Sermon 2830. A Good Man in An Evil Case

(No. 2830)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 10, 1903.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 19, 1886.

"Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you: He shall never allow the righteous to be moved." Psalm 55:22.

Those of you who were here last Thursday evening will recollect that the sermon was concerning those sons of Ger-shon whowere burden-bearers in connection with the tabernacle in the wilderness. [Sermon #2829, Volume 49-lowly service] They werenot appointed to preach. They were not ordained to

fight-their service consisted in bearing burdens. There were some here, on that occasion, whom I had never known before whohad been, by the space of 30 years, great sufferers. They were carried into this place last Thursday evening-I did not knowof their presence until afterwards, when they told me that the sermon seemed to have been made for them and that it had giventhem great comfort.

I thought I would follow up that sermon about burden-bearers by a discourse upon another text which shows us that there aresome burdens which we need notcarry. Burdens of service, or burdens of which come through our consecration to the Lord JesusChrist-these we will never lay down so long as we live. It shall be our joy to daily take up our cross and follow Jesus, butthere are certain burdens of care and sorrow, of which the text speaks-especially the burdens which come from the slander,reproach and oppression of ungodly men-which we need not carry. David says, "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shallsustain you: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

Beloved Friends, the very best men in the world may be slandered! And if you should hear them evilly spoken of, be you notamong those who straightway condemn them. There are some who say, "Where there is smoke, there is sure to be fire." And althoughit is well known that "common fame is a common liar," yet there are some who are so fond of hearing or telling lies that theyare sure to believe such a lie as this, especially if it is spoken concerning a servant of God. Be you not, therefore, readyto believe all the reports that you hear against any Christian people. The best of men, as I have already reminded you, havebeen worst spoken of and there are some who turn upon them directly, like lions scenting their prey.

I may be just now addressing some who are the victims of the malice of ungodly men or women. I am sorry, dear Friends, thatthis should be your lot, for it is among the most bitter of human afflictions. But at the same time I would remind you thatnothing unusual has happened to you. You remember the three brave men who were cast alive into Nebuchadnezzar's burning fieryfurnace when it was heated seven times more than it was known to be heated? You are scarcely enduring such a fiery trial asthat and, certainly, you are not suffering as did your Master, the Lord of all pilgrims who have made their way to Heaven!But if, in any degree, it should happen that you are bearing a burden of this kind, the text will have a special message foryou.

In speaking upon this passage, I want to keep it in context with the whole Psalm. I do not think it is dealing properly withthe Bible to pick out one verse here, and another there, without looking to see what the context of the passage is. If men'sbooks were treated as God's Book is often treated, we should make many a grand and noble literary work to appear to be aninsane production! It is true that God's Book can endure even such treatment as that. It is such a wonderful Book that evena sentence torn out of it will convey a most precious Truth of God, but it is not fair to the Book, and it is

not fair to yourself, to treat the Bible so. A text of Scripture should always be viewed in the setting in which God has placedit, for there is often as much that is admirable in the gold which forms the setting of the jewel as there is in the jewelitself.

I. So, looking at our text in that light, I shall begin by saying that WHEN WE ARE MUCH TRIED AND BURDENED, THERE IS SOMETHINGTHAT WE ARE TEMPTED TO DO. The text does not mention it, but the Psalm does. And the text is an antidote to the malady whichthe Psalm describes or implies. "Cast your burden upon the Lord," is an injunction concerning that which we are to put inthe place of something else which more naturally suggests itself to our poor foolish minds.

And, first, when we are in very severe trouble, we are tempted to complain. The Psalmist says, in the second verse, "I mournin my complaint, and make a noise." I am not sure that our version is quite fair to David in this instance, but it suits mypresent purpose admirably. As the children of God, we ought to avoid even the semblance of a complaint against our HeavenlyFather. But when our faith is sorely tried, when some sharp reproach is stinging our spirit, we are all too apt to begin thinkingand saying that God is dealing harshly with us. You know Job, that most patient of men, became very impatient when his so-called"friends" poured vinegar instead of oil into his wounds. Smarting under their cruel treatment, he said some things which hehad far better have left unsaid. O Brothers and Sisters, pray that whenever the Lord lays His rod heavily upon you, your tearsmay have no rebellion in them! Whatever His providential dealings with you may be, may you be enabled to say, with the Patriarch,"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." May you even join Job in his triumphant declaration,"Through He slays me, yet will I trust in Him." It is grand faith that enables a Believer to say, "Though I should die atGod's altar, I will die like the lamb that is brought to the slaughter, or be like the sheep that is dumb before her shearersand makes no complaint."

The next natural temptation is that of giving up altogether and lying down in despair. You get that in the fourth and fifthverses-"My heart is sorely pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are comeupon me, and horror has overwhelmed me." Have not some of you been sometimes tempted to say, "There, I can do more. I mustgive up-that last cruel blow has utterly broken me in pieces and I feel that I can only lay down and die in the bitternessof my spirit"? Brothers and Sisters, this is a temptation against which you must strive most earnestly! As no living man shouldcomplain, so no living man should despair-and especially no child of God! Up with you, poor Heart! You have not yet come tothe end of God's delivering mercy, even though you have come to the end of your poor puny strength. The Lord shall light yourcandle, now that your night is so dark. You shall yet sing for very joy of heart, though now you can only, like David, mournin your mourning. He will bring you again from Bashan, and from the depths of the sea if you have sunk as low as that. Therefore,talk not of dying before your time. Yet, if you do so, you will not be the first who has talked like that, for there was onewho never died, who said, "O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers." That was Elijah, the Prophet ofFire! Yet, just then he seemed as if he were only cold ashes rather than a vehement flame-another proof that the best of menare but men at the best!

The next very common temptation is to want to flee from our present trials. You get that in verses six to eight-"I said, Ohthat I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in thewilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest." Possibly you are the pastor of a church and thingsdo not prosper as you could wish. I wonder where they do? But, in your case, you think there is such little prosperity thatyou must give up your position and run away. Young gunners, before they have become accustomed to the smell of gunpowder andthe noise of cannons, have often been known to desert their guns. And even old soldiers have sometimes felt what the "trembles"are! But, my Brother, if this is your case, I beseech you not to run away. If you did flee, where would you go? You thinkyou will run away, as Jonah did, do you? I guarantee you that Jonah was very sorry that he had run away when he found himselfin the whale's belly at the very bottom of the mountains in the depths of the sea! And you and I will be sure to get intogreater trouble in we run away from the path of duty.

Fight it out, Man! Stand your ground in the name of God and in the strength of God! It may be that there are better days justnow coming and that Satan is seeking to drive you away just as you are on the brink of success! Dr. Watts has a good paraphraseof this Psalm and also writes wisely concerning the temptation to flee the post of duty. He says-

"Oh, were I like a feathered dove, And innocence had wrings!

I'd fly, and make a long remove

From all these restless things.

Let me to some wild desert go,

And find a peaceful home;

Where storms of malice never blow,

Temptations never come.

Vain hopes and vain inventions all,

To escape the rage of Hell!

The mighty God, on whom I call,

Can save me here as well.

God shall preserve my soul from fear,

Or shield me when afraid;

Ten thousand angels must appear,

If HE commands their aid."

Possibly the special case in point is not that of a minister. It is some Mary, weeping at home because her brother Lazarusis dead. Martha is not a very congenial sister to her, so she does not even go with her when she goes to meet the Lord. Yet,strangely enough, each of the sisters says the same words to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother had not died."In due time the Master sends for Mary and soon she has the joy of welcoming Lazarus back from the grave. Some of us get strangeideas into our head at times-we resolve that we will go, we know not where, and do, we know not what! Ah, my dear Friends,he whose great trouble lies in his own heart cannot run away from it, for he bears it about with him wherever he goes! Theold man of the mountain who sits upon your shoulder and clings so tightly to you, if he is yourself, is not to be shaken offby your running away! Far wiser will it be for you to do as the text says, "Cast your burden upon the Lord." Then you willneed no wings like a dove, nor will you wish to fly away to the wilderness, but you will be willing to stay in the very midstof the battle and even there you will be in perfect peace-

"Calm 'mid the bewildering cry,

Confident of victory."

I have often enjoyed the greatest solitude amid the crowds in Cheapside and I believe that there is many a Christian who hasexperienced the deepest peace in the midst of the wildest turmoil. Some of us know what Madame Guyon meant when she wrote-

" While place we seek or place we shun, The soul finds happiness in none! But with a God to guide our way, 'Tis equal joyto go or stay."

Trust in Him! Cast your burden on Him, for so you will escape from this temptation of wanting to flee away from the placewhere He would have you be!

There is one other temptation that this Psalm suggests to me, and that is the temptation to wish ill to those who are causingus ill Perhaps mistaking the meaning of the passage, we are apt to pray the prayer in the ninth verse, "'Destroy, O Lord!'Our foes have slandered us, they have spoken evil of us and we wish that they were dead, or that some great judgment mightovertake them." It will never do, dear Friends, to indulge such a feeling as that! We shall be injured if we desire that othersshould be injured. Slander has, indeed, stung you when you harbor the wish to sting another! Someone said, in my hearing,attempting to justify revenge or retaliation, "But if you tread on a worm, it will turn," and I answered, "Is a poor wormthat only turns because of its agony through man's cruelty, the pattern for a Christian man to follow? Will you look downto the dust of the earth to find the example that you are to imitate?" Wicked men trod upon Christ-who even compared Himselfto a worm-yet He did not turn upon them, except to cry, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Let that be the only kind of turning that you ever practice towards your enemies! Do not be driven, by their evil speakingor their cruel deeds, into harshness of speech or even harshness of thought! I have known some persons, under sore trouble,who have at last become quite soured and bitter of spirit-that is all wrong and very sad-and no good can ever come of sucha state of heart as that. The bruising of the sycamore fig results in its growing sweeter-let your bruising produce a similareffect upon you. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in His wondrous Sermon on the

Mount, "I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them whichdespitefully use you and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven." If you do not actthus-which is the right thing for you to do-you will almost certainly do the wrong thing in some shape or other. Therefore,God help you to do what is right! Child, is your father rough on you? Then, love him until he becomes tender and gentle. Wife,is your husband unkind to you? Then, win him back by your sweet smiles. Servant, is your mistress harsh to you? Even goodwomen have sometimes dealt as harshly with their servants as Sarah dealt with Hagar. Well, if that is your case, be not likeHagar who despised her mistress. Submit to her, for so shall you yet win her, as many a Christian slave of old, far worsetreated than you have been, won his master or his mistress to Christ in those earliest and happiest days of Christianity.What is there for a Christian to do but love his enemies? This is the most powerful weapon that we have in our armory! Weshall be wise as serpents if God teaches us wisdom. And we shall also be harmless as doves if the Holy Spirit, like a dove,rests upon us and makes us, also, to abound in gentleness. By this sign we shall conquer, for it is love that always winsthe day!

Thus I have shown you what we are tempted to do when we are like this good man who was in such an evil case.

II. Now I am going to show you, from the text, as the Holy Spirit shall help me, WHAT WE ARE COMMANDED

TO DO. That is, "Cast your burden upon the Lord." You have a burden upon your back. It is too heavy for you to bear? Castit upon the Lord!

"How shall I do that?" someone asks. Well, if you are a child of God, I invite you, first of all, to trace your burden backto God.''But it comes from the treachery of Ahithophel, or from the rebellion of Absalom!" I grant you that it does, but thoseare only the second causes, or the agents-trace the matter back to the Great First Cause. If you do that, you will come, bya mystery which I will not attempt to explain, to the hand of Divine Providence and you will say of every burden, "This, also,comes from the Lord." You have probably seen a dog, when he has been struck with a stick, turn round and bite the staff thatstruck him. If he were a wise dog, he would bite the man who held the stick that dealt the blow. When God uses His rod uponone of His children, even a godly man will sometimes snap at the rod. "But, Sir, surely you would not have me turn upon myGod?" Oh, no! I know you will not do that, for you are His child. And when you see that God is holding the rod in His hand,you will cease to be rebellious and you will say, with the Psalmist, "' I was dumb with silence.' I was going to speak, butI opened not my mouth because I saw that it was in Your hand that the rod of chastisement was held." It is always well totrace our trials directly to God and say, "It may be Judas Iscariot who has betrayed me, but, still, it was planned in God'seternal purpose that I should be betrayed, so I will forget the second cause, except to pray God to forgive the malice ofthe betrayer-and, by His Grace, I will look to the Lord who permitted the trial to come upon me for His own Glory and formy good."

The next thing you have to do is this. Seeing that the burden is from God, patiently wait His time for its removal There aresome people, who, if they had a task set to them by some great one whom they respected and revered, would cheerfully performit. If, in the middle of the night, you were called up by a Queen's messenger and bid to do something for Her Majesty, youwould be glad to rise and dress, even though it might be a cold night and you might have far to go to fulfill your commission.And if you feel that your burden is from the Lord-if the King's arms are stamped upon the affliction or trial that comes toyou-straightway you will say, "As the Lord wills it, I will bear it without complaining. When it is His time to deliver me,I shall be delivered. And as long as it is His time for me to suffer, I will, by His Grace, suffer patiently."

I wish that all Christians could be like that good old woman who was asked whether, as she was so very ill, she would preferto live or to die. She said that she had no preference whatever, she only wished that the will of the Lord might be done."But, still, if the Lord said to you, 'which will you have?' which would you choose?" She said, "I would not even then choose,but I would ask the Lord to choose for me." You see, whenever anything comes to us from God, we have not the responsibilityof it-but if it came through our own choice, then we might say to ourselves, "What fools we were to choose this particulartrial!" You say that you do not like the cross God has sent you. Well but, at any rate, it is not by your own choice thatyou have to carry that particular cross. It is God who chose it for you, whereas if youhad selected it, you might well say,"Oh, dear me, what a mistake I made when I chose this burden!" Now you cannot say that and I pray that you may have DivineGrace to see that "the whole disposing" of your lot is, as Solomon says, "Of the Lord."

The Hebrew of our text would bear such a rendering as this, "Cast on the Lord what the Lord gives you. Cast on Him what Hecasts on you. See the marks of His hands on your burden and you will be reconciled to your load. Know that God sends it toyou and patiently wait till He takes it away." F. W. Faber very sweetly writes-

"I have no cares, O blessed Lord,

For all my cares are Yours.

I live in triumph, too, for You

Have made Your triumphs mine.

And when it seems no chance nor change

From grief can set me free-

Hope find its strength in helplessness,

And patiently waits on Thee.

Lead on, lead on, triumphantly,

O blessed Lord, lead on!

Faith's pilgrim-sons behind You seek

The road that You have gone." One blessed way of casting our burden upon the Lord is to tell the Lord all about it. It isa high privilege to get away, alone, and talk to God as a man talks with his friend. But I know what you often do, my Brothersand Sisters, when you get into a predicament and cannot tell what to do-then you begin to pray. Why do you not, every morning,tell the Lord about all your difficulties beforethey come? What? Will you only run to Him when you get into trouble? No, goto Him beforeyou get into trouble. Half our burdens come from what we have not prayed over! If a man would take the ordinaryconcerns of life distinctly to God, one by one, it is marvelous how easily the chariot of life would roll along! Things overwhich we have not prayed are like undigested food that breeds mischief in the body-they breed mischief in the soul. Digestyour daily bread by first praying, "God give it to me and then God bless me in the use of it. And then God bless me afterwardsin the spending of the strength derived from it to Your praise and Glory." Salt all your life with prayer, lest corruptionshould come to that part of your life which you have not thus salted. Tell the Lord, then, your griefs, just as, when a child,you told your troubles to your mother!

"I cannot find words," says one. Oh, they will come! They come fast enough when you complain to man and they will sweetlycome if you get into the blessed habit of talking to God about everything. A friend said to me, not long ago, "I was on theExchange and I saw that I had made a mistake in a certain transaction. I had lost money by it and if I had gone on dealingin the same fashion, I would have been ruined. I just stepped aside for a minute or two into a quiet corner of my office.I stood still and breathed a prayer to God for guidance. Then I went back, and felt, 'Now I am ready for anyone of you.'""So I was," he said, "I was not confused and worried, as I would otherwise have been, and so liable to make mistakes, butI had waited upon God and I was therefore calm and collected." There is much wisdom in thus praying about everything, although,possibly, some of you may think it trivial. I believe that the very soul of Christianity lies in the sanctifying of what iscalled secular-the bringing of all things under the cognizance of our God by intense, constant, importunate, believing prayer.

When you have told the Lord everything, the next thing for you to do, in order to cast your burden upon Him, is to believethat all will work together for your good. Swallow the bitter as readily as you do the sweet and believe that, somehow, thestrange mixture will do you great good. Do not look out your window, judging this, and that, and the other, in detail, but,if God sent it to you, open the door and take it all in, for all that has come from Him will be to His Glory and to your profit.Believe that if you shall lose certain things, you will really be a gainer by your losses. Even if your dearest one is takenfrom you, all shall be well if you have but faith to trust God in it all. If you are stricken with mortal sickness, it willstill be well with you and if you do steadfastly trust in the Lord, you shall know that it is so. "We know," says the ApostlePaul-he does not say, "We think, we suppose, we judge," but-"We know that all things work together for good to them that loveGod, to them who are the called according to His purpose." If you know this, my Brother, or my Sister, it shall help you to"cast your burden upon the Lord."

When you have done this, then leave your burden with the Lord. In the process of trusting God with your burden, get to thepoint that you have done with it. If I cast my burden upon the Lord, what business have I to carry it myself? How can I truthfullysay that I have cast it upon Him if I am still burdened with it? Throughout my life, which has not

been free from many grave cares, there have been many things which I have been able to see my own way through and, using mybest judgment, they have passed off well. But in so large a church as this, there sometimes occur things that altogether staggerme. I do not know what to do in such a case as that and I have been in the habit, after doing all I can, of putting such thingsup on the shelf and saying, "There, I will never take them down again, come what may. I have done with them, for I have leftthem wholly with God." And I wish to bear my testimony that somehow or other the thing which I could not unravel, has unraveleditself! When Peter and the angel "came unto the iron gate," it "opened to them of its own accord." And the same thing hashappened to me many a time. "Who shall roll away the stone for us from the door of the sepulcher?" asked the holy women whenthey came to the tomb of their Lord? "And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away." Learn to say, "My Godhas made this difficulty and there is some good result to come of it. I have done the little I can do, so now I will leaveit all with Him."

Ah, but I know what some of you do-you say that you have left it all with God and then you lie awake all night fretting aboutit! Is that casting your burden upon the Lord? Oh, for a blessed literalism about the promises of God and our faith in them,so that we take them to mean just what they say and act upon them accordingly! Now, if some poor woman here were sadly indebt for her rent and she met with a Christian Brother who said to her, "Do not fret, my good Sister, I will see it all paidtomorrow," do you think she would go running about, and saying, "O dear, I shall lose my things, my rent will not be paid"?No, she would say, "Mr. So-and-So, whom I know and trust, said that he would pay it for me, and I feel perfectly at peaceabout it." Now, do you so with your God if you know Him! David said, "They that know Your name will put their trust in You."If you truly love the Lord, it will be a proof of your love to repose your care upon Him without questioning. And when youhave cast your burden upon Him, it will prove the truth of your having done so if you are unburdened and your heart is atrest. If He bears my burden, why should I also bear it? If He cares for me, what have I to do to vex myself with fretful,anxious cares?

I have thus done my best to show you what we are commanded to do-"Cast your burden upon the Lord." III. And now thirdly, andvery briefly, WHAT WE SHOULD ENDEAVOR TO DO.

If I read the text aright, we here have David talking to himself. And what we are to endeavor to do is to talk to ourselves,just as David talked to himself. He says of his enemy, "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in hisheart" and so on. And then he seems to say, "Come, David, do not fret yourself like this, but cast your burden upon the Lord."Have you not noticed how often David seems as if he were two Davids-and one David talks to the other David? It was so whenhe said to himself, "Why are you cast down, O my Soul; and why are you disquieted within me?" And I want you, dear Friend,to chide yourself and say, "Come, fretful Heart, what are you doing? Cast your burden upon the Lord. What are you doing? HasGod forsaken you? Has God refused to help you? Be gone, Unbelief! Come, Faith, and dwell in my soul and reign over my spirit,swaying your gracious scepter of peace."

And when you have thus been chiding yourself, argue with yourself about the matter Say to yourself, "See how the text putsit-'Cast your burden upon the Lord.' Well, if it is your burden and God meant it for you, then do not quarrel with it. Andas it is your burden, so is God your God, the covenant-keeping God, your Father and your Friend. Come, my Soul, cast yourburden upon your God! Where else should you put your burden when He bids you cast it upon Him? You cannot sustain yourselfunder such a load, but God will sustain you and your burden, too." Think of the righteousness of God and say, "It is impossiblethat the righteous God should leave the righteous to perish. If they are slandered, that is a further reason why God shouldtake up their cause. He is their Advocate and their Defender. Come, my Heart, it shall never be truly said of the Judge ofall the earth that He leaves His people to perish, especially when their good name is assailed because of their fidelity toHim!"

I want you, dear Friends, to talk thus with yourselves, especially those of you who are rather apt to give way to despondency.There are some such here, I know. You come to me, sometimes, with your griefs, and I do the best I can to cheer you. But Ihave often said to myself, "That dear Sister had a father who was a member with us. He used to come to me in just the sameway as she does. This despondency seems to run in their2 blood." Some of you must have been born in December and you neverseem to get out of that month-it is always winter with you. But now I want you just to take the language of the text and sayto yourself, "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."And, possibly, God will bless your own sermon to yourself more than He would bless my sermon to you! At any rate, try it.

IV. Lastly-and here I need the time for a whole sermon, let us think of WHAT WE MAY EXPECT IF WE FULFILL THE COMMAND OF THETEXT-"Cast your burden upon the Lord."

There are two grand things in the text-sustenance and sufferance. The old Puritans would have made a book about those twowords and we might preach a dozen sermons upon them and still not exhaust their meaning! What does the Lord do with His peoplewhen they cast their burdens upon Him? He gives them sustenance. "He shall sustain you." The word, "sustain," is the samethat is used when God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, saying, "Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you,"that is, "to feed you," "to nourish you." Perhaps that would have been a better rendering of the original. "Cast your burdenupon the Lord," and what will He do? Deliver you out of your trouble? No, but He will feed you till you can carry it, andthat will be an even better thing than relieving you of the burden.

Here is a dear child that has but a little load to carry, yet he staggers under it. It would be a kind thing for his fatherto pick up the child and his load, too, and carry both him and his burden. But the wise father says, "I will so provide forthat child that he shall grow in strength and, at last, shall be able to carry his load." "Cast your burden upon the Lord,and He shall sustain you." That is, "He shall feed you. He shall nourish you." I believe that when Paul was attacked by thatviper that came out of the sticks, it was a very ugly thing, indeed, but Paul just shook it off into the fire. Why do youthink that snake came? Why, it came to feed them all! "No," you say, "that serpent did not do that!" It did, for the islanderssaid that this man was a god and straightway they began to gather around him and his companions and to provide for their needswith all the greater alacrity because of the reverence that they felt for the Apostle! So you shall often find that what lookslike a horrible thing will be the best way in which God could bless you.

"Cast your burden upon the Lord." "It will crush me." No, it will not-you shall grow under it and then grow out of it! Andyou shall prove the truth of those precious lines-

"From all their afflictions My Glory shall spring, And the deeper their sorrows, the louder they'll sing." Only by faith leaveyour trouble with your God and He will nurture you. Even out of the very rock of trouble will He feed you and give you oilout of the flinty rock of your afflictions.

Then, the other point is sufferance. I am obliged to hurry over these Truths of God and leave you to meditate upon them afterwards."He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Learn, from this declaration, that nothing will happen to you but whatGod permits. There are some things which are very grievous, which God does allow to happen to His people. But there are otherthings which He will not allow. He will never allow them to be moved. "No," He says, "My child who has walked uprightly beforeMe, My righteous one, the man who spoke the Truth, the man who did the right thing, I will not suffer that man to be moved.He may be moved as the boughs of a tree sway to and fro in the breeze, but not as the roots of a tree are torn up by a storm.He may be moved a little, like a ship riding at anchor, which just swings with the tide, but he shall not be driven out tosea, or drift onto the rocks to his destruction."

"He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Do you catch the Psalmist's idea? It is as if God interposed and said,"No, I will not permit that." A father may see his child somewhat put upon, yet at first he may not interfere. But, at last,a cruel blow is struck and he says, "No, I will not stand that! While I have an arm to defend my child, he shall not be treatedin that fashion." Well, then, leave everything with your Heavenly Father, for He will not allow you to be moved! If you arereally righteous, trusting in the Righteous One, justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ, and are doing what isright in His sight, He will not allow you to be moved. The next time you are sorely vexed by the tongue of slander, go andtell your Father, just as the little boys tell their big brothers. Go and tell your Father all about it and do not fret overit. If somebody has done you a great wrong, you may say to him, "I shall be obliged to refer you to my solicitor." But afteryou have done that, I hope you do not go writing letters to him on your own. Refer everything to God and leave all with Him,for, so, a blessed peace will bedew your spirit, making your life on earth like the beginning of life in Heaven!

In closing my discourse, I must say that I do feel, in my inmost soul, the deepest pity for those of you who have no God togo to when you are in trouble. You have a burden to bear, but you cannot cast it on the Lord. He willallow you to be moved,for you do not cry unto Him to help you. I feel that I would rather be a dog than be a man without a God. I think I couldmake myself happy if I were only a mouse in its hole, but if I were a prince in a palace, without God, I should be utterlymiserable! O poor Hearts, if you really want Him, He is to be had! If you are longing for Him, His door

is open to receive you. If you will come to Him, He will come and meet you much more than half way! Yes, all the way willHe come to everyone who wills to come to Him. As soon as you say, "I will arise," He has already arisen and is on His wayto meet you! Practically, there is no distance for you to go, for He is there, waiting to welcome you. Believe in His dearSon and live! First cast your great burden of sin upon the Lord and then cast upon Him all other burdens that He is willingto take from you and, soon, He will put a new song into your mouth and establish your going. The Lord grant it, for His dearSon's sake! Amen!