2475. “My Garden” — “His Garden”

No. 2475-42:349. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, July 20, 1882, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, July 26, 1896.

Awake, oh north wind, and come, you south; blow on my garden, so that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. {So 4:16}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1941, “Grace for Communion” 1942}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2475, “My Garden — His Garden” 2476}
   Exposition on So 4 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3220, “Time to Love, A” 3221 @@ "Exposition"}

1. What a difference there is between what the believer was by nature and what the grace of God has made him! Naturally, we were like the waste howling wilderness, like the desert which yields no healthy plant or verdure. It seemed as if we were given over to be like a salt land, which is not inhabited; no good thing was in us, or could spring out of us. But now, as many of us as have known the Lord are transformed into gardens; our wilderness is made like Eden, our desert is changed into the garden of the Lord. “I will turn to you,” said the Lord to the mountains of Israel when they were bleak and bare, “I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown”; and this is exactly what he said to the barrenness of our nature. We have been enclosed by grace, we have been tilled and sown, we have experienced all the operations of the divine husbandry. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “My Father is the gardener,” and he has made us to be fruitful to his praise, full of sweetness where once there was no fruit, and nothing that could give him delight.

2. We are a garden, then, and in a garden there are flowers and fruits, and in every Christian’s heart you will find the same evidences of culture and care; not in all equally alike, for even gardens and fields vary in productivity. In the good ground mentioned by our Lord in the parable of the sower, the good seed did not all produce a hundredfold, or even sixtyfold; there were some parts of the field where the harvest was as low as thirtyfold, and I fear that there are some of the Lord’s gardens which yield even less than that. Still, there are the fruits and there are the flowers, in a measure; there is a good beginning made wherever the grace of God has undertaken the culture of our nature.

3. I. Now coming to our text, and thinking of Christians as the Lord’s garden, I want you to observe, first, that THERE ARE SWEET SPICES IN BELIEVERS.

4. The text assumes that when it says, “Blow on my garden, so that its spices may flow out,” there are in the Lord’s garden sweet flowers that drip with honey, and all manner of delightful perfumes. There are such sweet spices within the believer’s heart; let us think of them for a few minutes, and first, let me remind you of the names of these sweet spices.

5. For example, there is faith; is there anything outside of heaven sweeter than faith, — the faith which trusts and clings, which believes and hopes, and declares that, though God shall kill it, yet it will trust in him? In the Lord’s esteem, faith is full of fragrance. He never delighted in the burning of bulls and the fat of fed beasts, but he always delighted in the faith which brought these things as types of the one great sacrifice for sin. Faith is very dear to him. Then comes love; and again I must ask, — Is there to be found anywhere a sweeter spice than this, — the love which loves God because he first loved us, the love which flows out to all the brotherhood, the love which knows no circle within which it can be bounded, but which loves the whole race of mankind, and seeks to do them good? It is extremely pleasing to God to see love growing where once all was hate, and to see faith springing up in that very soul which was formerly choked with the thorns and briers of doubt and unbelief. And there is also hope, which is indeed an excellent grace, a far-seeing grace by which we behold heaven and eternal bliss. There is such a fragrance about a God-given hope that this poor sin-stricken world seems to be cured by it. Wherever this living hope comes, there men lift up their drooping heads, and begin to rejoice in God their Saviour. You do not need that I should go over all the list of Christian graces, and mention meekness, brotherly kindness, courage, uprightness, or the patience which endures so much from the hand of God; but whatever grace I might mention, it would not be difficult at once to convince you that there is a sweetness and a perfume about all grace in the esteem of him who created it, and it delights him that it should flourish where once only its opposite was found growing in the heart of man. These, then, are some of the saints’ sweet spices.

6. Next notice, that these sweet spices are delightful to God. It is very wonderful that we should have within us anything in which God can take delight; yet when we think of all the other wonders of his grace, we need not marvel at all. The God who gave us faith may well be pleased with faith. The God who created love in such unlovely hearts as ours may well be delighted by his own creation. He will not despise the work of his own hands; he will rather be delighted with it, and find sweet satisfaction in it. What an exaltation it is to us worms of the earth that there should ever be anything in us well-pleasing to God! Well did the psalmist say, “What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?” But God is mindful of us, and he does visit us. Of old, before Christ came into this world in human form, his delights were with the sons of men; much more is it so now that he has taken their nature into heaven itself, and given to those sons of men his own Spirit to dwell within them. Let it ravish your heart with intense delight that, though often you can take no satisfaction in yourself, but go with your head bowed down like a bulrush, and cry, “Woe is me!” yet in that very cry of yours God hears a note that is sweet and musical to his ears. Blessed is repentance, with her tear-drops in her eyes, sparkling like diamonds. God takes delight even in our longings after holiness, and in our loathings of our own imperfections. Just as the father delights to see his child anxious to be on the best and most loving terms with him, so God delights in us when we are crying after what we have not yet reached, the perfection which shall make us to be fully like himself. Oh beloved, I do not know anything that fills my soul with such feelings of joy as does the reflection that I, even I, may yet be and do something that shall give delight to the heart of God himself! He has joy over one sinner who repents, though repentance is only an initial grace; and when we go on from that to other graces, and take even higher steps in the divine life, we may be sure that his joy is in us, and therefore our joy may well be full.

7. These spices of ours are not only delightful to God, but they are healthful to man. Every particle of faith that there is in the world is a kind of purifier; wherever it comes, it has a tendency to kill what is evil. In the spiritual sanitary arrangements which God made for this poor world, he put men of faith, and the faith of these men, into the midst of all this corruption, to help to keep other men’s souls alive, even as our Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.” The sweet perfumes that flow out from the flowers which God cultivates in the garden of his Church are scattering spiritual health and wholesomeness all around. It is a blessed thing that the Lord has provided these sweet spices to overpower and counteract the unhealthy odours that float on every breeze. Think, then, dear friends, of the importance of being God’s fragrant flowers, which may yield perfumes that are delightful to him, and that are blessed and healthful to our fellow men. A man of faith and love in a church sweetens all his brethren. Only give us a few such in our midst, and there shall be no broken spiritual unity, there shall be no coldness and spiritual death; but all shall go well where these men of God are among us as a mighty influence for good. And, as for the ungodly around us, the continued existence on the earth of the Church of Christ is the hope of the world. The world that hates the Church does not know what it is doing, for it is hating its best friend. The spices with which God is conserving this present evil age, lest his anger should destroy it because of the growing corruption, are to be found in the flowers which he has planted in the garden of his Church.

8. It sometimes happens that these sweet scents within God’s people lie quiet and still. There is a stillness in the air, something like what the poet Coleridge makes “The Ancient Mariner” {a} to speak of in his graphic description of a calm within the tropics. Do you, dear friends, never get into that tranquil condition? I remember, when I was young, reading an expression, — I think of Erskine’s, — in which he says that he likes a roaring devil better than a sleeping devil. It struck me then that, if I could keep the devil always asleep, it would be the best thing that could possibly happen to me; but now I am not so sure that I was right. In any case, I know this, when the old dog of hell barks very loudly, he keeps me awake; and when he howls at me, he drives me to the mercy seat for protection; but when he goes to sleep, and lies very quiet, I am very apt to go to sleep, too, and then the graces that are within my soul seem to be absolutely hidden. And, notice that, hidden grace, which in no way reveals itself by its blessed fragrance, is all the same as if there were none, to those who watch from the outside, and sometimes to the believer himself. What is needed, in order that he may know that he has these sweet perfumes, is something outside himself. You cannot stir your own graces, you cannot make them move, you cannot cause their fragrance to flow out. True, by prayer, you may help to achieve this end; but then, that very prayer is put into you by the Holy Spirit, and when it has been offered to the Lord, it comes back to you laden with blessings; but often, something more is needed, some movement of God’s providence, and much more, some mighty working of his grace, to come and shake the flower bells in his garden, and make them shed their fragrance on the air. Alas! on a hot and drowsy day, when everything has fallen into a deep slumber, even God’s saints, though they are wise virgins, go as soundly asleep as the foolish virgins, and they forget that “the Bridegroom comes.” “While the Bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept”; and, sometimes, you and I must catch ourselves nodding when we ought to be wide awake. We are going through a part of that enchanted ground which John Bunyan describes, and we do not know what to do to keep ourselves awake.

9. At such times, a Christian is very apt to ask, “Am I indeed planted in God’s garden? Am I really a child of God?” Now, I will say what some of you may think to be a strong thing; but I do not believe that he is a child of God who never raised that question. Cowper truly wrote, —

    He has no hope who never had a fear;
    And he who never doubted of his state,
    He may, perhaps, — perhaps he may — too late.

I have sung, and I expect that I may have to sing again, —

    ’Tis a point I long to know;
    Oft it causes anxious thought;
    Do I love the Lord or no?
    Am I his, or am I not?

I cannot bear to get into that condition, and I cannot bear to stay in it when I am in it, but still, there must be anxious thought about this all-important matter. Because you happened to be excited on a certain occasion, and thought you were converted and were sure of heaven, you had better look well into the evidence on which you are relying. You may be mistaken after all; and while I would not preach up little faith, I would preach down great presumption. No man can have a faith too strong, and no assurance can be too full, if it really comes from God the Holy Spirit; but if it comes merely out of your imagining that it is so, and, therefore, you will not examine yourself whether you are in the faith, I begin to make up my mind that it is not so, because you are afraid to look into the matter. “I know that I am getting rich,” says a merchant, “I never keep any books, and I do not need any books, but I know that I am prospering well in my business.” If, my dear sir, I do not soon see your name in the bankruptcy section of the Gazette, I shall be rather surprised.

10. Whenever a man is so very good that he does not want to enquire at all into his position before God, I suspect that he is afraid of introspection, and self-examination, and that he dare not look into his own heart. This I know; as I watch the many people of God committed to my care here, I see some run on for ten years or more serving God with holy joy, and having no doubt or fear. They are not generally remarkable for any great depth of experience, but when God intends to make mighty men of them, he digs around them, and soon they come to me crying, and craving a little comfort, telling me what doubts they have, because they are not what they want to be. I am glad when this is the case, I rejoice because I know that they will be spiritually better off afterwards. They have reached a higher standard than they had previously attained, they have a better knowledge now of what they ought to be. It may be that, before, their ideal was a low one, and they thought that they had reached it. Now, God has revealed to them greater heights, which they have to climb; and they may as well gird up the loins of their mind to do so by divine help. As they get higher, they perhaps think, “Now we are at the top of the mountain,” when they are really only on one of the lower spurs of it. Up they go, climbing again. “If once I can reach that point, I shall soon be at the summit,” you think. Yes, and when you have at length arrived there, you see the mountain still towering far above you. How deceptive is the height of the Alps to those who have not seen them before! I said to a friend once, “It will take you about thirteen hours to get to the top of that mountain.” “Why,” he replied, “I can run up in half-an-hour.” I let him have a try, and he had not gone far before he had to sit down to pant and rest. So you think of a certain height of grace, “Oh, I can easily reach that!” Yes, just so; but you do not know how high it is; and those who think that they have reached the top do not know anything about the top; for he who knows how high is the holiness to which the believer can attain will go on clambering and climbing, often on his hands and knees, and when he has reached that point which he thought was the summit, he will sit down and say, “I thought I had reached the top, but now I find that I have only begun the ascent.” Or he may say with Job, “I have heard about you by the hearing of the ear”: (and then I did not know much about you, or about myself either,) “but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

11. You see, then, that there are sweet spices lying in Christians, like hidden honey and locked up perfume within the flowers on a hot day.

12. II. What is needed is that THOSE SWEET ODOURS SHOULD BE DIFFUSED. That is to be our second point. Read the text again: “Awake, oh north wind; and come, you south; blow on my garden, so that its spices may flow out.”

13. Observe, first, that until our graces are diffused, it is the same as if they were not there. You may go through a woods, and it may be abounding in game, yet you may scarcely see a hare or notice a pheasant anywhere. There they lie all quiet and undisturbed; but, eventually, the beaters go through the woods making a great noise, and away the pheasants fly, and you may see the timid hares run like hinds let loose, because they are disturbed and awakened. That is what we sometimes need, to be aroused and stirred from slumber. We may not know that we have any faith until there comes a trial, and then our faith boldly springs up. We can hardly know how much we love our Lord until there comes a test of our love, and then we so behave ourselves that we know that we do love him. Often, as I have already reminded you, something is needed from without to stir the life that lies hidden within. It is so with these sweet flowers in the Beloved’s garden, they need either the north wind or the south wind to blow on them so that they may shed abroad their sweet odours.

14. Notice next, that it is very painful for a Christian to be in such a condition that his graces are not stirring. He cannot endure it. We who love the Lord were not born again to waste our time in sinful slumber; our watchword is, “Let us not sleep, as others do.” We were not born to inaction; every power that God has put within us was meant to be used in working, and striving, and serving the Lord. So, when our graces are slumbering, we ourselves are in an unhappy state. Then we long for any agency that would set those graces moving. The north wind? Oh, but if it shall blow, then we shall have snow! Well, then, let the snow come, for we must have our graces set in motion, we cannot bear that they should continue to lie quiet and still. “Awake, oh north wind!” — a heavy trial, a bleak adversity, a fierce temptation, — anything as long as we only begin to diffuse our graces. Or if the north wind is dreaded, we say, “Come, you south!” Let prosperity be granted to us; let sweet fellowship with our brethren arouse us, and holy meditations, full of delight, stir our souls; let a sense of the divine life, like a soft south wind, come to our spirit. We are not particular which it is, let the Lord send whichever he pleases, or both together, as the text seems to imply, only let us be aroused. “Quicken me, oh Lord, according to your Word,” — whichever Word you shall choose to apply, only quicken your servant, and do not let the graces within me be as if they were dead!

15. Remember, however, that the best Quickener is always the Holy Spirit; and that blessed Spirit can come as the north wind, convicting us of sin, and tearing away every rag of our self-confidence, or he may come as the soft south wind, all full of love, revealing Christ, and the covenant of grace, and all the blessings treasured up for us in it. Come, Holy Spirit! Come as the Heavenly Dove, or as the rushing mighty wind; but do come! Drop from above, as gently as the dew, or come like rattling hail, but do come, blest Spirit of God! We feel that we must be moved, we must be stirred, our heart’s emotions must once again throb, to prove that the life of God is really within us; and if we do not experience this quickening and stirring, we are utterly unhappy.

16. You see also, dear friends, from this text, that when a child of God sees that his graces are not diffused abroad, then is the time that he should take to prayer. Let none of us ever think of saying, “I do not feel as if I could pray, and therefore I will not pray.” On the contrary, then is the time when you ought to pray more earnestly than ever. When the heart is not inclined to pray, take that as a danger-signal, and at once go to the Lord with this resolve, —

    I will approach thee — I will force
    My way through obstacles to thee:
    To thee for strength will have recourse,
    To thee for consolation flee!

When you seem to yourself to have little faith, and little love, and little joy, then cry to the Lord all the more, “cry aloud, and do not spare.” Say, “Oh my Father, I cannot endure this miserable existence! You have made me to be a flower, to shed abroad my perfume, yet I am not doing it. Oh, by some means, stir my flagging spirit, until I shall be full of earnest industry, full of holy anxiety to promote your glory, oh my Lord and Master!” While you are crying like this, you must still believe, however, that God the Holy Spirit can stir your spirit, and make you full of life again. Never permit a doubt about that fact to linger in your heart, otherwise you will be unnecessarily sad. You, who are the true children of God, cannot ever come into a condition out of which the Holy Spirit cannot lift you up. You know the notable case of Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot, and therefore so nauseous to the great Lord that he threatened to spue her out of his mouth, yet what is the message to the angel of that church? “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” This is not said to sinners, it is addressed to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Oh, matchless grace! He is sick of these lukewarm professors, yet he promises to sup with them, and that they shall sup with him. That is the only cure for lukewarmness and decline, to renew heart-fellowship with Christ; and he stands and offers it to all his people now. “Only open the door, and I will sup with you, and you shall sup with me.” Oh you whose graces are lying so sinfully dormant, who have to mourn and cry because of “the body of this death” — for death in you seems to have taken for itself a body, and to have become a substantial thing, no mere skeleton now, but a heavy, cumbersome form that bows you down, — still cry to him who is able to deliver you from this lukewarm and sinful state! Let every one of us raise the prayer of our text, “Awake, oh north wind; and come, you south; and blow on my garden, so that its spices may flow out.”

17. III. Our third and closing point will help to explain the remaining portion of our text: “Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” These words speak of THE COMPANY OF CHRIST AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF OUR FRUIT BY CHRIST.

18. I want you, dear friends, to especially notice one expression which is used here. While the spouse was, as it were, confined and frozen, and the spices of the Lord’s garden were not coming out, she cried to the winds, “Blow on my garden.” She hardly dared to call it her Lord’s garden; but now, notice the alteration in the phraseology: “Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” The wind has blown through the garden, and made the sweet odours to flow out; now it is no longer “my garden,” but “his garden.” It is wonderful how an increase of grace transfers our properties; while we have very little grace, we cry, “my, ” but when we get great grace, we cry “his.” Where you are sinful and infirm, brother, that is yours, you rightly call it “my”; but when you become strong, and joyful, and full of faith, that is not yours, brother, and you rightly call it “his.” Let him have all the glory of the change while you take all the shame and confusion of face to yourself that ever you should have been so destitute of grace. As the spouse says, “Let my Beloved come into his garden. Here are all the sweet perfumes flowing out; he will enjoy them, let him come and feel himself at home among them. He planted every flower, and gave to each its fragrance; let him come into his garden, and see what wonders his grace has accomplished.”

19. Do you not feel, beloved, that the one thing you want to stir your whole soul is that Christ’s should come into it? Have you lost his company recently? Oh, do not try to do without it! The true child of God ought not to be willing to bear broken communion for even five minutes; but should be sighing and crying for its renewal. Our business is to seek to “walk in the light as God is in the light,” fully enjoying communion with Christ our Lord; and when that fellowship is broken, then the heart feels that it has cast all its happiness away, and it must robe itself in sackcloth, and sorrowfully fast. If the presence of the Bridegroom shall be taken away from you, then indeed you shall have reason to fast and to be sad. The best condition a heart can be in, if it has lost fellowship with Christ, is to resolve that it will give God no rest until it gets back to communion with him, and to give itself no rest until once more it finds the Well-Beloved.

20. Next observe that, when the Beloved comes into his garden, the heart’s humble but earnest entreaty is, “Let him eat his pleasant fruits.” Would you keep back anything from Christ? I know you could not if he were to come into his garden. The best things that you have, you would first present to him, and then everything that you have, you would bring to him, and leave all at his dear feet. We do not ask him to come to the garden, so that we may lay up our fruits, so that we may store them up for ourselves; we ask him to come and eat them. The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ; I do not know whether heaven itself can excel this pearl of giving joy to the heart of Jesus Christ on earth. It can match it, but not excel it, for it is a superlative joy to give joy to him, — the Man of sorrows, who was emptied of joy for our sakes, and who now is filled up again with joy as each one of us shall come and bring his share, and cause a new and fresh delight to the heart of Christ.

21. Did you ever reclaim a poor girl from the streets? Did you ever rescue a poor thief who had been in prison? Then I know that, as you have heard of the holy chastity of the one, or of the sacred honesty of the other of those lives that you have been the means of restoring, you have said, “Oh, this is delightful! There is no joy equal to it. The effort cost me money, it cost me time, it cost me thought, it cost me prayer, but I am repaid a thousand times.” Then, as you see them growing up so bright, so transparent, so holy, so useful, you say, “This work is worth living for, it is a delight beyond measure.” Often, people come to me, and tell me about souls that were saved through my ministry twenty years ago. I heard, the other day, of one who was brought to Christ by a sermon of mine nearly thirty years ago, and I said to the friend who told me, “Thank you, thank you; you could not tell me anything that would give my heart such joy as this good news that God has made me the instrument of a soul’s conversion.” But what must be the joy of Christ who does all the work of salvation, who redeems us from sin, and death, and hell, when he sees such creatures as we are, made to be like himself, and knows the divine possibilities of glory and immortality that lie within us?

22. What are we going to be, brothers and sisters, we who are in Christ? We have no idea of what holiness, and glory, and bliss, shall yet be ours. “It does not yet appear what we shall be.” We may rise even while on earth to great heights of holiness, — and the higher the better; but there is something better for us than mortal eye has ever seen or mortal ear has ever heard. There is more grace to be in the saints than we have ever seen in them, the saintliest saint on earth was never such a saint as they are up there who are before the throne of the Most High; and I know that, even when they get there, there shall be something more for them, and that through the eternal ages they shall still take for their motto, “Onward and upward!” In heaven, there will be no “ Finis .” We shall still continue to develop, and to become something more than we have ever been before; not fuller, but yet capable of holding more, always growing in the possibility of reflecting Christ, and being filled with his love; and all the while our Lord Jesus Christ will be charmed and delighted with us. As he hears our lofty songs of praise, as he sees the bliss which will always be flashing from each one of us, as he perceives the divine ecstasy which shall be ours for ever, he will take supreme delight in it all. “My redeemed,” he will say, “the sheep of my pasture, the purchase of my blood, borne on my shoulders, my very heart pierced for them, oh, how I delight to see them in the heavenly fold! My redeemed people are joint-heirs with me in the boundless inheritance that shall be theirs for ever; oh, how I delight in them!”

23. “Therefore, comfort each other with these words,” beloved, and cry mightily that, on this church, and on all the churches, God’s Spirit may blow, to make the spices flow. Pray, dear friends, all of you, for the churches to which you belong; and if you, my brother, are a pastor, be asking especially for this divine wind to blow through the garden which you have to cultivate, as I also pray for this portion of the garden of the Lord: “Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” May the Lord be with each one of you, beloved, for his dear name’s sake! Amen.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus — The Strength Of Christ’s Love” 811}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus — Christ Dwell In Heaven, But Visits His Saints On Earth” 814}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus — At Home Everywhere With Jesus” 778}

{a} The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge written in 1797-1798. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner"

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Joh 20:11-29}

11, 12. But Mary stood outside by the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and sees two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

You see, dear friends, love is very patient and persevering. The other disciples had gone away home, but not so Mary; she stands outside the sepulchre, and still waits, for she cannot go until she has seen her Lord. Love, however, has many sorrows; for, as Mary stood outside the sepulchre, she was weeping. Often, your love for Christ will make you sorrowful when you lose his presence for a while; it will be a great sorrow to you if your Lord should seem to have hidden himself from you. But see how keen-sighted love is; Mary saw the angels, whom the other disciples might have seen if they had not gone home. One of the beatitudes is, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”; and love is one of the most eminent signs of purity. I do not wonder, therefore, that love saw angels, since love sees God himself.

13. And they say to her, “Woman, why do you weep?”

They could not understand Mary’s tears, their question seemed to say “Christ the Lord is risen from the dead, and all the streets of heaven are ringing with hallelujahs because the great Conqueror has returned bearing the spoils of his victory. Why do you weep? Are you not one of those for whom this redeeming work was done? ‘Woman, why do you weep?’ ”

13. She says to them, “Because they have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

That was enough to make any of Christ’s loved ones weep, and if ever you hear a sermon which does not have Christ in it, you may well go down the aisle weeping, and if anyone asks why you weep, you may reply, “Because they have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

14. And when she had said this, she turned around, and saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it was Jesus.

A strange and sad unbelief had taken possession of her, and there is nothing that blinds the eye so quickly as unbelief. Christ is near you, poor soul, near you in your trouble, but you do not know that it is Jesus. Open your eyes; may God the Holy Spirit touch them with his heavenly eyesalve, so that you may see that it is Christ himself who is close beside you!

15. Jesus says to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, says to him, “Sir, if you have taken him from here, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Her supposition was wrong in one way, but right in another, for Jesus is the Gardener, and his Church is his garden. There was one gardener in whom we fell; here is another and a better Gardener in whom we rise. It is he, and he alone, who can properly tend all the plants of his Father’s right-hand planting. He is the Gardener, though not the one whom Mary supposed, but what a strange request this was for her to make: “If you have taken him from here, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Could she have carried away the body of Jesus if it had been there? If so, what a ghastly load for her tender frame to bear! Indeed, but she would have done it somehow or other; for, if faith laughs at impossibilities, and cries, “It shall be done,” it is love that actually does the deed of holy daring. The task that seems almost impossible is readily performed when the spirit is invigorated by love.

16. Jesus says to her, “Mary.”

In the simple utterance of her name, there were tones which she could not mistaken; it was the sweetest music she had heard since her Lord’s last message from the cross: “Mary.” “Why, surely,” she must have thought, “it was the Master’s voice calling me by name!”

16. She turned herself, and says to him, “Rabboni”; which is to say, “Master.”

Or, “My Master!” The word “Rabboni” means something more than “Master.” Mary seems to say, “Greatest and best of all teachers, I know your voice; now that you have called me by my name, I recognise you, and I wait to listen to the instruction you are ready to impart to me.”

17. Jesus says to her, “Do not touch me; for I am not yet ascended to my Father:

“There will be time enough for the fellowship your heart craves”: —

17. But go to my brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.’ ”

Practical service is better than personal rapture. Mary would gladly have held her Lord, but he says to her, “Go to my brethren.” You will always find that it is best and safest to do what Jesus tells you, when he tells you, and as he tells you. What a delightful message this is from the risen Christ! “Go to my brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.’ ”

18, 19. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and says to them, “Peace be to you.”

If they had possessed more faith, they would have left a door open for Jesus to come in, however anxious they might have been to shut out the Jews. I am afraid, dear brothers and sisters, that we also are sometimes more anxious about shutting out the Jews than we are about letting in Christ. I mean, we are very particular in trying to keep out our own troubles and cares, but if we get Jesus within, we shall not think of the Jews, nor of our troubles and cares; they will all disappear as soon as he appears.

20. And when he had said this, he showed to them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

That was enough to make them glad. The gladdest sight outside of heaven, and the gladdest sight in heaven itself, is to see the Lord.

21. Then said Jesus to them again, “Peace be to you: just as my Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

“I am the Messiah, the sent One; you, too, shall be my missionaries, my sent ones”; it is only another form of the same word.

22, 23. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgiven the sins of any, they are forgiven them; and if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

That is to say, “As you proclaim my gospel, I will back up your message; when you preach of pardoning blood, I will make it efficacious. When you declare to penitent sinners that their sins are remitted, it shall be so; and when you tell those who do not believe that they are condemned already, and that unless they repent they shall remain in condemnation, their sins shall still be retained.” The true minister of God does not speak apart from the Word of God, and when he speaks the Word of God, the God of the Word is himself there to make it effective. It shall be no brutum fulmen, {b} no wasted thunderbolt; it shall fall in reality, and what the servant of Christ declares, according to the Scriptures, shall really be proved to be true.

24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

Possibly he did not go out in an evening; it may be that he was a half-dead kind of Christian, like a great many people are in London. They think they have done finely if they go out on the Sabbath morning, but the evening, — well, it is too cold for them, or they must find some other excuse for keeping indoors: “Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.” That was a great pity, because Thomas would not only be a loser by his absence, but he would be sure to influence others, for he was an apostle. Surely, whenever it is possible, we who are leaders in the church, ministers, deacons, and elders, should take care that we are not absent from the house of the Lord.

25. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

There is something good about that declaration of Thomas, for a man is not bound to believe merely on the testimony of others. He should, if he can, endeavour to get evidence for himself, and since Christ is still alive, the very best thing is to go to him. But there was also much that Thomas said which was very wrong, he had no right to demand that he should see the nail-prints in Christ’s hands, and, worse still, that he should be permitted to put his finger into them, and to thrust his hand into his Lord’s side. There was more than a little impertinence about that utterance, and something more even than an ordinary unbelief; and when we ask for signs and wonders from God, and say that we will not believe unless we have them, we are guilty of very presumptuous conduct. We are bound to look for evidence concerning Christ; but when the evidence is sufficient, we ought not out of curiosity to crave for more.

26. And after eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas with them.

That was an improvement on the meeting of the previous Lord’s day evening; Thomas had learned by this time what he had lost the week before, so he was present on this occasion.

26, 27. Then Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then he says to Thomas,

Picking out the one who most needed to be addressed, like the good Shepherd seeking out the sick sheep first: “Then he says to Thomas,” —

27, 28. “Reach your finger here, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and do not be faithless, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God.”

It has been well observed that Thomas was the first person who ever proved to himself the deity of Christ from the exhibition of his wounds. There is a good argument in it, which we cannot stop to explain at this time; but the very humanity of Christ has in it the doctrine of his deity; you can easily argue from the one to the other. How divine must he be who, in his condescension, took on himself our nature!

29. Jesus says to him, “Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”

That blessedness can be reached by all of us who believe in Christ. Those who lived in this world before Christ came, saw his day by faith, and they were blessed; those who lived in his day, and saw him in the flesh, and trusted him, were blessed; but we who cannot see him, yet believe in him, are the most blessed of them all.

{b} Brutum fulmen: A mere noise; an ineffective act or empty threat. OED.

The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus
811 — The Strength Of Christ’s Love
1 Oh let my name engraven stand,
   My Jesus, on thy heart and hand:
   Seal me upon thine arm, and wear
   That pledge of love for ever there.
2 Stronger than death thy love is known,
   Which floods of wrath could never drown;
   And hell and earth in vain combine
   To quench a fire so much divine.
3 But I am jealous of my heart,
   Lest it should once from thee depart;
   Then let thy name be well impress’d
   As fair signet on my breast.
4 Till thou hast brought me to thy home,
   Where fears and doubts can never come
   Thy countenance let me often see,
   And often thou shalt hear from me.
5 Come, my Beloved, haste away,
   Cut short the hours of thy delay:
   Fly like a youthful hart or roe
   Over the hills where spices grow.
                           Isaac Watts, 1709.

The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus
814 — Christ Dwell In Heaven, But Visits His Saints On Earth
1 My best-beloved keeps his throne
   On hills of light, in worlds unknown;
   But he descends and shows his face
   In the young gardens of his grace.
2 He has engross’d my warmest love;
   No earthly charms my soul can move:
   I have a mansion in his heart,
   Nor death nor hell shall make us part.
3 He takes my soul ere I’m aware,
   And shows me where his glories are:
   No chariot of Amminadib
   The heavenly rapture can describe.
4 Oh, may my spirit daily rise
   On wings of faith above the skies,
   Till death shall make my last remove,
   To dwell for ever with my love.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

The Christian, Privileges, Communion with Jesus
778 — At Home Everywhere With Jesus
1 Oh thou, by long experience tried,
   Near whom no grief can long abide;
   My Love! how full of sweet content
   I pass my years of banishment!
2 All scenes alike engaging prove
   To souls impress’d with sacred love!
   Where’er they dwell, they dwell in thee!
   In heaven, in earth, or on the sea.
3 To me remains no place nor time;
   My country is in every clime;
   I can be calm and free from care
   On any shore, since God is there.
4 While place we seek or place we shun,
   The soul finds happiness in none;
   But with a God to guide our way,
   ‘Tis equal joy to go or stay.
5 Could I be cast where thou art not,
   That were indeed a dreadful lot;
   But regions none remote I call,
   Secure of finding God in all.
               Jeanne Marie Guyon, 1722;
               tr. by William Cowper, 1801.