SPURGEONIC TONICS

GOOD BOY!....There is a story about a doctor at one of our hospitals, a year or two ago, he healed a dogs' broken leg and the grateful animal brought other dogs to have their broken legs healed, that was a good dog you say, but some of you are not half so good! You believe that Christ is blessing you, yet you never bring others to Him to be saved.

MEDITATE...."My meditation of Him will be sweet" of HIM that is, of the Well-beloved of the Father, of the Well- beloved of the church, of the Well-beloved of my own soul, of Him who loved me, in whose blood I have washed my robes and made them white. It is meditation of HIM that is sweet, not merely doctrines about Him, but of Him. Not merely of His work or His offices, but His own dear Self! there lies the sweetness of it. And the closer we come to His blessed Person, the more truly we have approached the very center of bliss.

THE GOSPEL....It is the word of God which saves souls, not our comment upon it, howsoever correct that comment may be, let us then be scrupulously careful to honour The Holy Ghost by taking the weapon which He has prepared for us, and believing fully in the divine inspiration of the sacred scriptures and expecting that God will prove their inspiration by their effect on the minds and hearts of men.

GREAT SINNER-GREAT SAVIOUR....Do not think of the sinner, or the greatness of his sin, but think of the greatness of The Saviour.

GUIDANCE....Is there anybody here who is going out of this tabernacle to a place where he ought not go? Will he pray first? he knows he cannot ask a blessing on it and therefore he ought not to go there. Go nowhere where you cannot go after prayer, this is the best guide in your choice of where you should go.

PRAYER....No man has so great need to pray as the man who does no care to pray. When you can pray and long to pray, why then you will pray. But when you cannot pray and do not wish to pray, then you must pray, or evil will come of it. He is on the verge of ruin who forgets the mercy-seat.

IN THE GREATNESS....of our trouble there may often be room for the greater display of the goodness of God.

THE INDWELLING CHRIST.

That spiritual life, which is the innermost recieving of Christ, that new life, which no man knows but he that has recieved it, that quickening of the spirit, which makes the christian as much superior to ordinary men, as men are above, dumb, driven cattle-if we recieve that blessed gift, then shall we with emphasis be entertaining our Lord as a stranger.
Profession is abundant, but the secret life is rare. The name to live is everywhere, but where is the life fully seen? To be rather than to talk, to enjoy rather than to pretend, to have Christ truly within, this is not every man's attainment, but those who have it are among the God-like ones, the true sons of God.
A strange thing is the fact that Jesus will deign to dwell in our hearts. Such a One as Jesus in such a one as I am! The King of glory in a sinner's bosom! This is a miracle of grace, yet the manner of it is simple enough. A humble repenting faith opens the door, and Jesus enters the heart at once. Love shuts to the door with the hand of penitence, and holy watchfulness keeps out intruders. Thus is the promise made good, "if any man hear My voice, and open the door I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me." Meditation, contemplation, prayer, praise and daily obedience, keep the house in order for The Lord, and then follows the consecration of our entire nature to His use as a temple. The dedication of spirit, soul and body, and all their powers as holy vessels of the sanctuary, the writing of "holiness unto the Lord" upon all that is about us. until our everyday garments become vestments, our meals sacraments, our life a ministry and ourselves priests unto the Most High. Oh the supreme condescension of this indwelling! He never dwelt in an angel, but He resides in a contrite spirit. There is a world of meaning in the Redeemer's words " I in them. " May we know them as Paul translates them, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

GOD'S PROMISES

Holy scripture is wonderfully full and abiding in it's inner sense. It is a springing well, whereat you may draw and draw again, for as you draw it springs up forever new and fresh. It is a well of water springing up everlastingly. The fulfillment of a divine promise is not the exhaustion of it. When a man gives you a promise, and he keeps it, there is the end of the matter, but it is not so with God. When He keeps His word to the full He has but begun, He is prepared to keep it, and keep it, and keep it for ever and ever. What would you say of a man who had wheat upon his barn floor, and threshed it until he had beaten out the last golden grain, but the next day he went and threshed again and brought back as much as the day before, and the day after, again taking his flail, he went to the same threshing, and again brought back his measure as full as at the first, and so on for all the days of the year? Would it not seem to you as a fairy tale? It would certainly be a surprising miracle. But what should we say if throughout a long life, this miracle could be prolonged? Yet we have continued to thresh God's promises ever since faith was first given us, and we have carried away our full portion every day. What shall we say of the glorious fact that the saints of all the ages, from the first day until now have done the very same, or of that equal truth, that as long as there is a needy soul upon earth, there will be upon the threshing floor of the promises of God the same abundance of the finest of the wheat as when the first man filled his measure and returned rejoicing?
The children of God have used His promises under all sorts of circumstances, and have derived the utmost comfort from them. As God rests in His love, so may we rest in it, and as He joys over us with singing, so may we break forth into joyous psalms to the God of our salvation.

UNTIRING DELIGHT

Who ever called the sea monotonous? Even to the mariner, travelling over it as he does, sometimes by the year together, there is always a freshness in the undulation of the waves, the whiteness of the foam of the breaker, the curl of the crested billow, and the frolicsome pursuit of every wave by it's long train of brothers.
Which of us has ever complained that the sun gave us but little variety? What though at morn he yoke the same steeds and flash from his car the same golden glory, climb with dull uniformity the summit of the skies, then drive his chariot downward and bid his flaming coursers steep their burning fetlocks in the western deep?
Or who among us would complain loathingly of the bread which we eat, that it palls upon the sense of taste? We eat it today, tomorrow, the next day, we have eaten it for years that are passed, still the one unvarying food is served upon the table, and bread remains the staff of life.
Translate these earthly experiences into heavenly mysteries.
If Christ is your food and your spiritual bread, if Christ is the sun, your heavenly light, if Christ is the sea of love in which your passions swim and all your joys are found, it is not possible that you as christian men should complain of monotony in Him. He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever," and yet He has the "dew of His youth." He is like the manna in the golden pot which was always the same, but He is also like the manna which came down from heaven every morning new. He is as the rod of Moses, which was dry and changed not it's shape, but He is also to us as the rod of Aaron which buds, and blossoms, and brings forth almonds.

PERSECUTION

Oh how happy are we in these days that we are not subjected to the fierce sufferings, and the cruel persecutions, which the early christians, and even our own forefathers had to endure! How often in a Jewish family, as soon as a young man had become a follower of Christ, from that moment, none of his family would acknowledge him. He was a follower of the hated Nazarene! "A curse be upon him" said his father, and even a mother's tenderness seemed dried up, so that she could not think of him without bitterness or gall.A like thing happened also in the old Roman families. The child of a Roman noble had stepped into some little place where humble and unlettered people met to hear the gospel preached, to sing songs in the name of Jesus, and to keep holy one day in the week, and there that youthful heart had learned the story of the cross, and by the grace of God had been brought to love the Saviour. As soon as the fact was made known, the officers of justice would take the child away from the father's house, and hale the young believer off to prison. When persecution grew very hot in the old Roman times, you know how the good, and the great, and the true, the strong and the old, the young and the maiden, had alike to flee for their lives. If they remained, it was only to be dragged before the Roman praetor, and short work was made of them at the stake or the arena. Soon nothing was left of them but a heap of ashes from the martyr fire, or a few bones that the wild beasts did not care to eat.
Horrible work was wrought too when the the Roman Catholic Church had it's full power, and the officers of the Inquisition, at dead of night, knocked at the door of some christian man and demanded either himself, or his wife, or his son, or his daughter, they had to surrender themselves without a word, that they might be immured in the damp, dark vaults of that hellish institution. never to be seen again, except on some dreadful day, when they were marched out in derision to be burned alive because they would not bow down before images of ivory and wood and call those idols the Christ to whom homage and reverence should be paid. It was so in our own land during the persecutions of Queen Mary. And after that , when our noble sires would not conform to the established Church of this land, and were therefore hunted into the dens and caves of the earth, as though they had been wild beasts, instead of men of whom the world was not worthy. Many of the best and bravest of England's sons and daughters fled away to America and found another and safer home there, in New England, where the wild rocks were less flinty than the hearts of men here in England.
When days of persecution come again, will we be able to give up all? Could the husband let his wife and children go for Christ's sake? Could the children again give up the father's love? Could you wrench yourself away from all your dear ones, to prove that you truly belonged to Christ, and that you loved Him more than father or mother, husband or wife, or any of your kin? God grant that the true martyr spirit may not die out in our heart, even if, in God's gracious providence, it be not called into terrible exercise as among the brave peasants of Switzerland, or the noble covenanters of Scotland, or the old Nonconformists of England. At any rate, whatever we are called to endure, may we be true and loyal to the gospel for which our fathers bled and died. And if the times of persecution should ever come again, as come they may, may we be ready again to forsake the place of comfort, luxury and peace for our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Believer's Experience.

Do you not know what it is sometimes, when spiritual things are at a very low ebb, when you cannot find any joy, and scarcely any hope, when you look into your own heart, and all seems as dry as the earth is after a long autumn drought? You have no power, no strength and scarcely any desire. You sit down and say, "I am afraid that I am no child of God, I am given up, I am spiritually dead." Yet have you never known within an hour, the great water-floods to be let loose and your soul to be full of feeling, full of faith, hope, joy, love? The chariot wheels had been taken off, and the chariot dragged very heavily, but now, or ever you are aware, your soul has made you like the chariots of Amminadib. You are leaping, you are laughing for very joy. And The Lord has turned your captivity, and filled your mouth with laughter and your tongue with singing, and done it all of a sudden too. God can do strange things for His people, even wonderful things which they looked not for.

God says "I will, I will." part 1.

"I will open rivers in high places,

and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

and the dry land springs of water." Isaiah c 41 v18.

You notice that in this verse, The Lord twice says "I will" and in this respect this verse is in harmony with the rest of the chapter. How greatly I prize a portion of scripture which is filled with God's shalls and wills! Everything He says is precious, but His "I wills" are peculiarly precious. There are the "I wills" of the psalms, a long list of them, and the "I wills" of Christ, a goodly company. When we come to the "I wills" of God, then we are among the precious things, the deep things, the things that minister comfort and strength to the people of God.

We sometimes say "I will," but it is in a feeble fashion compared with the way in which God says it. People say " must " is "for the king," so, "I will" is for the King of kings. It is His prerogative to will. It is His sovereign right to say "I will." When we get a chapter like the one we have been reading, which is full of the "I wills" of God, it is worthwhile to pause for a few moments and just think of what Jehovah's "I will," must mean.

It is an "I will," uttered with deliberation. James said, "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." We say "I will," in a hurry, and then we take time to repent of it. We are under excitement, persuasion or compulsion and we say "I will," and we are very sorry soon after, and perhaps we are so unfaithful as not to keep our word. But God never speaks under compulsion, He is almighty. God never speaks in a hurry, He has infinite leisure. God never speaks under excitement or persuasion, that were not like a God. His purpose is of old, and His decree is from everlasting, and the "I will," which is the mouth of the decree, is a word that is spoken with wisdom and prudence. Now when a man speaks a thing prudently and wisely, you believe that he will carry it out if he can. You may have much more confidence with regard to what The Lord says, for He has not spoken without due deliberation, therefore, whenever God says "I will," you may be sure that He will perform it.

Next, when God says "I will," His resolution is supported by omnipotence. You say "I will," but you cannot do what you have promised. Your will is good enough but you fail because of the lack of means. You say "I will, yes I will," but afterwards you have to meekly say, "I pray thee, take the will for the deed" for you have overshot the mark and are unable to perform what you have promised. Now that can never happen with God. Hath He said and shall He not do it? Is anything too hard for The Lord?, especially anything which He has promised to perform. Come then dear friends, if God be omnipotent, and we know that He is, when He says "I will," we dare not doubt it, for eternal power goes forth with the word of His wisdom, and it must be yea, it shall be done. Whatever doubts we might have had, if it were not God's "I will," vanish when we come to remember that all things are possible with Him.

Furthermore, when God says "I will," we should remember that it is sealed with immutability. We change, we are always changing. Made of dust and ashes, we are made of materials that continues to change. Hence we say today "I will," and we mean it, but tomorrow we wish we had never said "I will," and the next day we say "I will not," Ah me the suicides that have come through resting on the word of a man that was false and proved a traitor to his friend. But God never changes, He is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. The thing that has gone out of His mouth shall never be reversed. When He once says "I will," depend on this, He still says "I will," and till heaaven and earth shall pass away, it will still be "I will," He is too perfect to change, for being perfect He cannot change. A changeable being either changes from a worse to a better, in which case he was not perfect before, or he changes from a better to a worse, in which case he will not be perfect afterwards. But God being always perfect is always the same, never withdrawing His word or altering His purpose. Will you not therefore believe the unfailing word of an unchanging God? can you not hang upon it? and when He says "I will," depend upon it that it shall be even so.

Once more when God says "I will," it will be carried out with faithfulness. He has fulfilled His threatenings. He never idly vapours and utters words of terror without intending to carry them out, and when it comes to promises, rest you sure that God never flatters the ear, and then decieves the man. If He did not mean to do it, He would not say "I will." Eternal faithfulness performs what eternal wisdom declares. Shall God lie? Is He a man as thou art? Will He decieve? Will He promise falsely and then run from His word? That be far from Him, and let it be far from us thus to sin against Him with such a thought. Come then, child of God, thou who knowest Him, if He has said, "I will help thee," He will help thee. If He says "I will strengthen thee," He will strengthen thee. Believe God without a trace of doubt and "be of good courage, and He will strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in The Lord.