Yes, but when Christian people go forth to work, when you come to your Sunday-school, or go out with your bundle of tracts, to change them on your district, or when you join a little band and stand in the street corner yonder, and lift up your voice in the name of Jesus, you may expect, if you go with prayer and faith, that it shall be written, “Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there.” It is only a young man standing up in a cottage to speak, and he has not much to say; yet there are penitential tears, and broken hearts: it is so, for God is there. It is only a humble woman speaking to a few persons of her own class, and yet angels are rejoicing over a repenting sinner—yes, because God is there. It is only a little room in one of our back streets, and the city missionary has come in, and there are a dozen or two of the neighbors called together, and he is talking of Jesus and his love—oh, but if the Lord be there, do not tell me that the missionary is not in the apostolical succession; he need not claim it, he is himself an apostle of God to those poor people. He wants no gorgeous vestment, nor the swell of organ, nor even the thunders of the multitude as they raise the solemn hymn. The few so simple and so poor have God with them, and it is enough. Wherever you are seeking to do good, in prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit, it shall be said “the Lord is there.”
And now, from this time forth, beloved, ye that fear God and think; upon his name, wherever you go, let it be said, “Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there.” I often feel sorry when the Sabbath is nearly over; and so do many of you. I know you wake on Monday morning and take those shutters down again, or go off to that workshop where you suffer so much ridicule, or return to the ordinary grind of daily labor, and mix up with so many of the ungodly; and you do it mournfully. Now, pray that you may keep up the Sabbath tone all the week. Make every place, wherever you go, to be the house of God. A dear brother of ours went to a shop where he worked with four ungodly men, but his Lord went with him. It was not long before we had the privilege of baptizing that friend’s master and all his shopmates, for the Lord was there. The other day there came a fresh man to work who could not bear to hear a word upon religion, but our brother was the means of his conversion, and the new man is coming among us, warm with his first love. Our brother makes up his mind that he is not to be conquered by any scoffers, but on the contrary he is determined to conquer them for Christ. He will not yield to the influences of sin, but he resolves, in the name of the Lord, that evil influences shall yield to the power of truth, and to the attractions of the cross. Write across your workshop, “The Lord is here.” If you cannot do if literally, do it spiritually, “Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there.”
Do not be found anywhere where you could not say that the Lord was there; but if you are called into the world in the pursuit of your daily vocation, cry unto the Lord, “If thy Spirit go not with me, carry me not up hence.” Determine that you will have the Spirit of God with you, and that, be it in busy Cheapside, or be it in the lonesome country while you are hoeing the turnips or attending to a flock of sheep, of every field, and every street, and every room, it shall be said that God is there. Take Jesus with you when you go; and, when you come home, may his Spirit still be with you! God grant that it may be so! The Holy Spirit can work you to this self-same thing.
What shall I say to those who do not know the Lord, and do not care for him? O friend, the day will come in which Jesus Christ will say to you, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.” Do not let him say that; but to-night commence an acquaintance with him. May his Holy Spirit help you so to do! I am sure the Lord Jesus Christ could not say to me, “I never knew you.” It is impossible, because I could reply to him, “Never knew me, Lord? Why, I have been to thee with so many burdens, I have run to thee with so many troubles, that I am sure thou knowest me as one knows a beggar whom he has relieved many times a day.
‘Dost thou ask me who I am?
Ah, my Lord! thou know’st my name.’
Thou rememberest me, for in my despair I cried to thee, and thou didst relieve me of my burden. Thou knowest me, for in my sorrow my broken heart found no comfort but in thee. Thou hast known me all these years in which I have had to cry to thee for something to preach about, and for help while preaching. Thou knowest how I have had to come to thee and confess my failures, and mourn my shortcomings, and lament my sins, and trust in thy blood for cleansing. “My Lord cannot say that he does not know me, for he has known my soul in adversity. Blessed be his name, I know him, and lean all my weight upon him. They that know him shall be with him, and he will receive them unto himself for ever, and this shall be their glory—”Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there.” With him shall they dwell, world without end. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
