Sermon 131. Salvation of the Lord

(No. 131)

Delivered on Sabbath Morning, May 10, 1857, by the

REV. C.H. SPURGEON

at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

"Salvation is of the Lord."-Jonah 2:9.

JONAH learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He learned it in the whale's belly, at the bottom of themountains, with the weeds wrapped about his head, when he supposed that the earth with her bars was about him for ever. Mostof the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwisewe shall not truly receive them. No man is competent to judge in matters of the kingdom, untilfirst he has been tried; since there are many things to be learned in the depths which we can never know in the heights.We discover many secrets in the caverns of the ocean, which, though we had soared to heaven, we never could have known. Heshall best meet the wants of God's people as a preacher who has had those wants himself; he shall best comfort God's Israelwho has needed comfort; and he shall best preach salvation who has felt his own need of it. Jonah, when he was delivered fromhisgreat danger, when, by the command of God the fish had obediently left its great deeps and delivered its cargo upon dryland, was then capable of judging; and this was the result of his experience under his trouble-"Salvation is of the Lord."

By salvation here we do not merely understand the special salvation which Jonah received from death; for according to Dr.Gill, there is something so special in the original, in the word salvation having one more letter than it usually has, whenit only refers to some temporary deliverance, that we can only understand it here as relating to the great work of the salvationof the soul which endureth for ever. That "salvation is of the Lord," I shall this morning try to showas best I can. First, I shall endeavor to explain the doctrine; then I shall try to show you how God has guarded us from making any mistakes, and has hedged us up to make us believe the gospel; then I shall dwell upon the influence of this truth upon men; and shall close up by showing you the counterpart of the doctrine. Seeing every truth hath its obverse, so hath this.

I. First, then, to begin by explanation, let us EXPOUND THIS DOCTRINE-the doctrine that salvation is of the Lord, or of Jehovah.We are to understand by this, that the whole of the work whereby men are saved from their natural estate of sin and ruin,and are translated into the kingdom of God and made heirs of eternal happiness, is of God, and of him only. "Salvation isof the Lord."

To begin, then, at the beginning, the plan of salvation is entirely of God. No human intellect and no created intelligence assisted God in the planning of salvation; he contrived the way, even as hehimself carried it out. The plan of salvation was devised before the existence of angels. Before the day-star flung its rayacross the darkness, when as yet the unnavigated ether had not been fanned by the wing of seraph, and when the solemnity ofsilence had never beendisturbed by the song of angel, God had devised a way whereby he might save man, whom he foresaw would fall. He did notcreate angels to consult with them; no, of himself he did it. We might truly ask the question, "With whom took he counsel?Who instructed him, when be planned the great architecture of the temple of mercy? With whom took he counsel when he diggedthe deeps of love, that out of them there might well up springs of salvation? Who aided him?" None. He himself, alone, didit. Infact, if angels had then been in existence, they could not have assisted God; for I can well suppose that if a solemnconclave of those spirits had been held, if God had put to them this question, "Man will rebel; I declare I will punish; myjustice, inflexible and severe, demands that I should do so; but yet I intend to have mercy;" if he had put the question tothe celestial squadrons of mighty ones, "How can those things be? How can justice have its demands fulfilled, and how canmercyreign?" the angels would have sat in silence until now; they could not have dictated the plan; it would have surpassedangelic intellect to have conceived the way whereby righteousness and peace should meet together, and judgment and mercy shouldkiss each other. God devised it, because without God it could not have been devised. It is a plan too splendid to have beenthe product of any mind except of that mind which afterward carried it out. "Salvation" is older than creation; it is "oftheLord."

And as it was of the Lord in planning so it was of the Lord in execution. No one has helped to provide salvation; God has done it all himself. The banquet of mercy is served up by one host; thathost is he to whom the cattle on a thousand hills belong. But none have contributed any dainties to that royal banquet; hebath done it all himself The royal bath of mercy, wherein black souls are washed, was filled from the veins of Jesus; nota drop was contributed by anyother being. He died upon the cross, and as an expiator he died alone. No blood of martyrs mingled with that stream; noblood of noble confessors and of heroes of the cross entered into the river of atonement; that is filled from the veins ofChrist, and from nowhere else beside. He bath done it wholly Atonement is the unaided work of Jesus. On yonder cross I seethe man who "trod the winepress alone;" in yonder garden I see the solitary conqueror, who came to the fight single-handed,whose ownarm brought salvation, and whose omnipotence sustained him. "Salvation is of the Lord," as to its provisions; Jehovah-Father,Son, and Spirit-hath provided everything.

So far we are all agreed: but now we shall have to separate a bit. "Salvation is of the Lord" in the application of it. "No," says the Arminian, "it is not; salvation is of the Lord, inasmuch as he does all for man that he can do; but thereis something that man must do, which if he does not do, he must perish." That is the Arminian way of salvation. Now last weekI thought of this very theory of salvation, when I stood by the side of that window of Carisbrookecastle, out of which King Charles of unhappy and unrighteous memory, attempted to escape. I read in the guide book thatevery thing was provided for his escape; his followers had means at the bottom of the wall to enable him to fly across thecountry, and on the coast they had their boats lying ready to take him to another land; in fact every thing was ready forhis escape. But here was the important circumstance: his friends had done all they could; he was to do the rest; but thatdoing therest was just the point and brunt of the battle. It was to get out of the window, out of which he was not able to escapeby any means, so that all his friends did for him went for nothing, so far as he was concerned. So with the sinner. If Godhad provided every means of escape, and only required him to get out of his dungeon, he would have remained there to all eternity.Why, is not the sinner by nature dead in sin? And if God requires him to make himself alive, and then afterward he will dothe rest for him, then verily, my friends, we are not so much obliged to God as we had thought for; for if he requireso much as that of us, and we can do it, we can do the rest without his assistance. The Romanists have an extraordinary miracleof their own about St. Dennis, of whom they tell the lying legend that after his head was off be took it up in his hands andwalked with it two thousand miles; whereupon, said a wit, "So far as the two thousand miles go, it is nothing at all; it isonlythe first step in which there is any difficulty." So I believe, if that is taken, all the rest can be easily accomplished.And if God does require of the sinner-dead in sin-that he should take the first step, then he requireth just that which renderssalvation as impossible under the gospel as ever it was under the law, seeing man is as unable to believe as he is to obey,and is just as much without power to come to Christ as he is without power to go to heaven without Christ. The power mustbegiven to him of the Spirit. He lieth dead in sin; the Spirit must quicken him. He is bound hand and foot and fetteredby transgression; the Spirit must cut his bonds, and then he will leap to liberty. God must come and dash the iron bars outof their sockets, and then he can escape from the window, and make good his escape afterward; but unless the first thing bedone for him, he must perish as surely under the gospel as he would have done under the law. I would cease to preach, if Ibelievedthat God, in the matter of salvation, required any thing whatever of man which be himself had not also engaged to furnish.For how many have I frequently hanging upon my lips of the worst of characters-men whose lives have become so horribly bad,that the lip of morality would refuse to give a description of their character? When I enter my pulpit am I to believe thatthese men are to do something before God's Spirit will operate upon them? If so, I should go there with a faint heart, feelingthat I never could induce them to do the first part. But now I come to my pulpit with a sure confidence-God the Holy Spiritwill meet with these men this morning. They are as bad as they can be; he will put a new thought into their hearts; he willgive them new wishes; he will give them new wills, and those who hated Christ will desire to love him; those who once lovedsin will, by God's divine Spirit, be made to hate it; and here is my confidence, that what they can not do, in that they areweak through the flesh, God sending his Spirit into their hearts will do for them, and in them, and so they shall be saved.

Well then, says one, that will make people sit still and fold their arms. Sir, it shill not. But if men did so I could nothelp it; my business, as I have often said in this place before, is not to prove to you the reasonableness of any truth, norto defend any truth from its consequences; all I do here, and I mean to keep to it, is just to assert the truth, because itis in the Bible; then, if you do not like it, you must settle the quarrel with my Master, and if youthink it unreasonable, you must quarrel with the Bible. Let others defend Scripture and prove it to be true; they cando their work better than I could; mine is just the mere work of proclaiming. I am the messenger; I tell the Master's message;if you do not like the message, quarrel with the Bible, not with me; so long as I have Scripture on my side I will dare anddefy you to do any thing against me. "Salvation is of the Lord." The Lord has to apply it, to make the unwilling willing,to makethe ungodly godly, and bring the vile rebel to the feet of Jesus, or else salvation will never be accomplished. Leavethat one thing undone, and you have broken the link of the chain, the very link which was just necessary to its integrity.Take away the fact that God begins the good work, and that he sends us what the old divines call preventing grace-take thataway, and you have spoilt the whole of salvation; you have just taken the key-stone out of the arch, and down it tumbles.There isnothing left then.

And now on the next point we shall a little disagree again, "Salvation is of the Lord," as to the sustaining of the work in any man's heart. When a man is made a child of God he does not have a stock of grace given to him with which to go on for ever, but be hasgrace for that day; and he must have grace for the next day, and grace for the next, and grace for the next, until days shallend, or else the beginning shall be of no avail. As a man does not make himselfspiritually alive, so neither can he keep himself so. He can feed on spiritual food, and so preserve his spiritual strength;he can walk in the commandments of the Lord, and so enjoy rest and peace, but still the inner life is dependent upon the Spiritas much for its after existence as for its first begetting. I do verily believe that if it should ever be my lot to put myfoot upon the golden threshold of Paradise, and put this thumb upon the pearly latch, I should never cross the thresholdunless I had grace given me to take that last step whereby I might enter heaven. No man of himself, even when converted,hath any power, except as that power is daily, constantly, and perpetually infused into him by the Spirit. But Christiansoften set up for independent gentlemen; they get a little stock of grace in hand, and they say, "My mountain standeth firm,I shall never be moved." But ah! it is not long before the manna begins to be putrid. It was only meant to be the manna forthe day,and we have kept it for the morrow, and therefore it fails us. We must have fresh grace.

"For day by day the manna fell;

O to learn that lesson well."

So look day by day for fresh grace. Frequently too the Christian wants to have grace enough for a month vouchsafed to himin one moment. "O!" he says, "what a host of troubles I have coming-how shall I meet them all? O! that I had grace enoughto bear me through them all! "My dear friends, you will have grace enough for your troubles, as they come one by one. "Asthy days, so shall thy strength be;" but thy strength shall never be as thy months, or as thy weeks. Thou shalthave thy strength as thou hast thy bread. "Give us this day our daily bread." Give us this day our daily grace. But whyis it you will be troubling yourself about the things of to-morrow? The common people say, "Cross a bridge when you come toit." That is good advice. Do the same. When a trouble comes, attack it, and down with it, and master it ; but do not beginnow to forestall your woes. "Ah! but I have so many," says one. Therefore I say, do not look further before thee than thouneedest."Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Do as the brave Grecian did, who, when he defended his country from Persia,did not go into the plains to fight, but stood in the narrow pass of Thermopylae; there, when the myriads came to him, theyhad to come one by one, and he felled them to the earth. Had he ventured into the plain he would have been soon devoured,and his handfull would have been melted like a drop of dew in the sea. Stand in the narrow pass of to-day, and fight thy troublesone by one; but do not rush into the plains of tomorrow, for there thou wilt be routed and killed. As the evil is sufficientso will the grace be. "Salvation is of the Lord."

But, lastly, upon this point. The ultimate perfection of salvation is of the Lord. Soon, soon, the saints of earth shall be saints in light; their hairs of snowy age shall be crowned with perpetual joy andeverlasting youth; their eyes suffused with tears shall be made bright as stars, never to be clouded again by sorrow; theirhearts that tremble now are to be made joyous and fast, and set for ever like pillars in the temple of God. Their follies,their burdens,their griefs, their woes, are soon to be over; sin is to be slain, corruption is to be removed, and a heaven of spotlesspurity and of unmingled peace is to be theirs for ever. But it must still be by grace. As was the foundation such must thetop-stone be; that which laid on earth the first beginning must lay in heaven the top-most stone. As they were redeemed fromtheir filthy conversation by grace, so they must be redeemed from death and the grave by grace too, and they must enter heavensinging

"Salvation of the Lord alone;

Grace is a shoreless sea."

There may be Arminians here, but they will not be Arminians there; they may here say, "It is of the will of the flesh," butin heaven they shall not think so. Here they may ascribe some little to the creature; but there they shall cast their crownsat the Redeemer's feet, and acknowledge that he did it all. Here they may sometimes look a little at themselves, and boastsomewhat of their own strength; but there, "Not unto us, not unto us," shall be sung with deepersincerity and with more profound emphasis than they have even sung it here below. In heaven, when grace shall have doneits work, this truth shall stand out in blazing letters of gold, "Salvation is of the Lord."

II. Thus I have tried to expound the gospel. Now shall I show you How GOD HAS HEDGED THIS GOSPEL ABOUT.

Some have said salvation in some cases is the result of natural temperament. Well, Sir, well; God has effectually answered your argument. You say that some people are saved because they are naturallyreligious and inclined to be good; unfortunately I have never met with any of that class of persons yet; but I will supposefor a moment that there are such people. God has unanswerably met your objection; for, strange to say, the great number ofthese who are saved arejust the most unlikely people in the world to have been saved, while a great number of those who perish were once justthe very people whom, if natural disposition had any thing to do with it, we should have expected to see in heaven. Why, thereis one here who in his youth was a child of many follies. Often did his mother weep over him, and cry and groan over her son'swanderings; for what with a fierce high spirit that could brook neither bit nor bridle, what with perpetual rebellions andebullitions of hot anger, she said, "My son, my son, what wilt thou be in thy riper years? Surely thou wilt dash in pieceslaw and order, and be a disgrace to thy father's name." He grew up; in youth he was wild and wanton, but, wonder of wonders,on a sudden he became a new man, changed, altogether changed; no more like what he was before than angels are like lost spirits.He sat at her feet, he cheered her heart, and the lost, fiery one became gentle, mild, humble as a little child, andobedient to God's commandments. You say, wonder of wonders! But there is another here. He was a fair youth: when but achild be talked of Jesus; often when his mother had him on her knee he asked her questions about heaven; be was a prodigy,a wonder of piety in his youth. As he grew up, the tear rolled down his cheek under any sermon; he could scarcely bear tohear of death without a sigh; sometimes his mother caught him, as she thought, in prayer alone. And what is he now? He hasjust thisvery morning come from sin; he has become the debauched desperate villain, has gone far into all manner of wicked nessand lust, and sin, and has become more damnably corrupt than other men could have made him only his own evil spirit, onceconfined, has now developed itself; he has learned to play the lion in his manhood, as once he played the fox in his youth.I do not know whether you have ever met with such a case; but it very frequently is so. I know I can say that in my congregationsomeabandoned wicked fellow has had his heart broken, and been led to weep, and has cried to God for mercy, and renouncedhis vile sin; whilst some fair maiden by his side hath heard the same sermon, and if there was a tear she brushed it away;she still continues just what she was, "without God and without hope in the world." God has taken the base things of the world,and has just picked his people out of the very roughest of men, in order that he may prove that it is not natural disposition,butthat "salvation is of the Lord" alone.

Well, but some say, it is the minister they hear who converts men. Ah! that is a grand idea, full sure. No man but a fool would entertain it. I met with a man sometime ago who assured me that he knew a minister who bad a very large amount of converting power in him. Speaking of a greatevangelist in America, he said, "That man, sir, has got the greatest quantity of converting power I ever knew a man to have;and Mr.. So-and-so in a neighboring town I think issecond to him." At that time this converting power was being exhibited; two hundred persons were converted by the convertingpower of this second best, and joined to the church in a few months. I went to the place some time afterwards-it was in England-andI said, "How do your converts get on?" "Well," said he, "I can not say much about them." "How many out of those two hundredwhom you received in a year ago stand fast?" "Well," he said, "I am afraid not many of them; we have turned seventy ofthem out for drunkenness already." "Yes," I said, "I thought so: that is the end of the grand experiment of convertingpower." If I could convert you all, any one else might unconvert you; what any man can do another man can undo; it is onlywhat God does that is abiding.

No, my brethren; God has taken good care it shall never be said conversion is of man, for usually he blesses those who seemto be the most unlikely to be useful. I do not expect to see so many conversions in this place as I had a year ago, when Ihad far fewer hearers. Do you ask why? Why, a year ago I was abused by every body; to mention my name was to mention the nameof the most abominable buffoon that lived. The mere utterance of it brought forth oaths and cursing;with many men it was a name of contempt, kicked about the street as a football; but then God gave me souls by hundreds,who were added to my church, and in one year it was my happiness to see not less than a thousand personally who had then beenconverted. I do not expect that now. My name is somewhat esteemed now, and the great ones of the earth think it no dishonorto sit at my feet; but this makes me fear lest my God should forsake me now that the world esteems me. I would rather be despisedand slandered than aught else. This assembly that you think so grand and fine, I would readily part with, if by such aloss I could gain a greater blessing. "God has chosen the base things of the world;" and, therefore, I reckon that the moreesteemed I may be, the worse is my position, so much the less expectation shall I have that God will bless me. He hath buthis treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of man." A poor minister began topreachonce, and all the world spoke ill of him; but God blessed him. By-and-bye they turned round and petted him. He was theman-a wonder! God left him! It has often been the same. It is for us to recollect, in all times of popularity, that "Crucifyhim; crucify him" follows fast upon the heels of "Hosanna," and that the crowd to-day, if dealt faithfully with, may turninto the handful of to-morrow; for men love not plain speaking. We should learn to be despised, learn to be contemned, learnto beslandered, and then we shall learn to be made useful by God. Down on my knees I have often fallen, with the hot sweatrising from my brow, under some fresh slander poured upon me; in an agony of grief my heart has been well-nigh broken; tillat last I learned the art of bearing all and caring for none. And how my grief runneth in another line. It is just the opposite.I fear lest God should forsake me, to prove that he is the author of salvation, that it is not in the preacher, that it isnotin the crowd, that it is not in the attention I can attract, but in God, and in God alone. And this thing I hope I cansay from my heart: if to be made as the mire of the streets again, if to be the laughingstock of fools and the song of thedrunkard once more will make me more serviceable to my Master, and more useful to his cause, I will prefer it to all thismultitude, or to all the applause that man could give. Pray for me, dear friends, pray for me, that God would still make methe meansof the salvation of souls; for I fear he may say, "I will not help that man, lest the world should say he has done it,"for "salvation is of the Lord," and so it must be, even to the world's end.

III. And now WHAT IS, WHAT SHOULD BE, THE INFLUENCE OF THIS DOCTRINE UPON MEN?

Why, first, with sinners, this doctrine is a great battering ram against their pride. I will give you a figure The sinner in his natural estate reminds me of a man who has a strong and well-nigh impenetrablecastle into which he has fled. There is the outer moat; there is a second moat; there are the high walls; and then afterwardthere is the dungeon and keep, into which the sinner will retire. Now, the first moat that goes round the sinner's trustingplace is hisgood works. "Ah!" he says, "I am as good as my neighbor; twenty shillings in the pound down, ready money, I have alwayspaid; I am no sinner; 'I tithe mint and cummin;' a good respectable gentleman I am indeed." Well, when God comes to work withhim, to save him, he sends his army across the first moat; and as they go through it, they cry, "Salvation is of the Lord;"and the moat is dried up, for if it be of the Lord, how can it be of good works? But when that is done, he has a secondintrenchment-ceremonies. "Well," he says, "I will not trust in my good works, but I have been baptized, I have been confirmed;do not I take the sacrament? That shall be my trust." "Over the moat! Over the moat!" And the soldiers go over again, shouting,"Salvation is of the Lord." The second moat is dried up; it is all over with that. Now they come to the next strong wall;the sinner, looking over it, says, "I can repent, I can believe, whenever I like; I will save myself by repenting andbelieving." Up come the soldiers of God, his great army of conviction, and they batter this wall to the ground, crying,"'Salvation is of the Lord.' Your faith and your repentance must all be given you, or else you will neither believe nor repentof sin." And now the castle is taken; the man's hopes are all cut off; he feels that it is not of self; the castle of selfis overcome, and the great banner upon which is written "Salvation is of the Lord" is displayed upon the battlements. Butis thebattle over? O no; the sinner has retired to the keep, in the center of the castle; and now he changes his tactics. "Ican not save myself," says he, "therefore I will despair; there is no salvation for me." Now this second castle is as hardto take as the first, for the sinner sits down and says, "I can't be saved, I must perish." But God commands the soldiersto take this castle too, shouting, "Salvation is of the Lord;" though it is not of man, it is of God; "he is able tosave, even to the uttermost," though you can not save yourself. This sword, you see, cuts two ways; it cut pride down,and then it cleaves the skull of despair. If any man say he can save himself, it halveth his pride at once; and if anotherman say he can not be saved, it dasheth his despair to the earth; for it affirms that he can be saved, seeing, "Salvationis of the Lord." That is the effect this doctrine has upon the sinner, may it have that effect on you!

But what influence has it upon the saint? Why, it is the keystone of all divinity. I will defy you to be heterodox if you believe this truth. You must be sound in the faith if you have learned to spell this sentence- "Salvation is of theLord;" and if you feel it in your soul you will not be proud; you can not be; you will cast every thing at his feet, confessing that you have done nothing, save what he has helped youto do and therefore the glory must bewhere the salvation is. If you believe this you will not be distrustful. You will say, "My salvation does not depend on my faith, but on the Lord; my keeping does not depend on myself, but on Godwho keepeth me; my being brought to heaven rests not now in my own hands, but in the hands of God;" you will, when doubtsand fears prevail, fold your arms, look upward and say,

"And now my eye of faith is dim,

I trust in Jesus, sink or swim."

If you can keep this in your mind you may always be joyful. He can have no cause for trouble who knows and feels that his salvation is of God. Come on, legions of bell; come on demonsof the pit!

"He that has helped me bears me through,

And makes me more than conqueror too."

Salvation resteth not on this poor arm, else should I despair, but on the arm of yon Omnipotent-that arm on which the pillarsof the heavens do lean. "Whom should I fear ? The Lord is my strength and my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

And this, may by grace, nerve you to work for God. If you had to save your neighbors you might sit down and do nothing; but since "salvation is of the Lord," go on and prosper.Go and preach the gospel; go and tell the gospel everywhere. Tell it in your house, tell it in the street, tell it in everyland and every nation; for it is not of yourself, it is "of the Lord." Why do not our friends go to Ireland to preach thegospel? Ireland is a disgrace to the Protestantchurch. Why do not they go and preach there? A year or so ago a number of our brave ministers went over there to preach;they did right bravely; they went there, and they came back again, and that is about the sum total of the glorious expeditionagainst Popery. But why come back again? Because they were stoned, good easy men! Do they not think that the gospel ever willspread without a few stones? But they would have been killed! Brave martyrs they! Let them be enrolled in the red chronicle.Did the martyrs of old, did the apostles shrink from going to any country because they would have been killed? No, theywere ready to die: and if half a dozen ministers had been killed in Ireland, it would have been the finest thing in the worldfor liberty in future; for after that the people dare not have touched us; the strong arm of the law would have put them down;we might have gone through every village of Ireland afterwards, and been at peace; the constabulary. would soon have put anend to such infamous murder; it would have awakened the Protestantism of England to claim the liberty which is our rightthere as we give it elsewhere. We shall never see any great change till we have some men in our ranks who are willing to bemartyrs. That deep ditch can never be crossed till the bodies of a few of us shall fill it up; and after that it will be easywork to preach the gospel there. Our brethren should go there once more. They can leave their white cravats at home, and thewhite feather too, and go forth with a brave heart and a bold spirit; and if the people mock and scoff, let them mockand scoff on. George Whitefield said, when he preached on Kennington Common, where they threw dead cats and rotten eggs athim, "This is only the manure of Methodism, the best thing in the world to make it grow; throw away as fast as you please."And when a stone cut him on the forehead, he seemed to preach the better for a little blood-letting. O! for such a man todare themob, and then the mob would not need to be dared. Let us go there, recollecting that "salvation is of the Lord," and letus in every place and at every time preach God's Word, believing that God's Word is more than a match for man's sin, and Godwill yet be master over all the earth.

My voice fails me again, and my thoughts too, I was weary this morning, when I came into this pulpit, and I am weary now.Sometimes I am joyous and glad, and feel in the pulpit as if I could preach for ever; at other times I feel glad to close;but yet with such a text I would that I could have finished up with all the might that mortal lip could summon. O! to letmen know this, that their salvation is of God! Swearer, swear not against him in whose hand thy breath is!Despiser, despise not him who can save you or destroy you. And thou hypocrite, seek not to deceive him from whom salvationcomes, and who therefore knows right well whether thy salvation come from him.

IV. And now in concluding, let me just tell you WHAT IS THE OBSERVE OF THIS TRUTH. Salvation is of God: then damnation is of man. If any of you are damned, you will have no one to blame but yourselves; if any of you perish, the blame will not lie atGod's door; if you are lost and cast away, you will have to bear all the blame and all the tortures of conscience yourself;you will lie for ever in perdition, and reflect, "I have destroyed myself; I have made a suicideof my soul; I have been my own destroyer; I can lay no blame to God." Remember, if saved, you must be saved by God alone,though if lost you have lost yourselves. "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die, O house of Israel." With my last faltering sentenceI bid you stop and think. Ah! my hearers, my hearers! it is an awful thing to preach to such a mass as this. But the otherSunday, as I came down stairs, I was struck with a memorable sentence, uttered by one who stood there. He said, "There are9000 people this morning without excuse in the day of judgment." I should like to preach so that this always might besaid; and if I can not, O may God have mercy on me, for his name's sake! But now remember! Ye have souls; those souls willbe damned, or saved. Which will it be ? Damned they must be for ever, unless God shall save you; unless Christ shall havemercy upon you, there is no hope for you. Down on your knees I Cry to God for mercy. Now lift up your heart in prayer to God.May now bethe very time when you shall be saved. Or ever the next drop of blood shall run through your veins, may you find peace!Remember, that peace is to be had now. If you feel now your need of it, it is to be had now. And how? For the mere askingfor it. ' Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find."

"But if your ears refuse

The language of his grace,

Your hearts grow hard, like stubborn Jews,

That unbelieving race,

The Lord with vengeance drest,

Shall lift his hand and swear,

You that despised my promised rest

Shall have no portion there."

O! that ye may not be despisers, lest ye "wonder and perish!" May ye now fly to Christ, and be accepted in the beloved. Itis my last best prayer. May the Lord hear it. Amen.