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“Oh
that thou wouldest bless me indeed!”
—
1 Chronicles 4:10.
WE
know very little about Jabez, except that he was more honorable than
his brethren, and that he was called Jabez because his mother bare him
with sorrow. It will sometimes happen that where there is the most sorrow
in the antecedents, there will be the most pleasure in the sequel. As the
furious storm gives place to the clear sunshine, so the night of weeping
precedes the morning of joy. Sorrow the harbinger; gladness the prince it
ushers in.
Cowper
says: —“The
path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads
to the place where sorrow is unknown.”
To
a great extent we find that we must sow in tears before we can reap in
joy. Many of our works for Christ have cost us tears. Difficulties and
disappointments have wrung our soul with anguish. Yet those projects that
have cost us more than ordinary sorrow, have often turned out to be the
most honorable of our undertakings. While our grief called the offspring
of desire “Benoni,” the son of my sorrow, our faith has been
afterwards able to give it a name of delight, “Benjamin,” the son of
my right hand. You may expect a blessing in serving God if you are enabled
to persevere under many discouragements. The ship is often long coming
home, because detained on the road by excess of cargo. Expect her freight
to be the better when she reaches the port. More honorable than his
brethren was the child whom his mother bore with sorrow. As for this
Jabez, whose aim was so well pointed, his fame so far sounded, his name so
lastingly embalmed — he was a man of prayer. The honor he enjoyed would
not have been worth having if it had not been vigorously contested and
equitably won. His devotion was the key to his promotion. Those are the
best honors that come from God, the award of grace with the acknowledgment of
service.
When
Jacob was surnamed Israel, he received his princedom after a memorable
night of prayer. Surely it was far more honorable to him than if it had
been bestowed upon him as a flattering distinction by some earthly
emperor. The best honor is that which a man gains in communion with the
Most High. Jabez, we are told, was more honorable than his brethren, and
his prayer is forthwith recorded, as if to intimate that he was also more
prayerful than his brethren. We are told of what petitions his prayer
consisted. All through it was very significant and instructive. We have
only time to take one clause of it — indeed, that one clause may be said
to comprehend the rest: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” I
commend it as a prayer for yourselves, dear brethren and sisters; one
which will be available at all seasons; a prayer to begin Christian life
with, a prayer to end it with, a prayer which would never be unseasonable
in your joys or in your sorrows.
Oh
that thou, the God of Israel, the covenant God, would bless me indeed! The
very pith of the prayer seems to lie in that word, “indeed.” There are
many varieties of blessing. Some are blessings only in name: they gratify
our wishes for a moment, but permanently disappoint our expectations. They
charm the eye, but pall on the taste. Others are mere temporary blessings:
they perish with the using. Though for awhile they regale the senses, they
cannot satisfy the higher cravings of the soul. But, “Oh that thou
wouldest bless me indeed!” I wot whom God blesseth shall be blessed. The
thing good in itself is bestowed with the good-will of the giver, and
shall be productive of so much good fortune to the recipient that it may
well be esteemed as a blessing “indeed,” for there is nothing
comparable to it. Let the grace of God prompt it, let the choice of God
appoint it, let the bounty of God confer it, and then the endowment shall
be something godlike indeed; something worthy of the lips that pronounce
the benediction, and verily to be craved by every one who seeks honor that
is substantial and enduring. “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!”
Think it over, and you will see that there is a depth of meaning in the
expression.
We
may set this in contrast with human blessings: “Oh
that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” It is very delightful to
be blessed by our parents, and those venerable friends whose benedictions
come from their hearts, and are backed up by their prayers. Many a poor
man has had no other legacy to leave his children except his blessing, but
the blessing of an honest, holy, Christian father is a rich treasure to
his son. One might well feel it were a thing to be deplored through life if he had
lost a parent’s blessing. We like
to have it. The blessing of our spiritual parents is consolatory. Though
we believe in no priestcraft, we like to live in the affections of those
who were the means of bringing us to Christ, and from whose lips we were
instructed in
the things of God. And how very precious is the blessing of the poor! I
do not wonder that Job treasured that up as a sweet thing. “When
the ear heard me, then it blessed me.” If you have relieved
the widow and the fatherless, and their thanks are returned to you in
benediction, it is no mean reward. But, dear friends, after all — all
that parents, relatives, saints, and grateful persons can do in the way of
blessing, falls very far short of what we desire to have.
O
Lord, we would have the blessings of our fellow-creatures, the blessings
that come from their hearts; but, “Oh that Thou
wouldest bless me indeed!”
for thou canst bless with authority. Their blessings may be but words, but
thine are effectual. They may often wish what they cannot do, and desire
to give what they have not at their own disposal, but thy will is
omnipotent. Thou didst create the world with but a word. O that such
omnipotence would now bespeak me thy blessing! Other blessings may bring
us some tiny cheer, but in thy favor is life. Other blessings are mere
tittles in comparison with thy blessing; for thy blessing is the title “to
an inheritance incorruptible” and unfading, to “a
kingdom which cannot be moved.” Well therefore might David
pray in another place, “With thy blessing let
the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.”
Perhaps
in this place, Jabez may have put the blessing of God in contrast with the
blessings of men. Men will bless thee when thou doest well for thyself.
They will praise the man who is successful in business. Nothing succeeds
like success. Nothing has so much the approval of the general public as a
man’s prosperity. Alas! they do not weigh men’s actions in the
balances of the sanctuary, but in quite other scales. You will find those
about you who will commend you if you are prosperous; or like Job’s
comforters, condemn you if you suffer adversity. Perhaps there may be some
feature about their blessings that may please you, because you feel you
deserve them. They commend you for your patriotism: you have been a
patriot. They commend you for your generosity: you know you have been
self-sacrificing. Well, but after all, what is there in the verdict of
man?
At
a trial, the verdict of the policeman who stands in the court, or of the
spectators who sit in the court-house, amounts to just nothing. The man
who is being tried feels that the only thing that is of importance at all
will be the verdict of the jury, and the sentence of the judge. So it will
little avail us whatever we may do, how others commend or censure. Their blessings are not of any great value. But,
“Oh that thou wouldest bless
me,” that thou wouldest say, “Well
done, good and faithful servant.” Commend thou the feeble
service that through thy grace my heart has rendered. That will be to
bless me indeed.
Men
are sometimes blessed in a very fulsome sense by flattery. There are
always those who, like the fox in the fable, hope to gain the cheese by
praising the crow. They never saw such plumage, and no voice could be so
sweet as yours. The whole of their mind is set, not on you, but on what
they are to gain by you. The race of flatterers is never extinct, though
the flattered usually flatter themselves it is so. They may conceive that
men flatter others, but all is so palpable and transparent when heaped
upon themselves, that they accept it with a great deal of
self-complacency, as being perhaps a little exaggerated, but after all
exceedingly near the truth.
We
are not very apt to take a large discount off the praises that others
offer us; yet, were we wise, we should press to our bosom those who
censure us; and we should always keep at arm’s length those who praise
us, for those who censure us to our face cannot possibly be making a
market of us; but with regard to those who extol us, rising early, and
using loud sentences of praise, we may suspect, and we shall very seldom
be unjust in the suspicion, that there is some other motive in the praise
which they render to us than that which appears on the surface. Young man,
art thou placed in a position where God honors thee? Beware of flatterers.
Or hast thou come into a large estate? Hast thou abundance? There are
always flies where there is honey. Beware of flattery. Young woman, art
thou fair to look upon? There will be those about thee that will have
their designs, perhaps their evil designs, in lauding thy beauty. Beware
of flatterers. Turn thou aside from all these who have honey on their
tongue, because of the poison of asps that is under it. Bethink thee of
Solomon’s caution, “meddle not with him that
flattereth with his lips.” Cry to God, “Deliver
thou me from all this vain adulation, which nauseates my soul.”
So shalt thou pray to him the more fervently, “Oh
that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” Let me have thy
benediction, which never says more than it means; which never gives less
than it promises. If you take then the prayer of Jabez as being put in
contrast with the benedictions which come from men, you see much force in
it.
But
we may put it in another light, and compare the blessing Jabez craved with
those blessings that are temporal and transient. There are many
bounties given to us mercifully by God for which we are bound to be very grateful; but we must not set too much
store by them. We may accept them
with
gratitude, but we must not make them our idols. When we have them
we have great need to cry, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and
make these inferior blessings real blessings;” and if we have them not,
we should with greater vehemence cry, “Oh that we may be rich in faith,
and if not blessed with these external favors, may we be blessed
spiritually, and then we shall be blessed indeed.”
Let
us review some of these mercies, and just say a word or two about them.
One of the first cravings of men’s hearts is wealth. So universal
the desire to gain it, that we might almost say it is a natural instinct.
How many have thought if they once possessed it they should be blessed
indeed! but there are ten thousand proofs that happiness consists not in
the abundance which a man possesseth. So many instances are well known to
you all, that I need not quote any to show that riches are not a blessing
indeed. They are rather apparently than really so. Hence, it has been well
said, that when we see how much a man has we envy him; but could we see
how little he enjoys we should pity him. Some that have had the most easy
circumstances have had the most uneasy minds. Those who have acquired all
they could wish, had their wishes been at all sane, have been led by the
possession of what they had to be discontented because they had not more.
“Thus
the base miser starves amidst his store,
Broods o’er his gold, and griping still at more,
Sits sadly pining, and believes he’s poor.”
Nothing
is more clear to any one who chooses to observe it, than that riches are
not the chief good at whose advent sorrow flies, and in whose presence joy
perennial springs. Full often wealth cozens the owner. Dainties are spread
on his table, but his appetite fails, minstrels wait his bidding, but his
ears are deaf to all the strains of music; holidays he may have as many as
he pleases, but for him recreation has lost all its charms: or he is
young, fortune has come to him by inheritance, and he makes pleasure his
pursuit till sport becomes more irksome than work, and dissipation worse
than drudgery. Ye know how riches make themselves wings; like the bird
that roosted on the tree, they fly away. In sickness and despondency these
ample means that once seemed to whisper, “Soul,
take thine ease,”
prove themselves to be poor comforters. In death they even tend to make
the pang of separation more acute, because there is the more to leave, the more to lose. We may well say,
if we have wealth, “My God, put me not
off with these husks; let me never make a god of the silver and the
gold, the goods and the chattels, the estates and investments, which in
thy providence thou hast given me. I beseech thee, bless me indeed. As for
these worldly possessions, they will be my bane unless I have thy grace
with them.” And if you have not wealth, and perhaps the most of you will
never have it, say, “My Father, thou hast denied me this outward and
seeming good, enrich me with thy love, give me the gold of thy favor,
bless me indeed; then allot to others whatever thou wilt, thou shalt
divide my portion, my soul shall wait thy daily will; do thou bless me
indeed, and I shall be content.”
Another
transient blessing which our poor humanity fondly covets and eagerly
pursues is fame. In this respect we would fain be more honorable
than our brethren, and outstrip all our competitors. It seems natural to
us all to wish to make a name, and gain some note in the circle we move in
at any rate, and we wish to make that circle wider if we can. But here, as
of riches, it is indisputable that the greatest fame does not bring with
it any equal measure of gratification. Men, in seeking after notoriety or
honor, have a degree of pleasure in the search which they do not always
possess when they have gained their object. Some of the most famous men
have also been the most wretched of the human race. If thou hast honor and
fame, accept it; but let this prayer go up, “My God, bless thou me
indeed, for what profit were it, if my name were in a thousand mouths, if
thou shouldest spew it out of thy mouth? What matter, though my name were
written on marble, if it were not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
These blessings are only apparently blessings, windy blessings, blessings
that mock me. Give me thy blessing: then the honor which comes of thee
will make me blessed indeed.” If you happen to have lived in obscurity,
and have never entered the lists for honors among your fellow-men, be
content to run well your own course and fulfill truly your own vocation.
To lack fame is not the most grievous of ills; it is worse to have it like
the snow, that whitens the ground in the morning, and disappears in the
heat of the day. What matters it to a dead man that men are talking of
him? Get thou the blessing indeed.
There
is another temporal blessing which wise men desire, and legitimately may
wish for rather than the other two — the blessing of health. Can
we ever prize it sufficiently? To trifle with such a boon is the madness
of folly. The highest eulogiums that can be passed on health would not be extravagant. He that has a healthy body is
infinitely more blessed than he
who is sickly, whatever his estates may be. Yet if I have health, my bones
well set, and my muscles well strung, if I scarcely know an ache or pain,
but can rise in the morning, and with elastic step go forth to labor, and
cast myself upon my couch at night, and sleep the sleep of the happy, yet,
oh let me not glory in my strength! In a moment it may fail me. A few
short weeks may reduce the strong man to a skeleton. Consumption may set
in, the cheek may pale with the shadow of death. Let not the strong man
glory in his strength. The Lord “delighteth not
in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.”
And let us not make our boast concerning these things. Say, thou that are
in good health, “My God, bless me indeed. Give me the healthy soul. Heal
me of my spiritual diseases.
Jehovah
Rophi come, and purge out the leprosy that is in my heart by nature: make
me healthy in the heavenly sense, that I may not be put aside among the
unclean, but allowed to stand amongst the congregation of thy saints.
Bless my bodily health to me that I may use it rightly, spending the
strength I have in thy service and to thy glory; otherwise, though blessed
with health, I may not be blessed indeed.” Some of you, dear friends, do
not possess the great treasure of health. Wearisome days and nights are
appointed you. Your bones are become an almanac, in which you note the
changes of the weather. There is much about you that is fitted to excite
pity. But I pray that you may have the blessing indeed, and I know what
that is. I can heartily sympathize with a sister that said to me the other
day, “I had such nearness to God when I was sick, such full assurance,
and such joy in the Lord, and I regret to say I have lost it now; that I
could almost wish to be ill again, if thereby I might have a renewal of
communion with God.” I have oftentimes looked gratefully back to my sick
chamber. I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much
anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain. It ought not to be so. Our joyous
mercies ought to be great fertilizers to our spirit; but not infrequently
our griefs are more salutary than our joys. The pruning knife is best for
some of us. Well, after all, whatever you have to suffer, of weakness, of
debility, of pain, and anguish, may it be so attended with the divine
presence, that this light affliction may work out for you a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and so you may be blessed indeed.
I
will only dwell upon one more temporal mercy, which is very precious — I
mean the blessing of home. I do not think any one can ever prize it
too highly, or speak too well of it. What a blessing it is to have the
fireside, and the dear relationships that gather round
the word “Home,” wife, children,
father, brother, sister! Why, there are no songs in any language that are
more full of music than those dedicated to “Mother.” We hear a great
deal about the German “Fatherland” — we like the sound. But the
word, “Father,” is the whole of it. The “land” is nothing: the
“Father” is key to the music. There are many of us, I hope, blessed
with a great many of these relationships. Do not let us be content to
solace our souls with ties that must ere long be sundered. Let us ask that
over and above them may come the blessing indeed. I thank thee, my God,
for my earthly father; but oh, be thou my Father, then am I blessed
indeed. I thank thee, my God, for a mother’s love; but comfort thou my
soul as one whom a mother comforteth, then am I blessed indeed. I thank
thee, Savior, for the marriage bond; but be thou the bridegroom of my
soul. I thank thee for the tie of brotherhood; but be thou my brother born
for adversity, bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. The home thou hast
given me I prize, and thank thee for it; but I would dwell in the house of
the Lord for ever, and be a child that never wanders, wherever my feet may
travel, from my Father’s house with its many mansions. You can thus be
blessed indeed. If not domiciled under the paternal care of the Almighty,
even the blessing of home, with all its sweet familiar comforts, does not
reach to the benediction which Jabez desired for himself. But do I speak
to any here that are separated from kith and kin? I know some of you have
left behind you in the bivouac of life graves where parts of your heart
are buried, and that which remains is bleeding with just so many wounds.
Ah, well! the Lord bless you indeed!
Widow,
thy maker is thy husband. Fatherless one, he hath said, “I will not
leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Oh, to find all your
relationships made up in him, then you will be blessed indeed! I have
perhaps taken too long a time in mentioning these temporary blessings, so
let me set the text in another light. I trust we have had human blessings
and temporary blessings, to fill our hearts with gladness, but not to foul
our hearts with worldliness, or to distract our attention from the things
that belong to our everlasting welfare.
Let
us proceed, thirdly, to speak of imaginary blessings. There are
such in the world. From them may God deliver us. “Oh that thou wouldest
bless me indeed!” Take the Pharisee. He stood in the Lord’s house, and
he thought he had the Lord’s blessing, and it made him very bold, and he
spoke with unctuous self-complacency, “God,
I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,” and so on. He
had the blessing, and well indeed he supposed himself to have merited it. He had
fasted twice in the week, paid
tithes
of all that he possessed, even to the odd farthing on the mint, and the
extra halfpenny on the cumin he had used. He felt he had done everything.
His the blessing of a quiet or a quiescent conscience; good, easy man. He
was a pattern to the parish. It was a pity everybody did not live as he
did; if they had, they would not have wanted any police.
Pilate
might have dismissed his guards, and Herod his soldiers. He was just one
of the most excellent persons that ever breathed. He adored the city of
which he was a burgess! Ay; but he was not blessed indeed. This was all
his own overweening conceit. He was a mere wind-bag, nothing more and the
blessing which he fancied had fallen upon him, had never come. The poor
publican whom he thought accursed, went to his home justified rather than
he. The blessing had not fallen on the man who thought he had it. Oh, let
every one of us here feel the sting of this rebuke, and pray: “Great
God, save us from imputing to ourselves a righteousness which we do not
possess. Save us from wrapping ourselves up in our own rags, and fancying
we have put on the wedding garments. Bless me indeed. Let me have the true
righteousness. Let me have the true worthiness which thou canst accept,
even that which is of faith in Jesus Christ.”
Another
form of this imaginary blessing is found in persons who would scorn to be
thought self-righteous. Their delusion, however, is near akin. I
hear them singing —
“I
do believe, I will believe
That Jesus died for me,
And on his cross he shed his blood,
From sin to set me free.”
You
believe it, you say. Well, but how do you know? Upon what authority do you
make so sure? Who told you? “Oh, I believe it.” Yes, but we must mind
what we believe. Have you any clear evidence of a special interest in the
blood of Jesus? Can you give any spiritual reasons for believing that
Christ has set you free from sin? I am afraid that some have got a hope
that has not got any ground, like an anchor without any fluke — nothing
to grasp, nothing to lay hold upon. They say they are saved, and they
stick to it they are, and think it wicked to doubt it; but yet they have
no reason to warrant their confidence.
When
the sons of Kohath carried the ark, and touched it with their hands, they
did rightly; but when Uzzah touched it he died. There are those who are
ready to be fully assured; there are others to whom it will be death to
talk of it. There is a great difference between presumption and full assurance.
Full assurance is reasonable: it is based on
solid ground. Presumption takes for granted, and with brazen face
pronounces that to be its own to which it has no right whatever. Beware, I
pray thee, of presuming that thou art saved. If with thy heart thou dost
trust in Jesus, then art thou saved; but if thou merely sayest, “I trust
in Jesus,” it doth not save thee. If thy heart be renewed, if thou shalt
hate the things that thou didst once love, and love the things that thou
didst once hate; if thou hast really repented; if there be a thorough
change of mind in thee; if thou be born again, then hast thou reason to
rejoice: but if there be no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be
no love to God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying,
“I am saved,” is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it
will not deliver thee. Our prayer ought to be, “Oh that thou wouldest
bless me indeed, with real faith, with real salvation, with the trust in
Jesus that is the essential of faith; not with the conceit that begets
credulity. God preserve us from imaginary blessings!” I have met with
persons who said, “I believe I am saved, because I dreamt it.” Or,
“Because I had a text of Scripture that applied to my own case.
Such and such a good man said so and so in his sermon.” Or, “Because I
took to weeping and was excited, and felt as I never felt before.” Ah!
but nothing will stand the trial but this, “Dost thou abjure all
confidence in everything but the finished work of Jesus, and dost thou
come to Christ to be reconciled in him to God?” If thou dost not, thy
dreams, and visions, and fancies, are but dreams, and visions, and
fancies, and will not serve thy turn when most thou needest them. Pray the
Lord to bless thee indeed, for of that sterling verity in all thy walk and
talk there is a great scarcity.
Too
much I am afraid, that even those who are saved — saved for time and
eternity — need this caution, and have good cause to pray this prayer
that they may learn to make a distinction between some things which they
think to be spiritual blessings, and others which are blessings indeed.
Let me show you what I mean. Is it certainly a blessing to get an answer
to your prayer after your own mind? I always like to qualify my most
earnest prayer with, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Not only ought
I to do it, but I would like to do it, because otherwise I might ask for
something which it would be dangerous for me to receive. God might give it
me in anger, and I might find little sweetness in the grant, but much
soreness in the grief it caused me. You remember how Israel of old asked
for flesh, and God gave them quails; but while the meat was yet in their
mouths the wrath of God came upon them. Ask for the meat, if you like, but
always put in this: “Lord, if this is not a real blessing,
do not give it me.” “Bless me indeed.”
I
hardly
like to repeat the old story of the good woman whose son was ill —
a little child near death’s door — and she begged the minister, a
Puritan, to pray for its life. He did pray very earnestly, but he put in,
“If it be thy will, save this child.” The woman said, “I cannot bear
that: I must have you pray that the child shall live. Do not put in any
ifs or buts.” “Woman,” said the minister, “it may be you will live
to rue the day that ever you wished to set your will up against God’s
will.” Twenty years afterwards, she was carried away in a fainting fit
from under Tyburn gallows-tree, where that son was put to death as a
felon. Although she had lived to see her child grow up to be a man, it
would have been infinitely better for her had the child died, and
infinitely wiser had she left it to God’s will. Do not be quite so sure
that what you think an answer to prayer is any proof of divine love. It
may leave much room for thee to seek unto the Lord, saying, “Oh that
thou wouldest blessed me indeed!” So sometimes great exhilaration of
spirit, liveliness of heart, even though it be religious joy, may not
always be a blessing. We delight in it, and oh, sometimes when we have had
gatherings for prayer here, the fire has burned, and our souls have
glowed! We felt at the time how we could sing —
“My
willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss.”
So
far as that was a blessing we are thankful for it; but I should not like
to set such seasons up, as if my enjoyments were the main token of God’s
favor; or as if they were the chief signs of his blessing. Perhaps it
would be a greater blessing to me to be broken in spirit, and laid
low before the Lord at the present time. When you ask for the highest
joy, and pray to be on the mountain with Christ, remember it may be as
much a blessing; yea, a blessing indeed to be brought into the Valley of
Humiliation, to be laid very low, and constrained to cry out in anguish,
“Lord, save, or I perish!”
“If
to-day he deigns to bless us
With a sense of pardon’d sin,
He to-morrow may distress us,
Make us feel the plague within,
All to make us
Sick of self, and fond of him.”
These variable experiences of ours may be blessings indeed to us, when, had we been always rejoicing,
we might have been like Moab, settled on
our lees, and not emptied from vessel to vessel. It fares ill with
those who have no changes; they fear not God. Have we not, dear friends,
sometimes envied those persons that are always calm and unruffled, and are
never perturbed in mind? Well, there are Christians whose evenness of
temper deserves to be emulated. And as for that calm repose, that
unwavering assurance which comes from the Spirit of God, it is a very
delightful attainment; but I am not sure that we ought to envy anybody’s
lot because it is more tranquil or less exposed to storm and tempest than
our own.
There
is a danger of saying, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace, and
there is a calmness which arises from callousness. Dupes there are who
deceive their own souls. “They have no doubts,” they say, but it is
because they have little heart searching. They have no anxieties, because
they have not much enterprise or many pursuits to stir them up. Or it may
be they have no pains, because they have no life. Better go to heaven,
halt and maimed, than go marching on in confidence down to hell. “Oh
that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” My God, I will envy no one of his
gifts or his graces, much less of his inward mood or his outward
circumstances, if only thou wilt “bless me indeed.” I would not be
comforted unless thou comfortest me, nor have any peace but Christ my
peace, nor any rest but the rest which cometh from the sweet savor of the
sacrifice of Christ.
Christ
shall be all in all, and none shall be anything to me save himself. O that
we might always feel that we are not to judge as to the manner of the
blessing, but must leave it with God to give us what we would have, not
the imaginary blessing, the superficial and apparent blessing, but the
blessing indeed!
Equally
too with regard to our work and service, I think our prayer should always
be, “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed!” It is lamentable to see
the work of some good men, though it is not ours to judge them, how very pretentious,
but how very unreal it is. It is really shocking to think how some men
pretend to build up a church in the course of two or three evenings. They
will report, in the corner of the newspapers, that there were forty-three
persons convinced of sin, and forty-six justified, and sometimes
thirty-eight sanctified; I do not know what besides of wonderful
statistics they give as to all that is accomplished. I have observed
congregations that have been speedily gathered together, and great
additions have been made to the church all of a sudden. And what has
become of them? Where are those churches at the present moment? The
dreariest deserts in Christendom are those places that were fertilized
by the patent manures of
certain revivalists. The whole church seemed to have spent its strength in
one rush and effort after something, and it ended in nothing at all. They
built their wooden house, and piled up the hay, and made a stubble spire
that seemed to reach the heavens, and there fell one spark, and all went
away in smoke; and he that came to labor next time — the successor of
the great builder — had to get the ashes swept away before he could do
any good. The prayer of every one that serves God should be, “Oh that
thou wouldest bless me indeed.” Plod on, plod on. If I only build one
piece of masonry in my life, and nothing more, if it be gold, silver, or
precious stones, it is a good deal for a man to do; of such precious stuff
as that, to build even one little corner which will not show, is a worthy
service. It will not be much talked of, but it will last. There is the
point: it will last.
“Establish
thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish
thou it.” If we are not builders in an established church, it
is of little use to try at all. What God establishes will stand, but what
men build without his establishment will certainly come to nought. “Oh
that thou wouldest bless me indeed !” Sunday-school teacher, be this
your prayer. Tract
distributor, local preacher, whatever you may be, dear brother or sister,
whatever your form of service, do ask the Lord that you may not be one of
those plaster builders using sham compo that only requires a certain
amount of frost and weather to make it crumble to pieces. Be it yours, if
you cannot build a cathedral, to build at least one part of the marvelous
temple that God is piling for eternity, which will outlast the stars.
I
have one thing more to mention before I bring this sermon to a close. The
blessings of God’s grace are blessings indeed, which in right earnest we
ought to seek after. By these marks shall ye know them. Blessings indeed,
are such blessings as come from the pierced hand; blessings that come from
Calvary's bloody tree, streaming from the Savior’s wounded side — thy
pardon, thine acceptance, thy spiritual life: the bread that is meat
indeed, the blood that is drink indeed — thy oneness to Christ, and all
that comes of it — these are blessings indeed.
Any
blessing that comes as the result of the Spirit’s work in thy soul is a
blessing indeed; though it humble thee, though it strip thee, though it
kill thee, it is a blessing indeed. Though the harrow go over and over
thy soul, and the deep plough cut into thy very heart; though thou be
maimed and wounded, and left for dead, yet if the Spirit of God do it, it
is a blessing indeed. If he convinceth thee of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment, even though thou hast not hitherto been brought to Christ, it is a blessing indeed.
Anything that he does, accept it;
do not be dubious of it; but pray that he may continue his blessed
operations in thy soul.
Whatsoever
leads thee to God is in like manner a blessing indeed. Riches may not
do it. There may be a golden wall between thee and God. Health will not do
it: even the strength and marrow of thy bones may keep thee at a distance
from thy God. But anything that draws thee nearer to him is a blessing
indeed. What though it be a cross that raiseth thee? yet if it raise thee
to God it shall be a blessing indeed.
Anything
that reaches into eternity, with a preparation for the world to come,
anything that we can carry across the river, the holy joy that is to
blossom in those fields beyond the swelling flood, the pure cloudless love
of the brotherhood which is to be the atmosphere of truth for ever —
anything of this kind that has the eternal broad arrow on it — the
immutable mark — is a blessing indeed. And anything which helps
me to glorify God is a blessing indeed. If I be sick, and that helps
me to praise him, it is a blessing indeed. If I be poor, and I can serve
him better in poverty than in wealth, it is a blessing indeed. If I be in
contempt, I will rejoice in that day and leap for joy, if it be for
Christ’s sake — it is a blessing indeed. Yea, my faith shakes off the
disguise, snatches the vizor from the fair forehead of the blessing,
and counts it all joy to all into divers trials for the sake of Jesus and
the recompense of reward that he has promised. “Oh
that we may be blessed indeed!”
Now,
I send you away with these three words: “Search.” See whether
the blessings are blessings indeed, and be not satisfied unless you know
that they are of God, tokens of his grace, and earnests of his saving
purpose.
“Weigh”
— that shall be the next word. Whatever thou hast, weigh it in the
scale, and ascertain if it be a blessing indeed, conferring such grace
upon you as causeth you to abound in love, and to abound in every good
word and work.
And
lastly, “Pray.” So pray that this prayer may mingle with all
thy prayers, that whatsoever God grants or whatever he withholds thou
mayest be blessed indeed. Is it a joy-time with thee? O that Christ may
mellow thy joy, and prevent the intoxication of earthly blessedness from
leading thee aside from close walking with him! In the night of sorrow,
pray that he will bless thee indeed, lest the wormwood also intoxicate
thee and make thee drunk, lest thy afflictions should make thee think
hardly of him. Pray for the blessing, which having, thou art rich to all
the intents of bliss, or which lacking, thou art poor and destitute,
though plenty fill thy store. “If thy presence go not with me, carry us
not up hence.” But “Oh
that thou wouldest bless me indeed!”
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