BY THE LATE REV. ARCHIBALD COOK, DAVIOT.
Preached in John Knox’s Free Church, Glasgow, on Sabbath Evening and Monday of Communion—8th and 9th April, 1849.
(Taken by a North-country Hearer, and hitherto Unpublished.)*
“But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.”—Luke xxiv. 29.
THERE are two classes of persons in the world, and each of the children of Adam is included in one or other of these classes—the righteous and the wicked. Every sinner that has not the Saviour with him through eternity must have the enemy of his soul with him. All must appear at the judgment seat. It is a precious thing to go there accompanied by the great Advocate, but it is a fearful thing to go to the judgment seat with God as the soul’s enemy. In this verse we have the fruit of the great sermon preached by the Saviour to His two disciples on the way to Emmaus. We have as much need of the Saviour abiding with us as they had. It is a pity, when people have been at the Lord’s table, if they have no desire for the Saviour to abide with them. That is an awful judgment. But those who get the benefit of His ordinances, will desire Him to abide with them. It is “evening” with many. Many have gray hairs: it is certainly evening with them, and they would need to constrain Him to abide with them. From these words, we will endeavour to shew:—
I.—That the Saviour may be constrained to abide with a soul;
II.—The nature of this constraint; and
III.—The fruit of this abiding with the soul.
The soul that finds these three particulars, will shine in glory as surely as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I.—I observe, in the first place, that the Saviour may be constrained to abide with a soul, and that on several grounds.
(1) He may be constrained, because He is our Creator. When Jesus abides with a soul, He abides with the work of His own hands; “All things were made by him.” The power of creation is a perfection belonging to God, which He does not impart to any creature.
(2) He may be constrained to abide with a soul, because He is “the mediator between God and men.” Jesus had a love from eternity to immortal souls. “I was set up from everlasting from
* There is a complete and remarkable Sermon by Mr. Cook on the same text in “Ministers and Men in the Far North,” by late Rev. A. Auld; but the present notes contain fresh and valuable matter.—Ed.
the beginning, or ere the earth was . . . and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.” Were they not in a fallen state in His eye at that moment? Yes; yet they were an infinite delight to Him. It is said that the Lord “rests in his love.” He loved His people, though He had to swim through an ocean of wrath before they could be saved. His love originated with Himself. It is co-eternal with His own being, and in that view it is as unchangeable as Himself. To call forth our love, there must be something lovely in the object. We do not love a serpent; but this was the character of sinners, “a generation of vipers.” From this, it appears that the Saviour may be constrained to abide with a poor broken soul.
(3) He may be constrained, because it is on account of His own merit and fulness that He abides with sinners. “Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.” So the Saviour may come and abide with a sinner, because the preparation of the soul for fellowship with Him is from Himself. He asks nothing from the sinner but his sins, and He gives him grace. He takes away the hard heart, and gives him a new heart; He takes away ignorance, and gives him light. Light, life, righteousness and holiness were set apart in the eternal covenant on purpose for the elect, and when Christ comes to the soul, He brings this furniture with Him. We are so proud that we think the Saviour would love us more, if we were better. No, poor sinner; but He says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”—(Rev. iii. 20.) He brings a feast in, and the soul enjoys it. A poor empty soul may therefore seek the Saviour, and He will come in and bring the furniture with Him to fit the soul for fellowship with Himself.
(4) He may be constrained by the poor soul, because the lower and more polluted the soul is in its own eyes, the more room there is for Jesus. In this way God shews that He is what He is. “I am that I am.” In this way the poor broken soul may seek and wrestle that the Saviour may come and abide with him. O, sinner, you can live without prayer, but an impenitent heart will be a bad companion in sickness, at death, and through eternity.
(5) The Saviour may be constrained because, as mediator, He veiled His glory with His human nature in order that He might abide with sinners. We see in Daniel that when he saw the glory of a created angel, he fell at his feet as dead, but when Christ, in the form of one of the sons of men, appeared, He revived. He veiled His glory, and came into the world. “The world was made by him and the world knew him not.” This human nature was taken out of the very substance of the woman, the very substance of the children of Adam. “The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” It was the work of the eternal Father by the Spirit to create this human nature. “A body hast thou prepared me.” The Invisible One now became visible, and yet remained invisible. The Fountain of infinite joy became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and yet remained the Fountain of joy. The Immortal now became mortal, and yet remained immortal. In this nature the law took hold of Him. There was no redeeming of sinners, but by magnifying the law. The Lawgiver was too high for the law, but He took a nature to Himself of which the law could take hold. Whenever He assumed human nature, the law took hold of Him in the womb, demanding satisfaction for all the sins of the elect. Each command of the law condemned the sinner, and asked the Saviour, “Is he to be saved?” “Yes,” was the answer. “Then, I must have your heart’s blood.” It is one of the mysteries of the gospel that the law must have satisfaction from the nature that sinned, to show the purity of law and justice. If He gave this satisfaction, may not a poor sinner find rest in Him? You, that are coming to the Saviour, are coming to mercy, to love, and to the sympathy of God.
(6) The Saviour may be constrained, because He submitted to every misery in this world for sinners. He suffered all that was included in “the curse.” He was hungry, thirsty, weary. He was persecuted by the malice of carnal men. He knows from experience the weakness of a creature in the midst of suffering. Having suffered “being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” You, that are poor and despised in the world, may go to the Saviour and speak to Him; He sunk deeper than any creature ever can. Though the case of a poor sinner may pass the understanding of men and angels, it cannot pass the understanding of the glorious Saviour. The Captain of salvation was made perfect through suffering. He was despised and cast out by the sons of His mother, but not by the sons of His Father. Careless professors, can you go to bed without Him? If so, the devil will go with you, and he will be in your bosom, and you will not know him.
(7) From the nature of His death, the Saviour may be constrained to abide with a sinner.
This was chiefly in His eye in taking human nature. As God He could not suffer. It was their death—the death due to a sinful people—that He died. Justice required the death of no person but a sinner. The nature of justice required the death of the sinner, or the death of his substitute. What an infinite love in God to provide a substitute Himself, and that His own Son! If Jesus died to keep sinners out of hell, you despise the blood of the Son of God if you do not accept of Him.
There were many deaths in Christ’s death. Though justice demanded the death of the sinner, yet the death of a sinner will
not satisfy justice. Only the death of a righteous person will do it, and Christ’s death gave the necessary satisfaction. When you think of the countless millions of souls whose death Christ took on Himself, what a death He died! If every creature in a town like this had their blood shed, what a quantity of blood there would be! And what a quantity of blood if every creature in the world had their blood shed! What an ocean of blood! Christ died for the elect, and it was counted to them as if their own blood had been shed. O what a death was this! When we think, further, how the Scripture represents them as “dead with him,” as “risen together with him,” in glory, we see that it was in this way—by His death and resurrection—He obtained their redemption. Before He could enjoy the fellowship of the soul, He had to endure the strokes of justice. “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice: I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey.” What is the honeycomb but the fruit of His own sufferings? “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.” This is the fruit of His sufferings and death.
If this fruit was so dear to Him that He considered not His death too much to obtain it, oh, may not a poor sinner look to Him? Not only that, but it is He that creates a desire in the soul after Himself. A poor sinner is content with a stony heart and with ignorance of God, but the Saviour comes and puts a drop of concern in the soul. You that have a drop of desire after Christ, this did not begin with nature. When He begets a drop of grace, then there is a constraining of Him. Perhaps He will hide Himself from the soul, and let the soul be crying after Him. There is a pride in man, that, unless he gets salvation as soon as he asks it, he frets and says, “There is no mercy.” How long has God waited on you? How many years? Twenty, thirty, or fifty? When He leaves the soul long seeking, He is for sharpening the appetite.
Application.—If there is any soul here to-night that has a desire that the Saviour would abide with him, that would be something; but sinners must be at the world—the world is their god: but if there was any soul in which there was a drop of desire that the Saviour would abide, He may be constrained to abide with that soul. You that were at the Lord’s table, you were professing Jesus. Why were ye professing Him? “I must profess him to take away my reproach among men.” Can you go to the Lord’s table, and can you lie down, without Jesus? Christ can be in eternity and glory without you. You can be content without Him; but you that cannot be content without Him, He cannot live without you. Someone will say, “My heart is so hard.” Tell that to Jesus; He will say at the great day, “You never said to me you were going to hell—you never prayed for mercy. If you had told me, I would have kept you out of hell.” Oh, do not go
to hell without telling Him of it; and if He do not prove a Saviour, He will not be faithful to His own promises. All the saints in glory will say through eternity, “We placed our souls in His hands, and He proved a Saviour to us.” But you, that despise the Saviour, will reap the fruit of this.
(SUBJECT RESUMED, MONDAY.)
One visit of the Son of God would be an evidence of endless glory to an immortal soul. One visit from the great Mediator would give him an evidence of being an heir of endless blessings. Those that will be lost—those that will go to hell—will never get a visit from the Son of God; they will be content without Him. They may have a kind of form to take away their reproach from among men; but there will be spiritual ease in the soul without the enjoyment of the living God. There is no greater honour put on a sinner on earth than one visit from the Saviour. It would be a great honour if an earthly king would give a visit to a poor beggar; but what is an earthly king in comparison with the King of kings, before whose eyes the inhabitants of this world are as grasshoppers? Yet he condescends to be constrained by sinners to abide with them, and He has no respect of persons. He is as well pleased with the company of a poor, ragged beggar, as with the company of a king. Why? It is on the immortal soul that the Son of God looks. All need the same God, the same Saviour, the same love, the same Father, the same endless felicity.
In our former discourse from these words, we said that we intended, in the first place, to show that Jesus may be constrained by a sinner to abide with Him; and we were showing that He may be constrained, as He is Creator and Mediator, from His infinite love to His people—having taken bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, and having died in the room of the guilty.
(8) I observe, further, that He may be constrained, though He is the high and lofty One, exalted at the right hand of the throne. He is the same Saviour as when He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Although He laid down the humiliation of His human nature, He did not lay down the human nature itself. He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh on the right hand of God; and though His sufferings are over, yet the remembrance of these is not over. In this view He has a fellow-feeling in Himself—the very same as when He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief in this world; and though he is, as man, the great Advocate before the throne, He is, as God, as near His people as when He was on earth; and in this way He can have sympathy and fellow-feeling, so as to be constrained to dwell with His people.
(9) I may, lastly, observe several views that the Scriptures give of Him, as showing further that He may be constrained. “Shall God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?” He is Immanuel, God with us. He is represented as “the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land.” “The name of the Lord” is represented as “a strong tower.” “The righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” In this way, faith beholds the Saviour near, and as one that may be constrained. Further, He is offered in the gospel freely to sinners, as the only way of our being reconciled to God. That is the language of the gospel: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.”
And indeed, when the Saviour takes hold of the soul by an inward life, the sinner will see God near, though, as to spiritual fellowship, God appears far off. The poor sinner will find himself in the hands of God. There are three chains in which the soul will find himself bound—the chain of guilt, the chain of the curse, the chain of spiritual death; and these chains will make the devils miserable through eternity. But the Saviour may be constrained even when the sinner cannot pray and cannot weep. What was the cause of the deliverance of Lazarus? It was Christ’s own sympathy, His own blessing. We read of the poor woman who was bound by the devil for eighteen years. The Saviour’s own fellow-feeling constrained Him to deliver her. The concern of the soul is given the Son by the eternal Father, and is connected with His own glory, and He must therefore needs be easily constrained by the soul.
II.—We now come to the nature of this constraint.
(1) It implies in it a spiritual concern about eternity. Till there is this spiritual concern about its eternal interests implanted in the soul, there is no constraining of Christ by the soul.
(2) In the day of His love there is a spiritual discernment imparted to the soul, that now discerns between the means of grace, and Christ in the means. Why were the foolish virgins without oil in their vessels? Because they did not know the difference between the means, and God in the means. You will see a professor praying and hearing twenty years, and he will never miss God out of the prayer or sermon. This is what brings millions of the hearers of the Gospel to hell. It is an amazing thing to see a sinner coming from a throne of grace quite careless; but to see a poor sinner coming home from a sermon mourning because he did not meet with God is a rare thing. Job said, “O, that I knew where I might find him!” There was a spirit of discernment imparted to him which prevented him resting in anything less than God. The Spirit of God imparts a drop of concern about the soul’s spiritual state, and a drop of discernment between the means, and God in the means.
(3) The soul, under the fear of an awakened conscience, will be looking for the Saviour by the promises or means of grace. That is a wonderful word: “Sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites.” There is nothing under heaven like the pure ordinances to an awakened soul. The hearing of a Saviour in His two natures, in His offices and offers, is the only way by
which a sinner will be brought to reconciliation with God. Though this faith was no greater than the first movement of a child in its mother’s womb, it has something in it that will bring the soul to venture on Christ for eternity. The soul is brought to say, “I will just fall into His hands, whatever He may please to do with me.” These are wonderful words: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” When the Spirit of God begins to speak in the conscience, the cry of the conscience is very loud—louder than the voice of “the blood”; but when the Spirit speaks of the blood and righteousness of Christ, the voice of the blood will be louder than the cry of the conscience; and this brings the soul to trust in Christ, and peace enters the soul. Until the voice of the blood is louder than the voice of the conscience, the soul will never have peace.
(4) A spiritual desire is awakened by the Spirit of grace in the soul for a revelation of the Mediator in the glory of His person and offices. The Spirit of God begets faith in the soul, but the poor soul sees a veil between him and the spiritual glory of Christ. This begets a spiritual desire after a revelation of that spiritual glory, and this is the only object the poor soul has in view in going to the ordinances, and perhaps he returns home under a sense of a barren soul. But there is a constraining here that will not be satisfied with anything but the opening of that glory. This is what Job had: “Oh that I knew where I might find him!” Nothing but a revelation of the glory of Jehovah would heal that wound. Job said: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Faith saw something within the glory of the Lord that it could rest upon.
(5) But I observe, further, that here the soul comes to know the need of the promises in order to constrain Christ to abide. When God, from all eternity, put himself and the blessings of grace in a promise, He knew what He was doing, and He knew all the needs the soul would experience in its journey through the world. He may come to the soul with a word, or with a promise, and perhaps in the promise, He may give pardon, perhaps His own love. Perhaps He may give Himself; and the power that comes with the word hangs the soul on Himself for the fulfilment of it. “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you an heart of flesh.” Perhaps the poor sinner never felt the stony heart so hard as he did that day. “I will pardon their iniquity.” Perhaps the soul never felt guilt as he felt it that day. There will be wrestling here.
I will be asked: “How will the soul know it was from God the word came?” When the promise comes from God, He will keep the soul looking to Himself for the fulfilment of it. But here the gracious soul meets some token from God, some token of
encouragement, and this will encourage the poor sinner to wrestle for Christ coming to him, and abiding with him. The Lord enables him at times to confess sin, at times to exercise repentance and self-loathing, being wounded in spirit for having sinned against God. At other times, he may have discoveries of the cross and the death of the Mediator. Again, at other times, the springs of the sovereign, the infinite love of God, may be opened up to him. Every child of God will know at times something of the sweet milk of humility. O that this would abide with us, that we could keep this always! There will be a spiritual wrestling to keep this. There is nothing that the soul is so much afraid of as to lose the broken heart and self-loathing in the sight of God. The soul is often afraid to grieve Christ away, and hence you see the soul becomes retired and leaves the customs of the world. He becomes a retired poor creature in a corner, but one is not alone that has God. You that have not God are alone indeed.
But here, if there is a gracious soul, something will be let loose in his nature, in order to humble him, by which he feels that, unless restrained by grace, he will ruin himself, though he were locked up in his closet till the day of his death. Something will be left in the soul, some lust that would crucify the Saviour and destroy the broken heart. It is the work of the Spirit of God to mortify sin. “If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Now, the Spirit never does this without the Saviour. The Spirit shows that these sins will separate the soul from God for eternity, but He also leads the soul to look to the wounds of the crucified Saviour, and it is this that will mortify the love of sin in the child of God. Is there any state in the world like that? Going to bed at night, and your souls thirsting after God. Rising in the morning, and feeling your souls thirsting after God. Do you not think there will be a constraining of Christ here? A poor unconverted sinner, the world lies down with him; but there is no state on this side heaven so sweet as that of a broken soul.
(6) I further observe that the Lord puts arguments into the mouth of the soul to constrain Him to abide with him. It is said in Scripture that “the preparation of the heart, and the answer of the tongue, are from the Lord.” What is the answer of the tongue? The Saviour said to the poor Canaanitish woman that the children’s bread must not be cast to dogs. “True,” said the poor woman, “I am a dog, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” These were sweet words to the Lord. They originated with Himself, and yet He was as pleased with them, as if they had come entirely from the woman. “O woman,” He said, “great is thy faith.” When the Lord thus fills the mouth of the soul with arguments, these arguments are just the fruits of His own love, and they prevail with Him. The centurion said in effect, “Lord, I am not worthy; yet I need thee, though I am not worthy;” and Jesus replied, “I have not found
so great faith, no, not in Israel.” The soul longs to get something that will stand the trial—that will put its state out of question. These are wonderful words: “Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” This everlasting covenant is the seal of God.
(7) I may observe here, that in those who constrain Christ to abide, the nature of God in Christ—the new nature—is growing. Love to the Lord grows with the growth of the soul. Something will be felt of Job’s words: “Separation from God was my terror.” O, my friends, this world will not spend eternity so easily without God as they now spend time without Him. They had the sweetness of salvation once in their offer. The loss of the world and the loss of heaven will be great, but the loss of the sweetness of God will be greater. You, that enjoyed God in Christ once, know this by experience. If you saw one in a high station in the world coming to poverty, his former taste would remain with him, and this would make his poverty sorer to him than if he had been always poor. You, poor children of God, that were in town forty years ago enjoying the means of grace and the great ordinances, it is no wonder though you be mourning under a sense of an absent God. It is no wonder to me, although you feel this world as if it were another world, and that you offer the lament of the Psalmist: “Woe is me! that I dwell in Mesech.” Yet a taste remains that leaves the soul not contented without enjoying God in Christ in His ordinances. Oh, the infinite glory of the Three-One God! The least ray of that glory breaking out on the sinner in carnality would soon make shivers of him.
III.—I now come to consider the fruit of Christ’s abiding with the soul.
(1) I observe that it is by the Saviour’s coming first to the soul that the hope of eternal blessedness is begotten. As for the hope of the world, it is with them from the cradle; it never was broken. But the “good hope through grace” is begotten from above. The first gleam of spiritual light that breaks in upon the soul begets hope; and this hope will be in proportion to the spiritual knowledge of the Mediator. We read and hear of an unknown Saviour; but when you come to grapple with eternity, that Saviour will vanish. But when a ray of divine light broke in on the Apostle Paul, a ray of hope entered his soul, and he was enabled to say, “I know in whom I have believed.” You, that venture your soul on the Saviour by a ray of spiritual light, He will take care of your soul and will abide by it at the great day of judgment. It is in this way that the hope of the child of God is not only begotten but nourished, and it is no wonder that the poor soul desires the Saviour to abide with him.
(2) Again, it is by the Saviour abiding with the soul that the poor soul has peace of conscience. Whenever a soul is made truly
alive about his eternal state, that soul has nothing but challenges. But the Saviour is such a one that the soul, that sees Him, would be content to go into eternity, trusting Him. These are wonderful words; “As sorrowing, yet always rejoicing.” In Him is peace, in Him is righteousness, holiness, life and light. A view of Him as the fountain of all grace, faith in Him, and love to Him in the heart, will make the soul venture on Him for eternity. He was among the Jews, and they did not know Him, because this grace was not in them. This grace is like dew upon the flowers in summer. When the dew is not on them, they lose their strength. Without the dews of grace, the soul cannot live.
(3) It is by the Saviour remaining with a soul, that something of the nature of spiritual tenderness remains with it, according to these words; “I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you an heart of flesh.” What is an heart of flesh? A soft heart that mourns for sin in the soul. “I saw transgressors,” said one, “and was grieved.” The grace of God put tenderness within him, so that sin grieved him. Lot’s righteous soul was grieved within him from day to day in Sodom. Can the gracious soul be content without spiritual tenderness before God? It cannot be content. By the abiding of the Saviour with the soul, tenderness is preserved in the spirit, so that sin wounds and hurts it.
There is a bewitching power in the world; but when the Saviour is with the soul, this beauty is taken away from the world. Things created appear changeable; things uncreated appear unchangeable. If you had more of God, do you think He would keep worldly good from you? No; He might give you more of it. Why is there a worm at the root of your worldly prosperity? Because you are committing whoredoms before the gracious God. “Whosoever will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” The cross may be felt in various ways. A carnal husband, or a carnal wife, may be a cross. But let a poor soul get a glimpse of the face of the Lord, and that will reconcile the soul to its cross. You, poor child of God, that enjoys God, you must have some cross to keep you humble, while you are on this side Jordan. Many a time bitter crosses make the soul go to God. But look at the wretched creature, that knows not a throne of grace, and has not a God to go to, when he meets with crosses; he is miserable indeed.
(4) Preservation from sin is another fruit of the Saviour’s abiding with the soul. Something of these words is implanted in the gracious soul: “The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” I have often thought of poor Joseph. The secret Majesty of heaven knew his temptation beforehand, and permitted the temptation to come; but He prepared Joseph to meet it. As long as you do not put Satan under your feet, you and he will agree; but when you put him under your feet, you will know that he is a serpent. Poor Joseph
was more afraid of losing the presence of God than to encounter the bitterness of a prison. The three children said to Nebuchadnezzar: “Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods.” They were more afraid of the everlasting fire of God than of the fire of this world. Without the Saviour, the child of God is as weak as any other person. It is the spiritual presence of God alone that will make His children as strong as a lion; without this, they are as weak as water. Look at a poor child of God trying family worship; perhaps a household of only two or three is a burden to him; but, if he gets a view of God, there will be nothing before him but God and eternity.
(5) Conformity to His image is a fruit of the Saviour’s abiding with the soul. The soul is made to see the Saviour as in a glass. If you get a glimpse of Him in a corner, you will be changed into the same image. Jesus removes the gloom off eternity. There is a gloom on eternity to a soul without the Saviour; but the knowledge of Jesus, and the experience of His grace and love, will remove this gloom.
I must now draw to a conclusion. It is drawing “toward evening.” We read in Scripture of “the shadows of the evening.” There are evenings of trouble and trial, and the shadows of these evenings are approaching. There is the evening of life, and you know, child of God, that evening is coming, and you would need to have the Saviour with you. There are evening times in the Church. When you see God gathering home His children, you may be sure the evening is coming. When you see the Church becoming barren and without fruit, under the means of grace, this is a shadow of the evening. After a season of barrenness, the Church needs to be ploughed and manured to bring it again to fruitfulness. What is the manure of the Church? The blood of the saints.
Concluding Exhortation.—You, poor people of God—seek, that the Saviour may dwell with you; and if you do, He will preserve you as the apple of his eye: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” When we see formality among the people of God, that is a shadow of the evening.
When you come to grey hairs, you may say that this is the evening of your days. O, old sinner, will you go to eternity without Jesus? You might be content with the days and years you have spent without him, without spending more. Many a barren Sabbath you had without a Saviour, and it never troubled your soul. May you not be content with that? Is it not time to think that you have a soul to be eternally lost or saved?
You, young people, be not content with a poor form. Going to the Lord’s table—that will not save you; it will not bring you to heaven. How can you look Him in the face, you that have been at His table, if you are among His enemies at the great day?
You have professed to enlist under Christ; you have vowed to the Lord. You are not fond of liars? See that you be not a liar yourself. Make sure of an interest in Christ; seek to be found in Him. Seek the broken and contrite spirit that trembles at His word.
You, poor people of God, keeping near God does not consist in means and ordinances. No; there must be grace in exercise. If you are in a calling, and if God has put you in it, you will find God with you in it. There will be a saviour of God with you in your calling during the day if you get a glimpse of Him in the morning. And you will find it the “one thing needful” to have your state right with Him, that he may acknowledge you in that day as one of His jewels—that He may acknowledge you in eternity in the place where His people shall eat of the tree of life, and shall drink of the rivers of His pleasures for evermore. That is worth the wrestling for. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”