“Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen,” Romans 15:33
PAUL once advised the Romans to strive. Three verses before our text he
actually gives them an exhortation to strive, and yet he here utters a prayer
that the God of peace might be with them all. Lest you should think him to
be a man of strife, you must read the verse. He says: “Now I beseech you,
brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the spirit,
that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” That is a
holy strife, and such a strife as that we wish always to see in the church, a
strife in prayer, a surrounding the throne together, besieging God’s mercy
seat, a crying out before God, until it actually amounts to a striving
together in our prayers. There is also another kind of striving which is
allowed in the church, and that is striving earnestly after the best gifts: a
sweet contention which of us shall excel all others in love, in duty, and in
faith. May God send us more strife of that kind in our churches, a strife in
prayer, a strife in duty; and when we have mentioned these strifes we find
them of so peaceable a kind that we come back to the benediction of our
text: “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” Without any preface,
we shall consider, first, the title-”the God of peace;” and secondly, the
benediction-”the God of peace be with you all. Amen.”
I. First of all, the title. Mars amongst the heathens was called the god of
war; Janus was worshipped in periods of strife and bloodshed; but our God
Jehovah styles himself not the God of war, but the God of peace. Although
he permits ware in this world, sometimes for necessary and useful
purposes; although he superintends them, and has even styled himself the
Lord, mighty in battle, yet his holy mind abhors bloodshed and strife; his
gracious spirit loves not to see men slaughtering one another, he is
emphatically, solely, and entirely, and without reserve, “the God of peace.”
Peace is his delight; “peace on earth and goodwill towards men.” Peace in
heaven (for that purpose he expelled the angels): peace throughout his
entire universe, is his highest wish and his greatest delight.
If you consider God in the trinity of his persons for a few moments, you
will see that in each-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-the title is apt and
correct, “the God of peace.” There is God the everlasting Father, he is the
God of peace, for he from all eternity planned the great covenant of peace,
whereby he might bring rebels nigh unto him, and make strangers and
foreigners fellow-heirs with the saints, and joint-heirs with his Son Christ
Jesus. He is the God of peace, for he justifies, and thereby implants peace
in the soul, he accepted Christ, and, as the God of peace, he brought him
again from the dead; and he ordained peace, peace eternal with his
children, through the blood of the everlasting covenant; he is the God of
peace. So is Jesus Christ, the second person, the God of peace for “he is
our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall
of partition between us.” He makes peace between God and man. His
blood sprinkled on the fiery wrath of God turned it to love, or rather that
which must have broken forth in wrath, though it was love for ever, was
allowed to display itself in loving-kindness through the wondrous
mediatorship of Jesus Christ; and he is the God of peace because he makes
peace in the conscience and in the heart. When he says, “Come unto me all
ye that are heavy laden “he gives “rest,” and with that rest he gives; the
peace of God which passeth all understanding,” which keeps our heart and
mind. He is moreover the God of peace in the Church, for wherever Jesus
Christ dwells, he creates a holy peace. As in the case of Aaron of old, the
ointment poured upon the head of Christ trickles down to the very skirts of
his garments, and thereby he gives peace,-peace by the fruit of the lips, and
peace by the fruit of the heart, unto all them that love Jesus Christ in
sincerity. So is the Holy Ghost the God of peace. He of old brought peace,
when chaotic matter yeas in confusion, by the brooding of his wings: he
caused order to appear where once there was nothing but darkness and
chaos. So in dark chaotic souls he is the God of peace. When winds from
the mountains of Sinai, and gusts from the pit of hell sweep across the
distressed soul; when, wandering about for rest, our soul fainteth within us,
he speaks peace to our troubles, and gives rest to our spirits. When by
earthly cares we are tossed about, like the sea-bird, up and down, up and
down, from the base of the wave to the billows’ crown, he says, “Peace be
still.” He it is who on the Sabbath-day brings his people into a state of
serenity, and bids them enjoy
“That holy calm, that sweet repose
Which none but he that feels it knows.”
And he shall be the God of peace when at life’s latest hour he shall still the
current of Jordan, shall hush all the howlings of the fiends, shall give us
peace with God through Jesus Christ, and land us safe in heaven. Blessed
Trinity! however we consider thee, whether as Father, Son, or Holy Ghost,
still is thy name thrice well deserved, the God of peace, and the God of
love.
Let us now enter into the subject, and see wherein God is a God of peace.
We remark that he is the God of peace, for he created peace originally. He
is the God of peace, for he is the restorer of it; though wars have broken
out through sin. He is the God of peace, because he preserves peace when
it is made; and he is the God of peace because he shall ultimately perfect
and consummate peace between all his creatures and himself. Thus he is
the God of peace.
First of all, he is the God of peace because he created nothing but peace.
Go back in your imagination to the time when the majestic Father stepped
from his solitude and commenced the work of creation. Picture to yourself
the moment when he speaks the word and the first matter is formed.
Before that time there had been neither space, nor time, nor aught existing,
save himself. He speaks and it is done, he commands and it stands fast.
Behold him scattering from his mighty hands stars as numerous as the
sparks from an anvil. Witness how by his word worlds are fashioned, and
ponderous orbs roll through that immensity which first of all he had
decreed to be their dwelling place. Lift up now your eyes and behold these
great things which he has created already, let the wings of your fancy carry
you through the immensity of space and the vast profound, and see if you
can discover anywhere the least sign or trace of war. Go through it from
the north even to the south, from the east even unto the west, and mark
well if ye can discover one sign of discord; whether there is not one
universal harmony, whether everything is not lovely, pure, and of good
report. See if in the great harp of nature, there is one string which when
touched by its Maker’s finger giveth forth discord, see if the pipes of this
great organ God has made do not all play harmoniously, mark ye well, and
note it. Are there bulwarks formed for war? Are there spears and swords?
Are there clarions and trumpets? Hath God created any material with
which to destroy his creatures and desolate his realms? No; everything is
peaceable above, beneath, and all around; all is peace, there is nothing else
but calm and quietness. Hark when he makes the angels. He speaks-winged
seraphs fly abroad, and cherubs flash through the air on wings of fire. He
speaks, and multitudes of angels in their various hierarchies are brought
forth, while Jesus Christ as a mighty Prince of angels is decreed to be their
head. Is there now in any one of those angels one sign of sorrow? When
God made them did he make one of them to be his enemy? Did he fashion
one of them with the least implacability or ill-will within his bosom? Ask
the shining cohorts, and they tell you, “We were not made for war, but for
peace. He has not fashioned us spirits of battle, but spirits of love, and joy,
and quietness.” And if they sinned, he made them not to sin. They did so;
they brought woe into the world of their own accord. God created no war.
The evil angel brought it first. Left to his free will, he fell. The elect angels
being confirmed by grace, stood fast and firm; but God was not the author
of any war, or any strife. Satan of himself conceived the rebellion, but God
was not the author of it. He may from all eternity have foreseen it, and it
may even be said in some sense that he ordained it to manifest his justice
and his glory, and to show his mercy and sovereignty in redeeming man;
but God had no hand in it whatsoever. The Eternal abjures war; he was not
the author of it. Satan led the van, that morning star who sang together
with the rest, fell of himself, God was not the author of his confusion, but
the author of eternal and blessed order. Look, too at God in the creation of
this world. Go into the garden of Eden: walk up and down its bowers;
recline under its trees, and partake of its fruits. Roam through the entire
world. Sit down by the sea-shore, or stretch yourself upon the mountain.
Do you see the least sign of war? Nothing like it. There is nothing of
tumult and of noise no preparation of destruction. See Adam and Eve: their
days are perpetual sunshine, their nights are balmy evenings of sweet
repose. God has put nothing in their hearts which can disturb them; he has
no ill will towards them, but on the contrary, he walks with them in the
evening under the trees in the cool of the day. He condescends to talk with
his creatures, and hold fellowship with them. He is in no sense whatever
the author of the present confusion in this world; that was brought about
by our first parents through the temptation of the evil one. God did not
create this world for strife. When he first fashioned it, peace, peace, peace,
was the universal order of the day. May there come a time when peace
once more shall be restored to this great earth, and tranquility to this
world! Do you not observe that God is the God of peace because he
created it originally? When he pronounced his creation “very good,” it was
entirely without the slightest exception, a peaceful creation. God is the
God of peace.
But, secondly, he is the God of peace because he restores it. Nothing
shows a man to be much fonder of peace than when he seeks to make
peace between others; or, when others have offended him, he endeavors to
make peace between himself and them. If I should be able at all times to
maintain peace with myself, and should never provoke a quarrel, I should
of course be considered a peaceful spirit, but if other persons choose to
quarrel and disagree with me, and I desire and purposely set to work to
bring about a reconciliation, then everyone says I am a man of peace.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are the children of God.” God is the
great Peacemaker; and thus he is indeed the God of peace. When Satan
fell, there was war in heaven. God made peace there, for he smote Satan
and cast him and all his rebel hosts into eternal fire. He made peace by his
might and power and majesty, for he drove him out of heaven, and expelled
him by his flaming brand, never again to pollute the sacred floor of bliss,
and never more to endanger Paradise by misleading his peers in heaven. So
he made peace in heaven by his power. But when man fell, God made
peace not by his power, but by his mercy. Man transgresses. Poor man!
Mark how God goes after him to make peace with him! “Adam, where art
thou?” Adam never said “God, where art thou?” But God came after
Adam, and he seemed to say with a voice of affection and pity, “Adam,
poor Adam, where art thou? Hast thou become a God? The evil spirit said
thou wouldst be a God, art thou so? Where art thou now poor Adam?
Thou wast once in holiness and perfection, where art thou now?” And he
saw the truant Adam running away from his Master, running away from the
great Peacemaker, to hide himself beneath the trees of the garden. Again
God calls, “Adam, where art thou?” But he says, “I heard thy voice in the
midst of the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid
myself.” And God says, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” How kind
it is. You can see he is a Peacemaker even then; but when after having
cursed the serpent, and sent the cursed obliquely on the ground, he comes
to talk to Adam, you see him as the Peacemaker still more. “I will,” said
he, “put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her
seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” There he was
making peace through the blood of the cross. Do not conceive, however
that that was the first preparation of peace God ever made. That was the
first display of it, but he had been making peace from all eternity. Through
the covenant he made with Jesus Christ from all eternity, God’s people
were at peace with God. Although God saw that man shall fall; though he
foresaw that his elect would with the rest depart from rectitude, and
become his enemies, yet he did long before the fall draw up a covenant
with Jesus, wherein Jesus stipulated that he would pay the debts of all his
people, and the Father on their behalf did actually and positively forgive
their sins, and justify their persons, take away their guilt, acquit them,
accept and receive them unto peace with him. Though that was never
developed until the fall, and though to each of us it is not known until we
believe, yet there was always peace between God and the elect. I must tell
you a tale of a poor bricklayer who met with an accident, and every one
thought he was going to die, and he did die. A clergyman said to him, “My
poor fellow, I am afraid you will die. Try to make your peace with God.”
With tears in his eyes, he looked the clergyman in the face, and said,
“Make my peace with God, sir? I thank God that was made for me in the
eternal covenant by Jesus Christ, long before I was born.” So beloved, it
was. There was a peace, a perfect peace which God made with his Son.
Jesus was not our ambassador merely, but he was our peace; not the maker
of peace merely, but our peace; and since there was a Christ before all
worlds, there was peace before all worlds. Since there always will be a
Christ, so there always will be peace between God and all those interested
in the covenant. Oh, if we can but feel we are in the covenant, if we know
we are numbered with the chosen race, and purchased with redeeming
blood, then we can rejoice, because God has been to us the Restorer of
breaches, the Builder of cities to dwell in, and hath given us peace which
once we lost; he is the Restorer of peace.
Thirdly, he is the preserver of peace. Whenever I see peace in the world, I
ascribe it to God, and if it is continued, I shall always believe it is because
God interferes to prevent war. So combustible are the materials of which
this great world is made, that I am ever apprehensive of war. I do not
account it wonderful that one nation should strive against another, I
account if far more wonderful that they are not all at arms. Whence come
wars and fightings? Come they not from your lusts? Considering how much
lust there is in the world, we might well conceive that there would be more
war than we see. Sin is the mother of wars; and remembering how plentiful
sin is, we need not marvel if it brings forth multitudes of them. We may
look for them. If the coming of Christ be indeed drawing nigh, then we
must expect wars and rumors of wars through all the nations of the earth;
but when peace is preserved, we consider it to be through the immediate
interposition of God. If then we desire peace between nations, let us seek it
of God, who is the great Pacificator; but there is an inward peace which
God alone can keep. Am I at peace with myself, with the world, and with
my Maker? Oh! if I want to retain that peace, God alone can preserve it. I
know there are some people who once enjoyed peace, who do not possess
it now. Some of you once had confidence in God, but may have lost it; you
once thought yourselves to be in a glorious state from which now you
seem to have somewhat departed. Beloved, no one can maintain peace in
the heart but God, as he is the only one who can put it there. Some people
talk about doubts and fears and seem to think they are very allowable. I
have heard some say, “Well a sailor in the sunshine knows his reckoning,
and can tell where he is, he has no doubt; but if the sun withdraws, he
cannot tell his longitude and latitude, and he knows not where he is.” That
is not however a fair description of faith. Always wanting the sun is
wanting to live by sight; but living by faith is to say, “I cannot tell my
longitude and my latitude, but I know the Captain is at the helm, and I will
trust him everywhere.” But still you cannot keep in that peaceful state of
mind unless you have God in the vessel to help you to smile at the storm.
We can be peaceful at times, but if God goes away, how we begin
quarrelling with ourselves! God alone can preserve peace. Backslider! hast
thou lost it? Go and seek it again of God. Christian! is thy peace marred?
Go to God, and he can say to every doubt, “tie down doubt,” and to every
fear, “Begone.” -He can speak to every wind that can blow across thy soul,
and can say, “Peace, be still; “for he is the God of peace, since he preserves
it. Trust in him.
Fourthly, God is the God of peace because he shall perfect and
consummate it at last. There is war in the world now; there is an evil spirit
walking to and fro, a restless being, eager, like a lion to devour, walking
through dry places, seeking rest and finding none; and there are men
bewitched by that evil spirit who are at war with God, and at war with one
another; but there is a time coming-let us wait a little longer-when there
shall be peace on earth and peace throughout all God’s dominions. In a few
more years we do look for a lasting and perpetual peace on earth. Perhaps,
to-morrow, Jesus Christ, the Son of God will come again, without a sin
offering unto salvation. We know not either the day or the hour wherein
the Son of man shall come; but by-and-bye he shall descend from heaven
with a shout, and with the noise of a trumpet; he shall come, but not as
once he came, a lowly and humble man, but a glorious and exalted
monarch. Then he will cause wars to cease. From that day forth and for
ever they will hang the useless helm on high, and study war no more; the
lion shall lie down with the kid and eat straw like the ox; the cockatrice and
the serpent shall lose their hurtful powers; the weaned child shall lead the
lion and the leopard, each one by his beard with his little hands. The day is
coming, and that speedily, when there shall not be found on earth a single
man who hates his brother, but when each one shall find in every other a
brother and a friend; and we shall be able to say, as the old poet did, but in
a larger sense, “I know not that there is one Englishman alive with whom I
am one jot at odds more than the infant that is born to-night.” We shall all
be united; rationalities will be levelled, because made into one, and the
Lord Jesus Christ shall be king of the entire earth. After that time shall
come the consummation of peace, when the last great day shall have
passed away, and the righteous have been severed from the wicked, when
the monster battle of Armageddon shall have been fought and won when
all the righteous shall have been gathered into heaven, and the lost sent
down to hell. Where will be the room for the battle then? Look at the
foemen, bruised and mangled in the pit, perpetually howling, the victims of
God’s vengence; there is no fear of war from them. There is Satan himself,
crest-fallen, bruised battered, slain; his head is broken; there he lies
despoiled a king without his crown; there can be no fear of war from him;
and mark the angels, who were once under his supremacy, can they arise?
No; they writhe in tortures, and bite their iron bands in misery; they have
no power to lift a lance against the God of heaven; and look on sinful man,
condemned for his sin to dwell with those fallen being; can he again
provoke his Maker? Will he again blaspheme? Can he oppose the gospel?
No, injured in dungeons of hot iron, there he is, an abject, ruined spirit; ten
thousand times ten thousand lost and perished sinners are there; but could
all unite in solemn league and covenant to break the bands of death and
sever the laws of justice, he that sitteth in the heavens would laugh at them,
the Lord would have them in derision. Peace is consummated because the
enemy is crushed. They look up yonder; there is no fear of war from those
bright spirits; the angels cannot fall now; their period of probation is passed
for ever, a second Satan shall never drag with him a third part of the stars
of heaven; no angel will totter any more, and the ransomed spirits, bloodbought,
and washed in the fountain of Jesu’s blood, will never fall again.
Universal peace is come, the olive branch hath outlived the laurel the
sword is sheathed, the banners are furled, the stains of blood are washed
out of the world; again it moves in its orb, and sings like its sister stars; but
the one song is peace, for the God who made it is the God of peace.
II. Now we come to the benediction. “The God of peace be with you all.”
I am not about to address you concerning that inward peace which rests in
the heart. I am sure I wish above all things that you may always enjoy a
peace with your conscience, and be at peace with God. May you always
know that you have the blood of Jesus to plead, that you have his
righteousness to cover you, that you have his atonement to satisfy for you,
and that there is nothing which can hurt you; but I wish to address you as a
church, and exhort you to peace.
First, I will remind you that there is great need to pray this prayer for you
all, because there are enemies to peace always lurking in all societies.
Petrarch says there are five great enemies to peace-avarice, ambition, envy,
anger, and pride. I shall alter them a little, but use the same number.
Instead of avarice I shall commence with error. One of the greatest means
of destroying peace is error. Error in doctrine leads to the most lamentable
consequences with regard to the peace of the church. I have noticed that
the greatest failings out have been among those who are most erroneous in
doctrine. Though I admit that some called Calvinists are the most
quarrelsome set breathing, this is the reason-while they have the main part
of the truth, many of them are leaving out something important, and
therefore God chastices them because they are some of his best children. It
may be a sign of life that they are so eager after truth, that they kill one
another in order to get it; but I wish they would leave off their quarrelling
for it is a disgrace to our religion. If they had more peace I might hope
better for the progress of truth. Everyone says to me-”Look there at your
brethren! I never saw such a set of cut-throats in my life. I never saw a
church, where they have the gospel, where they are not always falling out.”
Well, that is nearly the truth, and I am ashamed to confess it. I pray God,
however, to send a little more peace where he has sent the gospel. There
are, however, strifes among our opponents which we do not see. The
bishop uses his strong hand, and the people dare not disagree; the pastor
has such power and authority, that the crush of his mailed hand is sufficient
to put down everything because there is no freedom. Now, I would rather
have a row in the church than have the members all asleep. I would rather
have them falling to ears than sitting down in indifference. You never
expect dead churches to have strife, but where there is a little life, if there
is error, it always begets strife. What is the most litigious denomination
now existing? No one would have a difficulty in pointing to our excellent
friends the Wesleyans, for just at this moment they are quarrelling and
finding fault with one another, splitting up into numberless sections, and
making reformed churches, and so on. What is the cause of it? Because
they are in the wrong track altogether with regard to church government,
and with regard to some other things. John Wesley was a good man at
making churches, I dare say; but he did not understand what the church
ought to be in these days. He might do for a hundred years ago but he
bound his poor followers too tightly, and now they are trying to break out
into freedom and liberty. If they had been right at first they might have
gone on, and a thousand years would not have spoiled their system. It
would have done now as well as then. Error is the root of bitterness in the
church. Give us sound doctrine, sound practice, sound church government,
and you will find that the God of peace will be with us. My brethren, seek
to uproot error out of your own hearts. If one of you do not really believe
the great cardinal doctrines of the gospel, I beseech you, then, for the good
of the church to leave it, for we want those who love the truth.
The next enemy to peace is ambition. “Diotrephes loveth to have the preeminence,”
and that fellow has spoiled many a happy church. A man does
not want, perhaps, to be pre-eminent, but then he is afraid that another
should be, and so he would have him put down. Thus brethren are finding
fault, they are afraid that such an one will go too fast, and that such
another will go too fast. The best way is to try to go as fast as he does. It is
of no use finding fault because some may have a little pre-eminence. After
all, what is the pre-eminence. It is the pre-eminence of one little animalcule
over another. Look in a drop of water. One of these little fellows is five
times as big as another, but we never think of that. I dare say he is very
large, and thinks, “I have the pre-eminence inside my drop.” But he does
not think the people of Park Street ever talk about him. So we live in this
little drop of the world, not much bigger in God’s esteem than a drop of
the bucket, and one of us seems a little larger than the other, a worm a
little above his fellow worm; but, O how big we get! and we want to get a
little bigger, to get a little more prominent but what is the use of it? for
when we get ever so big we shall then be so small teat an angel would not
find us out if God did not tell him where we were. Whoever heard up in
heaven anything about emperors and kings? Small tiny insects: God can see
the animalculae, therefore he can see us, but if he had not an eye to see the
most minute he would never discover us. O may we never get ambition in
this church. The best ambition is, who shall be the servant of all. The
strangers seek to have dominion, but children seek to let the father have
dominion, and the father only.
The next enemy to peace is anger. There are some individuals in the world
that cannot help getting angry very quickly. They grow on a sudden very
wrathful; while others who are not passionate, who take a longer time to
be angry, are fearful enough when they do speak. Others who dare not
speak at all, are worse still, for they get brewing their anger.
“Nursing their wrath to keep it warm.”
They go into a sulky fit, disagreeing with everybody, eternally grumbling;
they are like dogs in the flock-only barking, and yielding no fleece. O that
nasty anger! If it gets into the church it will split it to pieces. Somehow or
other we cannot help getting angry sometimes. O that we could come into
the church and leave ourselves behind us! There is nobody I should like to
run away from half so much as from myself. Try, beloved, to curb your
tempers; and when you do not exactly see with another brother, do not
think it necessary to knock him on the eyes to make him see, that is the
worst thing in all the world to do, he will not see any the better for it, for
“The man convinced against his will,
Is of the same opinion still.”
Then envy is another fearful evil. One minister, perhaps, is envious of
another, because one church is full and the other not. How can teachers
agree in the Sunday-school if there is any envy there? How can church
members agree if envy creeps in? One member thinks another is thought
more highly of than he deserves. Why, beloved, you are all too much
thought of; but, after all, it does not matter what you are thought of by
man, it only matters what God thinks of you-and God thinks as much of
Little-faith as of Great-heart; he thinks as much of Mrs. Despondency as of
Christiana herself. Drive, then, that “green-eyed monster” away, and keep
him at a distance.
Again, there is pride, which gives rise to ill-feeling and bad blood. Instead
of being affable to one another, and “condescending to men of low estate,”
we want that every punctilio of respect should be given to us, that we
should be made lords and masters. That I am sure can never exist in a
peaceable church.
Here, then, are our five great enemies. I would I could see the execution of
them all Banish them, transport them for ever, send them away amongst
lions and tigers; we do not want any of them amongst us; but though I thus
speak, it is not because I conceive that any of these have thoroughly crept
in amongst you, but because I would have kept them away. I am most
jealous in this matter. I am always afraid of the slightest contention, and I
desire the God of peace to be ever with us.
Now let me briefly show you the appropriateness of this prayer. We indeed
ought to have peace amongst ourselves. Joseph said to his brethren when
they were going home to his father’s house, “See that ye fall not out by the
way.” There was something extremely beautiful in that exhortation. “See
that ye fall not out by the way.” Ye have all one father, ye are of one
family. Let men of two nations disagree; but you are of the seed of Israel,
you are of one tribe and nation; your home is in one heaven. “See that ye
fall not out by the way.” The way is rough; there are enemies to stop you.
See that if ye fall out when ye get home, ye do not fall out by the way Keep
together; stand by one another, defend each other’s character, manifest
continual affection, for recollect you will want it all. The world hateth you
because you are not of the world. Oh! you must take care that you love
one another. You are all going to the same house. You may disagree here,
and not speak to one another, and be almost ashamed to sit at the same
table even at the sacrament; but you will all have to sit together in heaven.
Therefore do not fall out by the way. Consider, again, the great mercies
you have all shared together. You are all pardoned, you are all accepted,
elected, justified, sanctified, and adopted. See that ye fall not out when ye
have so many mercies, when God has given you so much. Joseph has filled
your sacks, but if he has put some extra thing into Benjamin’s sack, do not
quarrel with Benjamin about that, but rather rejoice because your sacks are
full. You have all got enough, you are all secure, you have all been
dismissed with a blessing, and, therefore, I say once more, “See that ye fall
not out by the way.”
Now, dear brethren is there anything I can plead with you this morning, in
order that you may always dwell in peace and love? God has happily
commenced a blessed revival amongst us, and under our means, by the help
of God, that revival will spread through the entire kingdom. We have seen
that “the word of the Lord is quick and powerful.” We know that there is
nothing that can stop the progress of his kingdom, and there is nothing that
can impede your success as a church except this. If the unhappy day should
arrive-let the day be accursed when it does come- when you amongst
yourselves should disagree, there would be a stop to the building of the
Lord’s house at once, when those that carry the trowel and bear the spears
do not stand side by side, then the work of God must tarry. It is sad to
think how much our glorious cause has been impeded by the different
failings out amongst the disciples of the Lamb. We have loved one another,
brethren, up till now, with a true heart and fervently and I am not afraid but
that we shall always do so. At the same time, I am jealous over you, lest
there should come in by any possibility any root of bitterness to trouble
you. Let us this morning throw around you the bands of a man, let us unite
you together with a three-fold cord that cannot be broken, let us entreat
you to love one another; let us entreat you by your one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, to continue one; let us beg of you, by our great success, to let
our unity be commensurate therewith. Remember “how good and how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” The devil wants you
to disagree, and nothing will please him better than for you to fall at ears
among yourselves. The Moabites and Anmonites cut down one another.
Do not let us do that.
“Those should in strictest concord dwell,
Who the same God obey.”
It is continual bickering and jealousy that has brought disgrace upon the
holy name of Christ. He has been wounded in the house of his friends. The
arrows we have shot at one another have hurt us more than all that ever
came from the bow of the devil. We have done more injury to the
escutcheon of Christ by our contentions than Satan has ever been able to
do. I beseech you, brethren, love one another. I know not how I could
endure anything like discord among you. I can bear the scoff of the world,
and the laughter of the infidel, methinks I could bear martyrdom; but I
could not bear to see you divided. I beseech my God and Master to suffer
me first to wear my shroud, before I ever wear a garment of heaviness on
account of your divisions. While I feel that I have your love and affection,
and that you are bound to one another, I care not for the devils in hell, nor
for men on earth. We have been, and we shall be omnipotent, through God;
and by faith we will stand firm to one another and to his truth. Let each
one resolve within himself-”if there is strife, I will have nothing to do with
it.” “The beginning of strife is like the letting out of water,” and I will not
turn the tap. If you will take care not to let the first drop in, I will be surety
about the second. Brethren, again I say, for the gospel’s sake, for the
truth’s sake, that we may laugh at our enemies, and rejoice with joy
unspeakable, let us love one another.
Though I may not have preached to the worldly this morning, I have been
asking you to preach to them, for when you love one another, that is a
beautiful sermon to them. There is no sermon like what you can see with
your own eyes. I went to the Orphan-house, last Wednesday, on Ashley
Down, near Bristol, and saw that wonder of faith-I had some conversation
with that heavenly-minded man Mr. Muller. I never heard such a sermon in
my life as I saw there. They asked me to speak to the girls, but I said, “I
could not speak a word for the life of me.” I had been crying all the while
to think how God had heard this dear man’s prayer, and how all those
three hundred children had been fed by my Father through the prayer of
faith. Whatever is wanted, comes without annual subscriptions, without
asking anything, simply from the hand of God. When I found that it was all
correct that I had heard, I was like the queen of Sheba, and I had no heart
left in me. I could only stand and look at those children, and think, did my
heavenly Father feed them, and would he not feed me and all his family?
Speak to them? They had spoken to me quite enough, though they had not
said a word-Speak to them? I thought myself ten thousand fools that I did
not believe God better. Here am I, I cannot trust him day by day; but this
good man can trust him for three hundred children. When he has not a
sixpence in hand he never fears. “I know God,” he might say, “too well to
doubt him. I tell my God, thou knowest what I want to-day to keep these
children, and I have not anything. My faith never wavers, and my supply
always comes.” Simply by asking of God in this way, he has raised (I
believe) £17,000 towards the erection of a new orphan-house. When I
consider that, sometimes think we will try the power of faith here, and see
if we should not get sufficient funds whereby to erect a place to hold the
people that crowd to hear the Word of God. Then we may have a
tabernacle of faith as well as an orphan-house of faith. God send us that,
and to Him shall be all the glory.
