2360. Come, My Beloved!

No. 2360-40:217. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, March 4, 1888, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, May 13, 1894.

Hurry, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountain of spices. {So 8:14}

1. The Song of Songs describes the love of Jesus Christ for his people, and it ends with an intense desire on the part of the Church that the Lord Jesus should come back to her. The last word of the lover to the beloved one is, “Speed your return; hurry and come back.” Is it not somewhat exceptional that, as the last verse of the Book of love has this note in it, so the last verses of the whole Book of God, which I may also call the Book of love, have that same thought in them? At the end of Revelation, we read, “He who testifies about these things says, ‘Surely I come quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” {Re 22:20} The Song of love and the Book of love end in almost the very same way, with a strong desire for Christ’s speedy return.

2. Are your hearts, dear friends, in tune with that desire? They ought to be, yet have not some of you almost forgotten that Jesus is to come a second time? Refresh your memories. Others of you, who know that he will come, have you not thought of it as a doctrine that might be laid up on the shelf? Have you not been without any desire for his glorious appearing? Is this right? That Song of Solomon is the central Book of the Bible; it is the innermost shrine of divine revelation, the holy of holies of Scripture; and if you are living in communion with God, you will love that Book, you will catch its spirit, and you will be inclined to cry with the spouse, “Hurry, my beloved.” If you have no longings for Christ’s appearance, no desires for his speedy return, surely your heart is sick, and your love is faint. I fear that you are getting into a lukewarm state. I believe that our relationship to the Second Advent of Christ may be used as a thermometer to tell the degree of our spiritual heat. If we have strong desires, longing desires, burning desires, for the coming of the Lord, we may hope that it is well with us; but if we have no such desires, I think, at best, we must be somewhat careless; perhaps, to take the worst view of our case, we are sadly declining in grace.

3. I. Well now, to come to our text; I want you to notice, first, WHAT THE CHURCH HERE CALLS HER LORD: “Hurry, my beloved.”

4. I will have only a few words on this point. I am hardly going to preach tonight, but just to talk familiarly to you, and I want you to let your hearts talk. Observe, the spouse first calls her Lord, “Beloved,” and secondly, “My Beloved.”

5. Christ is our “Beloved.” This is a word of affection; and our Lord Jesus Christ is the object of affection to us. If you read the Bible, especially if you read the New Testament, and study the life of Christ, and yet you only admire it, and say to yourself, “Jesus Christ was a wonderful being,” you do not know him yet; you have only a very indistinct idea of him. If, after reading that life, you sit down, and dissect it, and say to yourself, coolly, calmly, deliberately, “So far as is practical, I will try and imitate Christ,” still you do not know him, you have not come near to the real Christ as yet. If any man should say, “I am near the fire,” and yet he is not warm, I should question the truth of his words; and though he might say, “I can see the fire; I can tell you the appearance of the coals; I can describe the small flames that play around the bottom of the stove,” yet if he were not warmed at all, I should still think that he was mistaken, or that there was some object that came between him and the fire at which he said he was looking.

6. But when you really come to see Jesus, and to say, “I love him; my heart yearns towards him; my delight is in him; he has won my love, and holds it in his own heart,” then you begin to know him. Brethren, true religion has many sides to it; true religion is practical, it is also contemplative; but it is not true religion at all if it is not full of love and affection. Jesus must reign in your heart, or else, though you may give him what place you like in your head, you have not truly received him. To Jesus, beyond all others, is applicable this title of the Beloved, for those who know him love him. Indeed, if ever love had emphasis in it, it is the love which true believers give to Christ; and we do well when we sing, —

    I love thee because thou hast first lovèd me,
    And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;
    I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
    If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
    I will love thee in life, I will love thee in death,
    And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath;
    And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,
    If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

We may also go beyond that point, as the hymn does, and say, —

    In mansions of glory and endless delight,
    I’ll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
    I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
    If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

7. Our love for Jesus begins with trust. We experience his goodness, and then we love him in return. “We love him because he first loved us.” They say that love is blind; I should think it is, from what I have seen of it in some people; but love for Christ might have ten thousand eyes, and yet be justified in loving him. The more you see him, the more you know him, the more you live with him, the more reason you will have for loving him. There will never come a time in which you will have to question whether you were right to surrender your heart to him; but even throughout the eternal ages you shall, in the felicities of his blessed company, feel that you were, in fact, more than justified in calling him your Beloved.

8. That is the first part of the name the spouse gives to her Lord; no, not the first; the first part of the name is “my, ” she calls him “my Beloved.”

9. Brethren, this means appropriation; so that the two words together mean affection and appropriation: “My Beloved.” If no one else loves him, I do. This is a distinguishing affection; and I love him because he belongs to me; he is mine, he has given himself to me; and I have chosen him because he first chose me; he is “my Beloved.” I am not ashamed to put him in front of all others; and when men say, “What is your Beloved more than another beloved?” I can tell them that “My Beloved” is more than all the earthly beloveds put together. It is a delightful thing to get hold of Christ with both hands, as Thomas did when he said, “My Lord and my God.” There he held him with a double-handed grip, and would not let him go. It is sweet and saving even to come into contact with him, as the woman did who touched the fringe of his garment; but, oh, to take him up in your arms, to hold him with both hands, and say, “This Christ is mine; by a daring faith, warranted by the Word of God, I take this Christ to be mine, to have and to hold, for better or worse, and neither life nor death shall ever part me from him who is ‘my Beloved.’ ”

10. Now, there is a sweet name for the Lord Jesus Christ. My dear hearers, can you speak of Jesus in that way, “My Beloved?” One who can, by the Spirit of God, say this, has uttered two words that have more eloquence in them than there is in all the orations of Demosthenes. {a} He who cannot truly say this, though he may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, yet, since he does not have this love, this divine love in his heart, it is of not profit to him. Oh, that every one of you could say, “My Beloved! My Beloved!”

11. Do you all really know what saving faith is? It is the appropriation to one’s own self of Christ in his true and proper character as God has revealed him. Can you make this appropriation? “Oh,” one says, “I am afraid I would be stealing salvation if I did!” Listen: as long as you can get Christ in any way, you may have him. There is never any stealing of what is freely given. The difficulty is not about any rights that you have, for you have no rights whatever in this matter, but come and take what God gives to you, though you have no claim to it. Soul, take Christ tonight, and if you take him, you shall never lose him. I was going to say, if you even steal him, as long as you only take him to yourself, he will never withdraw himself from your grasp. It is written, “Whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.” Some come properly, and Christ does not cast them out; but there are some who come improperly, they come, as it were, limping on a wooden leg, or perhaps only creeping or crawling. It does not matter how you come to Christ, as long as you really do come to him, he will never cast you out. Get to him in any way that you can; and if you once come to him, you may plead that blessed promise of his, “Whoever comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”

12. I have told you before that, some years ago, I felt a great depression of spirit; I knew whom I had believed; but, somehow, I could not get the comfort out of the truth I preached. I even began to wonder whether I was really saved; and, having a holiday, and being away from home, I went to the Wesleyan Chapel, and a local preacher occupied the pulpit that morning. While he preached a sermon full of the gospel, the tears flowed from my eyes, and I was in such a perfect delirium of joy on hearing the gospel, which I so seldom have an opportunity of doing, that I said, “Oh, yes, there is spiritual life within me, for the gospel can touch my heart, and stir my soul.” When I went to thank the good man for his sermon, he looked at me, and he could hardly believe his eyes. He said, “Are you not Mr. Spurgeon?” I replied, “Yes.” “Dear, dear,” he said, “why, that is your sermon that I preached this morning!” Yes, I knew it was, and that was one reason why I was so comforted by it, because I felt that I could take my own medicine, and I said to myself, “There now, what I have seen to have a certain effect on others has had the same effect on me.” I asked the preacher to my inn to dinner, and we rejoiced together to think that he should have been led to give the people one of my sermons so that I should be fed out of my own cupboard. I do know this, that, whatever I may be, there is nothing that moves me like the gospel of Christ. Do not many of you feel just as I do?

13. II. Now I will lead you on to the second division of my subject. I have shown you what the Church calls her Lord; now, in the second place, I will tell you FROM WHERE SHE CALLS HIM: “Hurry, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of spices.” What does that mean? She cries to him to come from the place where he now is, which she calls “the mountains of spices.”

14. Readers of Solomon’s Song know that there are four mountains spoken of in the Song. The first set of mountains is mentioned in the second chapter of the Song, where we read of the mountains of division: “Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bether,” {So 2:17} or, the mountains of division, the divided crags, or the mountains that divide. Well now, beloved, this was Christ’s first coming. There were mountains of division; our sins and God’s justice, like great mountains, separated us. How could God’s love ever come to us, or how could we get to it? There were mountains of division; and, as we looked at them, we said, “They are impassable; no one can ever climb those lofty crags, or scale those awful precipices, or cross those dread abysses.” These mountains effectively separate a guilty soul from a holy God; and, my brethren, there was no way over those hills, until Jesus came like a roe or a young hart. Roes and harts can stand on crags where men’s heads turn giddy and they fall; and our divine Master was able to stand where we could not. He came leaping over the mountains of our sins, and over the hills of divine justice, and he came even to us, and opened up a way over the mountains of Bether, the mountains of division, by which God comes to us and we come to God; and now, instead of division, there is a sacred union.

15. That was Christ’s first coming, over the mountains of division.

16. But there were other mountains besides those, which you read about a little further on in the Song; these were the mountains of the leopards, the dens of the lions. We read in the fourth chapter: “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.” {So 4:8} When Christ came the first time, he met fierce opposition, from sin, and death, and hell. These were the lions; these were the leopards; and our great Champion had to go hunting them, and they hunted him. You know how these grim lions met him, and how they tore him; they tore his hands, and his feet, and his side. Do you not remember how that great lion of the pit came leaping on him, how he received him on his breast, like a greater Samson, and though he fell in the death-struggle, he tore that lion asunder, as though he had been a kid, and cast him down? As for his other enemies, he could truly say, “Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?” Our Well-Beloved came to us, over the mountains of the leopards and the dens of the lions, more than conqueror through the greatness of his love. Do you not see him as he comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, travelling in the greatness of his strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save? In spite of all opposition, he finished the work of our redemption.

17. So Jesus came to us, over the mountains of separation, and over the mountains of the leopards.

18. But there is a third mountain mentioned in this wonderful poetic Book, and that is, the mountain of myrrh. In the sixth chapter, it says, “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.” {So 6:2} It is called a garden, but elsewhere it is called a mountain: “Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, I will go by myself to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.” {So 4:6} You know the story well. After Jesus had come over the mountains of our sins, after he had killed the lions and the leopards that stood in our way, he gave up his soul into his Father’s hands, and loving friends took his body, and wrapped it in white linen, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes to preserve his blessed body, that matchless casket of a perfect soul; and, having wrapped him up, they laid him in a new tomb, which became the garden or mountain of myrrh. A bitter thing was that grave where he buried all our sin, that grave out of which he came victorious over death, that grave out of which he rose so that he might justify his people. That was the mountain of myrrh to which Jesus went for a very brief time. He was there for scarcely three days; but I think I can hear his Church standing at the tomb, and saying, “Hurry, my beloved! Be like a roe, or a young hart, and come quickly from your sleep with the dead in the mountains of myrrh.” It was only a short time that he was there, even as he said to his disciples, “A little while, and you shall not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me.” Soon that slumber was over, and when he awoke, as Samson carried away the gate of Gaza, so Christ arose, and took up the gates of death, posts and bar and all, and carried them away, and neither death nor hell can ever bring them back again. By the resurrection of Christ, the tomb is opened, never to be closed again.

19. The “mountain of myrrh” is the third mountain that is mentioned in the Song; but our text refers to “the mountains of spices.” I am not stretching this passage, or drawing a lesson where there is none; the mountains of spices are those places where Jesus dwells at this very moment at the right hand of God. It is from there that we now call him with the spouse when she said, “Hurry, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of spices.”

20. What are these spices? Are they not Christ’s infinite merits, which perfume heaven and earth? The foul corruption of our sins is not perceptible, because of the mountains of spices. One single sin would be vile enough to pollute a universe; what, then, were all our sins put together? Behold this wondrous sanitary power of divine grace; these mountains of spices more than nullify the foulness of our sins. Christ’s merit is perpetually before the eye of his Father, so that no longer does he perceive our sins.

21. What shall I say next of these mountains of spices? Are they not our Lord’s perpetual and prevailing prayers? He intercedes for the people before the throne of God. He is that great angel from whose swinging censer there goes up continually the incense of intercession. The prayers of saints are presented by him to his Father with all his own merit added to them. These are the mountains of spices, Christ’s infinite merits, and his ceaseless prayers, his undying supplications to the great Father on behalf of all his people.

22. As a result of this, I think I may say that the praises of his glorified people, the sweet music of the harps of the redeemed, the everlasting symphonies of the spirits of just men made perfect, and cleansed by his atoning blood, — are not these as sweet spices before God? Yes, all heaven is perfumed with everything that is precious and acceptable, full of a sweet savour to God, and a delightful fragrance to all his people. Now, this is the place where Jesus is now; not here in this foul, polluted world, but he rests up there in the mountains of spices; and the prayer of his Church continually is, “Come, my Beloved! Hurry, my Beloved! Be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of spices.”

23. III. That brings me to what is really the gist, the main point, the arrowhead of the text. We have noticed what the Church calls her Lord, and from where she calls him; now, thirdly, note HOW SHE CALLS HIM. She says, “Hurry, my Beloved, hurry.”

24. Why is it that all the Church of God, and each individual Christian in particular, should be found anxious for the speedy coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? I think, surely, that this is the result of true love. Does not love always wish to see the object on which its heart is fixed? When your dearest one parts from you for a while, do you not always wish for a speedy return? The parting is painful; it would be bitter indeed if you did not expect to meet again. So you say, “Do not be absent any longer than you are forced to be. Come home as speedily as you can.” Where there is great love, there gets to be great longing; and that longing sometimes becomes so vehement as to be almost impatient. May not the Church that mourns her absent Lord sigh and cry until he returns? Is this not the very language of intense love, “Hurry, my Beloved, and return to me?” If we love our Lord, we shall long for his appearing; be sure of that, it is the natural result of ardent affection.

25. But, notwithstanding this, beloved, we sometimes need certain incentives to stir up our souls to cry for our Lord’s return. One reason that ought to make the believer long for Christ’s coming is that it will end this conflict. Our lot is cast in a wretched time, when many things are said and done that grieve and vex God’s Holy Spirit, and all who are in sympathy with him. Sometimes, it is false doctrine that is proclaimed; and if you preach the truth, they slap you on the mouth, and then you say to yourself, “Oh that the Lord would come!” At other times, it is sheer blasphemy that is uttered, when men say, “The Lord delays his coming,” or when they talk as if he were not Lord, as if his gospel were no gospel, and his salvation were worn out. Then we say, “Do not delay, oh our God! Come, Lord, and do not delay!” We grow almost impatient then for his coming.

26. And, dear friend, when you see the oppression of the poor, when you hear the cry of the needy, when you know that many of them are ground down to bitter poverty, and yet are struggling hard to earn a mere pittance, you say, “Lord, will this state of things always exist? Shall not these wrongs be righted? Oh, that he would come, who will judge the people righteously, and vindicate the cause of the poor and the oppressed!”

27. Then we look even on the professing church, and we see how lukewarm it is, how honeycombed it is with heresy and worldliness, and how often the church that ought to honour Christ insults him, and he is wounded in the house of his friends. We say, “Will not this evil soon be at an end? Will not the conflict speedily be over?” Oh, how I have stood, in the midst of the battle, when the deadly shafts have flown around me on the right hand and on the left, and, wounded very severely, I have cried, “Will not the King himself soon come, and shall I not before long hear the sound of those blessed feet, whose every step means victory, and whose presence is eternal life?” “Come, Lord! Hurry, my Beloved! Come to the rescue of your weak and feeble servants; come, come, come, we beseech you!” Put yourself into this great fight for the faith; and if you have to bear the brunt of the battle, you will soon be as eager as I am that Jesus should hurry, and come to your relief. You also will cry, “Hurry, my Beloved,” when you think what wonders he will work at his coming.

28. What will Christ do at his coming? He will raise the dead. My eyes shall see him in that day. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day on the earth, and though after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” When Christ shall come the second time, and that blast, of which we sang just now, “the loudest and the last,” shall ring through earth and heaven, then the dead men shall arise. There are newly-made graves; the mourners’ tears are not yet wiped away. There are the graves of many who have gone home long ago, and we remember them, and we say, “Oh that Christ would come, and spoil death of those precious remains! Oh, that he would reanimate those bodies, and call together the dry bones, and tell them to live!” Come, Lord! Come, Lord! Make no delay, we beseech you!

29. And when he comes, beloved, remember that then shall be the time of the glory of his people: “Then the righteous shall shine out as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Slander will be rolled away in the day when Christ comes. The wicked shall awake to everlasting contempt, but the righteous to an everlasting justification. They shall be clear of every accusation in that day, and then they shall sit on the throne with their Lord. They were with him in his humiliation; they shall be with him in his glory. They, too, were despised and rejected by men, as he was; but in that day no one shall dare to despise them, for every saint shall be seen to be a king, and a son of the King. Oh, the glory that awaits his people in the day of his coming! “It does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Well may the child of God say, “Hurry, my Beloved!” Oh, for the sheathing of the sword, and the waving of the palm branch! Oh, for the drying of the tear, and the handling of the harp of gold! Oh, for the ending of the doubt and the trouble, and the beginning of the everlasting enjoyment and the eternal serenity at the right hand of the Ever-Blessed One!

30. Still, there is another reason why we say, “Hurry, my Beloved.” It is this. We desire to share in Christ’s glory; but our chief desire is that our Lord may be glorified. I do believe I shall have the support of every Christian heart when I say that we would a thousand times rather that Christ were glorified than that we should be honoured. Many years ago, after the Surrey Music Hall accident, {b} I almost lost my reason through distress of heart. I was broken down in spirit, and thought that, perhaps, I might never preach again. I was only a young man, and it was a great sorrow that crushed me into the dust through that terrible accident; but one passage of Scripture brought me recovery in a moment. I was alone, and as I was thinking, this text came to my mind, “God has exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour,” and I said to myself, “Is that so? Is Jesus Christ exalted? Then I do not care if I die in a ditch. If Christ is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, that is enough for me.” I distinctly remember what is recorded of some of Napoleon’s soldiers, who were almost cut to pieces, lying dying, bleeding, suffering, agonizing on the battle-field, but when the Emperor rode by, every man lifted himself up as best he could, some resting on the only arm that was left, just to look at him once more, and shout, “Vive l’Empereur!” The Emperor had come along, he was all right, and that was enough for his faithful followers. I think that I felt just like that; whatever happened to me, it was true of Christ, “God has exalted him.” Never mind what becomes of the man, the King lives and reigns, Jesus Christ is glorified; and as long as that is the case, what does it matter what becomes of us? I think I can say for you, as well as for myself, that, if there is anything in this world that will glorify Christ, you will make no hesitation about the bargain. If it will glorify Christ, you say, let it come. Though your name should be cast out as evil, and your body should be left unburied, to be gnawed by dogs, what does it matter, as long as he who loved us, and gave himself for us, should ride on conquering and to conquer in the midst of the sons of men?

31. To every loyal soldier of King Jesus, this is the best thought in connection with his Second Advent, that when he comes, it will be to be admired in his saints, and to be glorified in all those who believe. Then there shall be universal acclamations to him, and his enemies shall hide their heads in shame and dismay. Oh, what will they do then? What will they do in that day of his appearing? They also will live again, and what will they do in that day? Judas, where are you? Come here, man! Sell your Lord again for thirty pieces of silver! What does he say? Why, he flees, and wishes that he could again go out, and destroy himself; but that is impossible. Now Pilate, vacillating Pilate, wash your hands in water, and say, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” There is no water for him to wash his hands in, and he dare not again perform that wicked farce. And now, you who cried, “Crucify him, crucify him,” lift up your voices again if you dare! Not a dog moves his tongue; but listen, they have found their tongues, and what do they say? They are imploring the hills to fall on them, they are calling on the rocks to hide them. The King has not put his hand on his sword, he has not sent out his lightnings to scatter you; so why do you flee, you cowards? Hear their bitter wail! “Oh, rocks and hills, hide us from the face, from the face, from the face of him who sits on the throne!” It is the face of Jesus, which they were told to look on, so that they might live; but now, in another state, they dare not look on that face of placid love which, in that day, shall be more stern than the frowning brow of vengeance itself. Yes, they flee, they flee; but you who have trusted Christ, you whom he has saved, you will draw near to him, you will shout his praises, you will delight in him, it shall be your heaven to bless him for ever and ever. Oh, yes, great Master, “Hurry, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of spices” and all his saints, with one voice and heart, will say, “Amen.”

32. Oh, that you, who have never trusted him, would trust him now and if you trust him, you shall live with him for ever and ever. May God grant it! Amen.

{a} Demosthenes (384-322 BC) was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes" {b} Surrey Hall Disaster: On Sunday morning, October 19, 1856, Spurgeon was to preach for the first time at Surrey Gardens Music Hall. The building had seating for over ten thousand people and was one of the largest auditoriums in England at that time. The young preacher arrived early at the Hall and was amazed to see the streets and garden area thronged with people. When the doors were opened, the people entered quickly and soon the place was full. Wisely, Spurgeon started the service earlier than the time announced. He led in prayer and then announced a hymn, which the large congregation sang reverently. He then read Scripture and commented on it, and this was followed by a pastoral prayer. As he was praying, voices began to shout “Fire! Fire! The galleries are giving way! The place is falling!” Spurgeon stopped praying and did his best to calm the people, but the damage had been done. In the stampede that followed, seven people were killed and twenty-eight injured. Spurgeon tried to preach, hoping that that would arrest the crowd, but the tumult and the shouting were even too much for the prince of preachers. He then asked the people to sing a hymn as they exited in an orderly manner, and he himself left in a state of shock. He spent the next week in a broken condition, wondering if he would ever preach again.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Re 22}

1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

There is no other “water of life” except what springs from a Sovereign God and a substitutionary sacrifice: “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” This represents the blessings of salvation that come to us through the Sovereign grace of God by the precious blood of Jesus.

2. In the midst of its street, and on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruit, and yielded its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he was cast out of Eden, lest he should also eat from the tree of life; but our new “tree of life” yields us both medicine and food. Blessed are those who eat from it; they shall find a divine variety of mercies: “twelve kinds of fruit.” They shall find a constant succession of blessings: “and yielded its fruit every month.” And there shall be an ever-present power of healing: “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

3. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

Happy servants, to be permitted to do so! Here, dear friends, we are hindered in our service, but I think that it will be heaven enough for some of us to be permitted to serve the Lord for ever in glory: “His servants shall serve him.”

4. And they shall see his face;

Oh, to keep up communion with the Lord while you are at work for him, to serve him and to see his face! This is a double joy; this is to be like Martha and Mary in one person: “his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face.”

4. And his name shall be on their foreheads.

They will acknowledge him, and he will acknowledge them. They are glad to wear his name on their foreheads; but who wrote it there? He himself inscribed it, as the seal and sign that they were his. Happy, happy people, to be acknowledged by God as his special people while they acknowledge him as their only Lord!

5. And there shall be no night there;

Here, there are nights of ignorance, of sorrow, of sin, and of fear; but “there shall be no night there.”

6. And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light:

He sets aside the use of means. While we are here, we need candles and suns. It seems curious, does it not, to put candles and suns in the same sentence? “They need no candle, neither light of the sun.” But, after all, compared with God, candles and suns are very much the same thing. Great lights and little lights are all limited, all less than nothing, in comparison with the boundless, infinite God, who is light, and the source of all light that exists in heaven above, or on the earth beneath.

6. And they shall reign for ever and ever.

It must be a wonderful city in which every inhabitant is a king; and not a dethroned king either, for “they shall reign.” Every redeemed one in heaven also has an everlasting kingdom; “They shall reign for ever and ever.” I hope our friends who are always cutting down the meaning of the word “everlasting” will be good enough at least to let us have an everlasting heaven; whether they do so, or not, we believe that the saints shall reign “for ever and ever.”

6, 7. And he said to me, “These sayings are faithful and true”: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show to his servants the things which must shortly be done. “Behold, I come quickly:

Or, “I am coming quickly.”

7. Blessed is he who keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”

Our Lord is on the road; he may arrive tonight, while we are sitting here. Happy would be our communion service if, for the last time, we should be doing as he commanded us in expectation of his coming, and that he should come even while we were commemorating his death!

8, 9. And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he says to me, “See that you do not do it: for I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the sayings of this book: ‘Worship God.’ ”

John made a mistake; he mistook the messenger for the Master, and I am not surprised that he did so, for the heavenly beings are like their Lord when they see him as he is. John was quickly set right, and his error was soon corrected. He was told to pay no kind of homage to one who however bright and holy, was only his fellow servant. No worship of angels, no worship of angelic men, must be tolerated among us. “Worship God,” is the command to us as it was to John.

10. And he says to me, “Do not seal the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

There was no need to seal the prophecy, as though it only related to those who would live in distant ages: “The time is at hand.”

11. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he who is holy, let him be holy still.”

This is what will be said when Christ comes to judgment, when we get into that future state. Today the voice of Jesus says, “Repent, Repent, Repent”; but once cross the narrow stream of death, and pass out of the place of mercy, and then the character is fixed, and fixed for ever.

12. “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

What reward will some of you get? Christ will “give every man according as his work shall be.”

13-15. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Blessed are those who do his commandments, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For outside are dogs,

Men of a quarrelsome and filthy spirit.

15. And sorcerers,

Such as pretend to have dealings with spirits, and who intermeddle with the mysterious things of the unknown world.

15. And fornicators,

All such who indulge their evil passions.

15. And murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and makes a lie.

Whether it is a lie about things on earth or things in heaven, a falsehood spoken or a false doctrine taught.

16-18. “I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Rock and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who is thirsty come. And whoever wills, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to every man who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, “If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book:

The Book is finished. Not another line of inspiration may any man dare to add to it, on peril that God shall add to him every plague of which the Book speaks.

19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

The Book is perfect. You cannot take a line from it without spoiling it; if you were to cut from it a solitary text, it would be missed, and the Book should be marred. You would do this at your peril, for God threatens to take away out of the Book of life the name of anyone who takes anything from “the words of the book of this prophecy.”

20. He who testifies about these thing says, “Surely I come quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

So we sang just now, —

    Come, thou, the soul of all our joys!
    Thou, the desire of nations, come!

21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

So the whole inspired volume closes with a benediction: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Second Advent — Signs Of The Second Advent” 346}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Second Advent — ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ ” 350}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Second Advent — ‘Behold, He Cometh’ ” 349}

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The Art Of Illustration:

Mr. Spurgeon’s New Volume of “Lectures To My Students.”

“The character of its contents ought to ensure for it a welcome as hearty as that accorded to any of its predecessors, of which between seventy and eighty thousand copies have been sold. In some respects, the new book is of a more popular nature than the previous Lectures to Students, for it relates to the use of anecdotes and illustrations in preaching, a subject which is as attractive to the hearer in the pew as to the speaker in the pulpit. The volume itself abounds in stories of interesting incidents in Mr. Spurgeon’s own eventful life, and anecdotes and illustrations gathered by him from all available sources. There are also comprehensive catalogues of books known to the beloved lecturer as containing illustrative material likely to be useful to preachers, speakers, and Christian workers generally; and full General and Textual Indexes have been compiled to make the contents of the volume readily accessible to readers.” — Extract from notice in “The Sword and the Trowel”

One of the ministers who received the volume as Mrs. Spurgeon’s Conference gift, writes: — “Considerable portions of the contents will be distributed from between three and four hundred pulpits tomorrow, I am sure; but the influence and usefulness of the book, as a whole, will tell upon the pulpit and the pew as long as preaching is needed on this globe.”

London: Passmore & Alabaster, Paternoster Buildings; and all Booksellers.

Jesus Christ, Second Advent
346 — Signs Of The Second Advent <7s.>
1 When the gospel race is run,
   When the Gentile day is done,
   Signs and wonders there shall be
   In the heaven, and earth, and sea.
2 Jesus, in that awful hour
   Every soul shall own thy power,
   Every eye “the cloud” shall scan,
   Signal of the Son of man.
3 Lo! mid terror and mid tears,
   Jesus in the clouds appears,
   While the trump’s tremendous blast
   Peals, the loudest and the last.
4 East and west, and south and north,
   Speeds each glorious angel forth,
   Gathering in with glittering wing
   Zion’s saints to Zion’s King.
5 Man nor angel knows that day,
   Heaven and earth shall pass away;
   Still shall stand the Saviour’s word,
   Deathless as its deathless Lord.
                  William Dickinson, 1846.

Jesus Christ, Second Advent
350 — “Come, Lord Jesus”
1 When shall thy lovely face be seen?
   When shall our eyes behold our God?
   What lengths of distance lie between,
   And hills of guilt! — a heavy load!
2 Our months are ages of delay,
   And slowly every minute wears:
   Fly winged time, and roll away
   These tedious rounds of sluggish years.
3 Ye heavenly gates, loose all your chains:
   Let the eternal pillars bow!
   Blest Saviour, cleave the starry plains,
   And make the crystal mountains flow!
4 Hark how thy saints unite their cries,
   And pray and wait the general doom!
   Come, thou, the soul of all our joys!
   Thou, the Desire of Nations, come!
5 Put thy bright robes of triumph on,
   And bless our eyes, and bless our ears,
   Thou absent Love, thou dear unknown,
   Thou fairest of ten thousand fairs.
                           Isaac Watts, 1706.

Jesus Christ, Second Advent
349 — “Behold, He Cometh” <8.7.4.>
1 Lift your heads, ye friends of Jesus,
   Partners of his sufferings here;
   Christ to all believers precious,
   Lord of lords shall soon appear:
      Mark the tokens
   Of his heavenly kingdom near!
2 Close behind the tribulation
   Of the last tremendous days,
   See the flaming revelation!
   See the universal blaze!
      Earth and heaven
   Melt before the Judge’s face!
3 Sun and moon are both confounded,
   Darken’d into endless night,
   When with angel hosts surrounded,
   In his Father’s glory bright
      Beams the Saviour; —
   Shines the everlasting Light.
4 Lo! ‘tis he! our heart’s desire,
   Come for his espoused below!
   Come to join us with his choir,
   Come to make our joys o’erflow;
      Palms of victory,
   Crowns of glory to bestow.
                     Charles Wesley, 1758.