strains them by love divine, under divine drawings brings them at length to the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they come sweetly, under the sprinkling of his precious blood, feelingly to know there is life (spiritual life) in that blood. "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." You find the church, throughout the word of God, set forth sometimes by the term Jacob; and, again, by the word Israel. When Jacob kneeled down to pray, his name was Jacob, whilst he stood on one leg, with the truckle bone of his thigh out of joint, the Lord gave him such power divine, that he wrestled so with the angel of the covenant that he prevailed and overcame; he was, therefore, styled Israel, a prevailer: "Thy name shall no more be called Jacob." God knighted him on the field, a knight of the praying order; he kneeled down Jacob, and rose up Israel. Thus it shall be recorded, when time with me is no more, that some of us have done as Jacob did, we kneeled down poor, weak, helpless, wounded, sick, and sore, and rose up prevailing Israels, with our mouths opened to give God thanks; we could do no other than return a song of praise: "For in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me.' Where did the Lord find this man? He found him in a desert land, in a waste howling wilderness. Where does the Lord, in these days, find his saints? He finds them in a desert land, in a waste howling wilderness, like the rest of mankind, according to nature, governed by the prince of the power of the air, serving divers lusts and pleasures; but, after a time, by little and little, they are brought to have it said of them as it was of the church: "Who is she that looketh forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." This is the way the Lord' works with the soul that is quickened by love divine, blessed with the light of life in the understanding. This light breaks forth like the light in the morning; they see first a little, then a little more, so they increase, like the man of whom we read in the gospel, he saw men as trees walking, by and by they see more clearly. So is the path of the just as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. He found us in a desert land, in a waste howling wilderness, far from him, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; with such souls as were dead in trespasses and sins; he found us aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, enemies to God by wicked works; but, for his name sake, he breathed on the dry bones, and bid us live. Having given us life and light, we began to see, and feel, and groan, to see and feel something springing up in our heart, that we knew was contrary to the law of God-that which appeared exceedingly sinful in the sight of God; the law entered. I would not give a farthing for the experience of that man, that is not according to this: the law entered, the offence abounded. Men do not jump into religion, and jump to Christ at once; but the royal law of God enters the conscience, when the soul is quickened, Adam's offence, original depravity, the corruption of the heart of man, that being in the heart, begins to bubble up contrary to that law that God himself, by his Spirit, has lodged in his heart. It is not the law that makes sin, the sin is in the heart of man; yea, all manner of concupiscence. It is the man's nature to oppose that law, which is holy, just, and good, as a man that is a bad rider, put him upon an unruly horse, the man not knowing how to manage him, pulls with a dead pull, which causes him so much the more to rush forward. Thus it is with the law of God, anything that is prohibited, of a more filthy and corrupt nature, so much the more are we set on to have that ́thing God's law forbids. Do you not know it is so, believer? You have suffered from it, and groaned under it. Having been in that fire, you speak of this as a brand plucked out of the fire, to the praise of rich, free, and sovereign grace; you ascribe your salvation from God's law, and all other, to God Almighty: "He found him in a desert land, in a waste howling wilderness; he led him about and instructed him; he kept him as the apple of his eye." How the Lord leads his children about; how he led our ancient fathers about, forty years he was grieved with that generation: he led them about that march which they could have gone in ten days; but he saw fit they should be forty years. They sometimes pitched their tents, at other times struck them; sometimes they marched forward, then to the right, now to the left, again countermarched. How many times has it been with me since I have been called by divine grace, that I have had to tread my steps over again. Now this exhortation, coming from the Lord by the mouth of his servant : 66 Repent, and do thy first works" over again. Like to Bunyan's pilgrim that had lost his roll, had to go back in search thereof, and had to tread the ground three times over. Oh, says the restored backslider, how hard to get that ground again, to find the way back, to come nigh to God, to be in the enjoyment of his precious love. This power, this restoration, this healing cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, and is exceedingly precious to the soul of that poor sinner that is a backslider from the Lord; but when the Lord Jesus Christ does, as he did with Peter, turns on them a look, oh it breaks the heart of stone: "He led him about and instructed him; he kept him as the apple of his eye." It is written in the prophets, it is written in my heart, it is known by all the saints, that the Lord leads all his children about, and, by terrible things in righteousness, he does instruct them. It is written in the prophets that it shall be so. They shall be all taught of God: " Every man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh unto me." How hard it is to find out God in his work; no man ever did, and no man ever will. Who can, by searching, find out God; who can find out the Almighty to perfection? Sometimes, when the christian is ready to say, "The Lord is going to kill me, I shall never survive or arise out of this trouble," as said Jacob, “All these things are against me;" but our God is infinite in wisdom, and boundless in power. The way he takes with us is, at times, to answer our prayers by contraries. You do not understand it if you have not been well drilled, disciplined, and taught in the school of Christ; you expect to go to a throne of grace, pour out your heart's complaints, having the guilt lying on your conscience, there and then taken away. Not so, my beloved brethren, the Lord sees fit to let his children pray for things, and bestows upon them things that appear to be quite opposite and contrary, as Mr. Newton says: Yea, more, with his own hand he seemed "Lord, why is this?" I trembling cried, "Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?" "'Tis in this way," the Lord replied, "I answer prayer for grace and faith:" These inward trials I employ, From self and pride to set thee free, And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou mayest seek thy all in me.” Old fathers in Christ soon find out young ones, for the pronoun I runs through their speech, when the man himself cannot see it ;but a man who has been taken in this snare himself can discern where he is: "He found him in a desert land, in a waste howling wilderness; he led him about and instructed him." The Lord instructs all his children in his way of working with them, both in providence and grace. How mysterious is it to find out God's way of working in providence; how mysterious, also is his way of working in the heart of a sinner. The church said (what a mistake she made) Zion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." Was it good thus to speak, and say, "My God." She calls him her God, yet says he has forgotten her. Can the woman forget the infant of her womb, that she should not have compassion upon it? Yes, they may forget, nature may shew itself to be fallen; and, although she does so, yet, saith the Lord, I will not forsake thee, thou art engraven on the palms of my hand; thy walls are continually before me: whoso toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye. To be instructed by the Lord: God's children, sometimes in a fit of unbelief, will not believe they are instructed. Some say, who have stood long in a profession; that they seem to be more in the dark, and know less than when they first made a profession. This is a mistake; I have said so, that it must come to this: let me be where I may, fall into what I may, have what darkness I may, be possessed of what doubts, fears, scruples, suspicions, and complaints, surely in the nature of things the exercises of my mind, what I have passed through in that respect I must know more than I did forty years back; yet, perhaps, not much more in one point, the eternal evidence of real religion, the application of pardoning mercy to my heart, through the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, sprinkled on my heart and conscience to purge it from dead works, to enable me, as a child of God, to serve him in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter: "He kept him as the apple of his eye." How tender, how careful, is the Lord of his saints: "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye." Woe be to that man that chops off the head of a little one; better for him that a mill stone was hung about his neck, and he cast into the depths of the sea. The Lord Jesus never did this, Jesus saith: "He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." However weak and feeble, he will not cast him out; he will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, until he send forth judgment unto victory: "Who hath despised the day of small things?" There are plenty that do so, because they consider themselves so very great; but to tell you how these things stand with me is this, we cannot take all in, or swallow all they put forth, though some of the Lord's saints may, in this respect, be compared to jackdaws, they swallow all the dirty, as well as the clean. Not so with me; I bless the Lord he has taught me different; Solomon says: "The simple believeth every word." Not so, the well-taught man, the experienced man of God, he has had his senses exercised to know good from evil; his eyes are in his head, he looks well to his feet before he leaps, speaks, or thinks of himself, judging himself, or speaking according to his own judgment, according to the operation and teaching of the Lord the Spirit, as a lover of Jesus: "He kept him as the apple of his eye." As I said this afternoon, we do not want the Arminian's God, that loves me to-day and hates me to-morrow. This is not the God of Jacob, the God of Israel, for he says: "I hate putting away;" he saith, "I am the Lord, I change not." If he loved a man to-day, and hated him to-morrow, he must be a God that changed; but our God, my God, the God of Israel, is he that resteth in his love, that not only saith but proveth to the saints, that he hates putting away. The Saviour taught this doctrine himself: he said that a man ought not to put away his wife for every cause; yea, not for any. The Pharisees replied: "Moses suffered us to do so." Yes, said the Saviour, "Because of your hard hearts." But we go back further than Moses; we go to the beginning: "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together let not man put asunder." It is not lawful for a man to put away his wife. It is not lawful that the Lord Jesus Christ should put away his bride; he is the husband of his bride, the head of the church, saith the Apostle, and he is Saviour of the body; yes, the redeemed body goes by his name: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so is Christ." That vast family, that vast body, the mystical body of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the mystical head, is made up of billions and trillions of Adam's guilty fallen race; yet there are but one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one Spirit that quickens, moves, directs, and instructs, the whole family, sanctifies, preserves, keeps, and gives an increase of grace, therefore they shall persevere in their course, die in the Lord, and be saved in him with an everlasting salvation. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.” Do you understand this? Some tell us that the eagle flutters over her nest in order to teach her young how to fly. If she finds they cannot, she takes them on her wings, and mounts aloft; therefore, those who would kill her young must first pierce the heart of the old bird. They that would take away my spiritual life, must first pull Jehovah from his throne, and kill the Lord Jesus, for he hath said: "Because I live, ye shall live also." It is said respecting the eagle, she casts or moults her feathers, so that when she has fresh feathers her strength is renewed. David has an eye to this when he says: "So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." What care, what kindness, what love, what mercy, what condescension, what a stoop in our covenant God and Father, who is so mindful, and takes such care of such poor helpless worms as we; blessed be God for this, though we have to deal with foes, combined foes, the world, the flesh, and the devil, internal and external enemies. When it comes to this, and I have often proved it, crying to the Lord, from a sense of weakness, then he appears: "When I cry to the Lord then shall mine enemies turn back; this I know, for God is for me." David knew it, and we know that there is no other remedy, no other source to flee to, none to help in a time of trouble and distress but Jacob's God; he has pledged his word to this. There is nothing precarious in our salvation, the doctrine of contingency will not do for me; yea and nay will not do. Grace all the work shall crown; the grace of God, and gifts by grace. What is the grace that saves a sinner? It must be free as coming from God: free in its act, efficacious in its operation in the soul, and everlasting in its duration, else it would never take me to heaven; that is the grace I must have. It is the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ in me, called the God of all grace; he gives us that grace: "My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." Out of his glorious riches he has said: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Though we cannot open our mouths too wide, or ask too much, yet there may be a presuming in spiritual matters; of this I am certain. There is another thing not much noticed in the present day, as sure as the Lord liveth, and we have got to die, and there is a reality in religion, there is also a deal of fancy in the religious world; put them together, overcome them if you can. As I said this afternoon, let me have a companion, a man of understanding, of feeling, and solidity that is a solid man. This puts me in mind of friend Gadsby, once being called on to preach (under a mistake) at Dublin, for six weeks. When he arrived there, and preached, not a soul understood his doctrine; not one knew anything about it. The lady of the house in which he was, observed: "Sir, you do not understand our religion. This, Sir, is our religion: my interior works on my exterior, and my interior working on my exterior, makes my exterior become solids; that is our religion." I conceive what the woman meant was this: that it was something within that produced a holy walking-practical godliness. If so, there could not be much the matter, For so it must be, all doctrines, creed, or religion, will never convince me that he is a child of God, let the man be who he may, however sound he may be in this respect, without the love of God in the soul influences his conduct. It must influence his life and conduct to a holy walk, adorning the gospel, otherwise how can he convince gainsayers? Without this he never will, while the world en dures. I have sometimes said, could all the men in the army now be present, with whom I was acquainted before and after my calling by divine grace, they would all, with one voice, say there was a change, something that influenced me, that led me to live a different life, quite contrary to the rest of my companions, quite contrary to the life I lived before I was called by divine grace. So it is the life that speaks: a man may talk for ever; but if he does not walk according thereto, where is his religion? Where there is life and love there is a reality. We see what it means; there is a principle of honesty, devotion, uprightness, and integrity, about that man, so that we see something influences the man. Where this is wanting, what do we see about him more than others. Paul says, of his. converts: "Ye are our epistle (living epistles,) written in our hearts, known and read of all men." They read you to be the children of God by your holy walk and conversation, from time to time. We are told what the grace of God does when it comes into the heart of a sinner; it teaches him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world: "So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him " Can you and I say so? We hear the Apostle John say: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Say |