CHARLES SPURGEON MARVELLOUS INCREASE OF THE CHURCH
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”
Isaiah 60:8
THE ancient church, in the foresight of her mighty increase in these latter
days lifts up her hands in astonishment, and having been so used to see the
Lord’s grace confined to a small nation, she exclaims in amazement, “Who
are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” We,
beloved, are in a somewhat similar position. It has pleased our Father to
add to our numbers so greatly beyond all precedent in modern times, that I
doubt not that many of our aged members, who remember days of yore,
when God was pleased to bless them very greatly and then think of days of
sadness and weariness, when they were diminished and brought low, are
this morning lifting up their hands, and saying, as they think of the present
prosperity of our church, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the
doves to their windows?” I am sure wherever I appoint an evening for
seeing the converts I am amazed, I can only stand up afterwards, clap my
hands, and go home and weep for very joy, to think that the word of our
God is so running and multiplying and abundantly increasing; and as post
after post I receive letters from different parts of this country, from one
person here, and another there, not in England only, but in Scotland, and
even across the sea-in Ireland, and you know, in the Crimea also-I have
been overwhelmed with amazement, and have been obliged to cry out,
“Who hath begotten me these?” “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as
the doves to their windows?”
The church, when she uttered these words, appears to have been the
subject of three kinds of feeling. First, wonder: secondly, pleasure: thirdly,
anxiety. These three feelings you have felt, you are not strangers to them;
and you will understand while I speak to you as the children of God, how it
is that we can feel at the same time, wonder, pleasure, and yet anxiety.
I. First, the church of old, and our church now, appears to have been the
subject of WONDERS when she saw so many come to know the Lord.
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”
Take the first sentence of the text first: “Who are these that fly as a cloud?”
The church wondered, first of all, at the number of her converts. They did
“fly as a cloud.” Not here and there a convert-not now and then one-not
converts like solitary bitterns of the desert; but they “did fly as a cloud.”
Not a convert now and then, like a meteor, a thing we see but seldom,
which flashes across the sky, rejoices the darkness, and then is gone; not
now and then a convert, as a rara avis, -a spiritual prodigy. “But who are
these?” saith she, “who fly as a cloud?” She wonders at their number. But,
my brethren, why should we be astonished? Did not the apostle Peter
become the instrument of converting three thousand under one sermon?
And have we not heard of Whitfield, that while ten thousand listened to
him, it has been known that two thousand at a time have felt the power of
God manifested in their hearts? And why should we wonder if hundreds
were brought to God now? “Is his arm shortened, that he cannot save? Is
his ear heavy, that he cannot hear?” Have we not cried unto the God of
Jacob; and is anything impossible to him? Remember how he “cut Rahab
and wounded the dragon.” Think of his prodigies by the Red Sea, and the
miracles he worked in the field of Zoan. “Is anything too hard for the
lord?” Oh! thou distrustful church, dost thou marvel because thy Lord
giveth thee many children? Is it not written- “More are the children of the
desolate than the children of the married wife,” saith the Lord. I tell thee,
the Lord will show thee greater things than these. The increase we have
had shall yet be exceeded, if God wills it. Nothing is impossible with him.
He who converts one, could as easily convert a hundred, and he who
redeems a hundred, could save a thousand by the self-same power. Is not
the blood of Jesus sufficient? Is not the Holy Ghost powerful enough? and
is not the mighty Three-one God “able to do for us exceeding abundantly
above what we can ask or think?” Yet, so it is; so little are our
expectations, and so unprepared are we for God’s mercies, that when he
pours out a blessing upon us, so that we have not room enough to receive
it, we begin shutting up the windows altogether, and think, “Surely it
cannot come from God, because there is so much of it.” Why, that is the
very reason why we should believe it to be. If there were few conversions,
then we might tremble, and fear lest they might be man’s, but when there
are so many, none but a God can accomplish it. When one or two are
brought to join a church, we may shake for fear and examine them with
caution, but when they fly like a cloud, we can only say, “Great art thou, O
God, marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.”
Doubtless, brethren, until larger views of God’s power and increased faith
shall diminish the wonder, we shall always stand in amazement, and say,
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”
But, secondly, the Chaldee has the idea in it, not of numbers, but of
swiftness. “Who are these that fly as a cloud,” for swiftness? Ye have seen
clouds dashing along, like chariots drawn by mighty horses, or flying like a
fugitive army, when the swift winds have pursued them, and ye have said,
“See how swiftly the clouds career along the sky;” and it is notable, that in
great revivals of religion, persons are generally more swift in their religious
growth and experience than they are in dull and degenerate times. “Why,”
says one, “how soon persons join the church here! how very soon they
attain to assurance of faith! how very speedily they come to understand
gospel doctrines. It was not so in my days; for I know I was months and
months, and tried a long while, before I dared think of obeying my Masterbefore
I could say, ‘I know whom I have believed’” Just so, but these are
brighter days than your days, and you are wondering now because the
converts fly so swiftly. But that is just the idea of the text: “Who are these
that fly as swiftly as a cloud?” I know, brethren, it used to be the custom
with our churches, when a convert came to keep him a summer and a
winter-to summer him and to winter him. Now, that is very prudent and
very wise: but it is not at all scriptural: there is nothing in the word of God
to support it. The example of Jesus and his apostles is altogether against it;
and I take it that scripture is to go before prudence, and that his example is
always to be above man’s wisdom. Why should the people of God tarry in
these days? Let them haste, and delay not to keep his commandments; and
what if young people do grow in grace faster now than they did in your
time? Perhaps God has now poured out a larger measure of his Spirit. He
has placed us in brighter days; and plants in the warm sunshine must expect
to grow faster than those that dwell in the frost. We know that in the short
summers of Sweden, a harvest will ripen in two or three months, or less
than that. Why should we complain of the corn of Sweden, because it
ripens so swiftly, when it is just as good as ours that takes several months
to ripen? The Lord does as he wills and as he pleases; and if some fly
swiftly, whilst others travel slowly, let those who go slowly bless God that
they go at all, but let them not murmur that others go a little faster.
Nevertheless, it will always be to God’s church a source of wonder: “Who
are these that fly so swiftly like a cloud?”
The Targum has another idea, that of publicity. “Who are these that fly as
a cloud?” The cloud, you know, flies so that everybody can see it. So do
these converts fly openly before the world. It is a matter of admiration with
this church and with God’s church whenever it is increased, that the
converts become so bold and fly so publicly. In the first days of the church,
Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night; he was
somewhat ashamed lest he should be put out of the synagogue. Joseph of
Arimathea, the rich man was afraid to protest his Lord, and therefore loved
Jesus “secretly, for fear of the Jews.” But you do not read that any of them
were afraid, when God poured out the Holy Ghost on the day that Peter
preached; but “they broke their bread from house to house, and did eat it in
singleness of heart, praising God.” They went up to the beautiful gate of
the temple, and in the very teeth of all the people, Peter and John healed
the lame man. They worked their miracles openly before all men. They
were not ashamed. So when there is a glorious ingathering of souls, you
will always notice how bold the people become. Why, there never were
such a brazen-faced set of people as those who assemble here. They are
not ashamed of their religion. Why, I have seen persons come to the pool
of baptism, fearing, shaking, and trembling: but I have not found it so with
the majority of those who have been baptized in this place. They seem
proud to own their Master. They can sing,-
“Ashamed of Jesus? Sooner far
Let evening blush to own a star!
Ashamed of Jesus? Just as soon
Let midnight be ashamed of noon!”
You “are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,” for it has been here the
power of God unto salvation to many who have believed. I have rejoiced
to see the boldness of the young converts, I have heard of them fighting
with the antagonists of the truth. I have seen them boldly standing up for
their Master, in the face of scorns and jeers, and slanders; and the church
says, with regard to them, “Who are these that fly publicly as a cloud?”
But methinks there is another idea here, which Dr. Gill gives us in his very
valuable commentary. “Who are these that fly as a cloud,” for unanimity;
You will mark not as clouds, but “as a cloud,” not as two or three bodies,
but as one united and compact mass! Here is the secret of strength. Split us
into fractions and we are conquered; unite us into a steady phalanx, and we
become invincible, knit us together as one man, and Satan himself can
never rend us asunder. Divide us into threads, let our warp and woof be
disunited, and we become like rotten tow, that burneth before a single
spark of the fire of the enemy. But, thanks be to God, we are “as the heart
of one mail.” I could not but wonder at our Church Meeting on
Wednesday, how all seemed to fly as a cloud. No sooner was a thing
proposed than the whole church seemed without a dissentient opinion to be
carried along irresistibly by one thought that possessed its bosom. It is very
seldom you see a church really united: but God has united us; we have
“one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” But yet the church wonders at it, she
can scarcely understand it “Who are these,” she says, “who fly as one
compact and solid cloud?” God grant that we may always continue so!
Whatever is said of one of us, let it be said of all of us. Do not let us be
stragglers. Those who tall into the rear of an army are always in danger and
those who hang about its flanks are equally subject to insult and injury. Let
us march breast to breast, shoulder to shoulder, each of us drawing the
sword at one word; every one doing as the captain tells us; and as surely as
truth prevaileth, unity shall conquer, and our king shall honor us and bless
us still treading our foes beneath our feet, and making us more than
conquerors through him that hath loved us.
Again: there is the idea of power. Who is he that shall bridle a cloud, or
stop it in its march? What man is he who by a word can stay the careering
clouds, and make them still? Who is he that can bid them, when they are
driving northward turn their course to the south? Who is he that can rein
the coursers of the wind, and forbid them to drag the chariots of darkness
along to the west? The clouds yield to none no majesty can control them;
they laugh to scorn the scepter of the prince, and they move on despite the
rattling of the sabres of armies. None can stop the clouds, they are
Invincible, uncontrollable; and in their majesty they move themselves right
royally, like the kings of heaven. And who is he that can stop the converts
of Zion? Who is he that can keep back the children of Jerusalem; when the
Lord shall “bring again the captivity of his people,” who is he that shall
stop them? When his people of old were in Babylon, could “the two-leaved
gates” bar them in? Could Cyrus, with all his armies, have kept them
prisoners? Nay, the two-leaved gates open, the bars of brass give way; and
Cyrus himself sends them back to their country, with gold and silver to
build their temple. And no latter days the Jews shall return to their own
land again, to worship God, who shall stop them? Shall the might of
Russia? Shall the power of Egypt? Shall the tyranny of Turkey? Shall aught
keep them back? No, the city shall be builded again upon her own heap,
and the tribes of the Lord shall yet go up again to warship God where their
forefathers bowed before them. O, people of God! it is so with you. “Who
are these that fly as a cloud!” Try, try, O enemy, to stop one of the Lord’s
doves, when he is coming to the windows! You cannot do it. Did not the
devil try to stop you, O brother, when you were coming to God? Ah! he
did; but it was all in vain. And when you went to join the church, how
many difficulties there were in the way! But when you are called to God
you will not be afraid, you will fly like a cloud. Ah! the world says we shall
stop by-and-by; that all our success is as nothing; that it will soon die away;
that it is a mere excitement and will soon end. Ah! let them talk so, if they
please we are flying like a cloud. We have God within us, we have good
within us, we have the might of the Deity within our church; and who is he
that shall stop us? We bid the mighty men of this earth come, we bid carnal
reason array itself against us; we bid the wisdom of the critic try to stop us.
But they cannot do it. The weakness of God is mightier than man; and he
who took us from the sheep-folds to lead his people Israel will not desert
his David; he who has put us before his people will not cast us away nor
will he leave his church, nor forsake his chosen ones. “Who are these that
fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”
Thus have I tried to picture to you the amazement of Christ’s Church.
“Who are these that fly as a cloud?” And now, Church of God, one word
with thee, ere I leave thee. Your success is amazing one way, but it is not
amazing if you look at it in another direction. It is amazing that any man
should be saved, it you look at man; it is not amazing if you consider God.
It is amazing that the wilderness should blossom as the rose, if you look at
the wilderness, but it is not amazing, if you consider Jehovah. It is
wonderful that a desert should have the excellency of Carmel and Sharon:
but, wonder all dies away, when you recollect that God who doeth as he
wills in the armies of heaven doeth as he pleases in this lower world. O,
Church of God! give the honor and the glory to thy God, and to thy God
only. Write his name upon thy banners, let thy sacrifice smoke before him,
and before none else. Let no man receive your honor. Give it unto God.
Unto God belong the shields of the mighty. “I am, and there is none else
besides me.” Bow before him; lest, if you give praise to the creature, and if
you think we have done anything, and say, “Behold this great Babylon that
I have builded,” God would say “Because thou hast exalted thyself like the
cedars of Lebanon, therefore will I bring thee down to the earth, and thy
glory shall be taken from thee.” May the Lord in his mercy keep us from
pride, and also keep us living on him, believing in his might, and trusting in
his power!
II. This brings us to the second portion of our discourse, which is the
PLEASURE OF THE CHURCH. “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the
doves to their windows?”
First, the church is exceedingly pleased at the character of those who come
to her, “doves.” We should always thank God, when those who join the
church are of the right sort; for alas! there is such a thing as having a large
addition to the church of men that are of no use whatever. Many an army
has swelled its ranks with recruits, who have in no way whatever
contributed to its might; and it has been known in many great revivals, that
large hosts have been gathered in, who have forsaken the truth in six
months. I know a church which excommunicated eighty members in twelve
months, for disorderly conduct and forsaking the truth, and they had taken
in a hundred or so the year before, from some great spasm, which had been
occasioned by one of those spurious revivalists, who came about making a
great noise, and doing no good whatever, but scorching and burning up the
ground, where other men might have sown the good seed of the kingdom.
I wonder that any man should be so self conceited as to call himself a
revivalist, or profess to be a revival-maker: let this be known, as my
opinion, he is a nuisance and nothing better. But where a church is
cautious, where the minister exercises scrutiny, and all possible means are
taken to see into character, it gives us great pleasure that they are of the
right sort. Ah! beloved, you should be at our church meetings sometimes,
and hear the sweet words of experience which are uttered there. I am sure
you would say, that they, “fly as the dove from their windows.” Now and
then there comes before me an old croaking raven, that wants to come in;
but we are soon able to tell the raven from the dove. It may be, that now
and then a raven gets into our church; but I do hope that the majority are
doves. We have seen them so humble, so meek, trusting alone in Jesus, like
timid doves, half afraid to speak and tell you, and yet so loving, that they
seemed as if they had sat on the finger of Jesus, and picked their food from
between his lips; we have marked their conduct afterwards, and seen it to
be holy and consistent. We will glory before the world, that
notwithstanding the numbers that have been added to us, we have had to
cut off as few as any church in the world-but one in a year, out of our vast
body! and that one was received from another church, and therefore had
never been examined thoroughly. O my brethren, always try to give the
church pleasure by your dove-like conversation. “Be wise as serpents, but
harmless as doves,” such was your Master’s teaching. Let your character
be-
“Humble, teachable, and mild,
Changed into a little child;
Pleased with all the Lord provides,
Weaned from all the world besides.”
“Set your reflections on things above, and not on things on the earth.” Be
not like the unclean bird, that will devour all kinds of filth; but be like the
dove, that liveth on the “good corn of the kingdom.” And be ye sure that
you are like them, loving and kind one to another; and, like them, always
mourn when you lose your mate; weep when your Jesus is gone from you,
and you lose his delightful presence. Be ye like the dove in all these things.
Again: the church feels pleasure, not only in their character, but in their
condition. Like doves “that fly.” Lowth translates this portion of the verse
“like doves on the wing.” The church feels pleasure in thinking that her
converts are “like doves on the wing.” Do you never beloved, get into such
a condition, that you are not like a dove on the wing, but like a dove in a
secret place, in the cleft of the rock, hiding yourself in darkness, because
you are afraid to be seen? For my own part, I am often not like a dove on
the wing, but like a dove hiding its head under its wing afraid to fly. But
“he reneweth our strength like the eagle’s.” There is a moulting time for
the Lord’s doves; but their feathers grow again, and then they have the
wings of the dove, covered with silver, and their feathers with yellow gold;
and they can fly upwards towards Jesus. And will not our church rejoice,
when her converts appear to be all on the wing, not doubting, fearful
converts, not converts that stand timidly, afraid to come; but converts on
the wing, flying upwards towards Jesus prayerful, laborious, active; not
sitting still, doing nothing, but laboring and flying upwards towards Jesus.
These are the converts we want. And the church is pleased when she can
say, “Who are these that are like doves on the wing?”
Furthermore; the translation of the Septuagint gives us another idea. “Who
are these that fly like doves with their young?” The church rejoices at the
company that the converts bring with them. How charming is the sight
when a father unites himself with the people of God, and then his children
after him! We had an instance a little while ago here, of two sons followed
by their mother, and we have had many instances of a mother following her
daughters, and of daughters following their mothers, and sons following
their fathers. Oh! how blessed it is, to see the doves come with their
young! If there is anything more beautiful than a dove, it is the little dove
that flieth by its side. Beloved, do you not rejoice, some of you, that you
have your children in the church? that you can run your eye along the pew,
where your offspring are sitting with you, and can say, “Ah! glory be to
God, it is not only I that have received his mercy, but here are my sons,
too; and there sits my daughter drinking from the same well as I draw
from; living on the same spiritual manna, looking to the same cross for
salvation, and hoping for the same heaven! But I notice some families here-
I could point them out if I would: I notice them with sadness; where there
is a father and a mother, both of them heirs of heaven, but of whose sons
we have no evidence and no hope that they are the children of God. And
there are some of you, my friends, whose young ones have come before
you. We have daughters here that have prayerless mothers; we have sons
that have ungodly fathers. Oh! does it not seem hard that the children
should be in the kingdom before the parents? For if it be hard that a parent
should see his children perishing surely there is tenfold horror in the
thought of children saved, and parents going to hell, your offspring
entering into the joy of their Lord, and ye yourselves cast “into outer
darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.”
Daughter of Zion! plead for your children. Men of Jerusalem! plead for
your children.
The church, again, feels pleasure at the direction in which these doves
move. “Who are these that fly as the doves to their windows?” Where
should the dove fly to else but to its dovecot? The word means the
dovecot, where the doves live, the little pigeon holes, into which the doves
enter and dwell. The joy of the church is, that the poor sinner does not fly
to man, nor to the law, but flies to Christ, the dovecot! I an recollect when,
like a poor dove, sent out by Noah from his hand, I flew over the wide
expanse of waters, and hoped to find some place where I might rest my
wearied wing. Up towards the north I flew; and my eye looked keenly
through the mist and darkness, if perhaps it might find some floating
substance, on which my soul might rest its foot, but it found nothing Again
it turned its wing, and flapped it, but not so rapidly as before; across that
deep water that knew no shore; but still there was no rest. The raven had
found his resting-place upon a floating body, and was feeding itself upon
the carrion of some drowned man’s carcass; but my poor soul found none.
I went on: thought I saw a ship floating out at sea; it was the ship of the
law; and I thought I would put my feet on its canvass, or rest myself on its
cordage for a time, and find some refuge. But ah! it was an airy phantom,
on which I could not rest; for my foot had no right to rest on the law, I had
not kept it, and the soul that keepeth it not must die, At last I saw the
barque Christ Jesus-that happy ark, and I thought I would fly thither; but
my poor wing was weary, and I could fly no further, and down I sank into
the water; but as providence would have it, when my wings were flagging,
and I dropped into the stream to be drowned, just below me was the roof
of the ark, and I saw a hand put out from it, that took me, and said. “I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore I have not delivered the soul
of my turtle dove into the company of the wicked, come in, come in!” and
then I found I had an olive branch in my mouth of peace with God and
peace with man, plucked off with Jesus’ power Poor soul! hast thou found
a resting-place in the ark? hast thou fled to thy window? or art thou, O
Ephraim, like the silly dove that hath no heart, that goeth down to Egypt,
and resteth itself in Assyria? Oh, say thou, why is it that thou art looking
for rest, where none can be found? There be many that say, “Who will
show us any good? Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon
me!” That is the dove’s resting-place; that is his house, Have you found
your home in Christ? If you have not, when the storm comes, O dove, with
ruffled plumage thou shalt be driven before the swift tempest; thou shalt be
blown along like a small feather before the stream, onward, onward
through the dark unknown, until thou findest thyself with burned and
singed wings, falling into flames that have no bottom. The Lord give you
deliverance, and help you to fly to Jesus.
III. Now we come to our third point-the CHURCH’S ANXIETY. “Ah!” says
the church, “it is all very well their flying like a cloud; it is all right their
going as doves to their windows; but who are they?” The church is
anxious, and she anxiously desires to be sure that it is all gold that is put
into her treasury; for she suspects that some of those lumps of bullion
cannot be gold. She thinks, “surely that is not all genuine metal, or there
would not be so much of it;” and she says, “Who are they?” That is the
question! Now I address myself to an anxious church to answer it.
First, they are those that fly. Our text says, “Who are these that fly?” They
are those who fly because they cannot stop where they were, and they are
flying somewhere else for refuge. We trust that those who have joined our
church are those who are persuaded that the land wherein they dwelt is to
be consumed with fire, who feel a necessity to come out of the place where
they once lived, and have a strong desire to seek “a city that has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” We hope, beloved, that
those who have joined with us here are those who are escaping from hell
and flying to heaven; such as once had no sins that they cared for, but now
come out because they needs must come, for their house has got too hot
for them and they cannot abide any longer in their sins. Here we have the
idea of conviction. They are those that fly. They are not content now to
make their nest of their own good works, with here and there a little bit of
down picked off Morality common, and here a piece of yarn that they have
picked up in Legality palace, and here a piece of good work that they have
found in the barn-yard of Ceremonialism. Now they are poor souls that
have no rest anywhere, but are flying, and flying with rapid wing, until they
can get to their windows. Are you such, my beloved, that have joined the
church? or are you not? If you are not, you have deceived me, and you
have deceived the church, for we thought you were; we want to have none
united with us but those who are flying to us. We want no self-righteous
ones; no self-sufficient ones, no good moral people; we want those who
feel that they are nothing at all, and want Jesus Christ to be all in all. We
want a church of poor ragged sinners, clothed by Jesus; poor dead sinners,
made alive by Jesus. I ask God, when I ask him to give me any, to give me
those who are flying with haste for a Savior; and if any of you that have
come to us making a profession of flying are not such, I beseech you by
everything that is solemn, by that hell of hypocrites, which is the hell of
hells, and by the heaven you would lose, to bethink yourselves how sinfully
you are acting, in continuing members of a Christian church when you are
hypocrites and have never fled.
But again: they are those who fly not on the ground, but like a cloud, up
high. We know many a church, to which the people come, because there is
so much charity connected with it. I know some country churches in the
Establishment which are attended by some people, because there are
regularly given away so many sixpences after the service. That is flying like
a will-o’-the-wisp, dancing about in dark marshy places. If I could buy all
London for my congregation by the turn of a threepenny piece, I would not
give it. If people do not come from some better motives, we do not wish to
have any. But we have none of that sort, we trust. They fly higher than
these groundlings. Zion rejoiced that they did not fly on the ground, but
flew like a cloud. They were persons that did not care about the world, but
wanted heaven.
They were souls filled with rain, like the clouds; or if they were not big
and black with rain, as the clouds sometimes are when they are about to
burst, yet they had a little grace in them, a little moisture, a little dew.
And they were persons driven by the wind, just as the clouds are-who do
not move of themselves, but go because they must go-who have no power
of themselves to move, but have something driving them behind. Brethren,
we hope that the converts of this church have been driven to us by the
power of the Holy Ghost, and could not help coming, and they have been
men filled with rain, which they will drop out upon us in copious showers,
if God pleases. They have been like the clouds, which tarry not for man,
neither wait for the sons of men. They are come with us now: and we hope
to see the clouds go up higher and higher into the air, until those clouds
shall one by one, be swallowed up in Jesus, shall be lost in the one
assembly of the First-born Church of the Holy Ghost. These are the
persons who “fly as a cloud.”
We give thee yet another answer, O thou timid church. Those who come to
join themselves with thee are persons who have been regenerated; for they
are doves. They were not doves by nature; they were ravens; but they are
doves now. They are changed from ravens into doves, from lions into
lambs. Beloved it is very easy for you to pretend to be the children of God,
but it is not easy for you to be so. The old fable of the jackdaw dressed up
in peacock’s feathers often takes place now. Many a time have we seen
coming to our church, a fine strutting fellow, with long feathers of prayer
behind him. He could pray gloriously; and he has come strutting in, with all
his majesty and pride, and said, “Surely I must come; I have everything
about me, am I not rich and polite? have I not learning and talent?” In a
very little while we have found him to be nothing but an old prattling
jackdaw, having none of the true feathers belonging to him; by some
accident one of his borrowed feathers have dropped out, and we have
found him to be a hypocrite. I beseech you, do not be hypocrites. The glory
of the gospel is not that it paints ravens white, and whitewashes blackbirds,
but that it turns them into doves. It is the glory of our religion not that it
makes a man seem what he is not, but that it makes him something else. It
takes the raven and turns him into a dove; his ravenish heart becomes a
dove’s heart. It is not the feathers that are changed, but the man himself.
Glorious Gospel, which takes a lion, and doth not cut the lion’s mane off
and then cover him with a sheep’s skin, but makes him into a lamb! O
church of God! these that have come like doves to their windows are
trophies of regenerating grace, which has transformed them, and made
them as new creatures in Christ Jesus.
The last answer I shall give respecting those who have come to join
themselves with us is, that they are those, we hope, who have fled to their
windows, and found a refuge in Christ my Lord. There is nothing we want
to know of a person coming before the church, except this. Dost thou
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Hast thou had pardon from his hands?
Hast thou had union with his person? Dost thou hold communion with him
day by day? Is he thy hope, thy stay, thy refuge, thy trust? If so, then thou
mayest come in. If thou art one living in the dovecot we will not drive thee
away; if thou hast fled like a dove to thy window, we are glad to have thee.
But there is the anxious question-Have you fled to Christ? Beloved, there
are some who think they have fled to Christ that have not, and there are
some who think they have not fled to Christ that have. There are some of
you who think yourselves safe for heaven, that are nothing but
whitewashed sepulchres, like the Pharisees of old. It is a horrible thought,
that there are some, we fear, who lay their head upon their death pillow as
they think, in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection, but will in
hell lift up their eyes, being in torment. A dove, you know, can find good
shelter for itself in other places beside a dovecot, there may be some little
hole in the barn, and in there the dove gets and builds its nest and is very
happy and comfortable. Ah! dove, but there is no place that will protect
you that is not a dovecot; and there is only one dovecot. You have built a
nice snug nest perhaps in some of your trees; you are building you hope in
some one of your merits, you are putting your trust in some of your own
works. It is all in vain. There is only one dovecot. “Other foundation can
no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ and him crucified.” There
is only one hope for a poor sinner from the justice of Jehovah; and that is in
the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” who “gave his back to the
smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” Do you know
how that dovecot was made for you? Do you know how it is lined for you,
and how large the door is? It was made by Jesus, the carpenter’s son; it is
lined with the blood of his own heart; and the door is so wide that the
biggest sinner can get in, but he who has any righteousness will find that
the door is not large enough to let him carry his righteousness with him.
Poor soul! hast thou a dovecot? and art thou living in it? If so, we rejoice
with thee, and glad enough should we be to have thee united with our
church; for we love all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, lest thou
shouldst not understand our holy religion one moment shall suffice, and
thou shalt go. Dost thou not know that the law which God made on Sinai
has been broken by us all, and that God, the “jealous God,” will “by no
means spare the guilty?” And dost thou not know, O sinner, that thou must
offer something to God, to make up a recompense for what thou hast
done? Dost thou not know, that God is so angry with the man who sins,
that he will damn that man, unless there is some one who will be damned
for him, and suffer the punishment in his stead? And dost thou not know,
that our religion is a religion of substitution-that Jesus Christ the Son of
God became man; that he might take the punishment we ought to have
had; that he bore the wrath we ought to have borne, that he took the guilt
we committed, just as the scape-goat of old did, and carried it right away
into the wilderness of forgetfulness; so that now a sinner who is putting his
trust in that substitution can escape punishment. God’s justice cannot
demand payment twice-
“First at my bleeding Surety’s hands,
And then again at mine.”
Precious Jesus! what a substitute thou wast for guilt? Sweet Lord Jesus! I
kiss thy wounds this day; thou Man! thou God! thou who didst wrestle
with Jacob! thou who didst walk with Abraham, the man of God, of
Mamre! thou who stoodst in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego! Thou Son of God, thou Son of Man, who didst appear to
Joshua with thy sword drawn! I worship thee, my substitute, my hope! Oh!
that others might do so too, and that the whole of this vast multitude
might, with one heart, accept him as their Savior!