The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ it without putting myself into a most ludicrous posture, “How long do you limp between two opinions?” The prophet laughs at them, as it were. And is it not true, that a man who is neither one thing or another is in a most absurd position? Let him go among the worldlings; they laugh behind his back, and say, “That is one of the Exeter Hall saints,” or “That is one of the elect.” Let him go among the Christian people, those who are saints, and they say, “However a man can be so inconsistent, however he can come in our midst one day, and the next be found in such-and-such society, we cannot tell.” I think even the devil himself must laugh at such a man in scorn. “There,” he says, “I am everything that is bad; I do sometimes pretend to be an angel of light, and put on that garb; but you do really excel me in every respect, for I do it to get something by it, but you do not get anything by it. You do not have the pleasures of this world, and you do not have the pleasures of religion either; you have the fears of religion without its hopes; you are afraid to do wrong and yet you have no hope of heaven; you have the duties of religion without the joys; you have to do just as religious people do, and yet there is no heart in the matter; you have to sit down, and see the table all spread before you, and then you have no power to eat a single morsel of the precious dainties of the gospel.” It is just the same with the world; you dare not go into this or that mischief that brings joy to the wicked man’s heart; you think of what society would say. We do not know what to make of you. I might describe you, if I might speak as the Americans do, but I will not. You are half one thing and half the other. You come into the society of the saints, and try to talk as they talk; but you are like a man who has been taught French in some day school in England; he makes a queer sort of Frenchified English, and Anglicised French, and every one laughs at him. The English laugh at him for trying to do it, and the French laugh at him for failing in it. If you spoke your own language, if you just spoke out as a sinner, if you professed to be what you are, you would at least get the respect of one side; but now you are rejected by one class, and equally rejected by the other. You come into our midst, we cannot receive you; you go among worldlings, they reject you too; you are too good for them, and too bad for us. Where are you to be put? If there were a purgatory, that would be the place for you; where you might be tossed on the one side into ice, and on the other into the burning fire, and that for ever. But since there is no such place as purgatory, and since you really are a servant of Satan, and not a child of God, take heed, take heed, how long you stay in a position so absurdly ridiculous. At the day of judgment, wavering men will be the scoff and the laughter even of hell. The angels will look down in scorn upon the man who was ashamed to own his master thoroughly, while hell itself will ring with laughter. When that grand hypocrite shall come there — that undecided man, they will say, “Aha! we have to drink the dregs, but above them there were sweets; you have only the dregs. You would not dare to go into the riotous and boisterous mirth of our youthful days, and now you have come here with us, to drink the same dregs, you have the punishment without the pleasure.” Oh! how foolish will even the damned call you, to think that you hesitated between two opinions! “How long do you limp, do you wriggle, do you walk in an absurd manner, between two opinions?” In adopting either opinion, you would at least be consistent; but in trying to hold both, to seek to be both one and the other, and not knowing which to decide upon, you are limping between two opinions. I think a good translation is a very different one from that of the Authorized Version — “How long do you hop upon two sprays?” So the Hebrew has it. Like a bird, which perpetually flies from bough to bough, and is never still. If it keeps on doing this, it will never have a nest. And so with you; you keep leaping between two boughs, from one opinion to the other; and so between the two you get no rest for the sole of your foot, no peace, no joy, no comfort, but are just a poor miserable thing all your life long.

      8. IV. We have brought you thus far, then; we have shown you the absurdity of this hesitation. Now, very briefly, the next point in my text is this. The multitude who had worshipped Jehovah and Baal, and who were now undecided, might reply, “But how do you know that we do not believe that Jehovah is God? How do you know we are not decided in opinion?” The prophet meets this objection by saying, “I know you are not decided in opinion, because you are not decided in practice. If God is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him. You are not decided in practice.” Men’s opinions are not such things as we imagine. It is generally said nowadays, that all opinions are right, and if a man shall honestly hold his convictions, he is, without doubt, right. Not so; truth is not changed by our opinions; a thing is either true or false in itself, and it is neither made true nor false by our views about it. It is for us therefore, to judge carefully, and not to think that any opinion will do. Besides, opinions have influence upon the conduct, and if a man has a wrong opinion, he will, most likely, in some way or other, have wrong conduct, for the two usually go together. “Now,” said Elijah, “that you are not the servants of God, is quite evident, for you do not follow him; that you are not thoroughly servants of Baal either, is quite evident, for you do not follow him.” Now I address myself to you again. Many of you are not the servants of God; you do not follow him; you follow him a certain distance in the form, but not in the spirit; you follow him on Sundays; but what do you do on Mondays? You follow him in religious company, in evangelical drawing rooms, and so on; but what do you do in other society? You do not follow him. And, on the other hand, you do not follow Baal; you go a little way with the world, but there is a place to which you dare not go; you are too respectable to sin as others sin, or to go the whole way of the world. You do not dare go the utmost lengths of evil. “Now,” says the prophet, taunting them about this — “if the Lord is God, follow him. Let your conduct be consistent with your opinions; if you believe the Lord to be God, carry it out in your daily life; be holy, be prayerful, trust in Christ, be faithful, be upright, be loving; give your whole heart to God and follow him. If Baal is God, then follow him; but do not pretend to follow the other.” Let your conduct back up your opinion; if you really think that the follies of this world are the best, and believe that a fine fashionable life, a life of frivolity and gaiety, flying from flower to flower, getting honey from none, is the most desirable, carry it out. If you think the life of the debauched is so very desirable, if you think his end is to be much wished for, if you think his pleasures are right, follow them. Go the whole way with them. If you believe that to cheat in business is right, put it up over your door — “I sell trickery goods here”; or if you do not say it to the public, tell your conscience so; but do not deceive the public; do not call the people to prayers, when you are opening a “British Bank.” {betting shop?} If you mean to be religious, follow out your determination thoroughly; but if you mean to be worldly, go the whole way with the world. Let your conduct follow out your opinions. Make your life tally with your profession. Carry out your opinions whatever they may be. But you dare not; you are too cowardly to sin as others do, honestly before God’s sun; your conscience will not let you do it; and yet you are just so fond of Satan, that you dare not leave him wholly and become thoroughly the servants of God. Oh! do let your character be like your profession; either keep up your profession, or give it up: do be one thing or the other.

      9. V. And now the prophet cries, “If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, then follow him, and in so doing he states the ground of his practical claim.” Let your conduct be consistent with your opinions. There is another objection raised by the crowd. “Prophet,” one says, “you come to demand a practical proof of our affection; you say, Follow God. Now, if I believe God to be God, and that is my opinion, yet I do not see what claim he has to my opinions.” Now, notice how the prophet puts it: he says, “If God is God follow him.” The reason why I claim that you should follow your opinion concerning God is, that God is God; God has a claim upon you, as creatures, for your devout obedience. One person replies, “What profit should I have, if I served God thoroughly? Would I be more happy? Would I prosper more in this world? Would I have more peace of mind?” No, no, that is a secondary consideration. The only question for you is, “If God is God follow him.” Not if it is more advantageous to you; but, “if God is God follow him.” The secularist would plead for religion on the grounds that religion might be the best for this world, and best for the world to come. Not so with the prophet; he says, “I do not put it on that basis, I insist that it is your bound duty, if you believe in God, simply because he is God, to serve him and obey him. I do not tell you it is for your advantage СКАЧАТЬ