heraldry, cannot, during these times of his refreshing, disturb the sweet repose of his conviction, that all things are his, "because he is Christ's, and Christ is God's." And yet, to the last as well as to the first, to the highest as much as to the lowest, of these gifts and tokens from the skies, does the rule of our text apply, that they will be scattered if they are not gathered; if they be not collected, intertwined, bound up into one mighty cord, for the pulling down of the adversary's strongholds. Their whole strength lies in cohesion; you may snap the attenuated flax, when you would strive in vain to break the cable; to separate, therefore, is to weaken, to divide, is to destroy. Gather up all your spiritual gifts, then, brethren, that nothing be lost; the Saviour's fragments will fill more baskets than the sinner's loaves. The alarming providence of yesterday, and the striking text of to-day; the condemning touch-stone in the sanctuary, and what you deem to be a mere casual expression out of it, are all gifts from the Saviour: but they must not spend their strength apart. Like globules of quicksilver, they are seen best when they are put together; and like those globules, you will find they have great affinity too. What a wonderful coincidence, you will hear people say sometimes, that whilst my mind was exercised by this trying providence, I should have lighted upon such a text of Scripture, or have heard such a singularly appropriate discourse from one of God's ministering servants. Yes, won derful indeed, brethren, if it were a blind chance that overruled the universe; but not wonderful if we consider that the same Wisdom which ordains the providence, directs the eye to the text; and that He ordained this gracious coincidence, because when one message from heaven does not move you, He would graciously send you two. But, remember, you must consolidate these two, gather them up into the same bundle with the rest of your spiritual mercies, life spared, warning given, mercies vouchsafed, prayers answered, all must be gathered into one; for if not, you virtually scatter them. You know that dust will fly about if you do not moisten it, and seeds will be quickly scattered if you do not bind them; and therefore, the gifts which Christ sends to you must be bound together by cords of gratitude, and all the spiritual atoms He has thrown down upon your path must be cemented by the moistening dews of heaven. Learn, then, to put all God's kind tokens together; beads both look best, and keep best,when they are put upon a string; and whether your beads be few or many they will all pay for gathering, and will be both scattered and lost if they are not gathered. You must not tell us, that you have none to scatter; because, whoever you may be, the apostle assures us that you have: for he says, that," to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Consider, then, what use you are making of the gifts which Christ hath given you; if with the knowledge you have that the winds of an ungodly world are blowing furiously about you, you take no pains to bind up your gifts, it is plain that you do not care to see them frittered away; and thus, in you, we have a melancholy illustration of the truth asserted in our text, "Whoso gathereth not with me scattereth." But oh! this text must have a more awful illustration still; Christ's gatherers and Christ's scatterers must have one more meeting yet, and only one. The gathered seed shall expand and ripen till it becomes fit for the garners and the stores of heaven; the gathered flock shall rise from earth and sea to pass under the portals of the everlasting fold; the gathered graces of the believer shall be purged from their earthly dross, forming, by their clustered brightness the new name upon his brow; but if, on the other hand, you are scatterers, and sheltering yourselves behind the plea of religious indifference: then, the scattered seed which you did not prize, the scattered flock which you would not feed, the scattered graces which you would neither seek, nor keep, nor bind up, shall all rise up in judgment against you, and in their turn shall scatter you. Christ Himself will be the only gatherer then. He will gather His treasures from the deep, His spoils from the grave, His saints from earth's unknown and remotest verge, because with these is His travail recompensed, and with these does His diadem shine; but the rest will be treated as they treated Him, His seed, His flock, His sacred and dearly-purchased gifts, namely, scattered as worthless, trampled upon as foes, and left to inherit the undying portion they had chosen, that of those who had been scatterers for Christ, and gatherers for the enemy of souls! Amen. |