CHARLES SPURGEON ISRAEL AT THE RED SEA
“He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up: as he led them through the
depths, as through the wilderness.” Psalm 106:9
SEVERAL Sabbaths ago we preached upon the deliverance of the children
of Israel out of Egypt, by the blood of the passover: and we told you then,
that we believed that event to be typical of the coming forth of God’s
people from that spiritual house of bondage, that furnace of mental
suffering whence they are delivered by the omnipotent grace of God, at the
time of their conversion. This morning we pursue the narrative. No doubt
the children of Israel supposed that now all was over; the Egyptians had
sent them away, entreating them to depart, and loading them with riches.
Terror had smitten the heart of Egypt, for from the king on the throne to
the prisoner in the dungeon, all was dismay and fear on account of Israel.
Egypt was glad for them when they departed. Therefore the children of
Israel said within themselves, “We shall now march to Canaan at once;
there will be no more dangers, no more troubles, no more trials; the
Egyptians themselves have sent us away, and they are too much afraid of
us ever to molest us again. Now shall we tread the desert through with
hasty footstep; and when a few more days have passed, we shall enter into
the land of our possession-the land that floweth with milk and honey.”
“Not quite so speedily,” says God; “the time is not arrived yet for you to
rest. It is true I have delivered you from Egypt; but there is much you have
to learn before you will be prepared to dwell in Canaan. Therefore I shall
lead you about, and instruct you, and teach you.” And it came to pass that
the Lord led the children of Israel about, through the way of the wilderness
of the Red Sea, till they arrived over against Baalzephon, where on either
side the craggy mountains shut them in. Pharaoh hears of it; he comes upon
them, to overcome them; and they stand in terrible fright and jeopardy of
their lives. Now, beloved, it is usually so with the believer: he marches out
of Egypt spiritually at the time of his conversion, and he says within
himself, “Now I shall always be happy.” He has a bright eye, and a light
heart, for his fetters have been dashed to the ground, and he feels no longer
the lash of conscience upon his shoulder. “Now,” says he, “I may have a
short life, but it will be a happy one.”
“‘A few more rolling years at most,
Will land me on fair Canaan’s coast.’
And then I shall have no more warfare, no more fighting, no more
disturbance; but I shall be at peace.” “Not quite as thou desirest,” says
God. “Oh! thou little one; I have more to teach thee ere thou art prepared
for my palace.” Then he commences to lead us about, and bring us into
straits and perils. The sins which we thought had utterly left us are hunting
us behind, while impassible floods block up the way. Even trembling Israel
halting by the Red Sea is but a faint emblem of that terrible position into
which the child of God usually falls, within a few weeks or months after he
has come out of the land of Egypt.
I shall preach this morning a sermon, which I hope will be useful to such of
you as have lately come to know the Lord. You were expecting to build
tabernacles, in which to dwell on the summit of the mountains of joy for
ever; but you find, on the contrary, that you have very great troubles and
conflicts; and perhaps now you have a more terrible trial than you ever
experienced in all your life before. I will endeavor to show you, that this is
just what you might have expected, that there will be a Red Sea very soon
after you come out of your house of bondage. Others of you, my dear
friends, have passed through all these things many years ago. You can say,-
“Many days have passed since then,
Many changes I have seen,
Yet have been upheld till now;
Who could hold me up but thou?”
But I am sure you will be glad to re-visit the spot, where God delivered
you from your distresses. We find it very pleasant to look upon the place
where we were taught in our school-boy days, or to visit the haunts of our
childhood. So you who are gray-headed in the cause of your Master, will
not find it very tedious work to go back a little way, and look to that Red
Sea which God rebuked and dried up, that you might be led through it even
as through the wilderness.
Coming, then’ to the subject; the children of Israel had their difficulties,
and so generally the child of God has his very soon after he comes out of
Egypt. But then they had their refuges; and moreover, God had a great
and grand design to answer in all the troubles into which they were
brought.
I. Taking the first point, the children of Israel just now had THREE
DIFFICULTIES-three exceeding great dangers. And so I believe that every
heir of heaven, within a very short period after the time of his deliverance,
will meet with the same.
The first they had was a great trial sent by God himself. There was the Red
Sea in the front of them. NOW, it was not an enemy that put the sea there,
it was God himself. We may therefore think, that the Red Sea represents
some great and trying providence, which the Lord will be sure to place in
the path of every new-born child; in order to try his faith’ and to test the
sincerity of his trust in God. I do not know, beloved, whether your
experience will back up mine: but I can say this, that the worst difficulty I
ever met with, or I think I can ever meet with, happened a little time after
my conversion to God. And you must generally expect, very soon after you
have been brought to know and love him’ that you will have some great’
broad, deep Red Sea straight before your path, which you will scarcely
know how to pass. Sometimes it will occur in the family. The husband
says, for instance-if he is an ungodly man-”You shall not attend such-andsuch
a place of worship; I positively forbid you to be baptized, or to join
that church,” there is a Red Sea before you. You have done nothing
wrong; it is God himself who places that Red Sea before your path. Or
perhaps before that time, you were carrying on a business which now you
cannot conscientiously continue; and there is a Red Sea which you have to
cross in renouncing your means of livelihood. You don’t see how it is to be
done; how you are to maintain yourself, and to provide things honest in the
sight of all men. Or perhaps your employment calls you amongst men with
whom you lived before on amicable terms, and now on a sudden, they say,
“Come! Won’t you do as you used to do?” There, again, is a Red Sea
before you. It is a hard struggle; you do not like to come out and say, “I
cannot, I shall not, for I am a Christian.” You stand still, half afraid to go
forward. Or perhaps it is something proceeding more immediately from
God. You find that just when he plants a vine in your heart, he blasts all the
vines in your vineyard; and when he plants you in his own garden, then it is
that he uproots all your comforts and your joys. Just when the Sun of
Righteousness is rising upon you, your own little candle is blown out; just
when you seem to need it most, your gourd is withered, your prosperity
departs, and your flood becomes an ebb. I say again, it may not be so with
all of you, but I think that most of God’s people have not long escaped the
bondage of Egypt’ before they find some terrible’ rolling sea lashed
perhaps by tempestuous winds directly in their path; the; stand aghast, and
say “; God, how can I bear this? I thought I could give up all for thee but
now I feel as if I could do nothing! I thought I should be in heaven, and all
would be easy; but here is a sea I cannot ford-there is no squadron of ships
to carry me across: it is not bridged even by thy mercy; I must swim it, or
else I fear I must perish.”
Then the children of Israel had a second difficulty. They would not have
cared about the Red Sea a single atom, if they had not been terrifed by the
Egyptians who were behind them. These Egyptians, I think may be
interpreted this morning, by way of parable, as the representatives of those
sins of ours, which we thought were clean dead and gone. For a little while
after conversion sin does not trouble a Christian; he is very happy and
cheerful’ in a sense of pardon; but before many days are past’ he will
understand what Paul said’ “I find another law in my members’ so that
when I would do good’ evil is present with me.” The first moment when he
wins his liberty he laughs and leaps in an ecstacy of joy. He thinks, “Oh! I
shall soon be in heaven, as for sin, I can trample that beneath my feet!” But
mark you’ scarce has another Sabbath gladdened his spirit, ere he finds that
sin is too much for him; the old corruptions which he fancied were laid in
their graves get a resurrection and start up afresh, and he begins to cry, “O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?” He sees all his old sins galloping behind him: like Pharaoh and his
host pursuing him to the borders of the Red Sea. There is a great trial
before him. Oh! he thinks he could bear that; he thinks he could walk
through the Red Sea; but oh! those Egyptians-they are behind him! He
thought he should never have seen them any more for ever; they were the
plague and torment of his life when they made him work in the brick-kiln.
He sees his old master, the very man who was wont to lay the lash on his
shoulders, riding post haste after him; and there are the eyes of that black
Pharaoh, flashing like fire in the distance; he sees the horrid scowling face
of the tyrant, and how he trembles! Satan is after him’ and all the legions of
hell seem to be let loose, if possible, utterly to destroy his soul. At such a
time, moreover, our sins are more formidable to us than they were before
they were forgiven; because, when we were in Egypt, we never saw the
Egyptians mounted on horses, or in chariots, they only appeared as our
task-masters, with their whips, but now these people see the Egyptians on
horseback, clad in armor they behold all the mighty men of velour come
out with their warlike instruments to slay them. So did I find, speaking for
myself, that when I first knew the weight of sin, it was as a burden, as a
labor, as a trouble; but when the second time
“I asked the Lord that I might grew,
In faith, and love’ and every grace;
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek more earnestly his face;”
and when he answered me by letting all my sins loose upon me, they
appeared more frightful than before. I thought the Egyptians in Egypt were
not half so bad as the Egyptians out of Egypt; I thought the sins I knew
before, though they were cruel task-masters, were not half so much to be
dreaded as those soldier-sins, armed with spears and axes, with chariots of
iron with scythes upon their axles, hastening to assault me. It is true they
did not come so near to me a heretofore, nevertheless they occasioned
more fright than when I was their slave. It may be, poor child of God, thou
art astonished and amazed to find, that thy sins are more black now than
they were when thou wast under conviction; that thou hast less hope than
thou hadst even then; and that thy condition is possibly far worse than
when the law was beating thee from head to foot, and rubbing brine into
the wounds of thy conscience. Thou mayest be saying, “Ah! well, I never
thought of this; if I be a child of God, if I were really pardoned and
forgiven, how could it be that I should be so vexed and tormented with a
sense of my guilt? And if all my transgressions have been cast into the
depths of the sea, how is it that I hear the armies of my sins rattling their
horse-hoofs and chariot-wheels behind me?” I tell thee, beloved, in the
name of the Lord, that is just what you ought to have expected. The pangs
after we come out of Egypt are at times even more painful than those we
feel in the house of bondage; and there is usually a time of trial a little while
after the new birth, which is even more terrible and awful than the previous
agony of the soul, though not usually so protracted. This was the second
difficulty.
But there was a third difficulty, which perhaps wrought them more misery
than either of the other two; these poor children of Israel had such faint
hearts. They no sooner saw the Egyptians than they began to cry out; and
when they beheld the Red Sea before them, they murmured against their
deliverer. A faint heart is the worst foe a Christian can have; whilst he
keeps his faith firm, whilst the anchor is fixed deep in the rock, he never
need fear the storm; but when the hand of faith is palsied, or the eye of
faith is dim, it will go hard with us. As for the Egyptian he may throw his
spear; while we can catch it on the shield of faith, we are not terrified by
the weapon, but if we lose our faith, the spear becomes a deadly dart.
While we have faith, the Red Sea may flow before us, as deep and dark as
it pleases: for like Leviathan, we trust we can snuff up Jordan at a draught.
But if we have no faith, then at the most insignificant streamlet, which
Faith could take up in her hands in a single moment, and drink like
Gideon’s men, poor Unbelief stands quivering and crying, “Ah! I shall be
drowned in the floods, or I shall be slain by the foe; there is no hope for
me; I am driven to despair. It would have been better for me that I had died
in Egypt, than that I should come hither to be slain by the hand of the
enemy.” The child of God, when he is first born, has but very little faith,
because he has had but little experience; he has not tried the promise, and
therefore he does not know its faithfulness. He has not used the arm of his
faith, and therefore the sinews of it have not become strong. Let him live a
little longer, and become confirmed in the faith, and he will not care for
Red Seas, nor yet for the Egyptians; but just then his little heart beats
against the walls of his body, and he laments, “Ah, me! ah, me! O wretched
man that I am! How shall I ever find deliverance?” This description of
spiritual geography may be uninteresting to some, because they may not
have traveled through this part of the wilderness, but others will view it
with attention. Who cared about maps of the Crimea till there was war
there? But as soon as our soldiers were engaged in that particular spot,
every man bought a map of the Crimea and studied the boundaries of
Russia. So if you have been in these straits, you will be very glad of my
map this morning, that you may see the way in which God leads his family.
These are the three dangers-a great trial, sins pursuing us behind, and an
exceedingly faint heart.
II. But, thanks be to God! the children of Israel had THREE HELPS.
Oh! child of God dost thou discern this mystery? Whenever thou hast three
trials, thou wilt always have three promises, and if thou hadst forty
afflictions, thou wouldst have forty measures of grace. Yea, and if thou
hadst a million troubles, thou wouldst have a million measures of mercy.
The Israelites had three difficulties, and they had three helps; and as the
difficulty was put in the way by providence, so providence did also furnish
a relief.
The first help they had was Providence. Providence put the Red sea there,
and piled the rocks on either hand, while providence represented by the
fiery cloudy pillar, had led them to its shore, and conducted them into the
defile, and now the same pillar of providence came to their assistance.
They had not come thither undirected, and therefore they should not be left
unprotected, for the same cloudy pillar which led them there, came behind
them to protect them.
Cheer up, then, heir of grace! What is thy trial? Has providence brought it
upon thee? If so, unerring wisdom will deliver thee from it. What is it thou
art now exercised upon? As truly as thou art alive, God will remove it.
Dost thou think God’s cloudy pillar would ever lead thee to a place where
God’s right arm would fail thee?- Dost thou imagine that he would ever
guide thee into such a defile that he could not conduct thee out again? The
providence which apparently misleads, will in verity befriend thee. That
which leads thee into difficulties guards thee against thy foes; it casts
darkness on thy sins, whilst it giveth light to thee. How sweet is providence
to a child of God, when he can reflect upon it! He can look out into this
world, and say, “However great my troubles, they are not so great as my
Father’s power; however difficult may be my circumstances, yet all things
around me are working together for good. He who holds up yon unpillared
arch of the starry heavens can also support my soul without a single
apparent prop; he who guides the stars in their well-ordered courses, even
when they seem to move in mazy dances, surely he can overrule my trials
in such a way that out of confusion he will bring order; and from seeming
evil produce lasting good. He who bridles the storm, and puts the bit in the
mouth of the tempest, surely he can restrain my trial, and keep my sorrows
in subjection. I need not fear while the lightnings are in his hands, and the
thunders sleep within his lips; while the oceans gurgle from his fist, and the
clouds are in the hollow of his hands; while the rivers are turned by his
foot, and while he diggeth the channels of the sea, Surely he whose might
wings an angel, can furnish a worm with strength; he who guides a cherub
will not be overcome by the trials of an emmet like myself. He who makes
the most ponderous orb roll in dignity, and keeps its predestined orbit, can
make a little atom like myself move in my proper course, and conduct me
as he pleaseth. Christian! there is no sweeter pillow than providence; and
when providence seemeth adverse, believe it still, lay it under thy head, for
depend upon it there is comfort in its bosom. There is hope for thee thou
child of God! That great trouble which is to come in thy way in the early
part of thy pilgrimage, is planned by love, the same love which shall
interpose as thy protector.
Again: the children of Israel had another refuge, in the fact, that they knew
that they were the covenant people of God, and that, though they were in
difficulties, God had brought them there, and therefore God, (with
reverence let me say it,) was bound in honor to bring them out of that
trouble into which he had brought them. “Well,” says the child of God, “I
know I am in a strait, but this one thing I also know, that I did not come
out of Egypt by myself-I know that he brought me out; I know that I did
not escape by my own power, or slay my first-born sins myself-I know that
he did it; and though I fled from the tyrant-I know that he made my feet
mighty for travel, for there was not one feeble in all our tribes, I know that
though I am at the Red sea, I did not run there uncalled, but he bade me go
there, and therefore I give to the winds my fears; for if he hath led me here
into this difficulty, he will lead me out, and lead me through.
But the point to which I want to direct your attention most of all is this.
The third refuge which the children of Israel had, was in a man: and neither
of the two others, without that, would have been of any avail. It was the
man Moses. He did everything for them. Thy greatest refuge, O child of
God! in all thy trials, is in a man: not in Moses, but in Jesus; not in the
servant, but in the master. He is interceding for thee, unseen and unheard
by thee, even as Moses did for the children of Israel. If thou couldst but, in
the dim distance, catch the sweet syllables of his voice as they distil from
his lips, and see his heart as it speaks for thee, thou wouldst take comfort;
for God hears that man when he pleads. He can overcome every difficulty.
He has not a rod, but a cross, which can divide the Red sea; he has not
only a cloudy pillar of forgiving grace, which can dim the eyes of your foes
and keep them at a distance; but he has a cross, which can open the Red
sea and drown thy sins in the very midst. He will not leave thee. Look’ on
yonder rock of heaven he stands, cross in hand, even as Moses with his
rod. Cry to him, for with that uplifted cross he will cleave a path for thee,
and guide thee through the sea; he will make those hoary floods, which had
been friends for ever, stand asunder like foes. Call to him, and he will make
thee a way in the midst of the ocean, and a path through the pathless sea.
Cry to him, and there shall not a sin of thine be left alive, he will sweep
them all away; and the king of sin, the devil, be too shall be overwhelmed
beneath the Savior’s blood, whilst thou shalt sing-
“Hell and my sins obstruct my path,
But hell and sin are conquer’d foes;
My Jesus nailed them to his cross,
And sang the triumph as he rose.”
Still look thou to that man who once on Calvary died!
III. GOD HAD A DESIGN IN IT. And here, also, we wish you to regard with
attention what God’s design is, in leading the Christian into exceeding
great trials in the early part of his life. This is explained to us by the
Apostle Paul. A reference Bible is the best commentator in the world; and
the most heavenly exposition is the searching out of kindred texts, and
comparing their meaning. “They were all baptized,” says the Apostle, “unto
Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.” God’s design in bringing his people
into trouble, and raising all their sins at their heels, is to give them a
thorough baptism into his service, consecrating them for ever to himself. I
mean by baptism this morning, not the rite, but what baptism represents.
Baptism signifies dedication to God-initiation into God’s service. It is not
when we are first converted that we so fully dedicate ourselves to God, as
afterwards, when some great Red sea rolls before us. I should be delighted
to see some of you get into trouble. Am I unkind to utter such a wish?
Well I repeat it, I should; for I shall never get you into the church unless
you do; you will never come forward and make a thorough dedication of
yourselves to God, till you have had a sharp trial. Rest assured of this, that
sharp trials were no slight cause of the heroic devotion of the martyrs,
confessors, and missionaries, who so thoroughly consecrated themselves to
their Master’s service. The great purpose of all our affliction is the
promotion of an entire dedication to Christ in all our hearts. It is only in the
font of sorrow that we are baptized with Christ’s baptism. No holy chrism
hath efficacy to baptize; it is the Spirit, who alone can dedicate us in the
waters of the sea of tribulation. You are brought into these straits, young
believer, that you may at such a time receive the baptism for God. Do not,
I beseech you, let the time pass by, for there are some who neglect it, who,
afterwards, never perfectly know what it is to be “baptized unto Jesus) in
the cloud and in the sea.” They say, “they will wait a little while,” but the
consequence is, they wait a very long while. They say they will do tomorrow
what they ought to do to-day. Beware how you let slip the
opportunity which God presents you, that you may devote yourself
publicly to him. The very first time after conversion, when we come into
straits and difficulties, is intended that we should then be dedicated to
Jesus, and come out openly as the children of the living God.
Now, beloved, let these thoughts rest with you. You may think them
unimportant, but I am sure they are not. Believe me, you ought, indeed, to
own yourselves on the Lord’s side. If God be God, serve him, if Baal be
God, serve him. There is nothing which I would more earnestly and
ardently press upon you, than the great duty of decision for Jesus Christ.
How many of you have a faint and indistinct hope, that when you die you
will be Christ’s people; and yet you must confess that you are not decided
for Christ. You think you are his, but you often neglect duty’ and
frequently allow what you think a little sin to stain your conscience. You
are not godly in worldly affairs. But; beseech you, put truth and
righteousness into one scale, and put your own worldly gain into the other,
and see which is the most important, and if you think that prudence
dictates attention to this world instead of God, then remember, that is
hellish prudence, and cometh of the devil, and, therefore, reject it. If ye
were Egyptians, I might tell you to serve another master; but since you are
God’s people, or profess to be, I charge home upon you; and I beg of you,
if you make a profession, to be out-and-out with it. How we do loathe
those hot and cold people, who are neither one thing nor the other! You,
who hold with the hare and run with the hounds-you, who are first one
thing and then another-you, who are half horse, half alligator, and neither
of them -you, who are something between the two, who are neither
Christians nor worldlings in your own opinion. We know which you are. I
have often thought what a consistent religion the Roman Catholic would be
for some of you go-between People. You are not exactly children of God,
but you would not like to be called the children of the devil. Where should
we put you at last? It would be a very convenient thing to have a purgatory
for you, to place you somewhere between the two. But as we have no such
place, we do not wish to have any such characters, and we believe there
are none such; you are either servants of God, or servants of the devil.
Don’t stand halting between two opinions, but just say, once for all, whom
you will serve. If you choose the devil, choose him, love him, serve him,
and rejoice in your choice. If you choose hell, go there, rush madly there;
it’s a fearful dwelling place for eternity -an awful home for ever! But if you
choose God,; beseech you be in downright earnest about it. The religion of
the present day, what mockery it is to call it religion at all! I protest, I
believe the common religion of this age will not carry half those who
profess it to heaven. It is a religion which they might easily carry to heaven,
for it is too light to burden them, but it is too fragile to carry them there.
They have a godliness which has not eaten up their soul. I heard a minister
say once to his people, that “it would be a long time before the zeal of
God’s house would eat them up.” Take the churches all round: what a
slumbering brotherhood they are! There might almost be a controversy
between the prince of this world, and the prince of heaven to whom they
belonged. But I beseech you, let there be a marked and decided difference
between you and the world. Let your heart be steeped in godliness; let your
life be saturated with religion. Take care that, “whether you eat, or drink,
or whatsoever you do, you do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks unto God and the Father by him.’’ So shall God see his great design
subserved of making you to be baptized unto Jesus, “in the cloud and in the
sea.”
In concluding, there is one sad aspect of this picture, which I wish you to
regard. It is this. Some of you are journeying in an unconverted state to
that bourne from which there is no return. At death you will find a Red Sea
in your way-the sea of death staring you in the face. When you come
before it, you will find no bridge, no ships; but you must wade that sea
alone. And, mark you, if you are living now in an ungodly condition, and
are doing so when you die, as certainly as you are here, just when that
great sea of death is rolling before you, all the Egyptian hosts of your sins
will harrass you in the rear. All your sins will come bellowing after you;
you will have your iniquities like wild winter wolves pursuing you, athirst
for blood, and swift to slay. You will hear fiends howling in your ears. And
when already the raging flood of Jordan hath made your bones shake, and
your marrow quiver, just then you will see the red eyes of your sins peering
through the darkness of your despair, and hear the howlings of your former
transgressions, as they hound you to the pit, seeking after your soul’s
blood. Ah, then, my hearer, thou wilt have no cloudy pillar to give thee
light, thou wilt have no pillar of darkness to confound thy foes; but thou
wilt have behind thee all thy sins, and before thee that black sea of death,
which thou art compelled to cross. But mark thee, those sins will swim that
sea with thee; they will not be like the Egyptians which were drowned, but
when thou art wading through the sea, thou wilt find thy sins like hounds
fixing on a stag, drinking thy heart’s blood. Ay, when thou hast landed in
eternity, thou wilt find there was not a single one drowned in the sea, but
that they are all alive; every sin grown into a giant, every lust brandishing a
thousand arms, each arm bearing a thousand horrid fingers of flame, and
each finger a claw of iron, which shall tear thy soul. Oh! I warn thee
against these Egyptians of thy sins, for unless the blood be sprinkled on thy
door-post and on thy lintel and unless the destroying angel smite those sins
for thee, they will assuredly follow thee across the sea. Methinks I see thee
there! Thou art just in the midst of Jordan. Poor soul! the river itself is
work enough for a man to wade through it; for dying is not easy labor. The
waters are rushing into his lips, and gurgling in his throat like a whirlpool.
See how he shakes! White as the floods around him, he quivers, like the
very waves themselves. And, ah! just when in his fell despair, he shriekssee
the harpies feed him with black fruits of hell; and when he quivers
most, see there the scalding brimstone of Almighty God rained upon his
body. Just when he is shrieking in death’s torments, then is it that Satan
takes the opportunity to howl in his face, and show him his glaring eyes of
fire, to terrify his poor soul, worse than death itself. Sinner I when thou
diest, remember that thou wilt have to die two deaths; one death which we
shall see, another death which we only know of by the shrieks, and groans,
and anguish, which even we may hear on this side of the grave. But what
thou wilt experience in the next world, I cannot picture to thee, I cannot
tell thee; those dim shapes of horror I cannot paint to thee; those fierce
flames of misery I cannot now describe; that doleful miserere of desolation,
and that awful lament of eternity, I cannot endure to hear; I dare not lift the
veil that conceals the dread scenes, which haunt the spirits of the ungodly
departed.
Well, then, what shalt thou do to escape this death? What can’t thou do to
be saved? Why, sinner, in the first place, of thyself thou canst do nothing at
all. But, in the second place, there is one-a Man, who can do all for thee.
He is the Man Christ Jesus; if thou believest on him, filthy as thou art, and
wretched, and outcast, and vile, thou shalt never see the second death, but
shalt have eternal life abiding in thee; and when thou diest in this world,
instead of black fiends to hound thee through the river, thou wilt have
sweet angels playing o’er the stream, waiting to waft thee unto glory; thou
wilt feel bright spirits fanning thy hot brow with their soft wings; thou wilt
hear songs, sweet as the music of paradise, and when thy troubles are the
strongest, thou wilt have a peace with God “which passeth all
understanding;” a “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” which shall enable
thee to “swallow up death in victory.” “He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” Poor, trembling,
penitent sinner, put thine hand inside the hand of Christ; now fall on his
mercy; “to-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” I beseech
you for Christ’s sake, “be ye reconciled to God.” And if ye be penitents,
may God give you faith that ye may be believers! As for the rest of you,
remember, ere you go, I have told you no fable, but the truth. You may go
away and say. “There is no hell.” Well, suppose there is none, believers will
be as well off as you are. But suppose there is-and there is for a certaintysuppose
yourselves in it, you cannot then suppose yourselves out of it any
more. May God grant his blessing, for Jesus’ sake; turning many of you to
righteousness.