New Park Street & Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 1–11

"The Lord shall record, when He registers the people, that this man was born there." Psalm 87:6. SEVERAL times, according to the record of Scripture, there was a census taken of the people of God. When Jacob went down into Egypt all his offspring were numbered, and they were three score and ten souls. How small, then, the visible Church of Christ; it could be contained within a single tent; it had sprung of but a solitary man. All those, then, who feared Jehovah, as far as it is known to us, were of the race of Jacob. There was another census taken when the people came up out of Egypt, and if you read in the earlier Chapter of the Book of Numbers you will be astonished at the wonderful multiplication which had taken place in the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. Truly, the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied. There were 600,000 footmen, all prepared for battle, besides women and children, and aged men who were exempt from the toils of warfare. There was another census taken after the people had been 38 years in the wilderness. Through their sin they had not been multiplied. So many had fallen in the wilderness, that notwithstanding the natural increase, the population stood at very nearly the same rate, or—taking the armed men as the standard—about 2,000 less than it was when they first entered into the howling wilderness. You have further on in history another instance of the taking of the census, or rather of an attempt to do it, when David commanded Joab, the captain of the host, to go through all the tribes and number the people from Dan even to Beersheba. The people were God's people. When He numbered them, well and good; but none but the Sovereign power has a right to take the census of the people. David, forgetting that he was only God's viceroy, that he stood not as king in Israel, except as under the constitution which God had established, presumes to invade the priestly prerogative and commit to Joab the Levitical office of numbering the people, and that without offering the shekels of sanctuary or giving the tribute of redemption. So flagrant was the breach of the laws of Israel, that even Joab was quick to remonstrate. But before David could effect the task, the Word of God had come out against him, and three days of pestilence, or three years of famine, or a period of flight before their enemies, who would defeat them in war, were offered to him as dread alternatives for the punishment of his sin. So did God seem to say, "Jehovah shall number the people, but David shall not." God shall count His redeemed, and number His elect, but man shall not venture to touch the mysterious roll. None but the Lamb shall take that Book and open every seal. That Lamb's Book of Life is not to be read except by the eyes of Him who bought the people with His blood; nor are the people to pass under any hand to be counted except under the hand of Him that counts them, even the great Shepherd Himself. My Brothers and Sisters, according to the text, there is one day to be a great census taken of the Church of God. It is concerning that one census, final and decisive, that I shall have to speak this morning. May God grant that of all of us it may be said, when the Lord registers the people, "This man was born there."

Concerning this writing up of the census I shall take four or five points. First, we shall notice what this writing will involve "when the Lord registers the people;" secondly, whose names will not be found written in the census; thirdly, whose names will be there; fourthly, who will register the people; and then lastly, why will it be done at all

I. When this dispensation shall come to its close, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come in the clouds of Heaven, when all His people shall be gathered to Him to share His splendors and to delight themselves in His triumph, then we believe the Lord shall register His people. WHAT WILL THIS REGISTERING BE?

There will be written in this census nothing but personal matters. If you note my text, it says, "This man was born there." They are not taken in the plural—these men. They are not taken as a corporate body—this nation, this church, this family—but one by one each man's name shall be found either written there or else left out. Personal matters alone will come into the great census paper of eternity. There is no truth which we need more frequently to hold up before the eyes of our people than the truth that nothing but personal godlinesswill ever avail! If you could trace your pedigree through a line of saints up to the Apostles, no, up to Mary herself, the mother of our Savior, yet, unless you did yourself believe in Christ, and had yourself been the subject of the personal change which is called regeneration, you should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. No connections, however admirable; no relations, however desirable, no proxies, however excellent, shall ever avail for any dying man! We must ourselves stand before God, each man for himself, to be acquitted, or to be condemned—to hear, "Come, you blessed," or "Depart, you cursed one." There may be, and there always must be, when we take men in the mass, (and God often in His Providence deals with men in the mass), there may be innocent persons who suffer in the common calamity. There are likewise wicked men who rejoice in common mercies. But at the last the evil shall be unto the evil; and the good shall be unto the good. The wheat shall be unmixed with chaff; the wine shall no more be mingled with the water; the gold shall not become dimmed through alloy. God's people, each of them personally accepted, and the wicked, each of them personally condemned, shall meet their final doom! See to it, Sir, each one of you, that you personally have an interest in the blood of the Lamb!

Again, you will perceive that this great census deals not merely with personal matters, but with vitalmatters which concern a man's birth. Here you have it that this man was born there. 'Tis true the things we have thought, and those we have done shall be mentioned at the last, but not for their own sakes. They shall be mentioned only as means of proving that we were born-again, or else as evidence that regeneration had never taken place in us! The vital question which the Lord's Great Day shall touch will be this—"Was that man ever called from darkness into marvelous light? Was that heart ever turned from stone to flesh? Were those eyes ever opened to the celestial light? Were those ears ever ready to listen to the Divine command? Was there a vital, radical change insomuch that old things had passed away, and all things had become new? If not, in the golden roll of the Redeemed our names can have no place. When the roll is called, our names will not be mentioned, and we shall stand shivering with dismay because our names are left out when God calls— "Gather My saints together unto Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."

Mark, once more, the matters with which the census shall have to do will be decisive. Perhaps, my Hearer, your name could not be written today among the regenerate, but there is hope yet, and we trust by God's Grace before you go from here, you may have a portion among the sanctified. If we could take today the number of God's people, at present converted, I thank God that before another hour it would be imperfect, for there would have been others added to the visibly-called of God. But the last census shall be final! To its number none shall be added—from its multitude none subtracted. Once let that be taken, and the angel shall cry in Heaven, "He that is holy let him be holy still." And his voice shall reverberate to Hell, but other words shall he sound there—"He that is filthy, let him be filthy still." That shall be the last polling of the people, the last counting of the jewels and casting away of the counterfeits, the last bringing in of the sheep and banishment of the goats. This makes it all-important that you and I should know today whether, "when the Lord registers the people, it shall be said that this man was born there." Oh that we were wise to look into the future! We are so bat-like, we see but so small a distance. We only see time and its trickeries, its paint, its gilt. Oh that we were wise that we understood this, that we would remember our latter end! So that come the census day when it may, we may each have our name written beneath our Lord the Lamb in some humble place among the chosen of the Lord our God. This census, then, will involve—personal, vital, decisive matters!

II. Let us now ask—WHOSE NAMES WILL NOTBE FOUND WRITTEN WHEN THE LORD REGISTERS HIS PEOPLE? Now this is a question which no man can answer to the fullest. But with God's Word before us, supposing that the characters I mention shall be at the Last Day what they are now, we can tell you with a decision that is infallible, whose names will notbe found there.

And first, for these are the most likely people to be deceived, the name of the hypocritical Church member will not be found there. You have entered the church for the sake of gain or respectability. You have made a profession which is a lie. You have assumed a garb which is but the sheep's skin while you yourself remain a wolf. You have a name to live, but are dead. You have whitewashed the sepulcher, but it is still a sepulcher. Oh Sir! It is one thing to have deceived the Elder or the deacon; it is one thing to have misled and to have cajoled the minister; it is one thing to have won the respect and the esteem of the church, but it is another thing to escape undetected from the fiery Glance which can read the secret things of the belly, and before which even Hell and death are naked and unveiled! Do not, I pray you, hope that your masquer- ading, your spiritual pretenses, shall be of any use before Him! He shall tear your garments in pieces, and you shall stand naked to be the target for all His arrows; you shall be banished to the place where the hissing, the rebuke, and the reproach of all the ungodly shall descend forever and ever! I tell you, your name may be in the church rolls without a blot, and no man may have suspected you, but except a man be born-again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Church members, try yourselves, the oldest and the best of you; yes, and you, too, try yourself, O preacher, lest after having preached to others, you also should be a castaway! Oh, let us never take our religion from other men's opinions, not even from the opinion of the best of men! I would not be satisfied even with the assurance of an Apostle, if it came from his own judgment, we must have the assurance of the Holy Spirit, the Witness within us that we are born of God.

Again, among the names that will notbe found there, we may mention the man who is a mere hearer. How many there are among you today whom we could but describe as hearers only! The ear is tickled, the mind is interested, the gaze is fixed upon the preacher. 'Tis well. God be thanked that so many are willing to listen to the Word of God. But to be a hearer and not a believer will involve no salvation. To have had the seed sown, but for the seed never to have taken root will never give a harvest. To have had the Light of God shining upon sightless eyes will have been of no use, or giving of sight. To have sat in these pews, though some of you may sit for 20 years—unless the Word is received into the heartthrough the Grace of God—will minister rather to your damnation than to your salvation! Mark this, my Hearers, if we are not "a savor of life unto life," we must be "a savor of death unto death;" and in either case, we are unto God a sweet smelling savor as well in those who perish as in those who are save. I know what a great many people think if they are regular church-goers, if they are always in their place twice on the Sunday, that is as much as can be expected of them. I tell you, Sirs, that you may make your church-going into a sin if you go to hear a Gospel which you reject! If you rest in your church-goings or your chapel-goings, you have rested in a lie, you have built upon the sand, and in the last Great Day if you shall cry, "We have eaten, we have drunk with You, and You have taught in our streets;" He shall say, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity."

There is a man yonder, too, whose name is not written and will not be found written there, unless some great change shall take place—I mean yonder young man, who is saying, "I will repent, I will seek a Savior; I desire to be washed in His blood." Young man, you have said that 20 times before! You said it when you left your mother's roof, and she rejoiced in the resolution. You said it when last the fever came into the establishment and you lay sick. You said it, Sir, when last time conscience pricked you, because you had retired to rest at night, and had omitted the prayer in which you had been so early trained; and you say it today! But "unstable as water you do not excel." Your promise made in your own strength is but a broken reed! Your penitence is as the morning cloud and as the early dew. You are paving your road to Hell with your good intentions. Up, Sluggard! Up! Pull up those paving stones and hurl them at the old Fiend who longs to keep you at this dreary work of making a smooth path to your destruction! Oh, my dear Friends, perhaps one of the worst of Satan's snares is the promissory note. Under a sermon, when the sinner has been awakened, the devil gets him to say, "Well, I will think of these things by-and-by." As you heard the other night, indifferent people are the most hopeless of all, because even when awakened, procrastination lulls them to sleep again! If Felix had hastily said to Paul, "Paul, I hate and despise you; you are an impostor;" there had been some little hope that in his quiet mood, reason might reverse the words which he had uttered; but when he said in bland tones, tones which deceived himself, though not the Apostle, "Go your way for this time, when I have a more convenient season I will send for you;" then might you have read upon the brow of Felix with spiritual eyes these words—"This is one who knows the Truth, but follows not its dictates. His damnation is as sure as it is just." I had infinitely rather hear, as I have sometimes heard, and as we constantly do, words of abuse against the minister, and language of hatred against the Gospel, than I would hear some of you who speak fair but mean foul, those who protest but belie, whose resolutions are like bad money or forged checks, which he who takes, loses thereby, and he who believes is deceived! Your name, Sir, unless there is something more than this, will never be found written there!

Scarcely necessary is it, I think, to say that those men and women who are living in vice and open sin, and who die as they live, will never find their names written there. No drunk shall ever reel across the golden streets. No oath of the blasphemer shall ever shock the ear of angels! No light frothy or lascivious song shall ever taint the ears of perfection. Eden is not the place for thieves. Paradise is not the spot for harlots. Men and women who die with such blots upon their character, and such sins upon their souls shall find at Heaven's gate the angels say, "There shall in no wise enter here anything that defiles."

And you, too, you moralists, against whose character no accusation can be brought—if you never received the new heart, you will be as surely shut out as the immoral! The honest tradesman who was only dishonest to his God, shall find dishonesty there to be damnable; the upright man who had no crooked ways except towards Christ and His holy Gospel, shall find those crooked ways destroy his soul. The man who said he loved his neighbor but forgot his God, shall find that "the wicked shall be cast into Hell with all the nations that forget God." Oh, my dear Hearers, except you have faith in Christ, except you have the Spirit of God in you, except you repent and are converted, there is a bar sterner than iron, and more durable than steel, which will shut you out of the place of happiness, and in the number of the saints your names shall never be found!

III. We shall now turn to a more pleasing work—WHOSE NAME WILL BE FOUND THERE?

When you made up the census paper last Monday morning, there may have been a thief in the house in the night. I suppose you did not put his name down. There may have been some person who, that night, knocked at the door and was, for some short time under your roof, but who went out from you because he was not of you, for if he had been of you, doubtless he would have continued with you. I know that you did not put his name there. You recorded there the names of the inhabitants of the house, but of no one else. Now, then, it shall be so at the last great census. Whose name shall be there? We reply, there shall be the name of every soul who ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever fled to the Cross for refuge, whoever turned his tearful eyes to Calvary as his hope, whoever stretched out his finger to touch the hem of the sacred garment—these shall surely find their names there as well as the mightiest of the Prophets or the chief of the Apostles! Brothers and Sisters, we will take those who think themselves most likely to be left out, and we remark that there will be found there the name of the poorest. When this last census was taken, the paper was sent as much to the hovel of the poor in St. Giles's, as to the palace of the rich in St. James's. None were left out! The Act of Parliament was not passed to take a census of the rich—it was not needed that there should only be those written who paid a certain amount of tax; but as they were all subjects, the name of the beggar was recorded in the register as well as the name and title of the peer! So shall it be at the last. If you have believed in Christ, though you did never glitter on the pages of heraldry, though rags were your dress and penury your portion, yet in as fair a place as those who have worn a coronet, and have yet feared God, shall you find your name! Oh, let us never imagine that because a man wears fustian, or is clothed in corduroy, he has the slightest less reason to hope that he shall be saved! Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen, but God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, to be the helm of the Kingdom, so that if there is an advantage either way, it is where some would dream it should least be given! But, then, as the poorest, so the weakest saint shall be found there. You did not omit the name of your daughter because with some spinal disease she has been so long afflicted that she can scarcely sit upright. You put her name there as well as that of your stalwart son, who could boldly wield arms if it were needed to defend this country from the invader!

And, I take it, when you wrote out the list, the infant child had a place as well as the full-grown man. You felt that the census would not be complete, and your family list would not be well made out even if that infant whose voice was but a cry, and whose life was but a pain, should miss his place. All were recorded there. And so, at the last, Benjamin shall be written as well as Judah, Mephibosheth as well as David; he who is lame in the feet, as well as the giant in strength. Father Earnest and Mr. Great-Heart shall have their place, but Mr. Fearing and Miss Much-Afraid shall not miss their portion. Every one of those who believed in Christ, though their faith was but as a grain of mustard seed, and their spiritual life was but as the smoking flax, shall find their names written there! I would that I could speak out this Truth of God so that the cast down, and the all but destroyed could lay hold upon it. Are you miserable today? Your misery does not erase your name! Have you sinned, but do you cry, "Father, have mercy upon me"? Your sin has not blotted the writing; engraved as in eternal brass, there stands your name! The powers of darkness shall never prevail to erase the everlasting characters. Are you today so conscious of your unworthiness, that you dare not look up? Are you thinking, "If I said, 'Abba, Father,' it would be presumption! If I claimed the privilege of a child, it would be arrogance"? Yet if Christ is yours, if you can stretch out your hand now and say—

"My soul would lay her hand On that dear head of Yours, While like a penitent I stand, And there confess my sin," you need not be afraid but that among the blood-bought you shall share your lot! "Ah, my Soul, will you be there?" Pass the question now through this vast throng, and let each soul put itself into the balances with this as the test-weight—"What do you think of Christ? Is He your only help? Do you find cleansing in His blood, healing in His wounds, life in His death, Heaven in His pains?" If so, you shall be found when the Lord registers the people, and of you it shall be said, "That man was born there."

IV. I shall now turn your attention to the next point of the subject, briefly. WHO IS TO MAKE OUT THE CENSUS PAPER?

"The Lord shall record when He registers the people." But why shall the Lord make out the census? The first reason is— Who else could do it?Suppose our enemies had the making out of the roll! "Oh, Lord, deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty." I think there is none among us who would be willing to have his eternal fate decided by an evil and gain-saying world. If we could put the pen into the hand of the wicked, they would write down the offscouring, but omit the jewels; they would surely record the base and the reprobate, while the chosen and precious would have no lot or portion. Imagine for a moment, my dear Friends, that the pen could be given to the old Pope of Rome, and that he had the writing up of the people. Now, my lord Pope, with your triple crown upon your head, write them out. I am sure he would omit yours and mine, because we are not obedient to the pontifical see; and even if he were under authority and command, I am sure he would make a great splutter in trying to write the name, "Martin Luther," and he would throw down his pen and utterly refuse to obey, if he had to write the glorious name of John Calvin! Well, thanks be to God, the pen is not in the hand of that arch-deceiver, nor in that of any of our enemies, but the Lord shall make out the census Himself. Suppose now we put the pen into the hand of Bigotry—Bigotry, who lives not quite so far off as Italy—but takes up her residence in our own land and hard by our own abode. I think I see her with her face bitter as wormwood, and with her eyes full of darkness and she, having written all the names down, reads—"There are few who shall be saved. They are so few that a child can count them." She makes a dash against the name of this man, for he did not hold all the five points of a certain system! She runs her pen right through another man's, because he dared to preach to sinners—and she takes a double dip for another, who had once ventured to say that faith was the duty of man, and unbelief was a high and damning crime! Oh, how few would ever go to Heaven, if Bigotry had the making out of the census paper!

I might thus run through the list of all the enemies of Christ's Church, and show you that it would not be safe to trust any of them, from the devil downward to the Pope upward, with the making up of the list of those who shall enter into the King's palace. But, suppose our friends had the task. "Yes," says one, "let my mother have the pen." Yes, if this were left with our dear friends, they would not be long before some of them would write in bold text hand the name of their most reprobate son, or most hardened daughter! Affection in this world overmasters the understanding—and doubtless there would be many in Heaven who would defile its purity if affection had the keeping of the gates and if understanding had no place! Yes, but young man, your mother cannot save you. She can pray and plead, but if your iniquity is written as with an iron pen, and engraved on the horns of the altar, her tears cannot—acid even though they are— eat out the dire inscription from the brass! You must be washed in blood, or else a baptism of tears will not avail. You must have the Spirit of Christ, for your mother's spirit cannot bear you on its wings to Heaven. Indeed, dear Friends, if the making out of the census paper were left even to ourselves, it were left to the wrong persons, for I take that the great end of all God's dispensations is His Glory, and if our entrance to Heaven were left to ourselves, there are many who would go there with a bee on their lips, and with blasphemy in their hearts. They would go to Glory fresh from their sins—rising from beds of lusts to beds of bliss; they would go red with murder, black with crime, dripping with the oozing of their vices, and Heaven would become a Sodom, and Paradise an Aceldama! The Throne of God would be no better than the Throne of Moloch, and the place of perfection would not be preferable to Hell itself! God and God only— God the Only Wise—shall have the writing up of the people—for there is no one to be found but God who could do it!

There is a second reason which I think will strike the spiritual mind with force. "The Lord shall record when He registers the people." Instructions were given at the late census, that the paper should be made out by " the head of the family.''" Now I suppose, though it is not always the fact, that the husband is the head of the household, and that the father stands in the position of the head of the family. Well, then, the Church must not make up the census paper, for she is the spouse. But He who is Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, He by whose name the whole family in Heaven and earth are named, He shall "Register the people." It were, indeed, impious for you or me—it would bring down upon our heads a penalty as heavy as that which fell on David—if we thought we could write up the people! We have said, perhaps, "There are only such-and-such people that shall be saved," and we have turned about, and said of another, "Lord, what shall this man do?" And like John, loving spirit though he was, we have been ready to call fire from Heaven upon some, and to say of others, "Master, forbid them, because they follow not with us." But, Brothers and Sisters, I hope we have done with all that now. We believe the Lord knows them who are His; they are a multitude who no man can number, and no man should ever attempt the task. They are more than bigotry would include; they are fewer than a latitudinarian charity would affirm; but be they more, or be they less, they are known only to the eternal mind, and this is a secret into which we must not pry! The angelic footstep treads not here. Let us not be rash and foolish to pry where angels stand back, and do not desire to look.

I would give another reason why God and God alone, should make up this paper; had I not already anticipated myself. I meant to have said because He is the only wise God. You know it is said in Scripture that God is wise, but then it is added He is, "Only Wise." There is not another wise being upon the face of the earth! There is not another wise being, even in Heaven itself! God is Only Wise. Even the heathen knew this. You will remember when some fishermen had found a spoil, the old Greek legend says, "Not knowing how to divide it, they repaired to the Delphic oracle, which said, 'Let the wisest have it.'" They sent it to Thales, the Miletian; they sent it to Solon; it went the round of the wise men of Greece; but they all refused it. They said no, confessed they were not the wisest; till at last one of them advised to send it to the altar of the gods, for the gods were the wisest of all. What the heathen thus pictured in poetic fiction, we know to be true. We will not question this man or that, this denomination or that. It is not for us to use our fingers to count the brands plucked from the burning, but to use our hands to pluck them from the fire, and we will pass the roll to the Only Wise God, and He shall at the last decide whether they are His or not.

V. I now come to my last point. May the Spirit of God bless it to us, and seal it on our hearts—WHY WILL THE CENSUS BE TAKEN AT ALL?

Why should God register the people? We answer not that God may receive fresh information. He knows all things. Not that there is any fear of God's purposed number being incomplete. The Lord knows those who are His, and this is one of the stones on which the security of the Church is built. Why then? Of course we are dealing now with a noble picture, and you must view it as a picture, though within itself it bears a mighty fact. The Lord counts up His people, in the first place, to show His value of them. You remember that passage, "They shall be Mine, says the Lord, in that day when I make up My jewels," as though the jewels had to each be put into their proper place, and then the Divine eyes should run along them all and say "Yes, they are made up. Those in the basket tally in number with those in the inventory. They are made up. Neither ruby, nor emerald, nor pearl is lacking. They are all there." God makes up His jewels; it is impossible for the human mind to conceive how dear is the poorest Believer to the heart of his Father—dearer than the widow's only child to her soul—dearer than the new-made bridegroom to his bride—dearer than life to those who stand in peril—dearer than honor to those who could give life rather than sacrifice their integrity. We love, but we love not as God loves. Love with us may be an abiding passion, but with God it is an all-penetrating principle! Of us it may be said, that we are loving, but of God, that He is Love itself. And well does the idea of counting up the loved ones set forth the esteem and value which He sets upon them, and the intensity and deep-seatedness of that affection which He bears towards their persons. The Lord will make up His jewels; He will count His sheep; He will remember the children of His family, to see if they are there who were written in the register of old!

Another thought strikes us. The last census shall be taken to show to Satan his entire defeat. They are all there, fiend of Hell; they are all there! What did you say, "I will pursue, I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them." What say you now, fiend of Hell? There is not one of them lacking! You greedy lion of the pit of Hell, have you torn one sheep? Has so much as a lamb been dragged to your infernal den? You legion hosts, who with cunning, sharpened by malice, sought to tear from the arms of Christ those whom He had sworn to save—has the Surety done His work or not? Have you defeated Him? You have nailed Him to the tree—have you broken His bones, and robbed Him of His members? You took away His life—could you keep it? Do they not live because He lives? You struggled through

1,800 years and more; you grappled with these poor men and women who wrestled hard with you—did you overcome one of them? You were worsted when you fought with Job in the slippery standing of a dunghill! You were defeated when you fought with David on the pinnacle of the palace top, and brought him down! You won not the victory when you seemed to win it over Peter in the Hall of Pilate. You were defeated not once or twice, but many thousand times in the heirs of life, who fought with various success in time, but with sure success as time merged into eternity! Oh, all you hosts, look there and be ashamed, and let the songs of the white-robed be howls to you; let the shouts of the complete host of the redeemed sink into your ears like death-knells and re-begin your Hell, for you are defeated, you are cast down; the pride of your looks is lowered, and Jehovah alone is exalted in that day!

Yet once more, I think the counting up of the redeemed will be performed for another reason—to let all men see that the great riddle which has distracted human intellect was no riddle but a fact—and facts are not riddles! What is the great mystery? It is that God decrees, that man acts; yet that God's decrees and man acts tally with one another! Of old, before the sockets of the eternal hills were carved out of the enduring granite, before the peaks lifted themselves white with snow to glitter in the sun, before stars had visited the mountain summit, and looked down upon a world that had fallen into sin—yes, when this world was not, when it was uncreated, sleeping in the womb of the Divine thought as yet unborn, when suns and stars, and this brave universe itself had not begun to be formed—THEN in His book His chosen were all written, and the members of Christ fixed and ordained! That book was closed and sealed; it has not been opened. Now what effect can a book, a clasped sealed book, have upon the deeds of men? "None," you say. "None," I say. The decree of God as such has no effect on any man. There it is; there it stands. But look! The world is all confusion. Never were the waves of the sea more wanton in their play. Man sins, rebels, revolts, revolts again; the checks of mercy hold him not, he breaks the bit, he scorns the yoke, and yet despite the hardness and the freedom of man to rebel against his God, I see at last through Grace Omnipotent a multitude come streaming slowly in, year after year, through the golden gates, and at last I hear the gate closed! I see it barred; and how strange shall it seem as that great sealed book is now unclasped, it is found that all who were written there have come! They come as they were written—come at the hourordained! They come in the place predestinated! They come by the means foreknown! They, come as God would have them come, and thus free agency did not defeat predestination, and man's will did not thwart the eternal will! God is glorified, and man free. Man—the man as he proudly calls himself—has obeyed God as truly as though he knew what was in God's book, and had studied to make the Decree of God the very rule and method of his life! Glorious shall it be when thus that book shall prove the mystic energy which went out from between the folded leaves—the mysterious Spirit that emanated from the eternal Throne—that unseen, unmanifested, sometimes unrecognized mysterious Power, which bowed the will, and led it in silken chains; which opened up the understanding, and led it from darkness into light, and melted the heart, and moved the spirit, and won the entire man to the obedience of the Truth as it was in Jesus!

I will say no more except this. Shall I be there? Will you be there? I cannot put the question better than in the words of that solemn hymn—

"When You, my righteous Judge, shall come To fetch Your ransomed people home— Shall I among them stand? Shall such a worthless worm as I, Who sometimes am afraid to die, Be found at Your right hand? I love to meet among them now, Before Your gracious feet to bow, Though vilest of them all— But can I bear the piercing thought— What if my name should be left out, When You for them shall call Prevent, prevent it by Your Grace! Be You, dear Lord, my hiding place, In this the accepted day— Your pardoning voice, O let me hear, To still my unbelieving fear! Nor let me fall, I pray; Let me among Your saints be found, Whenever the archangel's trump shall sound, To see Your smiling face; Then loudest of the crowd I'll sing, While Heaven's resounding mansions ring With shouts of Sovereign Grace."

May that be your prayer and mine. May God hear it, and hear it He will, if to that prayer we add the obedience of faith! "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; he who believes not shall be damned." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and your house." Sinner, believe! God help you to believe this morning for His name's sake.

The REV. C. H. Spurgeon in opening the proceedings said, we have met together beneath this roof already to set forth most of those truths in which consists the peculiarity of this Church. Last evening we endeavoured to show to the world, that we heartily recognised the essential union of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, this afternoon and evening, it is our intention, through the lips of our brethren, to set forth those things which are verily received among us, and especially those great points which have been so often attacked, but which are still upheld and maintained,—truths which we have proved in our experience to be full of grace and truth. My only business upon this occasion is to introduce the brethren who shall address you, and I shall do so as briefly as possible, making what I shall say a preface to their remarks.

The controversy which has been carried on between the Calvinist and the Arminian is exceedingly important, but it does not so involve the vital point of personal godliness as to make eternal life depend upon our holding either system of theology. Between the Protestant and the Papist there is a controversy of such a character, that he who is saved on the one side by faith in Jesus, dare not allow that his opponent on the opposite side can be saved while depending on his own works. There the controversy is for life or death, because it hinges mainly upon the doctrine of justification by faith, which Luther so properly called the test doctrine, by which a Church either stands or falls. The controversy again between the believer in Christ and the Socinian, is one which affects a vital point. If the Socinian be right, we are most frightfully in error; we are, in fact, idolaters, and how dwelleth eternal life in us? and if we be right, our largest charity will not permit us to imagine that a man can enter heaven who does not believe the real divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are other controversies which thus cut at the very core, and touch the very essence of the whole subject. But, I think we are free to admit, that while John Wesley, for instance, in modern times zealously defended Arminianism, and on the other hand, George Whitfield with equal fervour fought for Calvinism, we should not be prepared either of us, on either side of the question, to deny the vital godliness of either the one or the other. We cannot shut our eyes to what we believe to be the gross mistakes of our opponents, and should think ourselves unworthy of the name of honest men, if we could admit that they are right in all things and ourselves right too. An honest man has an intellect which does not permit him to believe that "yes" and "no" can both subsist at the same hour and both be true. I cannot say, "It is," and my brother point blank say, "It is not," and yet both of us be right on that point. We are willing to admit, in fact, we dare not do otherwise, that opinion upon this controversy does not determine the future of even the present state of any man; but still, we think it to be so important, that in maintaining our views, we advance with all courage and fervency if spirit, believing that we are doing God's work and upholding most important truth. It may not be misunderstood, we only use the term for shortness. That doctrine which is called "Calvinism" did not spring from Calvin; we believe that it sprang from the great founder of all truth. Perhaps Calvin himself derived it mainly from the writings of Augustine. Augustine obtained his views, without doubt, through the Spirit of God, from the diligent study of the writings of Paul, and Paul received them of the Holy Ghost, from Jesus Christ the great founder of the Christian dispensation. We use the term then, not because we impute any extraordinary importance to Calvin's having taught these doctrines. We would be just as willing to call them by any other name, if we could find one which would be better understood, and which on the whole would be as consistent with fact. And then again, this afternoon, we shall have very likely to speak of Arminians, and by that, we would not for a moment insinuate that all who are in membership with the Arminian body, hold those particular views. There are Calvinists in connection with Calvinistic Churches, who are not Calvinistic, bearing the name but discarding the system. There are, on the other hand, not a few in the Methodist Churches, who, in most points perfectly agree with us, and I believe that if the matter came to be thoroughly sifted, it would be found that we are more agreed in our private opinions than in our public confessions, and our devotional religion is more uniform than our theology. For instance, Mr. Wesley's hymn-book, which may be looked upon as being the standard of his divinity, has in it upon some topics higher Calvinism than many books used by ourselves. I have been exceedingly struck with the very forcible expressions there used, some of which I might have hesitated to employ myself. I shall ask your attention while I quote verses from the hymns of Mr. Wesley, which we can all endorse as fully and plainly in harmony with the doctrines of grace, far more so than the preaching of some modern Calvinists. I do this because our low-doctrine Baptists and Morisonians ought to be aware of the vast difference between themselves and the Evangelical Arminians.

Reach forth; lo! my whole heart I bow;

Brethren, is not this somewhat like final perseverance? and what is meant by the next quotation, if people of God can perish at all?

The following is remarkably strong, especially in the expression "force." I give it in full:—

Nor are these all, for such good things as these abound, and they constrain me to say, that in attacking Arminianism we have no hostility towards the men who bear the name rather than the nature of that error, and we are opposed not to any body of men, but to the notions which they have espoused.

And now, having made these remarks upon terms used, we must observe that there is nothing upon which men need to be more instructed than upon the question of what Calvinism really is. The most infamous allegations have been brought against us, and sometime, I must fear, by men who knew them to be utterly untrue; and, to this day, there are many of our opponents, who, when they run short of matter, invent and make for themselves a man of straw, call that John Calvin, and then shoot all their arrows at it. We are not come here to defend your man of straw—shoot at it or burn it as you will, and, if it suit your convenience, still oppose doctrines which were never taught, and rail at fictions which, save in your own brain, were never in existence. We come here to state what our views really are, and we trust that any who do not agree with us will do us the justice of not misrepresenting us. If they can disprove our doctrines, let them state them fairly and then overthrow them, but why should they first caricature our opinions and then afterwards attempt to put them down? Among the gross falsehoods which have been uttered against the Calvinists proper, is the wicked calumny that we hold the damnation of little infants. A baser lie was never uttered. There may have existed somewhere, in some corner of the earth, a miscreant who would dare to say that there were infants in hell, but I have never met with him, nor have I met with a man who ever saw such a person. We say, with regard to infants, Scripture saith but little, and, therefore, where Scripture is confessedly scant, it is for no man to determine dogmatically. But I think I speak for the entire body, or certainly with exceedingly few exceptions, and those unknown to me, when I say, we hold that all infants are elect of God and are therefore saved, and we look to this as being the means by which Christ shall see of the travail of his soul to a great degree, and we do sometimes hope that thus the multitude of the saved shall be made to exceed the multitude of the lost. Whatever views our friends may hold upon the point, they are not necessarily connected with Calvinistic doctrine. I believe that the Lord Jesus, who said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," doth daily and constantly receive into his loving arms those tender ones who are only shown, and then snatched away to heaven. Our hymns are no ill witness to our faith on this point, and one of them runs thus:

"Millions of infant souls compose

The family above."

"Toplady, one of the keenest of Calvinists, was of this number. "In my remarks," says he, "on Dr. Nowell, I testified my firm belief that the souls of all departed infants are with God in glory; that in the decree of predestination to life, God hath included all whom he decreed to take away in infancy, and that the decree of reprobation hath nothing to do with them." Nay, he proceeds farther, and asks, with reason, how the anti-Calvinistic system of conditional salvation and election, or good works foreseen, will suit with the salvation of infants? It is plain that Arminians and Pelagians must introduce a new principle of election; and in so far as the salvation of infants is concerned, become Calvinists. Is it not an argument in behalf of Calvinism, that its principle is uniform throughout, and that no change is needed on the ground on which man is saved, whether young or old? John Newton, of London, the friend of Cowper, noted for his Calvinism, holds that the children in heaven exceed its adult inhabitants in all their multitudinous array. Gill, a very champion of Calvinism, held the doctrine, that all dying in infancy are saved. An intelligent modern writer, (Dr. Russell, of Dundee,) also a Calvinist, maintains the same views; and when it is considered that nearly one-half of the human race die in early years, it is easy to see what a vast accession must be daily and hourly making to the blessed population of heaven."

A more common charge, brought by more decent people,—for I must say that the last charge is never brought, except by disreputable persons,—a more common charge is, that we hold clear fatalism. Now, there may be Calvinists who are fatalists, but Calvinism and fatalism are two distinct things. Do not most Christians hold the doctrine of the providence of God? Do not all Christians, do not all believers in a God hold the doctrine of his foreknowledge? All the difficulties which are laid against the doctrine of predestination might, with equal force, be laid against that of Divine foreknowledge. We believe that God hath predestinated all things from the beginning, but there is a difference between the predestination of an intelligent, all-wise, all-bounteous God, and that blind fatalism which simple says, "It is because it is to be." Between the predestination of Scripture and the fate of the Koran, every sensible man must perceive a difference of the most essential character. We do not deny that the thing is so ordained that it must be, but why is it to be, but that the Father, God, whose name is love, ordained it; not because of any necessity in circumstances that such and such a thing should take place. Though the wheels of providence revolve with rigid exactness, yet not without purpose and wisdom. The wheels are full of eyes, and everything ordained is so ordained that it shall conduce to the grandest of all ends, the glory of God, and the next to that the good of his creatures. But we are next met by some who tell us that we preach the wicked and horrible doctrine of sovereign and unmerited reprobation. "Oh," say they, "you teach that men are damned because God made them to be damned, and that they go to hell, not because of sin, not because of unbelief, but because of some dark decree with which God has stamped their destiny." Brethren, this is an unfair charge again. Election does not involve reprobation. There may be some who hold unconditional reprobation. I stand not here as their defender, let them defend themselves as best they can; I hold God's election, but I testify just as clearly that if any man be lost he is lost for sin; and this has been the uniform statement of Calvinistic ministers. I might refer you to our standards, such as "The Westminster Assembly's Catechism," and to all our Confession, for they all distinctly state that man is lost for sin, and that there is no punishment put on any man except that which he richly and righteously deserves. If any of you have ever uttered that libel against us, do it not again, for we are as guiltless of that as you are yourselves. I am speaking personally—and I think in this I would command the suffrages of my brethren—I do know that the appointment of God extendeth to all things; but I stand not in this pulpit, nor in any other, to lay the damnation of any man anywhere but upon himself. If he be lost, damnation is all of man; but, if he be saved, still salvation is all of God. To state this important point yet more clearly and explicitly, I shall quote at large from an able Presbyterian divine:

"The pious Methodist is taught that the Calvinist represents God as creating men in order to destroy them. He is taught that Calvinists hold that men are lost, not because they sin, but because they are nonelected. Believing this to be a true statement, it is not wonderful that the Methodist stops short, and declares himself, if not an Arminian, at least an AntiPredestinarian. But no statement can be more scandalously untrue. It is the uniform doctrine of Calvinism, that God creates all for his own glory; that he is infinitely righteous and benignant, and that where men perish it is only for their sins.

In speaking of suffering, whether in this world or in the world to come; whether it respects angels or men, the Westminster standards (which may be considered as the most authoritative modern statement of the system) invariably connect the punishment with previous sin, and sin only. "As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God as a righteous judge FOR FORMER SINS doth blind and harden, from them he not only withholdeth his grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings and wrought upon in their hearts, but sometimes also with draweth the gifts which they had, and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin; and withal gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves even under those means which God useth for the softening of others." The Larger Catechism, speaking of the unsaved among angels and men, says, "God according to his Sovereign power and the unsearchable counsel of his own will (whereby he extendeth or withholdeth favour as he pleaseth) hath passed by and fore-ordained the rest to dishonour and wrath, to be for their sin inflicted, to the praise of the glory of his justice." Again, "the end of God appointing this day (of the last judgment) is for the manifestation of the glory of his mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect, and of his justice in the damnation of the reprobate who are wicked and disobedient." This is no more than what the Methodist and all other Evangelical bodies acknowledge—that where men perish it is in consequence of their sin. If it be asked, why sin which destroys, is permitted to enter the world, that is a question which bears not only on the Calvinist, but equally on all other parties. They are as much concerned and bound to answer it as he; nay, the question in not confined to Christians. All who believe in the existence of God—in his righteous character and perfect providence, are equally under obligation to answer it. Whatever may be the reply of others, that of the Calvinist may be regarded as given in the statement of the Confession of Faith, which declares that God's providence extendeth itself even to the first fall, and other sins of angels and men, &c.; "yet so as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin." It is difficult to see what more could be said upon the subject; and if such be the undoubted sentiments of Calvinists, then what misrepresentation can be more gross than that which describes them as holding that sinners perish irrespective of their sin, or that God is the author of their sin? What is the declaration of Calvin? "Every soul departs (at death) to that place which it has prepared for itself while in this world."

It is hard to be charged with holding as sacred truth what one abhors as horrid blasphemy, and yet this is the treatment which has been perseveringly meted out to Calvinists in spite of the most solemn and indignant disclaimers. Against nothing have they more stoutly protested than the thought that the infinitely holy, and righteous, and amiable Jehovah is the author of sin; and yet how often do the supporters of rival systems charge them with this as an article of faith?

A yet further charge against us is, that we dare not preach the gospel to the unregenerate, that, in fact, our theology is so narrow and cramped that we cannot preach to sinners. Gentlemen, if you dare to say this, I would take you to any library in the world where the old Puritan fathers are stored up, and I would let you take down any one volume and tell me if you ever read more telling exhortations and addresses to sinners in any of your own books. Did not Bunyan plead with sinners, and whoever classed him with any but the Calvinist? Did not Charnock, Goodwin, and Howe agonise for souls, and what were they but Calvinist? Did not Jonathan Edwards preach to sinners, and who more clear and explicit on these doctrinal matters. The works of our innumerable divines teem with passionate appeals to the unconverted. Oh, sirs, if I should begin the list, time should fail me. It is an indisputable fact that we have laboured more than they all for the winning of souls. Was George Whitfield any the less seraphic? Did his eyes weep the fewer tears or his bowels move with the less compassion because he believed in God's electing love and preached the sovereignty of the Most High? It is an unfounded calumny. Our souls are not stony; our bowels are not withdrawn the compassion which we ought to feel for our fellowmen; we can hold all our views firmly, and yet can weep as Christ did over a Jerusalem which was certainly to be destroyed. Again, I must say, I am not defending certain brethren who have exaggerated Calvinism. I speak of Calvinism proper, not that which has run to seed, and outgrown its beauty and verdure. I speak of it as I find it in Calvin's Institutes, and especially in his Expositions. I have read them carefully. I take not my views of Calvinism from common repute but from his books. Nor do I, in this speaking, even vindicate Calvinism as if I cared for the name, but I mean that glorious system which teaches that salvation is of grace from first to last. And again, then, I say it is an utterly unfounded charge that we dare not preach to sinners.

And then further, that I may clear up these points and leave the less rubbish for my brethren to wheel away, we have sometimes heard it said, but those who say it ought to go to school to read the first book of history, that we who hold Calvinistic views are the enemies of revivals. Why, sirs, in the history of the Church, with but few exceptions, you could not find a revival at all that was not produced by the orthodox faith. What was the great work which was done by Augustine, when the Church suddenly woke up from the pestiferous and deadly sleep into which Pelagian doctrine had cast it? What was the Reformation itself but the waking up of men's minds to those old truths? However far modern Lutherans may have turned aside from their ancient doctrines, and I must confess some of them would not agree with what I now say, yet, at any rate, Luther and Calvin had no dispute about Predestination. Their views were identical, and Luther, "On the bondage of the will," is as strong a book upon the free grace of God as Calvin himself could have written. Hear that great thunderer while he cries in that book, "Let the Christian reader know then, that God foresees nothing in a contingent manner; but that he foresees, proposes, and acts, from his eternal and unchangeable will. This is the thunder stroke which breaks and overturns Free Will." Need I mention to you better names than Huss, Jerome of Prague, Farrel, John Knox, Wickliffe, Wishart, and Bradford? Need I do more than say that these held the same views, and that in their day anything like an Arminian revival was utterly unheard of and undreamed of. And then, to come to more modern times, there is the great exception, that wondrous revival under Mr. Wesley, in which the Wesleyan Methodists had so large a share; but permit me to say, that the strength of the doctrine of Wesleyan Methodism lay in its Calvinism. The great body of the Methodists disclaimed Palagianism, in whole and in part. They contended for man's entire depravity, the necessity of the direct agency of the Holy Spirit, and that the first step in the change proceeds not from the sinner, but from God. They denied at the time that they were Pelagians. Does not the Methodist hold as firmly as ever we do, that man is saved by the operation of the holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost alone? And are not many of Mr. Wesley's sermons full of that great truth, that the Holy Ghost is necessary to regeneration? Whatever mistakes he may have made, he continually preached the absolute necessity of the new birth by the Holy Ghost, and there are some other points of exceedingly close agreement; for instance, even that of human inability. It matters not how some may abuse us, when we say man could not of himself repent or believe; yet, the old Arminian standards said the same. True, they affirm that God has given grace to every man, but they do not dispute the fact, that apart from that grace there was no ability in man to do that which was good in his own salvation. And then, let me say, if you turn to the continent of America, how gross the falsehood, that Calvinistic doctrine is unfavourable to revivals. Look at that wondrous shaking under Jonathan Edwards, and others which we might quote. Or turn to Scotland—what shall we say of M'Cheyne? What shall we say of those renowned Calvinists, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Wardlow, and before them Livingstone, Haldane, Erskine, and the like? What shall we say of the men of their school, but that, while they held and preached unflinchingly the great truths which we would propound to-day, yet God owned their word, and multitudes were saved. And if it were not perhaps too much like boasting of one's own work under God, I might say, personally I have never found the preaching of these doctrines lull this Church to sleep, but ever while they have loved to maintain these truths, they have agonised for the souls of men, and the 1600 or more of whom I have myself baptized, upon profession of their faith, are living testimonies that these old truths in modern times have not lost their power to promote a revival of religion.

I have thus cleared away these allegations at the outset; I shall now need a few minutes more to say, with regard to the Calvinistic system, that there are some things to be said in its favour, to which of course I attach but little comparative importance, but they ought not to be ignored. It is a fact that the system of doctrines called the Calvinistic, is so exceedingly simple and so readily learned, that as a system of Divinity it is more easily taught and more easily grasped by unlettered minds than any other. The poor have the Gospel preached to them in a style which assists their memories and commends itself to their judgments. It is a system which was practically acknowledged an high philosophic grounds by such men as Bacon, Leibnitz, and Newton, and yet it can charm the soul of a child and expand the intellect of a peasant. And then it has another virtue. I take it that the last is no mean one, but it has another—that when it is preached there is a something in it which excites thought. A man may hear sermons upon the other theory which shall glance over him as the swallow's wing gently sweeps the brook, but these old doctrines either make a man so angry that he goes home and cannot sleep for very hatred, or else they bring him down into lowliness of thought, feeling the immensity of the things which he has heard. Either way it excites and stirs him up not temporarily, but in a most lasting manner. These doctrines haunt him, he kicks against the pricks, and full often the word forces a way into his soul. And I think this is no small thing for any doctrine to do, in an age given to slumber, and with human hearts so indifferent to the truth of God. I know that many men have gained more good by being made angry under a sermon than by being pleased by it, for being angry they have turned the truth over and over again, and at last the truth has burned its way right into their hearts. They have played with edge-tools, but they have cut themselves at last.

It has this singular virtue also—it is so coherent in all its parts. You cannot vanquish a Calvinist. You may think you can, but you cannot. The stones of the great doctrines so fit into each other, that the more pressure there is applied to remove them the more strenuously do they adhere. And you may mark, that you cannot receive one of these doctrines without believing all. Hold for instance that man is utterly depraved, and you draw the inference then that certainly if God has such a creature to deal with salvation must come from God alone, and if from him, the offended one, to an offending creature, then he has a right to give or withhold his mercy as he wills; you are this forced upon election, and when you have gotten that you have all: the others must follow. Some by putting the strain upon their judgments may manage to hold two or three points and not the rest, but sound logic I take it requires a man to hold the whole or reject the whole; the doctrines stand like soldiers in a square, presenting on every side a line of defence which it is hazardous to attack, but easy to maintain. And mark you, in these times when error is so rife and neology strives to be so rampant, it is no little thing to put into the hands of a young man a weapon which can slay his foe, which he can easily learn to handle, which he may grasp tenaciously, wield readily, and carry without fatigue; a weapon, I may add, which no rust can corrode and no blows can break, trenchant, and well annealed, a true Jerusalem blade of a temper fit for deeds of renown. The coherency of the parts, though it be of course but a trifle in comparison with other things, is not unimportant. And then, I add,—but this is the point my brethren will take up—it has this excellency, that it is scriptural, and that it is consistent with the experience of believers. Men generally grow more Calvinistic as they advance in years. Is not that a sign that the doctrine is right. As they are growing riper for heaven, as they are getting nearer to the rest that remaineth for the people of God, the soul longs to feed on the finest of the wheat, and abhors chaff and husks. And then, I add—and, in so doing, I would refute a calumny that has sometimes been urged,—this glorious truth has this excellency, that it produces the holiest of men. We can look back through all our annals, and say, to those who oppose us, you can mention no names of men more holy, more devoted, more loving, more generous than those which we can mention. The saints of our calendar, though uncanonized by Rome, rank first in the book of life. The names of Puritan needs only to be heard to constrain our reverence. Holiness had reached a height among them which is rare indeed, and well it might for they loved and lived the truth. And if you say that our doctrine is inimical to human liberty, we point you to Oliver Cromwell and to his brave Ironsides, Calvinists to a man. If you say, it leads to inaction, we point you to the Pilgrim Fathers and the wildernesses they subdued. We can put our finger upon every spot of land, the wide world o'er, and say, "Here was something done by a man who believed in God's decrees; and, inasmuch as he did this, it is proof it did not make him inactive, it did not lull him to sloth."

The better way, however of proving this point is for each of us who hold these truths, to be more prayerful, more watchful, more holy, more active than we have ever been before, and by so doing, we shall put to silence the gainsaying of foolish men. A living argument, is an argument which tells upon every man; we cannot deny what we see and feel. Be it ours, if aspersed and calumniated, to disprove it by a blameless life, and it shall yet come to pass, that our Church and its sentiments too shall come forth "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."

The REV. C. H. SPURGEON said, I wish to make one or two observations before I introduce to you the speakers of this evening. Controversy is never a very happy element for the child of God: he would far rather be in communion than engaged in defence of the faith or in attack upon error. But the soldier of Christ knows no choice in his Master's commands. He may feel it to be better for him to lie upon the bed of rest than to stand covered with the sweat and dust of battle; but as a soldier he has learned to obey, and the rule of his obedience is not his personal comfort but his Lord's absolute command. The servant of God must endeavour to maintain all the truth which his Master has revealed to him, because, as a Christian soldier, this is part of his duty. But while he does so, he accords to others the liberty which he enjoys himself. In his own house of prayer he must and will maintain that which he believes to be true. He does not feel himself at all out of temper or angry when he hears that in other places there are some holding different views of what the truth is, who as honestly, and perhaps as forcibly, endeavour to maintain their views. To our own Master we stand or fall; we have no absolute judge of right or wrong incarnate in the flesh on earth to-day. Nor is even the human judgment itself an infallible evidence of our being, for since the fall, no powers of mortals are free from imperfection. Our judgment is not necessarily a fully enlightened one, and we ourselves therefore let another man's judgment also be his guide unto God; but we must not forget that every man is responsible to the Most High for the use of that judgment, for the use of that mental power which God has given him, by which he is to weigh and balance the arguments of either side. I have found commonly that, with regard to the doctrine of grace which we preach, there are a great many objections raised. One of the simplest trades in the world is the raising of objections. You never need, if you wish to set up in that line of business, to look abroad for capital or resources; however poor and penniless a man may be, even in wits, he can easily manufacture difficulties. It is said "that a fool may raise objections which a thousand wise men could not answer." I would not hesitate to say that I could bring objections to your existence to-night, which you could not disprove. I could sophisticate and mystify until I brought out the conclusion that you were blind, and deaf, and dumb, and I am not sure that by any process of logic you would be able to prove that you were not so. It might be clear enough to you that you could both speak, and see, and hear. The only evidence, however, I suppose that you could give, would be by speaking, and seeing, and hearing, which might be conclusive enough; but if it were left to be a mere matter of word-fighting for schoolmen, I question whether the caviller might not cavil against you to the judgment-day in order to dispute you out of the evidence of your very senses. The raising of difficulties is the easiest trade in all the world, and, permit me to add, it is not one of the most honourable. The raising of objections has been espoused, you know, by that great and mighty master of falsehood in the olden times, and it has been carried on full often by those whose doubts about the truth sprung rather from their hearts than from their heads. Some difficulties, however, ought to be met, and let me now remove one or two of them. There are some who say, "Provided the doctrines of grace be true, what is the use of our preaching?" Of course I can hardly resist a smile while I put this splendid difficulty—it is so huge a one. If there are so many who are to be saved, then why preach? You cannot diminish, you cannot increase the number, why preach the Gospel? Now, I thought my friend Mr. Bloomfield anticipated this difficulty well enough. There must be a harvest,—why sow, why plough? Simply because the harvest is ordained in the use of the means. The reason why we preach at all is because God has ordained to save some. If he had not, we could not see the good of preaching at all. Why! we should come indeed on a fool's errand if we came here without the Master's orders at our back. His elect shall be saved—every one of them,—and if not by my instrumentality or that of any brother here present, if not by any instrumentality, then would God sooner call them by his Holy Spirit, without the voice of the minister, than that they should perish. But this is the very reason why we preach, because we wish to have the honour of being the means, in the hand of God, of calling these elect ones to himself. The certainty of the result quickens us in our work, and surely it would stay none but a fool in his labour. Because God ordains that his word shall not return unto him void, therefore, we preach that word, because, "as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud, even so doth the word of the Lord accomplish his purpose;" therefore, we would have our doctrine to drop as the rain and distil as the dew, and as the small rain upon the tender herb. But, there are some again who say, "To what purpose after all, is your inviting any to come, when the Spirit of God alone constrains them to come; and why, especially, preach to those whom believe to be so depraved that they cannot and will not come?" Ay, just so, this is a serious difficulty to everything except faith. Do you see Ezekiel yonder; he is about to preach a sermon. By his leave, we will stop him. "Ezekiel, where are you about to preach?" "I am about," saith he, "to preach to a strange congregation—dead, dry bones, lying in a mass in a valley." "But, Ezekiel, they have no power to live." "I know that," saith he. "To what purpose, then, is your preaching to them? If they have no power, and if the breath must come from the four winds, and they have no life in themselves, to what purpose do you preach?" "I am ordered to preach," saith he, "commanded;" and he does so. He prophesies, and afterward mounting to a yet higher stage of faith, he cries, "Come from the four winds, oh breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." And the wind comes, and the effect of his ministry is seen in their life. So preach we to dead sinners; so pray we for the living Spirit. So, by faith, do we expect his Divine influence, and it comes,—cometh not from man, nor of man, nor by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, but from the sovereign will of God. But not withstanding it comes instrumentally through the faith of the preacher while he pleads with man, "as though God did beseech them by us, we pray them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." But if ten thousand other objections were raised, my simple reply would be just this, "We can raise more objections against your theory, than you can against ours." We do not believe that our scheme is free from difficulties; it were uncandid if we were to say so. But we believe that we have not the tithe of the difficulties to contend with that they have on the opposite side of the question. It is not hard to find in those texts which appear to be most against us, a key, by which they are to be harmonized; and we believe it to be utterly impossible, without wresting Scripture, to turn those texts which teach our doctrine, to teach any other thing whatsoever. They are plain, pointed, pertinent. If the Calvinistic scheme were the whole sum and substance of all truth, why then surely, if it held everything within some five or six doctrines, you might begin to think that man were God, and that God's theology were less than infinite in its sweep. What are we, that we should grasp the infinite? We shall never measure the marches of eternity. Who shall compass with a span the Eternal God, and who shall think out anew his infinite thoughts? We pretend not that Calvinism is a plumb-line to fathom the deeps; but we do say, that it is a ship which can sail safely over its surface, and that every wave shall speed it onwards towards its destined haven. To fathom and to comprehend is neither your business nor mine, but to learn, and then, having learned, to teach to others, is the business of each Christian man; and thus would be do, God being our helper. One friend kindly suggests a difficulty to me, which, having just spoken of, I shall sit down. That amazing difficulty has to do with the next speaker's topic, and, therefore, I touch it. It says in the Scriptures, that Paul would not have us destroy him with our meat for whom Christ died. Therefore, the inference is—only mark, we don to endorse the logic—the inference is, that you may destroy some with your meat for whom Christ died. That inference I utterly deny. But then, let me put it thus. Do you know, that a man may be guilty of a sin which he cannot commit. Does that startle you? Every man is guilty of putting God out of existence, if he says in his heart, "No God." But he cannot put God out of existence; and yet, the guilt is there, because he would if he could. There be some who crucify the Son of God afresh. They cannot,—he is in heaven, he is beyond their reach. And yet, because their deeds would do that, unless some power restrained, they are guilty of doing what they can never do, because the end and aim of their doings would be to destroy Christ, if he were here. Now, then, it is quite consistent with the doctrine that no man can destroy any for whom Christ died, still to insist upon it that a man may be guilty of the blood of souls. He may do that which, unless God prevented it,—and that is no credit to him,—unless God prevented it, would destroy souls for whom Jesus Christ died. But, again I say, I have not come here to-night to anticipate and to answer all objections; I have only done that, that some troubled conscience might find peace. This was not a meeting of discussion, but for the explaining of our views, and the teaching them simply to the people. I now shall call upon my beloved brother to take up the point of particular redemption.

The REV. C. H. SPURGEON.—I think it was John Newton, who, speaking about good Calvinistic doctrine compared it to lumps of sugar; but he said, he did not so much give to his people the lumps of sugar, as diffuse the whole of it throughout his sermons; just as people do not eat sugar, but put it in their tea. Now, some of you have not yet grown patient enough to listen, I think, to a doctrine, however fully it may be brought out. Our people want anecdotes, illustrations, parables, and metaphors; even the best and sublimest things keep our minds on such a stretch when we listen to them, that there is good need that illustrations should yield us some relief. To-day was set apart that these doctrines might be fully brought out; this has been done, and there remains but one, and that my friend Mr O'Neil is to take, namely the final perseverance of the saints. Before he speaks, just one or two words. Has it never struck you that the scheme of doctrine which is called Calvinistic has much to say concerning God? It commences and ends with the Divine One. The angel of that system stands like Uriel in the sun; it dwells with God; he begins, he carries on, he perfects; it is for his glory and for his honour. Father, Son, and Spirit co-working, the whole Gospel scheme is carried out. Perhaps there may be this defect in our theology; we may perhaps too much forget man. I think that is a very small fault, compared with the fault of the opposite system, which begins with man, and all but ends with him. Man is a creature; how ought God to deal with him? That is the question some theologians seem to answer. The way we put it is—God is the Creator, he has a right to do as he wills; he is Sovereign, there is no law above him, he has a right to make and to unmake, and when man hath sinned, he has a right to save or to destroy. If he can save, and yet not impair his justice, heaven shall ring with songs; if he destroy, and yet his goodness be not marred, then hell itself with its deep bass of misery, shall swell the mighty rollings of his glorious praise. We hold that God should be most prominent in all our teachings; and we hold this to be a gauge by which to test the soundness of ministers. If they exalt God and sink the sinner to the very dust, it is all well; but if they lower the prerogatives of Deity, if he be less sovereign, less just, or less loving than the Scripture reveals him to be, and if man be puffed up with that fond notion that he is anything better than an unclean thing, then such theology is utterly unsound. Salvation is of the Lord, and let the Lord alone be glorified.