Sermon 1152. A Lesson from the Life of King Asa
(No. 1152)
DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Herein you have done foolishly: therefore from henceforth you shall have wars." 2 Chronicles 16:9.
OUR text leads us to speak upon historical matters, and for this I shall by no means apologize, although I have sometimesheard very foolish professors speak slightingly of the historical part of Scripture. Remember that the historical books werealmost the only Scripture possessed by the early saints and from those they learned the mind of God. David sang the blessednessof the man who delighted in the Law of the Lord, yet he only had the first five books and, perhaps, Joshua, Judges and Ruth-allbooks of history in which to meditate day and night. The Psalmist, himself, spoke most lovingly of these books, which werethe only statutes and testimonies of the Lord to him, with, perhaps, the addition of the Book of Job.
Other saints delighted in the histories of the Word before the more spiritual books came in their way at all. If rightly viewed,the histories of the Old Testament are full of instruction. They supply us both with warnings and examples in the realm ofpractical morals. And hidden within their letter, like pearls in oyster shells, lie grand spiritual Truths of God couchedin allegory and metaphor. I may say of the least important of all the books what our Lord said of children, "Take heed thatyou despise not one of these little ones." To take away from Holy Writ involves a curse upon the daring deed-may we neverincur the penalty!
I feel Scripture is given by Inspiration and is profitable-be it ours to gain the profit. Let us see whether we cannot geta lesson from the life of King Asa. We will commence by noticing who he was and what he had done in his better days, for thiswill help to understand more clearly the fault into which he fell. He was a man of whom it is said that his heart was perfectbefore God all his days. It is a great thing to have said of anyone-indeed, it is the greatest commendation which can be pronouncedon mortal man! When the heart, the intention, the master affection is right-the man is reckoned a good man before the Lord,notwithstanding that there may be a thousand things which are not commendable-yes, and some things which are censurable inthe man's outward career.
Asa is noticeable, in the early part of his life, for the fact that he set up the worship of God and carried it out with greatdiligence, though his mother was an idolater and his father, Abijah, was little better. He had enjoyed no training as a youththat could lead him aright, but quite the contrary. Yet he was very decided, even in the first days of his reign, for theLord, his God, and acted in all things with an earnest desire to glorify Jehovah and to lead his people away from all idolsto the worship of the true God.
Now, a life may begin well, and yet may be clouded before its close. The verdure of earnestness may fade into the sere andyellow leaf of backsliding. We may have the Grace of God in our earliest days, but unless we have, day by day, fresh helpfrom on high, dead flies may pollute the ointment and spoil the sweet odor of our lives. We shall need to watch against temptationso long as we are in this wilderness of sin. Only in Heaven are we out of gunshot of the devil. Though we may have been keptin the ways of the Lord, as Asa was, for 50 or 60 years, yet if left by the Master for a single moment we shall bring discreditupon His holy name.
In the middle of his reign Asa was put to the test by a very serious trial. He was attacked by the Ethiopians and they cameagainst him in mighty swarms. What a host to be arrayed against poor little Judah-an army of a million footmen and 300,000chariots! All the host that Asa could muster-and he did his best-was but small compared to this mighty band. And it appearedas if the whole land would be eaten up, for the people seemed sufficient to carry away Judea by handfuls. But Asa believedin God and, therefore, when he had mustered his little band, he committed the battle to the Lord his God. Read attentivelythat earnest believing prayer which he offered. "And Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing with Youto help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord
our God; for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail againstYou."
How grandly he threw all his burden upon God! He declared that he rested in the Most High and believed that God could justas well achieve the victory by a few and feeble folk as by a vast army. After this prayer he marched to the battle with holyconfidence-and God gave him the victory. The power of Ethiopia was broken before him and Judah's armies returned laden withspoil. You would not have thought that a man who could perform that grand action would become, a little after, full of unbelief!But the greatest faith of yesterday will not give us confidence for today unless the fresh springs which are in God shalloverflow again. Even Abraham, who at one time staggered not at the promise through unbelief, yet did stagger some time afterwardsabout a far less difficult matter. The greatest of God's servants, if their Lord hides His face, soon sink even below theleast. All the strength of the strongest lies in Him.
After Asa had thus, by Divine strength, won a great victory, he did not, as some do, grow proud of it, but he set to work,in obedience to a prophetic warning, to purge his country by a thorough reformation. He did it, and did it well. He did notshow any partiality towards the rich and great in his country who were guilty of the worship of false gods. His own motherwas a great fosterer of idolatry and she had a grove of her own with a temple in it-in which was her own peculiar idol. Butthe king put her away from her eminent position, took her idol and not merely broke it, but stamped upon it and burned it,with every sign of contempt, at the brook Kidron, into which ran the sewage of the temple-to let the people know that, whetherin high places or among the poor-there should be nothing left to provoke the Lord throughout the land.
This was well done. Oh that such a reformation might happen in this land, for the country is beginning to be covered withidols and mass houses! Everywhere they are setting up the altars of their broaden deity, shrines to the queen of heaven, thecrucifix and the saints, while the spiritual worship of God is put aside to make room for vain shows and spiritual masquerades.The God of the Reformation-how much is He forgotten nowadays! Oh for a return of the days of Knox and his covenanting brethren!Asa was for a root and branch reform and he went through with it bravely. You would not have thought that a man so thorough-aman who, like Levi of old, knew not his own mother when it came to the matter of serving God, but made "through stitch" withit, as the old writers used to say-you would not have supposed that he would be the man who, when he came to another trial,would be running after an idolater and cringing before him and praying him to help him!
Alas, the best of men are men at the best! God, alone, is unchangeable! He, alone, is always good, or, indeed, at all! "Thereis none good save one, that is God." We are only good as He makes us good. And if His hand is withdrawn, even for a moment,we start aside like a deceitful bow, or a broken bone which has been badly set. Alas, how soon are the mighty fallen and theweapons of war broken if the Lord upholds not! Asa, who could do marvels, and who walked so well and thoroughly before hisGod, yet, nevertheless, came to do foolishly and bring upon himself lifelong chastisement. I have thus brought before youhis character because it was most fitting to start with this. It was due to his memory and due to ourselves, for we must rememberthat whatever we shall have to say against him, he was assuredly a child of God.
His heart was right. He was a sincere, genuine, gracious Believer. If any object that he had grievous faults and, therefore,could not be a child of God, I shall be obliged to answer that they must, first of all, produce a faultless child of God thisside Heaven before they will have sufficient ground for such an objection. I find that the holiest of men in Scripture hadtheir imperfections, with the sole exception of our Master, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, in whom was nosin. His garments were whiter than any fuller could make them, but all His servants had their spots. He is Light and in Himis no darkness at all. But we, with all the brightness His Grace has given us, are poor dim lamps at best.
I make no exceptions, even of those who claim perfection, for I have no more faith in their perfection than in the Pope'sinfallibility! There is enough of the earthen vessel left about the best of the Lord's servants to show that they are earthen-andthat the excellency of the heavenly treasure of Divine Grace which is put within them may be clearly seen to be of God andnot of them.
I. Now, we shall turn to notice the GRAVE ERROR INTO WHICH ASA FELL-the foolishness for which the Prophet rebuked him. Hewas threatened by Baasha, the king of the neighboring territory of Israel. He was not directly assailed by war, but Baashabegan to build a fortress which would command the passages between the two countries-
and prevent the people of Israel from coming to settle in the land of Judah, or make their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem.Now, one would naturally have expected, from Asa's former conduct, that he would either have thought very little of Baasha,or else that he would have taken the case to God, as he did, before, in the matter of the Ethiopians.
And this was a smaller trouble, altogether, and somehow, I fancy, it was because it was a smaller trouble, Asa thought thathe could manage it very well himself by the help of an arm of flesh. In the case of the invasion by countless hordes of Ethiopians,Asa must have felt that it was of no use calling in Benhadad, the king of Syria, or asking any of the nations to help him,for with all their help he would not have been equal to the tremendous struggle. Therefore he was driven to God. But this,being a smaller trial, he does not seem to have been so thoroughly divorced from confidence in man. He looked about him andthought that Benhadad, the heathen king of Syria, might be led to attack the king of Israel and so draw him away from buildingthe new fort. It would also divide his attention, cripple his resources and give Judah a fine opportunity of attacking him.
Believers frequently behave worse in little trials than in great ones. I have known some children of God who have borne withequanimity the loss of almost everything they had, who have been disturbed and distracted and led into all sorts of doubtand mistrust by troubles that were scarcely worth the mentioning. How is it that vessels which bear a hurricane may, nevertheless,be driven upon a sandbank when there is but a capful of wind-that ships which have navigated the broad ocean have yet founderedin a narrow stream? It only proves this, that it is not the severity of the trial, it is the having or not having of God'sPresence that is the main thing! In the great trial with the Ethiopians, God's Grace gave Asa faith, but in the little trialwith Baasha, king of Israel, Asa had no faith and began to look about him for help from men.
Observe that Asa went off to Benhadad, the king of Syria, who was a worshipper of a false God-with whom he ought to have hadno connection or alliance whatever! And, what was worse, he induced Benhadad to break his league with Baasha. Here was a childof God teaching the ungodly to be untrue-a man of God becoming an instructor for Satan, teaching a heathen to be false tohis promise! This was policy. This is the kind of thing which the kings of the earth practice towards one another-they arealways ready to break treaties, though bound by the most solemn pledges. They make but light of covenants. The great matterwith ambassadors even nowadays is to see which can entangle the other, for, as a statesman once said, "An ambassador is aperson who is sent abroad to lie for the good of his country."
Oh, the tricks, plots, deceptions, equivocations and intrigues of diplomacy! No chapter in human history shows up our fallennature in more mournful colors. Asa, I have no doubt, thought that all was fair in war. He took the common rule, the commonstandard of mankind, and went upon that. Whereas, as a child of God, he ought to have scorned anything that was dishonorableor untrue. And as to saying to a heathen king, "Break your league with Baasha and make a league with me"-why, if he had beenin a right state of heart, he would sooner have lost his tongue than have uttered such disgraceful words! But, child of Godas he was, when he once got off the plain simple way of believing in God and taking his trouble to God, there was no tellingwhat he would do.
When you set the helm of your vessel towards the point to which you mean to steer, and steer right on, whatever comes in yourway, your course will be well enough if you have a motive power within independent of wind and tide. But when you take totacking this way, then you will have, in due time, to tack the other way-and when policy makes you do this wrong thing, policywill lead you to do another wrong thing-and so on, to a most lamentable degree. When our walk is with the Lord, it is a safe,holy, honorable walk. But the way of the flesh is evil and ends in shame. If you follow the way of the world, though alwaysa crowded way, it will turn out, before long, to be a miserable, pettifogging, cringing, humiliating, dishonorable and wretchedway to the true-born heir of Heaven!
Dust shall be the serpent's meat and if we practice the crawling, twisting, slimy arts of the serpent, we shall have to eatthe dust, too. Should a child of God degrade himself in that fashion? If he acts as he should act, he acts like a nobleman,no, like a prince of the blood imperial of Heaven, for is he not a son of God, one of Heaven's true aristocracy? But whenhe degenerates to acting as worldlings do, then, alas, he stains his garments in the mire! I charge you, my dear Brothersand Sisters, to look well to this. Perhaps I may be speaking as God's mouth to some of you who are now entering upon a testingtime, a trouble in the family, a trial in business, or a difficulty in reference to a contemplated marriage, and you are asking,"What course shall I take?"
You know what a man of the world would do and it has been suggested to you that such a course is the right one for you tofollow. My dear Brother, remember you are not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world! Mind you act accordingly.If you are a worldly man and do as worldly men do, why, I must leave you-for them that are without God He judges. But if youare a man of God and an heir of Heaven, I beseech you, do not follow custom or do a wrong thing because others would do it!Do not do a little evil for the sake of a great good, but in your confidence possess your soul and abide faithful to conscienceand to the eternal law of rectitude. Let others do as they please, but as for you, set the Lord always before you and letintegrity and uprightness preserve you.
Ask the Lord to help you. Is it not written that He will, with the temptation, make a way of escape? "Cast your burden uponthe Lord: He will sustain you. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved." Do not put forth your hand to iniquity. Youmay, in order to help yourself, do in five minutes what you cannot undo in 50 years! And you may bring upon yourself a lifelongof trial by one single unbelieving action. Beware of staying yourself on Egypt and sending for help to Assyria, for thesewill distress you and help you not! Cry, "Lord, increase our faith!" That is what you greatly need in the trying hour, lestyou should, like Asa, first of all, turn from confidence in God and, then, looking to an arm of flesh, should be tempted touse illegitimate means in order to induce the creature to let you rely upon it.
Asa, having advanced so far in the wrong path, did worse, still, if worse could be, for he took of the gold and silver whichbelonged to the House of the Lord, in order to purchase the alliance of the Syrian monarch! I will say nothing about whatbelonged to his own house. He might do as he liked with that, so long as he did not spend it upon sin. But he took of thetreasure that belonged to the House of the Lord and gave it to Benhadad-to bribe him to break his league with Baasha-and bein league with himself! Thus God was robbed, that the unbelieving king might find help in an arm of flesh. And, "Will a manrob God?"
A Christian never doubts God and looks to the creature without robbing Him. If you rob Him of nothing else, you rob Him ofHis honor. Shall a father find his child trusting a stranger rather than his own father? Shall the husband see his wife puttingconfidence in his enemy? Will not that rob him of that which is far more precious than gold? Is it not a breach of that undividedaffection, and that complete confidence which ought to exist in the conjugal relationship? And shall I mistrust my heavenlyFather, my almighty Helper, and put confidence in a poor, broken reed? Shall I cast my burden upon a poor fellow sinner andforget to rest in my Savior? Shall the Well-Beloved of my soul be only trusted in fair weather? And shall I have such a sorryopinion of Him that when it comes to a little storm, I run to someone else and ask him to be my refuge?
Beloved, let it not be so with us, or we shall surely grieve the Lord and bring ourselves into much perplexity! Have we notalready been guilty enough of this? Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we bent upon grieving His Holy Spirit? Canwe not take warning from Asa? Need we run upon this rock when we can see the wrecks of others all around? The Lord grant wemay take heed according to His Word! So this good man, by his lack of faith, fell into many sins. I am compelled to add thathe had to bear the blame of the consequences of his conduct, for when Benhadad, the king of Syria, came up and attacked Israel,he did not content himself with a battle or two, but he fell to plundering the Israelites and murdering them wholesale, sothat great sorrows were brought upon the people of Israel. And who was to blame for these sorrows but the king of Judah, whohad hired the Syrians for that very purpose?
He who ought to have been a brother to the Israelites became their destroyer! Every time the cruel sword of the Syrians slewthe women and children of Israel, the poor afflicted people had Asa to thank for it. The beginning of sin is like the lettingout of waters-none can foresee what devastation the floods may cause. Brethren, we can never tell what may be the consequencesof one wrong action! We may kindle a fire in the forest merely to warm our hands, but where the sparks may fly-and how manyleagues the conflagration may spread-an angel cannot prophesy! Let us jealously keep away from every doubtful deed lest webring evil consequences upon others as well as ourselves. If we carry no matches, we shall cause no explosions.
Oh, for a holy jealousy, a deep conscientiousness and, above all, a solemn conscientiousness on the point of faith! To restin the Lord-that is our business! To stay ourselves only upon Him-that is our sole concern! "My Soul, wait you only upon God,for my expectation is from Him." Unbelief is, in itself, idolatry! Unbelief leads us to look to the creature, which is folly.To look to the creature is, in effect, to worship the creature, to put it into God's place and so to grieve God and set upa rival in the holy place.
I want you to listen yet a little while longer to this story of Asa. It came to pass that Asa's hiring Benhadad turned outto be a fine thing for him and, in the judgment of everybody who looked on, I dare say it was said that it was a fortunatestroke of business. According to God's mind, the king's course was evil, but it did not turn out badly for him politically.Now, many people in the world judge actions by their immediate results. If a Christian does a wrong thing and it prospers,then at once they conclude he was justified in doing it, but, ah, Brothers and Sisters, this is a poor, blind way of judgingthe actions of men and the Providence of God! Do you not know that there are devil's providences as well as God's Providences?
I mean this. Jonah wanted to go to Tarshish to flee from God and he went down to Joppa-and what? Why, he found a ship justgoing to Tarshish. What a providence! What a providence! Are you so foolish as to view it in that light? I do not think Jonahwas of that mind when he cried unto God out of the deeps! When the chief priests and Pharisees would take Jesus, they foundJudas ready to betray Him. Was this also a providence? May not Satan have some hand in the arrangement which lays a weaponso near a murderer's hand, or renders robbery and fraud so easy? Do you think it an instance of Divine goodness that the taresoften grow plentifully when the wheat suffers from drought? Often have we observed people who wanted to do wrong and thingshave just happened rightly to help them-and they have, therefore, said, "What a providence!"
Ah, but a Providence that was meant to test and try, not a providence that was intended to aid and abet in the doing of awrong thing-a Providence not to rejoice in, but concerning which we are taught to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, butdeliver us from evil." A wrong is a wrong, whatever comes of it! If by uttering one falsehood you could become a rich manforever, it would not change the nature of the falsehood. If by doing one wrong transaction you could rid yourself from allliabilities in business and be, from now on, in competent circumstances, that would not, before God, take off the edge ofthe evil! No, not a single jot! God was pleased, for wise reasons, to allow the policy of His erring servant Asa to prosper,but now you will see that Asa was put in a worse place than ever because of it.
The trial of Asa's spirit, the testing of his unswerving faithfulness-whether he would walk before God or not- became moresevere than before, for God sent His servant the Prophet to him, and he said to him, "When you came to God, and trusted Himabout the Ethiopians, did not God prosper you? Though there were so many of them, did not the Lord give you the victory? Andnow you have gone away from your faith, you have lost a great blessing by it; for if you had trusted in God, you would havegone to war against Baasha and Benhadad, and you would have beaten them both, and your own kingdom would have grown strongby the putting down of these rival kingdoms. But you have lost that; you have acted very foolishly, and God means to chastenyou for it, for from this very day you will have no more peace, but you will have war so long as you are a king."
Now, observe, if king Asa had met with a trouble when he acted unjustifiably, he would have been humble, I have no doubt.Then he would have seen how wrong he was and he would have repented. But inasmuch as what he had done did not bring disasterwith it-and God did not chasten him-the king's heart grew proud and he said, "Who is this fellow that he should come to tellhis king his duty? Does he think I do not know, as well as he can tell me, what is right and what is wrong? Put the arrogantintruder in prison." When a Prophet came to Rehoboam, who was a bad king, Rehoboam did not put him in prison-he respectedand reverenced the Word of the Lord. A bad man may do better than a good man on some one particular occasion-and so Rehoboamdid better in that matter than Asa did.
But Asa was now all wrong, he was in a high bullying spirit-and this was but what we might have expected, for whenever a manwill cringe before his fellow men, you may be sure he is beginning to walk proudly before God. In his haughtiness of hearthe put the Prophet in prison! Instead of weeping and humbling himself for what he had done, he imprisoned his reprover! Andthen, being in an irritable temper and a domineering humor, he began to oppress certain of his people. I do not know who theymay have been, but probably they were godly persons who sympathized with the Prophet, and said, "We shall surely meet witha terrible judgment for dealing thus with God's servant." Perhaps they spoke freely about it and so Asa put them in prison,too.
Thus God's own child had become the persecutor of God's servant and of other faithful ones. Oh, it was very sad, very sad!Well might God, then, resolve that the angry should smart for his faults very severely, that the rod should come home to hisbone and his flesh, and render his remaining days exceedingly sorrowful. O beloved Friends, among your most earnest prayerspray God never to let your sins prosper, for if they do, they will breed a gangrene in your spirit
which will lead on to yet more dangerous diseases of your soul! And they will inevitably entail upon you a dreary inheritanceof affliction. God does not always whip His children the next minute after they do wrong. Sometimes He tells them that therod will come and so makes them smart in apprehension before they smart in actual experience, for they are thinking of whatit will be and that may be even a worse trial to them than the trial itself.
But as surely as they are His own peculiar people, they must and shall be taught that sin is an exceedingly great evil, andthey shall have no joy of their dalliance with it. Thus I have shown you who Asa was, and what faults he fell into, and howthis led to other faults.
II. And now we have to show you what God did with him when he came to a close reckoning. "Now," He seemed to say, "I willtake you in hand Myself," and He sent him a disease in his feet-a very painful disease, too. He had to suffer night and day.He was tormented with it and found no rest. God's own hand was heavy upon him and some of us know to our regret that diseasein the feet can become a very grievous affliction, second, indeed, to none, unless it be a malady of the brain. Now did theking learn that embroidered slippers give no ease to gouty feet and that sleep flies when disease bears rule.
This should have driven Asa to repentance, but, to show that afflictions of themselves will not set a man right, Asa had falleninto such an unbelieving spirit that, instead of sending to God for help, and crying for relief to Him who sent the disease,he sent for the physicians! It is not wrong to send for physicians, it is quite right-but it is very wrong to send for physiciansin place of crying to God-thus putting the human agency before the Divine. Besides, it is very probable that these physicianswere only heathen magicians, sorcerers and pretenders to magical arts, and could not be consulted without implicating thepatient in their evil practices. Though Asa would not approve of their heathenism, yet he might think, "Well, they are famousfor their cures, and who they may be is not so much my concern. I will put up with that-if they can cure me, they may come."
So his unbelief deprived him of the cure which God could readily enough have given him and he had his physicians and theirmedicine, but they were miserable comforters to him, giving him no relief, and probably causing him to suffer more than hewould have suffered without them. They were physicians of no value, and their medicines were a delusion. How often is it sowhen we persist in looking away from God? He who has God has all, but he who has all besides God has really nothing at all!Asa's life, after that period, was a life of war and pain. His evening was clouded and his sun set in tempest. Have you evernoticed the career of David? What a happy life David's was up to one point! In his youth he was hunted like a partridge uponthe mountains, but he was very merry. What joyful Psalms he used to sing when he was a humble shepherd boy!
And when, afterwards, he was an exile in the caves of Engedi, how gloriously he poured out notes of gratitude and joy! Hewas at that period, and for years after, one of the happiest of men. But that hour when he walked on the roof of his houseand saw Bathsheba-and gave way to his unholy desires-that hour, I say, put an end to the happy days of David. And though hewas still a child of God and God never cast him away, yet his heavenly Father never ceased to chasten him. From that day hislife teemed with trouble-troubles from his own children one after another, ingratitude from his subjects-and annoyance fromhis enemies. Afflictions sprang up for him as plenteously as hemlock in the furrows. He became a weeping monarch instead ofa rejoicing one. The whole tenor of his life changed-a somber shade was cast over his entire image. You recognize him as thesame man, but his voice is broken. His music is deep bass, he cannot reach one high note of the scale. From the hour in whichhe sinned he began to sorrow more and more.
So will it be with us if we are not watchful. We may have led very happy lives in Christ up to this moment-and we know theLord will not cast us away-for He does not cast away His people whom He did foreknow. But if we begin to walk distrustfullyand adopt wrong actions, and dishonor His name, He may from that moment, say, "You only have I known of all the people ofthe earth, therefore I will punish you for your iniquities. Because I love you I will chasten you, for I chasten every sonwhom I love. And now, because you have thus gone astray, you shall be filled with your own backslidings. Your own vanitiesshall become your vexation throughout the rest of your days."
Asa does not appear to have had any peace until at last he fell asleep, and then, I trust, his dying bed was as sweetly perfumedwith penitence and pardon as his funeral couch was odoriferous with fragrant spices. The sweet spices of forgiving love andreviving faith were there and he died rejoicing in his God through the great Sacrifice. Brought back after a time of wandering,the cloudy day, at last, ended in a calm, bright evening. But who wishes to go so far astray,
even if he is, at length, restored? O Brothers and Sisters, we do not merely want to go to Heaven, but we desire to enjoya Heaven on the road to Heaven! We would like not only to come up from the wilderness, but to come up from the wildernessleaning on our Beloved! We would not wish to be saved, "so as by fire," but to have an abundant entrance administered to usinto the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Asa's character was well known among the people and they loved and respected him. The mistake he had made grieved many ofthe godly, I do not doubt, but for all that, they felt that one fault must not blot out the recollection of nearly 40 yearsof devoted service to God. So they loved him and they honored him with a funeral worthy of a king-a funeral by which theyexpressed both their sorrow and their esteem. But may it never be said of you and of me, "He led a good life. He was eminentin the service of God and did much, but there was an unhappy day in which the weakness of the flesh mastered the inner life."
dear Sister, if you have brought up your children and have seen your family about you-and they have been proofs to all theworld of the way in which you have walked with God and of your care to discharge your duties-do not let your old age be givenup to petulance and murmuring and complaining so that your friends will have to say of you, "At the last she was not the happyChristian woman that she used to be." My dear Brother, you have been a merchant and you have resisted a great many temptations.You have been noted for your honorable character-do not now, in a moment of extreme trial, begin to doubt your God! May theHoly Spirit preserve you from so great an ill. In the time of your need you will find the Lord to be Jehovah-Jireh. He isno fair weather Friend, but He is a shelter from the storm, a covert from the tempest.
Stand fast in your faith in Him! Do not question your God and do questionable things in consequence, for, if you do, it willbe said by those who come after you, and perhaps even while you live by those who love you. "He was a good man, but therewas a sad period of weakness and inconsistency. And though he was deeply penitent, yet from that unhappy day he went limpingto his tomb." What a precious Christ we have, who saves such sinners as we are! What a dear and blessed Lord we have, whodoes not cast us away, notwithstanding all our slips and falls and shameful wanderings! Beloved, let us not be so base aswantonly to grieve Him-
"We ha ve no fear that You should lose
One whom eternal love could choose.
But we would never this Grace abuse.
Let us not fall. Let us not fall."
With such a warning as this of Asa before us, now, do not let us relax our watchfulness and insensibly turn aside. "The pathof the just is as the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day."
That is your model-that is the promise which Scripture sets before you. Plead it and try to realize it. Let us go from strengthto strength. Let us ask to grow in Divine Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we have wantedprops up to now-outward and visible props-and have not been altogether able to rely upon God, may the Lord help us to growstronger so that we may have done with Ready-to-Halt's crutches! May we walk uprightly before the Lord because we rely uponHim, trusting always in His sure faithfulness, and in the power which guarantees that His promise shall be fulfilled.
1 do not know to whom I may be speaking a necessary word, except that I know it is necessary for myself. Perhaps there aresome here to whom it may be just the word that is needed. Dear Brother, the life of faith is a blessed one! A Believer's courseis a tried one-it is a warfare-but, for all that, all the sorrows of faith put together do not equal in bitterness one dropof the sorrow of sin, or one grain of the misery of unbelief. The king's highway may be rough, but By-Path Meadow, in thelong run, is the rougher way of the two! It looks very pleasant to walk on the green turf, but remember, it is only in appearancethat By-Path Meadow is smooth. The ways of Christ are ways of pleasantness and all His paths are peace as compared with anyother paths in the world. And if they were not-if to serve the Lord led us only into sorrow and trouble-I trust the loyalhearts here, the virgin souls whom Christ has chosen, would resolve through floods or flames, if Jesus led the way, to followstill!
O Beloved, may you cleave to the Lord by a simple faith! May you cleave to Him when the many turn aside! May you witness thatHe has the Living Word and none upon earth beside! Because your hearts are frail and feeble, ask Him, now, to cast the bandsof His love about you and the cords of a man to bind you fast to His altar that you may not go away from it. For except Heholds you fast, you must, you will decline and prove apostates after all. But He will hold you! He
will keep the feet of His saints! Only trust not in yourselves. "He that trusts in his own heart is a fool." If any man says,"I stand," let him take heed lest he fall!
Beware of that self-confidence and spiritual boasting which is becoming common among Christians! Some even brag of their attainments-when,if they did but know themselves, they would confess that they are nothing better, even at the best, than poor, naked, miserablesinners! We all have need to look to Jesus, for we are nothing but empty boasters apart from Him! Only in Christ are we anything."When I am weak, then am I strong," but at no other time. When I think I have a reason to glory, then am I, indeed, despicable!I know not myself and have become nearly blind, so as only to see what my own pride makes me think I see.
May the Holy Spirit keep us humble-keep us at the foot of the Cross-keep us flat on the promise, resting on the eternal Rockand crying, "I am nothing Lord-nothing! You are All in All. I am all emptiness-come and fill me. I am all nakedness-come andclothe me. I am all weakness-come and glorify Your power, by making use of me!" God bless you, dear Friends, and if thereare any among you who have not a God to trust in, or a Savior to love, may you seek Jesus now! If you seek Him, He will befound of you, for whoever believes in Him is saved! Whoever trusts Christ is saved! Pardon and salvation belong to every soulthat hangs its hope upon the Cross! May God bless you richly, for Christ's sake. Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-Parts of 2 Chronicles 14,15.16. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-668, 667.