Bible Commentaries
Nahum 1

Verse 3

Two Sermons: "What are the Clouds?" and "Mercy, Omnipotence, and Justice"

Do Not Fear Disasters (Originally titled: What Are the Clouds?)

August 19, 1855 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

“Clouds are the dust of his feet.” Nahum 1:3

© Copyright 2005 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:

It is possible for a man to read too many books. We will not despise learning, we will book undervalue education, such achievements are very desirable; and, when his talents are sanctified to God, the man of learning frequently becomes, in the hands of the Spirit, far more useful than the ignorant and the uneducated; but at the same time, if a man acquires his knowledge entirely from books, he will not find himself to be a very wise man. There is such a thing as packing so many books in your brains that they cannot work pouring in piles of type, and letters, and manuscripts, and papers, and pamphlets, and volumes, and books in your head, that your brains are absolutely buried and cannot move at all. I believe that many of us, even as we have sought to learn by books, have neglected those great volumes which God has given us; we have neglected to study this great book, the Bible!

Moreover, perhaps, we have not been careful enough students of the great volume of nature, and we have forgotten that other great book, the human heart. For my own part, I desire to be somewhat a student of the heart; and I think I have learned far more from conversation with my fellowmen than I ever did from reading, and the examination of my own experience, and the workings of my own heart, have taught me far more of humanity than all the intellectually challenging and abstract books I have ever perused. I like to read the book of my fellow creatures; nothing delights me so much as when I see a multitude of them gathered together, or when I have the opportunity of having their hearts poured into mine, and mine into theirs. He will not be a wise man who does not study the human heart, and does not seek to know something of his fellow creatures and of himself. But if there is one book I love to read above all others, next to the book of God, it is the volume of nature.

I don’t care what letters they are that I read, whether they are the golden spellings of the name of God up above in the stars, or whether I read, in rougher lines, his name printed on the raging floods, or see it written in the beauty and awesomeness of the huge mountains, the rushing waterfall, or the quiet forest. Wherever I look in nature I love to discern my Father's name spelled out in living characters; and when I can find any really green fields, I would do as Isaac did, go into the fields in the evening and muse and meditate upon the God of nature. I thought in the cool of last evening. I would reflect on my God, by his Holy Spirit, and see what message he would give me. There I sat and watched the clouds, and learned a lesson in the great hall of Nature's college. The first thought that struck me was this, as I saw the white clouds rolling in the sky that I will soon see my Savior mounted on a great white throne, riding on the clouds of heaven, to call men to judgment. My imagination could easily picture the scene, when the living and the dead would stand before his Great White Throne, and would hear his voice pronounce their eternal destiny. I remembered, moreover, that text in Ecclesiastics , “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap” [Ecclesiastes 11:4 ]. I thought how many times that I and my brother ministers have paid attention to the clouds. We have listened to the voice of prudence and of caution when we have stared at the clouds. We have stopped when we ought to have been sowing because we were afraid of the multitude, or we refused to reap and take in the people into our churches, because some good brother thought we were too quick about the matter. I rose up and thought to myself, I will pay no attention to the clouds nor the winds, but when the wind blows a hurricane I will throw the seed with my hands, if then the hurricane becomes even stronger, and the clouds even darker, still I will reap, and rest assured that God will preserve his own wheat, whether I gather it under the clouds of a hurricane or in the sunshine. And then, when I sat there considering God, thoughts struck me as the clouds rushed along through the skies, thoughts which I must give to you this morning. I trust they were somewhat for my own instruction, and possibly they may be for yours too. “The clouds are the dust of his feet.” I. Well, the first remark I make on this subject will be the way of God is generally hidden.

This we gather from the text, by noting the connection, “The Lord has his way is in the whirlwind [Greek: “hurricane”] and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet” [Nahum 1:3 ]. When God works his wonders he always conceals himself. Even the motion of his feet causes clouds to arise; and if these; clouds are but the dust of his feet,” how deep must be that dense darkness which veils the Eternal God. If the small dust which he causes is of equal magnitude with our clouds if we can find no other figure to image “the dust of his feet” than the clouds of heaven, then, how obscure must be the motions of the Eternal One, how hidden and how shrouded in darkness! This great truth suggested by the text, is well borne out by facts. The ways of God are hidden ones. Cowper was correct when he sang,

“He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.”

His footsteps cannot be seen, for, planted on the sea, the next wave washes them away; and placed in the storm, turbulent and chaotic as the air is then, every impression of his chariot wheels is soon erased. Look at God, and at whatever he has purposed to do, and you will always see him to have been a hidden God. He has concealed himself, and all his ways have been veiled in the strictest mystery. Consider his works of salvation. How did he hide himself when he determined to save mankind? He did not clearly reveal himself to our forefathers. He gave them simply one dim lamp of prophecy which shone in words like these “The offspring [seed] of the woman will crush the serpent’s head [Genesis 3:15 ];” and for four thousand years God concealed his Son in mystery, and no one understood what the Son of God was to be. The smoking incense clouded their eyes, and while it showed something of Jesus, it hid far more. The burning victim sent its smoke up towards the sky, and it was only through the dim mists of the sacrifice that the pious Jew could see the Savior. Angels themselves, we are told, desired to look into the mysteries of redemption, yet though they stood with their eyes intently fixed upon it, until the hour when redemption developed itself on Cavalry, not a single angel could understand it. The profoundest scholar might have sought to find out how God could be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly; but he would have failed in his investigations. The most intensely pious man might meditate, with the help of that portion of God's Spirit which was then given to the prophets, on this mighty subject, and he could not have discovered what the mystery of godliness was ”God manifest in the flesh.” God marched in clouds, “He walked in the whirlwinds [hurricanes];” he did not tell the world what he was about to do; for it is his plan to surround himself in darkness, and “the clouds are the dust of his feet.” Ah! and so it has always been in Providence as well as grace. God never condescends to make things very plain to his creatures. He always does what is right and just; and therefore, he wants his people always to believe by faith that he only does what is right and just. But if he showed them that he did so, there would be no room for their faith. Turn your eye along the page of history, and see how mysterious God’s dealings have been. Who would conceive that Joseph sold into Egypt would be the means of redeeming a whole people from famine? Who would suppose that when an enemy would invade the land, it would be the means of bringing glory to God? Who could imagine that a harlot’s blood should mingle with the genealogy from which came the great Messiah, the King of Israel? Who could have guessed much less could have understood the mighty plan of God? Providence has always been a hidden thing.

“Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will.”

And yet, beloved, you and I always want to know what God is doing. There is a great war taking place somewhere on the earth. We have experienced some great disasters, and we are reading the accounts in the news and saying, “What is God doing there?” What did he do in the last war? What was the benefit of it? We see that even Napoleon was the means of doing good, for he broke down the aristocracy and made all subsequent monarchs respect the power, and the rights of the people. We see what the result was even of that dreaded hurricane, that it swept away a pestilence which would have devoured many more than the storm did. But we ask, “What is God doing with this world?” We want to know what will be the consequences. Suppose we should humble Russia, where would it end? Can Turkey be maintained as a separate kingdom? And ten thousand other questions arise. Beloved, I always think of what the prophet Isaiah tell us in 45:9, that mankind is nothing but clay pots and as a good old friend of mine says let them crack themselves, too, if they like. We will not interfere. If the clay pots want to smash one another, well, then they must. We pray that our country may come off the safest of them all. But we are not much concerned to know the result. We believe that war, as well as everything else, will have a beneficial tendency. We cannot see in history that this world ever went a step backwards. God is ever moving it in its orbit; and it has always progressed even when it seemed to be moving backward. Or, perhaps, you are not troubled about Providence in a nation, you believe that there God does hide himself; but then there are matters that concern you, which you long to see explained. When I was in Glasgow. I visited an immense foundry, one of the largest in Scotland, and there I saw a very powerful steam engine which worked all the machinery in the entire building. I saw in that foundry a countless number of wheels spinning around, some one way and some in another, I could not make out what on earth they were doing. But, I daresay, if my head had been a little wiser, and I had been taught a little more of mechanics, I might have understood what every wheel was doing, though really they seemed only a mass of wheels very busy spinning around and doing nothing. They were all, however, working at something; and if I had stopped and asked “What is that wheel doing?” A mechanic may have said, “It turns another wheel.” “Well, and what is that wheel doing?” “There is another wheel dependent upon that, and that again is dependent on another.” Then, at last, he would have taken me and said, “This is what the whole machinery is doing.” Some heavy bar of iron, perhaps, being grooved and cut, shaped and polished “this is what all the wheels are effecting: but I cannot tell separately what each wheel is doing.”

All things are working together for good; but what each individual thing is doing, would be impossible to explain. Yet, you child of Adam, with your finite intellect, are continually stopping to ask, “Why is this?” The infant lies dead in its crib. Why was infancy snatched away? Oh, ruthless death, could you not gather ripe corn; why snatch the rosebud? Wouldn’t a wreath of withered leaves suit you better than these tender blossoms? Or, you are asking of Providence, why have you taken away my property? Was I not left, by my parents, a wonderful inheritance, and now it has all been swept away! It is all gone; why is this, O God? Why not punish the unjust? Why should the innocent be allowed to suffer this way? Why am I to be stripped of everything I own? Another says, “I launched into a business that was fair and honorable; I intended, if God had prospered me, to devote my wealth to him. I am poor, my business never prospers. Lord, why is this?” And another says, “Here I am working hard from morning till night; and no matter how hard I try I cannot free myself from my business, which takes away so much of my time from religion. I would happily live on less if I had more time to serve my God.” Ah! finite one! do you ask God to explain these things to you? I tell you, God will not do it, and God cannot do it for this reason: you are not capable of understanding it. Should the ant ask the eagle why it flies in the skies? Will the great sea monster the Leviathan be questioned by a minnow? These creatures might explain their actions to other creatures; but the Omnipotent Creator, the uncreated Eternal God, cannot explain himself to mortals whom he has created. We cannot understand him. It is enough for us to know that his way always must be in darkness, and that we must never expect to see and understand much in this world. II. This second thought is GREAT THINGS WITH US ARE LITTLE THINGS WITH GOD.

What great things clouds are to us! There we see them moving through the skies! Then they rapidly increase till the whole sky turns black and a dark shadow is cast upon the world; we foresee the coming storm, and we tremble at the mountains of cloud, for they are great. Are they truly great things? No, they are only the dust of God’s feet. The greatest cloud that ever swept the face of the sky, was but one single particle of dust stirred up by the feet of the Almighty Jehovah. When clouds roll over clouds and the storm is very terrible, it is but the chariot of God, as it speeds along the heavens, raising a little dust around him! “The clouds are the dust of his feet.” Oh! can you grasp this idea my friends, or had I words in which to put it into your souls, I am sure you would sit down in solemn awe of that great God who is our Father, or who will be our Judge. Consider that the greatest things with man are little things with God. We call the mountains great, but what are they? They are but “the dust on the scales” [Isaiah 40:15 ].

We call the nations great, and we speak of mighty empires, but before God the nations are nothing but “a drop in a bucket.” We call the islands great and boast of them yet God’s Word declares that “He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust” [Isaiah 40:15 ]. We speak of great and mighty men and yet God says “The people of the earth [in his sight] are like grasshoppers” [Isaiah 40:22 ]. We talk of huge planets in motion millions of miles from us in God’s sight they are like little atoms dancing up and down in the sunbeam of existence.

Compared with God there is nothing great. True, there are some things which are little with man that are great with God. Such are our sins which we call little, but which are great with him; and his mercies, which we sometimes think are little, he knows are very great mercies towards such great sinners as we are. Things which we consider great are very little with God. If you knew what God thought of our talk sometimes, you would be surprised at yourselves. We have some great trouble enter our lives we become so burdened with it, saying, “O Lord God! what a great trouble I am weighed down with.” Why, I think, God might smile at us, as we do sometimes at a little child who tries to pick up something that is too heavy for it (but which you could hold between your fingers), the child staggers, and says, “Father, what a heavy weight I am carrying.” So there are people who stagger under the great trouble which they think they are bearing. Great, beloved! There are no great troubles at all: “the clouds are the dust of his feet.” If you would only consider them so, the greatest things with you are but little things with God.

Suppose, now, that you had all the troubles of all the people in the world, that they all came pouring down on your head: what are these torrents of trouble to God? “Drops in a bucket.” What are whole mountains of grief to him? Why, “He weighed the mountains on the scales,” as if they were dust. [Isaiah 40:12 ]. And he can easily remove your trials. So, in your weariness, don’t sit down and say, “My troubles are too great.” Listen to the voice of mercy, which says, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall” [Psalms 55:22 ].

You often will hear two Christians talk. One of them will say, “O my troubles, and trials, and sorrows, they are so great I can hardly sustain them; I don’t know how to bear my afflictions from day to day.” The other says, “Ah! my troubles and trials are not less severe, but, nevertheless, they have been less than nothing. I can laugh at impossibilities, and say they will be done.” What is the cause of the difference between these men? The secret is that one of them carried his troubles, and the other did not. It doesn’t matter to a porter how heavy a load may be, if he can find another to carry it all for him. But if he is to carry it all himself, of course he does not like a heavy load. So one man bears his troubles himself and gets his back nearly broken; but the other cast his troubles on the Lord. Ah! it doesn’t matter how heavy troubles are if you can cast them on the Lord. The heavier they are so much the better, for the more you have gotten rid of, then the more there is laid upon the Rock of our salvation. Never be afraid of troubles. However heavy they are, God's eternal shoulders can bear them. He, whose omnipotence is testified by the revolving planets, and systems of enormous galaxies, can well sustain you. Is his arm too short, that he cannot save, or is he weary, that he cannot hold you tightly? Your troubles are nothing to God, for the very “clouds are the dust of his feet.” And this encourages me, I assure you, in the work of the ministry; for any man who has his eyes open to the world at large, will acknowledge that there are many clouds brooding over England, and over the world. I recently received a letter from a gentleman, in which he tells me that he sympathizes with my views concerning the condition of the church at large. I don’t know whether Christendom was ever worse off than it is now. At any rate, I pray to God it may never be. Read the account of the condition of the Suffolk churches where the gospel is somewhat flourishing, and you will be surprised to find that they have had scarcely any increase at all this year. So you may go from church to church, and find scarcely any that are growing. Here and there a chapel is filled with people; here and there you find an earnest minister; here and there an increasing church; here and there a good prayer-meeting; but these are only like green spots. Wherever I have gone through England, I have been always grieved to see how the glory of the Church is under a cloud; how the precious saints of the Church, comparable to fine gold have become like clay pots, the work of a potter’s hands. It is not for me to set myself up as universal judge of the church, but I must be honest and say, that spiritual life, and fire, and zeal, and holiness, seemed to be absent in ten thousand instances. We have abundance of organizations, we have good methods and systems but the church, now-a-days is very much like a large steam engine, without any fire, without any hot water in the boiler, without any steam. There is everything but steam, everything but life. England is veiled in clouds. Not clouds of unfaithfulness. I don’t care one bit for all the infidels in England, and I don’t think it worth Mr. Grant's trouble to go after them. Nor am I afraid of Roman Catholicism for old England. I don’t think she will go back to that I am sure she never will. But, I am afraid of this deadness, this sloth, this indifference, that has come over our churches.

The church needs shaking, like the man on the mountain-top does when the cold numbs him into a deadly slumber. The churches have gone to sleep for the lack of zeal, for the lack of fire. Even those who hold sound doctrine are beginning to slumber. Oh may God stir the church up! One great black cloud, only broken here and there by a few rays of sunlight, seems to be hanging over our happy country. But, beloved, there is comfort, “for the clouds are the dust of his feet.” He can scatter them in a moment. He can raise up his chosen servants, who have only to put their mouth to the trumpet, and one blast will awaken the sleeping sentinels, and startle the sleeping camp. God has only to send out again some evangelist, some flying angel, and the churches will start up once more, and she who has been clothed in sackcloth, will shed her garments of mourning and put on a garment of praise, instead of the spirit of heaviness. The day is coming, I hope, when the Church will sit, not without her diadem, crownless; but with her crown on her head, she will grasp her banner, take up her shield, and, like that heroic maiden of old who roused a whole nation, will go forth conquering and to conquer. We have a great hope, because “the clouds are the dust of his feet.” Yes, and what clouds rest on the world at large! What black clouds of Catholic superstition, Mohammedanism, and idolatry. But what are all these things? We don’t care about them at all, brethren. Some say that I am getting very enthusiastic about the latter-day glory, and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. Well, I don't know. I get all the happier the more enthusiastic I am, so I hope I will keep at it, for I believe there is nothing that so comforts a servant of God as to believe that his Master is coming. I hope to see him. I would not be surprised to see Jesus Christ tomorrow morning. He may come then. “Because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you don’t expect him” [Matthew 24:44 ].

He who learns to watch for Christ, will never be surprised when he comes. Blessed will that servant be, whom, when his Lord comes, he will find busy about his duty. But some say he cannot come yet; there are so many clouds, and so much darkness in the sky, it cannot be expected that the sun will rise yet. Is that a good reason? Do the clouds ever impede the sun? The sun moves on despite all the mists; and Jesus Christ can come clouds or no clouds. We do not need light before he appears; he will come and give us light, afterwards, scattering the darkness with the glory of his own eyes. But you say, “How are these idolatrous systems to be destroyed?” God could do it in an hour if he pleased. Religion never moves by years and weeks. Even false religions grow like mushrooms. False religions attained colossal proportion in a very few years. Take the case of Mohammedanism the new-born faith of Islam became the religion of millions in an incredible short period and if a false religion could spread so quickly, will not a true one run along like fire amidst the stubble, when God will speak the word? Clouds are but “dust of his feet.”

A little while ago some of us were fretting about Mormonism, and we said, “It will never be broken up.” Some stupid fellows in America began to kill the poor Mormonites, and so make them into saints, which was the very way to establish them. Christians trembled, and said, “What can this be? We will have Sodom over again.” But did you read the Times newspaper of last Thursday? You will there see a wonderful instance of how God can scatter the clouds and make them dust of his feet. He has caused to come out of the ground, near Salt Lake, at Utah, thousands of crickets, and all kinds of noxious insects, that devour the crops; creatures that have not been seen in Utah before, with swarms of locusts, have made their appearance; and the people, being so far from civilized nations, cannot of course carry much corn across the desert, so that they will be condemned to starve or else separate and break up. It seems to all appearance that the whole settlement of the Mormonites must entirely be broken up, and that by an army of caterpillars, crickets, and locusts. III. Now, one more remark. “The clouds are the dust of his feet.” Then we learn from that, that THE MOST TERRIBLE THINGS IN NATURE HAVE NO TERROR TO A CHILD OF GOD.

Sometimes clouds are very fearful things to sailors; they expect a storm when they see the clouds and darkness gathering. A cloud to many of us, when it foretells an approaching storm is a very unpleasant thing. But let me read my text, and you will see what I mean by my remark that the most terrible things in nature are not terrible to the saints. The clouds are the dust of HIS feet,” of God's feet. Don’t you see what I mean? There is nothing terrible now, because it is only the dust of my Father's feet. Did you ever know a child who was afraid of the dust of his father's feet? No; if the child sees the dust of his father's feet in the distance, what does he do? He rejoices because it is his father, and runs to meet him. So the most awful things in nature, even the clouds, have lost all their terror to a child of God, because he knows they are but the dust of his Father's feet. If we stand in the midst of the lightning storm, a flash strikes the cedar in the field, or splits the oak of the forest; another flash succeeds, and then another, till the whole sky becomes a sea of flame. We don’t fear, for they are only the flashes of our Father's sword as he waves it in the sky. Listen to the thunder as it shakes the earth and exposes the forests; we don’t shake at the sound.

“The God that rules on high, And thunders when he please, That rides upon the stormy sky, And manages the seas.

“This awful God is ours, Our Father and our love.”

We are not afraid, for we hear our Father's voice. And what favored child ever quaked at his Father's speech. We love to hear that voice; although it is deep, low, loud, yet we love its matchless melody, for it issues from the depths of affection. Put me to sea, and let the ship be driven along, that wind is my Father's breath let the clouds gather, they are the dust of my Father's feet; let the waterspout appear from heaven, it is my Father dipping his hand in the water. The child of God fears nothing. All things are his Father’s; and divested now of everything that is terrible, he can look upon them with complacency, for he says, “The clouds are the dust of his feet.”

“He drives his chariot through the sky, Beneath his feet his thunders roar; He shakes the earth, he veils the sky, My soul, my soul, this God adore He is your Father, and your love.”

Fall down before his feet and worship him, for he has loved you by his grace. You know there are many fearful events which may happen to us; but we are never afraid of them, if we are saints, because they are the dust of his feet. Deadly disease may ravage this fair city once again; and thousands may die, and the funeral procession may be constantly seen in our streets. Do we fear it? No, the pestilence is but one of our Father’s servants, and we are not afraid of it, although it walks in darkness. There may be no wheat, the flocks may be cut off from the herd and the stall; nevertheless, famine and distress are our Father’s doings, and what our Father does we will not view with alarm. There is a man there with a sword in his hand he is an enemy, and I fear him, yet my father has a sword, and I don’t fear him; I rather love to see him have a sword, because I know he will only use it for my protection. But there is to come a sight more grand, more terrific, more sublime, and more disastrous than anything earth has yet witnessed; there is to come a fire before which Sodom's fire will pale to nothingness; and the inferno of continents will sink into less than nothing and vanity. In a few more years, my friends, Scripture assures us, this earth and all that is in it, is to be burned up. That deep molten mass which now lies in the bosom of our mother earth is to burst up the solid matter is be melted down into one vast globe of fire; the wicked shrieking, wailing, and cursing, will become a prey to these flames that will blaze upward from the breast of earth; comets will shoot their fires from heaven; all the lightnings will launch their bolts upon this poor earth, and it will become a mass of fire. But does the Christian fear it? No. Scripture tell us we will be caught up together with the Lord in the air, and will be forever with the Lord. IV. To conclude. The fourth observation is, ALL THINGS IN NATURE ARE CALCULATED TO TERRIFY THE UNGODLY MAN.

I now speak to all the ungodly men and women now present in this place of worship, it is a very solemn fact that you are at enmity with God you are hostile to God; that having sinned against God, God is angry with you not angry with you today, but angry with you every day, angry with you every hour and every moment. It is, moreover, a most sad and solemn fact that there is a day coming, when this anger of God will burst out, and when God will utterly destroy and devour you. Now listen to me for a moment, while I try to make all nature preach to you a solemn warning, and the wide world itself a great high priest, holding up its finger and calling you to flee for mercy to Jesus Christ, the King of kings.

Sinner, have you ever seen the clouds as they roll along the sky? Those clouds are the dust of the feet of Jehovah. If these clouds are but the dust, what is he himself? And then, I ask you, are you not extremely foolish to be at war with such a God as this? If “the clouds are the dust of his feet, how foolish you are to be his enemy. Do you think you can stand before his majesty? I tell you, he will snap your spear as if it were nothing but a reed. Will you hide yourself in the mountains? They will be melted at his presence; and though you cry to the rocks to hide you, they would fail to give you any concealment before his burning eyes. O, do but consider, my dear fellow creatures, you who are at war with God, wouldn’t it be folly if you were to oppose an angel? Would it not be the utmost stupidity if you were to commence a war even with her majesty the Queen? I know it would, because you have no power to stand against them; but consider how much more mighty is the Eternal God. Why, he could put his finger upon you at this moment and crush you as I could an insect. Yet this God is your enemy; you are hating him, you are at war with him!

Moreover, consider, unsaved man and unsaved woman, that you have grievously rebelled against him; that you have incensed his soul, and he is angry, and jealous, and furious against every sinner. Consider what you will do in that great day of wrath, when God will fall upon you. Some of you believe in a god that has no anger, and no hatred towards the wicked. Such a god is not the God of Scripture? He is a God who punishes the ungodly. Let me ask you sinner: Can you stand before his indignation? Can you endure the fierceness of his anger? When his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him, will it be a good thing to be in the hands of the Almighty, who will tear you apart? Will you think it easy to lie down in hell with the breath of the Eternal fanning the flames? Will you delight yourself to think that God will create new torments for you, sinner, to make your doom most cursed if you do not repent and turn to him? What, wicked man and wicked woman, are the terrors of Jehovah nothing to you? Don’t you tremble and shake before the fierceness of his fury? Ah! you may laugh now; you may go away, my listener, and smile at what I have said; but the day will declare it: the hour is coming and it may be soon when the iron hand of the Almighty will be upon you; when all your senses will be the gates of misery, your body the house of weeping, and your soul the epitome of woe. Then you will not laugh and despise God. But now to finish up, let me just give you one word more; for, beloved, why do we use these threats; why do we speak of them? It is only the words of the angel, who, grabbing Lot by the shoulder, said, “Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” [Genesis 19:17 ], and then pointing to the fire behind, said, Run! run! lest the fire overtakes you, and the hail of the Eternal will overwhelm you! We only mentioned that fire behind, that the Spirit might make you flee to the mountain lest you should be consumed. Do you ask where that mountain is? We tell you there is a cleft in the Rock of Ages where the chief of sinners may yet hide himself Jesus Christ came down from heaven for us men and women, in order to provide salvation for us; and whoever here this morning is an unsaved sinner, we now invite to come to Christ. You Pharisees who don’t believe you need a savior, I preach no gospel to you; you self-righteous, self-sufficient ones, I have nothing whatever to say to you, except what I have said the voice of threatening. But, whoever will confess themselves a sinner, has the warrant this morning to come to Jesus Christ. Knowing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior is the gate to salvation. If you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners, Christ died for you. And if you put your trust in him, and believed that he died for you, you may rely upon him, and say, “Lord, I will be saved by your grace.” Your own “good works” are good for nothing; you can get no benefit by them. Your own work is useless; you error like the man in the prison working the treadmill you never get anything by it grinding oyster shells without any benefit to yourself. Come to Jesus Christ. Believe in him; and after you have believed in him, he will set you working working a new work. He will give you works, if you will have but faith even faith is his gift to you. O may he give it to you now, my listeners, for; “He gives generously to all without finding fault” [James 1:5 ]. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and you will be saved.”

Mercy, Omnipotence, and Justice

June 21, 1857 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." - Nahum 1:3 .

Works of art require some education in the beholder, before they can be thoroughly appreciated. We do not expect that the uninstructed should at once perceive the varied excellencies of a painting from some master hand; we do not imagine that the superlative glories of the harmonies of the prince of song will enrapture the ears of clownish listeners. There must be something in the man himself, before he can understand the wonders either of nature or of art. Certainly this is true of character. By reason of failures in our character and faults in our life, we are not capable of understanding all the separate beauties, and the united perfection of the character of Christ, or of God, his Father. Were we ourselves as pure as the angels in heaven, were we what our race once was in the garden of Eden, immaculate and perfect, it is quite certain that we should have a far better and nobler idea of the character of God than we can by possibility attain unto in our fallen state. But you can not fail to notice, that men, through the alienation of their natures, are continually misrepresenting God, because they can not appreciate his perfection. Does God at one time withhold his hand from wrath? Lo, they say that God hath ceased to judge the world, and looks upon it with listless phlegmatic indifference. Does he at another time punish the world for sin? They say he is severe and cruel. Men will misunderstand him, because they are imperfect themselves, and are not capable of admiring the character of God. Now, this is especially true with regard to certain lights and shadows in the character of God, which he has so marvelously blended in the perfection of his nature: that although we can not see the exact point of meeting, yet (if we have been at all enlightened by the Spirit) we are struck with wonder at the sacred harmony. In reading holy Scripture, you can say of Paul, that he was noted for his zeal - of Peter, that he will ever be memorable for his courage - of John, that he was noted for his lovingness. But did you ever notice, when you read the history of our Master, Jesus Christ, that you never could say he was notable for any one virtue at all? Why was that? It was because the boldness of Peter did so outgrow itself as to throw other virtues into the shade, or else the other virtues were so deficient that they set forth his boldness. The very fact of a man being noted for something is a sure sign that he is not so notable in other things; and it is because of the complete perfection of Jesus Christ, that we are not accustomed to say of him that he was eminent for his zeal, or for his love, or for his courage. We say of him that he was a perfect character; but we are not able very easily to perceive where the shadows and the lights blended, where the meekness of Christ blended into his courage, and where his loveliness blended into his boldness in denouncing sin. We are not able to detect the points where they meet; and I believe the more thoroughly we are sanctified, the more it will be a subject of wonder to us how it could be that virtues which seemed so diverse were in so majestic a manner united in one character. It is just the same of God; and I have been led to make the remarks I have made on my text, because of the two clauses thereof which seem to describe contrary attributes. You will notice that there are two things in my text: he is "slow to anger," and yet he "will not at all acquit the wicked." Our character is so imperfect that we can not see the congruity of these two attributes. We are wondering, perhaps, and saying, "How is it he is slow to anger, and yet will not acquit the wicked?" It is because his character is perfect that we do not see where these two things melt into each other - the infallible righteousness and severity of the ruler of the world, and his loving-kindness, his long-suffering, and his tender mercies. The absence of any one of these things from the character of God would have rendered it imperfect; the presence of them all, though we may not see how they can be congruous with each other, stamps the character of God with a perfection elsewhere unknown. And now I shall endeavor this morning to set forth these two attributes of God, and the connecting link. "The Lord is slow to anger;" then comes the connecting link, "great in power." I shall have to show you how that "great in power" refers to the sentence foregoing and the sentence succeeding. And then we shall consider the next attribute - "He will not at all acquit the wicked:" an attribute of justice. I. Let us begin with the first characteristic of God. He is said to be "SLOW TO ANGER." Let me declare the attribute and then trace it to its source. God is "slow to anger." When Mercy cometh into the world, she driveth winged steeds; the axles of her chariot-wheels are glowing hot with speed; but when Wrath cometh, it walketh with tardy footsteps; it is not in haste to slay, it is not swift to condemn. God's rod of mercy is ever in his hands outstretched; God's sword of justice is in its scabbard: not rusted in it - it can be easily withdrawn - but held there by that hand that presses it back into its sheath, crying, "Sleep, O sword, sleep; for I will have mercy upon sinners, and will forgive their transgressions." God hath many orators in heaven; some of them speak with swift words. Gabriel, when he cometh down to tell glad tidings, speaketh swiftly; angelic hosts, when they descend from glory, fly with wings of lightning, when they proclaim, "Peace on earth, good will toward men;" but the dark angel of Wrath is a slow orator; with many a pause between, where melting Pity joins her languid notes, he speaks; and when but half his oration is completed he often stays, and withdraws himself from his rostrum, giving way to Pardon and to Mercy; he having but addressed the people that they might be driven to repentance, and so might receive peace from the scepter of God's love. Brethren, I shall just try to show you now how God is slow to anger. First I will prove that he is "slow to anger;" because he never smites without first threatening.

Men who are passionate and swift in anger give a word and a blow; sometimes the blow first and the word afterward. Oftentimes kings, when subjects have rebelled against them, have crushed them first, and then reasoned with them afterward; they have given no time of threatening, no period of repentance; they have allowed no space for turning to their allegiance; they have at once crushed them in their hot displeasure, making a full end of them. Not so God: he will not cut down the tree that doth much cumber the ground, until he hath digged about it, and dunged it; he will not at once slay the man whose character is the most vile; until he has first hewn him by the prophets he will not hew him by judgments; he will warn the sinner ere he condemn him; he will send his prophets, "rising up early and late," giving him "line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little." He will not smite the city without warning; Sodom shall not perish, until Lot hath been within her. The world shall not be drowned, until eight prophets have been preaching in it, and Noah, the eighth, cometh to prophesy of the coming of the Lord. He will not smite Nineveh until he hath sent a Jonah. He will not crush Babylon till his prophets have cried through its streets. He will not slay a man until he hath given many warnings, by sicknesses, by the pulpit, by providences, and by consequences. He smites not with a heavy blow at once; he threateneth first. He doth not in grace, as in nature, send lightnings first and thunder afterward; but he sendeth the thunder of his law first, and the lightning of execution follows it. The lictor of divine justice carries his axe bound up in a bundle of rods, for he will not cut off men, until he has reproved them, that they may repent. He is "slow to anger." But again: God is also very slow to threaten .

Although he will threaten before he condemns, yet he is slow even in his threatening. God's lips move swiftly when he promises, but slowly when he threatens. Long rolls the pealing thunder, slowly roll the drums of heaven, when they sound the death march of sinners; sweetly floweth the music of the rapid notes which proclaim free grace, and love, and mercy. God is slow to threaten. He will not send a Jonah to Nineveh, until Nineveh has become foul with sin; he will not even tell Sodom it shall be burned with fire, until Sodom has become a reeking dung-hill, obnoxious to earth as well as heaven; he will not drown the world with a deluge, or even threaten to do it, until the sons of God themselves make unholy alliances and begin to depart from him. He doth not even threaten the sinner by his conscience, until the sinner hath oftentimes sinned. He will often tell the sinner of his sins, often urge him to repent; but he will not make hell stare him hard in the face, with all its dreadful terror, until much sin has stirred up the lion from his lair, and made God hot with wrath against the iniquities of man. He is slow even to threaten. But, best of all, when God threatens, how slow he is to sentence the criminal!

When he has told them that he will punish unless they repent, how long a space he gives them, in which to turn unto himself! "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for naught;" he stayeth his hand; he will not be in hot haste, when he hath threatened them, to execute the sentence upon them. Have you ever observed that scene in the garden of Eden at the time of the fall? God had threatened Adam that if he sinned he should surely die. Adam sinned: did God make haste to sentence him? 'Tis sweetly said, "The Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day." Perhaps that fruit was plucked at early morn, mayhap it was plucked at noontide; but God was in no haste to condemn; he waited till the sun was well nigh set, and in the cool of the day came, and as an old expositor has put it very beautifully, when he did come he did not come on wings of wrath, but he "walked in the garden in the cool of the day." He was in no haste to slay. I think I see him, as he was represented then to Adam, in those glorious days when God walked with man. Methinks I see the wonderful similitude in which the Unseen did vail himself: I see it walking among the trees so slowly - ay, if it were right to give such a picture - beating its breast, and shedding tears that it should have to condemn man. At last I hear its doleful voice: "Adam, where art thou? Where hast thou cast thyself, poor Adam? Thou hast cast thyself from my favor; thou hast cast thyself into nakedness and into fear; for thou art hiding thyself Adam, where art thou? I pity thee. Thou thoughtest to be God. Before I condemn thee I will give thee one note of pity. Adam, where art thou?" Yes, the Lord was slow to anger, slow to write the sentence, even though the command had been broken, and the threatening was therefore of necessity brought into force. It was so with the flood: he threatened the earth, but he would not fully seal the sentence, and stamp it with the seal of heaven, until he had given space for repentance. Noah must come, and through his hundred and twenty years must preach the word; he must come and testify to an unthinking and an ungodly generation; the ark must be builded, to be a perpetual sermon; there it must be upon its mountain-top, waiting for the floods to float it, that it might be an every-day warning to the ungodly. O heavens, why did ye not at once open your floods? Ye fountains of the great deep, why did ye not burst up in a moment? God said, "I will sweep away the world with a flood." why, why did ye not rise? "Because," I hear them saying with gurgling notes, "because, although God had threatened, he was slow to sentence, and he said in himself, 'Haply they may repent; peradventure they may turn from their sin;' and therefore did he bid us rest and be quiet, for he is slow to anger." And yet once more: even when the sentence against a sinner is signed and sealed by heaven's broad seal of condemnation, even then God is slow to carry it out.

The doom of Sodom is sealed; God hath declared it shall be burned with fire. But God is tardy. He stops. He will himself go down to Sodom, that he may see the iniquity of it. And when he gets there guilt is rife in the streets. 'Tis night, and the crew of worse than beasts besiege the door. Does he then lift his hands? Does he then say, "Rain hell out of heaven, ye skies?" No, he lets them pursue their riot all night, spares them to the last moment, and though when the sun was risen the burning hail began to fall, yet was the reprieve as long as possible. God was not in haste to condemn. God had threatened to root out the Canaanites; he declared that all the children of Ammon should be cut off; he had promised Abraham that he would give their land unto his seed for ever, and they were to be utterly slain; but he made the children of Israel wait four hundred years in Egypt, and he let these Canaanites live all through the days of the patriarchs; and even then, when he led his avenging ones out of Egypt, he stayed them forty years in the wilderness, because he was loth to slay poor Canaan. "Yet," said he, "I will give them space. Though I have stamped their condemnation, though their death warrant has come forth from the court of King's Bench, and must be executed, yet will I reprieve them as long as I can;" and he stops, until at last mercy had had enough, and Jericho's melting ashes and the destruction of Ai betokened that the sword was out of its scabbard, and God had awaked like a mighty man, and like a strong man full of wrath. God is slow to execute the sentence, even when he has declared it. And ah! my friends, there is a sorrowful thought that has just crossed my mind. There are some men yet alive who are sentenced now. I believe that Scripture bears me out in a dreadful thought which I just wish to hint at. There are some men that are condemned before they are finally damned; there are some men whose sins go before them unto judgment, who are given over to a seared conscience, concerning whom it may be said that repentance and salvation are impossible. There are some few men in the world who are like John Bunyan's man in the iron cage, can never get out. They are like Esau - they find no place of repentance, though, unlike him, they do not seek it, for if they sought it they would find it. Many there are who have sinned "the sin unto death," concerning whom we can not pray; for we are told, "I do not say that ye shall pray for it." But why, why, why are they not already in the flame? If they be condemned, if mercy has shut its eye forever upon them, if it never will stretch out its hand, to give them pardon, why, why, why are they not cut down and swept away? Because God saith, "I will not have mercy upon them, but I will let them live a little while longer; though I have condemned them I am loth to carry the sentence out, and will spare them as long as it is right that man should live; I will let them have a long life here, for they will have a fearful eternity of wrath for ever." Yes, let them have their little whirl of pleasure; their end shall be most fearful. Let them beware, for although God is slow to anger he is sure in it. If God were not slow to anger, would he not have smitten this huge city of ours, this behemoth city? - would he not have smitten it into a thousand pieces, and blotted out the remembrance of it from the earth? The iniquities of this city are so great, that if God should dig up her very foundations, and cast her into the sea, she well deserveth it. Our streets at night present spectacles of vice that can not be equaled. Surely there can be no nation and no country that can show a city so utterly debauched as this great city of London, if our midnight streets are indications of our immorality. You allow in your public places of resort - I mean you - my lords and ladies - you allow things to be said in your hearing, of which your modesty ought to be ashamed. Ye can sit in theaters to hear plays at which modesty should blush; I say naught of piety. That the ruder sex should have listened to the obscenities of La Traviata is surely bad enough, but that ladies of the highest refinement, and the most approved taste, should dishonor themselves by such a patronage of vice is indeed intolerable. Let the sins of the lower theaters escape without your censure, ye gentlemen of England, the lowest bestiality of the nethermost hell of a playhouse can look to your opera-houses for their excuse. I thought that with the pretensions this city makes to piety, for sure, they would not have so far gone, and that after such a warning as they have had from the press itself - a press which is certainly not too religious - they would not so indulge their evil passions. But because the pill is gilded, ye suck down the poison; because the thing is popular, ye patronize it: it is lustful, it is abominable, it is deceitful! Ye take your children to hear what yourselves never ought to listen to. Ye yourselves will sit in gay and grand company, to listen to things from which your modesty ought to revolt. And I would fain hope it does, although the tide may for a while deceive you. Ah I God only knoweth the secret wickedness of this great city; it demandeth a loud and a trumpet voice; it needs a prophet to cry aloud, "Sound an alarm, sound an alarm, sound an alarm," in this city; for verily the enemy groweth upon us, the power of the evil one is mighty, and we are fast going to perdition, unless God shall put forth his hand and roll back the black torrent of iniquity that streameth down our streets. But God is slow to anger, and doth still stay his sword. Wrath said yesterday, "Unsheath thyself, O sword;" and the sword struggled to get free. Mercy put her hand upon the hilt, and said, "Be still!" "Unsheath thyself, O sword!" Again it struggled from its scabbard. Mercy put her hand on it, and said, "Back!" - and it rattled back again. Wrath stamped his foot, and said, "Awake, O sword, awake!" It struggled yet again, till half its blade was outdrawn; "Back, back!" said Mercy, and with manly push she sent it back rattling into its sheath; and there it sleeps still, for the Lord is "slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." Now I am to trace this attribute of God to its source: why is he slow to anger? He is slow to anger because he is infinitely good. Good is his name; "good" - God. Good is his nature; because he in slow to anger. He is slow to anger, again, because he is great.

Little things are always swift in anger; great things are not so. The surly cur barks at every passer-by, and bears no insult; the lion would bear a thousand times as much; and the bull sleeps in his pasture, and will bear much, before he lifteth up his might. The leviathan in the sea, though he makes the deep to be hoary when he is enraged, yet is slow to be stirred up, while the little and puny are always swift in anger. God's greatness is one reason of the slowness of his wrath. II. But to proceed at once to the link. A great reason why he is slow to anger, is because he is GREAT IN POWER.

This is to be the connecting link between this part of the subject and the last, and therefore I must beg your attention. I say that this word great in power connects the first sentence to the last; and it does so in this way. The Lord is slow to anger; and he is slow to anger because he is great in power. "How say you so?" - says one. I answer, he that is great in power has power over himself; and he that can keep his own temper down, and subdue himself, is greater than he who rules a city, or can conquer nations. We heard but yesterday, or the day before, mighty displays of God's power in the rolling thunder which alarmed us; and when we saw the splendor of his might in the glistening lightning, when be lifted up the gates of heaven and we saw the brightness thereof, and then he closed them again upon the dusty earth in a moment - even then we did not see any thing but the hidings of his power, compared with the power which he has over himself. When God's power doth restrain himself, then it is power indeed, the power to curb power, the power that binds omnipotence in omnipotence surpassed. God is great in power, and therefore doth he keep in his anger. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be insulted, can bear offenses, because be is strong. The weak mind snaps and snarls at the little; the strong mind bears it like a rock; it moveth not, though a thousand breakers dash upon it, and cast their pitiful malice in the spray upon its summit. God marketh his enemies, and yet he moveth not; he standeth still, and letteth them curse him, yet is he not wrathful. If he were less of a God than he is, if he were less mighty than we know him to be, he would long ere this have sent forth the whole of his thunder, and emptied the magazines of heaven; he would long ere this have blasted the earth with the wondrous mines he hath prepared in its lower surface; the flame that burneth there would have consumed us, and we should have been utterly destroyed. We bless God that the greatness of his power is just our protection; he is slow to anger because he is great in power. And, now, there is no difficulty in showing how this link unites itself with the next part of the text, "He is great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." This needs no demonstration in words; I have but to touch the feelings, and you will see it. The greatness of his power is an assurance, and an assurance that he will not acquit the wicked. Who among you could witness the storm on Friday night without having thoughts concerning your own sinfulness stirred in your bosoms? Men do not think of God the punisher, or Jehovah the avenger, when the sun is shining, and the weather calm ; but in times of tempest, whose cheek is not blanched? The Christian oftentimes rejoiceth in it; he can say, "My soul is well at ease, amid this revelry of earth; I do rejoice in it; it is a day of feasting in my Father's hall, a day of high-feast and carnival in heaven, and I am glad.

"The God that reigns on high, And thunders when he please, That rides upon the stormy sky, And manages the seas, This awful God is ours, Our Father and our love, He shall send down his heavenly powers, To carry us above."

But the man who is not of an easy conscience will be ill at ease when the timbers of the house are creaking, and the foundations of the solid earth seem to groan. Ah! who is he then that doth not tremble? Yon lofty tree is riven in half; that lightning flash has smitten its trunk, and there it lies for ever blasted, a monument of what God can do. Who stood there and saw it? Was he a swearer? Did he swear then? Was he a Sabbath-breaker? Did he love his Sabbath-breaking then? Was he haughty? Did he then despise God? Ah! how he shook then! Saw you not his hair stand on end? Did not his cheek blanch in an instant? Did he not close his eyes and start back in horror when he saw that dreadful spectacle, and thought God would smite him too? Yes, the power of God, when seen in the tempest, on sea or on land, in the earthquake or in the hurricane, is instinctively a proof that he will not acquit the wicked. I know not how to explain the feeling, but it is nevertheless the truth; majestic displays of omnipotence have an effect upon the mind of convincing even the hardened, that God, who is so powerful, "will not at all acquit the wicked." Thus have I just tried to explain and make bare the link of the chain. III. The last attribute, and the most terrible one, is, "HE WILL NOT AT ALL ACQUIT THE WICKED." Let me unfold this, first of all; and then let me, after that, endeavor to trace it also to its scarce, as I did the first attribute. God "will not acquit the wicked." How prove I this? I prove it thus. Never once has he pardoned an unpunished sin; not in all the years of the Most High, not in all the days of his right hand, has he once blotted out sin without punishment. What! say you, were not those in heaven pardoned? Are there not many transgressors pardoned, and do they not escape without punishment? Has he not said, "I have blotted out thy transgressions like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thine iniquities?" Yes, true, most true, and yet my assertion is true also - not one of all those sins that have been pardoned were pardoned without punishment. Do you ask me why and how such a thing as that can be the truth? I point you to yon dreadful sight on Calvary; the punishment which fell not on the forgiven sinner fell there. The cloud of justice was charged with fiery hail; the sinner deserved it; it fell on him; but, for all that, it fell, and spent its fury; it fell there, in that great reservoir of misery; it fell into the Saviour's heart. The plagues, which need should light on our ingratitude, did not fall on us, but they fell somewhere; and who was it that was plagued? Tell me, Gethsemane; tell me, O Calvary's summit, who was plagued. The doleful answer comes, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" "My God, my God, why hart thou forsaken me?" It is Jesus suffering all the plagues of sin. Sin is still punished, though the sinner is delivered. But, you say, this has scarcely proved that he will not acquit the wicked. I hold it has proved it, and proved it clearly. But do ye want any further proof that God will not acquit the wicked? Need I lead you through a long list of terrible wonders that God has wrought - the wonders of his vengeance? Shall I show you blighted Eden? Shall I let you see a world all drowned - sea monsters whelping and stabling in the palaces of kings? Shall I let you hear the last shriek of the last drowning man as he falls into the flood and dies, washed by that huge wave from the hill-top? Shall I let you see death riding upon the summit of a crested billow, upon a sea that knows no shore, and triumphing because his work is done; his quiver empty, for all men are slain, save where life floats in the midst of death in yonder ark? Need I let you see Sodom with its terrified inhabitants, when the volcano of almighty wrath spouted fiery hail upon it? Shall I show you the earth opening its mouth to swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? Need I take you to the plagues of Egypt? Shall I again repeat the death-shriek of Pharaoh, and the drowning of his host? Surely, ye need not to be told of cities that are in ruins, or of nations that have been cut off in a day; ye need not to be told how God has smitten the earth from one side to the other, when he has been wroth, and how he has melted mountains in his hot displeasure. Nay, we have proofs enough in history, proofs enough in Scripture, that "he will not at all acquit the wicked." If ye wanted the best proof, however, ye should borrow the black wings of a miserable imagination, and fly beyond the world, through the dark realm of chaos, on, far on, where those battlements of fire are gleaming with a horrid light - if through them, with a spirit's safety, ye would fly, and would behold the worm that never dies, the pit that knows no bottom, and could you there see the fire unquenchable, and listen to the shrieks and wails of men that are banished for ever from God - if, sirs, it were possible for you to hear the sullen groans and hollow moans, and shrieks of tortured ghosts, then would ye come back to this world, amazed and petrified with horror, and you would say, "Indeed he will not acquit the wicked." You know, hell is the argument of the text; may you never have to prove the text by feeling in yourselves the argument fully carried out, "He will not at all acquit the wicked." And now we trace this terrible attribute to its source. Why is this ? We reply, God will not acquit the wicked, because he is good .

What! doth goodness demand that sinners shall be punished? It doth. The Judge must condemn the murderer, because he loves his nation. "I can not let you go free; I can not, and I must not; you would slay others, who belong to this fair commonwealth, if I were to let you go free; no, I must condemn you from the very loveliness of my nature." The kindness of a king demands the punishment of those who are guilty. It is not wrathful in the legislature to make severe laws against great sinners; it is but love toward the rest that sin should be restrained. Yon great flood-gates, which keep back the torrent of sin, are painted black, and look right horrible; like horrid dungeon gates, they affright my spirit; but are they proofs that God is not good? No, sirs; if ye could open wide those gates, and let the deluge of sin flow on us, then would you cry "O God, O God! shut-to the gates of punishment again, let law again be established, set up the pillars and swing the gates upon their hinges; shut again the gates of punishment, that this world may not again be utterly destroyed by men who have become worse than brutes." It needs for very goodness' sake that sin should be punished, Mercy, with her weeping eyes (for she hath wept for sinners), when she finds they will not repent, looks more terribly stern in her loveliness than Justice in all his majesty; she drops the white flag from her hand, and saith - "No; I called, and they refused; I stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; let them die, let them die;" - and that terrible word from the lip of Mercy's self is harsher thunder than the very damnation of Justice. O, yes, the goodness of God demands that men should perish, if they will sin. And again, the justice of God demands it.

God is infinitely just, and his justice demands that men should be punished, unless they turn to him with full purpose of heart. Need I pass through all the attributes of God to prove it? Methinks I need not. We must all of us believe that the God who is slow to anger and great in power is also sure not to acquit the wicked. And now just a home-thrust or two with you. What is your state this morning? My friend, man or woman, what is thy state? Canst thou look up to heaven and say, "Though I have sinned greatly I believe Christ was punished in my stead,

"My faith looks back to see, The burden he did bear, When hanging on the cursed, And knows her guilt was there?"

Can you by humble faith look to Jesus, and say, "My substitute, my refuge, my shield; thou art my rock, my trust; in thee do I confide?" Then, beloved, to you I have nothing to say, except this, Never be afraid when you see God's power; for now that you are forgiven and accepted, now that by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you, than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify his wife or his child. "Nay," saith the woman, "is he strong? He is strong for me. Is his arm brawney, and are all his sinews fast and strong? Then are they fast and strong for me. While he lives, and wears a shield, he will stretch it over my head; and while his good sword can cleave foes, it will cleave my foes too, and ransom me." Be of good cheer; fear not his power. But hast thou never fled to Christ for refuge? Dost thou not believe in the Redeemer? Hast thou never confided thy soul to his hands? Then, my friends, hear me; in God's name, hear me just a moment. My friend, I would not stand in thy position for an hour, for all the stars twice spelt in gold! For what is thy position? Thou hast sinned, and God will not acquit thee; he will punish thee. He is letting thee live; thou art reprieved. Poor is the life of one that is reprieved without a pardon! Thy reprieve will soon run out; thine hour-glass is emptying every day. I see on some of you death has put his cold hand, and frozen your hair to whiteness. Ye need your staff: it is the only barrier between you and the grave now; and you are, all of you, old and young, standing on a narrow neck of land, between two boundless seas - that neck of land, that isthmus of life, narrowing every moment, and you, and you, and you, are yet unpardoned. There is a city to be sacked, and you are in it - soldiers are at the gates; the command is given that every man in the city is to be slaughtered save he who can give the password. "Sleep on, sleep on; the attack is not to-day; sleep on, sleep on." "But it is to-morrow, sir." "Ay, sleep on, sleep on; it is not till to-morrow; sleep on, procrastinate, procrastinate." "Hark! I hear a rumbling at the gates; the battering-ram is at them; the gates are tottering." "Sleep on, sleep on; the soldiers are not yet at your doors; sleep on, sleep on; ask for no mercy yet; sleep on, sleep on!" "Ay, but I hear the shrill clarion sound; they are in the streets. Hark, to the shrieks of men and women! They are slaughtering them; they fall, they fall, they fall!" "Sleep on; they are not yet at your door." "But hark, they are at the gate; with heavy tramp I hear the soldiers marching up the stairs! "Nay, sleep on, sleep on; they are not yet in your room." "Why, they are there; they have burst open the door that parted you from them, and there they stand!" "No, sleep on, sleep on; the sword is not yet at your throat; sleep on, sleep on!" It is at your throat, You start with horror. Sleep on, sleep on! But you are gone! "Demon, why toldest thou me to slumber? It would have been wise in me to have escaped the city when first the gates were shaken. Why did I not ask for the password before the troops came? Why, by all that is wise, why did I not rush into the streets, and cry the password when the soldiers were there? Why stood I till the knife was at my throat? Ay, demon that thou art, be cursed; but I am cursed with thee for ever!" You know the application; it is a parable ye can all expound; ye need not that I should tell you that death is after you, that justice must devour you, that Christ crucified is the only password that can save you; and yet you have not learned it - that with some of you death is nearing, nearing, nearing, and that with all of you he is close at hand! I need not expound how Satan is the demon, how in hell you shall curse him and curse yourselves because you procrastinated - how, that seeing God was slow to anger you were slow to repentance - how, because he was great in power, and kept back his anger, therefore you kept back your steps from seeking him; and here you are what you are! Spirit of God, bless these words to some souls that they may be saved! May some sinners be brought to the Saviour's feet, and cry for mercy! We ask it for Jesus, sake. Amen.