Bible Commentaries
Acts 13

Verse 36

His Own Funeral Sermon

A Sermon Intended for Reading on Lord's-Day, February 14th, 1892, Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Newington On Lord's-day Evening, October 19th, 1890.

* This sermon was preached on the Lord's-day evening after Mr. William Olney "fell on sleep." Long before the beloved preacher was "called home," it was selected for publication this week. Mrs. Spurgeon feels that her dear husband could not have delivered a more suitable discourse for "his own funeral sermon." She has, therefore, given it that title in the hope that many will be blessed by the message which "he, being dead, yet speaketh." Believing that many friends will wish to have this sermon for widespread circulation, the publishers will at once issue it, in book form, price one penny. "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep." Acts 13:36 .

IT is remarkable that David should say, in the sixteenth Psalm, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption," and yet that Paul should say concerning him, when preaching at Antioch, that he "saw corruption." The key to this apparent contradiction is the fact that David did not speak of himself, but of his Lord. Peter, in his memorable sermon on the day of Pentecost, quotes the words of the psalmist, applies them to his risen Redeemer, and distinctly affirms that, in the Psalm, "David speaketh concerning him." The argument of the apostle is this. David could not have meant himself when he said, "Thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption;" because David died, and his body was buried, and it did see corruption. He must therefore have referred to Christ, who is indeed God's "Holy One." Of him the prophetic word was true, for God did not suffer him "to see corruption." He died, and was laid in the grave, but he rose again on the third day. In that climate there was, while Christ lay in the grave, plenty of time for his body to become corrupt. The spices with which they perfumed the precious body would not have sufficed to keep back corruption; they would have helped conceal the unpleasant odour which putrefaction brings, but they would not have stopped the process of decay. But Christ rose again, and no corruption had come to his body, for that body was a holy thing; it had no defect, nor taint of sin, as our bodies have. Begotten of the Holy Ghost, it was a pure thing; though born of the Virgin Mary, it was united to the Godhead, and not separated from it even in death; it saw no corruption. There is the apostle's argument, then: David speaking not of himself, but of someone else, says that the Lord will not suffer him to see corruption; and this he spake by the Spirit of the very Christ whom we preach to you as the Author and Finisher of salvation. He is living and reigning to-day, King of kings and Lord of lords; he that believeth in him, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and live for ever with his risen, reigning Redeemer. I. First, then, WHAT IS IT TO SERVE OUR OWN GENERATION? This is a question which ought to interest us all very deeply. We live in the midst of our own generation, and seeing that we are part of it, we should serve it, that the generation in which our children shall live may be better than our own. Though our citizenship is in heaven, yet as we live on earth, we should seek to serve our generation while we pass as pilgrims to the better country. I note, first, that it is not to be a slave to it. It is not to drop into the habits, customs, and ideas of the generation in which we live. People talk nowadays about Zeitgeist, a German expression which need frighten nobody; and one of the papers says, "Spurgeon does not know whether there is such a thing." Well, whether he knows anything about Zeitgeist or not, he is not to serve this generation by yielding to any of its notions or ideas which are contrary to the Word of the Lord. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not only for one generation, it is for all generations. It is the faith which needed to be only "once for all delivered to the saints"; it was given stereotyped as it always is to be. It cannot change because it has been given of God, and is therefore perfect; to change it would be to make it imperfect. It cannot change because it has been given to answer for ever the same purpose, namely, to save sinners from going down to the pit, and to fit them for going to heaven. That man serves his generation best who is not caught by every new current of opinion, but stands firmly by the truth of God, which is a solid, immovable rock. But to serve our own generation in the sense of being a slave to it, its vassal, and its varlet let those who care to do so go into such bondage and slavery if they will. Do you know what such a course involves? If any young man here shall begin to preach the doctrine and the thought of the age, within the next ten years, perhaps within the next ten months, he will have to eat his own words, and begin his work all over again. When he has got into the new style, and is beginning to serve the present world, he will within a short time have to contradict himself again, for this age, like every other, is "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." But if you begin with God's Word, and pray God the Holy Ghost to reveal it to you till you really know it, then, if you are spared to teach for the next fifty years, your testimony at the close will not contradict your testimony at the beginning. You will ripen in experience; you will expand in your apprehension of the truth; you will become more clear in your utterance; but it will be the same truth all along. Is it not a grand thing to build up, from the beginning of life to the end of it, the same gospel? But to set up opinions to knock them down again, as though they were ninepins, is a poor business for any servant of Christ. David did not, in that way serve his own generation; he was the master of his age, and not its slave. I would urge every Christian man to rise to his true dignity, and be a blessing to those amongst whom he lives, as David was. Christ "hath made us kings and priests unto God his Father"; it is not meet that we should cringe before the spirit of the age, or lick the dust whereon "advanced thinkers" have chosen to tread. Beloved, see to this; and learn the distinction between serving your own generation and being a slave to it. If we ask again, What is it to serve our generation? I answer, it is to perform the common duties of life, as David did. David was the son of a farmer, a sheep-owner, and he took first of all to the keeping of the sheep. Many young men do not like to do the common work of their own father's business. You do not want to drudge, you say, you want to be a king. Well, there are not many openings in that line of business; and I shall not recommend anyone to be eager to enter them if there were. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not." Before David swayed the sceptre, he grasped the shepherd's crook. He that at home cannot or will not undertake ordinary duties, will not be likely to serve his age. The girl who dreams about the foreign missionary field, but cannot darn her brother's stockings, will not be of service either at home or abroad. Do the commonplace things, the ordinary things that come in your way, and you will begin to serve your generation, as David served his. What is it, again to serve our generation? It is to maintain true religion. This David did. He had grave faults in his later life, which we will not extenuate; but he never swerved from his allegiance to Jehovah the true God. No word or action of his ever sanctioned anything like idolatry, or turning aside from the worship of Jehovah, the God of Israel. He bore a noble witness to his Lord. He said, "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed;" and we may be sure that he was as good as his word, and that when he met with foreign potentates, he vindicated the living God before them. The whole set and current of his life, with the exception of his terrible fall, was to the glory of God in whom he trusted, and to the praise of that God who had delivered him. We, too, shall truly serve those amongst whom we dwell by maintaining true religion. Had ten righteous men been found in Sodom, it would have been spared, and the world to-day only escapes the righteous judgment of God because of the presence in it of those who fear him, and tremble at his word. The spread of "pure and undefiled religion" is a certain way to serve those around us. To help true religion, David wrote many Psalms, which were sung all over the land of Israel. A wonderful collection of poems they are; there is none like them under heaven. Not even a Milton, with all his mighty soarings, can equal David in the height of his adoration of God, and the depth of his experience. That man does no mean service for his time who gives the people new songs which they can sing unto their God. While none can equal the inspired psalms of the Hebrew king, which must ever form the choicest praise-book of the church, other men may, in lesser degree serve their own generation, by the will of God, in a similar way, and be blessed in the deed. Yet more is included in this faithful serving of our generation. It is to prepare for those who are to come after us. David served his generation to the very end by providing for the next generation. He was not permitted to build the temple; but he stored up a great mass of gold and silver to enable his son Solomon to carry out his noble design, and build a house for God. This is real service; to begin to serve God in early youth; to keep on till old age shall come; and even then to say, "I cannot expect to serve the Lord much longer, but I will prepare the way as far as I can for those who will come after me." Many years ago, Dr. Rippon, the minister of this church, which then worshipped in New Park Street, was wont to prophesy about his successor. When he was very old, after having been pastor for more than sixty years, it is in the memory of some still living that he was accustomed to pray for the minister who should come after him. The old man was looked forward to one who should come and carry on the work after he was obliged to leave it. So must you and I do. We must be looking ahead as far as ever we can, not with unbelieving anxiety or unholy curiosity; but after the fashion in which David prepared abundantly before his death. If we cannot find a successor to enter upon our service when we have to leave it, yet let us do all we can to make his work the easier when he comes to it. First, there is the part that is setting. Some are like the sun going down in the we set; they will be gone soon. Serve them, dear brethren. You that are in health and vigour, comfort them, strengthen them, and help them all you can. Be a joy to that dear old man, who has been spared to you even beyond the allotted threescore years and ten, and praise God for the grace that has upheld him through his long pilgrimage. Look on his grey hairs as a crown of glory; make his descent to the grave as easy as you can. He once was as young as you are; he once had the vigour that you have. Console him, cheer him, give him the respect that is due to his many years. Do not let him feel that you consider him an old fogey who lingers, superfluous, on the stage; but learn from his experience, imitate his perseverance, and ask God to be with you in your old age, as he is with him. Specially, however, I want to speak to you about serving your own generation in the part that is rising; the young people who are like the sun in the east, as yet scarcely above the horizon. This part of our generation is specially the care of parents and Sunday-school teachers; but let us not leave it entirely to them. We can, most of us, do something to serve this portion of our generation before we fall asleep. Beloved, I commend to your care and attention the children and young people who abound in our midst. In them lies our hope for the future of God's cause on earth. Moreover, the children are the most impressible. What can we do with the man who is hardened in sin? The grace of God can reach him, I know; but the children as yet have not known these evil ways; they are horrified when they hear about them. Teach them. While yet the clay is soft, mould it for God. May the Lord himself help you, dear Sunday-school teachers, and others who labour amongst the children, to do you work right well! Nobly are you serving your own generation, and the generation to follow. Remember, too, that those who are converted when children usually make the best saints. These of whom I have just spoken, who gave the answer that they were converted in their youth, were ministers of the gospel. I do not know whether the same rule is true among ordinary Christians; but among those who have become leaders of men, in nearly every case they yielded to Christ while they were young. Our thoughts at this time cannot but be occupied with our dear friend, William Olney, who has just been taken from us so suddenly, to our unutterable grief. He was as earnest as a youth as he was when he became an old man. Indeed, I never knew a moment when he was not earnest. I never even knew him to be dull or depressed; he seemed to be always joyous and glad. He would almost frighten me sometimes with his jubilation under pain; for when he was in agonies of suffering, and could only sit on the platform for a short time, there was never anything like depression about him. He was just as glad and happy as if he had been in perfect health. I wish that it were so with all of us. Young Christians do become the best Christians. Early piety is usually eminent piety; so seek to catch the children while they are young, and train them for the Lord, then they will be ready to serve their generation in their turn. Look after the children of this generation, again, for the dangers around them at the present time are almost innumerable. What a time this is for boys! You cannot read the daily papers without being shocked by the amounts of wrong-doing of mere boys. This is an age which seems to make snares on purpose to entrap them. There are "penny dreadfuls" enough to poison the whole generation; they are full of stories of crime with a false halo about it, so that it is made to seem like heroism. These vile stories are everywhere; perhaps your own boy has one, unknown to you, and is reading it while you are sitting here. Everywhere traps are laid for the feet of our boys. Serve your generation by warning them of their danger and trying to keep them free from the evils by which they are surrounded. Satan gets the advantage over many a young life by causing even right things to be put to wrong uses; and in all sorts of ways he lays traps for young people. Oh, parents and teachers, do try to give your boys a backbone of moral honesty! Try to show them that they have not come into this world merely to please themselves; that there is something better to be done than that. Do not rest till you have led them to the Saviour, for no boy is safe until he is converted. No girl is safe in the streets of this city till she has a new heart and a right spirit. The times are perilous; yet if we speak a word of warning. We are called sour Puritans. It always makes me laugh when I am called a sour Puritan, because you know there is nobody with a quicker eye for fun, or with a deeper vein of mirth than I have. At the same time, I like to have humour, and anything of cheerfulness and brightness in life, consecrated to God. But when mirth is made a plank on which a man can go into sin and iniquity, then we will saw that plank into pieces. You must be saved from sin, young men; you must be kept from evil, young women, if you are to be truly happy. May God's grace put in your way wise, godly friends, parents, and teachers, who shall serve their generation by leading you in the paths of peace! David is an example of what will befall those who know Christ, at the end of their service. He did not go to sleep till his work was done. "David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep." Do not want to die till you have done your work. When brethren say, "Oh, I wish I could go to heaven! Oh, when shall I get home?" they remind me of a man who, when he begins work on Monday, says, "I wish it was Saturday night." We do not want servants like that, nor does God either. Be willing to live for two hundred and fifty years, if God wills it. Be willing to live until strength fails you, if God wills it; you can still bear your dying testimony to the Lord's faithful and unchanging love. Do not be in a hurry to go home to heaven. Do not want to go to sleep till you also have served your generation well. When David had served his generation, he fell on sleep. We are told that, in the early days of Christianity, when believers were falling asleep in Jesus, their friends did not bid them "good-bye," but "good-night." So we say, in the words of that beautiful hymn

"Sleep on beloved, sleep, and take thy rest; Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast: We love thee well; but Jesus loves thee best Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!

Only 'good-night,' beloved-not 'farewell !' A little while, and all his saints shall dwell In hallowed union, indivisible Good-night!

Until we meet again before his throne, Clothed in the spotless robe he gives his own, Until we know even as we are known Good-night!"

Does this word further mean that his dying was like going to sleep? It usually is so with God's people. Some die with a considerable measure of pain; but, as a rule, when believers pass away, they just shut their eyes, and open them in heaven. I have had infinitely more pleasure at death-beds than I have had at weddings. I have been to many marriage-feasts, I have gone there at duty's call; but I can confirm what Solomon said, "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for it is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart." I am not aware that I have gained anything at a wedding, but I have gained much at the dying bed, as I have seen the joy and peace and rapture of girls and youths, and men and women, passing away joyfully to be "forever with the Lord." I have known some of our number here who were too bashful and backward to ever say much for Christ when they were well; but when I sent to see them die, there was not a bit of bashfulness about them. They spoke out so boldly that I have said to them, "Why, if you get better, you must preach for me one of these Sundays"; and they have smiled and said that they would never get better. They have known this, and they have rejoiced to think that they were going where they would not need any preacher, but would see their Lord Jesus face to face. How they have brightened up at the mention of his dear name! Some of them have sung then, though I never knew them to sing before; and some of them have told of things which they seemed to see and hear, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, till God has revealed them to the departing spirit. You remember such dying beds, do you not? Was it your mother, or your father, who passed away in that glorious style? Perhaps it was a brother beloved, or a sister, or a friend. Well, if we know Christ, it shall be ours by-and-by to sleep in him. You who believe in Christ ought no more to dread death than you dread going to sleep at night. You will, ere you sleep, commit yourself to God, and as you put your head on the pillow, the similitude of death will be upon you, even sleep which one has called "death's cousin." You will not be afraid of that. Why, then, should any dismay seize you in prospect of that which is but another sleep? Rather sing to yourself:

"Since Jesus is mine, I'll not fear undressing, But gladly put off these garments of clay; To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing, Since Jesus to glory through death lead the way."

Let us follow where he leads. Perchance some of us may tarry until he comes again. There will be no death for such; they will but change the service of their generation for the service of the glorified. "Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Then, when the trumpet shall sound, this corruptible shall put on incorruption, those who sleep in Christ shall awake in resurrection splendour, and together we shall serve our Lord day and night in his temple for ever. Meanwhile, serve you own generation by the will of God; and if the Lord tarry, you will fall on sleep, even as David did. May God bless you who believe in Jesus, and save the unsaved who are in our midst, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Acts 13:14-43

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 879, 694, 844.

There is not much that can be recorded here concerning Mr. Spurgeon's last illness, and his falling asleep in Jesus. The Sword and the Trowel for March will contain an account of the varying experiences in the sunny land, from the time when he delivered his two New Years addresses until all that remained of him was borne away to the railway-station, en route for England, amid tokens of widespread sorrow and sympathy. Amongst other items of interest will be reports of the last two Sabbath evening services conducted by Mr. Spurgeon at the Hotel Beau Rivage; and later numbers of The Sword and the Trowel will furnish the readers with descriptions of "Mr. Spurgeon's last drives at Menton", with reproductions of photographs taken under his personal supervision.

Verse 38

© Copyright 2006 by Tony Capoccia. This updated file may be freely copied, printed out, and distributed as long as copyright and source statements remain intact, and that it is not sold. All rights reserved.

This sermon, preached by Tony Capoccia, is now available on Audio CD:

The True Aim of Preaching by Mid to Late 1800’s

"Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you” Acts 13:38 Paul’s mode of preaching, as illustrated by this chapter, was first of all to appeal to the understanding with a clear exposition of doctrinal truth, and then to impress that truth, upon the emotions of his hearers with earnest and forcible exhortations. This is an excellent model for all preachers and evangelists. They must not give exhortation without doctrine, for, if so, they will be like men who are content with “blanks” in their guns, they will have the smoke and the noise but no power. It is the doctrine we preach, the bullet we deliver, which God will make a power to bless men and women. However intense and zealous we may be in speaking, if we don’t have something weighty and solid to say, we will appear to be intense about nothing, and will not be at all likely to create a lasting impression. Paul, if you notice, through this chapter, first of all gives the history of redemption, tells the story of the cross, insists upon the resurrection of the Savior, and then he comes to the end of his message and deals personally with their souls, and commands them not to neglect this great salvation.

At the same time, it was not all doctrine and no exhortation, for whenever Paul finished his message, he made a strenuous, pointed, and personal appeal to those who had listened to him. Let those preachers who are passionately fond of mere doctrine, but having little of the spirit of divine mercy or the milk of human kindness in their souls, those who do not care to have the Word pressed upon the consciences of men and women, stand rebuked by the example of the apostle Paul. Paul knew well that even truth itself will be powerless unless it is applied. Like the seed in the basket, it can produce no harvest until it is sown in the ground. We cannot expect that men and women will come and make an application of the truth to themselves. We must, having our heart glowing, and our souls on fire with love to them, seek to bring the truth to them, to impress it upon their hearts and consciences, as in the sight of God and to the glory of Christ.

The subject to which Paul drew attention, the target at which he was shooting his arrows, was forgiveness of sins through the man Christ Jesus . That is my subject this morning; and when I have spoken upon it briefly, I will then have a few words to say about his audience, and what became of them.

I. PAUL’S SUBJECT was matchless the subject of subjects the great master-doctrine of the Christian ministry: “That through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. ”

“The forgiveness of sins” is a topic which will be more or less interesting to every listener here today in proportion as they feel that they have committed sins, the guilt of which appalls their conscience. To those of you who fold your arms, and say, “We have done no wrong either to God or man,” I have nothing to say. You don’t need a physician, for you are not sick. You, evidently, would not be thankful for the heavenly eye-salve, for you are not blind. The wealth that Christ can bring you will not induce you to bow the knee to him, for you already think that you are rich and have acquired wealth and do not need a thing [Revelation 3:17 ]. But I am quite sure to have the attention of the person whose sins have been a burden to them. If there is any one here today who wants to be reconciled to God, who can say with the prodigal son, “I will set out and go back to my father” [Luke 15:18 ], then let them listen to what I have to say, for the theme itself will be sure to grab the attention of the person, who says in their hearts,

“How can I get my sins forgiven?

While we attempt to tell them that, we will ensure their utmost attention. This is our aim; and this will we do if God permits.

The Christian preacher tells men and women the underlying condition to receive a pardon, the exclusive method by which God will pardon sin. “Through Jesus ,” says the text; that is to say, God will pardon, but he will only pardon in one way through his Son Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus has a monopoly of mercy. If you will depend upon the mercy of God apart from Christ, you will find that you have depended upon a reed, and built your house upon the sand. Into the one silver pipe of the atoning sacrifice God has made to flow the full current of pardoning grace. If you will not go to that, you may be tempted by the mirage and try to drink fully of grace there, but you will die disappointed. You must die, unless you come for salvation, to Christ. What does Jesus say of himself? He says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” [John 10:9 ]. “Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” [John 3:18 ] “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…” [Mark 16:16 ]. These are the very words of Christ, not mine. Whoever believes will be saved, “but whoever does not believe will be” what? Pardoned for his unbelief? No; they “ will be condemned ” There is no other alternative. The expression might seem harsh if I were the inventor of it; but it came from the very lips of Christ, who was the gentlest, meekest, and most tender of men, “Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” God offers mercy to men and women, but he has chosen to offer it in only one channel through that God-man who died for sinners, the Just for the unjust, that, he might bring them to God.

For this reason forgiveness comes to us alone through Jesus Christ. The whole method of redemption supplies us with an answer. The man Christ Jesus is a Divine Person. He is the Son of God. You will never doubt that reconciliation is an effect of infinite wisdom when you once clearly understand the condition that made it essential. Even though Christ’s people were objects of God’s everlasting love, their sins had kindled his fierce anger, as it were an unquenchable fire. Inasmuch as God is just, he must by the necessity of his nature punish sin. Yet he willed to have mercy on sinful men and women. Therefore it was the reason that Christ came into this world. Being God, he was made man for our sakes. He suffered the wrath of God that we, the offending sinners, ought to have suffered. God exacted from the man Christ Jesus that which he must otherwise have exacted from us. Upon the dear faithful head of Christ was laid the curse; upon his bare back fell the scourge that should have tortured our souls throughout eternity; those hands of his, when nailed to the cross, felt the excruciating agony that should have been ours; that heart bled with our bleeding. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” [Isaiah 53:5 ] “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” [Isaiah 53:4 ]

Substitution, then, is the cause of it all. God will forgive sin because the sin which he forgives has been already atoned for by the sufferings of his dear Son.

You know, many of you, the story, in old Roman history, of the young soldier who had disobeyed the orders of the officers over him, and was condemned to die. But his elder brother, a noble and decorated old soldier, who had often been on the front lines in the battles of his country, came and exposed his chest, and showed his many scars, and exhibited his old uniform covered with the insignias, and honors of his victories, and he said, “I cannot ask for my brother’s life on account of anything good that he has ever done; he deserves to die, I know, but I set my scars and my wounds before you as the price of his life, and I ask you whether you will not spare him for his brother’s sake;” and with applause, it was decided that for his brother’s sake he should live.

Sinner, this is what Christ, does for you. He points to his scars, he pleads before the throne of God, “I have suffered the vengeance due to sin; I have honored your righteous law; for my sake have mercy upon these unworthy brothers and sisters of mine!” In this way, and in no other way, is forgiveness of sins preached to you through this man Christ Jesus.

It is our business also to preach to you the instrument through which you may obtain this pardon .

I can read the question in your anxious eyes, you are asking, “I can understand that Christ, having stood as a Substitute, has received from God, the power to pardon human souls, but how can I obtain the pardon, how can I draw near to him?”

Have you never read what Moses said about the righteousness of faith, and Paul endorsed his description, “The righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” [Romans 10:6-7 ] But rather, it says, “The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the Word of faith we are proclaiming” [Romans 10:8 ].

You have no need to go home to your closet to talk with Christ. You have no need even to come here to find him. He is accessible at every hour, and in every place the ever-present Son of God. “But what is the way that I am suppose to come to him?” says one. Oh! you don’t need to mutilate or torture your body: you don’t need to afflict your soul; you don’t need to bring your gold and silver; you don’t even need to shed tears. All that you have to do is to come to him as you are, and trust in him. Oh! if you will believe that he is the Son of God, and is able to save you completely, and if you will cast yourself on him with your whole weight, falling upon him, leaning upon him, resting upon him, being totally humble before him, showing that you are depending on nothing and no one else for salvation, then you will be saved. Now cling to the cross, you shipwrecked sinner, and you will never go down while clinging to that. If you are enabled by the Holy Spirit to put your complete and simple trust in Christ, then earth’s mountains may shake, and the stars of heaven be extinguished, but you will never perish, neither will anyone ever pluck you out of Christ’s hand. Trust Jesus; that is the way of salvation. “What!” says one, “if I trust Christ today, will I have my sins forgiven?” Yes, forgiven this morning. “What! if I just rest in Christ, and look to him?” Even so. “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

“There is life for a look at the crucified One,

You will be saved, not by sorrowful tears; not by wailings and good works; not by doing and praying; but coming, believing, simply depending upon what Jesus Christ has done. When your soul says by faith what Christ said in fact, “It is finished,” you are saved, and you may go on your way rejoicing.

We have thus preached God’s way of pardon, and man’s way of getting God’s pardon; but we are also commanded to preach about the character of this forgiveness of sin .

Never had messengers such happy tidings to deliver. When God pardons a person’s sins, he pardons them all; he makes a clean sweep of the whole. God never pardons half a person’s sins, and leaves the rest in his book. He has pardoned all of our sins at once. I believe that, virtually, before God, all the sins of the believer were so laid to the account of Christ that no sins ever can be laid to the believer’s door. The apostle does not say, “Who does lay anything to the charge of God’s elects” but “Who will ?” as though nobody ever could. I am inclined to think that these [Kent’s] words are literally true,

“Here’s pardon for transgressions past;

It is a full pardon .

God takes his pen, and writes a receipt. Though the debt may be a hundred talents, he can write it off; or if it is ten thousand, the same hand can receipt it. Luther tells us of the devil appearing to him in a dream, and bringing before him the long rolls of his sins, and when he brought them, Luther said, “Now write at the bottom, ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin:’” oh! that blessed word “all” “from all sin,” great sins and little sins; sins of our youth, and sins of our old age; sins committed at night, and sins committed during the day; sins of action, and sins of thought, are gone! Blessed Savior! Precious blood! Omnipotent Redeemer! The Mighty Red Sea that thus drowns every Egyptian!

It is a full pardon, and it is likewise a free pardon .

God never pardons any sinner from any other motive than his own pure grace. It is all free of cost. It cost the Savior a great amount, but it costs us nothing. It is a pardon freely given by a God of grace, because he delights in mercy.

There is, too, this further blessing about it, that, while it is full and free, it is also everlasting !

Whoever God pardons, he never condemns. Once God says, “I absolve you,” then no one can lay anything to our charge. We have heard of men who have been pardoned for one offense, but who have committed another, and have therefore had to die; but when the Lord pardons us, he prevents us from going back to our old life of sin and corruption. He puts his Spirit in us, and makes us new creations, so that we find we cannot do what we used to do. That mighty grace of God is without repentance; God never repents of having bestowed his grace. Do not believe those who tell you that he loves you today, and can hate you tomorrow. O beloved! once you are in Christ, the devil cannot get you out of him. Get into the sacred clefts, sinner, into that Rock of Ages which was cleft for you, and no demon, nor the devil himself, can ever drag you out. You are safe when once you get into that harbor. Get Christ, and you, have got heaven.

All things are yours when Christ is yours; full pardon, free pardon, and everlasting pardon; and let me also tell you, it is a present pardon .

There are those that will try to tell you that you cannot know you are forgiven until you come to die. O beloved! when people talk like that, it simply shows what they know, or rather, what they don’t know about it. There are some here who can bear witness; no, there are millions of God’s people who, if they could speak from heaven, would tell you this, “We knew our pardon many years before we entered into rest.”

My friends, if you had ever been locked up in prison, as some of us were, and had been set free, you would know what present pardon is. Five long years it was with me a bitter agony of soul, when nothing but, hell stared me in the face, when I had no peace neither night nor day, and oh, what joy it was when I heard that precious truth, “Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth;” I felt the pardon really fall on me! I was as conscious of pardon as this hand is conscious of being clean after I have washed it, and as conscious of being accepted in Christ in that moment, as I am now sure that I am able to stand here and say as much with my mouth. A person may have this infallible witness of the Holy Spirit. I know that, to some emotionless minds, it will always seem like fanaticism; but what, do I care whether it seems like fanaticism to them or not, as long as it is real to my heart?

We consider ourselves as honest as others, and have as much right to be believed; whether they credit our sanity and our sincerity or not does not affect us one bit, so long as we know that we have received the grace.

If you receive a clear profit of ten thousand dollars [pounds] from some investment, and somebody said to you, “That’s nothing but foolishness;” the proof would be unanswerable if you had received the amount, and had the money to prove it. Then you would say, “Oh! you may think whatever you want about it, but I have the cash.”

So Christians can say, “Being justified by faith, we have peace: with God; ... and not only that, but we also have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” When someone tells a Christian that he is not forgiven, he says, “Oh! you may say what you like about it; but I have the witness within that I am born of God. I am not what I used to be; if I were to meet myself in the street, I would hardly know myself; I mean my spiritual self, my inner self, for I am so changed, so renewed, so turned upside down that I am not what I was, I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.” The person who can say this can bear to be laughed at. They know what they are all about, and at the most sober moment of their life, even when lying on their bed sick and ready to die, they can look right into eternity, soberly judge Christ, and find him to be worthy of their confidence, and, thinking of the blood-washing, find it to be a real fact. There are a thousand things in this world that look good enough until you come to look at them from the viewpoint of the grave; but this pardon from our sins looks better the closer we get to eternity, and the more solemnly and deliberately we take our account of it in the sight of God.

Oh, yes! There is a present pardon; but what I want to say most emphatically is, that there is a present pardon for you . Yes, for you!

If anyone among you will come and trust Christ, there is present pardon for you. What! That gray-headed man over there, seventy years old in sin? Yes, blessed be the name of the Lord, if he this morning should rest, in Christ, there is an instantaneous pardon for him! And is there a prostitute here today? Is there a drunkard here? Is there one here who has cursed God? Is there one here who has been dishonest? Is there one here over whom all these sins have rolled? Why, if you believe in Christ, then your sins, which are many, will all be forgiven you. And even if there in one here that is so guilty of the vilest sin, that we all might want to turn away from them, if they will only trust Christ, Christ will not turn away from them, but will receive them. Oh! Wasn’t that a wonderful moment when the Savior wrote on the ground, as the woman caught in adultery stood before him, when all her accusers, being convicted by their own consciences, walked away, leaving the sinner and the Savior alone together, and when Jesus Christ, who hated all kinds of sin, but who loved all kinds of sinners, stood up and said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more”?

Oh! Poor sinner, Jesus Christ does not condemn you. If you condemn yourselves, he will never condemn you. He will only condemn your sin, for that is what he hates, but he does not hate you. If you and your sins part, Christ and you will never part. If you will only trust him now, you will find him able to completely save you from all your sins, which have become your plague and your burden. God help you, then, to immediately trust him right now, and to find this present pardon, this pardon which will last you forever, and which you may have right now!

Now, as I said before, all this will be good news only to those who want to be pardoned, and not to those, who do not require it. I have nothing to say to those who do not want it; why should I? They that believe that they are not sick have no need of the physician, but for those that know they are sick, God will have something to say to you, one of these days.

I remember, and I hope you have not forgotten, the story of the rich man [Luke 16:19-31 ]. It is more than an allegory, it is a true story. You know that, while he was in this world, he lived in luxury everyday. He was dressed in purple and fine linen, and as for God’s child Lazarus, the rich man thought, he was a poor miserable, beggar, only fit to be with the dogs, and he despised him. He looked at him, and said, “Oh! I am a gentleman; I am dressed in purple and fine linen; I am not part of your beggarly saints that sit on the dunghill, though they call themselves saints, and all that; I am rich.”

Now, the truth of the matter is that he did not see himself as he truly was; he had scales all over his eyes. But he found out the truth one day. You remember Christ’s words, “In hell, where the rich man was in torment, he looked up!” Oh! and he saw then what he had never seen before. All that he had ever seen before had been a deception; he had been confused and blind. He had been the beggar the one in great need, all along, if he had only known it; while Lazarus, who had wore beggar’s clothes, was waited on like a prince and carried by angels into heaven. So, the poor beggar, covered with sores, who thinks he is only fit for the dunghill, he is the man Christ will save, he is the man Christ will take up into heaven in the end. As for the self-righteous persons, who think themselves so good and excellent, they will see that all their external glitter will be completely burned up in the fire; the varnish and paint will all come off; God will knock the masks off their faces, and let the leprosy that was on their forehead be seen by everyone. But, sinner, you who are lost in your sin and corruption, and who know it, to you is preached this morning the forgiveness of sins, through the God-man Christ Jesus.

II. I will now proceed to remind you of THE CONGREGATION TO WHICH PAUL ADDRESSED HIMSELF AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM.

The text says, “ The forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you .” Never mind the Jews and Gentiles Paul preached to; the verse is just as applicable here today as it was then. “ The forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you .”

My dear friend, it is no small privilege to be where the message of the forgiveness of sins can still be heard.

The forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you ; but not to the many millions who have gone the way of all flesh, unforgiven and unsaved. How is it that you are spared? Your brother is dead; your children have, some of them, died; but you are spared. You have been at sea. You have been in danger. You have had a serious disease. You have been near death; and yet here you are kept alive, with death so near. Isn’t this a great privilege that the forgiveness of sins has been preached to you? What would those in hell at this very moment give to hear it preached once more? What would they give to have another opportunity to put their faith in Christ?

But it has been said of them,

“Too late, too late! you cannot enter now.”

“ The forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you .” I said that this was a privilege; but it is a privilege which some of you, have despised .

Those who heard Paul, had never heard the gospel before; many of you have heard it ever since your childhood. Sadly! I cannot help saying of some of you that I am ready to despair of your conversion. You do not advance in the Christian faith. All the exhortations in the world are to you as if they were spoken to a brick wall! Why will you die! What will happen to you? What will be said to you? The forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you today! When you die, foolish, Christless, unsaved when the first bit of dirt is thrown on your coffin, we will have to think to ourselves, “Oh, that person is lost and in hell, and yet the forgiveness of sins was preached to them!”

Well, today, right now, it is still being preached to you. Despite the fact that you have continued to neglect the privilege, the gospel is still being preached to you. I wish I could point my finger to some of you, and say, “Well, now, I really do mean you personally. You people way in the back of the church, whom I can barely see, and you upstairs in the balcony, every one of you to you, is preached the forgiveness of sins. God has not sent me today to preach to your neighbors, but to you you, Mary, Thomas, George, John, Sarah you, yes you personally to you is preached the forgiveness of sins, and it is with you now, today, to consider what reception will be given to this message of mercy. Will a hard heart be the only answer? Oh, may the Spirit of God come upon you, and give instead a convicted conscience and a tender heart, that you may be led to say, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”

Do you ask, “ What became of those who listened to Paul preach the Word with such gripping seriousness? ”

Some of them became very angry and hostile at the message and the messenger. If you read through the chapter, you will find that the Jews were filled with envy, and they spoke against those things that were declared to them by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming, and so on, until Paul shook the dust off of his feet against them, and went his way.

But there was another class of people. The 48th verse says, “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the Word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” [Acts 13:48 ]. Oh, there is the comfort! There are some, whenever the gospel is preached, who do not like it. A person was once very angry with me because, in preaching on the natural depravity of man, I had charged mankind with being depraved, and I had said that man was proud. This one particular man would not confess it, and there he was proving the truth of the assertion as it was in regards to the fact that he was proud, because, he could not bear to hear the truth about himself. If he had said he was proud, I would have thought I had made a mistake; but when he got angry, I knew that God had sent me to tell him the truth. Outspoken truth makes half the world angry. The light blinds their eyes.

When the Jews resisted and fought against Paul’s preaching, did Paul feel disappointed? Oh, no or if he did feel depressed for a moment, there was a strong remedy at hand that very thing which caused Jesus to rejoice in His spirit as he saw the grace of the Father in revealing unto babes those things that are hidden from the wise and prudent. Here was Paul’s comfort there were some on whom there had been a blessed work; there were some whose names were written in the Book of Life, some concerning whom there had been covenant transactions; some whom God had chosen from before the creation of the universe; some whom Christ had bought with his blood, and whom the Holy Spirit, therefore, came to claim as God’s own property, because Christ had bought them upon the bloody cross, and those “some” believed. Naturally they were like others, but grace made the distinction, and their faith was the sign and evidence of that distinction.

Now, you needn’t ask today whether you are God’s elect. I ask another question Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? If you do, you are his elect, if you do not, the question is still not to be decided by us. If you are God’s chosen ones, you will know it by your trusting in Jesus. Simple as that trust is, it is the infallible proof of election. God never gives the gift of faith to a soul whom Christ has not bought with his blood; and if you believe, all eternity is yours; your name is in God’s Book you are a favored one of heaven; the divine decrees all point to you; go your way, and rejoice.

But if you don’t believe, you are full of bitterness and in the shackles of iniquity. May eternal mercy bring you out of that state, yes, bring you out of it this morning! Oh, that I had the power to plead with some here who know that Christ died, who know that he can save, who know the gospel, but who still do not trust in that gospel for their salvation! Oh, may you be led to do it, and to do it, now, before this day is over! We want and pray for the conversion of many more beside you. If we had these souls given to us, what a token for good it would be, and what a comfort! May the Lord bring you in, and bring you in this morning! Oh, trust him, soul, trust him! May God help you to trust him, and his will be the praise, world without end! Amen.

Verse 49

Gospel Missions A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 27, 1856, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. On behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society.

"And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region." Acts 13:49 .

I SHALL not confine myself to the text. It being an old custom to take texts when we preach, I have taken one, but I shall address you, at large, upon a subject which I am sure will occupy your attention, and has done for many days and years past the subject of gospel missions. We feel persuaded that all of you are of one mind in this matter, that it is the absolute duty as well as the eminent privilege of the Church to proclaim the gospel to the world. We do not conceive that God will do his own work without instruments, but that, as he has always employed means in the work of the regeneration of this world, he will still continue to do the same, and that it becomes the Church to do its utmost to spread the truth wherever it can reach the ear of man. We have not two opinions on that point. Some churches may have, but we have not. Our doctrines, although they are supposed to lead to apathy and sloth, have always proved themselves to be eminently practical; the fathers of the mission were all zealous lovers of the doctrines of the grace of God; and we believe, the great supporters of missionary enterprise, if it is to be successful, must always come from those who hold God's truth firmly and boldly, and yet have fire and zeal with it, and desire to spread it everywhere. But there is a point on which we have great division of opinion, and that is as to the reason why we have had so little success in our missionary labours. There may be some who say the success has been proportionate to the agency, and that we could not have been more successful. I am far from being of their opinion, and I do not think they themselves would express it on their knees before Almighty God. We have not been successful to the extent we might have expected, certainly not to an apostolic extent, certainly with nothing like the success of Paul or Peter, or even of those imminent men who have preceded us in modern times, and who were able to evangelize whole countries, turning thousands to God. Now, what is the reason of this? Perhaps we may turn our eyes on high, and think we find that reason in the sovereignty of God, which hath withholden his Spirit, and hath not poured out his grace as aforetime. I shall be prepared to grant all men may say on that point, for I believe in the ordination of everything by Almighty God. I believe in a present God in our defeats as well as in our successes; a God as well in the motionless air as in the careering tempest; a God of ebbs as well as a God of floods. But still we must look at home for the cause. When Zion travails, she brings forth children; when Zion is in earnest, God is in earnest about his work; when Zion is prayerful, God blesses her. We must not, therefore, arbitrarily look for the cause of our failure in the will of God, but we must also see what is the difference between ourselves and the men of Apostolic times, and what it is that renders our success so trifling in comparison with the tremendous results of Apostolic preaching. I think I shall be able to show one or two reasons why our holy faith is not so prosperous as it was then. In the first place, we have not Apostolic men ; in the second place, they do not set about their work in an Apostolic style ; in the third place, we have not Apostolic churches to back them up; and in the fourth place, we have not the Apostolic influence of the Holy Ghost . in the measure which they had it in ancient times. In the first place, we have not men with Apostolic zeal . Converted in a most singular way, by a direct interposition from heaven, Paul, from that time forward became an earnest man. He had always been earnest, in his sin and in his persecutions; but after he heard that voice from heaven, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and had received the mighty office of an apostle, and had been sent forth a chosen vessel to the Gentiles, you can scarce conceive the deep, the awful earnestness which he manifested. Whether he did eat, or drink, or whatsoever he did, he did all for the glory of his God; he never wasted an hour; he was employing his time either in ministering with his own hands unto his necessities, or else lifting those hands in the Synagogue, on Mars-hill, or anywhere where he could command the attention of the multitude. His zeal was so earnest, and so burning, that he could not (as we unfortunately do) restrain himself within a little sphere; but he preached the Word everywhere. It was not enough for him to have it handed down that he was the Apostle of Pisidia, but he must go also to Pamphylia; it was not enough that he should be the great preacher of Pamphylia and Pisidia, but he must go also to Attalia; and when he had preached throughout all Asia, he must needs take ship to Greece, and preach there also. I believe not once only did Paul hear in his dream the men of Macedonia saying, "Come over and help us," but every day and hour he heard the cry in his ears from multitudes of souls, "Paul, Paul, come over and help us." He could not restrain himself from preaching. "Woe is unto me" he said "if I preach not the gospel. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ." Oh! if you could have seen Paul preach, you would not have gone away as you do from some of us, with half a conviction, that we do not mean what we say. His eyes preached a sermon without his lips, and his lips preached it, not in a cold and frigid manner, but every word fell with an overwhelming power upon the hearts of his hearers. He preached with power, because he was in downright earnest. You had a conviction, when you saw him, that he was a man who felt he had a work to do and must do it, and could not contain himself unless he did do it. He was the kind of preacher whom you would expect to see walk down the pulpit stairs straight into his coffin, and then stand before his God, ready for his last account. Where are the men like that man? I confess I cannot claim that privilege, and I seldom hear a solitary sermon which comes up to the mark in earnest, deep, passionate longing for the souls of men. Then, again, I take it we have not men in our days who can preach like Paul as to their faith . What did Paul do? He went to Philippi; did he know a soul there? Not one. He had his Master's truth, and he believed in the power of it. He was unattended and devoid of pomp, or show, or parade; he did not go to a pulpit with a soft cushion in it to address a respectable congregation, but he walked through the streets and began to preach to the people. He went to Corinth, to Athens, alone, single-handed, to tell the people the gospel of the blessed God. Why? Because he had faith in the gospel and believed it would save souls, and hurl down idols from their thrones. He had no doubt about the power of the gospel; but now-a-days, my brethren, we have not faith in the gospel we preach. How many there are who preach gospel, which they are afraid will not save souls; and, therefore, they add little bits of their own to it in order, as they think, to win men to Christ! We have known men who believed Calvinistic doctrines, but who preached Calvinism in the morning and Arminianism in the evening, because they were afraid God's gospel would not convert sinners, so they would manufacture one of their own. I hold that a man who does not believe his gospel to be able to save men's souls, does not believe it all. If God's truth will not save men's souls, man's lies cannot; if God's truth will not turn men to repentance, I am sure there is nothing in this world that can. When we believe the gospel to be powerful, then we shall see it is powerful. If I walk into this pulpit, and say, "I know what I preach is true," the world says I am an egotist. "The young man is dogmatical." Ay, and the young man means to be; he glories in it, he keeps it to himself as one of his peculiar titles, for he does most firmly believe what he preaches. God forbid that I should ever come tottering up the pulpit stairs to teach anything I was not quite sure of, something which I hoped might save sinners, but of which I was not exactly certain. When I have faith in my doctrines, those doctrines will prevail, for confidence is the winner of the palm. He who hath courage enough to grasp the standard, and hold it up, will be sure enough to find followers. He who says, "I know," and asserts it boldly in his Master's name, without disputing, will not be long before he will find men who will listen to what he says, and who will say, "This man speaks with authority, and not as the Scribes and Pharisees." That is one reason why we do not succeed: we have not faith in the gospel. We send educated men to India in order to confound the learned Brahmins. Nonsense! Let the Brahmins say what they like, have we any business to dispute with them? "Oh, but they are so intellectual and so clever." What have we to do with that? We are not to seek to be clever in order to meet them. Leave the men of the world to combat their metaphysical errors; we have merely to say, "This is truth: he that believeth it shall be saved, and he that denieth it shall be damned." We have no right to come down from the high ground of divine authoritative testimony; and until we maintain that ground, and come out as we ought to do, girded with the belt of divinity preaching not what may be true, but asserting that which God has most certainly revealed we shall not see success. We want a deeper faith in our gospel; we want to be quite sure of what we preach. Brethren, I take it we have not the faith of our fathers. I feel myself a poor drivelling thing in point of faith. Why, methought sometimes I could believe anything; but now a little difficulty comes before me, I am timid, and I fear. It is when I preach with unbelief in my heart that I preach unsuccessfully; but when I preach with faith and can say, "I know my God has said, that in the self-same hour he will give me what I shall preach, and careless of man's esteem, I preach what I believe to be true," then it is that God owns faith and crowns it with his own crown. But I hear some one whispering, "You ought to make a little allowance." My dear friend, I make all allowance. I am not finding fault with those brethren; they are a good sort of people; we are "all honorable men;" but I will only say, that in comparison with Paul, we are less than nothing, and vanity; little insignificant Lilliputian creatures, who can hardly be seen in comparison with those gigantic men of old. II. In the second place, WE DO NOT GO ABOUT OUR WORK IN AN APOSTOLIC STYLE. How is that? Why, in the first place, there is a general complaint that there is not enough preaching by ministers and missionaries. They sit down interpreting, establishing schools, and doing this, that, and the other. We have nothing to find fault with in this; but that is not the labour to which they should devote themselves; their office is preaching, and if they preached more, they might hope for more success. The missionary Chamberlain preached once at a certain place, and years afterwards disciples were found there from that one sermon. Williams preached wherever he went, and God blessed him; Moffat preached wherever he went, and his labours were owned. Now we have our churches, our printing-presses, about which a great deal of money is spent. This is doing good, but it is not doing the good . We are not using the means which God has ordained, and we cannot therefore expect to prosper. Some say there is too much preaching now-a-days, in England. Well, it is the tendency of the times to decry preaching, but it is "the foolishness of preaching" which is to change the world. It is not for men to say, "If you preached less, you might study more." Study is required well enough if you have a settled church; but the Apostles needed no study, I apprehend, but they stood up and delivered out the simple cardinal truths of religion, not taking one text, but going through the whole catalogue of truth. So I think, in itinerant evangelical labours, we are not bound to dwell on one subject, for then we need to study, but we shall find it profitable to deal out the whole truth wherever we go. Thus we should always find words to hand, and truths ever ready to teach the people. But there is one passage in the Bible which seems to militate against what I have said, if the common translation be true the passage which says that Paul "disputed in the school of one Tyrannus." But this is better rendered in English, he "dialogued in the school of one Tyrannous." Albert Barnes says, that "disputed is not a happy translation," for there is no such idea conveyed by the word. Jesus, when he preached, "dialogued." When the man came and said to him, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" he "dialogued" with him. When another said unto him, "Speak, Lord, unto my brother, that he divide with me the inheritance," Christ did not dispute with him, but he "dialogued." His usual style was to address the people, and but rarely to dispute with men. We might give up all the books that have been written in defence of Christianity if we would but preach Christ, if, instead of defending the outposts, we were to say, "God will take care of them," and were at once to make a sortie on the enemy; then by God's Holy Spirit we should carry everything before us. O, Church of God! believe thyself invincible, and thou art invincible; but stay to tremble, and fear, and thou art undone. Lift up thy head and say, "I am God's daughter; I am Christ's bride." Do not stop to prove it, but affirm it; march through the land, and kings and princes shall bow down before thee, because thou hast taken thine ancient prowess and assumed thine ancient glory. III. But I have a third thing to say which will strike home to some of us: that is, that WE HAVE NOT APOSTOLIC CHURCHES. Oh! had you seen an Apostolic church, what a different thing it would appear to one of our churches! as different, I had almost said, as light from darkness, as different as the shallow bed of the brook that is dried by summer is from the mighty rolling river, ever full, ever deep and clear, and ever rushing into the sea. Now, where is our prayerfulness compared with theirs? I trust that we know something of the power of prayer here, but I do not think we pray like they did. "They broke bread from house to house, and did eat their meat with singleness of heart, giving glory to God." There was not a member of the Church, as a rule, who was half-hearted; they gave their souls wholly to God; and when Anaias and Sapphira divided the price, they were smitten with death for their sin. Oh! if we prayed as deeply and as earnestly as they did, we should have as much success. Any measure of success we may have had here has been entirely owing under God to your prayers; and wherever I have gone, I have boasted that I have a praying people. Let other ministers have as prayerful a people; let missionaries have as many prayers from the Church, and, all things being equal, God will bless them, and there will be greater prosperity than ever. IV. But lastly, as the result of the other things which have gone before, and perhaps partly as the cause of them too, WE HAVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THAT MEASURE WHICH ATTENDED THE APOSTLES. I see no reason whatever, why, this morning, if God willed it, I should not stand up and preach a sermon which should be the means of converting every soul in the place. I see no reason why I should not, tomorrow, preach a sermon which should be the means of the salvation of all who heard it, if God the Spirit were poured out. The word is able to convert, just as extensively as God the Spirit pleases to apply it; and I can see no reason why, if converts come in by ones and twos now, there should not be a time when hundreds and thousands shall come to God. The same sermon which God blesses to ten if he pleased he could bless to a hundred. I know not but that in the latter days when Christ shall come and shall begin to take the kingdom to himself, every minister of God shall be as successful as Peter on the day of Pentecost. I am sure the Holy Spirit is able to make the word successful, and the reason why we do not prosper is that we have not the Holy Spirit attending us with might and energy as they had then. My brethren, if we had the Holy Spirit upon our ministry, it would signify very little about our talent. Men might be poor and uneducated; their words might be broken and ungrammatical; there might be no polished periods of Hall, or glorious thunders of Chalmers; but if there were the might of the Spirit attending them, the humblest evangelists would be more successful than the most pompous of divines, or the most eloquent of preachers. It is extraordinary grace , not talent, that wins the day; extraordinary spiritual power, not extraordinary mental power. Mental power may fill a chapel; but spiritual power fills the Church. Mental power may gather a congregation; spiritual power will save souls. We want spiritual power. Oh! we know some before whom we shrink into nothing as to talent, but who have no spiritual power, and when they speak they have not the Holy Spirit with them; but we know others, simple hearted worthy men who speak their country dialect, and who stand up to preach in their country place, and the Spirit of God clothes every word with power; hearts are broken, souls are saved, and sinners are born again. Spirit of the living God! we want thee. Thou art the life, the soul; thou art the source of thy people's success; without thee they can do nothing, with thee they can do everything. "Thus I have tried to show you what I conceive to be the causes of our partial non-success. And now permit me, with all earnestness, to plead with you on behalf of Christ and Christ's Holy Gospel, that you would stir yourselves up to renewed efforts for the spread of his truth, and to more earnest prayers, that his kingdom may come, and his will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. Ah! my friends, could I show you the tens of thousands of spirits who are now walking in outer darkness; could I take you to the gloomy chamber of hell, and show you myriads upon myriads of heathen souls in utterable torture, not having heard the word, but being justly condemned for their sins; methinks you could ask yourselves, "Did I do anything to save these unhappy myriads? They have been damned, and can I say I am clear of their blood?" Oh! God of mercy, if these skirts be clear of my fellow creatures' blood, I shall have eternal reason to bless thee in heaven. Oh! Church of Christ! thou hast great reason to ask thyself whether thou art quite clean in this matter. Ye say too often, ye sons of God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Ye are too much like Cain; ye do not ask yourselves whether God will require your fellow-creatures blood at your hands. Oh! there is a truth which says, "If the watchman warn them not, they shall perish, but their blood will he require at the watchman's hands." Ah! there ought to be more of us who are preaching to the heathen, and yet, perhaps, we are indolent and doing little or nothing. There are many of you, yea all of you, who ought to be doing far more than you are for evangelical purposes and the spread of Christ's gospel. Oh! put this question to your hearts; shall I be able to say to the damned spirit if he meets me in hell, "Sinner, I did all I could for thee?" I am afraid some will have to say, "No, I did not; it is true I might have done more; I might have laboured more, even though I might have been unsuccessful, but I did not do it." AH, my dear friends, I believe there is a great reason for some of us to suspect whether we believe our religion at all. An infidel once met a Christian. "Because," said the other, "for years you have passed me on my way to my house of business. You believe, do you not, there is a hell, into which men's spirit are cast?" "Yes, I do," said the Christian. "And you believe that unless I believe in Christ I must be sent there?" "Yes." "You do not, I am sure, because if you did you must be a most inhuman wretch to pass me, day by day, and never tell me about it or warn me of it." I do hold that there are some Christians who are verily guilty in this matter; God will forgive them, the blood of Christ can even wash that out, but they are guilty. Did you ever think of the tremendous value of a single soul. My hearers, if there were but one man in Siberia unsaved, and all the world were saved besides, if God should move our minds, it would be worth while for all the people in England to go after that one soul. Did you ever think of the value of a soul? Ah! ye have not heart the howls and yells of hell; ye have not heard the mighty songs and hosannas of the glorified; ye have no notion of what eternity is, or else ye would know the value of a soul. Ye who have been broken by conviction, humbled by the Spirit, and led to cry for mercy through the covenant Jesus; ye know something of what a soul's value is, but many of my hearers do not. Could we preach carelessly, could we pray coldly, if we knew what a precious thing it is about which we are concerned? No, surely we should be doubly in earnest that God will please to save sinners. I am sure the present state of affairs cannot go on long; we are doing next to nothing; Christianity is at a low ebb. People think it will never be much better; that it is clear impossible to do wonders in these days. Are we in a worse condition than the Roman Catholic nations were when one man, a Luther, preached? Then God can find a Luther now. We are not in a much worse state than when Whitfield began to preach, and yet God can find his Whitfields now. It is a delusion to suppose that we cannot succeed as they did. God helping us we will; God helping us by his Spirit we will see greater things than this, at any rate, we will never let God's Church rest if we do not see it prosper, but we will enter our earnest hearty protest against the coldness and lethargy of the times, and as long as this our tongue shall move in our mouth, we will protest against the laxity and false doctrine so rampant throughout the Churches, and then that happy double reformation a reformation in doctrine and Spirit, will be brought about together. Then God knoweth but what we shall say, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows," and ere long the shout of Christ shall be heard. He, himself, shall descend from heaven; and we shall hear it said and sung, "Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."