Sermon 933. Angelic Studies
(No. 933)
DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY 1, 1870
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdomof God." Ephesians 3:10.
THE "principalities and powers in heavenly places" to whom the Apostle here refers, are, no doubt, the angels. These brightand glorious spirits, never having fallen into sin, did not need to be redeemed, and therefore, in the sense of being cleansedfrom guilt, they have no share in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Yet it is interesting to notice how our Lord did, as itwere, pass and pass again their shining ranks when He sped His way down to the regions of death, and when He came back triumphantto the realms of Glory.
Thus in one place "we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death," and in another place we learn,"that the Father raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalityand power, and might and dominion." It is possible that the mediation of Christ has a bearing upon them, and has from nowon confirmed them in their holiness, so that by no means shall they ever be tempted or led into sin in the future. It maybe so, but this much seems to be evident, that though they had no direct share in redemption, they feel, nevertheless, aninterest in it, and are to be instructed by its results.
The sublime plan of the Gospel of the Grace of God, which is so entirely beyond the compass of our natural faculties thatwe could never, by searching, have found it out, appears to have been equally beyond the grasp of angelic intelligence. Itwas a mystery that excited their wistful enquiry-until by the Church (that is to say, by the Divine Counsel and conduct informing and perfecting the Church) there is made known unto them the manifold wisdom of God as they have never learned itbefore. They have kept their first estate, and have been obedient to God's behests. They delight to be known as the servantsof God, doing His commandments, and hearkening unto the voice of His Word.
They are appointed to exercise some sort of power over various parts of God's creation, therefore they are called "principalitiesand powers." Certainly they are engaged in singing Jehovah's praise. Much of the music that rises up before His Throne comesfrom the harps of spirits, pure and immaculate, who have never known sin. Yet, though they are thus pure, thus engaged inworship, of such eminent rank in the universe of God, they are never represented as indifferent spectators of anything whichour mortal race can do or suffer, but their sympathy with men is constant.
Do they not watch over the saints? Is it not written, that they "encamp round about them that fear the Lord"? Are they notcharged to take care of the saints, to bear them up in their hands, lest they dash their feet against the stones? Angels,we know, have often been messengers of God's will to the sons of men. They have never shown any reluctance- on the contrary,great has been their joy to bear God's tidings down from Heaven to earth. And their sympathy even with fallen men, with menwho have grievously sinned and gone astray, is shown by the fact that they "rejoice over one sinner that repents, more thanover ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance."
They are, as it were, in yonder gilded vessel, untossed of tempest. But they have sympathy with us in this poor heavy-ladenboat, tossed with tempest and not comforted. I see them there on yonder sea of glass mingled with fire. I hear their harps,as incessantly their joy goes up in music to the Throne of the Most High. But they do not look down with scorn on us poordenizens of this dusky planet. On the contrary, they delight to think of us as their Brethren, as their fellow servants, asit will be the consummation of their happiness when we shall all be gathered to the Church of the First-Born, that they shallmake up the innumerable company of angels that surround the blood-washed throng.
I. The subject of our meditation, which will be brief, resolves itself into a question, HOW EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH THE CHURCHDO ANGELS COME TO SEE THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD? Some other matters in connection with this we shall have to speak of afterwards.
Who can doubt that the angels had seen much of the wisdom of God in creation? With faculties keener and more elevated thanours, faculties that have never been blunted by sin, they can perceive the various contrivances of God's skill both in theanimate and the inanimate world. Doubtless as each new star has been minted by God, as each planet has been struck off likea spark from the everlasting anvil, angels, those sons of the morning, have lifted up their songs, and have poured forth theirpaeans of joy and gladness.
They have seen the wisdom of God in the greatness of creation-in every sphere they have been able to perceive it, for theirvision is far more comprehensive than ours. And they have also, no doubt, seen that wisdom in all its minuteness as manifestin the delicate structure of organized beings, and the skillful economy of the operations of creative power. For there againthey are able with the singleness and certainty of superior optics to perceive what only after long years we have been ableto discover-and that by reasoning from the ingenuity of the works to the excellence of the design.
What a scale of survey must a seraph have! How readily can we imagine an eye that takes in at once the landscape of the world!He need not confine himself to one single spot in God's universe, but with rapid wings he can steer far and wide over theinfinity of space. May he not pause here a moment and there a moment, and with a glance peer into the multiform wisdom ofGod in all the ten thousand thousand worlds that stud the realms of space? Yet with all that facility of observation, it seemsthat the angels have some parts of the wisdom of God to learn. They have some lessons of heavenly science to study which creationcannot unfold to their view-to be ascertained and certified by them only through the transcendent work of Redemption whichthe Lord has carried on in His Church.
Fix your attention for a moment on the word "now" as it is used in the text. On that word, it seems to me, much of the meaninghangs. Long before our Lord came into the world God had been pleased to reveal somewhat of the wisdom of His Grace in thetypes of the old Law. These were full of significance, but at the same time not free from perplexity to the minds of mostmen. They appear not to have been very intelligible, even to the angels, for they are pictured as standing over the MercySeat, with wings outspread, looking down upon its golden lid, anxiously enquiring, but not clearly discovering the secretof the old Covenant dispensation.
Peter says, I suppose in allusion to this, "which things the angels desire to look into." But Paul here vehemently sets forththe yearnings of his heart in the exercise of his ministry, "to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, whichfrom the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto theprincipalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."
May we not infer from this that though angels saw Moses and Aaron, and the long succession of priests that followed them.Though they doubtless mingled invisibly in the solemn gatherings that went up to Mount Zion, and heard the chants of the gloriousPsalms. Though they saw the streams of blood that flowed at the altar of burnt offering, and marked the rising clouds of smokethat went up from the altar of incense that was in the Holy Place before the Lord, they had not as yet discovered the wisdomof God in its fullness and clearness, the spotless mirror of His power, the reflex image of His glorious perfection?
But it must have remained for them to learn it from the Church! Since Christ has come, angels are to be students of the manifoldwisdom of God as revealed in His work towards His people, preparing them for that grand climax-the espousal of the Churchand the marriage of the Lamb. To come closer to the matter we must trace it progressively, as though it were step by stepthat the angels pursued their study, and acquired an insight into this manifold wisdom. It may be they do so. Certainly amongthe children of men there is much pleasure in the getting of knowledge. The merchandise of it is better than the merchandiseof silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
As we gradually break up fresh ground, decipher that which is obscure, sift out analogies, solve difficulties, and followout the tracks of history in one continuous line, our enjoyment of study rises to enthusiasm. Do you not think that the angelsperceived the manifold wisdom of God now that they began to understand what man was and what man is? They must have alreadyseen that God had created an order of pure spirits who served Him faithfully and never sinned. There was one form of wisdomdisplayed in that. Other spirits, equally pure, went astray, and in the wisdom of God- for there is wisdom in it-these weresuffered to continue astray, reserved in chains until the judgment.
Soon the angels perceived that God was about to make another intelligent creature, not altogether spiritual, but a spiritualcreature that should be linked with materialism, a creature that should abide in a body of clay. And that God intended tomake this creature a mixture of earth and Heaven-such a one that he should occupy the place which fallen
angels had left vacant. They discerned in this at once the wisdom of God. He had formed a pure spirit. He had fashioned materialsubstances. Now He was about to make a creature in which the two should be combined, a creature that should be spiritual,and yet should be material.
But before this creature should be permitted to take his place forever at the right hand of God, he was to be permitted topass the test of temptation. Being tempted, he was to fall into sin. Out of the condemnation into which he should sink hewas to be elevated by an act of Divine Grace. From the guilt of that sin he was to be cleansed by a matchless system of substitutionarysacrifice. And then, after having been alienated in heart, he should nevertheless become as pure as if he had never been consciousof evil! And contaminated with it, he should be redeemed from it and stand in allegiance to the Most High, to serve Him withas absolute a perfection as if he had never transgressed or lost his first estate.
Herein is manifold wisdom, that the Lord God should make so strange a creature, that He should be formed of the dust of theground, and yet created in the image of God. A creature that should know sin, and whatever of pleasure there might be in it,and yet be restored to purity and holiness. A creature who though awhile estranged in heart, and guilty of rebelling witha high hand against his Creator, should return to its allegiance through the infinitely wise workings of God's Spirit, andfrom now on should remain forever the liege servant of God! And, something more, the child of God would be lifted up and exaltedinto a nearness of connection and intimacy of communion with the Great Father of Spirits into which no creature had ever beenbrought before! In that grand design, the angels must have seen much of the sublime wisdom of God, and that conspicuouslythrough the Church.
But, Brethren, may not the admiration of angels at the unfolding of this wisdom have been increased by the mystery in whichit had long been shrouded from their apprehension? Observe that Paul was exulting in a revelation "which in other ages wasnot made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit." What use willhe make of it? First he looks round among the saints and sounds the note of welcome. Then he looks out among his fellow menand proclaims it to the Gentile world. And at length he looks up and descries among the angelic throng, creatures of noblemind and exalted rank, who could sympathize the joy and hail the solution of so grand a problem.
Be it remembered that the decree had previously been proclaimed from the throne of the Most High, for, "when He brings theFirst-Begotten into the world, He says, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." Yet the means by which the counsels of Godconcerning Christ and the Church should be brought to pass had not thus far been shown. With what pleasing wonderment, therefore,would the principalities and powers in heavenly places regard the plan as it was unsealed! How well might the Apostle lookforward to those ages to come which have yet to prove the reality of all that has been foreshadowed!
The Truth of all that has been prophesied. And (the work now in progress being completed) the actual form and fashion of allthat from the beginning was predestinated. Even while the mystery was unexplained, it was not for pure angelic minds to doubt.Still their thoughts must have been full of marvel, and startling questions must have occurred to them. Shall the Only-BegottenSon of the Father take the nature of man into union with the Godhead? Can it be safe to put such a creature as man into sosublime a relationship with the Creator? Will pride never inflame his breast and provoke his soul to transgress? By what strangeprocess shall he be made meet to partake of the inheritance of the saints in
light?
While the details are concealed, the destiny seems incomprehensible. It is therefore that the Church becomes as a museum whichangels may visit with ever-expanding interest and ever-increasing delight. Over the minutest particulars of the Divine workmanshipin the saints they may pore with pleasure. For there they have open to their observation by the Church the manifold wisdomof God. And all this redounds to the glory of the Savior. That creature, man, when thus elevated, can never be proud, forhe remembers what he was. If ever the feeling of exultation crosses his mind, he transfers the honor to Christ, who can receiveit as his rightful due.
There is not in Heaven, of all the creatures, a humbler creature, though none more elevated-made to have dominion over allthe works of God's hands, with all things put under his feet. He is made to be akin to Deity itself by virtue of union withthe Son of God, and yet safe to stand there, without cause to fear that he should pervert his high prerogative or usurp anyadoration or prerogative which does not belong to him. The process through which he has passed-his annealing, as it were,in the fire of his fall and of his repentance-his deep obligations to Sovereign Grace, shall make it
safe to grant that he shall sit with Christ on His Throne. Even as Christ also overcame, and is set down with his Father onHis Throne.
I talk of these things feebly and superficially, but I am persuaded that this is a subject which angels can think of withenchantment, and as they think it over they see transparent proofs of the manifold wisdom of God. But to come down to morefamiliar topics. Probably you will be more impressed with the excellence of this wisdom as you look at the first principlesof Christianity, than if you would arrest your attention in any refinements of reasoning. The wisdom of God is clearly seenby angels in this-that though God was dishonored in this world by sin-that sin has redounded to His greater honor.
Satan, when he led men astray and tempted them to rebel, thought he had marred the Glory of God, but he never did more palpablyoutwit God. As Augustine ventured to say of the Fall, "Happy thought," so, when we see how God's mercy and His love have shoneresplendent through that dreadful breach, we can only admire the wisdom of God which has thus outmatched the subtlety of Hell.The serpent was exceedingly wise, but God was far wiser. Satan's craft was dexterous, but God's wisdom was infinite in itsprescience. Wisdom has outmatched craft. Is it not glorious to think that this world where God was dishonored most is theworld where He shall be most revered?
There is no such display of the attributes and perfections of Godhead in the whole universe beside as there is here. On ourblighted soil God has stood foot to foot with moral evil. God incarnate, the Son of God, has sustained the conflict, and wonthe victory! While the heel of Christ was bruised, the head of the dragon has been most effectually broken! A triumph thatGod would have us commemorate in time and in eternity has come through the sin that threatened the destruction of the world.
This wisdom of God is to be seen in the way that our redemption was worked. The doctrine of Substitution is a marvel which,if God had never revealed, none of us could by any possibility have discovered. You remember how it was. We had sinned andwere condemned. How could God be gracious and yet be just? How could He keep His Law and yet at the same time show His mercytowards us? Of old that problem was solved by the Suretyship of Christ. He who had determined to be Man put Himself from beforethe foundation of the world into our place, and offered Himself to God as the Head of the race in Covenant that He might makerecompense to the broken Law.
Angels could not have conjectured this, but when it was made known to them, how could they refrain to chant fresh songs tothe praise of Him who could undertake so loving a responsibility? It became necessary when Christ was our Surety, that Heshould afterwards take upon Himself our nature. Oh, how it must have surprised the angels when they heard that the Son ofGod was coming down to earth to be born of a virgin! What marvel must there have been when the announcement was made throughthe courts of Paradise that He was going down to Bethlehem!
One of the angelic number who had been sent to attend Him proclaimed His advent, but while he was making the announcement,"Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host," who now came in to swell the song, "Glory to God inthe highest! On earth peace, good will toward men." The swell of that music-how grand! The cadence of those simple words-howcharming! Yes, the angels must have discovered something of the wisdom of God when they saw that God thus tabernacled amongmen, that the Word was made flesh in order to be capable of carrying out His surety-engagements, and really become a Substitutefor those who had offended.
I think His whole life must have struck them with wonder. They must often have observed wisdom in His actions and in His prayers,in His speech and in His silence. But, when at last He came to die, methinks even cherubim and seraphim were wrapt in amazement.That He should stoop from Heaven and become a friend to the fallen race might surprise them much. But that He should stoopto die must have appeared utterly incomprehensible! Something more of the love and wisdom of God should yet be revealed tothem. I think our hymn must fitly describe how they gathered round that Cross-
"And could their eyes have known a tear, They must have wept it there." When they beheld the griefs and torments of the dyingSon of God, the Lamb of God's Passover-when they heard Him say, "It is finished!"-what a door must have been opened to them!They saw, then, that He had finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. And then,perhaps, they saw more clearly than before how Christ, by suffering, put an end to our sufferings. And by being made a cursefor us had made us the right-
eousness of God in Him. If they marvelled during the three days of His slumber in the tomb, His Resurrection must have openedup another door to them. And, when after His forty days' sojourn, they came to meet Him with glad acclaim.
When they joined Him, and with Him rode up to the gates of Heaven, singing, "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you liftup, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in." When they came in triumph with "the Lord mighty in battle,the King of Glory," in that procession to His Throne, they must still have been more and more amazed, and said one to another,"What thing is this? What mighty marvel! He that became Man to suffer, is the very One that now rises to reign. He who wasborn to die now lives forevermore. Behold, He is now the Head over all things, and made to have dominion over all the worksof God's hands, for it has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell!"
Thus, Brethren, though time and voice fail me, permit me to say the whole history of our blessed Lord, who is the Head ofthe Church, is making known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God in such a way asthey never could have otherwise seen it.
The wisdom of God is seen through the Church in the Holy Spirit's work as well as in the work of Christ. It is "manifold wisdom."You know the children's toy, the kaleidoscope. Every time you turn it there is some fresh form of beauty. You seldom see thesame form twice. So it is with nature, each time and season has its special beauty. There is always variety in its scenery-diversitiesof form and color are strewn throughout the world. You never saw two hills molded in the same pattern, or two rivers thatwound after the same fashion from their source down to the sea. Nature is full of variety. So is the work of the Holy Spirit.
In calling sinners to Christ, there is singleness of purpose but no uniformity of means. Your conversion, my dear Friend,in the main outline, is very much like mine-yet your conversion has its distinctive incidents. God's wisdom is displayed equallyin bringing you in that way, and in bringing me in another way. I believe there will be found evidence at the last of thewisdom of God in the very date, the very place, the very means in and by which every soul is brought to believe in Jesus.And angels will, no doubt, be able to perceive in every conversion some singular marks of beautiful originality proceedingfrom the inexhaustible Artist of Grace, the Holy Spirit.
That same wisdom will be seen in the biography of every convert-how the Lord afflicts, or how He comforts. How He upholdsus, how He keeps back that which cannot yet be endured. How He gently leads us, how He makes us to lie down. We find fault,sometimes, with the way of Providence because we do not understand it. When we shall get a clearer sight of it we shall seethat every mark and line was dictated by His love, and ordered by His Infinite Counsel. As each Christian shall be conformedto the likeness of Christ, angels will see in the products of Grace fresh displays of the manifold wisdom of God.
I could suppose that the death of a martyr must be such a spectacle as those holy watchers regard with extraordinary interest.Would they not have gathered around such a woman as Blandina, for instance, who was made to sit in a red-hot chair, afterhaving been tossed upon the horns of a wild bull? Yet constant to the last, she maintained her faith in Christ while passingthrough the torture! Pure spirits as they were, they must have commiserated the physical anguish and admired the spiritualtriumph of this feeble woman thus devoted in her love to their Lord and Master.
Yes, you ministering spirits, you who live to serve our Eternal King, surely you must rejoice at the loyalty of those servantsof His who die for His Truth. In late years, since this House of Prayer was built, when the martyrs of Madagascar were burnedat their stakes for Christ-as they stood erect in the fire, and began to sing-the angels, celestial vocalists as they are,must have been ravished with a music that they could not emulate. And when they breathed the prayer, "Into your hands we commendour spirits," the angels must almost have envied them the ability of serving God in that sphere of suffering, and the possibilityof bearing in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Yes, and when they have seen your boldness and your constancy, your self-denial, and your patience. And when they have heardyour importunate prayers and groans, as you have pleaded for the souls of others, seeking with tears to bring others to Jesus,I do not doubt that they have ascribed to the manifold wisdom of God the production of such luscious fruits from such inferiorcreatures! Fruits that bring to His name so much of Glory, and so much of renown to His Grace. In all the saints, throughthe history of their vocation and the development of their sanctification, angels can discern the manifold wisdom of God.
The subject is far too large for me. I shall leave you to think it out, after thus introducing you to but a few aspects ofit. There is much room for meditation as to how these bright and happy spirits do and shall see the wisdom of God in the salvationof the Church.
II. But do you now ask, DO ANGELS GAIN ANYTHING BY THE CHURCH OF GOD? I think they do. Certainly they acquire increased knowledge.With us knowledge is sometimes sorrow. To know is often to mourn. What the eye does not see the heart does not rue. "Whereignorance is bliss"-and it sometimes is-there are those who think, "it is folly to be wise." But ignorance is not bliss inHeaven. Knowledge increases the joy of the angels, and I will tell you why-because it makes them take a greater delight inGod when they see how wise and gracious He is. If it is possible for the angels to be happier than natural innocence and honorableservice can render them, they must be happier through knowing and seeing more of God, as His attributes are reflected andHis perfections mirrored forth in the Church.
Angels, methinks, will be enriched by the society of the saints in Heaven. Commerce always enriches, and commerce betweenangelic and human natures will be enriching to them both. They love in Heaven-they show their love by rejoicing over repentingmen. They will be glad to see us there. I do believe they will make much of us, as we do if we have seen some poor child reclaimed,and afterwards grow up to honor. We like to think of such an one. It brings the tears into our eyes that our Father did sogood a deed for the orphan, the pauper, or the outcast. And will not the angels rejoice over those in whom the Father's mercyhas worked such wonderful happiness?
Again, to my imagining (can it be illusive?) angels are gainers by the Church because they get nearer to the Throne of Godthan they were before. Another order of beings, our own to wit, is advanced. Surely when one creature gets near to God, allunfallen creatures are promoted. God, in vital union with the creature, was not to be conceived of until Christ came downto earth, and clothed Himself in manhood, thus raising creatureship nearer to God by just that length. So angels, by inference,seem to me interested in the honor that Jehovah has put on His works-the endowed works of His own formation.
Do you not think, too, that perhaps they can see God better in Christ than even they did before? Is it not possible that eventhey who first did veil their faces with their wings in the presence of the Almighty, because the brightness of glory wasexcessive, may now stand with unveiled faces and worship God in Christ? I think it is so. They never saw much of God beforeuntil they saw God veiled in human flesh. There was too dazzling a splendor for them till the interposing medium of the manhoodof Christ came in between them and the absolute Deity. It may be so.
And may not there be a reflex sense of gratitude in the very heart of angels when they see us in Heaven, or while they seeus wending our way there? They perceive what it would have cost to have restored them had they been beguiled by sin, and thereforewhat debtors they are to God that they were never suffered to fall. Does it not make their state and standing more and morejoyful to them when they see in us how the righteous scarcely are saved, and at what an expense men were lifted up from theruins of death and the dread doom of the damned?
Why, methinks they say not one to another, with Phariseeism-"We thank You, great God, that we are not as men are." No, theysay, with lowliness of mind-"We bless You, O God, that we were permitted to stand in our fidelity, and were not left to thenatural weakness which might have succumbed to temptation, for You charged even Your angels with folly, but You have heldus, and here we are to bless Your name." It may be so. It may be so.
III. Let me detain you one minute more while we meet the question, WHAT IS ALL THIS TO US? Ought it not to make us prize theGospel? If the angels think so much of it, oh, what should we think? If they who have only seen it, esteem it so, how oughtwe to value it who have tasted it? If they admire the veins that filled the Fountain, what shall we say who have washed inthat Fountain? If they wonder at Christ, who took not on Him the nature of angels, how shall we admire Him who espoused thehouse of Abraham and the seed of Adam? Let us appreciate the Gospel beyond all price, emolument, or honor.
How, too, should we study it, if it is the research of angelic intellects! Is the Church their schoolbook from where theylearn lessons of the Divine wisdom, because no science is equal to that of the wisdom of God in Christ revealed in His Church?O be not, you converts, ignorant of the Word of God! Be not oblivious of the operations of God in your own souls! The angelsdesire to look into these things. Do you look into them? Blessed shall you be if you abide in the study of the Word of God!You shall be like trees planted by the rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in their season. O do apply every facultyyou have to acquire increasing knowledge of that which angels love to study.
And now take courage, you feeble-minded ones, and never fear again the sneer of the man who calls the Gospel folly. Accounthim to be the victim of folly who despises this manifold wisdom. Shall I set the judgment of a poor puny mortal against thejudgment of an angel? I suppose that even Newton, and Kepler, and Locke, and those mighty master spirits, would be mere infantscompared with seraphs. Those great men loved to study the Scriptures, and when your modern pretenders to a little smack ofphilosophy come in and sneer at our holy Gospel, we can well afford to sneer at them. What are their sneers to us?
In proportion to a man's ignorance is generally his impudence when he meddles with the Gospel. I think it was Hume who confessedthat he had never read the New Testament and said he never would. Yet he was one of the most glib in caviling at that of whichhe knew nothing. Ah, you skeptics, pretenders, and scoffers-we can well afford to let you rail. But you can ill afford torail when angels are awed into wonder, and so would you be if there were anything angelic about your temper, or anything ofright wisdom in your attainments.
Last of all. If this is so, how we ought to love Christ, we who has a saving interest in it, and how they ought to tremblewho have it not! Unsaved Men! Unsaved Women! If it needs manifold wisdom to save men, then men's ruin must be very great,and your peril must be very imminent. If it amazes angels to see how God saves, it must be a terrible destruction from whichHe saves them. That destruction is coming upon you-its dark shadows have already began to gather round you. How great yourfolly to refuse a salvation so wise, to reject a Savior so attractive as Jesus!
Think of His loving gentleness and consider the simple way in which He saves-believe and live! The supplies necessary foryour salvation are all waiting. There is nothing to be done. It is all complete. There is nothing to be found. It is all ready.Salvation is finished. What a fool must he be that will not have it! O stretch out your withered hand and take it! God giveyou power. If you say "How? "I answer thus-Trust, trust, trust! Come and confide in Christ. Rely upon Christ, and He willsave you. God grant you Grace to do it at once, and He shall have the praise. Amen.