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(No. 241)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 6th, 1859, by
the
"Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called."—Romans 8:30
Into thy secret will? None but the Lamb shall take the book, And open every seal. None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated by God unto eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I belong to that goodly company, who albeit that they have sinned shall nevertheless be washed in the blood of Christ, and shall in white robes walk the golden streets of paradise? Until this question be answered my heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. My eternal destiny infinitely more concerns me than all the affairs of time. Tell me, oh, tell me, if ye know, seers and prophets, is my name recorded in that book of life? Am I one of those who are ordained unto eternal life, or am I to be left to follow my own lusts and passions, and to destroy my own soul? Oh! man, there is an answer to thy inquiry; the book cannot be opened, but God himself hath published many a page thereof. He hath not published the page whereon the actual names of the redeemed are written; but that page of the sacred decree whereon their character is recorded is published in his Word, and shall be proclaimed to thee this day. The sacred record of God's hand is this day published everywhere under heaven, and he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto him. O my hearer, by thy name I know thee not, and by thy name God's Word doth not declare thee, but by thy character thou mayest read thy name; and if thou hast been a partaker of the calling which is mentioned in the text, then mayest thou conclude beyond a doubt that thou art among the predestinated—"For whom he did predestinate, them he also called." And if thou be called, it follows as a natural inference thou art predestinated. Now, in considering this solemn subject,
let me remark that there are two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word
of God. The first is the general call, which is in the gospel
sincerely given to everyone that heareth the word. The duty of the minister
is to call souls to Christ, he is to make no distinction whatever—"Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The
trumpet of the gospel sounds aloud to every man in our
congregations—"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price." "Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice
is to the sons of man" (Prov. 8:4). This call is sincere on God's part; but
man by nature is so opposed to God, that this call is never effectual, for
man disregards it, turns his back upon it, and goes his way, caring for none
of these things. But mark, although this call be rejected, man is without
excuse in the rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the
man who will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of judgment.
When thou art commanded to believe and repent, when thou art exhorted
to flee from the wrath to come, the sin lies on thy own head if thou dost
despise the exhortation, and reject the commandment. And this solemn text
drops an awful warning: "How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great
salvation." But I repeat it, this universal call is rejected by man; it is a call,
but it is not a attended with divine force and energy of the Holy Spirit in
such a degree as to make it an unconquerable call, consequently men
perish, even though they have the universal call of the gospel ringing in
their ears. The bell of God's house rings every day, sinners hear it, but they
put their fingers in their ears, and go their way, one to his farm, and
another to his merchandise, and though they are bidden and are called to
the wedding (Luke 14:16,17,18), yet they will not come, and by not coming
they incur God's wrath, and he declareth of such,—"None of those men
which were bidden shall taste of my supper" (Luke 14:24). The call of our
text is of a different kind; it is not a universal call, it is a special, particular,
personal, discriminating, efficacious, unconquerable, call. This call is sent to
the predestinated, and to them only; they by grace hear the call, obey it,
and receive it. These are they who can now say, "Draw us, and we will run
after thee."In preaching of this call this morning, I
shall divide my sermon into three brief parts.—First, I shall give
illustrations of the call; second, we shall come to examine
whether we have been called; and then third, what delightful
consequences flow therefrom. Illustration, examination,
consolation.I. First, then, for ILLUSTRATION. In
illustrating the effectual call of grace, which is given to the predestinated
ones, I must first use the picture of Lazarus. See you that stone rolled at
the mouth of the sepulchre? Much need is there for the stone that it should
be well secured, for within the sepulchre there is a putrid corpse. The sister
of that corrupt body stands at the side of the tomb, and she says, "Lord, by
this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." This is the voice of
reason and of nature. Martha is correct; but by Martha's side there stands a
man who, despite all his lowliness, is very God of very God. "Roll ye away
the stone," saith he, and it is done; and now, listen to him; he cries,
"Lazarus, come forth!" that cry is directed to a mass of putridity, to a body
that has been dead four days, and in which the worms have already held
carnival; but, strange to say, from that tomb there comes a living man; that
mass of corruption has been quickened into life, and out he comes,
wrapped about with graveclothes, and having a napkin about his head.
"Loose him and let him go," saith the Redeemer; and then he walks in all
the liberty of life. The effectual call of grace is precisely similar; the sinner
is dead in sin; he is not only in sin but dead in sin, without any
power whatever to give to himself the life of grace. Nay, he is not only
dead, but he is corrupt; his lusts, like the worms, have crept into him, a foul
stench riseth up into the nostrils of justice, God abhorreth him, and justice
crieth, "Bury the dead out of my sight, cast it into the fire, let it be
consumed." Sovereign Mercy comes, and there lies this unconscious, lifeless
mass of sin; Sovereign Grace cries, either by the minister, or else directly
without any agency, by the Spirit of God, "come forth!" and that man lives.
Does he contribute anything to his new life? Not he; his life is given solely
by God. He was dead, absolutely dead, rotten in his sin; the life is given
when the call comes, and, in obedience to the call, the sinner comes forth
from the grave of his lust, begins to live a new life, even the life eternal,
which Christ gives to his sheep."Well," cries one, "but what are the words
which Christ uses when he calls a sinner from death?" Why the Lord may
use any words. It was not long ago there came unto this hall, a man who
was without God and without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn—
was the means of his quickening. He said within himself, "Does Jesus love me? then I must love him," and he was quickened in that selfsame hour. The words which Jesus uses are various in different cases. I trust that even while I am speaking this morning, Christ may speak with me, and some word that may fall from my lips, unpremeditated and almost without design, shall be sent of God as a message of life unto some dead and corrupt heart here, and some man who has lived in sin hitherto, shall now live to righteousness, and live to Christ. That is the first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual calling. It finds the sinner dead, it gives him life, and he obeys the call of life and lives. But let us consider a second phase of it.
You will remember while the sinner is dead in sin, he is alive enough so far
as any opposition to God may be concerned. He is powerless to obey, but
he is mighty enough to resist the call of divine grace. I may illustrate it in
the case of Saul of Tarsus: this proud Pharisee abhors the Lord Jesus
Christ; he has seized upon every follower of Jesus who comes within his
grasp; he has haled men and women to prison; with the avidity of a miser
who hunts after gold, he has hunted after the precious life of Christ's
disciple, and having exhausted his prey in Jerusalem, he seeks letters and
goes off to Damascus upon the same bloody errand. Speak to him on the
road, send out the apostle Peter to him, let Peter say, "Saul, why dost thou
oppose Christ? The time shall come when thou shalt yet be his disciple."
Paul would turn round and laugh him to scorn—"Get thee gone thou
fisherman, get thee gone—I a disciple of that imposter Jesus of
Nazareth! Look here, this is my confession of faith; here will I hale thy
brothers and thy sisters to prison, and beat them in the synagogue and
compel them to blaspheme and even hunt them to death, for my breath is
threatening, and my heart is as fire against Christ." Such a scene did not
occur, but had there been any remonstrance given by men you may easily
conceive that such would have been Saul's answer. But Christ determined
that he would call the man. Oh, what an enterprise! Stop HIM? Why he is
going fast onward in his mad career. But lo, a light shines round about him
and he falls to the ground, and he hears a voice crying, "Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Saul's
eyes are filled with tears, and then again with scales of darkness, and he
cries, "Who art thou?" and a voice calls, "I am Jesus, whom thou
persecutest." It is not many minutes before he begins to feel his sin in
having persecuted Jesus, nor many hours ere he receives the assurance of
his pardon, and not many days ere he who persecuted Christ stands up to
preach with vehemence and eloquence unparalleled, the very cause which
he once trod beneath his feet. See what effectual calling can do. If God
should choose this morning to call the hardest-hearted wretch within
hearing of the gospel, he must obey. Let God call—a man may resist, but he
cannot resist effectually. Down thou shalt come, sinner, if God cries
down; there is no standing when he would have thee fall. And
mark, every man that is saved, is always saved by an overcoming call which
he cannot withstand; he may resist it for a time, but he cannot resist so as
to overcome it, he must give way, he must yield when
God speaks. If he says, "Let there be light," the impenetrable darkness gives
way to light; if he says, "Let there be grace," unutterable sin gives way, and
the hardest-hearted sinner melts before the fire of effectual calling.I have thus illustrated the call in two
ways, by the state of the sinner in his sin, and by the omnipotence which
overwhelms the resistance which he offers. And now another case. The
effectual call may be illustrated in its sovereignty by the case of
Zaccheus. Christ is entering into Jericho to preach. There is a publican
living in it, who is a hard, griping, grasping, miserly extortioner. Jesus
Christ is coming in to call some one, for it is written he must abide in some
man's house. Would you believe it, that the man whom Christ intends to
call is the worst man in Jericho—the extortioner? He is a little short fellow,
and he cannot see Christ, though he has a great curiosity to look at him; so
he runs before the crowd and climbs up a sycamore tree, and thinking
himself quite safe amid the thick foliage, he waits with eager expectation to
see this wonderful man who had turned the world upside down. Little did
he think that he was to turn him also. The Saviour walks along preaching
and talking with the people until he comes under the sycamore tree, then
lifting up his eyes, he cries—"Zaccheus, make haste and come down, for
today I must abide in thy house." The shot took effect, the bird fell, down
came Zaccheus, invited the Saviour to his house, and proved that he was
really called not by the voice merely but by grace itself, for he said,
"Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give unto the poor, and if I have
taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore unto him
fourfold;" and Jesus said, "This day is salvation come unto thy house." Now
why call Zaccheus? There were many better men in the city than
he. Why call him? Simply because the call of God comes to unworthy
sinners. There is nothing in man that can deserve this call; nothing in the
best of men that can invite it; but God quickeneth whom he will, and when
he sends that call, though it come to the vilest of the vile, down they come
speedily and swiftly; they come down from the tree of their sin, and fall
prostrate in penitence at the feet of Jesus Christ.But now to illustrate this call in its
effects, we remind you that Abraham is another remarkable instance of
effectual calling. "Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will show thee," and "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out
into place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he
went out, not knowing whither he went." Ah! poor Abraham, as the world
would have had it, what a trial his call cost him! He was happy enough in
the bosom of his father's household, but idolatry crept into it, and when
God called Abraham, he called him alone and blessed him out of Ur of the
Chaldees, and said to him, "Go forth, Abraham!" and he went forth, not
knowing whither he went. Now, when effectual calling comes into a house
and singles out a man, that man will be compelled to go forth without the
camp, bearing Christ's reproach. He must come out from his very dearest
friends, from all his old acquaintances, from those friends with whom he
used to drink, and swear, and take pleasure; he must go straight away from
them all, to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. What a trial to
Abraham's faith, when he had to leave all that was so dear to him, and go
he knew not whither! And yet God had a goodly land for him, and
intended greatly to bless him. Man! if thou art called, if thou art called
truly, there will be a going out, and a going out alone. Perhaps some of
God's professed people will leave you; you will have to go without a solitary
friend,—maybe you will even be deserted by Sarah herself, and you may be
a stranger in a strange land, a solitary wanderer, as all your fathers were.
Ah! but if it be an effectual call, and if salvation shall be the result thereof,
what matters it though thou dost go to heaven alone? Better to be a
solitary pilgrim to bliss, than one of the thousands who throng the road to
hell.I will have one more illustration. When
effectual calling comes to a man, at first he may not know that it is
effectual calling. You remember the case of Samuel; the Lord called
Samuel, and he arose and went to Eli, and he said, "Here am I, for thou
calledst me." Eli said, "I called not, lie down again. And he went and lay
down." The second time the Lord called him, and said, "Samuel, Samuel,"
and he arose again, and went to Eli, and said, "Here am I, for thou didst
call me," and then it was that Eli, not Samuel, first of all perceived that the
Lord had called the child. And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he said,
"Speak; for thy servant heareth." When the work of grace begins in the
heart, the man is not always clear that it is God's work; he is impressed
under the minister, and perhaps he is rather more occupied with the
impression than with the agent of the impression; he says, "I know not how
it is, but I have been called; Eli, the minister, has called me." And perhaps
he goes to Eli to ask what he wants with him. "Surely," said he, "the
minister knew me, and spoke something personally to me, because he knew
my case." And he goes to Eli, and it is not till afterwards, perhaps, that he
finds that Eli had nothing to do with the impression, but that the Lord had
called him. I know this—I believe God was at work with my heart for years
before I knew anything about him. I knew there was a work; I knew I
prayed, and cried, and groaned for mercy, but I did not know that was the
Lord's work; I half thought it was my own. I did not know till afterwards,
when I was led to know Christ as all my salvation, and all my desire, that
the Lord had called the child, for this could not have been the
result of nature, it must have been the effect of grace. I think I may say to
those who are the beginners in the divine life, so long as your call is real,
rest assured it is divine. If it is a call that will suit the remarks which I am
about to give you in the second part of the discourse, even though you may
have thought that God's hand is not in it, rest assured that it is, for nature
could never produce effectual calling. If the call be effectual, and you are
brought out and brought in—brought out of sin and brought to Christ,
brought out of death into life, and out of slavery into liberty, then, though
thou canst not see God's hand in it, yet it is there.II. I have thus illustrated effectual
calling. And now as a matter of EXAMINATION let each man judge
himself by certain characteristics of heavenly calling which I am about to
mention. If in your Bible you turn to 2 Timothy 1:9, you will read these
words—"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." Now here is
the first touchstone by which we may try our calling—many are called but
few are chosen, because there are many kinds of call, but the true call, and
that only, answers to the description of the text. It is "an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." This calling forbids all
trust in our own doings and conducts us to Christ alone for salvation, but it
afterwards purges us from dead works to serve the living and true God. If
you are living in sin, you are not called; if you can still continue as you
were before your pretended conversion, then it is no conversion at all; that
man who is called in his drunkenness, will forsake his drunkenness; men
may be called in the midst of sin, but they will not continue in it any
longer. Saul was anointed to be king when he was seeking his father's asses;
and many a man has been called when he has been seeking his own lust,
but he will leave the asses, and leave the lust, when once he is called. Now,
by this shall ye know whether ye be called of God or not. If ye continue in
sin, if ye walk according to the course of this world, according to the spirit
that worketh in the children of disobedience, then are ye still dead in your
trespasses and your sins; but as he that hath called you is holy, so must ye
be holy. Can ye say, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I
desire to keep all thy commandments, and to walk blamelessly in thy sight.
I know that my obedience cannot save me, but I long to obey. There is
nothing that pains me so much as sin; I desire to be quit and rid of it; Lord
help me to be holy"? Is that the panting of thy heart? Is that the tenor of
thy life towards God, and towards his law? Then, beloved, I have reason to
hope that thou hast been called of God, for it is a holy calling wherewith
God doth call his people.Another text. In Philippians 3:13 and 14
you find these words. "Forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those which are before, I press towards the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your
calling a high calling, has it lifted up your heart, and set it upon heavenly
things? Has it lifted up your hopes, to hope no longer for things that are
on earth, but for things that are above? Has it lifted up your tastes, so that
they are no longer grovelling, but you choose the things that are of God?
Has it lifted up the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend your life
with God in prayer, in praise, and in thanksgiving, and can no longer be
satisfied with the low and mean pursuits which you followed in the days of
your ignorance? Recollect, if you are truly called it is a high calling, a
calling from on high, and a calling that lifts up your heart, and raises it to
the high things of God, eternity, heaven, and holiness. In Hebrews 3:1, you
find this sentence. "Holy brethren partakers of the heavenly
calling." Here is another test. Heavenly calling means a call from
heaven. Have you been called, not of man but of God? Can you now detect
in your calling, the hand of God, and the voice of God? If man alone call
thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? and is it a call to
heaven as well as from heaven? Can you heartily say that you can never
rest satisfied till you
And never, never sin, But from the rivers of his grace, Drink endless pleasures in." Man, unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven is thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling, for those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. There is another test. Let me remind
you, that there is a passage in scripture which may tend very much to your
edification, and help you in your examination. Those who are called, are
men who before the calling, groaned in sin. What says Christ?—"I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Now, if I cannot say the
first things because of diffidence, though they be true, yet can I say this,
that I feel myself to be a sinner, that I loathe my sinnership, that I detest
my iniquity, that I feel I deserve the wrath of God on account of my
transgressions? If so, then I have a hope that I may be among the called
host whom God has predestinated. He has called not the righteous but
sinners to repentance. Self-righteous man, I can tell thee in the tick of a
clock, whether thou hast any evidence of election. I tell thee—No; Christ
never called the righteous; and if he has not called thee, and if he never
does call thee, thou art not elect, and thou and thy self-righteousness must
be subject to the wrath of God, and cast away eternally. Only the sinner,
the awakened sinner, can be at all assured that he has been called; and
even he, as he gets older in grace, must look for those higher marks of the
high heavenly and holy calling in Christ Jesus.As a further test,—keeping close to
scripture this morning, for when we are dealing with our own state before
God there is nothing like giving the very words of scripture,—we are told in
the first epistle of Peter, the second chapter, and the ninth verse, that God
hath called us out of darkness into marvelous light. Is that your call? Were
you once darkness in regard to Christ; and has marvelous light manifested
to you a marvelous Redeemer, marvelously strong to save? Say soul, canst
thou honestly declare that thy past life was darkness and that thy present
state is light in the Lord? "For ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye
light in the Lord; walk as children of the light." That man is not called who
cannot look back upon darkness, ignorance, and sin, and who cannot now
say, that he knows more than he did know, and enjoys at times the light of
knowledge, and the comfortable light of God's countenance.Yet again. Another test of calling is to be
found in Galatians, the fifth chapter, and the fifteenth verse. "Brethren, ye
have been called into liberty." Let me ask myself again this question, Have
the fetters of my sin been broken off, and am I God's free man? Have the
manacles of justice been snapped, and am I delivered—set free by him who
is the great ransomer of spirits? The slave is not called. It is the free man
that has been brought out of Egypt, who proves that he has been called of
God and is precious to the heart of the Most High.And yet once more, another precious
means of test in the first of Corinthians, the first chapter, and the ninth
verse. "He is faithful by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord." Do I have fellowship with Christ? do I converse
with him, commune with him? Do I suffer with him, suffer
for him? Do I sympathize with him in his objects and aims? Do I
love what he loves; do I hate what he hates? Can I bear his reproach; can I
carry his cross; do I tread in his steps; do I serve his cause, and is it my
grandest hope that I shall see his kingdom come, that I shall sit upon his
throne, and reign with him? If so, then am I called with the effectual
calling, which is the work of God's grace, and is the sure sign of my
predestination.Let me say now, before I turn from this
point, that it is possible for a man to know whether God has called him or
not, and he may know it too beyond a doubt. He may know it as surely as
if he read it with his own eyes; nay, he may know it more surely than that,
for if I read a thing with my eyes, even my eyes may deceive me, the
testimony of sense may be false, but the testimony of the Spirit must be
true. We have the witness of the Spirit within, bearing witness with our
spirits that we are born of God. There is such a thing on earth as an
infallible assurance of our election. Let a man once get that, and it will
anoint his head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with the white garment of
praise, and put the song of the angel into his mouth. Happy, happy man!
who is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of
atonement, and in the glories of heaven! Such men there are here this very
day. Let them "rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice."What would some of you give if you
could arrive at this assurance? Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you
may know. If your heart pants to read its title clear it shall do so ere long.
No man ever desired Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire,
who did not find him sooner or later. If thou hast a desire, God has given
it thee. If thou pantest, and criest, and groanest after Christ, even this is his
gift; bless him for it. Thank him for little grace, and ask him for great
grace. He has given thee hope, ask for faith; and when he gives thee faith,
ask for assurance; and when thou gettest assurance, ask for full assurance;
and when thou hast obtained full assurance, ask for enjoyment; and when
thou hast enjoyment, ask for glory itself; and he shall surely give it thee in
his own appointed season.III. I now come to finish up with
CONSOLATION. Is there anything here that can console me? Oh, yes,
rivers of consolation flow from my calling. For, first, if I am called then I
am predestinated, there is no doubt about it. The great scheme of salvation
is like those chains which we sometimes see at horse-ferries. There is a
chain on this side of the river fixed into a staple, and the same chain is
fixed into a staple at the other side, but the greater part of the chain is for
the most part under water, and you cannot see it: you only see it as the
boat moves on, and as the chain is drawn out of the water by the force that
propels the boat. If today I am enabled to say I am called, then my boat is
like the ferry-boat in the middle of the stream. I can see that part of the
chain, which is named "calling," but blessed be God, that is joined to the
side that is called "election," and I may be also quite clear that it is joined
on to the other side, the glorious end of "glorification." If I be called I must
have been elected, and I need not doubt that. God never tantalized a man
by calling him by grace effectually, unless he had written that man's name
in the Lamb's book of life. Oh, what a glorious doctrine is that of election,
when a man can see himself to be elect. One of the reasons why many men
kick against it is this, they are afraid it hurts them. I never knew a man yet,
who had a reason to believe that he himself was chosen of God, who hated
the doctrine of election. Men hate election just as thieves hate Chubb's
patent locks; because they cannot get at the treasure themselves, they
therefore hate the guard which protects it. Now election shuts up the
precious treasury of God's covenant blessings for his children—for penitents,
for seeking sinners. These men will not repent, will not believe; they will
not go God's way, and then they grumble and growl, and fret, and fume,
because God has locked the treasure up against them. Let a man once
believe that all the treasure within is his, and then the stouter the bolt, and
the surer the lock, the better for him. Oh, how sweet it is to believe our
names were on Jehovah's heart, and graven on Jesus' hands before the
universe had a being! May not this electrify a man of joy, and make him
dance for very mirth?
Come on, slanderers! rail on as pleases you. Come on thou world in arms! Cataracts of trouble descend if you will, and you, ye floods of affliction, roll if so it be ordained, for God has written my name in the book of life. Firm as this rock I stand, though nature reels and all things pass away. What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I am predestinated. Come let us at the sovereignty which has called us, and let us remember the words of the apostle, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." A second consolation is drawn from the
grand truth, that if a man be called he will certainly be saved at last. To
prove that, however, I will refer you to the express words of scripture:
Romans 11:29—"The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." He
never repents of what he gives, nor of what he calls. And indeed this is
proved by the very chapter out of which we have taken our text. "Whom he
did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," everyone of them.
Now, believer, thou mayest be very poor, and very sick, and very much
unknown and despised, but sit thee down and review thy calling this
morning, and the consequences that flow from it. As sure as thou art God's
called child today, thy poverty shall soon be at an end, and thou shalt be
rich to all the intents of bliss. Wait awhile; that weary head shall soon be
girt with a crown. Stay awhile; that horny hand of labor shall soon grasp
the palm branch. Wipe away that tear; God shall soon wipe away thy tears
for ever. Take away that sigh—why sigh when the everlasting song is almost
on thy lip? The portals of heaven stand wide open for thee. A few winged
hours must fly; a few more billows must roll o'er thee, and thou wilt be
safely landed on the golden shore. Do not say, "I shall be lost; I shall be
cast away." Impossible.
But loves them to the end. If he hath called thee, nothing can divide thee from his love. The wolf of famine cannot gnaw the bond; the fire of persecution cannot burn the link, the hammer of hell cannot break the chain; old time cannot devour it with rust, nor eternity dissolve it, with all its ages. Oh! believe that thou art secure; that voice which called thee, shall call thee yet again from earth to heaven, from death's dark gloom to immortality's unuttered splendours; Rest assured, the heart that called thee, beats with infinite love towards thee, a love undying, that many waters cannot quench, and that floods cannot drown. Sit thee down; rest in peace; lift up thine eye of hope, and sing thy song with fond anticipation. Thou shall soon be with the glorified, where thy portion is; thou art only waiting here to be made meet, for the inheritance, and that done, the wings of angels shall waft thee far away, to the mount of peace, and joy, and blessedness, where
With God eternally shut in, thou shall rest for ever and ever. Examine yourselves then whether you have been called.—And may the love of Jesus be with you. Amen.
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HE GREAT BOOK OF
GOD'S DECREES is fast closed against the curiosity of man. Vain man
would be wise; he would break the seven seals thereof, and read the
mysteries of eternity. But this cannot be; the time has not yet come when
the book shall be opened, and even then the seals shall not be broken by
mortal hand, but it shall be said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah hath
prevailed to open the book and break the seven seals thereof."
