give Him all."

Many a man has sung that, with his thumb-nail going round a coin in his purse, to find out whether it was a four penny ora three penny bit! He says he would give Christ all; but then he means that the bill is to be drawn at a very long credit,and he will pay when he dies-he will give up what hecannot take away with him-and when he leaves his rotten carcass, he will leave his rotten wealth. Oh that we could all feelthat we were all Christ's! Why, the Church of God would not be penned and shut up within the narrow bounds of England andAmerica for long, if once we feltwe were Christ's! At this very moment China is open to Christian enterprise. The leader of the so-called "rebels" turnsout to be, after all, a man who is exceedingly enlightened in the things of God. He has said to Mr. Roberts, the missionary,"I open today 18 chapels inNankin-write to your friends and tell them to come over and preach, and we will be glad to hear them. I give you a passport,that no man may touch you, and any man who will preach Christ's Gospel shall go unharmed through my dominions." And he actuallyissued, but a few daysbefore the coming of the last mail, a proclamation by which all idolatry is abolished throughout his dominions, and witchcraftand fortunetelling are made crimes, and he invites and prays specifically that his Brothers in England will send over theWord of Life, that they may haveit among the people. Now I do honestly avow, if this place had not been built, and I had had nothing beyond the narrow boundsof the place in which I have lately preached, I would have felt in my conscience bound to go to learn the language and preachthe Word there! But I now knowwhat to do. I must here abide, for this is my place; but I would to God some were found in the Church, some in London, whohave not such a gracious tie as this to keep them in their own land, to say, "Here am I, send me. I am Christ's man; thereis Christ's field. Let me go and reapit, for the harvest is ripe. Help me, O God, and I will seek to ingather it for Your honor." "My Beloved is mine, and Iam His." That last, "I am His" would make life cheap, and blood like water, and heroism a common thing and daring but an everydayduty, and self-sacrifice the veryspirit of the Christian life! Learn well, then, the meaning of that sentence, "Iam His."

But will you please notice once again-(I fear lest I shall weary you, and therefore will be brief)-"My Beloved is mine"-thatis my calling. He calls me to Him. He gives Himself to me. He is mine. I am His-that is my election!I was His before I knewHim to be mine; but I learned my callingfirst, and my election afterwards. We have scores of people who will not come to Christ because they cannot understand election.Meet a boy in the street, and invite him to go to a two-penny school. "No," says the boy, "I don't feel fit to go to a nationalschool to learn to readand write-for, to tell you the truth, I don't understand the Hebrew language," You would reply, "But, my good lad, you willlearn Hebrew afterwards, if you can-but that is no reason, at any rate, why you should not learn English first! Come firstto the little school; you shallgo afterwards to the grammar school; if you get on, you shall go to the University, take your B.A. degree, and perhaps comeout as a Master of Arts." But here we have poor souls that want to be have their M.A. before they have gone to the penny school!They want to read the tomesbefore they will read the primer book. They are not content to spell A, B, C-"I am a sinner, Christ is a Savior"-but theylong to turn over the book of decrees, and find out the deep things of God. You shall find them out afterwards-you shall gostep by step, while the Mastershall say to you each time, "Friend, come up higher." But if you begin with election, you will have to come down again-forthere will be a more honorable man than you who will come in, and you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. I haveseen plenty of high-flyingChristians who began at the top of the tree; they were themen; wisdom would die with them; the judges, the dictators, thevery consuls, the cardinals, the popes-they knew everything. And whenever such men are gracious men, the Lord always putsthe lancet into them, and makes themgrow smaller and smaller, and smaller, till at last they say, "Woe is me, for I am undone." And they cry, "My soul is evenas a weaned child." Begin at the bottom and grow up. But do not begin at the top and come down! Thatis hard work-but goingup is pleasant work, joyous work!Begin by saying, "My Beloved is mine." You shall come to know your election, by-and-by. and say, "I am His."

And now I do not think I will preach any longer about my text, but just come down upon my Hearers for a few minutes, withall my might! How many among us can dare to say this tonight? Hundreds of you can! Thousands of you can! If this were theDay of Judgment-if tonight you stood, fresh risenfrom your graves-if nowyou heard the trumpet sound-if nowyou saw the King in His beauty sitting upon the Great White Throne,I know that many of you would say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." If this day the millennial reign of Christ had begun-ifthe vials had beenopened, the plagues poured out, and if now Christ were come-that the wicked might be driven out, and that his saints mightreign-I am sure there are many of you who would say, "Welcome, welcome, Son of God! My Beloved is mine, and I am His." Andthere are many of you, too, whoif the angel of death should pass the pew, and flap his black wings into your face, and the cold air of death should smiteyou, would say, "'Tis well, for my Beloved is mine, and I am His." You could shut your eyes and your ears to the joys, andto the music of earth, and you couldopen them to the splendors and melodies of Heaven! To be fearless of death should always be the mark of the Christian. Sometimesa sudden alarm may rob us of our presence of mind; but no Believer is in a healthy state if he is not ready to meet deathat any hour, and at any moment.To walk bravely into the jaws of the dragon-to go through the iron gates and to feel no terror-to be ready to shake handswith the skeleton king; to look on him as a friend, and no more a foe-this should be the habitual spirit, and the constantpractice of the heir of Heaven.Oh, if this is written on my soul, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His!" Come, welcome Death-

"Come, Death, and some celestial band, I'll gladly go with you."

But-and a solemn "but"-pass the question round these galleries, and in this area, and how many among you must say, "I neverthought of that. I never thought whether I was Christ's, or Christ mine." I will not rebuke you tonight. I will not thunderat you. God's Grace to me forbids that thisshould be a day of thunder. Let it be a day of feasting to everyone, and of sorrow to none. What shall I say to you, then,but this? O that Christ maybe yours! When He was here on earth, He chose to go among sinners-sinners of the blackest hue!And now He is in Heaven; up yonderHe loves sinners as much as He ever did. He is as willing to receive you tonight as to receive the thief! It will give asmuch joy to His heart to hear your cry tonight, as when He thanked God that these things were revealed unto babes. It is toHis honor that you should be His; itis to His joy that He should be yours. Sinner! If you will have Christ-if now the Spirit of God makes you willing-thereis no bar on God's part when the bar is taken away on your part! If you are willing, by His Grace, He is more willing thanyou are! If the gate of your heartis on the latch, the gate of Heaven is wide open! If your soul does but yearn after Christ, His heart has long yearned afteryou! If you have but a spark of love to Christ, He has a furnace of love to you; and if you have none at all-no love, no faith-ohI pray you have it now!"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." You! You! YOU! Did you come here out of curiosity? Zaccheusheard Christ out of curiosity; but he was saved. Did you come for a worse purpose? God bless you, anyhow, for whatever reasonyou came; and may He bring you toHimself tonight! Trust Christ now, and you are saved. My life for yours-if you perish trusting in Christ, I will perish,too! Even should I have an ear listening to me which belongs to a harlot, to a thief, to a murderer, yet, "he who believesin the Lord Jesus Christ shall besaved." And if you believe in Him, and you are lost, I will be lost with you; and the whole Church of Christ must be lost,too; for there is the same way to Heaven for the best as for the worst-for the most vile as for the most righteous! "No mancomes unto the Father but byChrist." Nothing can damn a man but his own righteousness! Nothing can save him but the righteousness of Christ. All yoursin-your past sin-shall not destroy you-if you now believe in Jesus! It shall be cast into the sea forever, and you shallbegin again as though you hadnever sinned. His Grace shall keep you for the future, and you shall hold on your way an honor to Christ's Grace, and ajoy to your own soul! But if you are disobedient and will not eat of the good of the land, then will I say, as Isaiah saidof old, "I am found of them that soughtMe not, but all day long have I stretched out My hands to an ungodly and gain-saying generation." God has stretched outHis hands! Oh that you were wise and would run into His arms tonight!

I know I am speaking to some self-righteous men-some who say, "It is a shame to tell men they are depraved. Iam not." Well,we think if their lives were written, it might be proved they were. "It is a shame," they say, "to tell men that they cannotget to Heaven by their good works, because thenthey will be wicked." It is an odd thing, though, that the more this Truth is preached, the better the people are! Preachinggood works as the way to Heaven always makes drunkards and thieves, but preaching faith in Christ always produces the besteffects. Dr. Chalmers, who was nofanatic, says, "When I preached mere morality, I preached sobriety till they were all drunkards; I preached chastity tillit was not known anywhere; I preached honesty till men grew to be thieves. But," he says, "as soon as ever I preached Christ,there was such a change in thevillage as never was known!" Well, we believe that self-righteousness will destroy you, my Friend, and we therefore tellyou, honestly and plainly, that you might as well hope to get to Heaven by flying up in a balloon as to get there by yourgood works! You may as soon sail toIndia in a sieve as get to Glory by your own goodness; you might as well go to court in cobwebs as seek to go to Heavenin your own righteousness. Away with your rags, your filthy, rotten rags! They are only a harbor for the parasites of unbeliefand pride! Away with your rottenrighteousness, your counterfeit gold, your forged wealth! It is of no worth whatever in the sight of God! Come to Him empty,poor, naked! It grates on your proud ears, does it? Better, I say, to lose your pride than to lose your soul! Why be damnedfor pride's sake? Why carry yourhead so high that it must be cut off? Why feed your pride on your soul's blood? Surely there is cheaper stuff than thatfor pride to drink! Why let it suck the very marrow out of your bones? Be wise! Bow, stoop, stoop to be saved! And now, inthe name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Man,the God, I do command you, as His messenger and His servant-and at your peril reject the command-"Believe, repent and bebaptized, every one of you." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved," "for he who believes and is baptizedshall be saved. He who believesnot shall be damned."

God add His blessing, for His name's sake. Amen.