Spurgeon: Sermons on Proverbs (72 page)

And moreover there is another piece of good news that reaches the far country; that is, when the Church of God is being built up and the gospel is spreading in the earth. When the world was created, did not the morning stars sing together and shout for joy? And do you not think that, as this new spiritual world is being fashioned by the pierced hands, the spirits above are looking down and watching the wondrous process? I am sure they do. "When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory;" and appear, not only to those who are watching here below, who are workers together with him, but also to those who have gone above, who rejoice together with him in his gracious work below.

And I believe it is also good news from a far country when the saints one by one finish their course. They get tidings up there when another saint is crossing the Jordan of death. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," and it must be precious also in the sight of the angels and the redeemed from among men. John Bunyan pictures the shining ones as coming down to the river's brink, and I can easily conceive that it is so. I can well imagine their glad welcome to the spirit as, disencumbered of this poor body, it comes forth from the stream of death, and taking it up to the pearly gates of the celestial city. Then there is good news from a far country. I sometimes like to send a message home by some whose hands I grasp as they are in the last article of death. Rowland Hill, when he was very old, said to one aged Christian who was dying, "I hope they have not forgotten to send for old Rowley;" and then he added, "Take my love up to the three glorious Johns, the apostle John, and John Bunyan, and John Newton." I have sometimes felt inclined to do the same. Surely a spirit there will not forget anything that was good here below and pass in utter unconsciousness into the next world. It will have enough to do to think of Christ and to behold his glory; but, mayhap, the mind will be so expanded as to be able to think of other things beside. This however I do not know; but this I am sure of--that as one by one they for whom the Savior died come home, there must be joy. As they rejoice over repenting sinners, so do they rejoice over perfected saints who are without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and who come up cleansed and delivered from anything like sin through the precious blood of the Lamb. Then is there good news for them from the far country.

I cannot help feeling that I am addressing some who know nothing about the good news of which I have been speaking. For their benefit, let me tell you a story I have heard concerning one of our English pilots. A vessel was off the coast of Kent, gently sailing, as the seamen thought, towards their desired haven. A pilot who was watching them, observing the extreme danger in which they were, went at his utmost speed to warn them of their peril. He was hardly aboard before he shouted to the captain, "The Goodwins! The Goodwins!" They were almost on to those fatal sands, and they did not know it. At once the course of the vessel was changed and all sail possible was set, and they were saved as by the skin of their teeth. So I come to you thoughtless, careless ones, and I cry to you, "Hell lieth right ahead of you, eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. Put your helm hard aport, up with such sail as you have: and may God send the breath of his Eternal Spirit to blow you from these
breakers which already seem booming with the certainty of your eternal doom!" O God, almighty and ever-merciful, save them by thy grace! Save them by the precious blood of Jesus, for his dear name's sake! Amen and Amen.

A sermon (No. 94) delivered on Sabbath morning, August 25, 1856, by C. H. Spurgeon at Maberley Chapel, Kingsland,
on behalf of the Metropolitan Benefit Societies' Asylum, Ball's Pond Road, Islington.

God's most holy Word was principally written to inform us of the way to heaven, and to guide us in our path through this world to the realms of eternal life and light. But as if to teach us that God is not careless concerning our doings in the present scene, and that our benevolent Father is not inattentive to our happiness even in this state, he has furnished us with some excellent and wise maxims which we may put in practice, not only in spiritual matters, but in temporal affairs also. I have always looked upon the book of Proverbs with pleasure, as being a book not only teaching us the highest spiritual wisdom, but as also more especially speaking on the "now"--the time that is present with us-- giving us maxims that will make us wise for this world, and that will instruct us in conducting our affairs whilst we are here amongst our fellowmen. We need some temporal wisdom as well as spiritual illumination; it need not always be that the children of the kingdom should be more foolish than the children of darkness. It is well that we should be wise to order our common affairs aright, as well as to set our house in order for the grave; and hence we find in Scripture maxims and teachings for them both. Since God has been pleased thus to instruct us in the avocations of life, I shall not then be out of place if I use my text in some degree in a merely temporal manner, and endeavour to give advice to my friends concerning the business of this life. Afterwards, I shall dwell upon it more spiritually. There is first, the abuse of tomorrow forbidden in the text; in the second place I shall mention the right use of tomorrow.

I. First then, there is the abuse of tomorrow mentioned in the text; and we shall look upon it first in a worldly point of view, and yet I trust, in a way of wisdom. "Boast not thyself of tomorrow." Oh! my brethren, whoso'er ye be, whether ye be Christians or no, this passage hath a depth of wisdom in it for you. "Boast not thyself of tomorrow," and this for many very wise reasons.

First of all because it is extremely foolish to boast at all. Boasting never makes a man any the greater in the esteem of others, nor does it improve the real estate either of his body or soul. Let a man brag as he will, he is none the greater for his bragging; nay, he is the less for men invariably think the worse of him. Let him boast as much as he pleases of anything that he possesses, he shall not increase its value by his glorying. He cannot multiply his wealth by boasting of it; he cannot increase his pleasures by glorying in them. True, to be content with those pleasures and feel a complacency in them may render them very sweet; but not so with such a treasure as this, for it is a treasure which he has not yet, and therefore how foolish is he to glory in it! There is an old, old proverb, which I dare not quote here; it is something to do with chickens. Perhaps you can recollect it; it bears very well upon this text for tomorrow is a thing that we have not yet obtained, and therefore, not only if we had it would it be foolish to boast of it, but because we have it not and may never have it, it becomes the very extremity of foolishness to glory in it. Glory, O man, in the harvest that may come to thee next year when thy seed is sown; but glory not in tomorrow, for thou canst sow no seeds of morrows. Morrows come from God; thou hast no right to glory in them. Glory if thou wilt, O fowler, that the birds have once flown to thy net, for they may come again; but glory not too soon, for they may find another decoy that shall be better to their taste than thine, or they may rove far off from thy snare. Though many a day has come to thee, think not that another will certainly arrive. Days are not like links of a chain; one does not ensure the other. We have one, but we may never see its fellow; each may be the last of its kind. Each springs of a separate birth. There are no twin days. To-day hath no brother, it stands alone, and tomorrow must come alone, and the next and the next also must be born into this world without a brother. We must never look upon two days at once, nor expect that a whole herd of days shall be brought forth at one time.

We need not boast of tomorrow, for it is one of the frailest things in all creation, and therefore the least to be boasted of. Boast of the bubbles on the breaker, boast of the foam upon the sea, boast of the clouds that skim the sky, boast of what thou wilt O man, but boast not of tomorrow, for it is too unsubstantial. Tomorrow, it is a fleeting thing. Thou hast not seen it; why dost thou boast of it? Tomorrow, it is the cup which the idiot dreams lieth at the foot of the rainbow. It is not there, nor hath he found it. Tomorrow-- it is the floating island of Loch Lomond; many have talked of it but none have seen it. Tomorrow--it is the wrecker's beacon, enticing men to the rock of destruction. Boast not thyself of tomorrow; it is the frailest and most brittle thing thou canst imagine. No glass were half so easily broken as thy tomorrow's joys and thy tomorrow's hopes; a puff of wind shall crush them while yet they seem not to be full blown. He said, good easy man, full surely my greatness is a ripening, but there came a frost--a killing frost which nipped his shoot and then he fell. Boast not of tomorrow; thou hast it not. Boast not of tomorrow; thou mayest never have it. Boast not of tomorrow; if thou hadst it, it would deceive thee. Boast not of tomorrow, for tomorrow thou mayest where morrows will be dreadful things to tremble at.

Boast not thyself of tomorrow, not only because it is extremely foolish, but because it is exceedingly hurtful. Boasting of tomorrow is hurtful to us every way. It is hurtful to us now. I never knew a man who was always hoping to do great things in the future that ever did much in the present. I never knew a man who intended to make a fortune by-and-bye who ever saved sixpence a week now. I never knew a man who had a very great and grand hopes on the death of some old grandmother, or the coming-in of some property from chancery, or the falling to him of something because his name was Jenyns, I never saw him very prosperous in the mean time. I have heard of a man going to be rich tomorrow and boasting of it; but I never knew him do much. Such men spend so much time in building castles in the air that they have no stones left wherewith to build so much as a cottage on the ground. They were wasting all their energies on tomorrow, consequently they had no time to reap the fields of the present, for they were waiting for the heavy harvests of the future. The heavily laden boats of to-day come in with abundance of fish from the depths of time; but they said of them, "They are nothing; there will be heavier draughts tomorrow; there will be greater abundance then. Go away little ships; an argosy shall come home tomorrow--a very fleet of wealth;" and so they let to-day's wealth go by because they expected the greater wealth of tomorrow; therefore they were hurt even for the present.

And worse than that. Some men were led into extraordinary extravagance from their hopes of the future. They spend what they are going to have, or rather what they never will have. Many have been ruined by the idle dream of speculation; and what is that but boasting of tomorrow? They have said, "True, I cannot pay for this which I now purchase; but I shall tomorrow, for tomorrow I shall roll in wealth, tomorrow perhaps I shall be the richest of men. A lucky turn of business (as they term it) will lift me off this shoal." So they keep still, and not only do they refuse to toil, to push themselves off the sand, but worse than that, they are throwing themselves away and wasting what they have in the hope of better times coming in the future. Many a man has been made halt, and lame, and blind, and dumb, in the present, because he hoped to be greater than a man in the future. I always laugh at those who say to me, "Sir, rest a while; you will work all the longer for it. Stay while, lest you waste your strength, for you may work tomorrow." I bid them remember that such is not the teaching of Scripture, for that says "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;" and I would count myself worse than a fool if I should throw away my to-days in the expectation of tomorrows, and rest upon the couch of idleness to-day because I thought the chariot of tomorrow would make up for all my sloth. No beloved, if we love our God we shall find enough to do if we have all our tomorrows, and use all our to-days too. If we serve our God as we ought to serve him, considering what he has done for us, we shall find that we shall have more than our handsfull, let our life be spared as long as Methuselah's-- enough for every moment, enough for every hour, long as life may be. But hoping to do things in the future takes away our strength in the present, unnerves our resolution, and unstrings our diligence. Let us take care that we are not hurt in the present by boasting of tomorrow.

And remember that if you boast of tomorrow it will not only hurt you to-day, but hurt you tomorrow also. Do you know why? because as sure as you are alive you will be disappointed with tomorrow if you boast of it before it comes. Tomorrows would be very good things if you did not give them such a very good character. I believe one of the very worst things a minister can possess is to have anybody to recommend him; for the people say, "Here comes a man, how he will preach, how eloquent he will be!" The poor creature cannot come up to their expectations and so they are disappointed. So with tomorrow; you give him such flattering enconiums; "Oh! he is everything; he is
perfection." To-days--they are nothing; they are the very sweepings of the floors; but tomorrows --they are the solid gold. Todays--they are exhausted mines and we get little from them; but tomorrows--they are the very mines of wealth. We have only to get them and we are rich, immensely rich. The tomorrows are everything; and then the tomorrows come laden with mercy and big with blessings of God; but
notwithstanding we are disappointed, because tomorrow is not what we expected it to be, even when tomorrow is marvellously abundant. But sometimes tomorrow comes with storms and clouds and darkness when we expected it to be full of light and sunshine, and oh how terrible is our feeling then, from the very reason that we expected something different. It is not at all a bad beatitude, "Blessed is the man that expecteth nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."

If we know how to practise that and expect nothing, we shall not be disappointed it is certain; and the less we expect, and the less we boast of our expectations, the more happy will the future be; because we shall have far less likelihood of being disappointed. Let us recollect then that if we would kill the future, if we would ruin the tomorrows, if we would blast their hopes, if we would take away their honey, we must press them in the hand of boasting, and then we shall have done it. "Boast not thyself of tomorrow;" for thou spoilest the tomorrow by boasting of it.