eChurch Blog

A Christian poem emailed to me, the poet wishes to remain anonymous:-

Whatever it takes
Those are the words that came from my lips
Whatever it takes
No matter what pain, what hurt, what grief
No matter how long the waiting time must be
No matter what anguish of soul,
what tears must flow
Whatever it takes, make it happen, Lord
Whatever it takes, give me the strength
Whatever it takes, bring me through
Whatever it takes, honour your promise
And bring me to that place of rest and peace in you
Whatever it takes

“With my soul have I desired thee in the night” Isaiah 26:9

NIGHT appears to be a time peculiarly favorable to devotion. Its solemn
stillness helps to free the mind from that perpetual din which the cares of
the world will bring around it; and the stars looking down from heaven
upon us shine as if they would attract us up to God. I know not how you
may be affected by the solemnities of midnight, but when I have sat alone
musing on the great God and the mighty universe, I have felt that indeed I
could worship him; for night seemed to be spread abroad as a very temple
for adoration, while the moon walked as high priest, amid the stars, the
worshippers, and I myself joined in that silent song which they sang unto
God: “Great art thou, O God! great in thy works. When I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast
ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man,
that thou visitest him?” I find that this sense of the power of midnight not
only acts upon religious men, but there is a certain poet, whose character,
perhaps, I could scarcely too much reprobate: a man very far from
understanding true religion; one whom I may, I suppose, justly style an
infidel a libertine of the worst order, and yet he says concerning night in
one of his poems:-

“Tis midnight on the mountains’ brown,
The cold round moon shines deeply down;
Blue roll the waters, blue the sky
Spreads like an ocean hung on high,
Bespangled with those isles of light,
So wildly, spiritually bright;
Who ever gazed upon them shining,
And turning to earth without repining,
Nor wish’d for wings to flee away,
And mix with their eternal ray.”

Planetary Nebula NGC 6543 Created by God seen by Hubble

Even with the most irreligious person, a man farthest from spiritual
thought, it seems that there is some power in the grandeur and stillness of
night to draw him up to God. I trust many of us can say, like David, “I
have thought upon thee continually, I have mused upon thy name in the
night watches, and with desire have I desired thee in the night.” But I leave
that thought altogether. I shall not speak of night natural at all, although
there may be a great deal of room for poetic thought and expression. I shall
address myself to two orders of persons, and shall endeavor to show what
I conceive to be the meaning of the text. May God make it useful to you
both. First, I shall speak to confirmed Christians; and from this text I shall
bring one or two remarks to bear upon their case, if they are in darkness.
Second, I shall speak to newly awakened souls, and try if I can find some
of them who can say, “With my soul have I desired thee in the night.”

I. I am about to address this text to the more confirmed believer; and the
first fact I shall educe from it – the truth of which I am sure he will very
readily admit  – is, that THE CHRISTIAN MAN HAS NOT ALWAYS A BRIGHT
SHINING sun: that he has seasons of darkness and of light. True, it is
written in God’s word, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her
paths are peace;” and it is a great truth that religion – the true religion of the
living God – is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss
above. But, notwithstanding, experience tells us that if the course of the
just be “as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day,” yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds and
darkness cover the sun, and he beholds no clear shining of the daylight, but
walks in darkness and sees no light.

Now there are many who have rejoiced
in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine God
has been pleased to give them in the earlier stages of their Christian career;
they have walked along the “green pastures,” by the side of the “still
waters,” and suddenly – in a month or two – they find that glorious sky is
clouded: instead of “green pastures,” they have to tread the sandy desert;
in the place of “still waters,” they find streams brackish to their taste and
bitter to their spirits, and they say, “Surely, if I were a child of God this
would not happen.” Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The
best of God’s saints have their nights; the dearest of his children have to
walk through a weary wilderness. There is not a Christian who has enjoyed
perpetual happiness, there is no believer who can always sing a song of joy.

It is not every lark that can always carol. It is not every star that can always
be seen. And not every Christian is always happy. Perhaps the King of
Saints gave you a season of great joy at first because you were a raw
recruit and he would not put you into the roughest part of the battle when
you had first enlisted. You were a tender plant, and he nursed you in the
hot-house till you could stand severe weather. You were a young child,
and therefore he wrapped you in furs and clothed you in the softest mantle.
But now you have become strong and the case is different. Capuan
holidays do not suit Roman soldiers; and they would not agree with
Christians. We need clouds and darkness to exercise our faith, to cut off
self dependence, and make us put more faith in Christ, and less in evidence,
less in experience, less in frames and feelings. The best of God’s children – I
repeat it again for the comfort of those who are suffering depression of
spirits – have their nights. Sometimes it is a night over the whole church at
once; and I fear we have very much of that night now. There are times
when Zion is under a cloud, when the whole fine gold becomes dim, and
the glory of Zion is departed. There are seasons when we do not hear the
clear preaching of the word; when the doctrines are withheld; when the
glory of the Lord God of Jacob is dim; when his name is not exalted; when
the traditions of men are taught, instead of the inspirations of the Holy
Ghost. And such a season is that when the whole church is dark. Of course
each Christian participates in it. He goes about and weeps, and cries, “O
God, how long shall poor Zion be depressed? How long shall her
shepherds be ‘dumb dogs that cannot bark?’ Shall her watchmen be always
blind? Shall the silver trumpet sound no more? Shall not the voice of the
gospel be heard in her streets?” O! there are seasons of darkness to the
entire church! God grant we may not have to pass through another! but
that, starting from this period, the sun may rise ne’er to set, till, like a sea
of glory, the light of brilliance shall spread from pole to pole!

At other times, this darkness over the soul of the Christian rises from
temporal distresses. He may have had a misfortune as it is called something
has gone wrong in his business, or an enemy has done
somewhat against him; death has struck down a favourite child bereavement
has snatched away the darling of his bosom, the crops are
blighted; the winds refuse to bear his ships homeward; a vessel strikes upon
a rock, another founders, all goes ill with him, and, like a gentle man who
called to see me this week, he may be able to say, “Sir, I prospered far
more when I was a worldly man than I have done since I have become a
Christian: for, since then, everything has appeared to go wrong with me. I
thought,” be said, “that religion had the promise of this life as well as of
that which is to come.” I told him, Yes, it had; and so it should be in the
end. But he must remember there was one great legacy which Christ left
his people; and I was glad he had come in for a share of it — “In the world
ye shall have tribulation; in me ye shall have peace.” Yes! you may be
troubled about this, you may be saying, “Look at so-and-so: see how he
spreads himself like a green bay-tree. He is an extortioner and wicked man,
yet everything he does prospers. You may even observe his death, and say,
there are no bands in his death. “They are not in trouble as other men,
neither are they plagued like other men.” Ah! beloved! ye are come into the
sanctuary of God this morning, and now shall ye understand their end. God
hath set them in slippery places, but he casteth them down to destruction.

Better to have a Christian’s days of sorrow, than a worldling’s days of
mirth. Better to have a Christian’s sorrows than a worldling’s joys. Ah!
happier to be chained in a dungeon with a Paul than reign in the palace
with an Ahab. Better to be a child of God in poverty than a child of Satan
in riches. Cheer up, then, thou downcast spirit, if this be thy trial.
Remember that many saints have passed through the same; and the best
and most eminent believers have had their nights.

“But oh!” says another, “you have not described my night, sir. I have not
much amiss in business; and I would not care if I had – but I have a night in
my spirit.” “O sir,” says one, “I have not a single evidence of my
Christianity now. I was a child of God, I know; but something tells me that
I am none of his now. There was a season when I flattered myself that I
knew something about godliness and God; but now I doubt whether I have
any part or lot in the matter. Satan suggests that I must dwell in endless
flames. I see no hope for me. I am afraid I am an hypocrite. I think I have
imposed on the church and upon myself also. I fear I am none of his. When
I turn over God’s Scriptures there is no promise; when I look within,
corruption is black before me. Then while others are commending me, I am
accusing myself of all manner of sin and corruption. I could not have
thought that I was half so bad. I am afraid there cannot have been a work
of grace in my heart, or else I should not have so many corrupt
imaginations, filthy desires, hard thoughts of God; so much pride, so much
selfishness and self-will. I am afraid I am none of his.” Now, that is the
very reason why you are one of his, that you are able to say that: for God’s
people pass through the night. They have their nights of sorrow. I love to
hear a man talk like that. I would not have him do so always. He ought at
times to enter into “the liberty where with Christ hath made him free.” But
I know that frequently bondage will get hold of the spirit, But you say,
“Surely no one ever suffers like that.” I confess I do myself constantly, and
very often there are times when I could not prove my election in Jesus
Christ, nor my adoption, though I rejoice that for the most part I can cry,-

“A debtor to mercy alone
Of covenant mercy I sing.”

Yet at other seasons I am sure the meanest lamb in Jesu’s fold I reckon ten
thousand times more in advance than myself and if I might but sit down on
the meanest bench in the kingdom of heaven, and did but know I was in, I
would barter everything I had, and I do not believe there ever existed a
Christian yet, who did not now and then doubt his interest in Jesus. I think,
when a man says, “I never doubt,” it is quite time for us to doubt him, it is
quite time for us to begin to say, “Ah, poor soul, I am afraid you are not on
the road at all, for if you were, you would see so many things in yourself,
and so much glory in Christ more than you deserve, that you would be so
much ashamed of yourself, as even to say, ‘It is too good to be true.’”

2. The first part then is fully established by experience, that Christian men
very frequently have their nights. But the second thing here is that a
Christian man’s religion will keep its color in the night. “With my soul
have I desired thee in the night.” What a mighty deal of silver-slipper
religion we have in this world. Men will follow Christ when every one cries
“Hosanna! Hosanna!” The multitude will crowd around the man then, and
they will take him by force and make him a king when the sun shines, when
the soft wind blows. They are like the plants upon the rock, which sprang
up and for a little while were green, but when the sun had risen with
fervent heat straightway withered away. Demas and Mr. Hold-the-world,
and a great many others, are very pious people in easy times. They will
always go with Christ by daylight, and will keep in company so long as
fashion gives religion the doubtful benefit of its patronage. But they will
not go with him in the night. There are some goods whose color you can
only see by daylight – and there are many professors the color of whom you
can only see by daylight. If they were in the night of trouble and
persecution you would find that there was very little in them. They are
good by daylight but they are bad by night.

But, beloved, do you not know
that the best test of a Christian is the night? The nightingale, if she would
sing by day when every goose is cackling, would be reckoned no better a
musician than the wren. A Christian if he only remained steadfast by
daylight, when every coward is bold, what would he be? There would be
no beauty in his courage, no glory in his bravery. But it is because he can
sing at night – sing in trouble – sing when he is driven well nigh to despair; it
is this which proves his sincerity. It has its glory in the night. The stars are
not visible by daylight, but they become apparent when the sun is set.

There is full many a Christian whose piety did not burn much when he was
in prosperity; but it will be known in adversity. I have marked it in some of
my brethren now present, when they were in deep trial not long ago. I had
not heard them discourse much about Christ before, but when God’s hand
had robbed them of their comfort, I remember that I could discern their
religion infinitely better than I could before. Nothing can bring our religion
out better than that. Grind the diamond a little and you shall see it glisten.
Do but put a trouble on the Christian, and his endurance of it will prove
him to be of the true seed of Israel.

3. A third remark from this to the confirmed Christian is, all that the
Christian wants in the night is his God. “With desire have I desired thee in
the night.” By day there are many things that a Christian will desire besides
his Lord; but in the night he wants nothing but his God. I cannot
understand how it is unless it is to be accounted for by the corruption of
our spirit, that when everything goes well with us we are setting our
affection first on this object and – then on another, and then on another; and
that desire which is as insatiable as death and as deep as hell never rests
satisfied. We are always wanting something, always desiring a yet beyond.
But if you place a Christian in trouble you will find that he does not want
gold then – that he does not want carnal honor – then he wants his God. I
suppose he is like the sailor, when he sails along smoothly he loves to have
fair weather, and wants this and that to amuse himself with on deck. But
when the winds blow all that he wants is the haven. He does not desire
anything else. The biscuit may be mouldy, but he does not care. The water
may be brackish, but he does not care. He does not think of it in the storm.
He only thinks about the haven then. It is just so with the Christian, when
he is going along smoothly he wants this and that comfort; he is aspiring
after this position, or is wanting to obtain this and that elevation. But let
him once doubt his interest in Christ – let him once get into some soul distress and trouble, so that it is very dark – and all he will feel then is, “With
desire have I desired thee in the night.” When the child is put upstairs to
bed it may lie while the light is there, and look at the trees that shake
against the window, and admire the stars that are coming out; but when it
gets dark and the child is still awake it cries for its parent. It cannot be
amused by aught else. So in daylight will the Christian look at anything. He
will cast his eyes round on this pleasure and on that! but, when the
darkness gathers, it is “My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” “O
why art thou so far from me and from the word of my roaring?” Then it is,

“Give me Christ or else I die;
These can never satisfy.”

4. But now one more remark before I leave my address to confirmed
saints. There are times when all the saints can do is to desire. We have a
vast number of evidences of piety: some are practical, some are
experimental, some are doctrinal; and the more evidences a man has of his
piety the better, of course. We like a number of signatures, to make a deed
more valid, if possible. We like to invest property in a great number of
trustees, in order that it may be all the safer, and so we love to have many
evidences. Many witnesses will carry our case at the bar better than a few:
and so it is well to have many witnesses to testify to our piety. But there
are seasons when a Christian cannot get any. He can get scarcely one
witness to come and attest his godliness. He asks for good works to come
and speak him. But there will be such a cloud of darkness about him, and
his good works will appear so black that he will not dare to think of their
evidences. He will say, “True, I hope this is the right fruit, I hope I have
served God but I dare not plead these works as evidences.” He will have
lost assurance and with it his enjoyment of communion with God. “I have
had that fellowship with him,” perhaps he will say, and he will summon that
communion to come and be an evidence. But he has forgotten it, and it
does not come, and Satan whispers it is a fancy, and the poor evidence of
communion has its mouth gagged, so that it cannot speak. But there is one
witness that very seldom is gagged, and one that I trust the people of God
can always apply, even in the night; and that is, “I have desired thee I have
desired thee in the night.” “Yes, Lord, if I have not believed in thee, I have
desired thee; and if I have not spent and been spent in thy service, yet one
thing I know, and the devil cannot beat me out of it, I have desired thee
that I do know – and I have desired thee in the night, too, when no one saw
me, when troubles were round about me”

Now, my beloved, I hope there are many of you here this morning who are
strong in faith. You do not, perhaps, want what I have said; but I will
advise you to take this cordial, and if you do not want to drink it now, put
it up in a small phial, and carry it about with you till you do; you do not
know how long it may before you are faint. And as Mr. Greatheart gave
Christiana a bottle of wine to take with her that she might drink when she
was fatigued, so you take this, and do not laugh at a poor despised believer
because he is not so strong as yourself. You may want this yourself some
day. I tell you there are times when a Christian will be ready to creep into a
mousehole if he might but get into heaven; when he would be glad to
throw anything away to get into the smallest crevice to escape from his
fears; when the meanest evidence seems more precious than gold; when the
very least ray of sunlight is worth all the riches of Peru; and when a doit of
comfort is more sweet than a whole heaven of it may have been at other
seasons. You may be brought into the same condition, so take this passage
with you and have it ready – have it ready to plead at the throne: “With
desire have I desired thee in the night.”

II. The second part of my sermon is to be occupied by speaking to NEWLY
AWAKENED SOULS; and as I have made four remarks to confirmed
Christians, I will now endeavor to answer three questions to those who are
newly awakened.

The first question they would ask me is this. How am I to know that my
desires are proofs of a work of grace in my soul? Some of you may say, I
think I can go so far as the text – I have desired God; I know I have desired
to be saved. I have desired to have an interest in the blood of Jesus, but
how am I to know that it is a desire sent of God, and how can I tell
whether it will end in conversion? Hear me, then, while I offer one or two
tests.

1. First, you may tell whether your desires are of God by their constancy.
Many a man when he hears a stirring sermon, has a very strong desire to be
saved; but he goes home and forgets it. He is as a man who seeth his face
in a glass, goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he
is. He returns again: once more the arrow sticks hard in the heart of the
King’s enemy; he goes home, only to extract the arrow, and his goodness
is as the morning cloud; and as the early dew it passeth away. Has it been
so with you? Have you had such a desire? Will tomorrow’s business take
it away? Are you wanting Christ today? and will ye despise him tomorrow?
Then I am afraid your desires are not of God; they are merely the
desires of a naturally awakened conscience, just the stirrings of mere
nature, and they will go as far as nature can go, and no farther. But if your
desires are constant ones take comfort. How long have they lasted? Have
you been desiring Christ this last month or these last three or four months?
Have you been seeking him in prayer for a long season? And do you find
that you are anxious after Christ on the Monday as well as on the Sunday?
Do you desire him in the shop when the intervals of business allow you to
do so? Do you seek him in the night  -in the solemn loneliness, when no
ministers voice breaks on your ear, when no truth is smiting your
conscience? Is it but the hectic flush of the consumption that has come
upon your cheek? which is not the mark of health. Or is it the real heat of a
true desire, which marks a healthy soul? Are you desiring God constantly?
I admit there will be variations even to our more sincere desires, but a
certain measure of constancy is essential to their real value as evidences of
a divine work.

2. Again: you may discern whether they are right or wrong by their
efficacy. Some persons desire heaven very earnestly, but they do not desire
to leave off drunkenness: they desire to be saved, but they do not desire
salvation enough to shut their shops up on Sunday morning; or to bridle
their tongues, and leave off speaking ill of their neighbors. They desire
salvation; but they do not desire it enough to come sometimes on the
week-day to hear the gospel. You may tell the truthfulness of your desires
by their efficacy. If your desires lead you into real “works meet for
repentance,” then they come from God. Wishes, you know, are nought
unless they are carried out. “Many; say unto you, shall seek to enter in, but
shall not be able” “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” Seeking will not do;
there must be striving. Our prophet here informs us, that whilst he desired
God in the night, that desire was very efficacious. For, in the 18th verse, he
declares, “In the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have waited for thee.”
This desire made me wait for thy judgments. How many do I hear say I am
waiting for God, it is all I do: there I lie at the pool of Bothesda, and one
of these days an angel will come and stir the pool. Stop! How do you
know you are not deceiving yourself? There is a friend waiting for me to
tea: I will step into the room. There is no kettle on the fire: there is not a
bit for me to eat. “Sir, we have been waiting for you.” But there is nothing
ready in the house! I do not believe them; they could not have been waiting
for me, or else they would have been ready. And waiting for God always
implies being ready.

Says a man, “I am waiting for God.” But he is not
ready for God at all: he still keeps on his drunkenness, the house is still
unswept; he is as worldly as ever. He is waiting. Yes, but waiting implies
being ready; and nobody is waiting that is not ready, You are not waiting
for the coach until you have your coat and hat on ready to start, and are
looking out at the door for it; and you are not waiting for God, until you
are ready to go with God. No man ought to say, I am waiting for God. No,
beloved, it is God who is waiting for us generally, rather than any of us
waiting for him. No sinner can be beforehand with him. But the prophet
waited “in the way of God’s judgments:” that is, waited in the right place waited in the house of God – waited under the sound of the gospel. And then
this desire led him to seek. “With my spirit within me will I seek thee.” It
led him to seek after God.

Oh! the poor pitiful desires of some of you are
very little good. An old writer says, “Hell is paved with good intentions.” I
was not aware that there was any pavement at all – because it has no bottom,
but at the same time I believe that the sides of the pit are hung round with
good intentions; and men will feel themselves pricked and goaded from
side to side with good designs that they once formed but never carried out children that were strangled at the birth – desires that never were brought
into living acts – desires that sprang up like the mushroom in the night, and
like the fungus were swept away – like smoke from the chimney, that
stopped as soon as the fire had gone out. Oh! brethren, if these are your
desires, they are not practical, they do not come of God. But if your
desires have made you give up your drunkenness – have compelled you to
renounce your theater – going – have constrained you to seek God with full
purpose of heart-have brought you to give up one lust and another – take
comfort, you are in the right road, if your desires are practical desires.

3. Again: you can tell these desires by their urgency. Ah! you want to be
saved some of you, but it must be this day next week. But when the Holy
Ghost speaks, he says, “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts.” It must be now or never. “Today give me grace; today give me
mercy; today give me pardon.” Some of you hope to be saved before you
die, before the pit closes on you; you hope Jesus Christ will look down
upon you in some years to come. You have not set down how many years,
I suppose; but it is always in the distant hazy future. But the true desire is
now. Does the poor man who stands upon the scaffold with a rope round
his neck say, “Pardon me in a year’s time?” No, he is afraid he shall the
next minute be launched into eternity. He who feels his danger will cry,
“Now!” He who wants Christ really, will cry, “Now!” He who is spiritually
awakened will cry out, “Now or never!” What! sinner, will it do to
postpone salvation? Doth thine heart tell thee it will do by-and-bye? What!
when the fire is just coming through the boards of thy little chamber?
What! when thy ship has struck upon the rock, and is filling? Yes, she is
filling, while the fire at the other end is rushing up; and fire and water
together are seeking thy destruction. Wilt thou say, “Tomorrow?” Why,
thou mayest be dead ere tomorrow’s sun has risen. Tomorrow! where is
it? In the devil’s calendar, it is not written in any book on earth. Tomorrow!

It is some fancied islet in the far – off sea that the mariner has never
reached. Tomorrow! It is the fool’s desire: which he never shall gain. Like
a will-o’-the wisp it dances before him, but only lands him in the marshes
of distress. Tomorrow! There is no such thing. It is God’s. If there is such
a day, ours it cannot be. Tillotson well remarks: — “To be always
intending to live a new life, but never to find time to set about it; this is as
if a man should put off eating and drinking, and sleeping, from one day and
night to another, till he is starved and destroyed”

But you say, “If I have desired God, why have I not obtained my desire
before now? Why has not God granted my request?”

In the first place, you have hardly a right to ask the question; for God has
a right to grant your petition or not as he pleases; and far be it from man to
say to God “What doest thou?” He is a sovereign, and has power to do
what he will. But since thine anxiety has dictated the question, let my
anxiety attempt to answer it. Perhaps God has not granted thy desire,
because he wishes thine own profit thereby. He designs to show thee more
of the desperate wickedness of thine heart, that in future thou mayest fear
to trust it. He wants thee to see more of the blackness of darkness and of
the horrible pit of sin, that like a burnt child thou mayest shun the fire for
ever. He lets thee go down into the dungeon, that thou mayest prize liberty
the better when it comes. And he is keeping thee waiting, moreover, that
thy longings may be quickened. He knows that delay will fan the desire,
and that if he keeps you waiting it will not be a loss to you, but will gain
you much, because you will see your necessity more clearly, seek him more
earnestly, cry more bitterly and your heart will be more in earnest after
him. Besides, poor soul, God keeps thee waiting, perhaps in order that he
may display the riches of his grace more fully to thee at the last.

I believe
that some of us who were kept by God a long while before we found him,
loved him better perhaps than we should have done if we had received him
directly, and we can preach better to others, we can speak more of his
loving kindness and tender mercy. John Bunyan could not have written as
he did if he had not been dragged about by the devil for many years. Ah! I
love that picture of dear old Christian. I know when I first read that book,
and saw the old woodcut in it of Christian carrying the burden on his back,
I felt so interested for the poor fellow, that I thought I should jump with
joy when, after the poor creature had carried his burden so long, he at last
got rid of it. Ah! beloved; and God may make you and me carry the burden
for a long time till he takes it off that we may leap all the higher with joy
when we do get deliverance; for depend upon it, there is no poor penitent
who loves mercy so well as he who has been ferrying for it for a season.
Perhaps that is the reason why God keeps you waiting.

One more thought here. Perhaps it has come already. I think some of you
are pardoned and you do not know it. I think some of you are forgiven;
though you are expecting something wonderful as a sign which you will
never receive. Persons have got the strangest notions in the world about
conversion. I have heard persons tell the queerest tales you could imagine
about how they were converted; though of course I did not believe them.
And I fancy some of you think you will have a kind of electric shock – that a
sort of galvanism, or something or other, will pass through you, such as
you never had before. Do not be expecting any miracles now. If you will
not think you are pardoned till you get a vision, you will have to wait many
a year. Some people fancy they are not pardoned because they have never
heard a voice in their ears. I should be very sorry to have my salvation
dependent on a text of Scripture applied to my heart; I should be afraid
that the devil had applied it, or that it was the wind whistling behind me. I
want something more sure than that. But perhaps you are forgiven, and
you do not yet know it. God has spoken the tidings of mercy to your spirit,
and you have not yet heard it, because you are saying, “It cannot be that.”
If you could but sit down and think of this:- ”This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief,” methinks you would find that after all you are not
excluded. There is no great need for any of these miraculous things that
you are reckoning upon. God may have given them to some of his people,
but he has never promised them. Perhaps, then, the question may be
answered by saying, “The pardon is there, but you do not know it.” Oh!
may God speak loudly in your soul, that you may know really and certainly
that he has forgiven you!

But there is one more serious enquiry: and it is, “Will God grant my desire
at last?” Yes, poor soul, verily he will. It is quite impossible that you
should have desired God and should be lost, if you have desired him with
the desire I have described. For I will suppose that you should go down
into the chambers of the lost with the desire still in your spirit: when you
entered within the gates you would have to say, “I desired mercy of God,
and he would not give it me: I sought grace at the hands of Jesus, and he
would not give it.” You know what would be said at once. Satan would be
so pleased. “Ah!” he would say, “here is a sinner that perished praying:
God has not kept his promise, he said, ‘Whosoever calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved:’ “and here is one that did it, and he is lost!” Ah! how
they would howl for joy in hell! They would sing a blasphemous song
against the Almighty God – that one poor desiring soul should be there! I tell
you one thing: I have heard many wicked things in my life – I have heard
many men swear and blaspheme God, till I have trembled, but there is one
thing I never did hear a man say yet, and I think God would scarcely permit
any man to perpetrate such a lie, I never heard even a drunken man say, “I
sincerely sought God with full purpose of heart, and yet he has not heard
me, and will not answer me, but has cast me away.” I scarcely think it
possible, although I know that men can be infinitely wicked, that any man
could utter such an abominable falsehood as that. At any rate, I can say I
never heard it; and I believe there are some of you who can say, “I have
been young and now am old, yet have I never seen one penitent sinner who
could say, in despair, I am not saved. I have sought God and he will not
hear me, he has cast me away from his face and will not give me mercy;”
and, I think, as long as you live you will not meet a case. Then why should
you be the first? Why, poor penitent, shouldst thou be the first? Dost thou
think thou art a chosen mark for all the arrows of the Almighty? Hath he
set thee for a butt against which he will direct all the thunderbolts of his
vengeance? Art thou to be the first instance in which mercy fails? Art thou
to be the one who shall first out-do the infinity of love? Oh! say not so.

Despair is mad; but for one instant gather up thy reason thou despairing
one. Would God wish to see thee damned? Hath he not said, “As I live,
saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but would
rather that he should turn to me and live.” Do you think it would be a
pleasure to the Almighty to have your blood? Oh! far be it from you to
conceive it. Do you not think that he loves to pardon? Hath he not said
himself he delighteth in mercy? And is it not written, “As the heavens are
higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.” What advantage would it be to God to
destroy your souls? Would it not be more to his honor to save you? Ah,
assuredly; because you would sing his praise in heaven, would you not?

Yes, but recollect, the best argument I can use with you is this: Do you
suppose that God would give his Son to die for sinners, and yet would not
save sinners? It is written in the Scriptures, that “Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners,” and you are a sinner; you feel that you are a sinner;
you know it. Then he came to save you? Only believe that. As a poor
penitent you have a right to believe it. If you were a Pharisee you would
not have that right; but as a penitent, humble, contrite soul, you have a
right to believe in Jesus. The Pharisee has none for it is never written that
he came to save the righteous; and if he believed he did he would believe a
lie; but every man who is a sinner, every man who lays claim to that title,
has a right also to believe that Christ died for him; and not only so but it is
the truth. He came into the world for a certain purpose and what he came
for he will do. He came into the world to save sinners, and now it is written

“Whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved; he that
believeth not shall be damned.”

When, last Friday, I had the honor of
preaching to many thousand persons in the open air, such an assembly as I
never dreamed of seeing and such a vast number as I could scarcely have
fancied would have met for any religious purpose, I noticed a most
singularly powerful echo, constantly taking up the last words of my
sentences and sending them back, as if some great giant voice had spoken
to confirm what I had said. When I had repeated the words, “He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” echo said, “Saved!” and when I
proceeded, “He that believeth not shall be damned,” I heard the echo
gently say “Damned!” Methinks this morning I hear that echo: “He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved;” and the saints above cry,
“Saved!” Hark! how they sing before the throne! Hark! how your glorified
parents and your immortalized relatives, cry, “Saved!” Hear ye not the
echo, as it echoes from the blue sky of heavens – ”Saved!” And, oh! doleful
thought, when I utter those words, “He that believeth not shall be
damned,” there comes up that dread word — “Damned!” from the place
where there are “hollow groans, and sullen moans, and shrieks of tortured
ghosts.” God grant that you may never know what it is to be damned! God
give you to believe now; for, “today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not
your hearts.”

“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” Corinthians 10:12

IT is a singular fact, but nevertheless most certain, that the vices are the
counterfeits of virtues. Whenever God sends from the mint of heaven a
precious coin of genuine metal, Satan will imitate the impress, and utter a
vile production of no value. God gives love, it is his nature and his essence.
Satan also fashioneth a thing which he calls love, but it is lust. God
bestows courage; and it is a good thing to be able to look one’s fellow in
the face, fearless of all men in doing our duty. Satan inspires foolhardiness,
styles it courage, and bids the man rush to the cannon’s mouth
for “bubble reputation.” God creates in man holy fear. Satan gives him
unbelief, and we often mistake the one for the other. So with the best of
virtues, the saving grace of faith, when it comes to its perfection it ripen
into confidence, and there is nothing so comfortable and so desirable to the
Christian, as the full assurance of faith. Hence, we find Satan, when he sees
this good coin, at once takes the metal of the bottomless pit, imitates the
heavenly image and superscription of assurance, and palms upon us the
vice of presumption.

We are astonished, perhaps, as Calvinistic Christians, to find Paul saying,
“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;” but we need not
be astonished for though we have a great right to believe that we stand, if
we think we stand through the power of God – though we cannot be too
confident of the might of the Most High, there is a thing so near akin to
true confidence, that unless you use the greatest discernment you cannot
tell the difference. Unholy presumption – it is against that which I am to
speak this morning. Let me not be misunderstood. I shall not utter one
word against the strongest faith. I wish all Little-Faiths were Strong-Faiths,
that all Fearings were made Valiants-for-Truth, and the Ready-to-Halts
Asahel’s Nimble-of-Foot, that they might all run in their Master’s work. I
speak not against strong faith or full assurance; God giveth it to us, it is the
holiest happiest thing that a Christian can have, and there is no state so
desirable as that of being able to say, “I know whom I have believed, and
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto
him.” It is not against that I speak, but I warn you against that evil thing, a
false confidence and presumption which creepeth over a Christian, like the
cold death-sleep on the mountain-top, from which, if he is not awakened,
as God will see that he shall be, death will be the inevitable consequence.
“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall “

I shall this morning attempt first, to find out the character; secondly, to
show the danger, and thirdly to give the counsel. The character is the man
who thinks he stands, the danger is, that he may fall; and the counsel is, “let
him take heed.”

I. My first business shall be to FIND OUT THE CHARACTER intended by the
presumptuous man, the man who thinks he stands. I could find a multitude
of such if I might search the wide world o’er. I could find men in business
filled with an arrogant hardihood, who, because they have in one
speculation been successful will wade far out into the stormy sea of this
contending life, risk their all – and lose it too. I might mention others who,
presuming upon their health, are spending their years in sin and their lives
in iniquity, because they think their bones iron and their nerves steel, and
“all men mortal but themselves.” I might speak of men who will venture
into the midst of temptation, confident in their boasted power, exclaiming
with self-complacency, “Do you think I am so weak as to sin? Oh! no, I
shall stand. Give me the glass; I shall never be a drunkard. Give me the
song; you will not find me a midnight reveller. I can drink a little and then I
can stop.” Such are presumptuous men. But I am not about to find them
there, my business this morning is with God’s church. The fanning must
begin with the floor, the winnowing must try the wheat. So we are to
winnow the church this morning to discover the presumptuous. We need
not go far to find them. There are in every Christian church men who think
they stand, men who vaunt themselves in fancied might and power,
children of nature finely dressed, but not the living children of the living
God; they have not been humbled or broken in spirit, or if they have they
have fostered carnal security until it has grown to a giant and trampled the
sweet flower of humility under its foot. They think they stand. I speak now
of real Christians, who, notwithstanding, have grown presumptuous, and
indulge in a fleshly security. May my Master arouse such, while in
preaching I endeavor to go to the core and root of the matter. For a little
while I will expatiate upon the frequent causes of presumption in a
Christian.

1. And first a very common cause, is continued worldly prosperity. Moab
is settled on his lees, he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel. Give a
man wealth; let his ships bring home continually rich freights; let the winds
and waves appear to be his servants to bear his vessels across the bosom of
the mighty deep; let his lands yield abundantly; let the weather be
propitious to his crops, and the skies smile pleasantly upon his enterprise,
let the bands of Orion be loosed for him; let the sweet influence of the
Pleiades descend upon him; let uninterrupted success attend him; let him
stand among men as a successful merchant, as a princely Dives, as a man
who is heaping up riches to a large extent, who is always prospering: or, if
not wealth, let him enjoy continued health; let him know no sickness; allow
him with braced nerve and brilliant eye, to march through the world, and
live happily; give him the buoyant spirit; let him have the song perpetually
on his lips, and his eye be ever sparkling with joy: – the happy, happy man
who laughs at care, and cries, “Begone, dull care, I prithee begone from
me.” I say the consequence of such a state to a man, let him be the best
Christian who ever breathed, will be presumption; and he will say, “I
stand.” “In my prosperity,” says David, “I said, I shall never be more!.”

And we are not much better than David, nor half as good. If God should
always rock us in the cradle of prosperity – if we were always candled on the
knees of fortune – if we had not some stain on the alabaster pillar, if there
were not a few clouds in the sky, some specks in our sunshine – if we had
not some bitter drops in the wine of this life, we should become intoxicated
with pleasure, we should dream “we stand;” and stand we should, but it
would be upon a pinnacle; stand we might, but like the man asleep upon
the mast, each moment we should be in jeopardy. We bless God, then, for
our afflictions; we thank him for our depressions of spirit; we extol his
name for the losses of our property; for we feel that had it not so happened
to us, had he not chastened us every morning and vexed us every evening,
we might have become too secure. Continued worldly prosperity is a fiery
trial. If it be so with any of you, apply this proverb to your own state, “As
the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold: so is a man to his praise.”

2. Again, light thoughts of sin will engender presumption. When we are
first converted, our conscience is so very tender, that we are afraid of the
slightest sin. I have known young converts almost afraid to proceed a step,
lest they should put their feet in the wrong direction. They will ask advice
of their minister, and difficult cases of moral casuistry will they bring
before us, such as we hardly know how to answer. They have a holy
timidity, a godly fear, lest they should offend against God. But alas; very
soon the fine bloom upon these first ripe fruits is removed by the rough
handling of the surrounding world. The sensitive plant of young piety turns
into a willow in after life, too pliant, too easily yielding. It is sadly true, that
even a Christian will grow by degrees so callous, that the sin which once
startled him and made his blood run cold, does not alarm him in the least. I
can speak from my own experience. When first I heard an oath, I stood
aghast, and knew not where to hide myself; yet now I can hear an
imprecation or blasphemy against God, and though a shudder still runs
through my veins, there is not that solemn feeling, that intense anguish,
which I felt when first I heard such evil utterances. By degrees we get
familiar with sin. The ear in which the cannon has been booming will not
notice slight sounds. The men who work in those huge vessels, the
hammering of which causes immense noise, cannot at first sleep, for the
continual din in their ears, but by-and-by, they, when they are used to it,
think nothing of it. So with sin. First, a little sin doth startle us. Soon we
say, “Is it not a little one?” like Lot did of Zoar. Then there comes another,
larger, and then another, until by degrees we begin to regard it as but a
little ill; and then you know, there comes an unholy presumption, and we
think we stand. “We have not fallen “say we, “we only did such a little
thing; we have not gone astray. True, we tripped a little, but we stood
upright in the main. We might have uttered one unholy word, but as for the
most of our conversation, it was consistent.” So we palliate sin; we throw
a gloss over it, we try to hide it.

Christian, beware I when thou thinkest
lightly of sin then thou hast become presumptuous. Take heed, lest thou
shouldst fall. Sin-a little thing! Is it not a poison! Who knows its
deadliness? Sin-a little thing! Do not the little foxes spoil the vines? Sin-a
little thing! Doth not the tiny coral insect build a rock that wrecks a navy?
Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? Will not continual droppings wear
away stones? Sin-a little thing! It girded his head with thorns that now is
crowned with glory. Sin-a little thing! It made him suffer anguish,
bitterness, and woe, till he endured “All that incarnate God could bear,
with strength enough, and none to spare.”

It is not a little thing, sirs. Could you weigh it in the scales of eternity, you
would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor the least appearance of evil.
But alas I loose thoughts of sin often beget a presumptuous spirit, and we
think we stand.

3. A third reason often is, low thoughts of the value of religion. We none
of us value religion enough. Religious furor, as it is called, is laughed at
everywhere; but I do not believe there is such a thing as religious furor at
all. If a man could be so enthusiastic as to give his body to be burned at the
stake, could he pour out his drops of blood and turn each drop into a life,
and then let that life be slaughtered in perpetual martyrdom, he would not
love his God too much. Oh, no! when we think that this world is but a
narrow space; that time will soon be gone, and we shall be in the forever
of eternity, when we consider we must be either in hell or in heaven
throughout a never-ending state of immortality, how sirs, can we love too
much? how can we set too high a value on the immortal soul? Can we ask
too great a price for heaven? Can we think we do too much to serve that
God who gave himself for our sins? Ah! no; and yet my friends, most of us
do not sufficiently regard the value of religion. We cannot any of us
estimate the soul rightly; we have nothing with which to compare it. Gold
is sordid dust, diamonds are but small lumps of congealed air that can be
made to melt away. We have nought with which to compare the soul;
therefore we cannot tell its value. It is because we do not know this, that
we presume. Doth the miser who loves his gold let it be scattered on the
floor that his servant may steal it? Doth he not hide it in some secret place
where no eye shall behold it? Day after day, night after night, he counteth
out his treasure because he loves it. Doth the mother trust her bade by the
river-side? Doth she not in her sleep think of it? and when it is sick, will
she leave it to the care of some poor nurse, who may suffer it to die? Oh!
no; what we love, we will not wantonly throw away; what we esteem most
precious, we will guard with the most anxious care. So, if Christians knew
the value of their souls, if they estimated religion at its proper rate, they
never would presume; but low thoughts of Christ, low thoughts of God,
mean thoughts of our souls’ eternal state – these things tend to make us
carelessly secure. Take heed, therefore, of low ideas of the gospel, lest ye
be overtaken by the evil one.

4. But again, this presumption often springs from ignorance of what we
are, and where we stand. Many Christians have not yet learned what they
are. It is true, the first teaching of God is to show us our own state, but we
do not know that thoroughly till many year after we have known Jesus
Christ. The fountains of the great deep within our hearts are not broken up
all at once; the corruption of our soul is not developed in an hour. “Son of
man,” said the angel of Ezekiel, “I will show thee the abominations of
Israel.” He then took him in at one door, where he saw abominable things,
and stood aghast. “Son of man, I will show thee greater abominations than
these,” then he takes him into another chamber, and Ezekiel says, “Surely I
have now seen the worst.” “No,” says the angel, “I will show thee greater
things than these.” So, all our life long the Holy Spirit reveals to us the
horrid abomination of our hearts. I know there are some here who do not
think anything about it – they think they are good-hearted creatures. Good
hearts, have you? Good hearts! Jeremiah had a better heart than you, yet he
said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who
can know it?” No, the black lesson cannot be learned in a night. God alone
knows the evil of the heart; and Young says, “God spares all eyes but his
own that awful sight-the vision of a human heart.” If we could but see it,
we should stand aghast. Well, it is ignorance of this that makes us presume.
We say, “I have a good nature, I have a good disposition; I have none of
those hot and angry passions that some have, I can stand secure; I have not
that dry, tindery heart that is on fire in a moment; my passions are
weakened; my powers for evil are somewhat taken down, and I may stand
safely.” Ah! ye little know that it is when ye talk like this, that ye presume
O worm of the dust, thou art not yet free from an evil nature, for sin and
corruption remain in the heart even of the regenerate; and it is strangely
true, though it appears a paradox, as Ralph Erskine said, that a Christian
sometimes thinks himself

“To good and evil bent
And both a devil and a saint.”

There is such corruption in a Christian, that while he is a saint in his life,
and justified through Christ, he seems a devil sometimes in imagination,
and a demon in the wishes and corruptions of his soul. Take heed,
Christian, thou hast need to be upon the watch tower; thou hast a heart of
unbelief; therefore watch thou both night and day.

5. But to finish this delineation of a presumptuous man – Pride is the most
pregnant cause of presumption. In all its various shapes it is the fountain of
carnal security. Sometimes it is pride of talent. God has endowed a man
with gifts; he is able to stand before the multitude, or to write for the many;
he has a discerning mind, he has a judgment, and such like things. Then
says he, “As for the ignorant, those who have no talent, they may fall; my
brother ought to take care: but look at me. How am I wrapped in
grandeur!” And thus in his self-complacency he thinks he stands. Ah! those
are the men that fall. How many that flamed like comets in the sky of the
religious world have rushed into space and been quenched in darkness!
How many a man who has stood like a prophet before his fellows, and who
would exclaim as he wrapped himself in his conceit, “I, only I am alive; I
am the only prophet of God;” and yet that only prophet fell; his lamp was
quenched, and his light put out in darkness. How many have boasted of
their might and dignity, and have said, “I have built this mighty Babylon,”
but then they thought they stood, and they fell at once. “Let him that
thinketh he standeth,” with the proudest talents, “take heed lest he fall.”
Others have the pride of grace. That is a curious fact; but there is such a
thing as being proud of grace. A man says, “I have great faith, I shall not
fall; poor little faith may, but I never shall.” “I have fervent love,” says
another man, “I can stand, there is no danger of my going astray, as for my
brother over there, he is so cold and slow, he will fall, I dare say.” Says
another, “I have a most burning hope of heaven, and that hope will
triumph; it will purge my soul from sense and sin, as Christ the Lord is
pure. I am safe.” He who boasts of grace, has little grace to boast of. But
there are some who do that, who think their graces call keep them,
knowing not that the stream must flow constantly From the fountain head,
else the bed of the brook shall soon be dry, and ye shall see the pebbles at
the bottom. If a continuous stream of oil come not to the lamp, though it
burn brightly today, it shall smoke tomorrow, and noxous will be the
scent thereof: Take heed that thou neither gloriest in thy talents nor in thy
graces.

Many are worse still; they think they shall not fall because of their
privileges. “I take the sacrament, I have been baptized in an orthodox
manner, as written in God’s word; I attend such and such a ministry; I am
well fed. I am fat and flourishing in the courts of my God. If I were one of
those starved creatures who hear a false gospel, possibly I might sin; but
oh; our minister is the model of perfection; we are constantly fed and made
fat; surely we shall stand.” Thus in the complacency of their privileges they
run down others, exclaiming, “My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be
moved.” Take heed, presumption, take heed. Pride cometh before a fall;
and a haughty spirit is the usher of destruction. Take heed; watch thy
footsteps, for where pride creepeth in, it is the worm at the root of the
gourd, causing it to wither and die. “Let him that thinketh he standeth,”
because of pride of talent, or grace, or privilege, “take heed lest he fall.”
I hope I have touched some here; I trust the lancet has been sharp, I have
taken the scalpel, and I hope I have discovered something. O ye
presumptuous ones, I speak to you and I shall do so while next I warn you
of your danger.

II. I shall be more brief on the second point – The DANGER. He who thinks
he stands is in danger of a fall. The true Christian cannot possibly suffer a
final fall but he is very much disposed to a foul fall. Though the Christian
shall not stumble so as to destroy his life, he may break his limb. Though
God has given his angels charge over him, to keep him in all his ways, yet
there is no commission to keep him when he goes astray; and when he is
astray he may thrust himself through with many sorrows.

1. I must now try and give you the reason why a man who thinks he stands
is more exposed to the danger of falling than any other. First, because such
a man in the midst of temptation will be sure to be more or less careless.
Make a man believe he is very strong, and what will he do? The fight is
thickening around him; yet he has his sword in his scabbard. “Oh,” saith he,
“my arm is nimble and strong; I can draw it out and strike home.” So
perhaps he lies down in the field, or slothfully sleeps in his tent; “for,” saith
he, “when I hear enemies approaching, such is my prowess and such my
might, that I can mow them down by thousands. Ye sentinels watch the
weak; go to the Ready-to-halts and the Fearings, and arouse them. But I
am a giant; and let me once get this old Toledo blade in my hand, it will cut
through body and soul. Whenever I meet my enemies I shall be more than
conqueror.” The man is careless in battle. He lifteth up his helmet, as it is
said Goliath did, and then a stone pierceth his forehead; he throws away his
shield, and then an arrow penetrateth his flesh; he will put his sword into
his scabbard, then the enemy smiteth him, and he is ill prepared to resist.
The man who thinks he is strong, is off his guard; he is not ready to parry
the stroke of the evil one, and then the poignard entereth his soul.

2. Again, the man who thinks he stands will not be careful to keep out of
the way of temptation, but rather will run into it. I remember seeing a man
who was going to a place of worldly amusement – he was a professor of
religion – and I called to him, “What doest thou there, Elijah?” “Why do you
ask me such a question as that?” said he. I said, “What doest thou here,
Elijah? Thou art going there.” “Yes,” he replied, with some sort of blush,
“but I can do that with impunity.” “I could not,” said I; “if I were there I
know I should commit sin. I should not care what people said about it; I
always do as I like, so far as I believe it to be right; I leave the saying to
anybody who likes to talk about me. But it is a place of danger, and I could
not go therewith impunity.” “Ah!” said he, “I could; I have been before,
and I have had some sweet thoughts there. I find it enlarges the intellect.
You are narrow-minded; you do not get these good things. It is a rich treat
I assure you. I would go if I were you.” “No,” I said, “it would be
dangerous for me: from what I hear, the name of Jesus is profaned there;
and there is much said that is altogether contrary to the religion we believe.
The persons who attend there are none of the best, and it will surely be said
that birds of a feather flock together.” “Ah, well,” he replied, “perhaps you
young men had better keep away; I am a strong man, I can go;” and off he
went to the place of amusement. That man, sirs, was an apple of Sodom.
He was a professor of religion. I guessed there was something rotten at the
core from that very fact; and I found it so by experience, for the man was a
downright sensualist even then. He wore a mask, he was a hypocrite, and
had none of the grace of God in his heart. Presumptuous men will say they
can go into sin, they are so full of moral strength; but when a man tells you
he is so good, always read his words backwards, and understand him to
mean that he is as bad as he can be. The self-confident man is in danger of
falling because he will even run into temptation in the confidence that he is
strong, and able to make his escape.

3. Another reason is, that these strong men sometimes will not use the
means of grace, and therefore they fall. There are some persons here, who
never attend a place of worship very likely; they do not profess to be
religious, but I am sure they would be astonished if I were to tell them, that
I know some professedly religious people who are accepted in some
churches as being true children of God, who yet make it a habit of stopping
away from the house of God, because they conceive they are so advanced
that they do not want it. You smile at such a thing as that. They boast such
deep experience within; they have a volume of sweet sermons at home, and
they will stop and read them; they need not go to the house of God, for
they are fat and flourishing. They conceit themselves that they have
received food enough seven years ago to last them the next ten years. They
imagine that old food will feed their souls now. These are your
presumptuous men. They are not to be found at the Lord’s table, eating the
body and drinking the blood of Christ, in the holy emblems of bread and
wine. You do not see them in their closets; you do not find them searching
the Scriptures with holy curiosity. They think they stand-they shall never be
moved, they fancy that means are intended for weaker Christians; and
leaving those means, they fall. They will not have the shoe to put upon the
foot, and therefore the flint cutteth them; they will not put on the armor,
and therefore the enemy wounds them – sometimes well-nigh unto death. In
this deep quagmire of neglect of the means, many a haughty professor has
been smothered.

4. Once more, the man who is self-confident runs a fearful hazard, because
God’s Spirit always leaves the proud. The gracious Spirit delights to dwell
in the low places. The holy dove came to Jordan; we read not that it ever
rested on Bashan. The man upon the white horse rode among the myrtle
trees, not among the cedars. The myrtle trees grew at the foot of the
mountains; the cedars on the summit thereof. God loves humility. He who
walks with fear and trembling, fearing lest he should go astray, that man
the Spirit loves; but when once pride creeps in, and the man declares,
“Now I am in no danger,” away goes the dove, it flies to heaven and will
have nought to do with him. Proud souls, ye quench the Spirit. Ye arrogant
men, ye grieve the Holy Ghost. He leaves every heart where pride
dwelleth; that evil spirit of Lucifer he abhors; he will not rest with it; he
will not tarry in its company. Here is your greatest danger, ye proud ones that  the Spirit leaves those who deny their entire dependence on him.

III. The third point is THE COUNSEL. I have been expounding the text,
now I want to enforce it. I would, if my Lord would allow me, speak home
to your souls, and so picture the danger of a presumptuous man, that I
would make you all cry out to heaven that sooner might you die than
presume; that sooner might you be found amongst those who lie prostrate
at the foot of Christ, trembling all their lives, than amongst those who think
they stand, and therefore fall. Christian men, the counsel of Scripture is-
Take heed.”

1. First, take heed, because so many have fallen. My brother, could I take
thee into the wards of that hospital where lie sick and wounded Christians,
I could make you tremble. I would show you one, who, by a sin that
occupied him not a single moment, is so sore broken, that his life is one
continued scene of misery. I could show you another one, a brilliant genius,
who served his God with energy who is now – not a priest of the devil it is
true, but almost that – sitting down in despair, because of his sin. I could
point you to another person, who once stood in the church, pious and
consistent, but who now comes up to the same house of prayer as if he
were ashamed of himself, sits in some remote corner, and is no longer
treated with the kindness he formerly received, the brethren themselves
being suspicious because he so greatly deceived them, and brought such
dishonor upon the cause of Christ. Oh! did ye know the sad pain which
those endure who fall. Could ye tell how many have fallen, (and have not
perished, it is true,) but still have dragged themselves along, in misery,
throughout their entire existence, I am sure ye would take heed. Come
with me to the foot of the mountain of presumption. See there the maimed
and writhing forms of many who once soared with Icarian wings in the airy
regions of self-confidence, yet there they lie with their bones broken, and
their peace destroyed. There lies one who had immortal life within him; see
how full of pain he appears; and he looks a mass of helpless matter. He is
alive, it is true, but just alive. Ye know not how some of those enter
heaven who are saved, “so as by fire.” One man walks to heaven; he keeps
consistent; God is with him, and he is happy all his journey through.

Another says, “I am strong, I shall not fall.” He runs aside to pluck a
flower; he sees something which the devil has laid in his way; he is caught
first in this gin, and then in that trap; and when he comes near the river,
instead of finding before him that stream of nectar of which the dying
Christian drinks, he sees fire through which he has to pass, blazing upon
the surface of the water. The river is on fire, and as he enters it he is
scorched and burned. The hand of God is lifted up saying, “Come on, come
on;” but as he dips his foot in the stream, he finds the fire kindling around
him, and though the hand clutches him by the hair of the head, and drags
him through, he stands upon the shore of heaven, and cries, “I am a
monument of divine mercy, for I have been saved so as by fire.” Oh! do
you want to be saved by fire, Christians? Would ye not rather enter heaven,
singing songs of praises? Would ye not glorify him on earth, and then give
your last testimony with, “Victory, victory, victory, unto him that loved
us,” then shut your eyes on earth, and open them in heaven? If you would
do so, presume not. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall.”

2. Once more, my brother take heed, because a fall will so much damage
the cause of Christ. Nothing has hurt religion one-half, or one thousandth
part, so much as the fall of God’s people. Ah! when a true believer sins,
how will the world point at him. “That man was a deacon, but he knows
how to charge exorbitantly. That man was a professor, but he can cheat as
well as his neighbors. That man is a minister, and he lives in sin.” Oh I
when the mighty fall – it is rejoice fir tree, for the cedar has fallen – how does
the world exult! They chuckle over our sin, they rejoice over our faults;
they fly around us, and if they can see one point where we are vulnerable,
how will they say, “See these holy people are no better than they should
be.” Because there is one hypocrite, men set down all the rest the same. I
heard one man say, a little while ago, that he did not believe there was a
true Christian living, because he had found out so many hypocrites. Be
reminded him that there could be no hypocrites if there were no genuine
ones. No one would try to forge bank notes if there were no genuine ones.
No one would think of passing a bad sovereign if there were no sterling
coin. So the fact of their being some hypocrites proves that there are some
genuine characters. But let those who are so, take heed; let them always, in
their conduct, have the ring of true gold. Let your conversation be such as
to become the gospel of Christ, lest by any means the enemy get the
advantage over us, and slander the name of Jesus.

And especially is this incumbent upon the members of our own
denomination, for it is often said that the doctrines we believe have a
tendency to lead us to sin. I have heard it asserted most positively, that
those high doctrines which we love and which we find in the Scriptures,
are licentious ones. I do not know who has the hardihood to make that
assertion, when they consider that the holiest of men have been believers in
them. I ask the man who dares to say that Calvinism is a licentious religion,
what he thinks of the character of Augustine, or Calvin, or Whitfield, who
in successive ages were the great exponents of the system of grace; or
what will he say of those Puritans, whose works are full of them? Had a
man been an Arminian in those days, he would have been accounted the
vilest heretic breathing; but now we are looked upon as the heretics, and
they the orthodox. We have gone back to the old school, we can trace our
descent from the Apostles. It is that vein of free grace running through the
sermonising of Baptists, which has saved us as a denomination. Were it not
for that, we should not stand where we are. We can run a golden link from
hence up to Jesus Christ himself, through a holy succession of mighty
fathers, who all held these glorious truths; and we can say to them, where
will you find holier and better men in the world? We are not ashamed to
say of ourselves, that however much we may be maligned and slandered, ye
will not find a people who will live closer to God than those who believe
that they are saved not by their works, but by free grace alone. But, oh! ye
believers in free grace, be careful. Our enemies hate the doctrine; and if one
falls, “Ah there,” say they “see the tendency of your principles.” Nay, we
might reply, see what is the tendency of your doctrine. The exception in
our case proves the rule is true, that after all, our gospel does lead us to
holiness. Of all men, those have the most disinterested piety, the sublimest
reverence, the most ardent devotion, who believe that they are saved by
grace, without works, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the
gift of God. Christian take heed, lest by any means Christ should be
crucified afresh, and should be put unto an open shame.

And now what more can I say? Oh ye, my beloved, ye my brethren, think
not that ye stand, lest ye should fall. Oh ye fellow heirs of everlasting life
and glory we are marching along through this weary pilgrimage; and I,
whom God hath called to preach to you, would turn affectionately to you
little ones, and say, take heed lest ye fall. My brother, stumble not. There
lieth the gin, there the snare. I am come to gather the stones out of the
road, and take away the stumbling blocks. But what can I do unless, with
due care and caution, ye yourselves walk guardedly. Oh, my brethren; be
much more in prayer than ever. Spend more time in pious adoration. Read
the Scriptures more earnestly and constantly. Watch your lives more
carefully. Live nearer to God. Take the best examples for your pattern. Let
your conversation be redolent of heaven. Let your hearts be perfumed with
affection for men’s souls. So live that men may take knowledge of you that
you have been with Jesus, and have learned of him; and when that happy
day shall come when he whom you love shall say, “Come up higher,” let it
be your happiness to hear him say, “Come my beloved thou hast fought a
good fight, thou hast finished thy course, and henceforth there is laid up for
thee a crown of righteousness that fadeth not away”. On, Christian, with
care and caution! On, with holy fear and trembling! On yet, with faith and
confidence, for thou shalt not fall. Read the next verse of this very chapter:
“He will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able to bear,
but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape.”

But I have some here, perhaps, who may never hear my voice again; and I
will not let my congregation go, God helping me, without telling them the
way of salvation. Sirs, there are some of you who know ye have not
believed in Christ. If ye were to die where ye now sit ye have no hope that
ye would rise amongst the glorified in bliss. How many are there here who
if their hearts could speak, must testify that they are without God, without
Christ, and strangers from the commonwealth of Israel. Oh, let me tell you
then, what ye must do to be saved. Does your heart beat high? Do ye
grieve over your sins? Do ye repent of your iniquities? Will ye turn unto
the living God? If so this is the way of salvation: “Whosoever believeth and
is baptised shall be saved.” I cannot reverse my Master’s order-he says,
“believeth,” and then “baptised;” and he tells me that “he that believeth not
shall be damned.” Oh, my hearers, your works cannot save you. Though I
have spoken to Christians, and exhorted them to live in good works, I talk
not so to you. I ask ye not to get the flower before ye have the seed. I will
not bid you get the roof of your house before ye lay the foundation.
Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved.
Whosoever here will now cast himself as a guilty worm flat on Jesuswhoever
will throw himself into the arms of everlasting love, that man shall
be accepted; he shall go from that door justified and forgiven, with his soul
as sate as if he were in heaven, without the danger of its ever being lost. All
this is through belief in Christ.

Surely ye need no argument. If I thought ye did I would use it. I would
stand and weep till ye came to Christ. If I thought I was strong enough to
fetch a soul to Jesus, if I thought that moral suasion could win you, I
would go round to each of your seats and beg of you in God’s name to
repent. But since I cannot do that, I have done my duty when I have
prophesied to the dry bones. Remember we shall meet again. I boast of
neither eloquence nor talent, and I cannot understand why ye come here; I
only speak right on, and tell you what I feel; but mark me, when we meet
before God’s bar, however ill I may have spoken, I shall be able to say, that
I said to you, “Believe on the name of Jesus, and ye shall be saved.” Why
will ye die, O house of Israel? Is hell so sweet, is everlasting torment so
much to be desired, that therefore ye can let go the glories of heaven, the
bliss of eternity? Men are ye to live for ever? or, are ye to die like brutes?
“Live!” say you, Well, then, are you not desirous to live in a state of bliss?
Oh may God grant you grace to turn to him with full purpose of heart!
Come, guilty sinner, come! God help you to come, and I shall be well
repaid, if but one soul be added to the visible fold of Jesus, through aught I
may have said.

The following is a sad article, thoughtfully written and thought provoking I thought and comes from the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia

Where is the Church of England’s heart invested?

Abstract

The Church of England has recently lost £1.3 billion through its investments in shares and property. Yet it still has huge assets as well as large responsibilities. This paper looks at some of the difficulties and contradictions of the Church’s investment and finance policy, particularly the dislocation of decision making about money from integral mission and economic justice, which is both practically and theologically deficient. Acknowledging both the good intentions towards ethical practice and the constraints imposed by the legal and Established framework of the C of E, the paper argues that for Christian churches economics needs to be re-located in the subversive and alternative calling of a Gospel community in an unjust world. It suggests there are many positive ways forward. The paper is authored by Jonathan Bartley and Simon Barrow.

Introduction: dualism and mixed messages

The first half of May 2009 signalled mixed financial news for the Church of England. On the one hand, it proudly announced that public donations for the joint Zimbabwe emergency and development appeal launched by the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York had reached £292,330. On the other, it also admitted that it had lost a sum almost 4,500 times as much – £1.3 billion – through its investments in shares and property. That amounts to around a fifth of its investment wealth.

But the Church still has £4.4 billion.  To put that it in context, Christian Aid Week with its national programme of events, high profile media campaign, and backing from churches and campaigners up-and-down the country aims to raise just £15 million or so for the world’s poor. The C of E, by contrast, has a huge commitment to chunk of its assets tied up in pensions and buildings.

Looking after people and fabric in a largish institution is no unimportant matter. We do not underestimate the responsibilities involved. But the whole package as currently configured raises bigger questions about priorities and alternative possibilities that are too easily (and wrongly) dismissed by those responsible for running the Church’s finances.

The core of the problem is that the Established Church sees its investments primarily in terms of fundraising rather than in terms of mission (including economic justice) as a crucial element of its purpose. The Church Commissioners, who are institutionally accountable to Crown, Parliament and ecclesiastical bureaucracy rather than a Gospel community aligned with the world’s have-nots, have previously had the stated aim of making a 5% profit over and above the rate of inflation for the institutional benefit of the Church of England.

According to their latest annual report that target now appears to have changed – probably due to the threat of deflation and its heavy losses. The Church’s goal now is simply to make as much money as possible in the circumstances. A revealing indicator of what this means comes in a section headed: ‘Funding the Church’s Mission’. The Church Commissioners do not see their investments as part of the Church’s mission, but as something separate that ‘feeds’ it. This dualism suggests not just bad theology, but also a strategy based on justifying investment decisions by ends rather than means. As the evidence below demonstrates, these two, if not entirely divorced, cohabit uneasily and antagonistically.

Investment, ethics and moral purpose

It is true that there is an ethical dimension to the current policy. Investment decisions are informed by the Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group, established in 1994. The Church does not invest in companies that promote pornography or supply armaments, or where over 25% of group turnover relates to gambling, tobacco and tobacco related products, the manufacture or licensed sale of alcoholic drinks, military equipment, home-collected credit (doorstep lending), or human embryonic cloning.

But in the context of the larger picture, this may still be seen as ‘church wash’ – seeking to provide an outer cleanliness to something that remains preponderantly dubious or worse. In this sense, the Church of England’s ethical investment policy is a bit like New Labour’s (now ditched) ‘ethical foreign policy’. A commitment proudly worn on its sleeve, but somewhat lacking in substance and always subject to the primary goal of promoting its own interests.

The ethical policy did not, for example, prevent the Church of England investing in Caterpillar, the US company that makes bulldozers which are exported to Israel and have been used in the illegal mass demolition of Palestinian homes, and which are allegedly complicit in the killing of a peace activist and a disabled man. When the Church finally did sell its shares after pressure from, among others, its own General Synod, it stressed that it did so for financial not ethical reasons – thus also revealing that it sees finance and ethics in two categories. That dangerous and un-theological dualism again.

The Church also has a combined current investment of over £60 million in Tesco and Unilever, two corporate giants who share last place in the ethical ranking of Britain’s top 100 companies.  Tesco, in particular, has come in for criticism over the exploitation of textile workers in India, and in the UK for driving local businesses out of towns and villages and using its muscle to secure planning permission despite the strong objections of residents. £23 million is also invested in Nestle, which those involved in the Baby Milk Action camapaign say is still breaking the World Health Organisation (WHO) code on marketing.

The C of E also finds itself at odds with church and development campaigners. Catholic aid agency CAFOD, War on Want, Anglican bishops and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines have all condemned mining companies such as BHP Biliton, Rio Tinto and Anglo American for their human rights abuses and destruction of the environment. The Church has a combined shareholding of £62 million in these three companies alone.

Housing the future?

The suspect ethical investment strategy is not limited to equities, either. The Church’s groundbreaking 1985 Faith in the City report highlighted housing as a dominant theme of the evidence given to the Archbishop’s Commission on Urban Priority Areas (ACUPA). It recorded with satisfaction the Church of England’s long tradition of being both a provider of homes for the poorer sections of society and an agitator for reform in the conditions in which the poor were housed. The commission recommended that Church involvement in housing should in the future be developed through non-profit-making housing associations.

But the reality is that the proportion of its assets in residential property has now halved from 22% in 2003 to just 11% at the end of 2008. This includes the sale of Octavia Hill Housing in London, which provided accommodation for key workers on low incomes, such as nurses and young teachers. It brought protests not just from residents but also from MPs, a bishop and Church Action on Poverty, and was even featured on the BBC1’s Watchdog television programme, where the Secretary to the Church Commissioners was asked “what Jesus would do” confronted with the choice between people and profit.

The Church now lists instead a number of retail parks amongst its property investments, suggesting to many that it’s own answer to the policy challenge of the Christian message is to favour alleged (but questionable) pragmatism over deeper principle. Or at least to accept rather than to challenge the constraints imposed by law and statute through the Church’s chosen entanglement with Crown and state.

Economics, impact, integrity and ecology

The fact that the Church does not see its investment strategy – and the whole way money is produced, used, exchanged and distributed – as an integral part of its mission has serious consequences both for others and for itself.  What it does with money (and its view that economy is first and foremost about a limited notion of ‘accounting’) clearly has an impact on others, as well as on its own ethical authority – or the erosion thereof. Given its own positioning as a ‘moral voice’ in the nation, when the Church invests in a company, it sends a message that the company and its practices are acceptable, particularly when there is a substantial shareholding. At the same time its interests are clearly tied to the balance sheets of the companies it invests in. As Jesus put it: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart also be.”

The failing of macro policy on finance and investment also undermines worthy micro-initiatives. For example, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, has signed a pledge to severely restrict his flying, as part of the Church’s campaigning against climate change. He has encouraged others to do likewise. This is good. But the Church still achieves its goal of profit maximisation when everyone else burns fossil fuels, because its biggest share investments of all are in Royal Dutch Shell and BP (a total of £196 million). In what way is this helping to change the agenda on environment and global warming? In its latest report the Church demonstrates that it is now investing in some green funds, which is a significant step forward. But the overall contradiction remains.

Indeed, as a result of its substantial holdings in oil and mining companies the Church has also benefitted hugely from the speculation in commodities which has brought hardship for the poor around the world. And while it is raising money for Zimbabwe it is also investing in Tesco, which campaigners say is bringing tons of produce to Britain from the country., Wwhile the economy is in meltdown, resources are being siphoned towards and elite, and President Mugabe is still restricting access to food.

Dr Vincent Magombe, who is the director of pressure group Africa Inform International, compared the actions of the retailer to “hungry sharks who are feeding on the carcass of a dead country.”

Financial instruments and economic thinking

There are additional questions to be asked over the financial instruments the Church uses. A few years ago, in order to protect its foreign investments, it set up a currency hedging programme to sell Sterling (the British pound). Until recently it had a substantial holding in the largest listed hedge-fund, Man Group. (This no longer appears on the Church’s annual report, but that may be because the shares are now only worth about 30% of what they were at their peak, and so no longer show up as a substantial shareholding). The Church has also been criticised for having a stock lending programme through J. P. Morgan a practice used for short-selling. The Church also and for tradesing in debts. The commissioners sold a £135 million mortgage portfolio in 2007.

Along with its investments in the banks HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds TSB, this all makes the Church’s ongoing criticism of city ‘bank robbers’, greed, unregulated capitalism, debt and short-selling ring rather hollow. It also sadly undermines any proposals it comes up with for a substantial change in the system in which it is itself deeply immersed.

In February 2009 the General Synod of the Church of England had a major debate on the credit crunch and the global economy. The Mission and Public Affairs Division of the Archbishops’ Council produced a thoughtful and significant document  which, though it did not really challenge the status quo or engage with the radical thinking of the New Economics Foundation (nef) and the ‘Green New Deal’ economists, amounted to a serious piece of work. However, noticably, it tackled the problems of ‘the nation’ and ‘the world’ but said nothing about the oikonomia of the churches and its own financial arrangements, priorities and investments.

The Church’s defence in all this has been that it “has to invest somewhere”, it needs to return a fair profit, and it has people, programmes and buildings to finance. It also argues that through its investments it can bring benign influence to bear on company behaviour. The problem is that the only concrete example it has ever produced of this happening in practice was influencing British Airways to change its uniform policy following the row over whether a worker should be able to display a small gold cross – which underlines the point about self-interest taking priority over wider concerns, most noticeably for “the least of these, my brothers and sisters”, of whom Jesus speaks as part of a devastating warning to those for whom the cloak of religion and cloaks for the naked are entirely different.

From threat to promise and possibility

Rather than engaging its critics on the common ground created by the Christian priority for authentic witness rooted in action for justice and peace, the Church of England’s leaders – and those charged with managing its finances – have often adopted a lofty and patronising tone. They assume that their current policies are ‘realistic’ (according to a very restricted understanding of ‘realism’ which appears to exclude the transformative possibilities of the message the Church is called to announce) and suggest that there are no serious alternatives.

A survey of the world after the latest global crash suggests that this is untrue both pragmatically and in terms of the principles that Christians should be seeking to give flesh to. The shape of the world economy is up for grabs as at no time before in recent memory, and one vital component of working for change – for a new economics that puts people and planet first – is investing in alternatives and redoing our ‘household economics’ (a term etymologically related to ‘ecumenism’, the faithful search for unity in the world).

What is needed now is a major audit, re-prioritisation and re-strategising of the Church of England’s finance, investment and economic contribution – both to self-sustainability, to local communities, and to justice in the world. The work of the World Council of Churches, the ‘confessional’ process on economics among the Reformed family of churches, and the commitment of Anabaptists globally to redistribute wealth among their own communities and through programmes aimed as social transformation and peace witness – all these require more engagement by the churches in Britain; not least the C of E, which is large and Established.

In an age of green funds, co-operative banks, credit unions, micro-credit, mutuals, housing associations, (fr)ee-cycling and LETS (local non-monetary exchange) – all of which are suddenly much more attractive and popular given the financial turbulence of the last two years – there are now more possibilities than ever to choose from, and little excuse for evasion, complacency or inaction.

REFERENCES

This paper was written by Jonathan Bartley and edited and expanded with additional material from Simon Barrow. It is a discussion document preliminary to further policy work on re-thinking and re-doing ‘church economics’.

THE AUTHORS

Jonathan Bartley and Simon Barrow are co-directors of the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia. Jonathan has worked as a parliamentary adviser, has taught politics and political economy from a radical Christian perspective, has direct experience of markets, finance and share-dealing, and is author of The Subversive Manifesto. Simon has held senior positions in the ecumenical movement and the Church of England, has studied development economics, has worked in business publishing, and has written ‘Towards an Economy Worth Believing In?’ and ‘Is God Bankrupt?’

A Christian poem sent to me, the poet wishes to remain anonymous:-

Deut, 30.20 ‘Love the Lord. Listen to Him. Hold fast to Him.’

Rev 3.11 ‘Hold on to what you have that no-one can take your crown.’

Don’t Give Up

In this
spinning, swaying, swirling world
don’t let go

As the enemy
screams and hisses and curses
don’t let go

your Father is seeking you
reaching you
teaching you

Gaze on His face
Hold onto His hand
Reflect His smile
Hear His voice
Feel his breath
Absorb His touch
Bask in His love

And when Your world falls apart
When everything conspires to break your heart

Don’t let go
Hold on
Hold on tight to what you have
that no-one can take your crown

Another email received today that I rather enjoyed:-

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’

The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

‘Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.’

The monkey said: ‘Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?’

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.’

The cow said: ‘That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?’

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said:

‘Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.’

But man said: ‘Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said God, ‘You asked for it.’

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I’m doing it as a public service.

I received the following email which helps us to determine our current stress levels, I hope that you enjoy as much as I did:-

I think this is a good time to determine the stress level around us.

I am not sure exactly how this works, but this is amazingly accurate.

The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at the Mayo Clinic and later at Fletcher Medical Center in Burlington .

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress will find many differences between the two dolphins

The more differences a person finds, the more stress that person is experiencing. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may need to take a vacation.

Don’t get too stressed today….Love and blesings

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned And ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of Shem, that they: had been with Jesus” Acts 4:13

BEHOLD! what a change divine grace will work in a man, and in how short
a time! That same Peter, who so lately followed his Master afar off and
with oaths and curses denied that he knew his name, is now to be found
side by side with the loving John, boldly declaring that there is salvation in
none other name save that of Jesus Christ, and preaching the resurrection
of the dead, through the sacrifice of his dying Lord. The Scribes and
Pharisees soon discover the reason of his boldness. Rightly did they guess
that it rested not in his learning or his talents, for neither Peter nor John
had been educated, they had been trained as fishermen, their education was
a knowledge of the sea-  of the fisherman’s craft: none other had they; their
boldness could not therefore spring from the self-sufficiency of knowledge,
but from the Spirit of the living God.

Nor did they acquire their courage
from their station; for rank will confer a sort of dignity upon a man, and
make him speak with a feigned authority even when he has no talent or
genius; but these men were, as it says in the original text, “idiotai” private
men, who stood in no official capacity; men without rank or station. When
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were
unlearned and private individuals, they marvelled, and they came to a right
conclusion as to the – source of their power – they had been dwelling with
Jesus.

Their conversation with the Prince of light and glory, backed up, as
they might also have known, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, without
which even that eminently holy example would have been in vain, had
made them bold for their Master’s cause. Oh! my brethren, it were well if
this commendation, so forced from the lips of enemies, could also be
compelled by our own example. If we could live like Peter and John; if our
lives were “living epistles of God, known and read of all men;” if,
whenever we were seen, men would take knowledge of us, that we had
been with Jesus, it would be a happy thing for this world, and a blessed
thing for us. It is concerning that I am to speak to you this morning; and as
God gives me grace, I will endeavor to stir up your minds by way of
remembrance, and urge you so to imitate Jesus Christ, our heavenly
pattern, that men may perceive that you are disciples of the holy Son.

First then, this morning, I will tell you what a Christian should be;
secondly, I will tell you when he should be so; thirdly, why he should be so;
and then fourthly how he can be so.

I. As God may help us then, first of all, we will speak of WHAT A
BELIEVER SHOULD BE. A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus
Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written,
and you have admired the talent of the persons who could write so well,
but the best life of Christ is his living biography, written out in the words
and actions of his people. If we, my brethren, were what we profess to be;
if the Spirit of the Lord were in the heart of all his children, as we could
desire; and if, instead of having abundance of formal professors, we were
all possessors of that vital grace, I will tell you not only what we ought to
be but what we should be; we should be pictures of Christ, yea, such
striking likenesses of him, that the world would not have to hold us up by
the hour together, and say, “Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness;” but
they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, “He has been with Jesus;
he has been taught of him, he is like him; he has caught the very idea of the
holy Man of Nazareth, and he expands it out into his very life and every
day actions.”

In enlarging upon this point, it will be necessary to premise, that when we
here affirm that men should be such and such a thing, we refer to the
people of God. We do not wish to speak to them in any legal way. We are
not under the law, but under grace. Christian men hold themselves bound
to keep all God’s precepts: but the reason why they do so is not because
the law is binding upon them, but because the gospel constrains them: they
believe, that having been redeemed by blood divine; having been purchased
by Jesus Christ, they are more bound to keep his commands than they
would have been if they were under the law; they hold themselves to be ten
thousand-fold more debtors to God, than they could have been under the
Mosaic dispensation. Not of force; not of compulsion; not through tear of
the whip; not through legal bondage; but through pure, disinterested love
and gratitude to God they lay themselves out for his service seeking to be
Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile.

This much I have declared lest
any man should think that I am preaching works as the way to salvation, I
will yield to none in this. That I will ever maintain – that by grace we are
saved, and not by ourselves; but equally must I testify, that where the grace
of God is, it will produce fitting deeds. To these I am ever bound to exhort
you, while ye are ever expected to have good works for necessary
purposes.

Again, I do not, when I say that a believer should be a striking
likeness of Jesus, suppose that any one Christian will perfectly exhibit all
the features of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; yet my brethren, the fact
that perfection is beyond our reach should not diminish the ardor of our
desire after it. The artist, when he paints knows right well that he shall not
be able to excel Apelles; but that does not discourage him; he uses his
brush with all the greater pains, that he may at least in some humble
measure resemble the great master. So the sculptor; though persuaded that
he will not rival Praxiteles, will hew out the marble still, and seek to be as
near the model as possible. Just so the Christian man, though he feels he
never can mount to the height of complete excellence, and perceives that
he never can on earth become the exact image of Christ, still holds it up
before him, and measures his own deficiencies by the distance between
himself and Jesus. This will he do, forgetting all he has attained, he will
press forward, crying, Excelsior! going upwards still, desiring to be
conformed more and more to the image of Christ Jesus.

First then, a Christian should be like Christ in his boldness. This is a virtue
nowadays called impudence, but the grace is equally valuable by whatever
name it may be called. I suppose if the Scribes had given a definition of
Peter and John, they would have called them impudent fellows.
Jesus Christ and his disciples were noted for their courage. “When they
saw the boldness of Peter and John, they took knowledge of them, that
they had been with Jesus.” Jesus Christ never fawned upon the rich; he
stooped not to the great and noble, he stood erect, a man before men,- the
prophet of the people, speaking out holdly and freely what he thought.

Have you never admired that mighty deed of his, when going to the city
where he had lived and been brought up; knowing that a prophet had no
honor in his own country, the boon was put into his hands; he had but then
commenced his ministry; yet without tremor he unrolled the sacred volume
and what did he take for his text? Most men, coming to their own
neighborhood would have chosen a subject adapted to the taste, in order to
earn fame. But what doctrine did Jesus preach that morning? One which in
our age is scorned and hated – the doctrine of election. He opened the
Scriptures, and began to read thus: “Many widows were in Israel in the
days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout all the land, but unto none of them was
Elias sent, save unto Sarepta a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a
widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet;
and none off them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” Then he
began to tell, how God saveth whom he pleases, and rescues whom he
chooses. Ah! how they gnashed their teeth upon him, dragged him out, and
would have cast him from the brow of the hill. Do you not admire his
intrepidity? He saw their teeth gnashing; he knew their hearts were hot
with enmity, while their mouths foamed with revenge and malice: still he
stood like the angel who shut the lion’s mouths; he feared them not;
faithfully he proclaimed what he knew to be the truth of God, and still read
on despite them all.

So in his discourses. If he saw a Scribe or a Pharisee in
the congregation, he did not keep back part of the price, but pointing his
finger, he said, “Woe Unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites;” and
when a lawyer came, saying, “Master, in speaking thus, thou condemnest
us also;” he turned round and said, “Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye bind
heavy burdens upon men, while ye yourselves will not touch them with so
much as one of your fingers.” He dealt out honest truth, he never knew the
fear of man; he trembled at none; he stood out God’s chosen, whom he had
anointed above his fellows, careless of man’s esteem.

My friends, be like
Christ in this. Have none of the time – serving religion of the present day,
which is merely exhibited in evangelical drawing rooms – a religion which
only flourishes in a hot-bed atmosphere, a religion which is only to be
perceived in good company. No, if ye are the servants of God, be like Jesus
Christ, bold for your Master; never blush to own your religion; your
profession will never disgrace you; take care you never disgrace that. Your
love to Christ will never dishonor you, it may bring some temporary slight
from your friends, or slanders from your enemies: but live on, and you
shall; live down their calumnies; live on and ye shall stand amongst the
glorified, honored even by those who hissed you when he shall come to be
glorified by his angels, and admired by them that love him. Be like Jesus,
very valiant for your God; so that when they shall see your boldness, they
may say, “He has been with Jesus.”

But no one feature will give a portrait of a man; so the one virtue of
boldness will never make you like Christ. There have been some who have
been noble men, but have carried their courage to excess; they have thus
been caricatures of Christ, and not portraits of him. We must amalgamate
with our boldness the Ioveliness of Jesus’ disposition. Let courage be the
brass; let love be the gold. Let us mix the two together, so shall we
produce a rich Corinthian metal, fit to be manufactured into the beautiful
gate of the temple. Let your love and courage be mingled together. The
man who is bold may indeed accomplish wonders. John Knox did much,
but be might perhaps have done more if he had had a little love. Luther was
a conqueror – peace to his ashes, and honor to his name! – still, we who look
upon him at a distance, think that if he had sometimes mixed a little
mildness with it, if while he had been fortiter in re he had been also
suaviter in modo, and spoken somewhat more gently, he might have done
even more good than he did. So, brethren, while we too are bold, let us
ever imitate the loving Jesus.

The child comes to him: he takes it on his
knee, saying, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”
A widow has just lost her only son: he weeps at the bier, and with a word
restores life to the dead man. He sees a paralytic, a leper, or a man long
confined to his bed; he speaks, they rise, and are healed. He lived for
others, not for himself. His constant labors were without any motive,
except the good of those who lived in the world. And to crown all, ye
know the mighty sacrifice he made, when he condescended to lay down his
life for man – when on the tree, quivering with agony, and hanging in the
utmost extremity of suffering, he submitted to die for our sakes, that we
might be saved. Behold in Christ, love consolidated! he was one mighty
pillar of benevolence. As God is love, so Christ is love.

Oh, ye Christians,
be ye loving also. Bet your love and your beneficence beam out on all men.
Say not, “Be ye warmed, and be ye filled,” but “give a portion to seven,
and also to eight.” If ye cannot imitate Howard, and unlock the prison
doors – if ye cannot visit the sad house of misery, yet each in your proper
sphere speak kind words, do kind actions, live out Christ again in the
kindness of your life. If there is one virtue which most commends
Christians, it is that of kindness; it is to love the people of God, to love the
church, to love the word, to love all. But how many have we in our
churches of crabtree Christians, who have mixed such a vast amount of
vinegar and such; tremendous quantity of gall in their constitutions, that
they can scarcely speak one good word to you; they imagine it impossible
to defend religion except by passionate ebullitions, they cannot speak for
their dishonored Master without being angry with their opponent; sad if
anything is awry, whether it be in the house, the church, or anywhere else,
they conceive it to he their duty to set their faces like a flint, and to defy
everybody. They are like isolated icebergs; no one cares to go near them.
They float about on the sea of forgetfulness, until at last they are melted
and gone; and though, good souls, we shall be happy enough to meet them
in heaven, we are heartily glad to get rid of them from the earth. They were
always so unamiable in disposition, that we would rather live an eternity
with them in heaven, than five minutes on earth. Be ye not thus, my
brethren. Imitate Christ in your loving spirits; speak kindly, act kindly, and
do kindly, that men may say of you, “He has been with Jesus.”

Another great feature in the life of Christ, was his deep and sincere
humility, in which let us imitate him. While we will not cringe or bow – (far
from it, we are the freemen whom the truth makes free, we walk through
this world equal to all inferior to none) – yet we would endeavor to be like
Christ continually humble. Oh, thou proud Christian, (for though it be
paradox there must be some, I think; I would not be so uncharitable as to
say that there are not some such persons) if thou art a Christian, I bid thee
look at thy Master talking to the children, bending from the majesty of his
divinity to speak to mankind on earth, tabernacling with the peasants of
Galilee, and then-ay depth of condescension unparalleled – washing his
disciples’ feet, and wiping then with the towel after supper. This is your
Master whom ye profess to worship; this is your Lord, whom ye adore.
And ye, some of you who count yourselves Christians, cannot speak to a
person who is not dressed in the same kind of clothing as yourselves, who
has not exactly as much money per year as you have. In England it is true
that a sovereign will not speak to a shilling, and a shilling will not notice a
sixpence, and a sixpence will sneer at a penny. But it should not be so with
Christians. We ought to forget caste, degree, and rank, when we come into
Christ’s church. Recollect, Christian, who your Master was – a man of the
poor. He lived with them; he ate with them. And will ye walk with lofty
heads and stiff necks, looking with insufferable contempt upon your
meaner fallow-worms? What are ye? The meanest of all; because your
trickeries and adornments make you proud. Pitiful, despicable souls ye are!
How small ye look in God’s sight! Christ was humble; he stooped to do
anything which might serve others He had no pride, he was a humble man,
a friend of publicans and sinners, living and walking with them. So,
Christian, be thou like thy Master – one who can stoop; yea, be thou one
who thinks it no stooping, but rather esteems others better than himself,
counts it his honor to sit with the poorest of Christ’s people and says, “If
my name may be but written in the obscurest part of the book of life it is
enough for me, so unworthy am I of his notice!” Be like Christ in his
humility.

So might I continue, dear brethren, speaking of the various characteristics
of Christ Jesus; but as you can think of them as well as I can, I shall not do
so. It is easy for you to sit down and paint Jesus Christ, for you have him
drawn out here in his word. I find that time would fail me if I were to give
you an entire likeness of Jesus; but let me say, imitate him in his holiness.
Was he zealous for his Master? So be you. Ever go about doing good. Let
not time be wasted. It is too precious. Was he self-denying, never looking
to his own interest? So be you. Was he devout? So be you fervent in your
prayers. Had he deference to his Father’s will? So submit yourselves to
him. Was he patient? So learn to endure. And best of all, as the highest
portraiture of Jesus, try to forgive your enemies, as he did; and let those
sublime words of your Master, “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do,” always ring in your ears. When you are prompted to
revenge, when hot anger starts, bridle the steed at once, and let it not dash
forward with you headlong. Remember, anger is temporary insanity.
Forgive as you hope to be forgiven. Heap coals of fire on the head of your
foe by your kindness to him. Good for evil, recollect, is Godlike. Be
Godlike then; and in all ways and by all means, so live that your enemies
may say, “He has been with Jesus.”

II. Now, WHEN SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE THIS? for there is an idea in the
world that persons ought to be very religious on a Sunday, but that it does
not matter what they are on a Monday. How many pious preachers are
there on the Sabbath-day who are very impious preachers during the rest of
the week! How many are there who come up to the house of God with a
solemn countenance who join in the song and profess to pray, yet have
neither part nor lot in the matter, but are “in that gall of bitterness and in
the bonds of iniquity!” This is true of some of you who are present here.
When should a Christian, then be like Jesus Christ? Is there a time when he
may strip off his regimentals – when the warrior may unbuckle his armor,
and become like other men? Oh! no; at all times, and in every place let the
Christian be what he professes to be.

I remember talking some time ago
with a person who said, “I do not like visitors who come to my house and
introduce religion, I think we ought to have religion on the Sabbath-day,
when we go to the house of God, but not in the drawing-room.” I
suggested to the individual, that there would be a great deal of work for
the upholsterers if there be no religion except in the house of God. “How is
that?” was the question. “Why,” I replied, “we should need to have beds
fitted up in all our places of worship, for surely we need religion to die
with, and, consequently, every one would want to die there.” Ay, we all
need the consolations of God at last; but how can we expect to enjoy them
unless we obey the precepts of religion during life? My brethren, let me
say, be ye like Christ at all times, imitate him in public. Most of us live in
some sort of publicity; many of us are called to work before our fellow
men every day. We are watched; our words are caught; our lives are
examined – taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argue-eyed world observes
everything we do; and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life of
Christ in public. Let us take care that we exhibit our Master, and not
ourselves – so that we can say, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that
liveth in me.” Take heed that you carry this into the church too, you who
are church members. Be like Christ in the church. How many there are of
you like Diotrephes, seeking pre-eminence. How many are trying to have
some dignity and power over their fellow Christians, instead of
remembering that it is the fundamental rule of all our churches, that there
all men are equal-alike brethren, alike to be received as such. Carry out the
spirit of Christ, then, in your churches, wherever ye are; let your fellow
members say of you, “He has been with Jesus.”

But, most of all, take care to have religion in your houses. A religious
house is the best proof of true piety. It is not my chapel, it is my house – it is
not my minister, it is my home companion – who can best judge me; it is the
servant, the child, the wife, the friend, that can discern most of my real
character. A good man will improve his household. Rowland Hill once said
he would not believe a man to be a true Christian, if his wife, his children,
his servants, and even the dog and cat, were not the better for it. That is
being religious. If your household is not the better for your Christianity – if
men cannot say, “This is a better house than others,” then be not deceived ye have nothing of the grace of God. Let not your servant, on leaving your
employ, say, “Well, this is a queer sort of a religious family, there was no
prayer in the morning; I began the day with my drudgery; there was no
prayer at night, I was kept at home all the Sabbath day; once a fortnight,
perhaps, I was allowed to go out in the afternoon, when there was
nowhere to go to where I could hear a gospel sermon; my master and
mistress went to a place where of course they heard the blessed gospel of
God, – that was all for them; as for me, I might have the dregs and leavings
of some over-worked curate in the afternoon.” Surely Christian men will
not act in that way. No! Carry out your godliness in your family. Let every
one say that you have practical religion. Let, it be known and read in the
house, as well as in the world. Take care of your character there; for what
we are there, we really are. Our life abroad is often but a borrowed part,
the actors part of a great scene, but at home the wizard is removed, and
men are what they seem. Take care of your home duties.

Yet again, my brethren, before I leave the point imitate Jesus in secret.
When no eye seeth you except the eye of God, when darkness covers you,
when you are shut up from the observation of mortals, even then be ye like
Jesus Christ. Remember his ardent piety, his secret devotion – how, after
laboriously preaching the whole day, he stole away in the midnight shades
to cry for help from his God. Recollect how his entire life was constantly
sustained by fresh inspirations of the Holy Spirit, derived by prayer. Take
care of your secret life: let it be such that you will not be ashamed to read
at the last great day. Your inner life is written in the book of God, and it
shall one day be opened before you. If the entire life of some of you were
known, it would be no life at all: it would be a death. Yea, even of some
true Christian, we may say, it is scarce a life. It is a dragging on of an
existence – one hasty prayer a day – one breathing, just enough to save our
soul’ alive, but no more. O my brethren strive to be more like Jesus Christ.

These are times when we want more secret prayer. I have had much fear all
this week. I know not whether it is true; but when I feel such a thing I like
to tell it to those of you who belong to my own church and congregation. I
have trembled lest by being away from our own place, you have ceased to
pray as earnestly as you once did. I remember your earnest groans and
petitions – how you would assemble together in the house of prayer in
multitudes, and cry out to God to help his servant. We cannot meet in such
style at present; but do you still pray in private? Have you forgotten me?
Have you ceased to cry out to God? Oh! my friends, with all the entreaties
that a man can use, let me appeal to you. Recollect who I am, and what I
am — a child, having little education, little learning, ability, or talent, and
here am I called upon week after week to preach to this crowd of people.
Will ye not, my beloved, still plead for me? Has not God been pleased to
hear your prayers ten thousand times? And will ye now cease, when a
mighty revival is taking place in many churches? Will ye now stop your
petitions? Oh! no; go to your houses, fall upon your knees, cry aloud to
God to enable you still to hold up your hands like Moses on the hill, that
Joshua below may fight and overcome the Amalekites. Now is the time for
victory: shall we lose it? This is the high tide that will float us over the bar;
now let us put out the oars; let us pull by earnest prayer, crying for God
the Spirit to fill the sails! Ye who love God, of every place and every
denomination, wrestle for your ministers, pray for them; for why should
not God even now pour out his Spirit? What is the reason why we are to
be denied Pentecostal seasons? Why not this hour, as one mighty band, fall
down before him, and entreat him for his Son’s sake, to revive his drooping
church? Then would all men discern, that we are verily the disciples of
Christ.

III. But now, thirdly, WHY SHOULD CHRISTIANS IMITATE CHRIST? The
answer comes very naturally and easily. Christians should be like Christ,
first, for their own sakes. For their honesty’s sake and for their credit’s
sake, let them not be found liars before God and men. For their own
healthful state, if they wish to be kept from sin, and preserved from going
astray, let them imitate Jesus. For their own happiness’ sake, if they would
drink wine on the lees, well refined if they would enjoy holy and happy
communion with Jesus, if they would be lifted up above the cares and
troubles of this world, let them imitate Jesus Christ. Oh! my brethren, there
is nothing that can so advantage you, nothing can so prosper you, so assist
you, so make you walk towards heaven rapidly, so keep your head
upwards towards the sky, and your eyes radiant with glory, like the
imitation of Jesus Christ. It is when by the power of the Holy Spirit, you
are enabled to walk with Jesus in his very footsteps, and tread in his ways,
you are most happy, and you are most known to be the sons of God. For
your own sake, my brethren, I say, be like Christ.

Next, for religions sake, strive to imitate Jesus. Ah! poor religion, thou
hast been sorely shot at by cruel foes, but thou hast not been wounded one
half so much by them as by thy friends. None have hurt thee, O
Christianity, so much as those who profess to be thy followers. Who have
made these wounds in this fair hand of Godliness? I say, the professor has
done this, who has not lived up to his profession; the man, who with
pretences, enters the fold, being nought but a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Such men, sirs, injure the gospel more than others: more than the laughing
infidel, more than the sneering critic, doth the man hurt our cause, who
professes to love it, but in his actions doth belie his love Christian, lovest
thou that cause? Is the name of the dear Redeemer precious to thee?
Wouldst thou see the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our
Lord and his Christ? Dost thou wish to see the proud man humbled and the
mighty abased? Dost thou long for the souls of perishing sinners, and art
thou desirous to win them, and save their souls from everlasting burning?
Wouldst thou prevent their fall into the regions of the damned? Is it thy
desire that Christ should see the travail of his soul, and be abundantly
satisfied? Doth thy heart yearn over thy fellow immortals? Dost thou long
to see them forgiven? Then be consistent with thy religion. Walk before
God in the land of the living. Behave as an elect man should do. Recollect
what manner of people we ought to be, in all holy conversation and
godliness. This is the best way to convert the world, yea, such conduct
would do more than even the efforts of missionary societies excellent as
they are. Let but men see that our conduct is superior to others, then they
will believe there is something in our religion; but if they see us quite the
contrary to what we avow, what will they say? These religious people are
no better than others! Why should we go amongst them?” And they say
quite rightly. It is but common sense judgment. Ah, my friends, if ye love
religion, for her own sake be consistent, and walk in the love of God.
Follow Christ Jesus.

Then, to put it into the strongest form I can, let me say, for Christ’s sake,
endeavor to be like him. Oh! could I fetch the dying Jesus here, and let him
speak to you! My own tongue is tied this morning, but I would make his
blood, his tears and his wounds speak. Poor dumb mouths, I bid each of
them plead in his behalf. How would Jesus standing here, show you his
hands this morning! “My friends,” he would say, “behold me! these hands
were pierced for you; and look ye here at this my side. It was opened as
the fountain of your salvation. See my feet; there entered the cruel nails.
Each of these bones were dislocated for your sake. These eyes gushed with
torrents of tears. This head was crowned with thorns. These cheeks were
smitten; this hair was plucked; my body become the center and focus of
agony. I hung quivering in the burning sun; and all for you, my people. And
will ye not love me now? I bid you be like me. Is there any fault in me? Oh!
no. Ye believe that I am fairer than ten thousand fairs, and lovelier than ten
thousand loves. Have I injured you? Have I not rather done all for your
salvation? And do I not sit at my father’s throne, and even now intercede
on your behalf? “If ye love me,” – Christian, hear that word, let the sweet
syllables ring for ever in your ears, like the prolonged sounding of silvertoned bells – ”if ye love me, if ye love me, keep my commandments.” Oh, Christian, let that “if” be put to thee this morning. “If ye love me.”
Glorious Redeemer! is it an “if” at all? Thou precious, bleeding Lamb can
there be an “if?” What, when I see thy blood gushing from thee, is it an
“if?” Yes, I weep to say it is an “if.” Oft my thoughts make it “if,” and oft
my words make it “if.” But yet methinks my soul feels it is not “if,” either.

“Not to mine eyes is light so dear,
Nor friendship half so sweet.”

“Yes, I love thee, I know that I love thee. Lord, thou knowest all things;
thou knowest that I love thee;” can the Christian say. “Well then” says
Jesus, looking down with a glance of affectionate approbation, “since thou
lovest me, keep my commandments.” O beloved, what mightier reason can
I give than this? It is the argument of love and affection. Be like Christ,
since gratitude demands obedience; so shall the world know that ye have
been with Jesus.

IV. Ah! then ye wept, and I perceive ye felt the force of pity, and some of
you are inquiring, “How CAN I IMITATE HIM? It is my business, then,
before you depart, to tell you how you can become transformed into the
image of Christ.

In the first place, then, my beloved friends, in answer to your inquiry, let
me say, you must know Christ as your Redeemer before you can follow
him as your Exemplar. Much is said about the example of Jesus, and we
scarcely find a man now who does not believe that our Lord was an
excellent and holy man, much to be admired. But excellent as his example,
it would be impossible to imitate it, had he not also been our sacrifice. Do
ye this morning know, that his blood was shed for you? Can ye join with
me in this verse,-

“O the sweet wonders of that cross,
Where God the Savior lov’d and died;
Her noblest life my spirit draws,
From his dear wounds and bleeding side.”

If so, you are on a fair way to imitate Christ. But do not seek to copy him
until you are bathed in the fountain filled with blood, draw from his veins.
It is not possible for you to do so; your passion will be too strong and
corrupt, and you; will be building without a foundation, a structure which
will be about as stable as a dream. You cannot mould your life to his
pattern, until you have had his Spirit, till you have been clothed in his
righteousness. “Well,” say some, “we have proceeded so far, what next
shall we do? We know we have an interest in him, but we are still sensible
of manifold deficiencies. Next then, let me entreat you to study Christ’s
character. This poor Bible is become an almost obsolete book, even with
some Christians. There are so many magazines, periodicals, and such like
ephemeral productions, that we are in danger of neglecting to search the
Scriptures. Christian, wouldst thou know thy Master? Look at him. There
is a wondrous power about the character of Christ, for the more you
regard it the more you will be conformed to it. I view myself in the glass, I
go away, and forget what I was. I behold Christ, and I become like Christ.
Look at him, then, study him in the evangelists, studiously examine his
character. “But,” say you, “we have done that, and we have proceeded but
little farther.” Then, in the next place, correct your poor copy every day.
At night, try and recount all the actions of the twenty-four hours,
scrupuloulsly putting them under review. When I have proof sheets sent to
me of any of my writings, I have to make the corrections in the margin. I
might read them over fifty times, and the printers would still put in the
errors if I did not mark them. So must you do if you find anything faulty, at
night make a mark in the margin that you may know where the fault is, and
tomorrow may amend it. Do this, day after day continually, noting you
faults one by one, so that you may better avoid them. It was a maxim of the
old philosophers, that three times in the day we should go over our actions.
So let us do; let us not be forgetful; let us rather examine ourselves each
night, and see wherein we have done amiss, that we may reform our lives.

Lastly, as the best advice I can give, seek more of the Spirit of God, for
this is the way to become Christ-like. Vain are all your attempts to be like
him till you have sought his Spirit. Take the cold iron, and attempt to weld
it if you can into a certain shape. How fruitless the effort! Lay it on the
anvil, seize the black smith’s hammer with all your might; let blow after
blow fall upon it, and you shall have done nothing. Twist it, turn it, use all
your implements, but you shall not be able to fashion it as you would. But
put it in the fire, let it be softened and made malleable, then lay it on the
anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty effect, so that you may fashion it
into any form you may desire. So take your heart, not cold as it is, not
stony, as it is by nature, but put it into the furnace; there let it be molten,
and after that it can be turned like wax to the seal, and fashioned into the
image of Jesus Christ.

Oh my brethren, what can I say now to enforce my text, but that if ye are
like Christ on earth, ye shall be like him in heaven. If by the power of the
Spirit ye become followers of Jesus, ye shall enter glory. For at heavens
gate there sits an angel, who admits no one who has not the same features
as our adorable Lord. There comes a man with a crown upon his head.
“Yes,” he says, “thou hast a crown it is true but crowns are not the
medium of access here.” Another approaches dressed in robes of state and
the gown of learning. “Yes,” says the angel, “it may be good, but gowns
and learning are not the marks that shall admit you here.” Another
advances, fair, beautiful, and comely. “Yes,” says the angel “that might
please on earth, but beauty is not wanted here.” There cometh up another,
who is heralded by fame, and prefaced by the blast of the clamor of
mankind; but the angel saith, “It is well with man, but thou has no right to
enter here.” Then there appears another: poor he may have been; illiterate
he may have been, but the angel, as he looks at him, smiles and says, “It is
Christ again, a second edition of Jesus Christ is there. Come in, come in.
Eternal glory thou shalt win. Thou art like Christ in heaven thou shalt sit
because thou art like him.” Oh! to be like Christ is to enter heaven; but to
be unlike Christ is to descend to hell. Likes shall be gathered together at
last, tares with tares, wheat with wheat. If ye have sinned with Adam, and
have died, ye shall lie with the spiritually dead for ever, unless ye rise in
Christ to newness of life; then shall we live with him throughout eternity.
Wheat with wheat; tares with tares. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked:
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Go away with this one
thought, then, my brethren, that you can test yourselves by Christ. If’ you
are like Christ you are of Christ and shall be with Christ. If you are unlike
him, you have no portion in the great inheritance. May my poor discourse
help to fan the floor and reveal the chaff; yea may it lead many of you to
seek to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, to the praise of
his grace, To him be all honor given!
Amen.

The following is actually an extract from a new book, which I must say I thought was rather good and raised some good points (The extract I mean, I have never read the book), see what you think:-

“It’s up to you what you do with your own body,” goes the rhetoric. But when you dive away from abstractions into the real world of suffering and desire, things are not so simple.

No man is an island; we are inextricably connected to everyone else. Every decision ripples through society into the lives of others: one patient’s treatment is another’s denial of treatment. If a patient in a persistent vegetative state is kept alive, others, denied life-saving resources, will die. If the father of a child objects to a proposed abortion, should he be heard? Should deaf parents, wanting their child to experience the resonant intimacy of their world, be able to insist that their child is iatrogenically deafened? Is it acceptable for a child of a particular genetic constitution to be selected and brought to term so that she can save her sibling?

If the Human Rights Act 1998 protects a right to life-endangering sado-masochism, should it do so only if all parties are as fully informed about the risks, as the medical law would require were the same risks to be run in a hospital? Is “not wanting to be a burden” an acceptable ground for requiring physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia?

If euthanasia is acceptable in cases of terminal illness, why stop there? Why not permit a depressed person to insist on a prescription with a lethal dose? Why should you have a right to let your organs be eaten by worms when they might save me? Are doctors mere technicians, functionaries whose only role is to do what the patient wants? And, if so, should doctors leave their consciences at home when they go to work? Do they have autonomy rights, too?

One might expect and hope medical law and medicine to give nuanced answers to these questions. Too often they don’t. Often the answer is dictated by one strident voice: autonomy, which has an overinflated status in medical ethics, a status that cannot be intellectually or morally justified. It is heretical, and often career-damaging, to question its sovereignty.

A doctor who suggests, however tentatively, that beneficence, non-maleficence and justice might have some useful contribution to the debate can have his card marked. He is likely to be viewed as a foaming Texan creationist would be at a Darwinist convention.

Medical law often doffs its cap too readily to the white coat, importing medical norms uncritically into its judgments and turning them unchanged into legal axioms.

Autonomy should have the confidence and the humility to submit to a thorough audit of its performance. But I bet it won’t. It will say that to question its dictates is to be an ethically benighted heathen. And it has an alarmingly Tudor way of dealing with dissent. These are good reasons why it must be forced to submit. Limbs, lives, consciences and overall societal health depend on it.

The audit should start with a dispassionate look at the beginning of life. It will find that autonomy is laughably arbitrary in deciding whom to support. Autonomy bestows its decisive favours on the adult woman rather than the 24-week foetus she carries, on the ground, apparently, that the foetus is on one side of the woman’s vagina rather than the other.

The mere geographical situation of the foetus means that it has no autonomy rights at all. A journey of a few centimetres would stamp it with the awesome imprimatur of autonomy and so invest it with the draconian protection of the English law that creeps so cringingly along in autonomy’s wake.

Before the journey is done, and autonomy’s endorsement bestowed, the mother’s autonomy right to mere convenience trumps the foetus’s shadowy, arguable right to exist. If a human rather than an ethical principle showed such caprice, he would be rocking quietly in the corner of a secure unit. He certainly would not be on the High Court bench.

Let’s note what autonomy’s rubber stamp really is in this context: it is a conclusive certificate of one’s status as a human being, a passport confirming that one is a member of the human race, entitled to the protection of Her Majesty. The auditor will want to look carefully at what principle of law, logic or common sense gave autonomy this awesome authority, and, accordingly, at whether some of its proclamations are ultra vires.

The audit should then move to the end of life. It should summon autonomy and ask it to explain why an advance directive should decline life-sustaining antibiotics to a person whose long-feared dementia has radically changed his personality, catapulting him into a blissful second childhood, robbing him not just of some (vastly overrated) cognitive function, but also of the terrors and neuroses that made his earlier life miserable. Why should a piece of paper signed by person X be the unappealable death warrant for person Y, who simply happens to occupy the same body as did person X? And then the audit should trawl, with mounting cynicism, through autonomy’s dealings with the rest of life.

The auditor may conclude that radical positive discrimination in favour of those other, less mouthy principles is needed now to avoid some sinister legal and ethical consequences.

The author is a barrister at Outer Temple Chambers, London, and the Ethox Centre, University of Oxford. His book Choosing Life, Choosing Death: The Tyranny of Autonomy in Medical Ethics and Law, has just been published by Hart Publishing (£22.50)

Weekly newsletter from our friends at Christian Concern for our Nation

Churches and other Christian groups will be forced to employ practising homosexuals, transsexuals and civil partners under the Government’s new Equality Bill.

The Bill aims to sweep all of the existing law on equality into one Act of Parliament and to eliminate more forms of discrimination than are currently covered.

While Christians believe in the innate worth of every human being, the Bill undermines basic Christian freedoms to adhere to biblical values in the area of employment. Churches and other Christian groups will not be able to discriminate on the basis of sexual practice which contravenes biblical values or gender reassignment when employing staff. Only roles which mainly involve teaching, promoting, or leading worship services will be exempt from the provisions of the Government’s new Equality Bill. Far from simplifying the law which the Equality Bill promised to do. The Bill places even more complex requirements above and beyond those already within the existing law and states in the Explanatory notes to the Bill that “the specific exception applies to a very narrow range of circumstances”.

This means that churches could be sued for not employing practising homosexuals for jobs including a church youth worker, secretary or accountant.

This is made clear in the Explanatory notes that accompany the bill: ‘This exception would not apply to a requirement that a church youth worker of accountant be heterosexual’.

Equalities Minister Maria Eagle has recently addressed a UK conference on Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia and Human Rights and stated that “The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between…”. This sort of so-called equality leads to censorship and discrimination.

Andrea Williams, Director of Christian Concern for our Nation commented, ‘This is a new attempt to impose the State’s secularist agenda on the Church and gag Christians from teaching and living out what the Bible says about sexual ethics. The Government thrust is that Christians should largely be free to follow Christ in private, as long as it doesn’t affect their working life ’.

Recent Christian Legal Centre cases illustrate the point. Kwabena Peat, a Christian teacher spoke out against homosexual propaganda on a school training day and found himself suspended. For more information, click here.

David Booker, working at a homeless charity was also suspended after answering questions from a colleague about his views on homosexuality.

For more information, click here.