FAITH, Not "Signs!"

by C. H. SPURGEON

I believe it is a shallow experience that makes people always confident of what they are, and where they are, for there are times of terrible trouble, that make even the most confident child of God hardly know whether he is on his head or on his heels. It is the mariner who has done business on great waters who, in times of unusual stress and storm, reels to and fro, and staggers like a drunken man, and is at his wits' end. At such a time, if Jesus whispers that I am His, then the question is answered once for all, and my soul has received a token which it waves in the face of Satan, so that he disappears, and I can go on my way rejoicing.

I have found, in my own spiritual life, that the more rules I lay down for myself, the more sins I commit. The habit of regular morning and evening prayer is one which is indispensable to a believer's life, but the prescribing of the length of prayer, and the constrained remembrance of so many persons and subjects, may gender unto bondage, and strangle prayer rather than assist it. To say I will humble myself at such a time, and rejoice at such another season, is nearly as much an affectation as when the preacher wrote in the margin of his sermon, "Cry here," "Smile here." Why, if the man preached from his heart, he would be sure to cry in the right place, and to smile at a suitable moment; and when the spiritual life is sound, it produces prayer at the right time, and humiliation of soul and sacred joy spring forth spontaneously, apart from rules and vows. The kind of religion which makes itself to order by the Almanack, and turns out its emotions like bricks from a machine, weeping on Good Friday, and rejoicing two days afterwards, measuring its motions by the moon, is too artificial to be worthy of my imitation.

Self-examination is a very great blessing, but I have known self-examination carried on in a most unbelieving, legal, and self-righteous manner; in fact, I have so carried it on myself. Time was when I used to think a vast deal more of marks, and signs, and evidences, for my own comfort, than I do now, for I find that I cannot be a match for the devil when I begin dealing in these things.  I am obliged to go day by day with this cry, —

"I, the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me."

While I can believe the promise of God, because it is His promise, and because He is my God, and while I can trust my Saviour because He is God, and therefore mighty to save, all goes well with me; but I do find, when I begin questioning myself about this and that perplexity, thus taking my eye off Christ, that all the virtue of my life seems oozing out at every pore. Any practice that detracts from faith is an evil practice, but especially that kind of self-examination which would take us away from the cross-foot, proceeds in a wrong direction.

I used, when I first knew the Saviour, to try myself in a certain manner, and often did I throw stumbling-blocks in my path through it, and therefore I can warn any who are doing the same. Sometimes I would go up into my chamber, and by way of self-examination, I used to ask myself this question, — "Am I afraid to die? If I should drop down dead in my room, can I say that I should joyfully close my eyes?" Well, it often happened that I could not honestly say so. I used to feel that death would be a very solemn thing. "Ah, then!" I said, "I have never believed in Christ, for if I had put my trust in the Lord Jesus, I should not be afraid to die, but I should be quite confident."

I do not doubt that many a person is saying, "I cannot follow Christ, because I am afraid to die; I cannot believe that Jesus Christ will save me, because the thought of death makes me tremble." Ah, poor soul, there are many of God's blessed ones, who through fear of death have been much of their lifetime subject to bondage! I know precious children of God now: I believe that, when they die, they will die triumphantly; but I know this, that the thought of death is never pleasing to them. And this is accounted for, because God has stamped on nature that law, the love of life and self-preservation; and it is natural enough that the man who has kindred and friends should scarcely like to leave behind those who are so dear. I know that, when he gets more grace, he will rejoice in the thought of death; but I do know that there are many quite safe, who will die rejoicing in Christ, who now, in the prospect of death, feel afraid of it.

My aged grandfather once preached a sermon which I have not yet forgotten. He was preaching from the text, "The God of all grace," and he somewhat interested the assembly (after describing the different kinds of grace) "that you do not want." After each part of his theme, there came the like sentence, "But there is one kind of grace you do not want." And then he wound up by saying, "You don't want dying grace in living moments, but you shall have dying grace when you need it. When you are in the condition to require it, you shall have grace enough if you put your trust in Christ."

In a party of friends, we were discussing the question whether, if the days of martyrdom should come, we were prepared to be burned. I said, "I must frankly tell you that, speaking as I feel today, I am not prepared to be burned; but I do believe that, if there were a stake at Smithfield, and I knew that I was to be burned there at one o'clock, I should have grace enough to be burned there when one o'clock came."

— Excerpted from C. H. Spurgeon's AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Vol 1, pages 160-162    

Author: C. H. Spurgeon

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NOTES OF INTEREST

by C. H. Spurgeon

What is JESUS CHRIST to Me?

Many persons are greatly disquieted in mind because their experience of conviction or comfort has not been like that of others. They fancy that they cannot have come to Christ aright because they have not felt precisely the same joys or depressions as certain saints of whom they have read. Now, should these good people be so troubled? We think not. Uniformity is not God's rule of working either in nature or in grace. No two human faces display exactly the same lineaments; sons of the same mother, born at the same birth, may be as different as Jacob and Esau. Not even in leagues of forest will two leaves be found in all respects alike. Diversity is the rule of nature, and let us rest assured that variety is the rule of grace.

Mr. Beecher has given us this truth in a very beautiful form in the following lines:

"What if God should command the flowers to appear before him, and the sunflower should come bending low with shame because it was not a violet, and the violet should come striving to lift itself up to be like a sunflower, and the lily should seek to gain the bloom of the rose, and the rose the whiteness of the lily; and so, each one disdaining itself, should seek to grow into the likeness of the other?

God would say, 'Stop foolish flowers! I gave you your own forms and hues, and odors, and I wish you to bring what you have received. O, sunflower, come as a sunflower; and you sweet violet, come as a violet; let the rose bring the rose's bloom, and the lily the lily's whiteness.' Perceiving their folly, and ceasing to long for what they had not, violet and rose, lily and geranium, mignonette and anemone, and all the floral train would come, each in its own loveliness, to send up its fragrance as incense, and all wreathe themselves in a garland of beauty about the throne of God."

Reader, the saints are one in Christ Jesus, but they are not one in their peculiarities. Be we who we may, if we rest on the Redeemer out eternal life is sure; and if not, we are dead while we live. What is Jesus Christ to me? that is the main question. If he is my all, then all is well; if not, I may be very like a saint, but a saint I am not.

THE UNKNOWN FUTURE

With my little strength, and frequent assaults of pain, if I were to look far into the future, I should faint; but by moving on slowly, and undertaking a day's journey at a time, and no more, I find myself happy in my pilgrimage. William Jay beautifully said, "We consider the year before us as a desk, on which lie 365 sealed letters, — one for each day, prescribing its duties. We may unwisely desire to open them all at once; but this would only add to our burden."

We may add that, to break open what the Lord has sealed would violate the will of our Heavenly Father, who bids us never to let the weight of tomorrow's cares trespass upon those of today. Moreover, we know from the Word that the substance of all those letters is love; whether sealed or unsealed, we can read their substance by means of the magic glass of faith, and this suffices us. Blessed with today's grace, we leave the unknown tomorrow with our Lord.

THE BLESSED LIFE

I saw, in my dream, a man worn and weary with working the handle of a pump from which no water came. Hard by was his garden, and all the plants and flowers were pining for water; but he had none to give them. Then I saw a woman coming towards him, bearing a pitcher of water. She stopped, and spoke cheeringly to the weary one; and, anon, she smilingly poured the contents of her pitcher down the pump, and immediately it began to work, and pour forth waters of its own. How the husbandman blessed her!

I think I know that woman; and sure I am that, often, the reading of a new book, sent from the Book Fund(*), enables a mind to work with success which previously had been exhausted with labour in vain.

To you, dear wife, I would say — Beloved, your work of faith and labour of love are not in vain in the Lord.

[* the Book Fund was founded and administered by Spurgeon's wife, Susannah]

 

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