A SIGHT FOR DESPONDING CHRISTIAN WORKERS
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isaiah 51:2-3. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah, &c.
It is habitual with some persons to spy out the dark side of every question or fact; they fix their eyes upon the “waste places,” and they study them till they know every ruin, and are familiar with the dragons and the owls. They sigh most dolorously that the former times were better than these, and that we have fallen upon most degenerate days. This habit is injurious, because it greatly discourages; and anything that discourages an earnest worker is a serious leakage for his strength. Depressing views often afford an apology for indifference and inaction. The smallest peg suffices to hang an excuse upon when we are anxious to escape from the stern service of faith. It is therefore a dreadful thing when the Church begins to be discouraged, and means must be used to stay the evil. Such means we would use this day. Lo, we lift the standard of the Divine purpose. Remember, ye that are cast down, that there are other voices besides those of the bittern and owl from the “waste places.” Hearken to Him who promises to make the wilderness like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. Gaze no longer at the thirsty land and the burning sky; turn your eye where the finger of the Lord points by His word. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you;” for there we may find comfort.
I. THE ORIGINAL OF GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE.
1. The founder of God’s first people was called out of a heathen family (Joshua 24:2). He was a dweller in Ur of the Chaldees, the city of the moon-god; and was called out from the place of his birth, and from the household to which he belonged, that in a separated condition, as a worshipper of the one God, he might keep the truth alive in the world. Why, then, might not the Lord, if the cause of truth were this day reduced to its utmost extremity, again raise up a church out of one man? He could call out another Abraham, and bless him and increase him, and achieve the whole of His eternal purposes, if all of us should sleep in the dust, and the visibly organised Church of to-day should pass away as the snow of winter at the advent of spring. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Let us never dream that the God of Abraham is short of means for calling out chosen men to build up His Church. Surely Christian people should never doubt His power to raise up lights in dark places, when we remember that the greatest preacher of the gospel, namely, the apostle Paul, was drafted into the army of Christ from the ranks of its direst foes. As Luther came from among the monks, so out of Rome, yea, from the Vatican itself, can God, if He wills, call another Luther. Take this, then, for encouragement, ye who tremble for the ark of God; He can build up a spiritual house for Himself out of dark quarries, and find cedars for His temple in forests untraversed by the feet of missionaries.
2. Abraham was but one man. The Lord has, as a rule, wrought more nobly by one man than by bands and corporations of men. He in whose seed all nations are blessed was but one. “I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” Nor is this a solitary instance. When the earth was utterly corrupt God conserved the race by a solitary preacher of righteousness, who prepared an ark for the saving of his house. One Joseph saved whole nations from famine, and one Moses brought out a race from bondage. Who was there to keep Israel right when Moses fell on sleep but the one man Joshua? What were the prosperous times in the era of the Judges but days when one man was to the front as a leader? One man, standing like a figure at the head of many ciphers, soon headed victorious thousands, through faith in God. The Philistines had triumphed over the land if the one lad had not brought back Goliath’s head, and if the one man had not again and again smitten the uncircumcised in the name of the Lord. Beloved, if we should ever be reduced, as we shall not be, to one man, yet by one man will God preserve His Church, and work out His great purposes. We may rightly measure quantities in reference to many things, but with others it is absurd. It would be ridiculous to measure the power of fire by the quantity which burns on your hearth. Give us fit materials and a single match, and you shall see what fire can do. Ye carry fire, ye servants of God, fire which fell at Pentecost; ye work with a heaven-sent force of boundless energy. Why, therefore, should you despair? If all the lights in the world were put out except a solitary lamp, there is enough fire in one wick to kindle all the lamps in the universe.
3. This one man was a lone man. He had not only to do the work of God, but he had nobody to help him. “I called him alone.” True, he was attended by Lot, costing his noble uncle more trouble than he ever brought him profit. How little did he maintain or adorn the righteousness which, nevertheless, had saved him: true type of many a feeble professor in these days. Abraham was not backed by any society when he crossed the Euphrates and afterwards traversed the desert to sojourn in Canaan as a pilgrim and a stranger. If ever man was fairly cut adrift and cast upon the Lord, it was the great father of the faithful. He certainly found no patronage in his onward course save the all-sufficient patronage of the Lord his God. He had no prestige of parentage, rank, or title. He was in the fullest sense a lone man, unsupported by any of those outward distinctions which enable some men to do more than others.
The fulfilment of his calling rested on his loneliness. When he was alone God blessed Abraham,—“I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” My brother, if in the town or district where you live you seem to lose all your helpers; if they die one by one, and it seems as if nobody would be left to you; if even the prayer meeting fails for want of earnest, pleading men, still persevere, for it is the lone man that God will bless. You are learning sympathy with that lone Man in Gethsemane, with that lone Man upon the cross, who there vanquished all our foes. “I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” Grasp that, ye that dwell remote from human sympathy. Oh that our missionaries abroad my feel the rich comfort of this fact! for they full often, like lone sentinels, keep watch with eyes that long to see a friend. They are separated from intercourse with brethren, they miss the friendships which tend to comfort and confirm, but it is God that calls them alone, and He will bless them and increase them.
Here is the sum and substance of this first head of my discourse: in looking to the rock whence we are hewn, we see the Lord working the greatest results from apparently inadequate causes. This teaches us to cease from calculating means, possibilities, and probabilities, for we have to deal with God, with whom all things are possible. Almighty God can assuredly do whatever He says He will do. If all the things that are have been spoken into existence by God alone, by His mere word, can He not yet build up His Church, even if on her earthly side there should seem to be no material with which to raise her walls?
II. THE MAIN CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS CHOSEN MAN. The text says, “Look,” &c.; and it must mean,—consider him, and see what he was, that you may learn from him. His grand characteristic was his faith. Here is his epitaph:—“Abraham believed God.” That was a mainspring of all his acts, the glory of his life. The men that God will work by, whatever else they have not, must have faith in God. Though it is to be desired that the believer should have every mental and moral qualification, yet it is astounding how, if there be real faith, a multitude of imperfections are swallowed up, and the man is still a power. I would mention Samson as an extreme case. Morally the feeblest of men, and the least fitted to be a judge in Israel; but oh, what faith! And what wonders it achieved!
Abraham’s faith was such that it led him to obedience. He was called to go out, and he went, not knowing whither he went. It led him to perseverance; for once in God’s way he did not leave it, but still abode a sojourner with God. It led him to expectancy; he looked for the promised seed, and not only for an Isaac but for the Messiah. So clear was the vision of his expectancy that before his eyes Christ was set forth, visibly.
The like faith also dwelt in the breast of Sarah; and as we are told in the text to look to Sarah as well as Abraham, let us not fail to do so. The faith of Sarah was not little when she left home with her husband; forsaking her kith and kin from love to God, and to him whom she called “lord.” Nor did the trial of her faith end with the moving; she had to take up with tent life and all its inconveniences. Certain people look upon faith as a fine, airy, sentimental thing with which to roam among the stars, anticipate millenniums, and enjoy yourself in lofty contemplation. I believe far more in a faith which, whether it eats or drinks, does all to the glory of God; faith which like Sarah dwells in the tent and works there; faith which is cheerful over a scanty meal and drives away the fear of want; faith which can come down in life from the mansion to the cottage, if providence so decrees. From Abraham’s comfortable home at Ur to his gipsy wanderings in Palestine the change must have been great, but Abraham may not have felt it one half as much as Sarah, for men can rough it and live out of doors, but the housewife knows all about it, and great was her faith that she never raised a question about the propriety of her husband’s course of life: and though she laughed when she was told that she should bear a son, yet remember that in the eleventh of Hebrews it is written—“Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.” She was the mother of Isaac, not in the power of the flesh, but the energy of faith; therefore look at her, as the text bids you.
Mark well this fact—that the characteristic of the person whom God will bless is that he believes and acts upon his belief. Why is this? Because faith is the only faculty of our spirit which can grasp God’s ideal. The ideas of God are as high above us as the heavens are above the earth: and therefore it is not by any fancied vastness of our feeble minds that we can ever rise into fellowship with God. There is a capacity about faith for grasping Divine promises and purposes, a width, a breadth, a height, a depth, which can hold the infinite truth as no other power can do. Love alone can rival it, for it embraces the infinite God Himself. With the far-reaching plans and promises of God faith alone is fit to deal; carnal reason is altogether out of the lists.
Faith, too, has a great power of reception, and therein lies much of her adaptation to the Divine purpose. Self-confidence, courage, resolution, cool reasoning, whatever else they are good at, are bad at humbly receiving. Those vessels which are full already are of no use as receivers; but faith presents her emptiness to God, and opens her mouth that God may fill it.
Again, faith always uses the strength that God gives her. Pride would vapour with it, and doubt would evaporate it; but faith is practical, and economically uses the talent entrusted to her.
Faith, too, can wait the Lord’s time and place. When faith is weak, men are in a dreadful hurry. “He that believeth shall not make haste”: that is to say, he shall not be ashamed or confounded by present trials so as to rush upon unbelieving actions. Faith leaves times and seasons with God, to whom they belong.
God loveth faith and blesseth it too, because it giveth Him all the glory. You do not believe God, if you boast of what you are doing: least of all do you believe, if you pride yourself in your faith; for faith is not mistrustful of her God but of herself. Faith looks to God to keep her alive as well as to fulfil the promise that He has made to her.
This, then, is the kind of faith which was characteristic of Abraham, and the question is, Have we got it? Have we so much of it that God can largely bless us? The comfort is that, if we have it not, the author of faith can give it to us, and if we have it in scant measure He can increase it.
You who do not believe that missions will succeed; you who readily become discouraged and discourage others; I beg you go home and seek more faith. We cannot go down to the battle with such soldiers as you; you do but encumber the host. The men that lapped are the only ones that Gideon will take to war. Send the fearful ones to the rear and let them take care of the baggage, so that when the battle is won they may have a share of the spoil, according to David’s law. For actual service and warfare we must have men of faith. Cromwell found that when his men came dressed in all sorts of suits and colours they were apt to injure one another in the mêlée, and so he put them all in uniform. The uniform of the Prince Immanuel is faith: no man may call himself a soldier of the Cross who hath it not.
III. God effected His purpose, and raised up a chosen nation out of one man, whose chief characteristic was his faith: now notice OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THAT ONE MAN. There is a relation between us and Abraham: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Something, surely, is expected of the children of such a man as Abraham. Great mountains are often succeeded by low valleys. Perhaps that is the case with you; but it should not be so. The natural seed were cut off because they had no faith: let not those who are grafted in, think to do without it. It is by faith that you are a son at all. You disprove your pedigree, if you stagger at God’s promises.
Because we are the seed of Abraham, the apostle declares that the blessing of Abraham has come upon us also. Friends and labourers in our Missionary Society, grasp the blessing of Abraham! Here is the substance of it—“Surely blessing, I will bless thee; and in multiplying, I will multiply thee.” That is the grand old covenant promise, and it belongs to the Church. The blessing of the Church is the increase of the Church. The two go together.
We long to be multiplied—and we shall be, if we have faith in our God. The success of truth is the battle of the Lord, and the increase of His Church is according to His own promise; therefore in quietness we may possess our souls.
IV. CONSIDER OUR POSITION BEFORE ABRAHAM’S GOD. Do not let anything that I have said about Abraham for a moment take your mind off from the Lord Himself, because the pith of it all lies here—“I called him alone.” Look to Abraham, but only as to the rock from which the Lord quarried His people: your main thought must be Jehovah Himself. Look unto the everlasting God who doeth great wonders, and stay yourselves upon Him.
Joyfully recollect that the Lord our God has not changed. This God of Abraham is still almighty, and still in the midst of the covenanted ones. Our behaviour towards Him, therefore, should resemble that of Abraham; we must never dishonour the Lord by unbelief. Doubt everything but God. This the everlasting decree which none can change—Christ must reign; He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied; the kings of the earth must bow before Him. Do not doubt it, for God has sworn by His own life that all flesh shall see His glory. Here is the grand argument for strong faith.
The covenant of God has not changed. Read the covenant words, and write them upon the door-posts of your Mission House, “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” This is the covenant with the spiritual seed of Abraham, and it has never been revoked. We read it now in clearer light, and understand better the fulness of its provisions. Therefore let us cry, “Remember Thy word unto Thy servant upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.”
You know more of God than Abraham could know; I beseech you then, trust Him, at least up to the level of the patriarch. How shall we forge an excuse, if we do not? What can excuse us if we distrust so glorious a God. Let us then act in daily life as those who do believe Him. Some people have a faith which is for show, a Sunday faith, faith that cannot bear the wear and tear of everyday life; varnished and gilded, but with no pure metal in it. The faith of Abraham could lead strings of camels and flocks of sheep away from Haran to Canaan. His was the faith which could drive the tent-pin into a foreign soil, or roll up the canvas and seek another unknown halting-place. In the Lord’s work of evangelising the world you must have a downright, practical faith; not a faith that will sing when the organ begins to play, and then be so busy fumbling the hymn paper as to forget the collection: not the faith of those who boast of Carey, and Marshman, and Knibb, but whose own names never appear in the subscription list for a single shilling: not a faith which sings—
“Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel,”
but never lends a bit of down to make a feather for its wings.
“The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” If you doubt it, dissolve your Missionary Society, and do not pretend to do a work in which you have no faith; but if you believe in the triumph of God’s work, and that you are called to it, behave worthily to so divine an enterprise.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1596.
SARAH AND HER DAUGHTERS
(A Sermon for Christian Households.)
Isaiah 51:2. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you.”
1 Peter 3:6. “Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.”
1. What a happy circumstance it is when a godly, gracious man has an equally godly and gracious wife! It is ill when there is a radical difference between husband and wife,—when one fears God, and the other has no regard to Him. What a pain it is to a Christian woman to be yoked with an unbelieving husband. The same must be the case of a husband who has an ungodly wife. However much God may bless him in all other respects, there seems to be a great miss there, as if a part of the sun were eclipsed,—that a part of life which should be all light is left in thick darkness! Oh, let those of us who have the happiness of being joined together in the Lord, thank and bless God every time they remember each other. Abraham had cause to praise God for Sarah, and Sarah was grateful for Abraham. I have not the slightest doubt that Sarah’s character owed its excellence very much to Abraham: I should not wonder, however, if we discover, when all things are revealed, that Abraham owed as much to Sarah. Our first text bids us, “Look to Sarah,” and we do look on her, and we thank God if we, like Abraham, are favoured with holy consorts, whose amiable tempers and loving characters tend to make us better servants of God.
2. God does not forget the lesser lights. Abraham shines like a star of the first magnitude, and we do not at first sight observe that other star, with light so bright and pure, shining with milder radiance but with kindred lustre, close at his side. The light of Mamre, which is known under the name of Abraham, resolves itself into a double star when we apply the telescope of reflection and observation. To the common eye Abraham is the sole character, and ordinary people overlook his faithful spouse, but God does not overlook. Our God never omits the good who are obscure. He who treasures the names of His apostles, notes also the women that followed in His train. He who marks the brave confessors and the bold preachers of the gospel, also remembers those helpers who labour quietly in the gospel in places of retirement into which the hawk’s eye of history seldom pries. Let, therefore, those who count themselves to be of the tribe of Benjamin, to be little in Israel, never be discouraged on that account; for the Lord is too great to despise the little ones.
It would be well for us to imitate God in this: great men are often not good examples. I am sorry when, because men have been clever and successful, they are held up to imitation, though their motives and morals have been questionable. Learn not from the great but from the good: be not dazzled by success, but follow the safer light of truth and right. Some of the choicest virtues are not so much seen in the great as in the quiet, obscure life. Many a Christian woman manifests a glory of character that is to be found in no public man. I am sure that many a flower that is “born to blush unseen,” and, as we think, to “waste its fragrance on the desert air,” is fairer than the beauties which reign in the conservatory, and are the admiration of all. God has ways of producing very choice things on a small scale. As rare pearls and precious stones are never great masses of rock, but always lie within a narrow compass, so full often the fairest and richest virtues are to be found in the humblest individuals. Do not, therefore, always be studying Abraham, the greater character. Does not the text say, “Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah that bare you?” You have not learned the full lesson of patriarchal life until you have been in the tent with Sarah, as well as among the flocks with her husband.
3. Faith reveals itself in various ways. Faith in Noah makes him a shipbuilder; in Abraham it makes him a pilgrim and a stranger. Faith has many ways of working, and it works according to the condition and position of the person in whom it dwells. Sarah does not become Abraham, nor does Abraham become Sarah. Faith in Isaac does not make him the same royal man as Abraham: he is always tame and gentle rather than great and noble; he comes in like a valley between the two great hills of Abraham and Jacob. God does not by His grace lift us out of our place. A man is made gentle, but he is not made a fool. A woman is made brave, but grace never made her masterful and domineering. Sarah is beautified with the virtues that adorn a woman, while Abraham is adorned with all the excellences which are becoming in a godly man. According as the virtue is required, so is it produced. If Abraham walk before God and is perfect; if he smite the kings that have carried Lot captive, if he does such deeds of prowess as become a man; the selfsame faith makes Sarah walk before God in her perfectness, and she performs the actions which become her womanhood, and she too is written among the worthies of faith who magnified the Lord.
II. We are led by our second text to look at the fruit of faith in Sarah. There were two fruits of faith in Sarah,—she did well, and she was not afraid with any amazement.
1. It is said of her that she did well, “whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well.”
She did well,
1. As a wife. She was all her husband could desire, and when, at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, she at last fell on sleep, it is said that Abraham not only mourned for her, but the old man wept for her most true and genuine tears of sorrow.
2. As a hostess. It was her duty, as her husband was given to hospitality, to be willing to entertain his guests; and the one instance recorded is, no doubt, the representation of her common mode of procedure. She was always ready to lay herself out to perform that which was one of the highest duties of a God-fearing household in those primitive times.
3. As a mother. We are sure she did, because we find that her son Isaac was so excellent a man; and you may say what you will, but in the hand of God the mother forms the boy’s character.
4. As a believer, and that is no mean point. As a believer, when Abraham was called to separate himself from his kindred, Sarah went with him. She would adopt the separated life too, and the same caravan which travelled across the desert with Abraham for its master had Sarah for its mistress. She continued with him, believing in God with perseverance. She believed God’s promise with all her heart, for though she laughed once, because when the promise neared its realisation it overwhelmed her; it was but a slip for the moment, for it is written by the apostle in the eleventh of Hebrews, “Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” It was not by nature, but by faith, that Isaac was born.
Oh that all professing Christian people had a faith that showed itself in doing well! Sarah had this testimony from the Lord, that she did well; and her daughters ye are, all of you who believe, if ye do well. Be no discredit to your queenly mother.
5. She proved her faith by a second evidence,—she was “not afraid with any amazement.” She was calm and quiet, and was not put in fear by any terror. There were several occasions in which she might have been much disquieted and put about. The first was in the breaking-up of her house life. When they had to cross the Euphrates and get right away into a land which she knew nothing of; this must have been a sterner trial still. But it mattered not to her, she felt safe with her husband’s God, and calmly journeyed on.
Then, though we do not hear much about her, we know that all those years she had to live in a tent. A very trying life for a housewife. Remember, they were dwelling in tents as pilgrims and strangers, not for one day, or two, not for a few days in a year, but for scores of years at a stretch.
Besides, the tribes around them were all of other religions and of other tastes and ways, and they would have slain Abraham and killed the whole company, if it had not been for a sort of fear that fell upon them, by which Jehovah seemed to say to them, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” But if she had not been a believing woman, she must have often been afraid with great amazement.
Then there was a special time when Abraham put on his harness and went to war. She is under no distress that her husband has gone, and all the herdsmen and servants round about the tents all gone, so that she is left alone with her women-servants. No; she sits at home as a queen, and fears no robbers, calmly confident in her God.
Then there came, a little after, that great trial of faith which must have touched Sarah, though its full force fell on Abraham. She observed the sudden disappearance of her husband, her son, and his servant. For a week nearly there was no Abraham and no Isaac. One would have thought she would have wandered about, crying, “Where is my husband, and where is my son?” But not so. She calmly waited, and said within herself, “If he has gone, he has gone upon some necessary errand, and he will be under God’s protection; and God who promised to bless him and to bless his seed will not suffer any evil to harm him.” So she rested quietly, when others would have been in dire dismay. We hear so little said about Sarah that I am obliged to picture what I feel she must have been, because human nature is so like itself, and the effect of events upon us is very like the effect which would have been produced upon the mind of Sarah.
Now, this is a point in which Christian women, and, for the matter of that, Christian men also, should seek to imitate Sarah.
What is this virtue? It is a calm, quiet trusting in God. It is freedom from fear, such as described in another place in these words: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” It is composure of mind, freedom from anxiety, the absence of fretfulness, and clean deliverance from alarm; so that, whatever happens, trepidation does not seize upon the spirit, but the heart keeps on at its own quiet pace, delighting itself in a faithful God. This is the virtue which is worth a king’s ransom, and Sarah had it.
Who are to exercise this virtue? We are all to do so; but the text is specially directed to the sisterhood, because some of them are rather excitable, a little hysterical, and apt to be fearfully depressed and utterly carried away.
When is this virtue to be exercised by us? At all times. To keep up an equable frame of mind is a thing to aim at, even as the gardener desires an even temperature for his choice flowers. But this virtue especially serves in time of trouble, when a very serious trial threatens us. Then remember Sarah, “whose daughters ye are if ye are not afraid with any amazement.”
What is the excellence of this virtue?
(1.) It is due to God that we should not be afraid with any amazement. Such a God as we have ought to be trusted. Under the shadow of such a wing, fear becomes a sin.
(2.) It is most impressive to men. I do not think anything is more likely to impress the ungodly than the quiet peace of mind of a Christian in danger or near to death. If we can be happy then, our friends will ask, “What makes them so calm?”
(3.) It is most useful to ourselves; for he who can be calm in time of trouble will be most likely to make his way through it. Napoleon’s victories were to a large extent due to the serenity of that masterly warrior; and, depend upon it, it is so with you Christian people: you will win, if you can wait. Calmness of mind is the mother of prudence and discretion; it gives the firm foothold which is needful for the warrior when he is about to deal a victorious blow.
“How can we obtain it?”
(1.) It is an outgrowth of faith, and you will have it in proportion as you have faith. Have faith in God, and you will not be afraid with any amazement.
(2.) This holy calm comes, also, from walking with God. No spot is so serene as the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Commune with God, and you will forget fear.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1633.
THE DEPRESSION, PROSPERITY, AND DELIGHT OF THE CHURCH
Isaiah 51:3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, &c.
The doctrine that there is a Divine superintendence over the affairs and interests of man, is one on which every pious mind must fix a devout attention. This principle is especially interesting and important as it regards the Church—that spiritual body chosen by God, in order that, by its spiritual conformity and devotedness to Him, it may show forth His glory and praise.
There have been, and are, many circumstances which, did we regard them only in their immediate aspect, would encourage the complaint that “Zion is forgotten and forsaken.” But along with her present circumstances, we ought to observe the predictions given by the Almighty with regard to her final destiny. Of those predictions the words of the text may furnish a striking instance, and will allow an extended illustration. Attention is here invited to—
I. THE DEPRESSION OF THE CHURCH.
This is presented under the expressions: “the waste places of Zion,” “wilderness,” and a “desert.” In what did it consist? It arose from;
1. The small number of those who belonged to it lived only two centuries. Elijah, who was nearly contemporary with Isaiah, could discover absolutely none who adhered to the public worship of Jehovah (1 Kings 19:10). These were the circumstances that called forth the lamentation of Isaiah (Isaiah 64:6-7). And in these days we are met by deep depression, arising from the fewness of those that believe. Even nominal Christianity has a limited area, and God’s true Zion is in a very small minority. After the lapse of many ages, the confession is painfully true, “We are for God, but the whole world lieth in wickedness.” she number of additions made to God’s people are few and trivial, when compared with the means employed. “The bones are very many, and lo! they are very dry.”
2. A want of spiritual vigour on the part of those who belong to the Church. This is equally characteristic of the time in which our lot is cast. In many instances, the power of the truth over the passions and the life is so slender, that we can scarcely discern the form.
II. THE PROSPERITY OF THE CHURCH.
“For the Lord shall comfort Zion,” &c. It is hard for us, living in a temperate climate, and generally cultivated country, to feel the full force of the prophet’s metaphors. These in the text, and others (Isaiah 35:1-2; Isaiah 41:17; Isaiah 41:20), open to us future periods in the history of the Church of God, when the causes of her depression being removed, she shall enjoy true prosperity. While there have been visits of mercy in times past, the grand time is still future. When it will arrive, we know not (Acts 1:7). But in regard to the general truth, we rest upon the authority of the word of God. Observe—
1. The source to which the prosperity of the Church is assigned. “The Lord shall comfort Zion.” There is a regular and uninterrupted affirmation of this grand principle in prophecy (Isaiah 2:20-21; Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 44:2-5; Zechariah 4:6-7). In this dispensation we are called upon to remember that Christianity is emphatically “the ministration of the Spirit” (John 3:5; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 3:5-7). There must be the outpouring of the Spirit of God, or evil will still hold its wide tyranny.
2. The nature of that prosperity by which the Church will be distinguished.
(1.) The increase of numbers will be incalculable (Isaiah 49:18-23; Isaiah 60:3-8).
(2.) A great purification and refinement of the character of those who shall pertain to the Church will signalise those future days. The former prosperity would be imperfect without the latter.
3. The means to be adopted by the true friends of the Church, in order that the period of this predicted prosperity may arrive.
(1.) The preaching and teaching of the gospel (Romans 10:13-17).
(2.) United and importunate prayer for the influences of the Spirit of God (Isaiah 62:6-7; Ezekiel 36:37; Matthew 7:7-8).
III. THE DELIGHT OF THE CHURCH.
“Joy and gladness shall be found therein,” &c. (Isaiah 52:8-10). This emotion may properly arise from contemplating,
1. The wonderful change which shall have been accomplished in the condition of the Church itself. She was depressed; now she is exalted, and sits enthroned as the representative of the Almighty, and of His power to rescue and to redeem.
2. The connection between the prosperity of the Church and the glorification of God. God is glorified by the conversion of every individual sinner; how much more, then, when a nation shall be born in a day, and when the whole earth shall be a Carmel!
3. The connection between the prosperity of the Church and the happiness of mankind (Isaiah 11:6-9).
CONCLUSION: Do you belong to the Church of God? If so; then labour in all the appointed means of instrumentality, which by the prosperity of the Church is to be secured.—James Parsons: The Pulpit, vol. xviii. pp. 181–191.