3172. Bright Prospects For Young Believers

A Sermon Published On Thursday, November 25, 1909.

But to you who fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go out, and grow up as calves of the stall. {Mal 4:2}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1020, “Sun of Righteousness, The” 1011}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1463, “Rising Sun, The” 1461}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3172, “Bright Prospects for Young Believers” 3173}

   Exposition on Mal 3; 4 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2970, “God’s Jewels” 2971 @@ "Exposition"}

1. This great promise was fulfilled at the coming of our Lord. There were many waiting for it, like Anna, and Simeon, mourning the darkness in which they dwelt, and scarcely cheered by a single star, for the voice of prophecy had ceased. Then suddenly Christ came, and so the Sun of righteousness arose on those who feared the Lord. They went out into blessed liberty, rejoicing in him; and their light afterwards was greatly increased in brightness, and their life in happiness as they grew in divine knowledge and holiness. It is difficult for us to conceive the revulsion of feeling which must have come into the hearts of such patient waiters for the Lord as Anna, and Simeon. They must have triumphed greatly, magnifying the Lord, with Mary, that at last he had come, the Light to enlighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people Israel.

2. This promise has also had a practical fulfilment in the death-bed experiences of God’s people. Tortured with disease, they have been lying in the darkness and gloom of death. Perhaps fears have come in, and physical infirmity has been the platform on which Satan has planted his heavy guns of temptation. But, suddenly, a wondrous light has surprised them; their death-bed has become a throne of glory; they have found themselves arrayed in royal garments as though it were their coronation rather than their departure out of this world. They have been enabled to sit upright in the bed, and to tell others that they had beheld the brightness of the coming glory, and that they had experienced in their souls the foretaste of unspeakable and divine joys even before their bodies were released from infirmity and pain. Though the body has been firmly bound with cords, the soul has mounted up, as on the wings of eagles, in sacred rapture and holy bliss. The Sun of righteousness has risen on them. Before their earthly sun went down, the heavenly Sun lit up their sky with a sacred high, eternal noon; and for you who fear the name of the Lord, whatever gloom may surround your departure from the earth, the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, and one day you shall find him rise even on your mortal bodies.

   From beds of dust and silent clay

      To realms of everlasting day,—

your very bodies shall wing their flight to dwell—

   “For ever with the Lord.”

3. While the promise in the text has had these two fulfilments, there is no doubt that it awaits another. We are looking for the return of the Lord Jesus; and though, perhaps, we have no right to expect that he will come today or tomorrow,—for there are many prophecies which, apparently, must be fulfilled, before he comes, and which may require long periods of time,—yet we are to expect him, and are to be as servants who know that their master will come to call them to account. Perhaps, just when the Christian Church shall become most weary, when the hands of her ministers shall hang down through feebleness, when the warriors shall be “faint, yet pursuing,” when Gog and Magog and the hosts of the enemy shall have gathered themselves together for battle, and everything seems to forebode a long dark night for the Church and for the world;—perhaps, just then Christ will suddenly appear in the clouds of heaven; perhaps at such a time as that the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings, and the triumphant saints shall go out to meet him, clothed with his brightness, sharing in his kingdom, and, as the next verse solemnly tells us, treading down the wicked, who shall be like ashes beneath their feet in the day of their Lord’s appearing. Perhaps this is to be the great fulfilment of the text.

4. But I do not intend to dwell tonight on any of these three probable fulfilments of the prophecy. I want rather to talk about matters which more nearly concern us just now, and to put a few practical soul matters before this entire congregation, hoping that God may press them home on some, so that they may find healing beneath the wings of Christ tonight.

5. I. The text speaks, you will observe, of a certain class of people, THOSE WHO FEAR GOD’S NAME.

6. The great multitude of people in the world do not fear the name of God; they do not care whether there is a God or not. If there were no God, their conduct would not be very different from what it now is. God is not in all their thoughts; they live as if they were their own creators and sustainers, and practically join in the language of Pharaoh, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice?” Now, for such people, the Bible contains no blessing; how should it when they reject both it and the God who wrote it?

7. But there are some in the world—thank God, more now, perhaps, than at any former period,—who do fear God. Some have not advanced far in this heavenly wisdom; they are like pupils in the first grade at school. They fear God just so much as this, that they would not wilfully sin. They are checked from presumptuous sins by the fear of God; and this is good. It is so good a thing that I believe it is like that smoking flax which Christ will not quench; and that the man who really fears to sin because God would see him, and who desires to do right because God would have him do right, is not far from the kingdom of God; if, indeed, he is not actually in the kingdom.

8. Others have advanced so far in this fear that they have been brought into torment by it. They know that they have already sinned, and they dread the thought of the terrible One who has said that he “will by no means clear the guilty.” They have heard the thunder-clap of that dreadful verse, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them”; and they therefore fear God. It is a fear that brings bondage, but even that is better than no fear at all. They believe God, and they tremble, and we are thankful to see them trembling; for now, perhaps, they will begin to say within themselves, “We will seek our Father’s face; we will flee to him, and ask him to save us from his own wrath through his own Son.”

9. This fear in some, however, has happily advanced even further. They have come to fear God with a childlike fear. Their sin has been forgiven, they have put their trust in the Saviour, they have heard the voice which says, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions; and, as a cloud, your sins”; and now they fear God with a fear with which love is perfectly consistent; they fear him as a loving, tender-hearted child fears to disobey a gracious, kind, wise, loving father. God is in their thoughts; indeed, more, God is in their hearts. They love him. They could not bear to live without God; they would be orphans, their Father would be gone. Without God, they would be poverty-stricken, for their wealth is found in him.

10. I know there are some of you here who could do wonderfully well without a God; indeed, you would be much happier than you now are if it could be proved that there is no God, for the thought of God is a bugbear to some of you, and you try as much as possible to shut the ears of your soul against the cry of conscience when it tells you that there is a God, and a God who will bring you into judgment for all your actions. Well, the promise in the text is not for you, but it is for those who realize that there is a God, and who have respect for his Word; who tremble before him, and yet who rejoice in him, having been brought near to him by the precious blood of Jesus, and having been reconciled to him by Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and man. Dear friend, if you only fear God, take the text, and live on it. It is a precious hive of honey, and you may extract the utmost sweetness from it. Let us go to it now, and feed on it, as it is given to us here as food from heaven for our souls.

11. II. Having determined the people to whom the text is addressed, let us next notice that, according to this verse, SOME OF THOSE WHO FEAR GOD ARE IN THE DARK.

12. They fear God, but they do not have any happiness. They are doubtful, timid, and possibly they are constitutionally dull and sad. Besides that, they are diseased, and need the “healing” of which the text speaks. They are not what they want to be; they have a bad temper to struggle against, or some besetting sin to mourn over.

13. Now observe the promise that is given to them, that they shall be visited in a remarkable manner by the Lord Jesus; and that, as a result of this visitation, they shall receive the two things that they especially need, namely, light and healing. They are in the dark, so they shall receive light and comfort; they are sick in soul, but they shall receive healing from Christ. The great blessing promised is that Christ shall appear to them, but see in what a way it is said that he shall appear. He is called “the Sun of righteousness.” What a title for our blessed Lord! He who hung on Calvary in the thickest darkness was the Sun of righteousness. He is sometimes compared to a star, but this metaphor is more full, and more worthy of him. Christ is the centre of the universe. “Without him was not anything made that was made.” “By him all things consist.” Just as the sun, with secret bands, keeps all the planets in their places, and is the great regulator of the solar machinery, so Christ is the great centre of the world, and especially of his own Church. Flowing out from the sun, floods of heat and light are continually being scattered. We know that the sun borrows nothing from any other source; it itself is the source, in its stupendous furnace, of the light and heat which gladden all the worlds of which it is the centre and controller. So it is with our Saviour; borrowing nothing, but having all fulness dwelling within him, he pours out from his own inexhaustible heart of infinite mercy and compassion, floods of light to make glad the ignorant, and floods of heat to comfort the sorrowing.

14. We can scarcely bear to look at the sun, it is an orb of such surpassing splendour, continually giving out such vast amounts of light, if I may use the expression; and, oh! who could look on the unveiled splendour of the Lord Jesus? Perhaps, if we could see him as he now is in heaven, we might feel as if we were not prepared for so great a sight, our eye not being yet strong enough to be able to bear the burning splendour of the great Sun of righteousness. If you could get any adequate idea of the light and heat that come from the sun, you might then form some faint conception of the—

   “Streams of mercy, never ceasing,”—

which flood the universe from Christ, the great central orb of the love of God. Oh, happy are those who bask in his beams! Blessed are those who walk in his light! Best of all and most happy are those who, like Milton’s angel standing in the sun, dwell amid the very fulness of Christ’s glory where he sits on his Father’s throne.

15. Christ, then, is the Sun of righteousness. Now, sinner; now, trembler; if you fear God, Christ will be a sun to you. You will have no lack of knowledge, then, depend on it, for he shall teach you all things. If Christ shall arise on you, you shall see your sins clearly enough; but you shall also see God, and therefore you shall see hope, you shall see pardon, you shall see peace, you shall see heaven. What will the sun not reveal? Everything is in darkness until it appears; but when he rises, everything is revealed. And oh, poor troubled soul, you see nothing, and you know very little, until Christ comes to you; but if he shall arise on you, as the Sun of righteousness, you shall know all that you need to know, and perceive everything that is delightful and comforting, and so your heart shall be glad.

16. But the metaphor employed in the text is a double one. It is said that, sometimes, in the East, after a long time of calm, the very air gets putrid, and the glowing sand reflects the burning heat; until, presently, a refreshing land breeze comes up with the sunrise. So Christ is pictured here as a sun, his beams being like the wings of some gigantic golden eagle, and those wings, like refreshing winds, bringing health to the poor sickly inhabitants of earth who are ready to die. Certainly, when Christ comes in all his splendour of light, for he is “the Light of the world,” he comes also with health to sick souls. Do not believe, soul, that your sickness is incurable, though Satan may tell you a thousand times that it is. If Christ comes to deal with you, man, though your disease should be the deadly cancer of blasphemy, he can cure it; though you should have the fever of drunkenness within your soul, Christ can heal you of that fiery malady. I ventured to say this morning, that there is no hospital for incurable souls now because Christ can cure all kinds of spiritual diseases. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 720, “The Gospel’s Healing Power” 711}

17. You perceive that the text does not say that those who fear the name of the Lord shall be cured of their spiritual maladies by what they do themselves. No, but that Christ, the Sun of righteousness shall arise on them, and in his light they shall obtain the health they lack. Get Jesus, poor soul, and you need not trouble yourself about much else. There is everything that a sinner requires in the person of the appointed Saviour. Arise, oh you blessed Jesus Christ, like the sun on the darkness, so that some who are in this place now may leave their sins, and rejoice in your power to save!

18. You perceive also that the way in which those who fear the Lord get light is not by their raising the sun,—that would be impossible, but it is through the sun itself rising on them. Some sinners seem to think that they are to get comfort and light for themselves; but it is not so, Christ must bring it all to you. You are not to bring anything to Jesus, but to come to his fulness to receive everything. Do you understand me, man? Supposing that you are full of sin, full of hardness of heart, and of everything that is bad, and contrary to the mind of God, yet, if you are saved, it will be by Christ appearing to your mind’s eye,—and that mind’s eye seeing him, and your soul trusting in him; and if you do so, you are saved. “What!” you say, “is there nothing for me to do?” There is nothing for you to do, in order that you may be saved, but believe in Jesus. You shall do many things after you are saved; I shall go on to tell you of them presently; but the work of saving your soul does not rest with you. Christ is the Saviour, and he will do it all; you are not to help in that work.

   It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,

      But the blood that atones for the soul:

   On him, then, who shed it believing at once

      Thy weight of iniquities roll.

   We are heal’d by his stripes,—wouldest thou add to the Word?

      And he is our righteousness made:

   The best robe of heaven he bids thee put on:

      Oh! couldest thou be better array’d?

   Then doubt not thy welcome, since God has declared

      There remaineth no more to be done;

   That once in the end of the world he appear’d;

      And completed the work he begun.

Imagine people lighting their candles after the sun has risen! “Oh!” they say, “but we may as well add to the light.” But do your candles add to the light when you have the sunlight? Do they not rather mock the light? Are they not an impertinence in the presence of the great orb of day? And, sinner, do you not light your candles to add to the light of the Sun of righteousness; do you not bring your nothingness and your emptinesses to add to the perfection of Christ’s finished work? You cannot help him to save you, so do not insult him by attempting to do so; but take the text, and from your heart pray, “Oh God, let the Sun of righteousness arise on me with healing in his wings, for I do, I trust, fear your name!”

19. I hope this truth will not pass away from your memories; I feel so concerned lest any of you should miss the blessing that God is giving us just now. I know I have with me the opinion of hundreds who fear the Lord, that God is very marvellously present with us as a church, and that he has been so for a long time; but I fear lest the cloud should pass away before the heavenly rain falls on more of you. I trust that it will not, but that you may receive the blessing in your souls.

20. III. Now I must go on to observe WHAT IS TO FOLLOW IN THE CASE OF THOSE ON WHOM THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ARISES. The promise to them in the text is, “You shall go out, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

21. It is a subject of great anxiety to earnest church officers concerning what will become of our young converts. Many are added to our numbers who know very little of the doctrines of grace. Now you perceive that here is the blessing for them which may remove our anxiety; may all of you who have recently been converted share in that blessing!

22. The promise is that they “shall go out.” Of course, this means that they shall enjoy spiritual liberty. When Christ comes into the heart, whatever bondage there may have been there before, it all disappears in his presence. Where Jesus comes, he is the true Liberator. No chains are worn in the court of King Jesus. The moment he enters the heart, he proclaims perfect emancipation, and—

   “The prisoner leaps to lose his chains.”

Yet the realization of this emancipation may be gradual, and a true convert may be saying, “I wish I could enjoy the promises, and go out and walk at liberty in the green pastures.” Well do I remember when I heard some believers singing,—

   Yes, I to the end shall endure,

      As sure as the earnest is given;

   More happy, but not more secure,

      The glorified spirits in heaven;—

and I thought then, “Ah! I shall never be able to sing that; it is too high a note for me.” But I can sing it now, and sing it truthfully too, and so will you, who have only just seen Christ, be able to do; you shall go out in the liberty with which Christ makes his people free.

23. You shall go out, too, in Christian ordinances. Perhaps you say, “I would be afraid to be baptized; it is such a solemn thing to profess death, burial, and resurrection with Christ, I do not think I could dare to do that; and as for going before a Christian church, and affirming my faith in Jesus, I am afraid I could not do that, my lips would be tightly closed through fear; and I would not feel at liberty to come to the Master’s table, I would be so afraid of eating and drinking condemnation to myself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” Ah, poor trembler, I know just how you feel; but when the Sun of righteousness arises on your soul, you will get liberty in all these matters, and will go out in obedience to your Lord’s commands. If a stranger were to come to your house, he would stand at the door, or wait in the hall; if he were a person of any sense, he would not think of walking into your parlour, or your drawing-room, or your bedroom, for he would not be at home there; but your child makes himself free in your house because he is at home. So it is with the child of God, for a child may come where a stranger may not venture to go. When the Holy Spirit has become the Spirit of adoption to you, you will go out to Christian ordinances without fear.

24. So it will be with the Christian’s inward privileges. I know you think, poor seeker, that you never may “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” If you may only just get inside Christ’s door, or sit at the end of his table, you think you will be well content. Ah! but you shall not have any less privileges than the greatest of God’s children. God makes no differences between his children as far as their privileges are concerned. He will not make us his hired servants, but we, even we, shall feast on the fatted calf, and shall have the music and the dancing as much as if we had never gone astray. Yes, young Christian, you shall go out. You do not know what is before you; there is the goodly land, and it is all yours. Do not imagine that you are always to be a babe in grace; you shall grow and become, I hope, a full-grown man in Christ Jesus; yes, a father in Israel. Do not imagine that you are always to be like that little green blade which is just peeping up above the cold sod; you shall one day be like the grain in the ear; yes, more, you shall one day be like the golden grain which bends its head through its ripeness, and the glad harvest home shall be shouted over you. You shall not always be weak and feeble, and afraid to enjoy your Christian privileges. You would not know yourself if you could see what you will yet be. The songs you are yet to sing, the grapes of Eshcol you are yet to pick, the fair days of joy you are yet to spend, the feasts and banquets, the real enjoyments which you are yet to know on this side of the grave, might well make you happy if you could only get a foretaste of them. Yes, you shall go out; only have Christ as your Saviour, and there shall be no end of your happiness. Let the Sun of righteousness only rise on you, and your light shall never be put out.

25. But that is not all, for the text also says, “You shall grow up as calves of the stall.” That is to say, these very people, who are so timid now, shall advance in the divine life at the fastest rate. The calf grows very rapidly, and it ought to do so when it is put into the stall on purpose to help it to grow. The reference is to the calves that are stalled for fattening, those who are fatted regularly, fatted abundantly by those whose purpose it is to make them grow. So the text tells the young Christian that he shall grow like the calf in the stall. God’s ministers shall feed him, God’s Word shall be the granary out of which his food shall come, and God’s Spirit shall enable him to feed on that food, and make him to grow by it. Christ himself shall be that poor trembler’s daily bread, his food and his drink. He who feeds on Christ must grow. It is no cause for wonder if the saints are fat and flourishing, and produce fruit in old age, when they feed on Christ. Whenever a Christian has to say, “My leanness, my leanness, woe is me,” it cannot be because suitable food has not been supplied, it must be because he has not fed on it; for if we have fed on Christ Jesus, how can we not help growing in faith, and knowledge, and holiness, and every spiritual gift?

26. I am hopeful, therefore, for our young members, that God will take care of them, and that they will surprise us by the advance which they will make. I only hope that they will surpass all who have ever gone before them. Ah, dear young friends, never take us as an example in stopping short of the true Christian ideal. Follow us as far as we follow Christ, but go beyond the very best of us where you see that we come short of what we ought to be. I hope you will be more earnest, more prayerful, more conscientious, more diligent than any of us have been. May the next generation of Christians outshine the present one, and so may it continue to be until Christ himself comes, and his Church shall be in her glory! Do you remember that passage in the Revelation about the woman clothed with the sun? How bright she must be! But that is the Christian Church, and it is you also in your measure, for you are to be clothed with the sun. Your brightness and holiness are to be such that men shall know that the Sun of righteousness has risen on you. You do not have any light in yourselves; but when you receive the light from Christ, take care that you reflect it. How bright should those be who shine in the beams of Jesus Christ himself!

27. There is one translation of the last clause of the text which I should like to mention. It is thought by some eminent divines that the word rendered “stall” bears also the meaning of “yoke.” If it is so, then the genuine Christian grows up like the heifers that wear the yoke; that is to say, he is a worker as well as a feeder. He grows, but he is willing to bear the yoke, and serve his Lord. I would not thank God for the addition to this church of a man who would be idle, argumentative, and selfish. I would deprecate such a diminution of our strength, even though it might be an augmentation of our numbers. The church members we want are those who are willing to consecrate themselves entirely to the Lord, and to whom religion is a reality. With many it is a sham, a mere pretence, a thing to make them appear respectable, but not a matter which eats up their life, and takes away their energy, bearing them onward in service as in a chariot of fire. May you who are converted grow up as heifers that wear the yoke! May you plough to the end of your field, and back again, and on, and on, ploughing in the Master’s service until the time shall come for the yoke to be taken from your necks! The crest and the motto of the American Baptist Missionary Union should be ours; the crest is an ox standing between a plough and an altar, and the motto is “Ready for either.” May we be ready to be offered up in death or to serve God in life!

28. Now I have to say this to you who fear the Lord, and who are seeking to have Christ in your hearts,—Seek to get him as the Sun of righteousness shining within you. Ask, after you have Christ, that you may be helped to grow in grace; that you may not be dull and heavy as some have been, that you may not be encumberers of the ground, that you may not be the mere baggage of Christ’s army impeding the march of his heroes, but that you may be men who shall be swifter than eagles and bolder than lions, consecrated men, to whom work shall be pleasure, and loss shall be gain; men who, as the arrow speeds from the archer’s bow, turning neither to the right nor to the left, shall speed onward to the prize of your high calling, thinking of nothing except of winning Christ, and being found in him.

29. May God grant us this blessing now! Let the prayer be breathed, “Arise on us, Sun of righteousness,” and then let the other prayer follow, “Make us to go out, and to grow up like calves of the stall, and may we serve you, oh God, and receive your blessing, world without end! Amen.”

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Lu 10:25-42}

25-28. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” And he answering said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly: do this and you shall live.”

Do any of you want to live by the law? There is the law. Does any man here pretend that he has kept it? Let me ask any man here who would justify himself by his own works, have you thought of God today? How much time have you spent with God? or yesterday, how much of your time did you give him,—how many minutes? Would you venture to say that you spent a quarter of an hour in prayer? No, perhaps, if it comes to the truth, you did not spend five minutes. Now, if you loved God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind, do you think that five minutes would satisfy such a love as that? Oh, no, sirs, you who are unconverted give God no love at all, and how can you think, therefore, that you are keeping his law which puts it so strongly, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself”? Have you ever done that? Neither the first nor the second table have you kept intact.

29. But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

The Saviour then related this incident, which I have no doubt was really a fact.

30. And Jesus answering said, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half-dead.

It was a very dangerous road, a very lonely part, and robberies were very frequent there.

31. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

He did not like the look of wounds and blood. It is a very convenient thing not to remember the miseries of your fellow men. Do not think about their poverty: it might spoil your digestion. Do not think about their drunkenness: you might have to become a teetotaller. Do not think about their sin: you might have to go and preach on the street to them. You can live so easily and pleasantly, and even be a priest and be called “His Reverence” if you are very careful which side of the road you take. “He passed by on the other side.”

32. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked at him and passed by on the other side.

There are some whose looks are evidently esteemed by themselves to be so very precious, that, when they have given them, they give nothing more. He may have meant, “I will look into it.” There are a great many who are very diligent in their promises to look into a case, but we do not see much come of what they say. They also pass by on the other side. Neither the priest nor the Levite acted as a neighbour to the man who fell among thieves.

33. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was:

He looked, approached, drew near, “came where he was.”

33. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

He did not ask him how he got there, or say to him, “Why, man, you must have been very foolish to travel alone. My dear friend, next time you come this way, you must come armed. Did you not know this was a very dangerous part of the road? And I think you are ill-advised to have been travelling quite so late.” Oh, we have many dear friends who always favour us with their rebukes when our wounds are bleeding! “He had compassion on him.”

34. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Oil and wine—two very good things for external application, and he used them for that. These were known to be excellent healers. They were expensive things too. He had brought them for his own comfort, and he freely used them for this poor man. Then he put him on his own beast; so he had to walk himself. He took the inconvenience. He relinquished his own comfort for the sake of doing good. “And he brought him to an inn, and took care of him,” perhaps sat up at night with him, he took care of him after he had gotten him into the inn. He did not immediately commend him to the care of some paid person, but at first he took care of him. But this good Samaritan had urgent business, and was obliged to go about it.

35. And the next morning when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said to him, “Take care of him; and whatever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you”

“This is my piece of work. I want to finish it, and since I cannot stay will you kindly supply the necessary money, and when I come again, I will repay you?”

36, 37. Which now of these three, do you think, was neighbour to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Oh, you lawyer, why did you not say “The Samaritan?” Of course, he did not like to use that word. Oh, no, we never mention them—the “Samaritans.” “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans”; so he would not honestly say “The Samaritan”; but he made a roundabout of it and said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

37. Then Jesus said to him, “Go, and do likewise.”

May we all be enabled to do so by exercising constant love for those who are in need!

38. Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

There were not so very many who kept an open house for Christ. But Martha did. It was her house.

39. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.

She was free to do so. It was not her house. She did not need to attend to its hospitalities. Her sister was quite equal to it, and so Mary did well to avail herself of the opportunity of sitting at Jesus’ feet, and hearing his word.

40. But Martha was encumbered with much serving, and came to him, and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her therefore that she should help me”

She wanted to get so much ready—to have everything nice. So she came almost scolding the Master. She was out of temper, surely, that day. She had become troubled. Dear friends, it is not wrong to labour and to work and do all we can, but it is wrong to grow encumbered with it,—to get fretful, anxious, worried about this thing and that. You will not do it any better. You will probably do less, and you will do it worse. She was “encumbered with much serving.”

41, 42. And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things: but one thing is necessary:

“You have forgotten much. Looking after many things, you have failed to remember the primary, the only necessary thing.”

42. And Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

And so he let her still sit there, and hear his blessed words.

   Oh, that I could for ever sit

   With Mary at the Master’s feet;

      Be this my happy choice!

Just Published. Price one penny each.

Spurgeon’s Illustrated Almanac for 1910.

The Texts for the Book Almanac have again been selected by Pastor Thomas Spurgeon, and he has made a very ingenious alphabetical arrangement of them beginning with A in January and ending with Z in December; he has also again written the introductory letter. Five of the articles are by C. H. Spurgeon, and others are by Dr. Churcher and Pastor W. Y. Fullerton; the illustrations are better than usual, so it is hoped that the sale will be even larger than in past years.

John Ploughman’s Almanac for 1910.

This popular broadsheet once more makes its appearance in good time for friends in distant lands to have it before the new year comes, and for friends at home to arrange for its widespread circulation wherever its homely messages may help to increase the practice of temperance, thrift, religion, and charity. It is believed that both pictures and proverbs will give the Almanac a worthy place among the many that have preceded it. The price for quantities for general distribution or localization can be obtained from Messrs. Passmore and Alabaster, 47, Paternoster Row, London, E. C.

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