The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ look at, but they have no roots whatever. Do not you remember your childish behaviour; when you had a little garden of your own when you plucked some flowers, and put them in the ground, and said that was your garden; and when you went the next day, and found that all the flowers were withered and dead? Such are many professors — pretty flowers, plucked off without roots; having no adherence to the soil, drawing no sap and no nourishment from it. And therefore that is why they die, and bring forth no fruit. You come to us, and say, “I wish to join the church.” We question you as far as we are able; you solemnly tell us that your hearts are right with God. We baptize you, receive you into our number; but then there was no root in many of you, and after a while you die; when the sun has risen with a burning heat you perish; or if you maintain a tolerably fair profession, yet there is never any fruit upon you, because you did not get the root first; you got the notion first, and then thought you would get the root afterwards. I do tremble for many young people in my church — I will not exclude my own church. They get an idea into their heads that they are converted: the work was not true, not genuine not real; it was an excitement; it was a stir in the conscience for awhile, and it will not last. But the worst of it is, that though it does not last, they last as professors. When they have been received into the church, they say, “I am sure enough!” Preach about them as long as you please, you cannot get at them. They are church members, they are baptized people, they have crossed the Rubicon; what more could they want? You can do little for them. I do tremble for these. For my most hard hearted hearers I weep before God; but for these people I need to have four eyes to weep with. For who can make an impression upon them, when they are firmly persuaded that they are right, and have had the seal of the church that they are right, though notwithstanding that they are deceiving themselves and others, and are still “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” My young friends, I do not want to hinder any of you in joining a church; but I do say to you, make sure work of it before you make a profession. I would say to as many of you as love the Lord, come forward and unite with God’s people; but, I beseech you, do be sure, do “search your hearts and try your reins.” Many have thought themselves converted when they were not; hundreds of thousands have had an impression, a kind of conversion, not real, which for a while endured, but afterwards it passed away as a summer’s dream. It was only a little while ago that I had in my house a gentleman, an excellent man, and I believe a true child of God, who told me he had been brought seriously under the impression, on account of sin, through hearing a sermon of late. “But,” he said, “I was baptized in my childhood. When I was only young, there was a revival in our village, in New England. Mine was the hardest heart in the village; but I was found out at last. There was scarcely a boy or girl that did not join the church, and I was at last brought under deep conviction. I used to weep before God, and pray to him. I went to the minister and told him I was converted, deceived him, and was baptized.” And then he went on to tell me that he had dived into the blackest crimes, and gone far away, even from the profession of religion; that after going to College he had been struck off the church roll on account of wickedness, and that up to this time he had been an infidel, and had not so much as thought of the things of the kingdom. Take heed, many of you, that you do not get a sham religion. Many jump into godliness as they would into a bath; but they are very glad to jump out of it again, when they find the world pays them better. And there are many who will just come and say they are the Lord’s, and they think they are, but there is no root in them, and therefore by and by their impressions pass away. Oh! we have many fruitless professors in our midst, because they did not look well to their beginnings; they did not take heed at their starting point; they did not watch well the first dawn; they thought the little farthing rush candle of their own hopes was the dawning of the sun of righteousness; they thought the bleeding of their own conscience was a killing by the hand of God, whereas it was a deeper, and better, and surer, and more entire work that they needed, than what they received. Let us take heed, my brethren, that we do not put too much trust in our experiences, and take too much for granted while it is not yet proven in our beginnings; let us often go back and begin again; let us often go to Christ with the old cry —

      Nothing in my hands I bring,

      Simply to your cross I cling.

      For remember that these bad beginnings have had a great effect in making a man fruitless.

      16. 3. And again, thirdly, what is God’s estimation of fruitless professors? I shall not ask you their own; for there are many men who are professors of religion, with whom you might make your fortune very speedily if you could buy them at your price and sell them at their own. There are many, too, that have a very good opinion of themselves, which they have gained from the church. The minister thinks well of them; the church thinks well of them; they are respectable people; it is so nice to have them come, it helps the cause so, to see such respectable people sitting in the pews! Really, I do think he would do for a deacon! Everyone thinks well of him; everyone praises him. Now we have nothing to do with this kind of opinion tonight; our business is with Gods opinion of such a man. And God’s opinion of a man who makes a profession without being sincere, is this — that he is the most useless thing in the world. And now let me try to prove it. Is there anyone that will prove that this man is of any use at all? I will ask the church: — Here is a man that brings forth no fruit, and has only a profession. Members of the church, what is the use of this man? Will he comfort any of you in your distress? Will he hold up the pastor’s hands in prayer, when he is weary? Will he lead the troops to battle? Will he be of any service to you? I see you unanimously lift up your hands, and say, “The man is of no use to us whatever, if he brings forth no fruit; if his life is not consistent with his profession; strike his name off the church roll; let him go; he is of no use.” Where has he gone? He has gone to the world. Bring the worldling up. What do you think of this man? He makes a profession of religion. Is he of any use to you? “No,” they say, “we do not want such a fellow as that. The man is Jack-of-both-sides; he is sometimes a professor of religion, and sometimes a sinner in the world. We will have nothing to do with him; turn him out of our company.” Where shall we sell him, then? How shall we dispose of him? He seems to be of no use either to the church or the world. Is he of any use to his family? Ask his oldest son. “John, is your father any good to you?” “No, sir; not at all. He used to pray the Lord to save us with seeming earnestness, and rise from his knees to give vent to his temper. Many a violent blow has he given to me without any reasonable provocation. He was always a passionate man. He used to go to chapel on Sunday and take us with him; and then we know what he used to do on Monday; he would get drunk, or swear. A deal of use he ever was to me! He made me an infidel, sir!” Ask his wife. “Well, what do you think of this good husband of yours? He has long made a profession of religion.” “Ah! sir it is not for me to say a word about my husband; but he has made me a miserable woman. I think I would have joined your church long ago, if it had not been for his miserable inconsistencies. But really he has grieved my heart; he has always been a stumblingblock to me; and what to do with him I do not know.” Well, Jane, we will have you come out of the kitchen. “What do you think of your employer; he makes a profession of religion, yet does not live a righteous life. What do you think of him?” “Well, I did think that Christians were a good sort of people, and that I should like to live with them; but if this is Christianity, sir, I will take five pounds a year less to live with a worldly man; that’s all I can say.” Well, what is the use of him? I suppose he does something in business. He is a grand professor. He keeps a shop; everyone thinks that he is a most respectable man. Has he not given a hundred pounds just now to the building of a new church? Is he not always known to subscribe liberally to ragged schools? We will ask his men. What do you think of your employer? “What do we think of him? Why, we would think a great deal more of him if he would give us a half-crown a week more wages; for he is the worst paymaster in the parish.” “That is nothing perhaps. But what do you think of him?” “Why, that he is an unutterable hypocrite! Some of us did go to a place of worship, but we are honest, and we would rather stay away than go with such a miserable hypocrite.” I am describing real cases and not fictions. I need not to go farther than between this and London Bridge to knock at the door and wake them up, some of them. What is the good of such professors? If they would speak honestly, and say, “I am no Christian,” there would be some sense in it. For if Baal is God, let СКАЧАТЬ