and with cheerful countenance we must be able to say that we “know whom we have believed.” Do you wish to be useful? Do you desire to honor your Master? Do you long to carry a heavy crown to heaven, that you may put it on the Savior’s head? If you do—and I know you do—then seek above all things that your soul may prosper and be in health—that your inner-man may not be simply in a living state, but that you may be a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth your fruit in your season, your leaf never withering, and whatsoever you do prospering. Ah! do you want to go to heaven, and wear a starless crown there—a crown that shall be a real crown, but that shall have no star upon it, because no soul has been saved by you? Do you wish to sit in heaven with a dress of Christ’s on, but without one single jewel that God has given you for your wages here below? Ah! no; methinks you wish to go to heaven in full dress, and to enter into the fullness of the joy of the Lord. Five talents well improved, five cities; and let no man be satisfied with his one talent merely, but let him seek to put it out at interest; “for unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.”
And finally, to many of you what I have preached about has no interest whatever. Perhaps you may say, “‘Oh that I were as in months past!’ for then I was quite well and a jolly fellow was I. Then I could drink with the deepest drinker anywhere. Then I could run merrily into sin, but I cannot now. I have hurt my body. I have injured my mind. It is not with me as it used to be, I have spent all my money. I wish I were as I used to be!” Ah! poor sinner, thou hast good reason to say, “Oh that I were as in months past!” But wait four or five months, and then you will say it more emphatically, and think even to day better than that day; and the further you go on, the more you will wish to go back again; for the path to hell is down, down, down, down—always down—and you will be always saying, “Oh that I were as in months past!” Thou wilt look back to the time when a mother’s prayer blessed thee, and a father’s reproof warned thee—when thou wentest to a Sabbath-school, and sattest upon thy mother’s knee, to hear her tell thee of a Savior; and the longer the retrospect of goodness, the more that goodness will pain you. Ah I my friends, ye have need to go back, some of you. Remember how far ye have fallen—how much ye have departed; but oh! ye need not turn back! Instead of looking back and crying, “Oh that I were as in months past!” say something different. Say, “Oh that I were a new man in Christ Jesus—”It would not do for you to begin again in your present state; you would soon be as bad as you now are; but say, “Oh that I were a new man in Christ Jesus; oh that I might begin a new life!” Some of you would like to begin a new life—some of you reprobates, who have gone far away! Well, poor mortal, thou mayest. “How?” savest thou. Why, if thou art a new man in Christ Jesus thou wilt begin again. A Christian is as much a new man as if he had been no man at all before; the old creature is dethroned, he is a new creature, born again, and starting on a new existence. Poor soul! God can make thee a new man. God the Holy Spirit can build a new house out of thee, with neither stick nor stone of the old man in it, and he can give thee a new heart, a new spirit, new pleasures new happiness, new prospects, and at last give thee a new heaven. “But,” says one “I feel that I want these things; but may I have them?” Guess whether you may have them, when I tell you—”This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” It does not say it is worthy of some acceptation, but it is worthy of all the acceptation you will ever give it. If you now say, “Jesus came into the world so save sinners, I believe he did! I know he did; he came to save me,” you will find it “worthy of all acceptation.” You say still, “But will he save me?” I will give you another passage: “Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” Ah! but I do not know whether I may come! “Whosoever,” it saith. “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” “Whosoever will, let him come,” it is written. Dost thou will? I only speak to such as will, who know their need of a Savior. Dost thou will? Then God the Holy Spirit says, “Whosoever will let him come, and take the water of life freely.”
The feeble, the guilty, the weak, the forlorn,
In coming to Jesus shall not meet with scorn;
But he will receive them, and bless them, and save
From death and destruction, from hell and the grave.
and he will lift them up to his kingdom of glory. God so grant it; for his name sake.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
