Spurgeon: Sermons on Proverbs (97 page)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I want you all to obey the injunction of the text by giving this gospel cordial to those who are heavy of heart and "ready to perish." Some of you can do this by talking to them of your own experience. When you meet with doubting and desponding souls, tell them how the Lord delivered you from old Giant Despair's grim dungeon in Doubting Castle; remind them of that key called Promise which can unlock the doors of the prison where they lie bound in fetters of iron. We are told that Origen, so long as his strength permitted, used to go to the prisons where the Christians were confined during the Decian persecution, and afterwards went with them to the stake, comforting them from the Scriptures which he had found to be such a support to his own soul; imitate him so far as you can even though Christians are not now persecuted unto death.
Many of you can give away this gospel cordial by visiting the sick and the poor. In so vast a church as this, it is impossible for the pastor or elders to visit all the members, much less can they visit all who compose our great congregation; so I would urge you to do the visiting yourselves as far as you are able. Especially would I invite you who are the most deeply experienced in the things of God to find out the sin and the sorrowing in your own neighbourhoods, and to comfort them with the comfort wherewith you yourselves have been comforted of God.

Then, many more of you than are at present doing it, can give away this gospel cordial by preaching wherever and whenever you have the opportunity. In such a city as London, where every street corner can furnish a pulpit, and every street can supply a congregation, there is no excuse for the man with only one talent if he does not use it for Christ. The good news you have to tell, my brother, is so sweet that it should be told over and over and over again till every gale shall spread the tidings to-

I pray the Lord also to raise up many brothers and sisters from our midst to go to "the regions beyond" as missionaries of the cross, and to move you who cannot yourselves preach, to give of your substance either for the training of our brethren in the College or for the support of those who are called of God to preach and teach the Word in distant lands where Jesus is not known. "In that way, you too will be helping to give the gospel cordial to those who are heavy of heart and ready to perish."

III. Now lastly and but briefly, when this Gospel cordial is given to such people it is their duty and privilege to drink it and forget their spiritual poverty, and remember their misery no more.

We can bring a horse to the water but we cannot make him drink it; and we can carry this gospel cordial to the sinner, but only the Holy Spirit can sweetly constrain him to take a full, deep draught of it. I have been trying to give this cordial again tonight to those who need it, as indeed I have been doing ever since the Lord first opened my mouth to speak for him; but what about your part of the business, my dear hearers? It is my duty and privilege to preach the gospel, but it is just as much your duty and privilege to believe it when it is preached. "Faith cometh by hearing;" but, alas! there are many who hear the Word who are like those of whom the apostle wrote, that "the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." To have the healing medicine in thy hand and yet not to drink it is to commit spiritual suicide; I beseech thee, sinner, not to add that crowning crime to all thine other iniquities; but I pray thee this very hour to accept the proferred boon. The water of life is set before thee; drink and live. The bread of life is placed within thy reach, why should thine immortal soul be starved and perish?

Dost thou fear that thou art too black a sinner to be saved? Remember Agur's words concerning one of the "four things which are little upon the earth," but which "are exceeding wise." He said, "The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." It may be, that Agur had seen a big black spider in Solomon's palace, and that as he mused upon it, he said to himself, "That ugly creature is very wise, for there was a great storm coming on, and her usual home would have been unsafe; so looking about for a place of shelter she espied an open window in the king's palace, and in she went. She had no right there, no one had invited her, but there she was." Now, poor sinner, that spider was not as full of venom as thou art full of sin; there is a greater storm coming on than that spider dreaded, and the door of God's mercy is as surely open as was that window in Solomon's palace; and thou art invited to enter as that spider never was invited. O sinner, be at least as wise as a spider, and come in to God's royal palace of salvation; for once thou art inside, thou shalt never be cast out!

Art thou still afraid to come to Jesus? Then let me remind thee of that poor woman who came and touched the hem of his garment, and was instantly cured of her long-standing malady. You remember that she was ceremonially unclean, she had no business to be in a crowd; yet she was so eager to be healed that she worked her way through the throng until she was near enough to Jesus to touch the border of his seamless robe, for she said, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." She did so, and Christ at once honored her faith and gave her the gracious assurance that she might "go in peace," and keep the cure that she had, as it were, obtained by stealth. O sinner, wilt thou not be as wise as that poor woman was? Thou needest not attempt to steal the blessing for thou art invited to come and take it openly. Jesus still says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Rest is what you need - rest of mind, rest of heart, rest of conscience; that rest can only come to you by faith, "for we which have believed do enter into rest." O ye poverty-stricken and miserable sinners, believe in Jesus; take his yoke upon you and learn of him, for so shall you find rest unto your souls; and then shall you also realize that "there remaineth" another rest, a fuller and yet more blessed one, even that eternal "keeping of Sabbath" which is the blissful portion of all "the people of God." There is the divine cordial which we are commanded to place within your reach; drink it and forget your poverty and remember your misery no more. God bless you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.