LivePrayerSermon 2868. 'Ready, Yes, Ready!'
(No. 2868)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, DURING THE WINTER OF 1861-2.
"Ready to perish." Isaiah 27:13.
"Ready to forgive." Psalm 86:5.
"The graves are ready for me." Job 17:1.
WHEN attempting to prepare for this service, I found it impossible to fix my mind upon any one subject. This afternoon I hadto take rather a long journey to visit a friend who is sick unto death. And at his bedside I trust I have learned some lessonsof encouragement and have been animated by witnessing the joy and peace which God grants to His children in their declininghours. Finding that I could not fix upon any one subject, I thought that I would have three. It may be that out of the three,there will be one intended by Divine Grace for a third of the audience, the second for another third and the other for therest, so that there will be a portion of meat in due season for all. You know, dear Friends, that the motto of our navy is,"Ready, yes, ready!" That is something like my present subject, for I have three texts in which the word, "Ready," occurs,each time in a different connection.
I. The first text will be especially addressed to those who are under concern of soul, having been led, by the enlighteninginfluence of the Divine Spirit, to see their state by nature and to tremble in the prospect of their deserved doom. The textwhich will suit their case is in Isaiah 27:13-"READY TO PERISH." "They shall come which were ready to perish."
By nature, all men, whether they know it or not, are ready to perish. Human nature is, like a blind man, always in danger.No, worse than that, it is like a blind man upon the verge of a tremendous cliff, ready to take the fatal step which willlead to his destruction. The most callous and proud, the most careless and profane cannot, by their indifference or theirboasting, altogether evade the apprehension that their state, by nature, is alarming and defenseless. They may try to laughit away from their minds, but they cannot laugh away the fact. They may shut their eyes to it, but they shall no more escape,by shutting their eyes, than does the silly ostrich escape from the hunter by thrusting its head into the sand. Whether youwill have it so, or not, fast young man in the dawn of your days-whether you will have it so, or not, blustering merchantin the prime of your age-whether you will have it so, or not, hardened old man in the petrified state of your moral conscience-itis so-you are ready to perish!
Your jeers cannot deliver you. Your sarcasms about eternal wrath cannot quench it. And all your contemptuous scorn and yourarrogant pride cannot evade your doom-they do but hasten it. There are some persons, however, who are aware of their danger-tothem I speak. They are fitly described by the Spirit of God in these words of the Prophet-"The great trumpet shall be blownand they shall come which were ready to perish." Having passed through this anguish, myself, I think I can describe, fromexperience, what some of you are now suffering.
You are ready to perish, in the first place, because you feel sure that you will perish. You did not think so once, but youdo now. Once you could afford to put away the thought, with a laugh, as a matter which might, or might not, be true, but,anyway, it did not much concern you. But now you feel that you will be lost as surely as if it could be demonstrated to youby logic. In fact, the Divine logic of the Law of God has thundered it into your soul and you know it. You feel it to be certainthat you shall, before long, be driven from the Presence of God with that terrible sentence, "Depart, you cursed." If anyunbeliever should tell you that there is no wrath to come, you would reply, "There is, for I feel it is
due me. My conscience tells me that I am already condemned and before long I am quite certain to drink of the wormwood andthe gall of the wrath of God."
You have signed your own death warrant, you have put on the black cap and condemned yourself. Or, rather, you have pleadedguilty before your Judge-you have said, "Guilty, my Lord," and now you think you see before your eyes the scaffold and yourselfready to be executed. You feel it to be so sure that you even anticipate the Judgment Day-you dreamed of it, the other night,and you thought you heard the trumpet of the archangel opening all the graves and wakening all the dead. You have already,in imagination, stood before the bar of God! You feel your sentence to be so certain that conscience has read it over in yourhearing and anticipated its terrors. You are among those who are ready to perish, so permit me to say that I am glad you havecome here, for this is the very spot where God delights to display His pardoning Grace! He is ready to save those who arethus ready to perish. Those who write themselves down as lost are the special objects of our Savior's mission of mercy, for,"the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
You are ready to perish, in another sense, for you feel as if your perishing was very near. You are like the dying man whogasps for breath and thinks that each gasp will be his last-his pulse is feeble, his tongue is dry with feverish heat, theclammy sweat is on his brow. The Valley of the Shadow of Death casts its gloomy shade on his pale cheeks and he feels thathe will soon die. Is it not thus that some of you feel just now? You feel that you are coming near to the wrath of God. Ihave known the day when, as I lay down to rest, I dreaded the thought that, perhaps, I should never awake in this world, or,at mid-day I have walked in the fields and wondered that the earth did not open and swallow me up! A terrible noise was inmy ears-my soul was tossed to and fro-I longed to find a refuge, but there seemed to be none, while always ringing in my earswere the words, "The wrath to come!" "The wrath to come!" "The wrath to come!"
Oh, how vividly is the wrath to come pictured before the eyes of the awakened sinner! He does not look upon it as a thingthat is to come in ten, twelve, or 20 years, but as a thing that may be before long, yes, even today! He looks upon himselfas ready to perish because his final overthrow appears to be so close. I am glad if any of you are in this plight, for Goddoes not thus alarm men unless He has purposes of mercy concerning them and designs for their good! He has made you fear youare perishing that you may have no perishing to fear! He has brought it home to you in this life that He may remove it foreverfrom you in the life that is to come! He has made you tremble now, that you may not tremble then. He has put before you thesedreadful things that, as with a fiery finger, they may point you to Christ, the only Refuge and, as with a thundering voice,they may cry to you, as the angels cried to Lot, "Escape for your life, look not behind you, neither stay you in all the plain!Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed!"
It may be that I am also addressing some who not only realize the sureness and the nearness of their destruction, but theyhave begun to feel it. "Begun to feel it," asks someone, "is that possible?" Yes, that it is. When day and night God's handis heavy upon us and our moisture is turned into the drought of summer, we begin to know something of what a sinner feelswhen Justice and the Law are let loose upon him. Did you ever read John Bunyan's, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners?There was a man who had, even here, foretastes of the miseries of the lost. And there are some of us who can, even now, hardlylook back to the time of our conviction without a shudder. I hope there is not a creature alive who has had deeper convictionsthan I had, or five years of more intolerable agony than those which crushed the very life out of my youthful spirit. Butthis I can say-that terror of conscience, that alarm about the wrath of God, that intense hatred of past sin and yet consciousnessof my inability to avoid it in the future were such combinations of thought that I can only describe them in George Herbert'swords-
"My thoughts are all a case of 'knives Breaking my poor heart."
Oh, the tortures of the man who feels his guilt, but does not know the remedy for it! To look leprosy in the face, but notto know that it may be healed! To walk the hospital and hear that there is no physician there! To see the flame, but not toknow that it can be quenched! To be in the dungeon, but never to know the rescue and deliverance! O you that are ready toperish, I sympathize with you in your present sufferings, but I do not lament them! This is the way in which God begins withthose whom He intends to bless-not to the same degree in all, but yet after the same kind. He destroys our confidence in ourown works and then gives us confidence in Christ's work. You know how Bunyan describes Christian as being much tumbled upand down in his mind. And when his wife and children came round about him, he could only tell them that the city in whichthey lived was to be destroyed-and though his easy-going neighbors told him not to
believe it and not to make such a fuss about it, the truth had come home to him with too much power to be put away. Atheistmight say it was all a lie and Pliable might give slight heed to it and pretend to believe it for a season, but Christianknew it to be true, so he ran to the wicket gate, and the Cross, that he might escape from the wrath to come. To the careless,these words, "Ready to perish," should sound an alarm. May God the Holy Spirit, while I preach upon the second text, enableme to blow the great trumpet of the jubilee! May the gladsome sound reach the heart of him that is ready to perish! May heknow that Divine Mercy brought him here that he might find a God ready to pardon!
II. My second text is in Psalm 86:5-"READY TO FORGIVE." Does not that ring like a silver bell? The other was a doleful note, like that of St. Sepulcher's bellwhen it tolls the knell of a criminal about to be executed-"Ready to perish." But this rings like a marriage peal-"Ready toforgive. Ready to forgive." What does it mean when it says that God is ready to forgive?
"Ready" means, as you all know, prepared. A man is not ready to go by railway until his trunk is packed and he is about tostart. A man cannot be said to be ready to emigrate till he has the means to pay his passage and the different things neededfor his transit, and for his settling down when he gets to his destination. No road is ready till it is cleared. Nothing isready, in fact, till it is prepared. Sinner, God is ready to forgive-that is, everything is prepared by which you may be forgiven!The road used to be blocked up but Jesus Christ has, with His Cross, tunneled every mountain, filled every valley and bridgedevery chasm so that the way of pardon is now fully prepared. There is no need for God to say, "I would pardon this sinner,but how shall My justice be honored?" Sinner, God's justice has been satisfied, the sin of all who believe, or who ever willbelieve, was laid upon Christ when He died upon the tree! If you believes in Him, your sin was punished upon Him and it wasforever put away by the great Atonement which He offered, so that, now, the righteous God can come out of the ivory palaceof His mercy, stretch out His hands of love and say, "Sinner, I am reconciled to you. Be you reconciled to Me."-
"Sprinkled now with blood, the Throne, Why beneath your burdens groan? All the wrath on Him was laid Justice owns the ransompaid." In the case of the ancient Israelites, it was necessary that the sacrifice should be slain and be burned upon the altar.So, the Divine Victim has been slain upon Calvary. Once and for all, the Sacrifice for sin has been offered by Jesus, acceptedby the Father and witnessed by the Holy Spirit. God is ready-that is to say, He is prepared-to forgive all who will believein Jesus Christ! You think that much preparation is needed on your part, but you are greatly mistaken. All things are ready!The oxen and the fatlings are killed, the feast is spread, the servants are sent with the invitations to the banquet-all youhave to do, poor Penitent, is to come and sit down and eat with thankfulness to the great Giver of the feast! The bath isfilled, O black Sinner, so come and wash! The garment is woven from the top throughout, O you naked, so come and put it on!The price is paid, O you ransomed ones, so take your blood-bought liberty! All is done. "It is finished," rings from Calvary'ssummit! God is ready to forgive!
But the word, "ready," means something more than prepared. We sometimes use the term to indicate that a thing can be easilydone. We ask, "Can you do such-and-such a thing?" "Oh, yes!" you reply, "readily." Or perhaps we remind you of a promise youhave given and ask if you can carry it out. And you say, "Oh, yes! I am quite ready to fulfill my engagement." Sinner, itis an easy thing for God to forgive you! "Indeed," you say, "but you don't know where I was last night." No, and I don't wantto know. But it is easy for God to pardon anybody who is not in Hell. But you ask, "How can He do it? "He speaks and it isdone! He has but to say to you, "Your sins which are many, are all forgiven," and it is done! Pardon is an instantaneous work!Justification is rapid as a lightning flash. You may be black one moment and as white as alabaster the next! Guilty-absolved!Condemned-Acquitted! Lost-found! Dead-made alive! It takes the Lord no time to do this-He does it easily.
O Brothers and Sisters, if He could make a world with a word. If He could say, "Let there be light," and there was light-surely,now that Christ has offered up Himself as a bleeding Sacrifice for sin, God has but to speak and the pardon is given! As soonas He says, "I will. Be you clean," the most leprous sinner is perfectly cleansed! O Sinner, will you not offer the prayer,"Save, Lord, or I perish?" Will you not ask the Lord to forgive you? Since He can so readily forgive,
will you not cry, "Jesus, save me, or I die"? Stretch forth your hand, poor trembling woman up yonder, and touch the hem ofHis garment and you shall be made whole, for He is ready to forgive-that is, He can do it with ease!
Again, the word, "ready," frequently means promptly or quickly. In this sense, also, God is ready to forgive. I know thatsome of you imagine that you must endure months of sorrow before you can be forgiven. There is no necessity that you shouldwait even another hour for this great blessing! After what I have been saying concerning the experience through which othershave passed, some of you may fancy that you must be for four or five years floundering about in the Slough of Despond, butthere is no need for you to do that. The plan of salvation is this-"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."Let me give you a picture. Paul and Silas have been thrust into the inner prison at Phi-lippi and their feet made fast inthe stocks. Though they have been brutally beaten, they are singing at midnight- singing of pardon bought with blood, singingof the dying and risen Lamb of God and, as they sing-suddenly there is an earthquake. The foundations of the prison shake,the doors fly open and the jailer, fearing that his prisoners have escaped, leaps out, draws his sword and is about to killhimself! But he hears a voice crying, "Do yourself no harm! We are all here."
He calls for a light, springs in and falls tremblingly at his prisoners' feet and says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"What would some of you have said in reply to that question? "Well, you must first believe the guilt of your sin more thanyou do at present-you had better go home and pray about the matter." That was not Paul's answer. He said, "Believe on theLord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house." And, to prove that he was saved, the Apostle baptized him andall his, straightway, and we are expressly told that they all believed. What do you say to that, you old deacons who say,as many country deacons still do, that the young converts ought to be "summered and wintered" before they are baptized? Ihave known scores of good old souls in the country who have said, "We must not take Mrs. So-and-So into the church. We havenot had time to prove her enough." But the Apostle knew that as they had believed, they were fit to be baptized because theywere pardoned-
"The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in His crucified God,
His pardon at once He receives,
Redemption in full through His blood." If the Lord wills, you may be pardoned this very moment. Jehovah needs not months andyears in which to write out the charter of your forgiveness and put the great seal of Heaven to it. He can speak the wordand swifter than the lightning flash, the message shall come to you, "Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven." And youshall say, "I'm forgiven-
"'A monument of Grace
A sinner saved by blood!
The streams of love I trace
Up to the Fountain, God
And in His sacred bosom see
Eternal thoughts of love to me.'" The word, "ready," is also frequently used to signify cheerfulness. When a person says toyou, "Will you give me your help?" you say, "Oh, certainly, with readiness!" That means with cheerfulness. The Lord lovesa cheerful giver and I am sure that He is, Himself, a cheerful Giver. You do not know, poor Soul, how glad God is when Heforgives a soul. The angels sang when God made the world, but we do not read that He sang. Yet, in the last chapter of theprophecy of Zephaniah, we read, "The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over you withjoy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with singing." Only think of it-the Triune God singing! What a thought-theDeity bursting out into song! And what is this about? It is over His pardoned people, His blood-bought chosen ones! O Soul,you think, perhaps, that God will be hard to be entreated and that He will give His mercy grudgingly! But the mercy of theLord is as free as the air we breathe. When the sun shines, it shines freely, otherwise it were not the sun. And when Godforgives, He forgives freely, else He were not God! Never did water leap from the crystal fountain with half such freenessand generous liberality as Grace flows from the heart of God! He gives forth love, joy, peace and pardon-and He gives themas a king gives to a king! You cannot empty His treasury, for it is inexhaustible. He is not enriched by withholding, noris He impoverished by bestowing!
Soul, you do libel Him when you think that He is unwilling to forgive you. I once had, as you now have, that hard thoughtof my loving Lord, that He would not forgive me. I thought He might, perhaps, do so one day, yet I could hardly think so wellof Him as to believe that He would. I came to His feet very timidly and said, "Surely, He will spurn me." I supposed thatHe would say to me, "Get you gone, you dog of a sinner, for you have doubted My love." But it was not so. Ah, you should seewith what a smile He received the prodigal, with what fond tenderness He clasped him to His breast, with what glad eyes Heled him to His house and with what a radiant Countenance He set him by His side, at the head of the table, and said, "Letus eat, and be merry: for this My son was dead, and is alive again: he was lost, and is found."
I would that I could write upon every heart here and engrave upon every memory those sweet words, "Ready to forgive." Arethere any of you who do not want to be forgiven? The day will come when you will want this blessing. Sailor, are you in thisbuilding? Within a little while you may be out upon the lonely sea, the waves may have swallowed up your vessel and you maybe clinging to just an oar. When the waters surge around you, how gladly you will remember that God is ready to forgive-buthow much better it would be to trust your soul to Him now! Some, whom I am now addressing, will probably die this week. Iam not making a rash assertion-my statement is based upon the statistics of mortality. O Soul, you say that it is nothingto you now, but when you are in the article of death-and that may be before another Sabbath's sun shall rise-how might thisnote ring like music in your dying ears, "Ready to forgive"!
Am I speaking to some abandoned woman who thinks that she will destroy herself? See you do it not, for God is ready to forgive!Am I addressing some man who is cast out of society as a reprobate for whom nobody cares? Soul, give not up hope, for Godis ready to forgive! Though your father has shut the door against you and your mother and sister shun you because of yourvices and sins, yet God is ready to forgive you if you will repent and turn from your iniquity! Turn you, turn you-'tis abrother's voice that entreats you to turn! By the love with which He pardoned me. By the mercy which made Him pass by my innumerabletransgressions, I beg you to turn, no, more, linking my arm in yours, I say to you, "Come, and let us return unto the Lordand let us say unto Him, 'Receive us graciously, and love us freely, so will we render unto You the calves of our lips.'"Ready to perish are you, but ready to forgive is He! Blessed be His holy name!
III. My third text is intended as a hammer to drive home the last nail. This sentence, in Job 17:1, is most solemnly true of each one of us-THE GRAVES ARE READY FOR ME.
About three years ago I gazed into the eternal world. It then pleased God to stretch me upon a bed of the most agonizing painand my life hung in jeopardy, not merely every hour, but every moment. Eternal realities were vivid enough before my eyes,but it pleased God, for some purpose which is known to Him, to spare my life and I went to spend a little season, that I mightfully recover, with a beloved friend who seemed, then, far more likely to live than I was. This day, it is his turn to lieupon the borders of the grave and mine to stand by his bedside. The grave then seemed ready for me-it now seems ready forhim. As I stood talking to him this afternoon, he said with greater force than Addison, "See how a Christian can die." WhenI asked him about his worldly goods and possessions, he said that he had been content to leave them all, some time ago. "Andwhat about your wife and your little ones?" I asked. And he replied, "I have left them all with God." "And how about eternalthings?" I enquired. "Oh," said he, "you know that God's love is everlasting and His Grace is unchanging, so why should wefear?"
He had no doubt about his acceptance in the Beloved, or about the power of Christ to carry him through his dying moments.When I said, "The battle's fought, the victory's won forever," I saw his eyes sparkle as though he heard the melodious voiceof the great Captain of our salvation saying to him, "Well done! Enter into your rest." I never saw a bride at her marriagelook more happy than this man upon the eve of death. I never saw a saint more peaceful, when retiring at eventide, than hewas when about to undress himself that he might stand before his God. "Ah," he exclaimed, "remember what you said to me, 'Suddendeath, sudden glory!'" and his eyes sparkled again at the prospect of soon beholding his Lord-
"Onegentle sigh, the fetter breaks"-
and you are gone, O earth, and my soul is in Heaven! One gasp and you have melted, O shadowy Time, and I have come to you,you welcome substance of Eternity! Blessed be God that the graves are ready for us! Christian, does the idea of a long lifecharm you? Do you want to remain long in this prison? Would you cling to these rags of mortality, to this vile
body, whose breath is corrupt, whose face is so often marred with weeping and upon whose eyelids hangs the shadow of death?Would you long to creep up and down this dunghill world, like some poor worm that always leaves a slimy track behind it? Orwould you not rather-
"Stretch your wrings, O Soul, and fly
Straight to yonder world of joy"?
Were we wise, we would-
"Long for evening, to undress, That we might rest with God."
"The graves are ready for me." Young men and young women, and all of you who are here, can you look upon the grave which isready for you with as much complacency as my friend did this afternoon? O Death, you do not need to furbish up your darts,or whet your scythe! You are always ready to slaughter the sons of men. O Eternity, your gates need not to be unlocked andthrown back on their hinges with long and tedious toil, for they are always open! O world to come, you do not need long intervalsto make yourself ready to receive the pilgrims who have finished their journey! You are an inn whose doors are always open-youare whose gates are never closed! Our grave is ready for us. The tree is grown that shall make our coffin-perhaps the fabricthat shall make our winding sheet is already woven and they, who will carry us to our last home, are ready and waiting forus!
"The graves are ready for us." Are we ready for the graves? Are we prepared to die-prepared to rise again- prepared to bejudged-prepared to plead the blood and righteousness of Christ as our ground of acceptance before the eternal Throne of God?What is your answer, my Hearer? Do you reply, in the words I quoted at the beginning of my discourse, "Ready, yes, ready!"?Did you say Death, that I was wanted? Here I am, for you did call me! Did you say, O Heaven, that you need to receive anotherblood-bought one? "Ready, yes, ready!" O Christian, always keep your houses in such good order that you will always be "Ready,yes, ready!" Always keep your heart in such a state, your soul so near to Christ and your faith so fully fixed on Him, that,if you should drop dead in the street, or some Providence should take away your life, you would be able to cheerfully say,"Ready, yes, ready! Ready for you, O Death! Ready to triumph over you and to pluck away your sting! Ready for you, O Grave,for where is now your victory? Ready for you, O Heaven, for, with your wedding garment on, we are ready, yes, ready!" TheLord make us ready, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 8:1-27.
Verse 1, 2. When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And, behold, there came a leper. You seethat particular mention is made of this one special case and, in any congregation, while it may be recorded that so many peoplecame together, the special case that will be noted by the recording angel will be that of anyone who comes to Christ withhis own personal distresses and who thereby obtains relief from them-"Behold, there came a leper."
2, 3. And worshipped Him, saying, Lord if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, saying,I will; be you clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. His faith was not as strong as it might have been. There wasan, "if," in it, but still, it was genuine faith and our loving Lord fixed His eye upon the faith rather than upon the flawthat was in it. And if He sees in you, dear Friend, even a trembling faith, He will rejoice in it and bless you because ofit. He will not withhold His blessing because you are not as strong in faith as you should be. Probably you would have a greaterblessing if you had greater faith, but even little faith gets great blessings from Christ! The leper said to Him, "If youwill, you can make me clean." So Christ answered to the faith that he did possess, "and touched him, saying, I will; be youclean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed."
4-7. And Jesus said unto him, See you teelno man; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Mosescommanded, for a testimony unto them. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion beseechingHim, and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will comeand heal him. He had not asked Christ to "come and heal him." He wished his servant to be healed, but he considered that itwas too great an honor for Christ to come to him. I am not sure, but I think that this man's judgment is correct-that forChrist to come to a man is better than for healing to come to him. Indeed, Brothers
and Sisters, all the gifts of Christ fall far short of Himself! If He will but come and abide with us, that means more thanall else that He can bestow upon us.
8, 9. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof: but only speak the word andmy servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes;and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. From his own power over his soldiers and servants,he argued that Christ must have at least equal power over all the forces of Nature and, as a centurion did not need to goand do everything himself, but gave his orders to his servant and he did it, so, surely, there could be no need for the greatCommander, to whom he was speaking, to honor the sick man with His own personal Presence. He had simply to utter the commandand it would be obeyed, and the centurion's servant would be healed. Do you think this is an ingenious argument? It is so,certainly, but it is also a very plain and very forcible one. I have read or heard many ingenious arguments for unbelief andI have often wished that half the ingenuity thus vainly spent could be exercised in discovering reasons for believing-so Iam pleased to notice that this commander of a hundred Roman soldiers did but argue from his own position-and so worked inhis mind still greater confidence in Christ's power to heal his sick servant. Is there not something about yourself, fromwhich, if you would look at it in the right light, you might gather arguments concerning the power of the Lord Jesus Christ?
10. When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,no not in Israel. "Not in Israel"-where the Light of God and the knowledge were, there was not such faith as this centurionpossessed! This Roman soldier, rough by training and experience, who was more familiar with stern fighting men than with thosewho could instruct him concerning Christ-had more faith than Jesus had so far found "in Israel."
11,12. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping andgnashing of teeth. This is a strange thing, yet it is continually happening, despite its strangeness, that the persons whoare placed in such positions of privilege, that you naturally expect that they would become Believers, remain unbelievers,while others, who are placed at a terrible disadvantage, nevertheless often come right out from sin and right away from ignoranceand become believers in Christ! Oh, that none of us who sit under the sound of the Gospel from Sabbath to Sabbath, might besad illustrations of this Truth of God, while others, unaccustomed to listen to the Word, may be happy instances of the wayin which the Lord still takes strangers and adopts them into His family!
13. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go your way; and as you have believed, so be it done unto you. And his servant washealed in the same hour. Jesus will treat all alike according to this rule-"As you have believed, so be it done unto you."If you can believe great things of Him, you shall receive great things from Him. If you think Him good, great and mighty,you shall find Him to be so. If you can conceive greater things of Him than anyone else has ever done, you shall find Himequal to all your conceptions and your greatest faith shall be surpassed! It is a Law of His Kingdom, from which Christ neverswerves-"According to your faith, be it unto you."
14, 15. And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick of a fever, and He touched her hand,and the fever left her: and she arose and ministered unto them. That was, perhaps, the most remarkable thing of all, for,when a fever is cured, it usually leaves great weakness behind it. Persons recovered of fever cannot immediately leave theirbed and begin at once to attend to household matters! But Peter's wife's mother did this. Learn, therefore, that the LordJesus can not only take away from us the disease of sin, but all the effects of it as well! He can make the man who has beenworn out in the service of Satan, to become young again in the service of the Lord. And when it seems as if we never, evenif converted, could be of any use to Him, He can take away the consequences of evil habits and make us into bright and sanctifiedBelievers. What is there that is impossible to Him? In the olden time, kings claimed to have the power of healing with a touch.That was a superstition. But this King can do it-all glory to His blessed name! May He lay His gracious hand upon many ofyou, for, if it could heal before it was pierced, much more can it now heal every sin-stricken soul it touches!
16-18. When the evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spiritswith His word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, saying, Himselftook our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave
commandment to depart unto the other side. For He neither loved nor courted popularity, but did His utmost to shun it. Itfollowed Him like His shadow but He always went before it. He never followed it, or sought after it-"When Jesus saw greatmultitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side."
19. And a certain scribe came and said unto Him, Master, I will follow You wherever You go. How bold he is with his boasting!But Jesus knows that the fastest professors are often just as fast deserters, so He tests him before He takes him into theband of His followers.
20. And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has not where tolay His head. Christ means-"Can you follow the Son of Man when there is no reward except Himself-not even a place for yourhead to rest upon, or a home wherein you may find comfort? Can you cleave to Him when the lone mountainside shall be the placewhere He spends whole nights in prayer while the dews falls heavily upon Him? Can you follow Him then?" This is a test oflove which makes many to be "found wanting."
21. 22. And another ofHis disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him,Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead. It must be Christ, first, and father afterwards. We pay no disrespect to ourdearest relatives and friends when we put them after Christ-that is their proper place. To put them before Christ-to preferthe creature to the Creator-is to be traitors to the King of kings. Whoever may come next, Christ must be first.
23-26. And when He was entered into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea,insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying,Lord, save us: we perish. And He said unto them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then He arose, and rebuked thewinds; and the sea; and there was a great calm. Probably no calm is so profound as that which follows the tempest of the soulwhich Jesus stills by His peace-speaking word. The calm of Nature, the calm of long-continued prosperity, the calm of an easytemper-these are all deceitful and are apt to be broken by sudden and furious tempests. But, after the soul has been rentto its foundations-after the awful groundswell and the Atlantic billows of deep temptation-when Jesus gives peace, there is"a great calm."
27. And the men marvelled, saying, What manner of Man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?We have often marvelledin the same way, but we know that it is not any "manner of Man" alone, but it was He who was truly Man, who was also "veryGod of very God," the God-Man, the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and men!