The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ to imitate Jesus, who, “when he was reviled reviled not again,” and by his strength let them go straight on. The surest way in the world to get rid of a slander is just to let it alone and say nothing about it, for if you prosecute the rascal who utters it, or if you threaten him with an action, and he has to apologize, you will be no better off — some fools will still believe it. Let it alone — let it keep as it is; and so God will help you to fulfil by your wisdom his own promise, “Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler.”

      And now, before I close this point, let me observe once more, the fowler when he is determined to take his birds uses all these arts at once perhaps, and besets the bird on every side. So you will remember, beloved, it is with you. Satan will not leave a stone unturned to ruin your soul for ever.

      Amidst a thousand snares I stand

      Upheld and guarded by your hand.

      Old Master Quarles says, —

      The close pursuer’s busy hands do plant

      Snares in your substance; snares attend your want;

      Snares in your credit; snares in your disgrace;

      Snares in your high estate; snares in your base;

      Snares tuck your bed; and snares surround your board;

      Snares watch your thoughts; and snares attach your word;

      Snares in your quiet; snares in your commotion;

      Snares in your diet; snares in your devotion;

      Snares lurk in your resolves, snares in your doubt;

      Snares lie within your heart, and snares without;

      Snares are above your head, and snares beneath;

      Snares in your sickness, snares are in your death.

      There is not a place beneath which a believer walks that is free from snares. Behind every tree there is the Indian with his barbed arrow; behind every bush there is the lion seeking to devour; under every piece of grass there lies the adder. They are everywhere. Let us be careful; let us gird ourselves with the might of God’s omnipotence, and then shall his Holy Spirit keep us, so that we shall tread on the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shall we trample under our feet, and we shall be “delivered from the snare of the fowler.”

      9. II. Now we pass on to the second point — THE DELIVERANCE. God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler. Two thoughts here: from — out of. First, he delivers them from the snare — does not let them get in it; secondly, when they do get in it he delivers them out of it. The first promise is the most precious to some of us, the second is the best to others.

      10. He shall deliver you from the snare. How does he do that?

      11. Very often by trouble. Trouble is often the means by which God delivers us from snares. You have all heard of the old story of the famous painter who was painting in St. Paul’s, and who, looking at his work, went gradually back inch by inch to get a view of it, so that he might see the excellence of its proportions, until his feet were just on the edge of the platform upon which he stood; and he would have fallen down and been dashed in pieces upon the pavement beneath, but just at that moment a workman who stood there, desirous to save his life, and not knowing how to do it, hit upon an expedient, which proved to be a very wise one. Instead of shouting out to his master, “Sir, you are in danger,” which would most certainly have sent him backward, he took up a brush, and dipping it in a pot of paint, dashed it at the picture. The good man rushed forward in anger to chastise him; but when it was explained, he clearly saw that his servant had acted wisely. Just so with God. You and I have often painted a fine picture, and we have been walking backwards admiring it. God knows that our backsliding will soon end in our destruction; and he by a sad providence, blasts our prospect, takes away our child from us, buries our wife, removes some darling object of our pleasures; and we rush forward and say, “Lord, why this?” — utterly unconscious that if it had not been for trouble we might have been dashed in pieces, and our lives would have been ended in destruction. I do not doubt that many of you have been saved from ruin by your sorrows, your griefs, your troubles, your woes, your losses, and your crosses. All these have been the breaking of the net that set you free from the snare of the fowler.

      12. At other times God keeps his people from the sin of the fowler by giving them great spiritual strength, a spirit of great courage; so that when they are tempted to do evil they say, with decision, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Oh! that was a noble escape of Joseph, when his mistress laid hold of his clothes; that was a noble escape of his, when his soul escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler; and I do not doubt that there are many here who have done deeds almost as noble as that of Joseph, who have had grace within their hearts, so that they have turned away their eyes from beholding folly, and when they have been tempted to evil they have put their foot upon it, and said, “I cannot, I cannot, I am a child of God; I cannot and I must not”; and though the thing as pleasing to themselves yet they have renounced it. You remember the case of Mr. Standfast in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress . Madame Bubble had greatly enticed poor Mr. Standfast with her offers. He says, “There was one in very pleasant attire, but old, who presented herself to me, and offered me three things, to wit, her body, her purse, and her bed. Now the truth is, I was both weary and sleepy: I am also as poor as an owlet, and that perhaps the witch knew. Well, I repulsed her once and again, but she put by my repulses, and smiled. Then I began to be angry; but she mattered that nothing at all. Then she made offers again and said if I would be ruled by her, she would make me great and happy; for said she, I am the mistress of the world, and men are made happy by me. Then I asked her name, and she told me it was Madame Bubble. This set me further from her; but she still followed me with enticements. Then I betook me, as you saw, to my knees, and with hands lifted up, and cries, I prayed to him that had said he would help. So just as you came up the gentlewoman went her way. Then I continued to give thanks for this my great deliverance; for I truly believe she intended no good, but rather sought to make stop of me in my journey.” That is how God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler, by giving them the spirit of prayer as well as the spirit of courage, so that they call upon God in the day of trouble, and he delivers them.

      13. And I have noticed one more very singular thing. Sometimes I, myself, have been saved from the snare of the fowler (I cannot tell how exactly), in this way. I have felt that if the temptation had come a week before, my mind was in that peculiar condition, that I would almost inevitably have been led away by it; but when it came, the mind, by passing through some process, had come into such a state, that the temptation was no temptation at all. We were just brought to such a state, that what might have ruined us before, we would not then look at. “No,” we have said; “if you had offered me this some time ago it might have been accepted; but now God has, by some mysterious influence of his Spirit, turned my heart in another direction, and it is not even a temptation to me at all — not worthy of a moment’s thought.” So God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler.

      14. But the second thought was, that God delivers his people, even when they get into the snare. Alas! my hearer, you and I know something about the net; we have been inside it, we have; we have not only seen it spread, we have been in its folds. We know something about the cage, for we have, unfortunately, been in the cage ourselves, even since we have known the Lord. The fowler’s hand has been upon our neck; it has only been the sovereign grace of God that has prevented him from utterly destroying us. What a blessed thing it is, that if the believer shall, in an evil hour, come into the net, yet God will bring СКАЧАТЬ