Bible Commentaries
Proverbs 23

Verses 17-18

All the Day Long

A sermon (No. 2150) delivered on Lord's Day Morning, June 22nd, 1890, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon.

“Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” end: or, reward Proverbs 23:17-18 .

Last Lord’s-day we had for our texts two promises. I trust they were full of comfort to the tried people of God, and to souls in the anguish of conviction. To-day we will consider two precepts, that we may not seem to neglect any part of the Word of God; for the precept is as divine as the promise. Here we have a command given of the Holy Spirit through the wisest of men; and therefore both on the divine and on the human side it is most weighty. I said that Solomon was the wisest of men, and yet he became in practice the most foolish. By his folly he gained a fresh store of experience of the saddest sort, and we trust that he turned to God with a penitent heart and so became wiser than ever wiser with a second wisdom which the grace of God had given him to consecrate his earthly wisdom. He who had been a voluptuous prince became the wise preacher in Israel: let us give our hearts to know the wisdom which he taught.

The words of Solomon to his own son are not only wise, but full of tender anxiety, worthy therefore to be set in the highest degree as to value, and to be received with heartiness as the language of fatherly affection.

These verses are found in the Book of Proverbs: let them pass current as proverbs in the church of God as they did in Israel of old. Let them be “familiar in our mouths as household words.” Let them be often quoted, frequently weighed, and then carried into daily practice. God grant that this particular text may become proverbial in this church from this day forward. May the Holy Ghost impress it on every memory and heart! May it be embodied in all our lives!

If you will look steadily at the text you will see, first, the prescribed course of the godly man : “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Secondly you will note the probable interruption of that course. It occurred in those past ages and it occurs still: “Let not thine heart envy sinners.” We are often tempted to repine because the wicked prosper: the fear of the Lord within us is disturbed with envious thoughts which will lead on to murmuring and to distrust of our heavenly Father unless they be speedily checked. So foolish and ignorant are we that we lose our walk with God by fretting because of evil-doers. Thirdly we shall notice before we close, the helpful consideration , which may enable us to hold on our way and to cease from fretting about the proud prosperity of the ungodly: “For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”

I. Oh, for grace to practice what the Spirit of God says with regard to our first point, the prescribed course of the believer “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”! The fear of the Lord is a brief description for true religion. It is an inward condition betokening hearty submission to our heavenly Father. It consists very much in a holy reverence of God, and a sacred awe of him. This is accompanied by a child-like trust in him which leads to loving obedience, tender submission, and lowly adoration. It is a filial fear. Not the fear which hath torment, but that which goes with joy when we “rejoice with trembling.”

We must first of all be in the fear of God, before we can remain in it “all the day long.” This can never be our condition except as the fruit of the new birth. To be in the fear of the Lord, “ye must be born again.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we are taught therein by the Holy Spirit, who is the sole author of all our grace. Where this fear exists it is the token of eternal life, and it proves the abiding indwelling of the Holy Ghost. “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him.” This holy fear of the living God is the life of God showing itself in the quickened ones.

This fear, according to the text, is for all the day and for every day: the longest day is not to be too long for our reverence, nor for our obedience. If our days are lengthened until the day of life declines into the evening of old age, still are we to be in the fear of God; yea, as the day grows longer our holy fear must be deeper.

This is contrary to the habit of those persons who have a religion of show ; they are very fine, very holy, very devout when anybody looks at them; this is rather the love of human approbation than the fear of the Lord. The Pharisee, with a halfpenny in one hand and a trumpet in the other, is a picture of the man who gives an alms only that his praises may be sounded forth. The Pharisee, standing at the corner of the street saying his prayers, is a picture of the man who never prays in secret but is very glib in pious assemblies. “Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.” Show religion is a vain show. Do nothing to be seen of men or you will ripen into a mere hypocrite.

Neither may we regard godliness as something off the common an extraordinary thing. Have not a religion of spasms . We have heard of men and women who have been singularly excellent on one occasion, but never again: they blazed out like comets, the wonders of a season, and they disappeared like comets never to be seen again. Religion produced at high pressure for a supreme occasion is not a healthy growth. We need an ordinary, common-place, every-day godliness, which may be compared to the light of the fixed stars which shineth evermore. Religion must not be thought of as something apart from daily life; it should be the most vital part of our existence. Our praying should be like our breathing, natural and constant; our communion with God should be like our taking of food, a happy and natural privilege. Brethren, it is a great pity when people draw a hard and fast line across their life, dividing it into the sacred and the secular. Say not, “This is religion, and the other is business,” but sanctify all things. Our commonest acts should be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer and thus made into sacred deeds. The best of men have the least of jar or change of tone in their lives. When the great Elijah knew that he was to be taken up, what did he do? If you knew that to-night you would be carried away to heaven, you would think of something special with which to quit this earthly scene; and yet the most fitting thing to do would be to continue in your duty, as you would have done if nothing had been revealed to you. It was Elijah’s business to go to the schools of the prophets and instruct the young students; and he went about that business until he took his seat in the chariot of fire. He said to Elisha, “The Lord hath sent me to Bethel.” When he had exhorted the Bethel students he thought of the other college, and said to his attendant, “The Lord hath sent me to Jericho.” He took his journey with as much composure as if he had a lifetime before him, and thus fulfilled his tutorship till the Lord sent him to Jordan, whence he went up by a whirlwind into heaven. What is there better for a man of God than to abide in his calling wherein he glorifies God? That which God has given you to do, you should do. That, and nothing else, come what may. If any of you should to-morrow have a revelation that you must die, it would not be wise to go upstairs and sit down, and read, or pray, until the usual day’s work was finished. Go on good woman, and send the children to school, and cook the dinner and go about the proper business of the day, and then if you are to die you will have left no ends of life’s web to ravel out. So live that your death shall not be a piece of strange metal soldered on to your life, but part and parcel of all that has gone before. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Living or dying we are the Lord’s, and let us live as such.

Ours must never be a religion that is periodic in its flow , like certain intermittent springs which flow and ebb, and flow only to ebb again. Beware of the spirit which is in a rapture one hour and in a rage the next. Beware of serving Christ on Sunday, and Mammon on Monday. Beware of the godliness which varies with the calendar. Every Sunday morning some folks take out their godliness and touch it up while they are turning the brush round their best hat. Many women, after a fashion, put on the fear of God with their new bonnet. When the Sunday is over and their best things are put away, they have also put away their best thoughts and their best behavior. We must have a seven-days’ religion, or else we have none at all. Periodical godliness is perpetual hypocrisy. He that towards Jesus can be enemy and friend by turns is in truth always an enemy. We need a religion which, like the poor, we have always with us; which like our heart is always throbbing, and like our breath is always moving. Some people have strange notions on this point: they are holy only on holy days and in holy places. There was a man who was always pious on Good Friday. He showed no token of religion on any other Friday, or indeed on any other day; but on Good Friday nothing would stop him from going to church in the morning, after he had eaten a hotcross bun for breakfast. That day he took the Sacrament and felt much better: surely he might well enough do so, since on his theory he had taken in grace enough to last him for another year. You and I believe such ideas to be ignorant and superstitious; but we must take heed that we do not err after a similar manner. Every Friday must be a Good Friday to us. May we become so truly gracious that to us every day becomes a holy day; our garments, vestments; our meals, sacraments; our houses, temples; our families, churches; our lives, sacrifices; ourselves kings and priests unto God! May the bells upon our horses be “holiness unto the Lord”! God send us religion of this kind, for this will involve our being “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

Let us practically note the details which are comprised in the exhortation, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” The sun is up and we awake. May we each one feel, “When I awake I am still with thee.” It is wise to rise in proper time, for drowsiness may waste an hour and cause us to be behindhand all the day, so that we cannot get into order and act as those who quietly walk with God. If I am bound to be in the fear of God all the day long, I am bound to begin well with earnest prayer and sweet communion with God. On rising, it is as essential to prepare the heart as to wash the face; as necessary to put on Christ as to put on one’s garments. Our first word should be with our heavenly Father. It is good for the soul’s health to begin the day by taking a satisfying draught from the river of the water of life. Very much more depends upon beginnings than some men think. How you go to bed to-night may be determined by your getting up this morning. If you get out of bed on the wrong side you may keep on the wrong side all the day. If your heart be right in the waking, it will be a help towards its being right till sleeping. Go not forth into a dry world till the morning dew lies on thy branch. Baptize thy heart in devotion ere thou wade into the stream of daily care. See not the face of man until thou hast first seen the face of God. Let thy first thoughts fly heavenward, and let thy first breathings be prayer.

And now we are downstairs and are off to business or to labor. As you hurry along the street think of these words, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Leave not thy God at home: thou needest him most abroad. In mingling with thy fellow-men, be with them but be not of them, if that would involve thy forgetting thy Lord. That early interview which thou hast had with thy Beloved should perfume thy conversation all the day. A “smile from Jesus in the morning will be sunshine all the day. Endeavor when thou art plying the trowel or driving the plane, or guiding the plough, or using the needle or the pen, to keep up constant communication with thy Father and thy Lord. Let the telephone between thee and the Eternal never cease from its use: do thou put thine ear to it and hear what the Lord shall speak to thee; and do thou put thy mouth to it and ask counsel from the oracle above. Whether you work long hours or short hours, “Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

But it is time for meals. Be thou in the fear of the Lord at thy table. The soul may be poisoned while the body is being nourished if we turn the hour of refreshment into an hour of indulgence. Some have been gluttonous, more have been drunken. Do not think of thy table as though it were a hog’s trough where the animal might gorge to the full; but watch thine appetite, and by holy thanksgiving make thy table to be the Lord’s table. So eat the bread of earth as to eat bread at last in the kingdom of God. So drink that thy head and heart may be in the best condition to serve God. When God feeds thee, do not profane the occasion by excess or defile it by loose conversation.

During the day our business calls us into company. Our associations in labor may not be so choice as we could wish; but he that earns his bread is often thrown where his own will would not lead him. If we were never to deal with ungodly men it would be necessary for us to go out of the world. He that is in the fear of God all the day long will watch his own spirit and language and actions, that these may be such as becometh the gospel of Christ in whatever society his lot may be cast. Seek not to be a hermit or a monk, but be a man of God among men. When making a bargain or selling thy goods to customers, be thou in the fear of God. It may be needful to go into the market or on the exchange, but be in the fear of the Lord amid the throng. It may be thou wilt seldom be able to speak of that which is most dear to thee lest thou cast pearls before swine; but thou must abide always under holy and heavenly influence so as to be always ready to give a reason for the hope which is in thee with meekness and fear. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” though thine ears may be vexed and thy heart grieved with the evil around thee. He that cannot be in the fear of God in London cannot in the country.

The company have now gone and you are alone; maintain the fear of the Lord in thy solitude. Beware of falling into solitary sin. Certain young men and women, when alone, pull out a wicked novel which they would not like to be seen reading; and others will have their sly nips though they would be reputed very temperate. If a man be right with God he is in his best company when alone; and he seeks therein to honor his God and not to grieve him. Surely when I am alone with God I am bound to use my best manners. Do nothing which you would be afraid to have known. Be in the fear of the Lord when you are so much alone that you have no fear of men. The evening draws in, the shop is closed, and you have a little time to yourself. Our young people in shops need a rest and a walk. Is this your case? “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” In the evening as well as in the morning be true to your Lord. Beware of ill company in the evening! Take care that you never say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me.” “Be thou in the fear of the Lord” when sinners entice thee, and at once refuse any offer which is not pleasing to God.

“Recreation,” says one. Yes, recreation. There are many helpful and healthy recreations which can in moderation be used to advantage; but engage in no pastime which would hinder your continuing in the fear of the Lord. In your recreation forget not your higher recreation wherein you were created anew in Christ Jesus. Our chief rest lies in a change of service for our Lord; our fullest pleasure in fellowship with Jesus.

Night has fallen around us and we are home with our families: let us not forget to close the day with family prayer and private prayer, as we opened it. Our chamber must see nothing which angels might blush to look upon. Those holy beings come and go where holy ones repose. Angels have a special liking for sleeping saints. Did they not put a ladder from heaven down to the place where Jacob lay? Though he had only a stone for his pillow, the earth for his bed, the hedges for his curtains, and the skies for his canopy, yet God was there, and angels flocked about him. Between God’s throne and the beds of holy men there has long been a much frequented road. Sleep in Jesus every night, so that you may sleep in Jesus at the last. From dawn to midnight “be thou in the fear of the Lord.”

Let us now remember special occasions . All days are not quite the same. Exceptional events will happen, and these are all included in the day. You sustain perhaps one day a great loss, and unexpectedly find yourself far poorer than when you left your bed. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord” when under losses and adversities. When the great waterfloods prevail and storms of trials sweep over thee, remain in the ark of the fear of the Lord and thou shalt be as safe as Noah was.

Possibly you may have a wonderful day of success; but be not always gaping for it. Yet your ship may come home; your windfall may drop at your feet. Beyond anything you have expected a surprising gain may fall into your lap: be not unduly excited but remain in the fear of the Lord. Take heed that thou be not lifted up with pride so as to dote upon thy wealth; for then thy God may find it needful to afflict thee out of love to thy soul.

It may happen during the day that you are assailed by an unusual temptation. Christian men are well armed against common temptations, but sudden assaults may injure them; therefore, “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” and then surprises will not overthrow you. You shall not be afraid of evil tidings, neither shall you be betrayed by evil suggestions if you are rooted and grounded in the constant fear of the Lord.

During the day perhaps you are maliciously provoked. An evil person assails you with envenomed speech, and if you a little lose your temper your adversary takes advantage of your weakness and becomes more bitter and slanderous. He hurls at you things which ought not to be thought of, much less to be said. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”; “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath”; “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” The adversary knows your tender place, and therefore he says the most atrocious things against God and holy things. Heed him not but in patience possess your soul, and in the fear of the Lord you will find an armor which his poisoned arrows cannot pierce. “May the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

It may be that during the day you will have to act in a very difficult business. Common transactions between man and man are easy enough to honest minds; but every now and then a nice point is raised, a point of conscience, a matter not to be decided off-hand: “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Spread the hard case before the Lord. Judge a matter as it will be judged before his bar; and if this be too much for thy judgment, then wait upon God for further light. No man goes astray even in a difficult case if he is accustomed to cry like David, “Bring hither the ephod.” This holy Book and the divine Spirit will guide us aright when our best judgment wavers. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

But, alas! you are feeling very unwell; this day will differ from those of activity. You cannot go to business; you have to keep to your bed. Fret not, but “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” If the day has to last through the night because sleep forsakes you, be still with your thoughts soaring toward heaven, your desires quiet in your Father’s bosom, and your mind happy in the sympathy of Christ. To have our whole being bathed and baptized in the Holy Ghost is to find health in sickness, and joy in pain.

It may be also that you suffer from a mental sickness in the form of depression of spirit. Things look very dark and your heart is very heavy. Mourner, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” When life is like a foggy day when providence is cloudy and stormy and you are caught in a hurricane still, “be in the fear of the Lord.” When your soul is exceeding sorrowful and you are bruised as a cluster trodden in the wine-press, yet cling close to God and never let go your reverent fear of him. However exceptional and unusual may be your trial, yet grow within your soul, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

I have sketched the matter roughly. Let me now suggest to you excellent reasons for being always in the fear of the Lord. Ought we not to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long since he sees us all the day long? Does the Lord ever take his eye from off us? Doth the keeper of Israel ever slumber? If God were not our God, but only our lawful master, I should say, “Let us not be eye-servants”; but since we cannot escape his all-seeing eye, let us be the more careful how we behave ourselves. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”, for Jehovah whom thou fearest sees thee without ceasing.

Remember also that sin is equally evil all the day long. Is there an hour when it would be right to disobey God? Is there some interval in which the law of holiness has no force? I trow not. Therefore, never consent to sin. To fear God is always right: to put away the fear of God from before our eyes would be always criminal; therefore, be ever in the fear of God. Remember the strictness of Nehemiah’s integrity, and how he said, “So did not I because of the fear of the Lord.”

Walk in the fear of the Lord at all times because you always belong to Christ. The blood-mark is always upon you; will you ever belie it? You have been chosen, and you are always chosen; you have been bought with a price, and you are always your Lord’s; you have been called out from the world by the Holy Spirit, and he is always calling you; you have been preserved by sovereign grace, and you are always so preserved: therefore, by the privileges you enjoy you are bound to abide in the fear of the Lord. How could you lay down your God-given and heaven-honored character of a child of God? Nay, rather cling for ever to your adoption and the heritage it secures you.

You can never tell when Satan will attack you, therefore be always in the fear of the Lord. You are in an enemy’s country. Soldiers, be always on the watch! Soldiers, keep in order of fight! You might straggle from the ranks and begin to lie about in the hedges, and sleep without sentries if you were in your own country; but you are marching through the foeman’s land where an enemy lurks behind every bush. The fear of the Lord is your sword and shield; never lay it down.

Furthermore, remember that your Lord may come at any hour. Before the word can travel from my lip to your ear Jesus may be here. While you are in business, or on your bed, or in the field, the flaming heavens may proclaim his advent. Stand therefore with your loins girt and your lamps trimmed, ready to go in to the supper whenever the Bridegroom comes. Or, you may die. As a church we have had a double warning during the last few days in the departure of our two beloved elders, Messrs. Hellier and Croker. They have been carried home like shocks of corn, fully ripe. They have departed in peace, and have joyfully entered into rest. We also are on the margin of the dividing stream: our feet are dipped in the waters which wash the river’s brim. We too shall soon ford the black torrent. In a moment, suddenly, we may be called away: let every action be such that we would not object to have it quoted as our last action. Let every day be so spent that it might fitly be the close of life on earth. Let our near and approaching end help to keep us “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

If we keep in that state, observe the admirable results! To abide in the fear of the Lord is to dwell safely. To forsake the Lord would be to court danger. In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, but apart from it there is no security. How honorable is such a state! Men ridicule the religion which is not uniform. I heard of a brother who claimed to have long been a teetotaler; but some doubted. When he was asked how long he had been an abstainer, he replied, “Off and on for twenty years.” You should have seen the significant smile upon all faces. An abstainer off and on! His example did not stand for much. Certain professors are Christians “off and on”, and nobody respects them. Such seed as this will not grow: there is no vitality in it. Constancy is the proof of sincerity. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”: this is to be happy. God has spoiled the believer for being easy in sin. If you are a Christian you will never find happiness in departing from God. I say again, God has spoiled you for such pleasure. Your joy lies in a closer walk with God: your heaven on earth is in communion with the Lord.

If you abide in the fear of the Lord, how useful you will be! Your “off and on” people are worth nothing: nobody is influenced by them. What little good they do, they undo. The abiding man is also the growing man. He that is “in the fear of the Lord all the day long” gets to have more of that fear; and it has more practical power over his life and heart. What a poor life they lead who are alternately zealous and lukewarm! Like Penelope, they weave by day but unravel by night. They blow hot and cold, and so melt and freeze by turns. They build and then break down, and so are never at rest. Children of God, let your conduct be consistent. Let not your lives be like a draught-board, with as many blacks as whites. Do not be speckled birds, like magpies, more famed for chatter than anything else. Oh, that God would make us white doves! I pray you be not bold one day and cowardly another; be not one day sound in the faith, and the next day on the down-grade. Be not under excitement generous, and in cool blood mean as a miser. Oh that we might become like our Father in heaven in holiness, and then become like him in immutability, so as to be for ever holy!

From all this let us infer our great need . I think I hear somebody say, “You are cutting out a nice bit of work for us.” Am I? Believe me, I am looking to a stronger hand than yours. To be in the fear of the Lord for a single day is not to be accomplished by unrenewed nature; it is a work of grace. See then what great grace you will need for all the days of your life. Go for it, and get it. See how little you can do without the Spirit of God: without his indwelling you will soon cast off all fear of the Lord. Plead the covenant promise, “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Depend upon God for everything; and as you know that salvation is of faith that it might be by grace, exercise much faith towards God. Believe that he can make you to be in his fear all the day long. “According to your faith, be it unto you.” Believe holiness to be possible; seek after it and possess it. Faith, as it is the channel of grace, must always be associated with truth. True faith lives on truth. If you give up the doctrines of the gospel you will not be in the fear of God at all; and if you begin to doubt them, you will not be “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Get solid truth for the foundation of your faith and let your firm faith bring you daily grace, that you may manifestly be always in the fear of the Lord.

II. Now, I have rightly taken up the most of my time with the principal topic, and we will only have a word or two upon the next theme. Let us consider the probable interruption . It has happened to godly men in all ages to see the wicked prosper , and they have been staggered by the sight. You see a man who has no conscience making money in your trade, while you make none. Sometimes you think that your conscientiousness hinders you; and I hope it is nothing else. You see another person scheming and cheating: to him honesty is mere policy, and Sabbath-labor is no difficulty, for the Word of God is nothing to him. You cannot do as he does, and therefore you do not seem to get on as he does. Be it so: but let not his prosperity grieve you. There is something better to live for than mere money-making. If your life pleases God, let it please you . Never envy the ungodly. Suppose God allows them to succeed what then? You should no more envy them than you envy fat bullocks the ribbons which adorn them at the show: they are ready for the slaughter. Do you wish yourself in their place? The fate of the prosperous sinner is one to be dreaded: he is set on high to be cast down.

Do not even in your wish deprive the ungodly of their transient happiness. Their present prosperity is the only heaven they will ever know. Let them have as much of it as they can. I have heard of a wife who treated her unkind and ungodly husband with great gentleness for this very reason. She said, “I have prayed for him, and entreated him to think about his soul; but at last I have come to fear that he will die in his sins, and therefore I have made up my mind that I will make him as happy as I can in this life. I tremble to think of what his misery must be in the world to come, and therefore I will make him happy now.” O, men in your senses, surely you will not grudge poor swine their husks and swill! Nay, fill the trough and let the creature feed, for it has neither part nor lot in a higher life. Believer, take thou thy bitter cup and drink it without complaining; for an hour with thy God will be a hundredfold recompense for a life of trial.

One is the more tried because these men are very apt to boast . They crow over the suffering believer, saying, “What comes of your religion? You are worse off than I am. See how splendidly I get on without God!” Care nothing for their boasting; it will end so soon. Their tongue walketh through the earth, but it only utters vanity.

It is galling to see the enemies of God triumphant . Their policy for a time beats the plain protest of the lover of truth. Their deceit baffles the plain man. The lovers of error outnumber the men of God. Such men tread on creeds and trust-deeds and every other legal protection of honest people. What care they? They despise the old-fashioned folk whom they oppress. Remember Haman in the Book of Esther, and note how glorious he was till he was hung up on the gallows.

There is no real cause for envying the wicked ; for their present is danger, their future is doom. I see them now on yonder island, sporting, dancing, feasting merrily. I am standing as on a bare rock, and I might well envy them their island of roses and lilies; but as I watch I see that their fairy island is gradually sinking to destruction. The ocean is rising all around; the waves are carrying away the shores: even while they dance, the floods advance. Lo, yonder is one infatuated wretch sinking amidst the devouring flood. The rest continue at their play, but it cannot last much longer. They will soon be gone. Let me stand on my lone rock rather than sink amid their fleeting luxury. Let me abide in safety rather than dance where danger is all around.

Ay, dear friends, if you envy the wicked it will do you serious harm .

Envy helps in no way, but it hinders in many ways. If you envy the wicked you may soon wish to be like them. If you do so wish, you are like them now! He that would be willing to be wicked in order to prosper is wicked already. He who says, “I should like to do as they do that I might grow rich as they do”; why, he is a man that has his price and would sell his soul if he could meet a purchaser. No, not for all the world would we share the lot of unbelievers. We would sit in the gate with Mordecai sooner than feast with the king with Haman. God help us, dear friends, that we may not be disturbed by seeing the prosperity of the wicked.

III. We close with the helpful consideration. The text says, “For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”

First then, there is an end of this life . These things are not for ever: on the contrary all that we see is a dissolving view. Surely, every man walketh in a vain show: even as a show it is vain. You talk of spiritual things as though they were shadows; but in very truth these are the only substance. Temporal things are as the mirage of the desert. The things about us are such stuff as dreams are made of; and when we truly awake we shall despise their image. In all wealth and honor there are a worm and a moth. Think of the sinner’s end, and you will no longer be troubled when he spreads himself like a green bay tree.

Next, there is an end of the worldling’s prosperity . He makes his money. What then? He makes more. What then? He makes more. What then? He dies; and there is a little notice in the newspaper which says that he died worth so much; which being interpreted means that he was taken away from so much which he never possessed, but guarded for his heir. There is an end in death, and after death the judgment; “for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” What an end will that be! The sinner may live as carelessly as he pleases, but he must answer for it at the judgment-seat of Christ. Loud may be his laughter, sarcastic and bitter may be his criticisms upon religion; but there is an end; and when the death-sweat beads his brow he will lower his key, and need help from that very gospel which he criticized. “There is an end.” Let us not spend our lives for that which hath an end: an immortal soul should seek immortal joys.

Dear friends, to you there is an end in quite another sense. God has an end in your present trouble and exercise . Your difficulties and trials are sent as messenger from God with gracious design. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”; for every part of the day hath its tendency to work out your spiritual education, your preparation for the heaven to come. In everything that happens to you your heavenly Father has an end. The arrows of calamity are aimed at your sins. Your bitter cups are moans to purify the inward parts of the soul. Fret not, but trust. There is an old proverb that you should never let children and fools see half-finished works: even so, the work of God in providence cannot be judged of by such poor children as we are, for we cannot see to the end of the Lord’s design. My brethren, when we see the end from the beginning and behold God’s work complete, we shall have a very different view of things from what we have now, while the work is still proceeding.

Lastly, whilst there is an end to the wicked there will be no failure to your expectation . What are you expecting? That God will keep his promise? And so he will. That God will give you peace in the end? And so he will. That he will raise you from the dead and set you in heavenly places with Christ? And so he will. And that you shall be for ever with the Lord, and he will grant you glory and bliss? And so he will. “Your expectation shall not be cut off.” Every Christian is a man of great expectations, and none of them will fail. Let him cultivate his hope and enlarge its scope; for the hopes which are built on Jesus and his grace will never disappoint us. In our case, the birds in the bush are better birds than those in the hand; and they are quite as sure. The promise of God is in itself a possession, and our expectation of it is in itself an enjoyment.

I have done, dear friends. May the Holy Spirit speak these things home to your hearts! Christian people ought to be exceedingly glad; for if they have but a small estate, they have it on an endless tenure. The worldling may have a large house but he has it only upon a short lease: he will have nothing soon. Just now there is a great noise made about leaseholds falling in. Every ungodly man may have his life-lease run out to-morrow! But the believer has a freehold. What he has is his without reserve. “Their inheritance shall be for ever.” By faith grasp the eternal. Treasure the spiritual. Rejoice in God, and “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” God grant you this in his great grace, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Verse 19

Three Important Precepts

A sermon (No. 2152) intended for reading on Lord’s Day, July 13th, 1890, delivered by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, on Lord’s Day Evening, June 22nd, 1890.

“Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.” Proverbs 23:19 .

The words are very direct and personal; and that is what I wish my sermon to be. My soul is more and more set upon immediate conversions. I have no voice with which to play the orator; I have only enough strength to be an earnest pleader with your souls. I want to come to close quarters with you, and to plead with each man and woman here as if there were but one. Specially would I press my entreaties upon the young, that they may immediately begin that blessed walk which will lead them to the right hand of God. Here and now I desire your salvation. I may never preach again, and you may never hear me again. “Now is the accepted time.”

Solomon, in this verse, gave forth three precepts. I am not very careful as to what limited meaning he personally attached to his words. I am going to baptize his precepts into the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. I shall put into them a fullness of gospel meaning and I shall press them home upon the heart, praying the Holy Spirit to lead every unconverted person to whom these words shall come to obey these three precepts at once. My voice is to each one. I think I have a message from God for thee, and for thee. Be not disobedient to the heavenly summons.

The first precept in my text is “ Hear ”; and the second is, “ Be wise ”; and the third is, “ Guide thine heart in the way .”

I. We will begin with the first precept which is contained in the word “ Hear .” Perhaps you will say, “We are all here ready to hear and do not therefore need the exhortation.” That you are in this great audience-chamber in the posture of attention is a matter in which I rejoice. So far, so good. But let me say to you this exhortation to hear is not only given in this verse, but it is often repeated in Holy Scripture. “Hear, O Israel!” is the voice of the law and of the prophets. This is not optional: it is a matter of command and promise. “Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live.” “Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good.” The very existence of a revelation is a call to hear it. You cannot find eternal life through the eye of the body. No actual brazen serpent is to be looked upon. You need not now look for solemn ceremonies, bleeding sacrifices, and smoking incense. These shadows have vanished. The high road of truth to the heart runs through the ear. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The apostolic word is, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken unto me.”

The exhortation to hear is a very important one. As I understand it and use it at this time, it means hear the gospel . “Take heed what ye hear.” There is only one way of salvation. Mind that you hear the one and only gospel. Be very careful of your Sundays: you will not have many of them. Do not go on the Sabbath to hear whatever comes in your way, or you may hear to your ruin. Go to hear the gospel. “How shall I know where the gospel is preached?” Well, you will not have to enquire long: you may readily judge for yourself. Unless the name of Jesus is sounded out often, depend upon it, you are in the wrong place. Unless you hear the words “grace,” “faith,” “salvation,” you may conclude that you are not on gospel ground. It is true that mere terms may not always be a sufficient guide, but as a rule, as straws show which way the wind blows, so will these terms by their presence or absence be a guide to you. It will not take you long to find out whether the man preaches of works or grace, ceremonies or faith, man or Christ. You can soon discover the gospel sermon or the moral essay, for the very temperature of them differs. Mere morality teaches men to dance, but it does not discern the fact that they have lost their legs. The gospel gives the lame man his feet and then shows him how to use them. You need a Savior: you do not want to be deluded with some theory of saving yourself. Go where you hear about the Lord Jesus and his redeeming blood. If you hear no mention of “the blood,” clear out of the place, and never go again.

When you have found out the gospel-house, take care that you hear with the view of obtaining faith in the Lord Jesus . Aim at that blessed thing. “Faith cometh by hearing.” It will be idle for you to stop at home and say, “I will try to believe.” This is unreasonable and not according to the laws of mind. It is folly to attempt to try to believe; there is a far better way. Go and hear what it is which you are to believe, and as you hear it, if it be faithfully told out, and if the preacher is in his own person a witness to the truth, you will be greatly helped in the matter of believing. Faith comes of knowledge and evidence, and hearing brings you these. Besides, there is a power about the gospel which tends to create faith, and the Holy Spirit is pleased to use the foolishness of preaching to breed faith and so to save them that believe. If the gospel be allowed to work in its own way, the most unbelieving mind will soon yield itself to faith. The persons who do not believe the Bible as a rule have never read it. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ our Lord as a rule know nothing about him; while for certain those who know his gospel best find it easy to believe. A frequent hearer is likely to become a fervent believer. Do not fall into the error of some who only patronize the house of God occasionally and think they are doing something very meritorious. If you are often hearing with an earnest mind you will not fail to get the blessing. He that only eats once a month will not grow very strong, and he that only hears the gospel now and then is not likely to be profited. Beware of hearing sermons as a pastime: this is no trifling matter. Hear the gospel with the view of being saved by it.

Next, hear without prejudice . The Word of God does not please some people. That is not at all wonderful, for many people ought not to be pleased. Some have a preconceived idea of what the plan of salvation ought to be. They are in no humor to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save their souls, but their object is to find fault with the preacher, to pick a hole in his doctrine or in his manner. They must have something or other to criticize or censure. Do you wonder that such folks are not profited? They do not hear, but they sit in judgment. I have read that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth there was a law made that everybody should go to his parish church, but many sincere Romanists loathed to go and hear Protestant doctrine. Through fear of persecution they attended the parish church, but they took care to fill their ears with wool so that they should not hear what their priests condemned. It is wretched work preaching to a congregation whose ears are stopped with prejudices. Are there not many such? The world, the flesh, the devil, the priests, the sceptics, and the down-graders, have stopped their ears, and what good is likely to come of their attendance? If you come to carp at everything how are you likely to be blessed? Hear! Hear! Hear what God the Lord will speak, and there will be a message of peace for your soul. I would say like the old pleader, “Strike, but hear!” Abuse me, but hear me. Do not shut the door of mercy against yourself.

Next I would say, hear for yourself . The great object of a hearer should be to hear what God speaks to him. I am glad that God should speak to my neighbor, but my neighbor must listen for himself and not for me. The Roman orator began

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

He needs much the loan, for people usually lend their ears to one another and not to the speaker. They will sit and wonder what Mrs. So-and-so thinks of the sermon: it is so pat for her. Leave her alone, friend! Think about what is pat for yourself. Do you not know that in every sermon there is something for yourself, and your first duty is to give heed to that which is for you? Come with me to a house. A will is to be read. A dozen people have come home from the funeral and they are going to hear the will read. Perhaps they cried a good deal at the funeral, but they will not cry now if the person they have buried has left a decent sum among them. They are all ear for what the lawyer has to read. They want to hear that will much more than many want to hear a sermon. See how they listen! There are long ugly words about tenements and hereditaments, and this, and that, and the other; but they set themselves to hear it all as much as if it were a choice poem. Are they going to sleep? By no means. John Smith over yonder, the man’s brother, see how he doubles his attention at a certain point! As for the eldest son, how eagerly he drinks in about all the farm and message, and freehold land, and such like, all in the parish of A., in the county of B.! It takes a long time to go through it, but each legatee loves every word which relates to him. He listens and his ears seem to grow longer while he hears. That poor relative who gets nineteen guineas lays the codicil to heart, and can almost repeat it word for word, only wishing it had been five hundred pounds. John Smith does not care so much about the rest of the document; in fact he hopes there are not many more items. The extract which relates to himself he would like to copy out. Will you be wise enough to treat a sermon in that fashion? Please listen to that which concerns you most, take it down, and carry it home. This is the exhortation of the text “ Hear ;” but especially hear that which has most to do with you, whether it be rebuke or promise or command.

And then dear friends, hear when the sermon is done . “How can I hear when it is all done?” This is a very important point. I went to see a poor woman in the hospital one day and she said to me, speaking of the sermons she had heard, “Sir, you seem to talk to me all day and all night while I am lying here.” I said, “Well, I hope I do not keep you awake.” “No,” she said, “but as I am awake I hear you talking to me through everything I see. You have used so many things as illustrations that everywhere I have you in my memory.” I was pleased and inwardly wished that I could always preach in the way which she described; and I should do so if I always had hearers such as that sick woman had evidently been. Ah, dear friends! the way to hear a sermon is to hear it when you get home. Pray, remember my sermon of this morning, “Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” I want you to hear that word when you are dressing to-morrow, when you are taking down the shutters, when you are dealing across the counter, and when you are among the children. If you are tempted to do a dishonest deed, I would have you hear a still small voice saying to you, “Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” A sermon ought to be like a musical box: we wind it up when we preach it, and then it goes on playing till its tune is through. It should be said of a good sermon, “It being ended still speaketh.” Hear what you hear in such a way that it shall be like a seed which will grow in the garden of your heart.

Above all hear the gospel as the voice of God . When a man hears the preacher not as a man speaking on his own account but as God’s servant, and when the truth spoken is not measured by its oratory, nor weighed by its logic, but is judged of by the Bible, as to whether it is the very truth of God or not; then it is that men hear to profit. Those who compare sermons with Scripture are noble like the Bereans of old. If you can say, “I hear the word, not as the word of man but as the word of God,” it will have its effect upon your heart. Oh that the word may come to you with demonstration of the Spirit! You will never lose the good effect of gospel preaching if the Spirit of God seals it on your mind. Is it so or not? Do you come here to listen to me? Yours is a poor errand. If you come to listen to what God the Lord shall speak, however poorly I may interpret his mind as I find it in the Scripture, yet you will find a blessing in what you hear. A good many things are sold nowadays by means of pretty wrappings, and in the same way worthless doctrines are spread by the fine style in which they are done up. But as you do not want the wrappings but the goods, so in sermons the manner is not the main concern. If we should set a thing before you with all the grandeur of oratory and it did not come from God, it would be a gaudy nothing. Though we spoke falsehood with the tongues of men and of angels we should not be so good as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. But though we give you the gospel of the blessed God in great feebleness and trembling, yet it is what you want, and through it the blessing will come to you. He that hath an ear towards God will find that God hath an ear towards him.

Thus have we dwelt upon the first exhortation. Hear often. Hear the gospel. Hear for yourself. Hear attentively. Hear with a holy purpose. Hear the gospel as a message from God.

II. The next precept is “ be wise .” What does that mean in this connection?

It means first try to understand what you hear . Get to the bottom of it. Look it up, look it down, look it through. Look over it, but do not overlook it. When you have heard the words of the gospel say to yourself, “I would know what this gospel is. With the ins and outs of it I am going to make myself acquainted if the Lord will teach me. I will know what I must do to be saved, and why I must do it, and how it will save me.” How much I wish that a sacred curiosity would seize upon my hearers so that they would say, “We must know the soul and spirit of this Word of the Lord. We want to know each one for himself who the Savior is and how he can be ours”! God give you thus to be wise by getting an understanding of the gospel! I should not wonder, if I were to come round the congregation, if I found many here who do not know the gospel, simple as it is. I will not come round so do not be frightened, but I sadly fear that some of you who have been for years to places of worship are still ignorant of the elements of the faith. Should it be so? Do try to know saving truth. Whatever else you do not learn, do learn the answer to that question, “What must I do to be saved?”

Next, “Be wise”: that is, believe the gospel as it comes from God . You will not be wise to doubt it but you will be wise to believe it, for it is true and sure. This is an age of doubt; it is in the air. No man is nowadays thought to have any sense if he does not doubt even the best established truths, and yet I do not think that it takes any great quantity of brain to be a doubter. With a very strong effort I might manage to doubt to doubt my father’s word (I have never done it mark you!); to doubt my brother’s faithfulness; to doubt my wife’s love to me. By such efforts I should doubt myself into an abyss of misery and should become a glorious fool. To turn the power of doubting upon spiritual realities would be even more fatal, for that would take away my hope beyond the grave and plunge me in despair. Doubt is sterile; it produces nothing; it destroys, but it cannot create. I have long been a believer, and I find that my joys all come to me by the road of believing, and none of them by the wretched lane of doubting. I have believed this Bible to be God’s Word; and after all the destructive criticism which I have heard I still believe it. I have believed Christ to be my Savior; and after all the doubts of his Deity and atonement lately vented and invented, I still believe it; ay, and believe it none the less. I have believed God to be my Father, and though I have seen his Fatherhood dragged in the mire, I still believe it. I believe heaven to be my home; despite the insinuations of Satan, I still believe it. I have never yet gained health, joy, comfort, holiness, through doubting; nay, I have never gained a piece of bread or a drop of water through doubting. So many are doing the doubting, and doing it very completely that I need not trouble myself to assist them, but may quietly go on believing and enjoying the sweet results of faith. Our experience proves that it is wisdom to believe the Lord. He is God that cannot lie. Why should we doubt him?

Next, “be wise”: that is, be affected by what you have heard . Yield your heart up to the Word of God. Some people are hard to move; they are more like stone than flesh. There are congregations where you may preach your own heart out but you cannot get at their hearts. You might as well preach to the statues in St. Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey as preach to them; they are impenetrable and immovable. He that is wise permits the truth to come into full contact with him. Be wise, my hearer! Yield yourself up to the truth, for it will do you good and no harm. Do not resist it, do not evade it. Let the heavenly wind blow on you, for it brings healing. If it bids you hate sin, hate sin. If it bids you repent, repent. If it entreats you to believe, believe. Be what the gospel is meant to make you. You cannot make yourself a saint, but the Holy Spirit can do it through the word of truth.

And then take care that you do not wander into evil company . You say, “Surely you are leaving your text. Why bring that in?” Solomon brought it in: “Hear thou my son and be wise. Be not among winebibbers among riotous eaters of flesh,” and so on. If you are wise you will keep out of bad company, especially out of the society of revellers, drunkards, and gluttons. This warning may be very necessary to some to whom this sermon will come. You have lately come from the country to this wicked city. I am sure that you must be very sorry to have come to this horrible wilderness of bricks and mortar. Oh, for an hour or two of the green fields and the leafy woods and the blue sky! Alas! designing persons are surrounding you; they are trying to draw you into evil. Be wise. “If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” Be wise. Keep out of the way of their enticements. In ten years’ time if you have gone into evil company in the interval, you will be yourself the best witness of how unwise you have been; and if you are kept out of it, kept especially from the wine-cup and vice, I am sure you will thank God that you were wise in time. Choose good companions. Make saints your friends. Trust the true and good, and quit the gay and frivolous.

Once more, “Be wise”; that is, take care to do what you hear . Have you never seen persons crowding into a place of worship? Do they not in this place often press upon one another to hear the word? Yes, yes; and when they have come and they have heard it, what have they done with it? The great mass of them have done nothing with it. Did you ever go to a physician? Did you ever wait in the room for an hour or two before your turn came to see the great man? Did you give him your guinea? Did he hand you a prescription? Tell me, did you leave it on the table? Did you fold it up carefully and put it into your pocket? Did you keep it there? Did you not have the medicine made up? Did you not take it? Suppose that in a month’s time some one should say, “Did you see the doctor?” You say, “Yes, I went to see him.” “Did you have a prescription?” “He gave me a bit of paper with something or other upon it, but I do not know what it was, for I cannot read Latin.” “You do not mean to say that you have not had it made up at the chemist’s?” “No,” you say, “I was satisfied with seeing the doctor.” Dear friends, you smile at this description of folly for it is such gross unwisdom. Be wise then, do not hear the gospel in vain by neglecting its commands. If you know how to be saved, obey the command. Do not be lost in darkness with light shining upon your eyeballs. Do not go to hell with the gate of heaven standing open before you. I pray you, hear and be wise. Turn what you hear into speedy practice. God help you to do so for his mercy’s sake!

I am talking to you in a very feeble and commonplace manner; but what more could I say if I had the eloquence of the greatest orator? What better could I do than in a loving and brotherly manner to plead with every one of you not to play the fool with your souls? Hear the gospel, but be not hearers only. Be wise enough to be diligent in practicing what you are taught. Believe in Jesus unto life eternal. May the good Spirit make you wise unto salvation! Why will you perish? Why run risks with your never-dying soul? Come now and seek the Lord. If you seek him he will be found of you.

III. Now comes the last of the three precepts: “ guide thine heart in the way .”

There is but one way . “In the way,” mark: that is to say, in the way of wisdom; and this is one and one only. There are not two Gods, but one God; there are not two Christs, but one Christ; there are not two gospels, but one gospel; there are not two heavens, but one heaven; and there are not two ways of life, but one way. There is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” and one Holy Spirit, and one life by his indwelling; and there is no going to heaven by any but the one way. Some people get comparing the different ways of salvation. This is frivolous and foolish; for he that preaches any other than the one gospel is accursed. Suppose a man wants to go to York, and he says, “Well, I want to go to York, but the road to London is a better road and a wider road.” What matters the character of the road if it does not lead where you want to go? You say you want to go to York, then what have you to do with any road but that which leads to York? There are many ways, but what have you to do with any but the way everlasting? There is one royal road which leads to God and eternal life and heaven. Never mind what the other ways are or are not; go you the right way. When I go from this place I want to go home to Norwood. The road down the Borough is level, but my road home is up a very steep hill to Norwood. Suppose I were to say, “I shall take the level road and cross London Bridge, and drive into the county of Essex” what then? Why, I shall not get home if I take any other road than that which leads to the top of Norwood Hill. If it is steep I cannot help it, but I must say with John Bunyan at the Hill Difficulty, “This hill, though high, I covet to ascend.” So with you, dear friend. There is only one road to heaven, and although there are a dozen roads which do not lead to holiness and God, it is idle to praise them up for they will not serve your turn. Take the hilly road of Self-denial. Climb up to heaven on your hands and knees if it must be, but make up your mind that you are going there by God’s way.

That way is often described in the Scripture . Shall I tell you what the Bible says about this way? Well, it calls it the way of the Lord; and you are not in the right way unless you walk with God day by day. A religion that has not God in it is irreligion. Atheism cannot bring you to heaven, nor can any form of deism, even though it be baptized into the name of Christianity. If God be not Chief, Head, King, Lord, Sovereign, you are not in the right road. It is Christ’s way too, for Christ says “I am the way.” You are not on the right way unless Christ is first and last with you. His precious blood to put away your sin, his glorious resurrection to be your justification, his ascension to heaven to take possession of a place for you, his second coming to receive you to himself all these are the way. Christ is all in all to the man who is on the right road. Note this!

Sometimes it is called the way of faith. That is the only way to heaven. The way of works might have taken us to heaven if we had not fallen in Adam and had never sinned on our own account, but having been once defiled by iniquity we cannot be saved by future innocence. Do what we may, we cannot mend the life which we have marred; the flaws and fractures will appear. Justice will demand punishment for past transgressions: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” We must be saved by grace through faith, as it is written “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” The way of faith is the way to glory.

This way is also called the way of truth. If your religion is based on a lie it must deceive and ruin you. If it is founded on the truth of God it will truly save you, but not else. Alas for many! The way of truth they have not known. Many hate truth and go about with a thousand inventions to get rid of it. If you love truth and follow it and believe in it as God has revealed it in the person of his Son, all is well with your soul.

It is also called the way of holiness. My dear hearer, are you in that way? This is the King’s highway, and it leads to the city of the great King. Do you hate sin? Do you follow after righteousness? Would you scorn a lie? Do you keep your word even when it is to your personal loss? Do you endeavor to act fairly to your workmen, kindly to your servants, faithfully to your masters, uprightly to all? When you feel that you have erred, are you humbled and grieved? Do you endeavor for the future to guard the point in which experience has proved you to be weak? Do you watch against temptation and daily cry to God for strength to overcome it? Depend upon it, he that would be happy hereafter must be holy now.

The road to glory is also called the “way of peace.” We must seek after peace of conscience, peace with God, peace with our fellowmen. If our end is to be peace, our way must be peace: a quiet, contented mind is a thing to cultivate. Keep in this way!

Let me tell you two or three more things which the Bible says about this way. It is the “old” way. It bids us ask for the old paths. True religion is no new thing. Your mother was saved: you could not doubt it. Be saved in the way which led your mother safely. If there might be a new way I would not try it: one cannot afford to play experiments with the only soul he has. That which has saved those who have gone before is quite good enough for me. I love to think of friends in glory: their footprints cheer me. I love

“The way the holy prophets went,

The road that leads from banishment.”

The moderns have struck out a new path altogether; their road is both new and broad. What! were the saints of former ages all mistaken? The martyrs did they die for a falsehood and shed their blood for doctrines which criticism explodes? The men of whom the world was not worthy, were they all the dupes of theories which time has disproved? Did nobody know anything till Darwin appeared? Were those who believed that “the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” downright fools? Is it quite so certain as some think it, that the things which were made grew out of things already existing? Of course I know that nowadays men are so wonderfully intelligent that they have discovered that human life has been “evolved” from lower life. We are the heirs of oysters, and the near descendants of apes. It has taken some time to compass the evolution, and yet I will grant that very hard shells are still to be met with, and some men are not much above animals especially such men as can be duped by this hypothesis. Were the old-fashioned believers all wrong? No, my brethren, they were not wrong: their lives and their deaths prove that they were right. We shall be wrong if we leave the old and tried paths for these new cuts which lead into fathomless bogs of unbelief. It was enough to condemn the idols of Israel that they were new gods, newly set up; and it is enough to condemn the gospels of the hour that they are such as were never heard of in the golden ages of the church. “The old is better.” Yet it is strange but true, that the way to heaven is in Scripture called the “new” way; the “new and living way” that is to say, Christ’s blood: for when Christ came men began to understand the way of salvation more clearly, and it came to them with a freshness of power of which the old ceremonial law knew nothing. The incarnate Savior by his death has opened a new and living way to the secret pavilion of God. We want nothing newer than the opened way which is made by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That gospel which came in with a dying and risen Savior is the gospel for us.

Again, we are told in the Bible that it is a “narrow” way. We are expressly told that “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.” “Oh,” says one, “I like a man who is broad in his views.” Do you? Possibly you are in the broad road yourself; and if so “a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind.” How can you, in the teeth of Holy Scripture, admire the broad way? for it surely leads to destruction. “I cannot endure narrow views,” cries one. Cannot you? Then what are you going to do? Do you refuse to follow the narrow way? Yet that way leads to life, and though “few there be that find it,” I should have thought it well worth your while to be one of the few. Of course great thinkers and great doubters shun it, because it does not afford room enough for their greatness; but common-place men should choose it because it leads to the right place. It is curious, is it not? that our Lord Jesus Christ should describe this heavenly way as narrow, and yet some who are themselves Christians would if they could, make it out to be very broad. Everything broad commends itself to their taste. Well, well, however unpopular may be my teaching, I exhort the young men here to follow the narrow way, to keep close to Christ and the crimson way of his precious blood, and to defy all ridicule on that account. Follow after holiness, and let the gaieties and vanities of the world go to those who love them. Keep you to the narrow way of secret prayer and hallowed fellowship with God; and let those who want sing-song and theatricals go their own way. It may be you will appear to be losers by quitting the fellowship of the worldly religious, but your loss will be unspeakable gain to you in the long run. Dare to be Puritanic, conscientious, scrupulous. Venture to follow Christ, even if you go alone; for so shall you go aright. But I will not keep you much longer. I am still speaking upon this third precept: you are to put your heart into your religion . In no business can a man prosper if he is half-hearted. Religion without heart is a wretched affair. That man who professes to fear the Lord and yet only puts half his heart into his godliness will make a great failure of it. He is a poor, miserable creature who has enough religion to prevent his enjoying sin, and not enough to make him enjoy holiness. He that goes right into the heart of godliness will be made happy by it, but no one else. I am speaking to young men, and I would drive home this truth in their case. They will recollect that when they were boys, they went down to the river for a bath, and certain of the lads went paddling in just above their ankles or their knees. How they shivered with the cold! They did not much appreciate the bath. But one of the boys mounted the spring-board, and leaped right into the water head-first. I see him now coming up all glowing and rosy, and I hear his cheery voice shouting, “Splendid!”

Just so, if you go in for it, you will find true religion to be splendid; but if you go paddling about in the shallows of it you will become chilled with doubts and fears and the comfort of it will be far from you. If religion is important, it is all-important. If it is anything, it is everything. If false, leave it altogether: if true, love it altogether. To show how the joy of religion is proportioned to the degree of it I sometimes tell a story. It is a parable most instructive and fully to the point, and therefore I cannot help repeating it. It is a story of a man in America who was fond of growing the choicest apples. He asked a neighbor to come up to his orchard and taste his apples, which he greatly praised as the best in the world. This high praise he sang many times in his friend’s ear, but he could not get him to come to his place to taste the fruit. He asked him again and again, and still the friend did not come. He therefore hinted that there must be a reason for his refusal. “Well,” said the other, “the truth is that one day as I was driving by your orchard, I saw an apple or two that had dropped into the road, and I picked one up and tasted it, and it was out of sight the sourest thing in all creation. I am very much obliged to you but I have had enough for one lifetime.” “Oh,” said the owner, “do you know I went forty miles to buy those sour apples, and I planted them all along the hedge; for I thought they would be good for the boys and keep them from picking and stealing. They are a fine sort for that particular purpose. But if you will come and see me I will lead you inside the orchard, past those first two or three rows, and you will find a sweetness and a flavor which will fill your mouth with delight.” “I see,” said the other, “I see.” Do you also see my drift? All round the outside of religion there are sour fruits of prohibitions, rebukes, repentances, and self-denials, to keep the hypocrites out. Have you never seen how long they pull their faces as if their religion did not agree with them? and that is because they have eaten the sour apples on the outskirts. But, oh! if you would come near to the faith and joy which are in Christ Jesus, if you would give all your heart to heavenly pursuits you would find it quite another thing. Then would your heart “rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”

The text says, “Guide your heart in the way”; that is, get your very soul into the way of salvation. Get every portion of your being under holy influence. Let every fragment of your heart and mind and soul and strength be consecrated. Your heart grows like a luxuriant plant, and you must train every tendril, every shoot in the right direction. Nail every branch to the wall and keep it there. Try to guide your heart into the way of truth, life, and holiness; let none of it stray. Then will you be filled with delight. Then will you in very deed know that you are saved.

The last word I have to say is, oh, that everyone here present who is not saved would attend to these three precepts now ! Hear now ! Make up your mind that if there be salvation to be had, you will have it. Be wise at once lest you be wise too late. Say, “It would be folly to delay, for I may soon be dead and buried. I will have Christ to-day, my mother’s Christ, my father’s God.” Be wise and cry to God to help you, cry for the Holy Spirit to enable you to lay hold on eternal life, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for immediate salvation. Trust him. Remember what I told you of Luther the other night, when he said “I shall not save myself. Christ is a Savior; it is his business to save.” Put your soul into your Redeemer’s hand. He is a Savior, and he will save all who trust him. To trust Jesus is wise. It is wisest of all to do it at once, and here. How constantly do I hear of friends falling dead suddenly, or being taken away by unobserved disease! If I were to point to-night to the pews that have been emptied in this place since the first of January you would be greatly surprised. Your sitting was lately occupied by one who is now dead, and this makes the spot a solemn one. Someone else will soon sit in your pew. Be wise, be wise, and seek the Lord at once. Midsummer has come upon us. Let it not pass away without your soul being brought to Jesus. The hay-time is upon us, and death is sharpening his weapon. I can hear the rink-a-tink of that dread scythe at this very moment; and you too will soon be withered like the grass which has fallen before the mower. Wherefore now, even now, seek ye my Savior. I implore you, seek him without further delay! I wish that I were able to speak to you with a clear and powerful voice which would keep pace with my heart; but as I cannot do so, I do my best and use what voice I have. I would do anything to draw you to the Lord Jesus who is the way of life. We shall soon stand at God’s great judgment seat, and I shall have to answer for my preaching. Therefore I entreat you to be wise. Why should I give in my account with grief? “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” May the Lord lead you to do so, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Verse 23

Buying the Truth

June 26th, 1870 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Buy the truth, and sell it not." Proverbs 23:23 .

John Bunyan pictures the pilgrims as passing at one time through Vanity Fair, and in Vanity Fair there were to be found all kinds of merchandise, consisting of the pomps and vanities, the lusts and pleasures of this present life and of the flesh. Now all the dealers, when they saw these strange pilgrims come into the fair began to cry, as shopmen will do, "Buy, buy, buy buy this, and buy that." There were the priests in the Italian row with their crucifixes and their beads. There were those in the German row with their philosophies and their metaphysics. There were those in the French row with their fashions and with their prettinesses. But the one answer that the pilgrims gave to all the dealers was this they looked up and they said, "We buy the truth; we buy the truth," and they would have gone on their way if the men of the Fair had not laid them by the heels in the cage, and kept them there, one to go to heaven in a chariot of fire, and the other afterwards to pursue his journey alone. This is very much the description of the genuine Christian at all times. He is surrounded by vendors of all sorts of things, beautifully got up and looking exceedingly like the true article, and the only way in which he will be able to pass through Vanity Fair safely is to keep to this, that he buys the truth, and if he adds to that the second advice of the text, and never sells it, he will, under divine guidance, find his way rightly to the skies. "Buy the truth, and sell it not." Is not the parable we have just read a sort of enlargement of our text? When the merchantman all over the world had travelled to find out some pearl that should have no flaw, some diamond of the purest water fit to glisten in the crown of royalty, at last in his researches, he met with a gem the like of which he had never seen before, and, knowing that here was wealth for him, in the joy of his discovery, he sold all that he had that he might buy that pearl. Even so, the text seems to tell us, that truth is the one pearl beneath the skies that is worth having, and whatever else we buy not, we must buy the truth, and whatever else we may have to sell, yet we must never sell the truth, but hold it fast as a treasure that will last us when gold has cankered, and silver has rusted, and the moth has eaten up all goodly garments, and when all the riches of men have gone like a puff of smoke, or melted in the heat of the judgment day like the dew in the beams of the morning sun. Buy the truth. Here is the treasure. Cost it what it may, buy you it. Here is the piece of merchandise which you must buy, but must not sell. You may give all for it, but you may take nothing in exchange for it, since there is nothing that can be likened unto it. With this as a preface, let us now come straight up to the text, and we shall notice: I. THE COMMODITY THAT IS SPOKEN OF. "Buy the truth." I shall not speak tonight of those common forms of truth that relate to politics, to history, to science, or to ordinary life, yet would I say of all these buy the truth. Never be afraid of the truth. Never be afraid in anything of having your prejudices knocked on the head. Always be determined, come what may, even though truth should prove you to be a fool, yet to accept the truth, and though it should cost you dear, yet still to pursue it, for in the long run they who build mere speculations, fancies, and errors, though they may seem to build suitable structures for the time, shall find that they are wood, hay, and stubble, and shall be consumed; but he that keeps to what he knows, to matters of fact, and matters of truth, builds gold, silver, and precious stones, which the trying fire of the coming ages shall not be able to destroy. I would sooner discover one fact, and lay down one certain truth, than be the author of ten thousand theories, even though these theories should for a while rule all the thought of mankind. But I speak now of religious truth. Buy that truth; buy that truth above all others. And here we must have three heads. First, in the matter of doctrinal truth, buy the truth. Holy Scripture is the standard of truth. To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no truth in them. "Thy word is truth." Here is silver tried in the furnace and purified seven times. Speak of Infallibility? It is not at Rome, but it is here in this Book. Here is an infallible witness to the truth of God, and he that is taught of the Holy Spirit to understand it gets at the truth. Now, dear brethren, do aim to get the right truth, the real truth, as to matters of doctrine. Count it not a trifle to be sound in the faith. Think no error to be harmless, for truth is very precious, and error, even when we do not see it to be so, may lead to the most solemn consequences of mischief. In this world we see too much of salvation without Christ I mean we meet with many who believe that they are saved because they have been baptized, or confirmed, or passed through the ceremonies of the church to which they belong. They have not looked to the precious blood; they are not depending simply upon the finished work of the Redeemer, but something else than Christ has become their confidence. Now, avoid that, and buy the truth, which lies here, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." We hear too much nowadays of regeneration without faith the supposed regeneration of unconscious babes, the new birth of people through drops of water, when they are not able to understand what is performed upon them. I beseech you believe that there is no new birth where there is not a confidence in Christ, and that the regeneration which does not lead to repentance and faith, which is not, indeed, immediately attended therewith, is no regeneration whatever. Buy the truth in this matter. Stand to it that it is the work of the Holy Spirit in rational and intelligent beings, leading them to hate sin, and to lay hold of eternal life. Alas! we have in some quarters too much of faith is trusted in, which is not practical. Men say they believe, but they do not prove it by their lives. They remain in sin, and yet wrap themselves up in the belief that they are God's chosen ones. From such turn away, and remember that a faith without works is dead, and only the faith that changes the character, sanctifies the life, and leads the man to God, is the faith which will save the soul. We must see to it that in our doctrine we bow our judgment to the teachings of Scripture, and try to be conformed to all the revelation of God, and especially to all the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we not fall into one error or another. Scylla is there and Charybdis is there, and he is a happy helmsman who can steer between the two. You shall fall into this ism or into that, unless you keep to the truth. Never mind whether you can make the truth always consistent to your own judgment or not. If it is the truth, believe it; and though it should seem to contradict another truth, yet hold to it, if it is in the Word, waiting till clearer light shall reveal to you that all these truths stood in a wonderful harmony and consistency which, at first, you could not perceive. In doctrine, buy the truth. But, secondly, buy experimental truth. I know not another word to use; I mean truth within, the truth experienced. See that this be real truth. How easy it is to be deceived with the notion that we are converted when we still need to be converted; to fancy that, because we have the approbation of our minister and of our Christian friends, we must, therefore, necessarily be the people of God. There is only one true new birth, but there are fifty counterfeits of it. In this respect, then, buy the truth. Let me have you beware of an experience which has a faith in it that was never attended with repentance. I am afraid of a dry-eyed faith. That faith seems to me to be the faith of God's elect, whose eyes are full of tears. If thou hast never felt thyself a sinner, never trembled under the law of God, never felt that thou hast deserved to be cast into hell, I am afraid thy faith is a mere presumption, and not the faith that looks to Christ. Beware of an experience that lies in talk, and not in feeling. Mr. Talkative, in Bunyan's Pilgrim could speak very glibly about religion; no man more so than he; he was fit to take the chair in an assembly of divines; but it was not heart-work; it was all surface-work. Plough deep, my brethren. Feel what you believe. Let it be with you real homework, soul-work, the work of God the Holy Ghost not a temporary excitement, not head-knowledge, not theory. May the truth be burned into your souls by the operation of the Holy Ghost. In this respect, buy the truth. Alas! we see nowadays in many professors a great deal of life without struggle, and I think I have learned that all spiritual life that is not attended with struggles in a mistake, for Isaac, the child of the promise, is sure to be mocked by Ishmael. No sooner does the seed of the woman come into the world than the seed of the serpent tries to destroy it. You must, and will, find a battle going on within you if you are a believer. Sin will contest it with grace, and grace will seek to reign over sinful corruptions. Be afraid of too easy an experience. "Moab is at ease from his youth; he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; for the time cometh when the Lord will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled upon their lees." There must be strivings within, or we may well beware of such an experience. And I think I have noticed a growing feeling abroad of confidence without self-examination. I would have you hold to believe God's Word, but do not take your own state at haphazard. Do not conclude that you are a Christian because you thought you were ten years ago. Day by day bring yourself to the touchstone. He that cannot bear examination will have to bear condemnation. He that dare not search himself will find that God will search him. He that is afraid to look himself in the face has need to be afraid to look the Judge in the face when the great white throne shall be placed, and all the world summoned to judgment. Confidence is quite consistent with self-examination, and I pray you in this thing buy the truth, and seek to have a religion that will bear the test a true faith, a living faith, a faith that moves your soul, a deep-rooted faith, a faith which is the supernatural work of the Holy Ghost, for the time cometh when, as the Lord liveth, nothing short of this will stand you in good stead. Again, I spoke of three sorts of truth doctrinal truth, experimental truth, and now practical truth. By practical truth I mean our actions being consistent, and those of a right and straightforward course. In this matter, buy the truth. You profess to be a Christian: be a Christian. You say that you are a follower of Christ: follow him, then. You know it is right to be a man of integrity and uprightness: be so. Let no dirty tricks of trade, let no meannesses, let none of those white lies which degrade commerce nowadays, ever come across your path, except to be reprobated and abhorred. Walk straight forward. Learn not to tack. Do not wish to understand policy, and craft, and cunning. Buy the truth. It will shame the world yet. He that speaks out his mind, says what he means, and means what he says, does the just thing, does the right thing, fears no man, and lifts his head boldly in the face of all creation if it dares to whisper that it will enrich him by his doing wrong that is the man that buys the truth practically. You know how it can be carried out in commerce readily enough, in the parlour, in the drawing-room, and in the kitchen. There is a truthful way for a shoe-black to black shoes in the street, and there is a lying way of doing it. There is a truthful way of doing the commonest actions, and there is a false method of doing the very self-same thing. In this respect, then, buy the truth, as to the straightforwardness, the clean, sharp transparency of your moral character and of your Christian conduct. Never seem to be what you are not, or if you must for a while be in that position, count that you are unfortunate, and escape from it as soon as you can. Never do what you are ashamed of; it matters not who sees. Think always that God sees, and with God for a witness you have enough of observers. Only do that which you would have done if all eyes were fixed on you, and you were observed even of your most cruel critics. Never stifle conscience. Carry out your convictions. If the skies fall, stand upright. What God's Holy Spirit tells you, that do. What you find in this Book, carry out. If you bring any mischief to other people through it, that is their business. If I keep on the right side of the road, and run over anybody that is his fault; he should have kept out of the way. I would not run over him if I could help it, but I cannot turn aside from the right road. Stand in your place. Let malignant eyes look at you, but, like the sun, shine on, and if others envy you, yet fret not because of them, neither be you grieved to act the truth, but in this respect again fulfil the text and "buy the truth." So have I shown you what the commodity is doctrinally, experimentally, and practically. "Buy the truth." Now let us come and think specially to the first part of the text. II. HOW THIS COMMODITY IS OBTAINED. "Buy the truth." Let us correct an error here. Some might suppose that Christ, and the gospel, and salvation all of which are included in the truth can be bought. They can, but they cannot. They can in the sense of the text; they cannot in any other sense. You cannot purchase salvation; merit cannot win it. Christ's price is, "Without money and without price." Has not the prophet so worded it? "Yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price." Salvation is of free grace, and is from the very necessity of its nature, gratis. You cannot merit it; you cannot earn it. It is not of the will of man, nor of blood, nor of birth, but "he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion." What, then, does the text mean? I will try to expound the Word. It means, first, to be saved, give up everything that must be given up, in order to your receiving the free salvation. Every sin must be given up. No man shall go to heaven while he lives in, and favours any one, sin. A man may sin and be saved, but he cannot love sin and be saved. Give up, then, thy drunkenness, if that be thy sin. Give up, then, thine unchaste living, if that be thy sin. Conquer that angry temper, that love of greed whatever it is that keeps thee back from Christ. Buy the truth, and give up these. Thou wilt not merit salvation then; but if this must be given up, let it not stand in thy way. Give it up, man! Since thou canst not have thy sin and have Christ too, get a divorce from thy sin and take holiness, and take the Saviour. Thou must also give up all thy self-righteousness. Some are trusting in their prayers, some are trusting in their tears, their repentances, their feelings, their church-goings, their chapel-goings, and I know not what men will not trust in. Give them all up. They are all lies together. There is no reliance to be placed on anything you can do. Come and trust what Christ has done, and if it be, as it certainly is, needful for you to give up your own righteousness to win Christ and be found in him, then do it, and in this sense part with all you have that you may buy Christ. Yourself, your sinful self, and your righteous self oh! that you might be willing to part with both, that you might buy the true salvation! And the text means this, again, that if, in order to be saved, it should cost you a deep experience and much pain, yet never mind it. It is better that you should bear all that and get the truth, than that you should escape without this heart-searching work, and be deceived at the last. If the price at which you shall have a true experience is that of sorrow, buy the truth at that price. Be willing to let the doctor's lancet wound you, if thereby he shall heal you. Be willing to lose the right eye or the right hand, if thereby you shall enter into life eternal. It also means this buy the truth; that is, be willing at all risks to hold to the truth. Buy it as the martyrs did when they gave their bodies to be burned for it. Buy it as many have done when they have gone to prison for it. Buy it if you should lose your situation for it. Lose your situation sooner than tell a lie. Like the three holy children, be rather willing to go into the fiery furnace, than to worship the image which Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Run the risk of being poor. Do not believe, as all the world says, that you must live. There is no absolute necessity for it. Sometimes it is a grander thing to die. Let the necessity be, "We must be honest; we must do the right; we must serve God," for that is a far greater necessity than that of merely living. Count all things but dross that you may be a true man, a godly man, a holy man, a Christly man, and in this sense make sacrifice of all, and thus "buy the truth." I think that is what the word means. I expound it to mean this give anything and everything, sooner than part with Christ, part with the living work of grace in your heart, or part with the integrity of your conduct. And now let me: III. PARAPHRASE THESE WORDS. "Buy the truth." Then I say, buy only the truth. Do not be throwing away your life, and your abilities, and your zeal, and your earnestness, for a lie. Some are doing it. Thousands of pounds are given to erect edifices for doing mischief. Multitudes of sermons are preached, very zealously, to propagate falsehoods, and sea and land are compassed to make proselytes, who shall be ten times more children of hell than they were before. Buy only the truth. Do not buy the glittering stuff they call truth. Never mind the label; look to see if it be truth. Bring everything that is propounded as truth to the test, to the trial. If it will not stand the fire of God's Word, then do not buy it; nay, do not have it as a gift; nay, do not keep it in the house. Run away from it. It doth eat as doth a canker; let it not come near you. Buy only the truth. "Buy the truth" at any price, and sell it at no price. Buy it at any price. If you lose your body for it, if you lose not your soul, you have made a good bargain. If you lose your estate for it, yet if you have heaven in return, how blessed the exchange! You certainly will not need for it to lose your peace of mind, but you may lose everything else, and you shall make a good bargain. Come to no terms with Christ. Throw all into the soul-bargain. Let all go, as long as you may but have truth in the doctrine, truth in the heart, and truth in the life, and Christ, who is the Truth, to be your treasure for ever. Buy all the truth. When you come to the Bible, do not pick and choose. Do not try to believe half of it, and leave out the other half. Buy the truth that is, not a section of it that suits your particular idiosyncrasy, but buy the whole. Why need you break up pearls and dissolve them? Buy all that is true. One doctrine of God's Word balances another. He who is altogether and only a Calvinist probably only knows half the truth, but he who is willing to take the other side, as far as it is true, and to believe all he finds in the Word, will get the whole pearl. Buy now the truth buy tonight the truth. It may not be for you to buy tomorrow. You may be in that land where God hath cast for ever the lost soul away from all access to the truth, where truth's shadow, cold and chill, shall fall upon you, and you, in outer darkness, shall weep and wail, and gnash your teeth, because you shut out truth from you, and now truth has shut you out, and all your knockings at her door shall be answered with the dolorous cry, "Too late, too late! Ye cannot enter now!" Thus I have paraphrased the text. Buy only the truth; buy all the truth; buy at any price the truth; and buy now the truth. Briefly let me give you: IV. THE REASONS FOR THIS PURCHASE. You want the truth, and you will never be received by God at last unless you bring the truth in your right hand. Only the truthful can enter those gates of pearl. You want the truth now. You are not fit to live any more than to die without an interest in the truth as it is in Jesus. Accept Christ to be truly yours, so truly yours as to make you true. You know not how to fight the battle of life at all without the truth. Your life will be a blunder, and the close of it will be a disaster, except you buy the truth. God grant that you may buy the truth now. You need it. You need it now, and you will for ever need it. Oh! I would to God that that hymn we sang should not merely be heard by you, but felt by you:

"Hasten, sinner, to be wise, And stay not for the morrow's sun."

Oh! that fatal "tomorrow"! Over the cliffs of "tomorrow" millions have fallen to their ruin. Tomorrow, ay, tomorrow! Here are these put-offs, and these delays, and yet God has never given you a promise of mercy tomorrow. His word is "Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." A better day shall never come than this day. Oh! that you would accept it now.

"If you tarry till you're better, You will never come at all."

And till times are more propitious, if you wait, you will wait on for ever and for aye. God grant you may buy the truth now, for the text is in the present tense, for now you need it. Let me direct you to: V. THE MARKET WHERE YOU CAN BUY IT. These are the words of Jesus Christ when he appeared to his servant John, "I counsel thee, buy of me," said he. There is no place where truth can be found in its power and life, except in Jesus Christ. Truth is in his blood; it will wash away what is false in you. Truth is in his Spirit; it will eradicate what is dark and vile in you. His love will make you true by conforming you to himself. Come to Christ. Bring nothing with you. Come as you are, empty-handed, penniless, and poor. The rills of milk and wells of wine are all with him. He is the banquet-giver, and the banquet too. To trust him is to live. To look to him alone for salvation is to find salvation in that look. Oh! that these simple words might point someone to the place where he shall buy the truth! And now let me repeat my text again, "Buy the truth." Do not misread it. It does not say hear about the truth. That is a good thing, but hearing is not buying, as many of you tradesmen know to your cost. You may tell people where to go, but you do not want them merely to hear; you are not content with that; you want them to buy. Oh! that some of you, my hearers, would become buyers of the truth! I know some of you. I happen to look about, and find out here and there one some of you, whom I know, and respect, and esteem, and pray for I had thought that you would have bought the truth long ago, and it often staggers me why you have not. Oh! that you were decided for God! I am afraid I am preaching some of you into a hardened state. If the gospel does not save you, it will certainly be a curse to you, and I am afraid it is being so to some of you. Do think of this, I pray you! Why should you and I have the misery of doing each other hurt when our intention is on both sides, I am sure, to do that which is kind and good? Oh! yield you to my Master. The Light of the World is with his hand at your door knocking tonight softly. Do you not hear the knock of the hand that was pierced? Admit him! He comes not in wrath; he comes in mercy. Admit him! He has tarried long, even these many years, but no frown is yet upon his brow. Rise now and let him in. Be not ashamed. Though ashamed, be not afraid, but let him in, and blushing, with tears in your face, say to him, "My Lord, I will trust thee; worthless worm as I am, I will depend upon thee." Oh! that you would do it now, this moment! The Lord give you grace to do it! Do not hear about it only, but buy the truth. Do not merely commend the truth by saying, "The preacher spoke well, and he spoke earnestly, and I love what he said." The preacher had almost rather that you said nothing than that, if you do not buy the truth. How it provokes the salesman when a customer says, "Yes, it is a beautiful article, and very cheap, and just what I want," and then walks out of the shop. Nay, buy the truth, and you shall commend it better afterwards, and your commendation shall be worth the hearing. And, I pray you, do not stand content with merely knowing about the truth. Oh! how much some of you know. How much more you know than even some of God's people. You could correct many of my blunders. But ah! he that knows is nowhere unless he also has. To know about bread will not stay my hunger; to know that there are riches at the bank will not fill my pocket. Buy the truth, as well as know it; that is, make it your own. And do not, I pray you, intend to buy it. Oh! intentions, intentions, intentions! The road to hell not hell that is a mistake of the proverb the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Oh! ye laggards, pull up the paving-stones and hurl them at the devil's head. He is ruining you; he is decoying you to your destruction. Turn your intentions into actions, and no longer intend to buy, but buy the truth. And do not tonight wish that the truth were yours, but buy it. You say the cost is too great. Too great? It is nothing. It is "without money and without price." Do you mean, however, to say, that it is too great a cost to give up a sin? What, will you burn in hell rather than give up a lust? Will you dwell in everlasting burnings for ever, sooner than give up those cups that intoxicate you? Must you have your silly wantonness, and lascivious mirth, or any kind of sin? Must you have it? Will you sooner have it than heaven? Then, sirs, your blood be on your own heads. You have been warned. I hope you are sober, and have not yet gone to madness, and if you be, you will see that no pleasures of an hour can ever recompense for casting yourselves under the anger of God for ever and for ever. Buy the truth. Do not merely talk about it, and wish for it, but buy, buy the truth. And then, lastly: VI. A WARNING AS TO LOSING THE PURCHASE. "Sell it not." My time has gone, and therefore, as I never like to exceed it, there shall be but these few words. When you have once got the truth, I know you will not sell it. You will not, I am sure, at any price; but the exhortation, nevertheless, is a most proper one. There have been some who have sold the truth to be respectable. They used to hear the gospel, but now they have got on in the world, and keep a carriage, and they do not like to go where there are so many poor people, so away they go where they can hear anything or nothing, so that they may be respectable. Ah! I have the uttermost contempt for this affectation of gentility and respectability that leads men to be so mean as to forsake their Christian friends. Let them go; they are best gone. Such chaff had better not be with the wheat, and those that can be actuated by such motives are too base to be worth retaining. Some sell the truth for a livelihood. I pity these far more. "I must have a situation; therefore, I must do what I am told there; I must break this law of God and that, for I must keep my family." Ah! poor soul, I pity thine unfortunate position, but I pray that thou mayest have grace even now to play the man, and never sell the truth, even for bread. Some sell the truth for the pleasures of the world. They must have enjoyment, they say, and so they will mingle with the multitude that do evil, and give up their Christian profession. Others seem to sell the truth for nothing at all. They merely go away from Christ because religion has grown stale with them. They are weary of it, and they go away. I shall put the question painfully to all, Will ye also go away? Will ye to be respectable, will ye to have a livelihood, will ye to have the pleasures of sin for a season, will ye out of sheer weariness will ye go away? Nay, we can add:

"What anguish has that question stirred, If I will also go! Yet, Lord, relying on thy Word, I humbly answer, No."

Sell it not; sell it not; it cost Christ too dear. Sell it not; you made a good bargain when you bought it. Sell it not. Sell it not; it has not disappointed you; it has satisfied you, and made you blessed. Sell it not; you want it. Sell it not; you will want it. The hour of death is coming on, and the day of judgment is close upon its heels. Sell it not; you cannot buy its like again; you can never find a better. Sell it not; you are a lost man if you part with it. Remember Esau, and the morsel of meat, and how he would again have found his birthright if he could. Remember Demas; remember Judas, the son of perdition. You are lost without it. It is your life. Skin for skin, yea all that you possess, part with for it, and be resolved, come fair or come foul, come storm or come calm, come sickness or come health, come poverty or come wealth, come death itself in the grimmest form, yet none shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord, and none shall make you part from the truths you have learned and received from his Word, the truths you have felt and have had wrought into your soul by his Spirit, and the truths which in action you desire should tone and colour all your life. God bless you, dear friends, and keep you, and when the Great Shepherd shall appear may you have the mark of truth upon you, and appear with him in glory.

Verse 26

The Heart: A Gift for God

A sermon (No. 1995) intended for reading on Lord’s Day, December 11th, 1887. at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon.

“My son, give me thine heart.” Proverbs 23:26 .

These are the words of Solomon speaking in the name of wisdom, which wisdom is but another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is made of God unto us wisdom. If you ask “What is the highest wisdom upon the earth?” it is to believe in Jesus Christ whom God has sent to become his follower and disciple, to trust him and imitate him. It is God in the person of his dear Son who says to each one of us, “My son, give me thine heart.” Can we answer, “Lord, I have given thee my heart”? Then we are his sons. Let us cry, “Abba, Father,” and bless the Lord for the high privilege of being his children. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.”

I. Let us look at this precept, “My son, give me thine heart,” and notice first that love prompts this request of wisdom.

Only love seeks after love . If I desire the love of another it can surely only be because I myself have love toward him. We care not to be loved by those whom we do not love. It were an embarrassment rather than an advantage to receive love from those to whom we would not return it. When God asks human love, it is because God is love. As the sparks mount toward the sun, the central fire, so ought our love to rise toward God, the central source of all pure and holy love. It is an instance of infinite condescension that God should say, “My son, give me thine heart.” Notice the strange position in which it puts God and man; the usual position is for the creature to say to God, “Give me”, but here the Creator cries to feeble man, “Give me.” The Great Benefactor himself becomes the Petitioner stands at the door of his own creatures and asks, not for offerings, nor for words of praise, but for their hearts. Oh, it must be because of the great love of God that he condescends to put himself into such a position, and if we were right-minded our immediate response would be, “Dost thou seek my heart? here it is, my Lord.” But alas! few thus respond, and none do so except those who are like David, men after God’s own heart. When God says to such, “Seek ye my face,” they answer at once “Thy face Lord, will we seek”: but this answer is prompted by divine grace. It can only be love that seeks for love.

Again, it can only be supreme love which leads wisdom to seek after the heart of such poor things as we are . The best saints are poor things; and as for some of us who are not the best, what poor, poor things we are! How foolish! How slow to learn! Does wisdom seek us for scholars? Then wisdom must be of a most condescending kind. We are so guilty, too. We shall rather disgrace than honor the courts of wisdom if she admits us to her school. Yet she says to each of us, “Give me thy heart. Come and learn of me.” Only love can invite such scholars as we are. I am afraid we shall never do much to glorify God; we have but small parts to begin with, and our position is obscure. Yet common-place people though we are, God says to each one of us, “My son, give me thine heart.” Only infinite love would come a-wooing to such wretched hearts as ours.

For what has God to gain? Brothers and sisters, if we did all give our hearts to him in what respect would he be the greater? If we gave him all we have would he be the richer? “The silver and the gold are mine,” says he, “and the cattle on a thousand hills. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee.” He is too great for us to make him greater, too good for us to make him better, too glorious for us to make him more illustrious. When he comes a-wooing, and cries, “Give me thine heart,” it must be for our benefit and not for his own. Surely it is more blessed for us to give than for him to receive. He can gain nothing: we gain everything by the gift. Yet he does gain a son: that is a sweet thought. Everyone that gives God his heart becomes God’s son, and a father esteems his children to be treasures; and I reckon that God sets a higher value upon his children than upon all the works of his hand besides. We see the Great Father’s likeness in the story of the returning prodigal. The father thought more of his returning son than of all that he possessed besides. “It was meet,” said he “that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.” Oh, I tell you, you that do not know the Lord, that if you give your hearts to him you will make him glad! The Eternal Father will be glad to get back his lost son, to press to his bosom a heart warm with affection for him, which heart aforetime had been cold and stony towards him. “My son, give me thine heart,” says he, as if he longed for our love and could not bear to have children that had forgotten him. Do you not hear him speak? Speak, Spirit of God, and make each one hear thee say, “My son, give me thine heart”!

You who are sons of God already may take my text as a call to give God your heart anew, for I do not know how it is men are wonderfully scarce now; and men with hearts are rare. If preachers had larger hearts they would move more people to hear them. A sermon preached without love falls flat and dead. We have heard sermons, admirable in composition and excellent in doctrine, but like that palace which the Empress of Russia built upon the Neva of blocks of ice. Nothing more lustrous, nothing more sharply cut, nothing more charming; but oh, so cold, so very cold! Its very beauty a frost to the soul! “My son,” says God to every preacher, “give me thine heart.” O minister, if thou canst not speak with eloquent tongue, at least let thy heart run over like burning lava from thy lips! Let thy heart be like a geyser, scalding all that come near thee, permitting none to remain indifferent. You that teach in the school, you that work for God anyhow, do it thoroughly well. “Give me thine heart, my son,” says God. It is one of the first and last qualifications of a good workman for God that he should put his heart into his work. I have heard mistresses tell servants when polishing tables that elbow-grease was a fine thing for such work; and so it is. Hard work is a splendid thing. It will make a way under a river, or through an Alp. Hard work will do almost everything; but in God’s service it must not only be hard work, but hot work. The heart must be on fire. The heart must be set upon its design. See how a child cries! Though I am not fond of hearing it, yet I note that some children cry all over: when they want a thing, they cry from the tips of their toes to the last hair of their heads. That is the way to preach, and that is the way to pray, and that is the way to live: the whole man must be heartily engaged in holy work. Love prompts the request of wisdom. God knows that in his service we shall be miserable unless our hearts are fully engaged . Whenever we feel that preaching is heavy work, and Sunday-school teaching after six days’ labor is tiresome, and going round a district with tracts is a terrible task then we shall do nothing well. Put your heart into your service and all will be joyful, but not else.

II. Now I turn my text another way. Wisdom persuades us to obey this loving request . To take our hearts and give them up to God is the wisest thing that we can do. If we have done it before, we had better do it over again, and hand over once more the sacred deposit into those dear hands which will surely keep that which we commit to their guardian care. “My son, give me thine heart.”

Wisdom prompts us to do it; for first, many others crave our hearts, and our hearts will surely go one way or other. Let us see to it that they do not go where they will be ruined. I will not read you the next verse, but many a man has lost his heart and soul eternally by the lusts of the flesh. He has perished through “her that lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.” Happy is that young man whose heart is never defiled with vice! There is no way of being kept from impurity except by giving up the heart to the holy Lord. In a city like this, the most pure-minded are surrounded with innumerable temptations; and many there are that slip with their feet before they are aware of it, being carried away because they have not time to think before the temptation has cast them to the ground. “Therefore, my son,” says wisdom, “give me thine heart. Everybody will try to steal thy heart, therefore leave it in my charge. Then thou needest not fear the fascinations of the strange woman for I have thy heart, and I will keep it safe unto the day of my appearing.” It is most wise to give Jesus our heart, for seducers will seek after it.

There is another destroyer of souls. I will not say much about it, but I will just read you what the context saith of it “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine. They that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.” Read carefully the rest of the chapter, and then hear the voice of wisdom say, “My son, if thou wouldst be kept from drunkenness and gluttony, from wantonness and chambering, and everything that the heart inclineth to, give me thy heart.”

It is well to guard your heart with all the apparatus that wisdom can provide. It is well totally to abstain from that which becomes a snare to you: but I charge you, do not rely upon abstinence but give your heart to Jesus; for nothing short of true godliness will preserve you from sin so that you shall be presented faultless before his presence with exceeding great joy. As you would wish to preserve an unblemished character and be found honorable to the end, my son I charge thee give to Christ thy heart.

Wisdom urges to immediate decision because it is well to have a heart at once occupied and taken up by Christ . It is an empty heart that the devil enters. You know how the boys always break the windows of empty houses, and the devil throws stones wherever the heart is empty. If you can say to the devil when you are tempted, “You are too late: I have given my heart to Christ, I cannot listen to your overtures, I am affianced to the Savior by bonds of love that never can be broken,” what a blessed safeguard you have! I know of nothing that can so protect the young man in these perilous days as to be able to sing “O God, my heart is fixed; my heart is fixed! Others may flit to and fro and seek something to light upon, but my heart is fixed upon thee for ever. I am unable to turn aside through thy sweet grace.” “My son,” says the text, “give me thine heart” that Christ may dwell there, that when Satan comes, the One who is stronger than the strong man armed may keep his house, and drive the foeman back.

Give Jesus your hearts beloved friends, for wisdom bids you do it at once because it will please God . Have you a friend to whom you wish to make a present? I know what you do: you try to find out what that friend would value, for you say, “I should like to give him what would please him.” Do you want to give God something that is sure to please him? You need not build a church of matchless architecture I do not know that God cares much about stones and wood. You need not wait till you shall have amassed money to endow a row of almshouses. It is well to bless the poor, but Jesus said that one who gave two mites, which made a farthing, gave more than all the rich men who cast in of their wealth into the treasury. What would God my Father like me to give? He answers, “My son, give me thine heart.” He will be pleased with that, for he himself seeks the gift.

If there are any here to whom this day is an anniversary of birth or of marriage, or of some other joyful occasion, let them make a present to God and give him their hearts. It is wonderful that he should word it so. “My son, give me thine heart.” I should not have dared to say such a thing if he had not said it, but he does put it so. This will please him better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs, better than smoking incense in the silver censer, better than all you can contrive of art or purchase by wealth, or design for beauty. “My son, give me thine heart.”

For notice, again, that if you do not give him your heart you cannot please him at all . You may give God what you please, but without your heart it is all an abomination to him. To pray without your heart is solemn mockery; to sing without your heart is an empty sound; to give, to teach, to work without your heart is all an insult to the Most High. You cannot do God any service till you give him your heart. You must begin with this. Then shall your hand and purse give what they will, and your tongue and brain shall give what they can; but first your heart first your heart your inmost self your love your affection. You must give him your heart or you give him nothing.

And does he not deserve it? I am not going to use that argument because somehow if you press a man to give a thing, at last it comes not to be a gift but a tax. Our consecration to God must be unquestionable in its freeness. Religion is voluntary or else false. If I shall prove that your heart is God’s due, why then, you will not give but rather pay as though it were a debt; so I will touch that string very gently, lest in seeking to bring forth music I snap the chord. I will put it thus: surely it were well to give a heart for a heart. There was One who came and took human nature on him and wore a human heart within his bosom, and that human heart was pressed full sore with sorrow till it is written that he wept. It was pressed still more with anguish till it is written, “He sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.” He was still further overwhelmed with grief till at last he said, “Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness;” and then it is written, “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” A heart was given for you, will you not give your heart? I say no more.

I was about to say that I wished I could bring my Master here to stand on this platform, that you might see him; but I know that faith comes by hearing, not by seeing. Yet would I set him forth evidently crucified among you, and for you. Oh, give him then a heart for a heart, and yield yourself up to him! Is there not a sweet whisper in your spirit now that says, “Yield thy heart”? Hearken to that still small voice and there shall be no need that I speak farther.

Believe me beloved friends, there is no getting wisdom except you give your heart to it . There is no understanding the science of Christ crucified, which is the most excellent of all the sciences, without giving your heart to it. Some of you have been trying to be religious. You have been trying to be saved, but you have done it in an off-handed sort of style. “My son, give me thine heart.” Wisdom suggests to you that you should do it, for unless your whole heart is thrown into it you will never prosper in it. Certain men never get on in business; they do not like their trade and so they never prosper. And certainly in the matter of religion no man can ever prosper if he does not love it, if his whole heart is not in it. Some people have just enough religion to make them miserable. If they had none, they would be able to enjoy the world; but they have too much religion to be able to enjoy the world, and yet not enough to enjoy the world to come. Oh, you poor betweenities you that hang like Mahomet’s coffin, between earth and heaven you that are like bats, neither birds nor beasts you that are like a flying fish that tries to live in the air and water too and finds enemies in both elements you that are neither this, nor that, nor the other, strangers in God’s country, and yet not able to make yourselves at home with the devil I do pity you. Oh, that I could give you a tug to get you to this side of the border-land! My Master bids me compel you to come in; but what can I do except repeat the message of the text? “My son, give me thine heart.” Do not be shilly-shallying any longer. Let your heart go one way or the other. If the devil be worth loving, give him your heart and serve him; but if Christ be worth loving, give him your heart and have done with hesitation. Turn over to Jesus once for all. Oh, may his Spirit turn you, and you shall be turned, and his name shall have the praise!

III. And now I close with the third observation. Let us be wise enough at once to attend to this admonition of wisdom . Let us now give God our heart. “My son, give me thine heart.”

When? At once. There is no intimation that God would have us wait a little. I wish that those persons who only mean to wait a little would fix a time when they will leave off waiting. They are always going to be right to-morrow. Which day of the month is that? I have searched the calendar and cannot find it. I have heard that there is such a thing as the fool’s calendar, and that to-morrow is there; but then you are not fools and do not keep such a calendar. To-morrow, to-morrow, to-morrow, to-morrow, to-morrow, to-morrow, to-morrow; it is a raven’s croak of evil omen. To-day, to-day, to-day, to-day, to-day; that is the silver trumpet of salvation, and he that hears it shall live. God grant that we may not for ever be crying out, “to-morrow,” but at once give our hearts to him!

How? If we attend to this precept we shall notice that it calls upon us to act freely . “My son, give me thine heart.” Do not need to have it led in fetters. It might, as I have already said, prevent a thing from being a gift if you too pressingly proved that it was due. It is due, but God puts it, as it were, upon free-will for once, and leaves it to free agency. He says, “My son, give me thine heart. All that thou hast from me comes as a gift of free grace; now give me back thy heart freely.” Remember, wherever we speak about the power of grace we do not mean a physical force, but only such force as may be applied to free agents, and to responsible beings. The Lord begs you not to want to be crushed and pounded into repentance, nor whipped and spurred to holy living. But “My son, give me thine heart.” I have heard that the richest juice of the grape is that which comes with the slightest pressure at the first touch. Oh, to give God our freest love! You know the old proverb that one volunteer is worth two pressed men. We shall all be pressed men in a certain sense; but yet it is written, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” May you be willing at once!

“My son, give me thine heart.” It seems a pity that a man should have to live a long life of sin to learn that sin does not pay. It is a sad case when he comes to God with all his bones broken, and enlists in the divine army after he has spent all his youth in the service of the devil and has worn himself out. Christ will have him whenever he comes; but how much better it is while yet you are in the days of your youth to say, “Here, Lord, I give thee my heart. Constrained by thy sweet love I yield to thee in the dawn of my being”!

Now that is what the text means: give God your heart at once, and do it freely.

Do it thoroughly . “My son, give me thine heart.” You cannot give Christ a piece of a heart, for a heart that is halved is killed. A heart that has even a little bit taken off is a dead heart. The devil does not mind having half your heart. He is quite satisfied with that, because he is like the woman to whom the child did not belong: he does not mind if it be cut in halves. The true mother of the child said, “Oh, spare the child! Do not divide it;” and so Christ who is the true Lover of hearts will not have the heart divided. If it must go one way, and the wrong way, let it go that way: but if it will go the right way he is ready to accept it, cleanse it, and perfect it; only it must go all together and not be divided. “Give me thine heart.”

Did I hear somebody say, “I am willing to give God my heart?” Very well then, let us look at it practically. Where is it now? You cannot give your heart up till you find out where it is. I knew a man who lost his heart. His wife had not got it and his children had not got it, and he did not seem as if he had got it himself. “That is odd,” say you. Well, he used to starve himself; he scarcely had enough to eat. His clothes were threadbare. He starved all who were round him. He did not seem to have a heart. A poor woman owed him a little rent. Out she went into the street. He had no heart. A person had fallen back a little in the payment of money that he had lent him. The debtor’s little children were crying for bread. The man did not care who cried for hunger, or what became of the children. He would have his money. He had lost his heart. I never could make out where it was till I went to his house one day and I saw a huge chest. I think they called it an iron safe. It stood behind the door of an inner room, and when he unlocked it with a heavy key and the bolts were shot, and the inside was opened, there was a musty, fussy thing within it, as dry and dead as the kernel of a walnut seven years old. It was his heart. If you have locked up your heart in an iron safe, get it out. Get it out as quickly as ever you can. It is a horrible thing to pack up a heart in five-pound notes, or bury it under heaps of silver and gold. Hearts are never healthy when covered up with hard metal. Your gold and silver are cankered if your heart is bound up with them.

I knew a young lady I think I know several of that sort now whose heart I could never see. I could not make out why she was so flighty, giddy, frothy, till I discovered that she had kept her heart in a wardrobe. A poor prison for an immortal soul, is it not? You had better fetch it out before the moth eats it as wool. When our garments become the idols of our hearts we are such foolish things that we can hardly be said to have hearts at all. Even such foolish hearts as these, it were well to get out of the wardrobe and give to Christ.

Where is your heart? I have known some leave it at the public-house, and some in places that I shall not mention lest the cheek of modesty should crimson. But wherever your heart is, it is in the wrong place if it is not with Christ. Go, fetch it, sir. Bring it here, and give it into the hand of him that bought it.

But in what state is it? “Ay, there’s the rub.” For as I told you that the miser’s heart was musty and fussy, so men’s hearts begin to smell of the places wherein they keep them. Some women’s hearts are mouldy and ragged through their keeping them in the wardrobe. Some men’s hearts are cankered through keeping them among their gold; and some are rotten through and through, through keeping them steeped in vice. Where is the drunkard’s heart? In what state must it be? Foul and filthy. Still God says, “Give me thine heart.” What! such a thing as that? Yes, did I not tell you that when he asked for your heart it was all for love of you, and not for what he should get out of you; for what is such a heart as yours, my friend, that has been in such a place and fallen into such a state? Yet still give it to him, for I will tell you what he will do: he will work wonders for your heart. You have heard of alchemists who took base metal, so they say, and transmuted it into gold: the Lord will do more than this. “Give me thine heart.” Poor, filthy, defiled, polluted, depraved heart! give it to him. It is stony now, corrupted now. He will take it, and in those sacred hands of Christ that heart shall lie, till, in its place you shall see a heart of flesh; pure, clean, heavenly. “Oh,” say you, “I never could make out what to do with my hard heart.” Give it now to Christ and he will change it. Yield it up to the sweet power of his infinite grace and he will renew a right spirit within you. God help you to give Jesus your heart, and to do it now!

There is going to be a collection for the hospitals. Stop, you collectors, till I have said my last word. What are you going to give? I do not mind what you are going to put into the boxes, but I want to pass round an invisible plate for my Lord. I desire to pass it round to all of you; and please will you say to yourself when you drop your money into the box, “I am going to drop my heart into the invisible collection, and give it up to Jesus. It is all that I can do.” Collectors, pass round the boxes, and thou O Spirit of God, go from man to man and take possession of all hearts for Jesus our Lord! Amen.