BY C. H. SPURGEON.
WHEN I came to London as a young minister I knew very well that the doctrines which I preached were by no means popular, but I, for that very reason, brought them out with all the more emphasis. What a storm was raised! I was reading the other day a tirade of abuse which was poured upon me about twenty years ago. I must have been a horribly bad fellow, according to that description, but I was pleased to observe that it was not I that was bad, but the doctrines which I preached. I teach the same truths now; and after having preached them these four-and-twenty years or so, what can I say of the results? Why, that no man loses anything by bringing the truth right straight out. If he believes a doctrine let him speak it boldly. Mr Slapdash, as Rowland Hill called the bold preacher, will after all succeed. Let no minister say, “That is too Calvinistic, and Calvinism is at a discount; that is too Nonconforming, and if you dare to speak against the Church of England somebody will be very vexed. Now, trim your sails. Preach smoothly. Whenever you have anything to say, polish it, and put it in such a neat way that nobody can object. As the great goddess Diana nowadays is unsectarianism, try and be unsectarian, and all that is sweet and soothing, and velvety, and treacly, and you will succeed.” Now, how has it turned out with me? I wish to bear this witness, not about myself, mark, but about the truth which I have preached. Nothing has succeeded better than preaching out boldly what I have believed, and standing to it in defiance of all opposition, and never caring a snap of the fingers whether it offended or whether it pleased. Young man, if you are beginning life now, I charge you begin so that you can keep on, with a straight-forward, honest reliance in God, for be sure of this, the truth will reward those who love it, and all who lose for its sake are great gainers. Be steadfast in following your convictions. I cannot help saying it, because some of you, perhaps, are beginning to temporise a little. I would say to you, “Stand up straight, and tell out the truth, and then be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as He has told me.”
May God grant that this little personal testimony may tend to put backbone into certain Christians, for we have a molluscous company of professors about, who do not believe anything, but shape their creed according to the mind of the last person they meet. Go, dear brethren, and pray God to cleanse your hearts of that evil if you have ever indulged it. Believe God. Take every letter of His Book, and hang to it as for dear life, and in little as well as in great things keep to the statutes and precepts and ordinances and doctrines of the Lord, as they are committed to you. As surely as you do this the Lord of Hosts will bless you. First, rest in Jesus by a simple faith in Him, and then treasure up His every word, and keep His every command. So shall the blessing of God be with you henceforth and for ever. May His Holy Spirit work this in you! Amen.
Submission.
Blessed be God for the ordinance of prayer. It is some relief when in distress we can pour out our trouble into the bosom of a wife or faithful friend; how much more when we leave our complaint before our gracious, wise, and faithful God. I have told you of that holy man who, having lost his dear and only son, got him to his closet and there poured out his soul freely to the Lord. When he came down to his friends who were waiting below to comfort him, fearing how he would bear the stroke, he came with a cheerful countenance, telling them he would be content to bury a son, if it were possible, every day, provided he might enjoy such comfort as his soul had found in that hour of communion with God. Go thy way, Christian, to thy God; get thee to thy knees in the cloudy and dark day. Judge thyself worthy of hell as well as of this trouble. Justify God in His smartest strokes. Beg Him in this distress to put under “the everlasting arms.”—John Flavel.