Sermon 3070. A Visit to Christ's Hospital

(No. 3070)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER I2, 1907.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner of meat;and they draw near unto the gates ofdeath. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saves them out of their distresses.He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness,and for His wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare Hisworks with rejoicing." Psalm 107:17-22.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon on verses 17-20 is #1824, Volume 31-THE HISTORY OF SUNDRY FOOLS.]

IT is a very profitable thing to visit a hospital. The sight of others' sickness tends to make us grateful for our own health.And it is a great thing to be kept in a thankful frame of mind, for ingratitude is a spiritual disease, injurious to everypower of the soul. A hospital inspection will also teach us compassion and that is of great service. Anything that softensthe heart is valuable. Above all things, in these days we should strive against the petrifying influences which surround us.It is not easy for a man who has constantly enjoyed good health and prosperity, to sympathize with the poor and the suffering.Even our Great High Priest, who is full of compassion, learned it by carrying our sorrows in His own Person. To see the sufferingsof the afflicted, in many cases, would be enough to move a stone. And if we visit a hospital and come back with a more tenderheart, we shall have found it a sanatorium to ourselves.

I purpose, at this time, to take you to a hospital. It shall not be one of those noble institutions so pleasingly plentifularound the Tabernacle, but we will take you to Christ's Hospital, or, as the French would call it, the HotelDieu. And we shallconduct you through the wards for a few minutes, trusting that while you view them, if you are yourself healed, you may feelgratitude that you have been delivered from spiritual sicknesses and an intense compassion for those who still pine and languish.May we become like our Savior who wept over Jerusalem with eyes which were no strangers to compassion's floods. May we viewthe most guilty and impenitent with yearning hearts and grieve with mingled hope and anxiety over those who are under thesound of the Gospel and so are more especially patients in the Hospital of God.

We will go at once with the Psalmist to the wards of spiritual sickness.

I. And first we have set out before us THE NAMES AND CHARACTERS OF THE PATIENTS.

You see in this hospital, written up over the head of every bed, the name of the patient and his disease. And you are amazedto find that all the patients belong to one family and, singularly enough, are all called by one name-and that name is veryfar from being a reputable one. It is a title that nobody covets and that many persons would be very indignant to have appliedto them-"Fool." All who are sick in God's Hospital are fools, without exception, for this reason-that all sinners are fools.Often in Scripture, when David means the wicked, he says, "the foolish." And in saying this, he makes no mistake, for sinis folly.

Sin is foolish, clearly, because it is a setting up of our weakness in opposition to Omnipotence! Every wise man, if he mustfight, will choose a combatant against whom he may have a chance of success. But he who wars with the Most High commits asgross a folly as when the moth contends with the flame, or the dry grass of the prairie challenges the fire! There is no hopefor you, O sinful Man, of becoming a victor in the struggle! How unwise you are to take up the weapons of rebellion! And thefolly is aggravated, because the One who is opposed is so infinitely good that opposition to Him is

violence to everything that is just, beneficial and commendable! God is Love-shall I resist the Infinitely Loving One? Hescatters blessings-should I therefore be His foe? If His Commandments were grievous, if His ways were ways of misery and Hispaths were paths of woe, I might have some pretense of an excuse for resisting His will. But O my God, so good, so kind, soboundless in Grace, 'tis folly, as well as wickedness, to be Your enemy!-

"To all that's good, averse and blind,

But prone to all that's ill.

What dreadful darkness veils our mind!

How obstinate our will!"

Besides this, the Laws of God are so supremely beneficial to us that we are our own enemies when we rebel. God's Laws aredanger signals. As sometimes, on the ice, those who care for human life put up the warning sign, "Danger, " here and there,and leave the part that is safe for all who choose to traverse it, so God has left us free to enjoy everything that is safefor us-and has only forbidden us that which is to our own hurt. If there is a law which forbids me to put my hand into thefire, it is a pity that I should need such a law, but a thousand pities more if I think that law a hardship! The commandsof God do but forbid us to injure ourselves. To keep them is to keep ourselves in holy happiness-to break them is to bringevil of all kinds upon ourselves in soul and body. Why should I violate a law, which, if I were perfect, I would myself havemade, or myself have kept finding it in force? Why need I rebel against that which is never exacting, never oppressive, butalways conducive to my own highest welfare? The sinner is a fool because he is told, in God's Word, that the path of evilwill lead to destruction-and yet he pursues it with the secret hope that in his case the damage will not be very great. Hehas been warned that sin is like a cup frothing with a foam of sweetness, but concealing death and Hell in its dregs-yet eachsinner, as he takes the cup, fascinated by the first drop, believes that to him the poisonous draught will not be fatal! Howmany have fondly hoped that God would lie unto men and would not fulfill His threats? Yet be assured, every sin shall haveits recompense of reward! God is Just and will by no means spare the guilty. Even in this life many are feeling in their bonesthe consequences of their youthful lusts-they will carry to their graves the scars of their transgressions. In Hell, alas,there are millions who will forever prove that sin is an awful and an undying evil, an infinite curse which has destroyedthem forever and ever!

The sinner is a fool because while he doubts the truthfulness of God as to the punishment of sin, he has the conceit to imaginethat transgression will even yield him pleasure! God says it shall be bitterness-the sinner denies the bitterness and affirmsthat it shall be sweetness. O Fool, to seek pleasure in sin! Go rake the morgue to find an immortal soul! Go walk into thesecret springs of the sea to find the source of flame! It is not there and you can never find bliss in rebellion! Hundredsof thousands before you have gone upon this search and have all been disappointed. He is indeed a fool who must rush headlongin this useless chase and perish as the result! The sinner is a fool-a great fool-to remain as he is in danger of the wrathof God! To abide at ease in imminent peril and scorn the way of escape. To love the world and loathe the Savior. To set thepresent fleeting life above the eternal future. To choose the sand of the desert and forego the jewels of Heaven-all thisis folly in the highest conceivable degree!

Though all sinners are fools, yet there are fools of all sorts. Some are learned fools. Unconverted men, whatever they know,are only educated fools. Between the ignorant man who cannot read a letter and the learned man who is apt in all knowledge,there is small difference if they are both ignorant of Christ! Indeed, the scholar's folly is, in this case, the greater ofthe two! The learned fool generally proves himself the worst of fools, for he invents theories which would be ridiculed ifthey could be understood-and he brings forth speculations which, ifjudged by common sense and men were not turned into idioticworshippers of imaginary authority, would be scouted from the universe with a hiss of derision! There are fools in collegesand fools in cottages.

There are also reckless fools and reckoning fools. Some sin greedily with both hands. "A short life and a merry one," is theirmotto-while the so-called "prudent" fools live more slowly, but still live not for God. These last, with hungry greed forwealth, will often heard up gold as if it were true treasure and as if anything worth the retaining were to be found beneaththe moon. Your "prudent respectable "sinner will find himselfjust as much lost as your reckless prodigal. They must all alikeseek and find the Savior, or be guilty of gross folly. So, alas, there are old fools as well as young ones! There are thosewho, after an experience of sin, still burn their fingers in it. The burnt child dreads the fire, but the burnt sinner lovinglyplays with his sin again! Gray hair ought to be a crown of glory, but too often they are fool's caps. There are young sinnerswho waste the prime of life when the dew is on their spirit and neglect to give their strength to God-

and so miss the early joy of religion, which is the sweetest and makes all the rest of life sweeter-these are fools. But whatis he who has one foot hanging over the mouth of Hell and yet continues without God and without Christ, a trifler with eternity?

I have spoken thus upon the name of those who enter God's Hospital. Permit me to add that all who go there and are cured,agree that this name is correct. Saved souls are made to feel that they are naturally fools and, indeed, it is one stage inthe cure when men are able to spell their own name and when they are willing to write it in capital letters and say, "Thatis my name! If there is no other man in this world who is a fool, I am. I have played the fool before the living God." Thisconfession is true, for what madness it is to play the fool before the Eternal One with your own soul as the subject of thefoolery! When men make sport, they generally do it with trifling things. A man who plays the fool and puts on a cap and bellsis wise in comparison with him who sports with his God, his soul, Heaven and eternity! This is folly beyond all folly! Yetthe sinner, when he is taken into God's Hospital, will be made to feel that he has been such a fool and that his folly isfolly with emphasis. He will confers that Christ must be made unto him wisdom for he by nature was born a fool, has liveda fool and will die a fool unless the Infinite Mercy of God interposes!

II. Now, for a minute or two, let us notice THE CAUSE OF THEIR PAINS AND AFFLICTIONS. "Fools because of their transgressionand because of their iniquities, are afflicted."

The physician usually tries to find out the root and cause of the disease he has to deal with. Now those souls that are broughtinto grief for sin, those who are smarting through the Providential dealings of God, through the striking of conscience, orthe smiting of the Holy Spirit, are here taught that the source of their sorrow is their sin. These sins are mentioned inthe text in the plural-"Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities." How many have our sins been?Who shall count them? Let him count the hairs of his head first. Sins are various and are, therefore, called "transgressionsand iniquities." We do not all sin alike, nor does any one man sin alike at all times. We commit sins of word, thought, deed-againstGod, against men, against our bodies, against our souls, against the Gospel, against the Law, against the week-day duties,against the Sabbath privileges-of all sorts and these all lie at the root of our sorrows. Our sins also are aggravated. Notcontent with transgression, we have added iniquities to it. No one is more greedy than a sinner, but he is greedy after hisown destruction! He is never content with revolting-he must rebel yet more and more. As when a stone is rolled downhill, itspace is accelerated the further it goes, so is it with the sinner-he goes from bad to worse.

Perhaps I speak to some who have lately come into God's Hospital. I will suppose a case. You are poor, very poor. But yourpoverty is the fruit of your profligate habits. Poverty is often directly traceable to drunkenness, laziness, or dishonesty.All poverty does not come from these sources. Blessed be God, there are thousands of the poor who are the excellent of theearth-and a great many of them are serving God right nobly! But I am now speaking of certain cases and probably you know ofsuch yourselves where, because of their transgression and iniquities, men are brought to need. There will come to me, sometimes,a person who was in good circumstances a few years ago, who is now without anything but the clothes he tries to stand uprightin. And his wretchedness is entirely owing to his playing the prodigal. He is one of those whom I trust God may yet take intoHis Hospital.

At times the disease breaks out in another sort of misery. Some sins bring into the flesh itself pains which are anticipatoryof Hell-yet even these persons may be taken into the Hospital of God, though they are afflicted to their shame through grosstransgression. Oh, how many there are in this great city of London, of men and women who dare not tell their condition, butwhose story is a terrible one, indeed, as God reads it! Oh, that He may have pity upon them and take them into His hospitaland heal them through His abundant Grace!

In more numerous cases, the misery brought by sin is mental. Many are brought very low by sin-even to despair. Consciencepricks them. Fears of death and Hell haunt them. I remember well when I was in this way myself. When I, poor fool, becauseof my transgression and my iniquities, was sorely bowed in spirit. By day I thought of the punishment of my sin. By nightI dreamed of it. I woke in the morning with a burden on my heart-a burden which I could neither carry nor shake off-and sinwas at the bottom of my sorrow. My sin, my sin, my sin-this was my constant plague! I was in my youth and in the heyday ofmy spirit. I had all earthly comforts and I had friends to cheer me, but they were all as nothing. I would seek solitary placesto search the Scriptures and to read such books as Baxter's Call to the Unconverted and Alleine's Alarm, feeling my soul plowedmore and more, as though the Law, with its ten great black horses, was dragging the plow up and down my soul breaking, crushing,furrowing my heart-and all for sin. Let me tell you, though we read of the cruelties of the Inquisition and the sufferingswhich the martyrs have borne from cruel men-no racks, nor fire pans, nor other instruments of torture can make a man so wretchedas his own conscience when he is stretched upon its rack!

Here then, we see both the fools and the cause of their disease.

III. Now let us notice THE PROGRESS OF THE DISEASE. It is said that "their soul abhors all manner of meat," like persons whohave lost their appetite and can eat nothing-"and they draw near unto the gates of death"-they are given over and nearly dead.

These words may reach some whose disease of sin has developed itself into fearful sorrow so that they are near unable to findcomfort in anything. You used to enjoy the theater-you went lately but you were wretched there. You used to be a wit in societyand set the table on a roar with your jokes-but you cannot joke now. They say you are melancholy, but you know what they donot know, for a secret arrow rankles in your bosom. You go to a place of worship, but you find no comfort even there. Themanner of meat that is served to God's saints is not suitable to you. You cry, "Alas, I am not worthy of it!" Whenever youhear a sermon thundering against the ungodly, you feel, "Ah, that is for me!" But when it comes to, "Comfort you, comfortyou My people," you conclude, "Ah, that is notfor me!" Even if it is an invitation to the sinner, you say, "But I do not feelmyself a sinner. I am not such an one as may come to Christ. Surely I am a castaway." Your soul abhors all manner of meat,even that out of God's kitchen. Not only are you dissatisfied with the world's dainties, but the marrow and fatness of Christ,Himself, you cannot relish. Many of us have been in this way before you.

The text adds, "They draw near unto the gates of death." The soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death, and feels thatit cannot bear up much longer. I remember once, in the bitterness of my spirit, using those words of Job, "My soul choosesstrangling and death rather than my life," for the wretchedness of a sin-burdened soul is intolerable. All do not suffer likestrong convictions but in some it bows the spirit almost to the grave! Perhaps, my Friend, you see no hope whatever. You areready to say, "There cannot be any hope for me. I have made a covenant with death and a league with Hell. I am past hope.There were, years ago, opportunities for me, and I was near the Kingdom of God, but like the man who put his hand to the plowand then looked back, I have proven myself unworthy of eternal life." Troubled Heart, I am sent with a message for you-"Thussays the Lord, your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your league with Hell shall not stand. The prey shall betaken from the mighty and the lawful captive shall be delivered." You may abhor the very meat that would restore you to strength,but He who understands the human heart knows how to give you better tastes and cure these evil whims! He knows how to bringyou up from the gates of death to the gates of Heaven! Thus we see how terribly the mischief progresses-

"Our beauty and our strength are fled,

And we draw near to death,

But Christ the Lord recalls the dead

With His almighty breath."

IV. And now the disease takes a turn. Our fourth point is THE INTERPOSITION OF THE PHYSICIAN. "Then they cry unto the Lordin their trouble, and He saves them out of their distresses. He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from theirdestructions."

The Good Physician is the true Healer. Observe when the Physician comes in-when "they cry unto the Lord in their trouble."When they cry, the Physician has come! I will not say that He has come because they cry, though that would be true-but thereis deeper truth still-they cried because He came! For whenever a soul truly cries unto God, God has already blessed it byenabling it to cry. You would never have begun to pray if the Lord had not taught you. God is visiting a soul and healingit when it has enough faith in God to cast itself, with a cry, upon His mercy! I cannot hope that there is a work of Gracein you until I know that you pray. Ananias would not have believed that Paul was converted had it not been said, "Behold heprays!"

Note the kind of prayer here. It was not taken out of a book and it was not a fine prayer in language, whether extempore orcomposed-it was a cry. You do not need to teach your children how to cry-it is the first thing a newborn child does. It needsno schoolmaster to teach it that art! Our School Boards have a great deal to teach the children of London, but they need neverhave a department for instruction in crying. A spiritual cry is the call of the new-born

nature expressing conscious need. "How shall I pray?" says one. Pour your heart out, Brother. Turn the vessel upside downand let the contents run out to the last dreg as best they can. "But I cannot pray," says one. Tell the Lord you cannot prayand ask Him to help you pray and you have already prayed! "Oh, but I don't feel as I should!" Then confess to the Lord yoursinful insensibility and ask Him to make your heart tender and you are already in a measure softened! Those who say, "We don'tfeel as we should," are very often those who feel the most. Whether it is so or not, cry. If you are a sin-sick soul, youcan do nothing towards your own healing but this-you can cry. He who hears your cries will know what they mean. When the surgeongoes to the battlefield after a conflict, he is guided to his compassionate work by the groans of the wounded. When he hearsa soldier's cry, he does not inquire, "Was that a Frenchman or a German, and what does he mean?" A cry is good French andexcellent German, too! It is part of the universal tongue. The surgeon understands it and looks for the sick man. And whateverlanguage you use, O Sinner, uncouth or refined, if it is the language of your heart, God understands you without an interpreter!

Note well that as we have seen when the Physician interposed, we shall see next what He did. He saved them out of their distresses,healed them and delivered them from their destructions! Oh, the Infinite Mercy of God! He reveals to the heart pardon forall sin and, by His Holy Spirit's power, removes all our weaknesses. I tell you, Soul, though you are at death's door thismoment, God can even now gloriously deliver you! It would be a wonder if your poor burdened spirit should, within this hour,leap for joy and yet, if the Lord shall visit you in mercy, you will do so! I fall back upon my own recollection. My escapefrom despondency was instantaneous. I did but believe Jesus Christ's word and rest upon His Sacrifice and the night of myheart was over-the darkness had passed and the true light had shone! In some parts of the world there are not long twilightsbefore the break of day-the sun leaps up in a moment. The darkness flies and the light reigns-so it is with many of the Lord'sredeemed. As in a moment, their ashes are exchanged for beauty and their spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise! Faithis the great transformer! Will you cast yourself, now, whether you shall live or die, upon the precious blood and merits ofJesus Christ the Savior? Will you come and rest your soul upon the Son of God? As you do so, you are saved! Your sins, whichare many, are now forgiven you! As of old the Egyptians were drowned in a moment in the Red Sea, and the depths had coveredthem so that there was not one of them left, so the moment you believe, you have lifted a mightier rod than that of Moses!And the sea of the atoning blood, in the fullness of its strength, has gone over the heads of all your enemies-your sins aredrowned in Jesus' blood! Oh, what joy is this when, in answer to a cry, God delivers us from our present distresses and ourthreatened future destructions!

But how is this effected?The Psalmist says, "He sent His Word and healed them." "His Word."How God enables language when Heuses it!That word, "Word,"is lifted up in Scripture into the foremost place and put on a level with the Godhead. "THE WORD."It indicates a God-like Personage for, "in the beginning was the Word." No, it denotes God Himself, for, "the Word was God."Our hope is the Word-the Incarnate Logos, the Eternal Word. In some respects, our salvation comes to us entirely through thesending of that Word to be made flesh and to dwell among us. He is our saving health-by His stripes we are healed. But herethe expression is best understood of the Gospel, which is the Word of God. Often the reading of the Scriptures proves themeans of healing troubled souls or else that same Word is made effectual when spoken from a loving heart with living lips.What might there is in the plain preaching of the Gospel! No power in all the world can match it. They tell us, nowadays,that the nation will go over to Rome and the Gospel candle will be blown out. I am not a believer in these alarming prophecies.I neither believe in the battle of Dorking, nor in the victory of Pius the Ninth. Leave us our Bibles, our pulpits and ourGod, and we shall win the victory! Oh, if all ministers preached the Gospel plainly, without aiming at rhetoric and high flightsof oratory, what great triumphs would follow! How sharp would the Gospel sword prove itself to be if men would but pull itout of those fine ornamental, but useless scabbards! When the Lord enables His servants to put plain Gospel truth into languagethat will strike and stick, be understood and retained, it heals sick souls that otherwise might have lain fainting a longtime!

Still, the Word of God in the Bible and the Word of God preached cannot heal the soul unless God shall send it in the mostemphatic sense. "He sent His Word." When the eternal Spirit brings home the Word with power, what a Word it is! Then the miraclesof Grace worked within us are such as to astonish friends and confound foes! May the Lord, even now, send His Word to eachsinner and it will be his salvation! "Hear, and your soul shall live." "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word ofGod." And faith brings with it all that the soul requires. When we have faith, we are linked with Christ and so our salvationis ensured.

V. That brings us to the last point-THE CONSEQUENT CONDUCT OF THOSE WHO WERE HEALED.

First, they praised God for His goodness. What rare praise a soul offers where it is brought out of prison! The sweetest musicever heard on earth is found in those new songs which celebrate our recent deliverance from the horrible pit and the miryclay. Did you ever keep a sparrow in a cage and then think that it was cruel to rob it of its liberty? Did you take it outinto the garden and open the cage door? Oh, but if you could have heard it sing when it had escaped from the cage where ithad been so long, you would have heard the best sparrow music in all the woods! When a poor soul breaks forth from the dungeonof despair, set free by God, what songs it pours forth! God loves to hear such music. Remember that ancient Word of His, "Iremember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after Me in the wilderness." God lovesthe warm-hearted praises of newly-emancipated souls and He will get some out of you, dear Friend, if you are set free at thishour!

Notice that these healed ones praised God especially for His goodness. It was great goodness that such as they were shouldbe saved. So near death's door and yet saved! They wondered at His mercy and sang of "His wonderful works to the childrenof men." It is wonderful that such as we were should be redeemed from our iniquities, but our Redeemer's name is called Wonderful,and He delights in showing forth the riches of His Grace.

Observe that in their praises they ascribe all to God-they praise Him for His wonderful work Salvation is God's work, frombeginning to end. Their song is, moreover, comprehensive, and they adore the Lord for His love to others as well as to themselves-theypraise Him "for His wonderful works to the children of men."

Forget not that they added to this praise, sacrifice. "Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving." What shall be thesacrifices of a sinner delivered from going down into the Pit? Shall he bring a bull that has horns and hoofs? No, let himbring his heart! Let him offer himself, his time, his talents, his body, his soul, his substance. Let him exclaim, "Let myLord take all, seeing that He has saved my soul." Will you not lay yourselves out for Him who laid Himself out for you? IfHe has bought you with such a price, confess that you are altogether His! Of your substance give to His cause. As He prospersyou, prove that you are really His by your generosity towards His Church and His poor!

In addition to sacrifice, the healed ones began to offer songs, for it was to be a "sacrifice of thanksgiving."May those ofyou who are pardoned sing more than is customary nowadays. May we, each one of us, who have been delivered from going downto the Pit, enter into the choir of God's praising ones-vocally singing as often as we can-and in our hearts always chantingHis praise!

Once more, the grateful ones were to add to their gifts and Psalms, a declaration of joy at what God had done for them. "Letthem declare His works with rejoicing." You who are pardoned should tell the Church of the Lord's mercy to you. Let His peopleknow that God is discovering His hidden ones. Come and tell the minister. Nothing gladdens him so much as to know that soulsare brought to Jesus by his means. This is our reward. You are our crown of rejoicing, you saved ones! I can truly say thatI never have such joy as when I receive letters from persons, or hear from them personally the good news, "I heard you onsuch-and-such a night and found peace." Or, "I read your sermon and God blessed it to my soul." There is not a true ministerof Christ but would willingly lay himself down to die if he could thereby see multitudes saved from eternal wrath! We livefor this. If we miss this, our life is a failure. What is the use of a minister unless he brings souls to God? For this wewould yearn over you and draw near unto God in secret, that He would be pleased in mercy to deliver you!

But, surely, if you are converted, you should not conceal the fact! It is an unkind action for any person who has receivedlife from the dead through any instrumentality to deny the worker the consolation of hearing that he has been made useful-forthe servant of God has many discouragements and he is, himself, readily cast down. And the gratitude of those who are savedis one of the appointed cordials for his heavy heart. There is no refreshment like it! May God grant you Grace to declareHis love, for our sake, for the Church's sake and, indeed, for the world's sake! Let the sinner know that you have found mercy-perhapsit will induce him, also, to seek salvation. Many a physician has gained his practice by one patient telling others of hiscure. Tell your neighbors that you have been to the Hospital of Jesus and been restored, though you hated all manner of meatand drew near to the gates of death! And maybe a poor soul in the same condition as yourself will say, "This is a messagefrom God to me."

Above all, publish abroad the Lord's goodness for Jesus' sake. He deserves your honor. Will you receive His blessing and then,like the nine lepers, give Him no praise? Will you be like the woman in the crowd who was healed by touching

the hem of His garment and then would gladly have slipped away? If so, I pray that the Master may say, "Somebody has touchedMe," and may you be compelled to tell us all the truth and say, "I was sorely sick in soul, but I touched You, O my blessedLord, and I am saved! And to the praise of the glory of Your Grace I will tell it! I will tell it though devils should hearme! I will tell it and make the world ring with it according to my ability, to the praise and Glory of Your saving Grace!"

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM107:1-22.

Verse 1. O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good: for His mercy endures forever In the heading of this Psalm we are remindedthat the Psalmist here exhorts the redeemed, in praising God, to observe His manifold Providence over travelers, prisoners,sick men, seamen "and in divers varieties of life." But, inasmuch as the exhortation is especially addressed to the redeemedof the Lord, I shall endeavor to cast the red ray of redemption over it and to explain these various circumstances as relatingto the spiritual experience of God's people and to their deliverance out of divers perils to which their souls are exposed.

"O give thanks unto the Lord." This seems to imply that we are so slow to praise God that we have to be stirred up to thissacred duty! This exhortation looks as if we needed to be entreated to give thanks unto the Lord. Yet this ought not to bean uncongenial or disagreeable task. It ought to be our pleasure to praise the Lord. We should be eager to do it and yet itis to be feared that we are often silent when we ought to be giving thanks unto His holy name. "O give thanks unto the Lord,for He is good." Whether you give Him your praises, or-

"Let His mercies lie Forgotten in unthankfulness, And without praises die"- He deserves them, "for He is good: for His mercyendures forever."

2, 3. Let the redeemed ofthe LORD sayso, whom He has redeemed from the hand ofthe enemy; andgathered them out of the landsfrom the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. Whenever God's people are redeemed from the hand ofthe enemy, and gathered unto Himself, it is always by His Grace and power. They are not only gathered to Him, but they aregathered byHim and, therefore, let them all praise His holy name!

4. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. This is the experience of all God'sredeemed and gathered ones-they were, at one time, all lost and wandering to and fro in the wilderness-as God's ancient peopledid.

5, 6. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered themout of their distresses. This is the point to which a true spiritual experience sooner or later brings all God's elect ones!They cry unto the Lord in their trouble. The end, the design of their trouble is that they may cry unto Him! And when theydo so, it is absolutely certain that they shall be delivered out of their distresses.

7-11. AndHe led them forth by the right way, that they mightgo to a city ofhabitation. Oh that men wouldpraise the LORD forHis goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soulwith goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; because they rebelledagainst the words of God, and despised the counsel ofthe Most High. All God's people, all His redeemed have been made to feel,in a greater or lesser degree, the agony of their spiritual bondage. They have been like captives sitting in darkness, dreadingdeath, realizing that they are utterly unable to deliver themselves. They have been rebellious against the words of God, andhave despised His counsel, so that it is absolutely necessary that they should be brought to their right position and be madeto kneel before the Lord in true humility of heart.

12-16. Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried untothe LORD in their trouble. and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,and broke their bonds in sunder Oh that men wouldpraise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the childrenof men! For He has broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder Is any child of God thus shut up in the dark?Those of you who have ever been lost in a London fog know what a depression of

spirit it brings upon you while you are in the impenetrable darkness out of which you cannot see any way of escape. All thatyou can do is to stand still and cry out for help. Well, try what crying to God will do for you in your spiritual depression!Your spirit is cast down into the very deeps-then, out of the depths cry unto the Lord as Jonah did! Rest in Him! Trust inHim, and see whether He will not bring you up into the light of His Countenance!

17, 18. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhors all mannerof meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. All God's redeemed people have suffered from soul-sickness and some ofthem have suffered from it so acutely that they have lost all appetite for spiritual comfort. "Their soul abhors all mannerof meat." They cannot bear the sight or the thought of it. A man in this condition says, "Do not bring me any food. I loatheit." The very nourishment that might have restored him, he rejects because of the nausea which soul-sickness brings.

19, 20. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, andHe saves them out of their distresses. He sent His Word, and healedthem, and delivered them from their destructions. He healed them with His Word. And there is a remedy, in God's Word, forevery form of spiritual malady. What we need to know is where the particular remedy for our special form of soul-sicknessis to be found-and this, the Holy Spirit will teach us if we will but ask Him!

21, 22. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

were published with Sermons #3061-THE RULE OF GRACE and 3064-"AD IT WAS SO" both Volume 53]