“How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: if
Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21
IT was a day to be remembered, when the multitudes of Israel were
assembled at the foot of Carmel, and when the solitary prophet of the Lord
came forth to defy the four hundred and fifty priests of the false god. We
might look upon that scene with the eye of historical curiosity, and we
should find it rich with interest. Instead of so doing, however, we shall
look upon it with the eye of attentive consideration, and see whether we
cannot improve by its teachings. We have upon that hill of Carmel and
along the plain three kinds of persons. We have first the devoted servant of
Jehovah, a solitary prophet; we have, on the other hand, the decided
servants of the evil one, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal; but
the vast mass of that day belonged to a third class — they were those who
had not fully determined whether fully to worship Jehovah, the God of
their fathers, or Baal, the god of Jezebel. On the one hand, their ancient
traditions led them to fear Jehovah, and on the other hand, their interest at
court led them to bow before Baal. Many of them, therefore, were secret
and half-hearted followers of Jehovah, while they were the public
worshippers of Baal. The whole of them at this juncture were halting
between two opinions. Elijah does not address his sermon to the priests of
Baal; he will have something to say to them by-and-by, he will preach them
horrible sermons in deeds of blood. Nor has he aught to say to those who
are the thorough servants of Jehovah, for they are not there; but his
discourse is alone directed to those who are halting between two opinions.
Now, we have these three classes here this morning. We have, I hope, a
very large number who are on Jehovah’s side, who fear God and serve him,
we have a number who are on the side of the evil one, who make no
profession of religion, and do not observe even the outward symptoms of
it; because they are both inwardly and outwardly the servants of the evil
one. But the great mass of my hearers belong to the third class — the
waverers. Like empty clouds they are driven hither and thither by the wind,
like painted beauties, they lack the freshness of life, they have a name to
live and are dead. Procrastinaters, double-minded men, undecided persons,
to you I speak this morning — “How long halt ye between two opinions?”
is the question be answered by God’s Spirit in your hearts, and may you be
led to ay, “No longer, Lord, do I halt; but this day I decide for thee, and
am thy servant for ever!”
Let us proceed at once to the text. Instead of giving the divisions at the
commencement, I will mention them one by one as I proceed.
I. First, you will note that the prophet insisted upon the distinction which
existed between the worship of Baal and the worship of Jehovah. Most of
the people who were before him thought that Jehovah was God, and that
Baal was god too, and that for this reason the worship of both was quite
consistent. The great mass of them did not reject the God of their fathers
wholly, nor did they bow before Baal wholly; but as polythiests, believing
in many gods, they thought both Gods might be worshipped and each of
them have a share in their hearts. “No,” said the prophet when he began,
“this will not do, these are two opinions, you can never make them one
they are two contradictory things which cannot be combined. I tell you that
instead of combining the two, which is impossible, you are halting between
the two, which makes a vast difference.” “I will build in my house,” said
one of them, “an altar for Jehovah here, and an altar for Baal there. I am of
one opinion, I believe them both to be God.” “No, no,” said Elijah, “it
cannot be so; they are two, and must be two. These things are not one
opinion, but two opinions. No, you cannot unite them.” Have I not many
here who say, “I am worldly, but I am religious too! I can go to the Music
Hall to worship God on Sunday! I went to the Derby the other day: I go,
on the one hand, to the place where I can serve my lusts; I am to be met
with in every dancing room of every description, and yet at the same time I
say my prayers most devoutly. May I not be a good churchman, or a right
good dissenter and a man of the world too? May I not, after all, hold with
the hounds as well as ran with the hare? May I not love God and serve the
devil too — take the pleasure of each of them, and give my heart to
neither? We answer — Not so, they are two opinions; you cannot do it,
they are distinct and separate. Mark Antony yoked two lions to his chariot;
but there are two lions no man ever yoked together yet — the lion of the
tribe of Judah and the lion of the pit. These can never go together. Two
opinions you may hold in polities, perhaps, but then you will be despised by
everybody, unless you are of one opinion or the other, and act as an
independent man. But two opinions in the matter of soul-religion you
cannot hold. If God be God, serve him, and do it thoroughly, but if this
world be God, serve it, and make no profession of religion. If you are a
worldling, and think the things of the world the best, serve them, devote
yourself to them, do not be kept back by conscience; spite your conscience
and run into sin. But remember, if the Lord be your God you cannot have
Baal too, you must have one thing or else the other. “No man can serve
two masters.” If God be served, he will be a master; and if the devil be
served he will not be long before he will be a master, and “ye cannot serve
two masters.” Oh! be wise, and think not that the two can be mingled
together. How many a respectable deacon thinks that he can be covetous,
and grasping in business, and grind the faces of the poor, and yet be a
saint! Oh! liar to God and to man! He is no saint; he is the very chief of
sinners! How many a very excellent woman who is received into church
fellowship amongst the people of God, and thinks herself one of the elect,
is to be found full of wrath and bitterness — a slave of mischief and of sin a
tattler, a slanderer, a busybody, entering into other people’s houses, and
turning everything like comfort out of the minds of those with whom she
comes in contact — and yet she is the servant of God and of the devil too!
Nay, my lady, this will never answer; the two never can be served
thoroughly. Serve your master, whoever he be. If you do profess to be
religious, be so thoroughly, if you make any I profession to be a Christian
be one, but if you are no Christian, do not pretend to be. If you love the
world, then love it but cast off the mask, and do not be a hypocrite. The
double-minded man is of all men the most despicable, the follower of
Janus, who wears two faces and who can look with one eye upon the (socalled)
Christian world with great delight, and give his subscription to the
Tract Society, the Bible Society, and the Missionary Society, but who has
another eye over there, with which he looks at the Casino, the Cole-hole,
and other pleasures, which I do not care to mention, but which some of
you may know more of than I wish to know. Such a man, I say, is worse
than the most reprobate of men, in the opinion of any one who knows how
to judge. Not worse in his open character, but worse really, because he is
not honest enough to go through with that he professes. Tom Loker, in
“Uncle Tom,” was pretty near the mark when he shut the mouth of Haley,
the slaveholder, who professed religion, with the following common sense
remark: — “I can stand most any talk of yours, but your pious talk — that
kills me right up. After all, what’s the odds between me and you? “Tan’t
that you care one bit more, or have a bit more feelin’ — its clean, sheer,
dog meanness, wanting to cheat the devil and save your own skin; don’t I
see through it? And your getting religious, as you call it, after all, is a deal
too mean for me, run up a bill with the devil all your life, and then sneak
out when pay time comes.” And how many do the same every day in
London, in England, everywhere else! They try to serve both masters; but
it cannot be; the two things cannot be reconciled; God and Mammon,
Christ and Belial, these never can meet; there never can be an agreement
between them, they never can be brought into unity, and why should you
seek to do it? “Two opinions,” said the prophet. He would not allow any of
his hearers to profess to worship both. “No,” said he, “these are two
opinions, and you are halting between the two.”
II. In the second place, the prophet calls these waivers to an account for
the amount of time which they had consumed in making their choice.
Some of them might have replied, “We have not yet had an opportunity of
judging between God and Baal, we have not yet had time enough to make
up our minds;” but the prophet puts away that objection, and he says,
“How long halt ye between two opinions? How long? For three years and a
half not a drop of rain has fallen at the command of Jehovah; is not that
proof enough? Ye have been all this time, three y-ears and a half,
expecting, till I should come, Jehovah’s servant, and give you rain, and yet,
though you yourselves are starving, your cattle dead, your fields parched,
and your meadows covered with dust, like the very deserts, yet all this time
of Judgment, and trial, and affliction, has not been enough for you to make
up your minds. How long, then,” said he, “halt ye between two opinions?”
I speak not, this morning, to the thoroughly worldly; with them I have now
nothing to do; another time I may address them. But I am now speaking to
you who are seeking to serve God and to serve Satan, you, who are trying
to be Christian worldlings, trying to be members of that extraordinary
corporation, called the “religious world,” which is a thing that never had an
existence except in title. You are endeavoring, if you can, to make up your
mind which it shall be; you know you can not serve both, and you are
coming now to the period when you are saying, “Which shall it be? Shall I
go thoroughly into sin, and revel in the pleasures of the earth, or become a
servant of God?” Now, I say to you this morning, as the prophet did, “How
long halt ye?” Some of you have been halting until your hair has grown
grey; the sixtieth year of some of you is drawing nigh. Is not sixty years
long enough to make your choice? “How long halt ye?” Perhaps one of
you may have tottered into this place, leaning on his staff, and you have
been undecided up till now. Your eightieth year has come, you have been a
religious character outwardly, but a worldling truly; you are still up to this
date halting, saying, “I know not on which side to be.” How long, sirs, in
the name of reason, in the name of mortality, in the name of death, in the
name of eternity, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” Ye middle
aged men, ye said when ye were youths, “When we are out of our
apprenticeship we will become religious; let us sow our wild oats in our
youth and let us then begin to be diligent servants of the Lord.” Lo! ye
have come to middle age, and are waiting till that quiet villa shall be built,
and ye shall retire from business, and then ye think ye will serve God. Sirs,
ye said the same when ye came of age, and when your business began to
increase I therefore solemnly demand of you, “How long halt ye between
two opinions?” How much time do you want? Oh! young man, thou saidst
in thine early childhood, when a mother’s prayer followed thee, “I will seek
God when I come to manhood,” and thou hast passed that day, thou art a
man, and more than that and yet thou art halting still. “How long halt ye
between two opinions?” How many of you have been church-goers and
chapel-goers for years! Ye have been impressed, too, many a time; but ye
have wiped the tears from your eyes, and have said, “I will seek God and
turn to him with full purpose of heart;” an you are now just where you
were. How many more sermons do you want? How many more Sundays
must roll away wasted? How many warnings, how many sicknesses, how
many toilings of the bell to warn you that you must die? How many graves
must be dug for your family before you will be impressed? How many
plagues and pestilences must ravage this city before you will turn to God in
truth? How long halt ye between two opinions?” Would God you could
answer this question, and not allow the sands of life to drop, drop, drop
from the glass, saying, “When the next goes I will repent,” and yet that
next one findeth you impenitent, You say, “When the glass is just so low, I
will turn to God.” No, sir, no; it will not answer for thee to talk so; for
thou mayest find thy glass empty before thou thoughtest it had begun to
run low, and thou mayest find thyself in eternity when thou didst but think
of repenting and turning to God. How long, ye grey heads, how long, ye
men of ripe years, how long, ye youths and maidens, how long will ye be in
this undecided, unhappy state? “How long halt ye between two opinions?”
Thus we have brought you so far. We have noted that there are two
opinions and we have asked the question, how long time you want to
decide. One would think the question would require very little time, if time
were all if the will were not biassed to evil and contrary to good, it would
require no more time than the decision of a man who has to choose a halter
or life, wealth or poverty; and if we were wise, it would take no time at all;
if we understood the things of God, we should not hesitate, but say at
once, “Now God is my God, and that forever.”
III. But the prophet charges these people with the absurdity of their
position. Some of them said, “What! prophet, may we not continue to halt
between two opinions? We are not desperately irreligious, so we are better
than the profane; certainly we are not thoroughly pious, but, at any rate, a
little piety is better than none, and the mere profession of it keeps us
decent, let us try both!” “Now,” says the prophet, “how long halt ye?” or,
if you like to read it so, “how long limp ye between two opinions?” (how
long wriggle ye between two opinions? would be a good word if I might
employ it.) He represents them as like a man whose legs are entirely out of
joint; he first goes on one side, and then on the other, and cannot go far
either way. I could not describe it without putting myself into a most
ludicrous posture, “How long limp ye between two opinions!” The prophet
laughs at them, as it were. And is it not true, that a man who is neither one
thing or another is in a most absurd position? Let him go among the
worldlings; they laugh under their sleeve, and say, “That is one of the
Exeter Hall saints,” or “That is one of the elect.” Let him go among the
Christian people, those that are saints, and they say, “However a man can
be so inconsistent, however he can come in our midst one day, and the next
be found in such-and-such society, we cannot tell.” Methinks even the devil
himself must laugh at such a man in scorn. “There,” says he, “I am
everything that is bad; I do sometimes pretend to be an angel of light, and
put on that garb; but you do really excel me in every respect, for I do it to
get something by it, but you do not get anything by it. You do not have the
pleasures of this world, and you do not have the pleasures of religion
either; you have the fears of religion without its hopes; you are afraid to do
wrong and yet you have no hope of heaven; you have the duties of religion
without the joys; you have to do just as religious people do, and yet there
is no heart in the matter: you have to sit down, and see the table all spread
before you, and then you have not power to eat a single morsel of the
precious dainties of the gospel.” It is just the same with the world; you
dare not go into this or that mischief that brings joy to the wicked man’s
heart; you think of what society would say. We do not know what to make
of you. I might describe you, if I might speak as the Americans do, but I
will not. Ye are half one thing and half the other. You come into the
society of the saints, and try to talk as they talk; but you are like a man
who has been taught French in some dayschool in England; he makes a
queer sort of Frenchified English, and Englishised French, and every one
laughs at him. The English laugh at him for trying to do it, and the French
laugh at him for failing in it. If you spoke your own language, if you just
spoke out as a sinner, if you professed to be what you are, you would at
least get the respect of one side, but now you are rejected by one class, and
equally rejected by the other. You come into our midst, we cannot receive
you; you go amongst worldlings, they reject you too; you are too good for
them, and too bad for us. Where are you to be put? If there were a
purgatory, that would be the place for you; where you might be tossed on
the one side into ice, and on the other into the burning fire, and that for
ever. But as there is no such place as purgatory, and as you really are a
servant of Satan, and not a child of God, take heed, take heed, how long
you stay in a position so absurdly ridiculous. At the day of judgment,
wavering men will be the scoff and the laughter even of hell. The angels
will look down in scorn upon the man who was ashamed to own his master
thoroughly, while hell itself will ring with laughter. When that grand
hypocrite shall come there — that undecided man, they will say, “Aha! we
have to drink the dregs, but above them there were sweets, you have only
the dregs. You dare not go into the riotous and boisterous mirth of our
youthful days, and now you have come here with us, to drink the same
dregs, you have the punishment without the pleasure.” Oh! how foolish
will even the damned call you, to think that you halted between two
opinions! “How long limp ye, wriggle ye walk ye in an absurd manner,
between two opinions?” In adopting either opinion, you would at least be
consistent; but in trying to hold both, to seek to be both one and the other,
and not knowing which to decide upon, you are limping between two
opinions. I think a good translation is a very different one from that of the
authorized version — “How long hop ye upon two sprays?” So the
Hebrew has it. Like a bird, which perpetually flies from bough to bough,
and is never still. If it keeps on doing this, it will never have a nest. And so
with you; you keep leaping between two boughs, from one opinion to the
other; and so between the two you get no rest for the sole of your foot, no
peace, no joy, no comfort, but are just a poor miserable thing all your life
long.
IV. We have brought you thus far, then, we have shown you the absurdity
of this halting. Now, very briefly, the next point in my text is this. The
multitude who had worshipped Jehovah and Baal, and who were now
undecided, might reply, “But how do you know that we do not believe that
Jehovah is God. How do you know we are not decided in opinion?“ The
prophet meets this objection by saying, “I know you are not decided in
opinion, because you are not decided in practice. If God be God, follow
him; if Baal, follow him. You are not decided in practice.” Men’s opinions
are not such things as we imagine. It is generally said now-a-days, that all
opinions are right, and if a man shall honestly hold his convictions, he is,
without doubt, right. Not so; truth is not changed by our opinions, a thing
is either true or false of itself, and it is neither made true nor false by our
views of it. It is for us therefore, to judge carefully, and not to think that
any opinion will do. Besides, opinions have influence upon the conduct,
and if a man have a wrong opinion, he will, most likely, in some way or
other, have wrong conduct, for the two usually go together. “Now,” said
Elijah, “that you are not the servants of God, is quite evident, for you do
not follow him, that you are not thoroughly servants of Baal either, is quite
evident, for you do not follow him.” Now I address myself to you again.
Many of you are not the servants of God, you do not follow him; you
follow him a certain distance in the form, but not in the spirit; you follow
him on Sundays, but what do you do on Mondays? You follow him in
religious company, in evangelical drawing-rooms, and so on, but what do
you do in other society? You do not follow him. And, on the other hand,
you do not follow Baal, you go a little way with the world, but there is a
place to which you dare not go, you are too respectable to sin as others
sin, or to go the whole way of the world. Ye dare not go the utmost
lengths of evil. “Now,” says the prophet, twitting them upon this — “if the
Lord be God, follow him. Let your conduct be consistent with your
opinions; if you believe the Lord to be God carry it out in your daily life; be
holy, be prayerful, trust in Christ, be faithful, be upright, be loving give
your whole heart to God and follow him. If Baal be God, then follow him;
but do not pretend to follow the other.” Let your conduct back up your
opinion; if you really think that the follies of this world are the best, and
believe that a fine fashionable life, a life of frivolity and gaiety, flying from
flower to flower, getting honey from none, is the most desirable, carry it
out. If you think the life of the debauched is so very desirable, if you think
his end is to be much wished for, if you think his pleasures are right, follow
them. Go the whole way with them. If you believe that to cheat in business
is right, put it up over your door — ”I sell trickery goods here” or if you
do not say it to the public, tell your conscience so; but do not deceive the
public; do not call the people to prayers, when you are opening a “British
Bank.” If you mean to be religious, follow out your determination
thoroughly; but if you mean to be worldly, go the whole way with the
world. Let your conduct follow out your opinions. Make your life tally
with your profession. Carry out your opinions whatever they be. But you
dare not; you are too cowardly to sin as others do, honestly before God’s
sun; your conscience will not let you do it; and yet you are just so fond of
Satan, that you dare not leave him wholly and become thoroughly the
servants of God. Oh! do let your character be like your profession; either
keep up your profession, or give it up: do be one thing or the other.
V. And now the prophet cries, “If the Lord be God, follow him; if Baal,
then follow him, and in so doing he states the ground of his practical
claim.” Let your conduct be consistent with your opinions. There is
another objection raised by the crowd. “Prophet,” says one, “thou comest
to demand a practical proof of our affection; thou sayest, Follow God.
Now, if I believe God to be God, and that is my opinion, yet I do not see
what claim he has to my opinions.” Now, mark how the prophet puts it: he
says, “If God be God follow him.” The reason why I claim that you should
follow out your opinion concerning God IS, that God is God; God has a
claim upon you, as creatures, for your devout obedience. One person
replies, “What profit should I have, if I served God thoroughly? Should I
be more happy? Should I get on better in this world? Should I have more
peace of mind?” Nay, nay, that is a secondary consideration. The only
question for you is, “If God be God follow him.” Not if it be more
advantageous to you; but, “if God be God follow him.” The secularist
would plead for religion on the ground that religion might be the best for
this world, and best for the world to come. Not so with the prophet; he
says, “I do not put it on that ground, I insist that it is your bounder duty, if
you believe in God, simply because he is God, to serve him and obey him. I
do not tell you it is for your advantage — it may be, I believe it is — but
that I put aside from the question; I demand of you that you follow God, if
you believe him to be God. If you do not think he is God; if you really
think that the devil is God, then follow him; his pretended godhead shall be
your plea, and you shall be consistent; but if God be God, if he made you, I
demand that you serve him; if it is he who puts the breath into your
nostrils, I demand that you obey him. If God be really worthy of worship,
and you really think so, I demand that you either follow him, or else deny
that he is God at all.” Now, professor, if thou sayst that Christ’s gospel is
the gospel, if thou believest in the divinity of the gospel, and puttest thy
trust in Christ, I demand of thee to follow out the gospel, not merely
because it will be to thy advantage, but because the gospel is divine. If thou
makest a profession of being a child of God, if thou art a believer, and
thinkest and believest religion is the best, the service of God the most
desirable, I do not come to plead with thee because of any advantage thou
wouldst get by being holy; it is on this I round that I put it, that the Lord is
God; and if he be God, it is thy business to serve him. If his gospel be tree,
and thou believest it to be true, it is thy duty to carry it out. If thou sayest
Christ is not the Son of God, carry out thy Jewish or thy infidel
convictions, and see whether it will end well. If thou dost not believe Christ
to be the Son of God, if thou art a Mahometan, be consistent, carry out thy
Mahometan convictions, and see whether it will end well. But, take heed,
take heed! If however, thou sayest God is God, and Christ the Savior, and
the gospel true; I demand of thee, only on this account, that thou carry it
out. What a strong plea some would think the prophet might have had, if
he had said, “God is your father’s God, therefore follow him!” But no, he
did not come down to that; he said, “If God be God — I do not care
whether he be your father’s God or not — follow him.” “Why do you go
to chapel?” says one, “and not to church?” “Because my father and
grandfather were dissenters.” Ask a churchman, very often, why he attends
the establishment. “Well, our family were always brought up to it; that is
why I go.” Now, I do think that the worst of all reasons for a particular
religion, is that of our being brought up to it. I never could see that at all. I
have attended the house of God with my father and my grandfather; but I
thought, when I read the Scriptures that it was my business to judge for
myself. I know that my father and my grandfather take little children in
their arms, and put drops of water on their faces, and say they are baptized.
I took up my Bible, and I could not see anything about babes being
baptized. I picked up a little Greek; and I could not discover that the word
“baptized” meant to sprinkle; so I said to myself, “Suppose they were good
men, they may be wrong; and though I love and revere them, yet it is no
reason why I should imitate them!” And they counted me right, when they
knew of my honest conviction; and it was quite right for me to act
according to my conviction; for I consider the baptism of an unconscious
infant is just as foolish as the baptism of a ship or a bell; for there is as
much Scripture for one as the other. And therefore I left them, and became
what I am to-day, a Baptist minister, so called, but I hope a great deal
more a Christian than a Baptist. It is seldom I mention it; I only do so by
way of illustration here. Many a one will go to chapel, because his
grandmother did. Well, she was a good old soul but I do not see that she
ought to influence your judgment. “That does not signify,” says one, “I do
not like to leave the church of my fathers.” No more do I; I would rather
belong to the same denomination with my father; I would not wilfully differ
from any of my friends, or leave their sect and denomination; but let God
be above our parents; though our parents are at the very top of our hearts,
and we love them and reverence them, and in all other matters pay them
strict obedience, yet, with regard to religion, to our own Master we stand
or fall, and we claim to have the right of judging for ourselves as men, and
then we think it our duty, having judged, to carry out our convictions.
Now I am not going to say, “If God be your mother’s God, serve him,”
Though that would be a very good argument with some of you; but with
you waverers, the only plea I us is, if God be God, serve him;” if the gospel
be right, believe it; if a religious life be right, carry it out; if not, give it up.
I only put my argument on Elijah’s plea — “If God be God, follow him:
but if Baal, then follow him.”
VI. And now I make my appeal to the halters and waverers, with some
questions, which I pray the Lord to apply. Now I will put this question to
them: “How long halt ye?” I will tell them; ye will halt between two
opinions, all of you who are undecided, until God shall answer by fire. Fire
was not what these poor people wanted that were assembled there. When
Elijah says, that “The God that answereth by fire let him be God,” I fancy I
hear some of them saying, “No; the God that answereth by water let him be
God; we want rain badly enough.” “No,” said Elijah, “if rain should come,
you would say that it was the common course of providence; and that
would not decide you.” I tell you, all the providences that befall you
undecided ones will not decide you. God may surround you with
providences; he may surround you with frequent warnings from the deathbed
of your fellows; but providences will never decide you. It is not the
God of rain, but the God of fire that will do it. There are two ways in
which you undecided ones will be decided by-and-by. You that are decided
for God will want no decision; you that are decided for Satan will want no
decision; you are on Satan’s side, and must dwell for ever in eternal
burning. But these undecided ones want something to decide them, and
will have either one of the two things; they will either have the fire of
God’s Spirit to decide them, or else the fire of eternal judgment, and that
will decide them. I may preach to you, my hearers; and all the ministers in
the world may preach to you that are wavering, but you will never decide
for God through the force of your own will. None of you, if left to your
natural judgment, to the use of your own reason, will ever decide for God.
You may decide for him merely as an outward form, but not as an inward
spiritual thing, which should possess your heart as a Christian, as a believer
in the doctrine of effectual grace. I know that none of you will ever decide
for God’s gospel, unless God decide you; and I tell you that you must
either be decided by the descent of the fire of his Spirit into your hearts
now, or else in the day of judgment. Oh! which shall it be? Oh! that the
prayer might be put up by the thousand lips that are here: “Lord, decide me
now by the fire of thy Spirit; oh I let thy Spirit descend into my heart, to
burn up the bullock, that I may be a whole burnt offering to God; to burn
up the wood and the stones of my sin; to burn up the very dust of
worldliness; ah, and to lick up the water of my impiety, which now lieth in
the trenches, and my cold indifference, that seek to put out the sacrifice.”
“O make this heart rejoice or ache’ —
Decide this doubt for me;
And if it be not broken, break
And heal it, if it be.
“O sovereign grace, my heart subdue;
I would be led in triumph too;
A willing captive to my Lord
To sing the triumphs of his word.”
And it may be, that whilst I speak, the mighty fire, unseen by men, and
unfelt by the vast majority of you, shall descend into some heart which has
of old been dedicated to God by his divine election, which is now like an
altar broken down, but which God, by his free grace, will this day build up.
Oh! I pray that that influence may enter into some hearts, that there may be
some go out of this place, saying —
“‘Tis done, the great transaction’s done,
I am my Lord’s, and he is mine;
He drew me, and I followed on
Glad to obey the voice divine.”
Now rest my undivided heart, fixed on this stable center rest. Oh! that
many may say that! But remember, if it be not so, the day is coming — dies
ir3/4, the day of wrath and anger, when ye shall be decided of God; when
the firmament shall be lit up with lightnings, when the earth shall roll with
drunken terror, when the pillars of the universe shall shake, and God shall
sit in the person of his Son, to judge the world in righteousness. You will
not be undecided then, when, “Depart ye cursed” or “Come, ye blessed,”
shall be your doom. There will be no indecision then, when ye shall meet
him with joy or else with terror — when, “rocks hide me, mountains on me
fall,” shall be your doleful shriek; or else your joyful song shall be, “The
Lord is come.” In that day you will be decided; but till then, unless the
living fire of the Holy Spirit decide you, you will go on halting between
two opinions. May God grant you his Holy Spirit, that you may turn unto
him and be saved!
