The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ a worse name still; as a traitor to my country I am prepared to be handed down to infamy, if it is necessary, for having betrayed my country in taking in these spies, for I know it is God’s will it should be done, and I will do it at every hazard.” Oh men and brethren, do not trust your faith, unless it has self-denial with it. Faith and self-denial, like the Siamese twins, are born together, and must live together, and the food that nourishes one must nourish both. But this woman, poor sinner as she was, would deny herself. She brought her life, even as that other woman who was a sinner brought the alabaster box of precious ointment, and broke it on the head of Christ.

      11. V. Not to detain you too long, another point very briefly. This woman’s faith was a SYMPATHISING FAITH. She did not believe for herself only; she desired mercy for her family. She said, “I want to be saved, but that very desire makes me want to have my father saved, and my mother saved, and my brother saved, and my sister saved.” I know a man who walks seven miles every Sunday to hear the gospel preached at a certain place — a place where they preach the gospel. You know that very particular, superfine sort — the gospel, a gospel, the spirit of which consists in bad temper, carnal security, arrogance, and a seared conscience; but one day this man was met by a friend, who said to him, “Where is your wife?” “Wife?” he said to him. “What! does she not come with you?” “Oh, no,” said the man; “she never goes anywhere.” “Well, but,” he said, “do you not try to get her to go, and the children?” “No: the fact of it is, I think, if I look after myself, that is quite enough.” “Well,” said the other, “and you believe you are God’s elect, do you?” “Yes.” “Well then,” said the other “I do not think you are, because you are worse than a heathen man and a tax collector, for you do not care about your own household; therefore I do not think you give much evidence of being God’s elect, for they love their fellow creatures.” So sure as your faith is real, it will want to bring others in. You will say, “You want to make proselytes.” Yes; and you will reply, that Christ said to the Pharisees, “You encompass sea and land to make one proselyte.” Yes, and Christ did not find fault with them for doing so; what he found fault with them for, was this — “When you have found him you make him tenfold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

      12. The spirit of proselyting is the spirit of Christianity, and we ought to be desirous of possessing it. If any man will say, “I believe such-and-such a thing is true, but I do not wish any one else to believe it,” I will tell you it is a lie; he does not believe it, for it is impossible, heartily and truly, to believe a thing, without desiring to make others believe the same. And I am sure of this, moreover, it is impossible to know the value of salvation without desiring to see others brought in. Said that renowned preacher, Whitfield, “As soon as I was converted I wanted to be the means of the conversion of all that I had ever known. There were a number of young men that I had played cards with, that I had sinned with, and transgressed with; the first thing I did was, I went to their houses to see what I could do for their salvation, nor could I rest until I had the pleasure of seeing many of them brought to the Saviour.” This is a firstfruit of the Spirit. It is a kind of instinct in a young Christian. He must have other people feel what he feels. One young man says, in writing to me this week, “I have been praying for my fellow clerk in the office; I have desired that he might be brought to the Saviour, but at present there is no answer to my prayers.” Do not give a penny for that man’s piety which will not spread itself. Unless we desire others to taste the benefits we have enjoyed, we are either inhuman monsters or outrageous hypocrites; I think the last is most likely. But this woman was so strong in faith that all her family were saved from destruction. Young woman! you have a father, and he hates the Saviour. Oh! pray for him. Mother! you have a son: he scoffs at Christ. Cry out to God for him. Indeed, my friends — young people like myself — we little know what we owe to the prayers of our parents. I feel that I shall never be able sufficiently to bless God for a praying mother. I thought it was a great nuisance to be called in at such a time to pray, and more especially to be made to cry, as my mother used to make me cry. I would have laughed at the idea of anyone else talking to me about these things; but when she prayed, and said, “Lord, save my son Charles,” and then was overcome, and could not get any further for crying, you could not help crying too; you could not help feeling; it was of no use trying to stand against it. Ah! and there you are, young man! Your mother is dying, and one thing which makes her deathbed bitter is, that you scoff God and hate Christ. Oh! it is the last stage of impiety, when a man can think lightly of a mother’s feelings. I would hope there are none such here, but that those of you who have been so blessed, as to have been begotten and brought forth by pious men and women, may take this into consideration — that to perish with a mother’s prayers is to perish fearfully; for if a mother’s prayers do not bring us to Christ, they are like drops of oil dropped into the flames of hell that will make them burn more fiercely upon the soul for ever and ever. Take heed of rushing to perdition over your mother’s prayers!

      13. There is an old woman weeping — do you know why? I believe she has sons too, and she loves them. I met with a little incident in company, the other day, after preaching. There was a little boy at the corner of the table, and his father asked him, “Why does your father love you, John?” Said the dear little lad, very prettily, “Because I am a good boy.” “Yes,” said the father, “he would not love you if you were not a good boy.” I turned to the good father and remarked that I was not quite sure about the truth of the last remark, for I believe he would love him if he were ever so bad. “Well,” he said, “I think I should.” And said a minister at the table, “I had an instance of that yesterday. I stepped into the house of a woman who had a son deported for life, and she was as full of her son Richard as if he had been prime minister, or had been her most faithful and dutiful son.” Well, young man, will you kick against love like that — love that will bear your kicks, and will not turn around against you, but love you straight on still. But perhaps that woman — I saw her weep just now — had a mother, who has gone long ago, and she was married to a brutal husband, and at last left a poor widow; she calls to mind the days of her childhood, when the big Bible was brought out and read around the hearth, and “Our Father who is in heaven” was their nightly prayer. Now, perhaps, God is beginning some good thing in her heart. Oh! that he would bring her now, though seventy years of age, to love the Saviour! Then would she have the beginning of life over again in her last days, which will be made her best days.

      14. VI. One more point, and then we are finished. Rahab’s faith was a SANCTIFYING FAITH. Did Rahab continue to be a prostitute after she had faith? No, she did not. I do not believe she was a prostitute at the time the men went to her house, though the name still stuck to her, as such ill names will; but I am sure she was not afterwards, for Salmon the prince of Judah married her, and her name is recorded among the ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ. She became after that a woman eminent for piety, walking in the fear of God. Now, you may have a dead faith which will ruin your soul. The faith that will save you is a faith which sanctifies. “Ah!” says the drunkard, “I like the gospel, sir; I believe in Christ”: then he will go over to the Blue Lion Pub tonight, and get drunk. Sir, that is not the believing in Christ that is of any use. “Yes,” says another, “I believe in Christ”; and when he gets outside he will begin to talk lightly, frothy words, perhaps lascivious ones, and sin as before. Sir, you speak falsely; you do not believe in Christ. That faith which saves the soul is a real faith, and a real faith sanctifies men. It makes them say, “Lord, you have forgiven my sins; I will sin no more. You have been so merciful to me, I will renounce my guilt; so kindly have you treated me, so lovingly have you embraced me, Lord, I will serve you until I die; and if you will give me grace, and help me so to be, I will be as holy as you are.” You cannot have faith, and yet live in sin. To believe is to be holy. The two things must go together. That faith is a dead faith, a corrupt faith, a rotten faith, which lives in sin that grace may abound. Rahab was a sanctified woman. Oh that God might sanctify some that are here! The world has been trying all manner of processes to reform men: there is only one thing that ever will reform them, and that is, faith in the preached gospel. But in this age preaching is much despised. You read the newspaper; you read the book; you hear the lecturer; you sit and listen to the pretty essayist; but where is the preacher? СКАЧАТЬ