2603. Comfort For The Tempted

No. 2603-45:1. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, September 27, 1883, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, January 1, 1899.

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it. {1Co 10:13}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 22, “Caution to the Presumptuous, A” 22}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2603, “Comfort for the Tempted” 2604}
   Exposition on 1Co 10:1-13 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2912, “Comfort for Tried Believers” 2913 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on 1Co 10:1-14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2621, “Sinner’s Refuge, The” 2622 @@ "Exposition"}

1. The children of God are all subject to temptation; some of them are tempted more than others, but I am persuaded that there is not one, except those who are too young to be conscious of evil, who will enter heaven without having endured some temptation. If anyone could have escaped, surely it would have been “the firstborn among many brethren”; but you will remember how he was led by the Spirit, straight from the waters of his baptism, into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil; and the apostle Paul informs us that he “was tempted in all points just as we are, yet without sin.” Truly, the Lord Jesus might say to us who are his followers, “If I, your Master and Lord, have been tempted, you must not expect to escape temptation; for the disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord.”

2. The fact that we are tempted ought to humble us, for it is sad evidence that there is sin still remaining in us. I am old enough to remember the times when we used to strike with a flint on the steel in order to light the fire in the morning, and I remember that I always stopped trying to produce a spark when I found that there was no tinder in the box. I believe that the devil is no fool, and that, if there is a man who has no tinder in the box, — that is, no corruption in his nature, — depend on it, Satan will not continue to tempt him for long. He does not waste his time in such a useless exercise. The man who believes that he is perfect can never pray the Lord’s prayer; he must offer one of his own making, for he will never be willing to say, “Do not lead us into temptation”; but, beloved, because the devil thinks it is worth his while to tempt us, we may conclude that there is something in us that is temptable, — that sin still dwells there, notwithstanding that the grace of God has renewed our hearts.

3. The fact that we are tempted ought also to remind us of our weakness. I referred just now to the model prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, which contains the sentence, “Do not lead us into temptation,” The reason for presenting that petition must be, because we are so weak and frail. We ask that we may not be burdened, for our back is not strong; and we plead that we may not have sin placed before us in any of its enticing forms, for, often, the flesh borrows strength from the world, and even from the devil, and these allied powers will be too much for us unless the omnipotence of God shall be exerted on our behalf to hold us up lest we fall.

4. Some children of God, whom I know of, are very greatly troubled, because they are tempted. They think they could bear trial if it were trial dissociated from sin, though I do not see how we can, as a general rule, separate trial from temptation, for every trial that comes to us has in it some kind of temptation or other, either to unbelief, or to murmuring, or to the use of wrong means to escape from the trial. We are tempted by our mercies, and we are tempted by our miseries; that is, tempted in the sense of being tried by them; but, to the child of God, the most grievous thing is that, sometimes, he is tempted to do or say things which he utterly hates. He has set before him, in a pleasant aspect, sins which are perfectly abhorrent to him; he cannot bear the very name of them. Yet Satan comes, and holds before the child of God the unclean meats which he will never touch; and I have known the devil to tempt the people of God by injecting into their mind blasphemous thoughts, hurling them into their ear as with a tornado. Indeed, even when you are in prayer, it may happen to you that thoughts the very opposite of devotional will come flocking into your brain. A little noise in the street will distract from communion with God; and, almost before you are aware of it, your thoughts, like wild horses, will have gone galloping over hill and dale, and you hardly know how you shall ever catch them again. Now, such temptation as these are dreadfully painful for a child of God. He cannot bear the poisoned breath of sin; and when he finds that sin stands knocking at his door, shouting under his window, pestering him day and night, as it has occurred with some, — I hope not with many, — then he is severely beset, and he is grievously troubled.

5. It may help such a person if I remind him that there is no sin in being tempted. The sin is that of the tempter, not of the tempted. If you resist the temptation, there is something praiseworthy about your action. There is nothing praiseworthy about the temptation; that is evil, and only evil; but you did not tempt yourself, and he who tempted you must bear the blame of the temptation. You are evidently not blameworthy for thoughts that grieve you; they may prove that there is sin still remaining in you, but there is no sin in your being tempted. The sin is in your yielding to the temptation, and blessed shall you be if you can resist it. If you can overcome it, if your spirit does not yield to it, you shall even be blessed through it. “Blessed is the man who endures temptation.” There is a blessedness even in the temptation, and though for the present it does not seem to be joyful, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward, it produces blessed fruit to those who are exercised by it.

6. Moreover, there are worse things in this world than being tempted with painful temptations. It is much worse to be tempted with a pleasant temptation, — to be gently sucked down into the destroyer’s mouth, — to be carried along the smooth current, afterwards to be hurled over the cataract. This is dreadful; but to fight against temptation, — this is good. I say again that there are many worse things than to be tried with a temptation that arouses all the indignation of your spirit. An old divine used to say that he was more afraid of a sleeping devil than he was of a roaring one, and there is much truth in that observation; for, when you are left quite alone, and no temptation assails you, you are apt to get carnally secure, and boastfully to say, “I shall never be moved.” I think no man is in such imminent danger as the man who thinks that there is no danger likely to befall him, so that anything that keeps us on the watch-tower, even though it is in itself evil, is, so far, overruled for good. The most dangerous part of the road to heaven is not the Valley of the Shadow of Death; we do not find that Christian went to sleep there when the hobgoblins were all around him, and when he found it hard to feel the path, and stay on it; but when he and Hopeful came to the Enchanted Ground, “whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy,” then the pilgrims were in great peril until Christian reminded his fellow traveller that they were warned by the shepherds not to sleep when they came to that treacherous part of the way. I think, then, that to be tempted with painful temptations, those who goad the spirit almost to madness, — bad as that trial is, — grievous as it is to be borne, — may be, spiritually, not the worst thing that can possibly happen to us. Of all evils that beset you, always choose what is less than another; and since this is less than something else might be, do not be utterly driven to despair if it falls to your lot to be tempted as many before you have been.

7. This will suffice by way of preface to a little talk about temptation, with a view of comforting any who are severely tempted by Satan. I know that I am speaking to many such, and I would repeat to them the words of my text: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it.” Remember, dear tried friend, that you must not sit down in despair, and say, “I am greatly tempted now, and I am afraid that I shall be tempted worse and worse, until my feet shall slide, and I shall fall and utterly perish.” Do not say as David did when he had been hunted like a partridge on the mountains, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul”; but believe that the Lord, who allows you to be tempted, will deliver you in his own good time.

8. I. Here is your first comfort. THERE HAS BEEN A LIMIT IN ALL YOUR FORMER TRIALS: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.”

9. Temptation has sometimes laid hold of you, like a robber takes a man by the throat, suddenly. It has seized you, — perhaps that is as correct a word as I can use, — temptation has seized you, unawares, bound you, and seemed to grip you firmly; and yet, up until now, the temptations you have had to endure, have only been such as are common to man.

10. First, they are such as have been endured by your fellow Christians. I know that you are tempted to think that you are a lone traveller on a road that no one has ever traversed before you; but if you carefully examine the track, you can discover the footprints of some of the best of God’s servants who have passed along that wearisome way. It is a very dark lane, you say, — one that might truly be called, “Cut-Throat Lane.” Ah! but you will find that apostles have been along that way, confessors have been that way, martyrs have been that way, and the best of God’s saints have been tempted just as you are now. “Oh, but!” one says, “I am tempted, as you said a little while ago, with blasphemous and horrible thoughts.” So was Master John Bunyan; read his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and see what he had to pass through. Many others have had a similar experience, and among them are some of us who are alive to tell you that we know all about this special form of temptation, yet the Lord delivered us out of it. “Oh, but!” says another tried soul, “I have been even tempted to suicide.” That also has not been an unusual temptation even to God’s dearest saints; and, though he has preserved them, and kept them alive, yet they have often felt like Job when he said, “My soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life.” “Ah!” cries another, “I am tempted to the very worst sins, the foulest sins, I should not dare even to mention to you the abominations Satan tempts me to commit.” You need not tell me; and I trust that you will be kept from them by the almighty power of God’s Holy Spirit; but I can assure you that even the saints in heaven, if they could speak to you at this moment, would tell you that some of them were hard pressed — even some of the bravest of them who walked nearest to God were hard pressed by temptations which they would not have told to their fellow men, so troubled were they by them. Perhaps yet another friend says, “I have been actually tempted to self-righteousness, which is as great a temptation as can befall a man whose entire confidence is in Christ.” Well, so was Master John Knox, that grand preacher of justification by faith. When he lay dying, he was tempted to boast in his own bravery for Christ, but he fought against that evil thought, and overcame it, and so may you.

11. You think that, when a man is very patient, he is not tempted to impatience. Brother, the Spirit of God says, by the pen of the apostle James, “You have heard of the patience of Job.” I suggest to you this question, — Have you not heard of the impatience of Job? You have heard, no doubt, of the strong faith of Peter; have you never heard of Peter’s unbelief? God’s people usually fail in the very point for which they are most famous; and the man who has the greatest renown for any work of the Spirit of God in him, as far as the biblical biographies are concerned, has usually been the man who has made a failure just at the place where he thought he was the strongest. “I have been reading about the life of a good man,” you say, “and I am not like him.” Shall I tell you why? Because his entire life was not written; but when the Holy Spirit writes a man’s life, he gives it all. When biographers write the lives of good men, of course they do not record their inward struggles and fears, unless the subject happens to be a man like Martin Luther, whose life seemed to be all an inward struggle, and who, while he was outwardly brave, was often a trembler within. When they write my life, they will tell you that I had strong faith; but they will not tell you all about the other side of it. And then you will, perhaps, get thinking, “Oh, I cannot reach even to such a height as Mr. Spurgeon attained!” That all comes from your not knowing the inside of us, for if you knew the inside and the outside of the man who walks nearest to God, — if he is a sincere, true-hearted man, he will tell you that the temptations you have to endure are just such temptations as he has had, and as he expects to have again and again, and that, as the apostle says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.”

12. Then, again, no temptation has assailed you but such as is suitable for men to be tried with while they are in this state of trial. This is not the time for the final victory, brother; this is the hour of battle, and the weapons that are used against us are only such as have been employed against the armies of the faithful in all ages. You and I never were tempted as were the angels who kept their first estate and overcame the temptation. I cannot tell you how the prince of darkness was tempted, or how he went about tempting his fellow servants from their loyalty to the great King; but of this I am sure, you were never tried with a temptation suitable for an angel. Your temptation has only been such as is suitable for a man, and such as other men like yourself have overcome. Others have fought valiantly against similar temptations to yours, and you must do the same, yes, and you shall do the same by the power of God’s Spirit resting on you. It is said, in the affairs of common life, that what man has done man can do, and that is true with regard to the spiritual life. Temptations that have been grappled with by other men, can be grappled with by you if you seek the same source of strength, and seek it in the same name as they did. The strength to overcome temptation comes only from God, and the conquering name is the name of Jesus Christ; therefore, go forward in that strength and in that name against all your temptations. Up and at them, for they have been routed long before, and you shall rout them again. Do not tremble to go from fight to fight and from victory to victory, even as the others did who have gone before you, and who have now entered into their rest.

    Once they were mourning here below,
       And wet their couch with tears;
    They wrestled hard, as we do now,
       With sins, and doubts, and fears.

If you ask them where their victory came from, they ascribe it to the resources which are as available to you as they were to them, — even to the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit and the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. No temptation has happened to you but such as human beings can grapple with and overcome by the help of God.

13. Again, no temptation has happened to you so far but such as is common to man in this sense, — that Christ has endured it. That great Head of manhood, that representative Man, has suffered from the very temptation which is now pestering you. “In all their affliction” — that is, the affliction of his people in the wilderness, which is just the same as yours if you are in the wilderness, — “in all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.” He was encompassed with infirmity, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” To repeat the text I have already quoted, and which is so suitable here, he “was in all points tempted just as we are.” “In all things it behoved him to be made like his brethren, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.” He knows all about the case of each one of us, and he knows how to deal with it, and how to bear us up and bear us through.

14. So you see, dear friends, no temptation has happened to you but such as is common to man in the sense of having been endured by men like yourselves, having been overcome by men such as you are, and having been endured and vanquished by your blessed Representative, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

15. Come, then, beloved, let all mystery with regard to your temptations be banished. Mystery puts an edge on the sword of trial; perhaps the hand that wrote on the wall would not have frightened Belshazzar if he could have seen the body to which that hand belonged. There is no mystery about your trouble, after all. Though you wrote it down as being bigger than any that ever happened to a human being before, that is not the truth; you are not an emperor in the realm of misery. You cannot truly say, “I am the man who has seen affliction more than all others,” for your Lord endured far more than you have ever done, and many of his saints, who passed from the stake to the crown, must have suffered much more than you have been called to undergo so far.

16. II. Now let us turn to the second comfort revealed in our text; that is, THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful.”

17. Oh, what a blessed word this is, “God is faithful!” Therefore, he is true to his promise. Even Balaam said, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” One of God’s promises is, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”; “God is faithful,” so he will fulfil that promise. Here is one of the promises of Christ, and Christ is God: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” “God is faithful,” so that promise shall be fulfilled. You have often heard this promise, “As your days, so shall your strength be.” Do you believe it, or will you make God a liar? If you do believe it, then banish from your mind all dark forebodings with this blessed little sentence, “God is faithful.”

18. Notice, next, that not only is God faithful, but he is master of the situation, so that he can keep his promise. Notice what the text says: “Who will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able to bear.” Then you could not have been tempted if God had not allowed it to happen to you. God is far mightier than Satan. The devil could not touch Job except by divine permission, neither can he try and tempt you except as God allows him; he must have permission from the King of kings before he can tempt a single saint. Why, Satan is not allowed to keep the key of his own house, for the keys of death and of hell hang on the belt of Christ; and without God’s permission, the dog of hell cannot even open his mouth to bark at a child of God, much less can he come and worry any of the sheep whom the Lord has called by his grace into his fold. So, then, beloved, you have great reason for comfort from the fact that the temptation that tries you is still under the control of the faithful Creator, “who will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able.”

19. That is a second reason for comfort; roll it under your tongue as a sweet morsel.

20. III. The third comfort lies in THE RESTRAINT WHICH GOD PUTS ON TEMPTATION. He “will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able.” The tide of trial shall rise to the high-water mark, and then God shall say, “So far you shall come, but no farther: and here shall your proud waves be stopped.”

21. He “will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able.” That may apply, sometimes, to the period when the temptation comes. I have carefully watched how God times the trials of his people. If such and such a trial had come to one of his children when he was young, I believe he could not have borne it; or if he had lost some dear friend while he was himself sick, the double trouble would have crushed him. But God sends our trials at the right time; and if he puts an extra burden on in one way, he takes something off in another. “He removes his rough wind in the day of the east wind.” It is a very simple thing to say, but it is true; if the wind blows from the north, it does not at the same time blow from the south; and if one set of troubles comes to a Christian man, another set of troubles generally departs from him. John Bradford, the famous martyr, was often subject to rheumatism and depression of spirit, in which I can greatly sympathize with him; but when he was bound by the heels in a foul damp dungeon, and knew that he would never come out except to die, he wrote, “It is an exceptional thing that, ever since I have been in this prison, and have had other trials to bear, I have had no touch of my rheumatism or my depression of spirit.” Was that not a very blessed thing? And you will usually find that it is so; you shall not be tempted more than you are able to bear, because God will allow the trial to come at a time when you are best able to stand up under it.

22. There is also great kindness on God’s part in the continuance of a trial. If some of our trials lasted much longer, they would be too heavy for us to bear. Concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, our Lord said, “Unless those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” And I have no doubt that, often, God makes quick work of his children’s trials because, if they were continued longer, they would not have a good but an evil effect on us. If a child must be whipped, do not let the punishment last as if he were a criminal who must be sentenced for a long period; let him have his chastisement, and be finished with it. So it often is in the discipline of God’s house; yet there are other trials which are protracted year after year because trial is an ingredient in their efficacy, and they might not be blessed to us if they were shortened. In every case, there is an infinite wisdom which makes our troubles to be just as long as they are, and no longer.

23. So it is in the number of the trials. Blessed be God, —

    If he ordains the number ten,
       They ne’er can be eleven.

If he intends his servants to pass through the fire, and not through the water, Satan himself cannot make them go through the water. God counts the drops of bitter tonic that he administers to his ailing saints, and not a drop more shall they possibly have than he measures out to them. So, dear tried children of God, you shall not be tempted more than you are able as far as the number of your temptations and trials is concerned.

24. It is the same, also, in the stress with which the temptation comes. Have you never seen a great tree in the full blast of a tremendous tempest? It sways to and fro, and seems scarcely able to recover itself from the powerful blows of the storm; yet the roots hold it. But now comes another blast; and it seems as if the tree must be torn up out of the earth; but the strain ceases just in time for the old oak to rock back into its place again; yet, if there were a pound or two more force in that tremendous blast, the tree would be laid prone on the grass; but God, in his people’s case at any rate, just stops at the right point. You may be tried until you do not have an ounce of strength left. Sometimes, the Lord tests his people until it seems as if one more breath from him would assuredly cause them to sink. Then he places the everlasting arms under them, and no further trial is laid on them. This is a blessed thing, for all of you have troubles of one kind or another, and you who are the people of God may take this text, and, rely implicitly on it: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able.”

25. As for you who are not his people, I am very sorry for you. I am holding up these precious things, but they are not for you. God’s Word declares, “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” If you have no God to flee to, what will you do when the storms beat on your barque? To whom or where can you flee? As for the Christian, he can sing, —

    Jesu, lover of my soul,
    Let me to thy bosom fly,
    While the nearer waters roll,
    While the tempest still is high!
    Hide me, oh my Saviour, hide,
    Till the storm of life be past;
    Safe into the haven guide;
    Oh receive my soul at last!

But, poor dear souls who do not love Christ, where can you find comfort in your seasons of sorrow and trial? You who have lost wife and children, — you who are pinched with poverty, — you who are racked with sickness, and yet have no Saviour, what can you do? Poor homeless people in a snowstorm, — what can they do without even a bush to shelter them? That is just your state, and I grieve for you, and plead with you not to remain in such a pitiful condition even for a moment longer.

    Come, guilty souls, and flee away
       Like doves to Jesus’ wounds;
    This is the welcome gospel-day,
       Wherein free grace abounds.

Oh, that your sense of need might drive you to accept Christ as your Saviour this very hour! As for his believing people, there is this solid comfort for them, they shall never be tempted more than they are able.

26. IV. The next comfort we gather from our text relates to THE PROVISION WHICH THE LORD MAKES FOR THE TEMPTED: “God is faithful, who …… will with the temptation also make a way to escape.”

27. The Greek has it, “who will with the temptation also make the way to escape”; for there is a proper way to escape from a temptation. There are twenty improper ways; and woe to the man who makes use of any one of them; but there is only one proper way out of a trial, and that is the straight way, the way that God has made for his people to travel. God has made through all trials the way by which his servants may correctly come out of them. When the brave young Jews were tried by Nebuchadnezzar, there was one way by which they might have kept out of the burning fiery furnace. They only had to bow their knees before the great image when the flute, harp, sackbut, and psaltery sounded; that way of escape would never have been proper, for it was not the right one. The way for them was to be thrown down into the furnace, and there to have the Son of God walking with them in the midst of the fire that could not harm them. In the same way, whenever you are exposed to any trial, take care that you do not try to escape from it in any wrong way.

28. Notice especially that the right way is always of God’s making; therefore, any of you who are now exposed to temptation or trial do not have to make your own way of escape out of it. God, and God alone, has to make it for you, so do not attempt to make it for yourselves. I knew a man who was in trouble because he was short of money; and the way he made for himself was to use someone else’s money, with which he had been entrusted. That was not God’s way of escape for him, so he only plunged himself into a worse trial than he was in before. I have known a man of business to be in great trouble, and things were going wrong with him, so he speculated, and gambled, and ruined both his business and his personal character. That was not God’s way for him to escape from his troubles. Sometimes, the best thing a man in trouble can do, is to do nothing at all, but to leave everything in the hands of God. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God led them in a way which men might well have criticized; there was nothing in front of them but the sea, and behind them came Pharaoh in all his rage, crying, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied on them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.” Now, then, what was God’s way of escape for them? Right through the Red Sea, and on the other side they sang, when the Egyptians were drowned, “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.” It would have been a great pity if they had tried to escape by any way of their own, or had attempted to turn around, and fight Pharaoh; that would not have done at all, but the Lord made for his people the very best way of escape that could possibly have been devised.

29. Notice, also, that the Lord makes the way of escape “with the temptation.” He allowed the trial to come, and at the same time he made the way of escape from it. God has planned it all, my brother, how you, his champion, shall go out, and fight valiantly in his strength; and how he will be your shield and your very great reward. He will lead you into the dangerous defile; but then he can see the way out of it as well as the way into it, and he will take you safely through. Did not the psalmist sing, “To him who led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endures for ever?” He not only led them into the wilderness, but he led them through it, blessed be his holy name! And if he has brought you into the wilderness of trouble and affliction, he made the way out of it at the same time that he made the trouble. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you shall dwell in the land, and truly you shall be fed. Delight yourself also in the Lord; and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring out your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: do not fret yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.” “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and everything else that you need shall be added to you. Keep clear of the sin of the temptation, and you need not fear the sorrow of the temptation. If the trials do not drive you to your own devices, but drive you to your knees, they will, after all, be blessings to you.

30. That is the fourth comfort, that God has made the way of escape for his people out of their trials. “Well, then,” someone says, “I shall escape from this trial.” Wait for a moment, my friend, and listen to the closing words of the text, with which I will conclude my discourse.

31. V. This is the last point of comfort, THE SUPPORT WHICH GOD SUPPLIES IN THE TRIAL: “so that you may be able to bear it.”

32. God’s way of escape from trial is not for his people to avoid it, so as not to pass through it, but such an escape as leads them through the trouble, and out at the other end; not an escape from the Red Sea, but an escape through the Red Sea from an even greater trial. If you, beloved, are exposed to trial or temptation, you are to be made able to bear it. Now, pray, before you leave this building, that this last word, on which I do not have time to enlarge, may be fulfilled in your experience: “so that you may be able to bear it.”

33. Suppose you are to be poor. Well, if God has so appointed it, you will be poor; therefore, pray that you may be able to bear it. With honest industry and stern integrity struggle to attain to a better position; but, if all your efforts fail, then say to the Lord, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Perhaps your dear child is dying, or your wife is sickening; you dread the thought of losing them, and you would willingly give your life, if you could, for them. Well, do all you can for their recovery, for life is precious, and any money spent to save it will be well spent; but, if health is not to be granted to them, pray that you may be able to bear even that heavy trial. It is amazing how God does help his people to bear troubles which they thought would crush them. I have seen poor feeble women, that I thought would die under their bereavement, become brave and strong; and men, who were faint-hearted in the prospect of trouble, have nevertheless blessed the Lord for it when the blow has actually fallen; and you may do the same.

34. Suppose you are to be sick. Well, that is a severe trial, and I know that, personally, I would do anything I could to escape from the affliction that often besets me; but if it must not be, then I must change my tune, and pray that I may be able to bear it. I had a letter from a man of God, this morning, which sustained me very much. He says, “My dear brother, I was sorry to hear that you who were again in pain, and depressed in spirit, and so forth; but, as I remembered how God had blessed you in so many ways, I thought to myself, ‘Perhaps Mr. Spurgeon would not have kept to preaching the doctrines of grace, and would not have been so able to comfort God’s poor people, if he did not get these smart touches sometimes.’ So,” he said, “I congratulate you on these trials”; and I accepted the congratulation. Will you not do the same, my afflicted brother or sister? Pray, “Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”; but, if it must not, then here comes that other form of comfort, “so that you may be able to bear it.”

35. And remember, dear friends, while I tell you to make this passage into a prayer, it is really a promise; and there is no prayer like a promise that is turned, as it were, roundabout, and cut prayerwise. God himself has said, by his inspired apostle, that he “will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it.” Up with the banners, then! Forward, whatever obstructs the way! Let us sing, with good old John Ryland, —

    Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead,
       I’ll follow where he goes;
    “Hinder me not,” shall be my cry,
       Though earth and hell oppose.

The immortal life within us can never be destroyed; the divine nature, which God the Holy Spirit has implanted, shall never be trodden underfoot. “Do not rejoice against me, oh my enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.”

36. But, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry am I, from the bottom of my soul, for you who do not know the Lord, for this comfort is not for you! Please seek him; seek him as your Saviour. Look to him, and trust in him; and then all the blessings of the everlasting covenant shall be yours, for the Father has given him to be a Leader and Commander to the people, and those who look to him, and follow him, shall live for ever and ever. May God bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Courage and Confidence — ‘Be Strong, Fear Not’ ” 675}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Support in Affliction — Welcoming The Cross” 750}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Privileges, Support in Affliction — ‘As Thy Day, Thy Strength Shall Be’ ” 745}

New Book By Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon,

Uniform with A Carillon of Bells.

Just published. Cloth, gilt. Price 1s. 6d.

“A Cluster of Camphire”;

Or, Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls.

Press Notices.

“This is a little tome by the widow of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who writes as if the mantle of her ascended husband had fallen on her shoulders. She is naturally gifted, and therefore always wrote well; but since the Angel of Death took her husband from her side, her pen seems to have gained wonderfully in power and pathos. …… In the pages before us, she has done her very best to console and cheer ‘sick and sorrowful souls,’ and we need hardly say that she has attained her object, for her precious brochure is so full of light and joy that very many have already welcomed it with all their heart, and blessed God for disposing her to write it; and, doubtless, thousands more will do the same. Oh that a copy of it could be placed in every sick-room, and read often to every sorrowful spirit; the harp now hanging on the willow would soon be taken down, and the heart and the hand joined together in making sweet melody to the Lord. Christians of all religious denominations may read the little work to their edification and comfort; and, therefore, we heartily commend it to them.” — The Derbyshire Times.

“ ‘Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls’ is the subtitle by which Mrs. Spurgeon describes this little book. Since she writes from her own position in the shadows of life, she writes from experience and with sympathy. The booklet appeals to a vast class. It is intensely scriptural, every chapter being like a sermonette, based on some text. The texts are well chosen. ‘Because the Lord loved you’; {De 7:8} ‘Can God Furnish a Table in the Wilderness?’ {Ps 78:19} ‘I have seen his ways, and will heal him’, {Isa 57:18} are examples of those selected. There is much of gentle power in the unpretentious and simple style of these pages. To one imprisoned by sickness, or stricken with grief, such a book would come as a soothing messenger of peace.” — The Christian Commonwealth.

“Whatever comes from the pen of Mrs. Spurgeon is helpful and consolatory for those who are engaged in the more stern or distressing conditions of life. In her latest volume, ‘A Cluster of Camphire,’ she has made it a special purpose to utter ‘Words of cheer and comfort for sick and sorrowful souls.’ There are nearly twenty papers, and since they are concise as well as pointed and practical, they are adapted for perusal at any spare moment. They are particularly suitable for the weary toilers who need a little word of sympathy and encouragement in the momentary intervals of their labours.” — The Dundee Advertiser.

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

The Christian, Courage and Confidence
675 — “Be Strong, Fear Not”
1 Now let the feeble all be strong,
   And make Jehovah’s arm their song,
   His shield is spread o’er every saint,
   And thus supported, who shall faint?
2 What though the hosts of hell engage
   With mingled cruelty and rage!
   A faithful God restrains their hands,
   And chains them down in iron bands.
3 Bound by his word, he will display
   A strength proportion’d to our day;
   And, when united trials meet,
   Will show a path of safe retreat.
4 Thus far we prove that promise good,
   Which Jesus ratified with blood:
   Still he is gracious, wise, and just,
   And still in him let Israel trust.
                     Philip Doddridge, 1755.

The Christian, Privileges, Support in Affliction
750 — Welcoming The Cross <7s.>
1 ‘Tis my happiness below
   Not to live without the cross,
   But the Saviour’s power to know,
   Sanctifying every loss:
   Trials must and will befall;
   But, with humble faith to see
   Love inscribed upon them all —
   This is happiness to me.
2 God in Israel sows the seeds
   Of affliction, pain, and toil;
   These spring and choke the weeds
   Which would else o’erspread the soil:
   Trials make the promise sweet;
   Trials give new life to prayer;
   Trials bring me to his feet,
   Lay me low and keep me there.
3 Did I meet no trials here,
   No chastisement by the way,
   Might I not, with reason, fear
   I should prove a castaway?
   Bastards may escape the rod,
   Sunk in earthly vain delight;
   But the true-born child of God
   Must not, would not if he might.
                  William Cowper, 1779.

The Christian, Privileges, Support in Affliction
745 — “As Thy Day, Thy Strength Shall Be”
1 Afflicted soul, to Jesus dear,
   Thy Saviour’s gracious promise hear;
   His faithful word declares to thee
   That, “as thy day, thy strength shall be.”
2 Let not thy heart despond, and say,
   How shall I stand the trying day?
   He has engaged, by firm decree,
   That, “as thy day, thy strength shall be.”
3 Should persecution rage and flame,
   Still trust in thy Redeemer’s name;
   In fiery trials thou shalt see
   That, “as thy day, thy strength shall be.”
4 When call’d to bear the weighty cross,
   Or sore affliction, pain, or loss,
   Or deep distress, or poverty,
   Still, “as thy day, thy strength shall be.”
5 When ghastly death appears in view,
   Christ’s presence shall thy fears subdue;
   He comes to set thy spirit free;
   And “as thy day, thy strength shall be.”
                        James Fawcett, 1782.