3284. The Sequel to Divine Sovereignty

A Sermon Published On Thursday, January 11, 1912.

The LORD reigns; let the people tremble. {Ps 99:1}

The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice. {Ps 97:1}

1. No doctrine in the whole Word of God has more aroused the hatred of mankind than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 77, “Divine Sovereignty” 73} The fact that “the Lord reigns” is indisputable, and it is this fact that arises the utmost opposition in the unrenewed human heart. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’” We know what the Lord thinks of their rebellion against him: “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his severe displeasure.” Let us, beloved, not be among those who refuse to believe this great truth, but may we humbly bow before that dread Sovereign who does as he wishes among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world.

   God is a King of power unknown;

   Firm are the orders of his throne;

   If he resolves, who dare oppose,

   Or ask him why, or what he does?

2. God has the right to act like this, first, because he is the source of all created existence. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and everything else that exists is the product of his creative power. As the writer of the hundredth Psalm says, “It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves”; so he has the absolute right to do with us whatever he pleases. It rested with him to make us or not to make us; and when he determined to create, it was according to his own will that he made one creature a worm and another an eagle, one an ant crawling on its little hill and another a leviathan making the deep to boil; it was by his decree that there were almost boundless variations among the great family of mankind. In constitution, and disposition, and temperament, in the very appearance of our bodies, in the strange diversities of our mental capacities, in our position on the globe or our place and circumstances in any particular country and nation, we see traces of the sovereign purpose and will of God. It is true that our ancestors, parents, and surroundings have exerted certain influences on us, but there are peculiarities about each one of us which can only be ascribed to the sovereign good pleasure of God. That one should be a silent and unobtrusive traveller through life’s pilgrimage, and that another should be so eloquent as to speak in words that find an echo the whole wide world over, that one should sweat and toil all his days, and that another should be dandled on the knee of luxury, — we may say what we wish about all this; but, whether we agree with it or not, we cannot deny that it is according to divine appointment and order, and therefore we must submit to it.

   The Lord is King; who then shall dare

   Resist his will, distrust his care,

   Or murmur at his wise decrees,

   Or doubt his royal promises?

   The Lord is King; child of the dust,

   The Judge of all the earth is just:

   Holy and true are all his ways,

   Let every creature speak his praise.

3. Not only do we believe that, God being the Creator, he has the right to make his creatures according to his own will, but we also believe that he has another right over us acquired from our sinnership. We may say, though we speak it with bated breath in the presence of his awful majesty, that even creatures have their rights at their Creator’s hand. For example, every creature may claim from its Creator that it should not be punished if it does not offend, and that it should be made happy if it is obedient to his commands. Such rights Jehovah has always acknowledged, and has never violated. But you and I, dear friends, have lost all the rights of creatureship, for we have all sinned. A subject of this realm has the right of freedom to go were he pleases, and do what he pleases as long as he does not offend against the law of the land; but if he commits high treason, or robbery, or some other crime, and so is brought under the condemnation of the law, immediately he loses all right to his freedom, and is put in prison with other criminals. Now the law of God’s universe, a most equitable and just law, runs like this, “The soul that sins it shall die”; and since we have all sinned, the sentence of death is recorded against every soul of woman born; and that any of us are still permitted to live is due to the clemency of the great King. Some of us, blessed be his holy name, have been pardoned by him; and having been pardoned, we shall never again be condemned; but others have a postponement of sentencing by his Majesty’s pleasure, and that postponement is an act of divine sovereignty. Had he executed the sentence pronounced on us as soon as we had sinned, we might have bewailed his severity, yet we could never have impeached his justice, for we should have deserved the utmost penalty that could have been demanded by his righteous law. So that, by virtue of our sinnership, God has the right to punish us if he pleases to do so; but if he can, consistently with the principles of eternal justice, pardon us, he has the right do so. You noticed that I said, “consistently with the principles of eternal justice” for God will never violate those principles. He can always do as he wills, but he always wills to do what is right; and, by the atonement of his dear Son, he has made a way by which he can satisfy all the claims of his inflexible justice, and yet can take infinite delight in bestowing his mercy on the guilty. Then surely, as mercy is not only God’s prerogative as King, but also had to be so dearly bought by the precious blood of his well-beloved Son, we ought not to be slow in confessing that he has the right to bestow that mercy whenever he pleases. In any case, whether we believe it or not, this declaration is still thundered out from the throne of the Eternal, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

4. Observe then, three rights which belong to God, — as Creator; as Judge, having the right to punish the guilty, and as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, having the right to pardon sinners, and to do it without in the slightest degree violating his justice. These are high doctrines, from which some turn away in despair. It is true that they are high, as high as the throne of God himself. When I think of them, I feel like the prophet Ezekiel when he looked at those wheels that were so high that they were dreadful; yet, beloved, since they are true, let us bow before them with awe-struck spirits yet with believing hearts knowing that the Judge of all the earth is certain to do what is right.

5. Moreover, the sovereignty of God is also displayed in his distribution of gifts among his own people, and surely he has the right to do this because the gifts are his own. If we could claim them as ours, they would not be gifts, but they would be rightly due to us like anything else that belonged to us. If any man has a valid claim on God for mercy, then it is not mercy that he should claim, but justice. If any man, by virtue of his own works, deserves to be saved, then salvation is by works, and not by grace, but this the Scriptures distinctly deny. If you come to God expecting to receive from him spiritual gifts because of certain rights vested in yourselves, you come to him on a footing that he cannot tolerate for a moment. He will say to you, “May I not do as I wish with my own?” and he will give nothing to you who claim it as a right, but he will give all they need to those who come to him confessing that they have no right to his mercy, and entreating that it may be bestowed on them through the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus.

   Justice upon a dreadful throne

      Maintains the rights of God;

   While mercy sends her pardons down,

      Bought with a Saviour’s blood.

6. So I have reminded you of the truth which is not only stated in our two texts, but is revealed in many other Scriptures also, — the truth that “the Lord reigns.” Just as he reigns in creation and providence, so he reigns in the realm of his grace. Taking the two texts together, I want, earnestly and affectionately, first to address the unsaved sinner, and then to speak to the saved believer, endeavouring to invoke in each soul the twin emotions of rejoicing and trembling: “The Lord reigns; let the people tremble.” “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice.”

7. I. So, first, LET ME SPEAK TO THE UNSAVED SINNER.

8. Sinner, it is an unspeakable mercy for you that the Lord reigns, for it is because he reigns that you are still alive. If God were not King, the sentence of justice must be executed, swiftly, surely, mercilessly; and every sinner, the moment that he sinned, must die. But, sinner, he who is King is very gracious, and he says to the officer of justice, “Spare that man; let him still live.” He has spared some of you thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, it may be even seventy years. You would not have spared any of your fellow creatures who had offended you as long as that. If a man provoked you to your face, your anger would be hot against him long before twenty years; some of you would not bear with him even for twenty minutes; yet you have provoked the Lord year after year, but the longsuffering patience in the heart of God has borne with you even until now. He has said concerning you again and again, “Spare him! Spare him!” When fever shot its fiery arrows at you, God turned them aside; and when the poison of disease was actually in your blood, he removed it with his healing hand. The Lord who reigns has spared you, therefore rejoice.

9. Yet tremble at the same time, sinner, for this great King can as readily slay as he can spare. One turn of his hand, no, not so as much as that, he need not even lift his little finger, he has only to will your death, and then where would you be? He who has been so strong to spare can be just as strong to strike. He has not yet taken up the axe, but when once he lifts it, and its sharp edge falls on the tree that is still barren, what will become of it? “The Lord reigns; let the people tremble.” If he were to come to you tonight, and lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, it would be all in vain for you to attempt to resist him. The breath of your nostrils is so absolutely under God’s control that all the physicians in the world could not extend the lease of your life if he were to say to you, “Tonight your soul shall be required of you.” So tremble at the memory that “the Lord reigns,” for you are as completely in his power as a moth would be in yours if you held it in your hand knowing that you could crush it any moment that you pleased.

10. Another example of divine sovereignty, which may cause you both to rejoice and to tremble, is this, God has sent the gospel to you. Think of this fact, my hearer, there are millions upon millions of your fellow creatures who have never heard the gospel, and who are going down to their doom in utter ignorance of the great salvation. Their idol-gods cannot save them; their blocks of wood and stone cannot hear their cry of hopeless sorrow; but the word of this salvation is sent to you. Many in this great London of ours are born and nurtured amid scenes of vice and iniquity; they never enter the house of prayer, and possibly even the voice of the street preacher never reaches their ears; but some of you heard the name of Jesus mingled with the hush of your first lullaby, you were dandled on the knee of piety, and carried even as a baby in the arms of earnest prayer. It is a most gracious sovereignty that has accorded you such great privileges as these; it is the Lord, the Lord who reigns, to whom you owe all this, therefore rejoice, yet tremble as well, for these high privileges involve corresponding responsibilities, and he will require of you a strict account of the way in which you have used these advantages which others have not possessed. One of these days, he will make inquisition, and will say to you, “I gave you light; did you rejoice in it? I sent the gospel to you; did you listen to the joyful sound, or did you shut your ears to it, and turn away from it with contempt to provoke me to anger against you?” Besides, sinners, although you are able to hear the gospel today, you may not be allowed to hear it tomorrow. Instead of the message to you being, as it is today, “Believe and live,” tomorrow it may be, “Depart, you cursed.” Instead of the entreaty being addressed to you, as it is today, “Turn, turn, for why will you die?” tomorrow the dread sentence may be pronounced by Jehovah the King, “Then they shall call on me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would have none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.” Mercy’s day does not last for ever. God’s gospel shall not always be trifled with. You may for a time refuse to listen to the loving, tender, wooing voice of the Saviour, but I would have you remember that he will not always quietly submit to your rejection of his gracious invitations. Tremble, I beseech you, lest the music of the silver trumpet of the gospel should give place to the harsh clangour of the knell announcing that you have been driven from the presence of the King to that dread prison where the voice of love and mercy shall never be heard. So I tell you to rejoice in your present privileges, but also tremble lest, if you do not prize them, and use them properly, they may rise up in judgment to condemn you.

11. There are many in this place who may well thank the King for his sovereign mercy to them for they are the subjects of the strivings of his Holy Spirit. There are many here who cannot listen to the gospel without being to some extent impressed by it. They have been seen to shed tears because of their consciousness of sin, and there have been times when it has been extremely difficult for them to continue in the service of Satan. Some of you cannot sin with impunity as others can, and it has sometimes been a question with you whether you dare to still occupy these seats unless you resolve to give up your darling sins. Well, if the Holy Spirit has striven with you like this, thank God, for this is another example of his sovereignty, yet remember how early in the history of mankind God had to say, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” In a moment, the sovereignty of God may take away all those melting and gracious influences, and do you know what would happen to you then? Your conscience would be seared as with a hot iron, and your natural hardness of heart would be followed by a judicial hardness which would be even more terrible. You might then continue to hear the gospel, but it would be as though it were being preached to the dead; you would sit in your pews and experience no more feeling than a row of statues could, and you would live only to walk away, and forget that you had been listening to the truth of God. I tremble as I look around on some of you, I cannot help fearing that you have already reached this dreadful state, and that God has said concerning you, “They are joined to their idols, leave them alone.” I see some here who once made a profession of religion, and who would even speak in God’s name, but they turned aside; then they professed to repent, but afterwards turned aside again, and now no message ever seems to startle them. They have listened to the gospel until they have become gospel-hardened; what should have been the means of their salvation has become the means of their damnation; that same gospel, which has been a savour of life to life for many others, has become a savour of death to death for them. Take heed, sinner, for he who melts can harden; and if you have long resisted the strivings of the Spirit, it may be that the Lord will allow you to go on sinning unrebuked, until you have filled up the measure of your iniquity, and received the due punishment for your evil deeds.

12. Let me also remind those of you who are unconverted that you have a further proof of divine sovereignty in the fact that God has promised to hear prayer. There are many promises like these, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: for everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened.” God in mercy invites you to come to him, and this is a subject for heart-felt rejoicing; but it is also a reason for trembling, for the door of his mercy will not always remain open, and, “when once the Master of the house is risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us’; he shall answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you.’” Tonight, Jesus is lifted up in the preaching of the gospel as once he was lifted up on the cross, and he tells us to cry to you, “Look and live; look and live”; for it is still true that — 

   There is life for a look at the Crucified One;

      There is life at this moment for thee;

   Then look, sinner, look unto him, and be saved,

      Unto him who was nailed to the tree.

But if you refuse to obey the gospel invitation, what must become of you? Surely Captain Execution, with the sharp axe in his hand, will come out, and take you to your well-deserved doom. If God were to deal with you according to your just desserts, what hope would there be for you? Yet he invites you to repent, and he speaks to us as he said to Ezekiel, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked: but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, oh house of Israel?’” Isaiah’s message is still true, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Sinner, I am happy in standing here as the ambassador of my King; and yet, while I rejoice, I tremble less you should reject the message that he has sent to you in the greatness of his grace, for my King is not to be trifled with, he deals severely with those who spurn his mercy. Nothing provokes him more than slights cast on his dear Son. To turn away from the blood of his atoning sacrifice will bring down on you the indignation of the Most High. Oh, do not venture on such a perilous course, but with those trembling lips of yours kiss the Son, trust in him, depend on him, and you shall find salvation now to the praise and glory of God’s good grace!

   Long the gospel thou hast spurn’d,

   Long delay’d to love thy God,

   Stifled conscience, nor hast turn’d,

   Wooed though by a Saviour’s blood.

   Wretched, ruin’d, helpless soul,

   To a Saviour’s blood apply;

   He alone can make thee whole,

   Fly to Jesus, sinner, fly.

13. II. So I have spoken to sinners; now I am briefly TO SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

14. You “precious sons on Zion, comparable to fine gold,” look by faith to your King as he sits on the throne; and first, rejoice that you are his. It is the King who has saved you; your pardon is signed by the royal hand, it would be worthless to you if it were not signed by him. It is sovereignty that puts the crown on every other attribute of God; it is the King who has chosen you, the King who has saved you.

15. Yet, beloved, while I tell you to rejoice, I would have you rejoice with trembling while I suggest to you the question, — are you sure that the Lord has saved you? I ask the question of myself, — My soul, are you sure that the Lord has saved you? Have you made your own calling and election sure before exhorting others to seek the Lord? It is good for all of us to examine ourselves, and see whether we are in the faith or not. My brethren on the platform, you who are officers in the church, I implore you to make sure work for eternity. You fathers in Israel, do not presume on your grey hairs, but search yourselves; or, better still, let each one of you pray David’s prayer, “Search me, oh God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” You parents who have been for years members of the church, and you young men and maidens who have not long joined our ranks, rejoice with trembling, and each one of you pray, “Oh Lord, by your Holy Spirit witnessing with my spirit assure me that I am born by God!”

16. I have been thinking of these two texts in connection with ourselves who are members of this church. What a notable example of sovereignty is exhibited in the usefulness of the members of this church! Some of us have, in a very distinguished manner, been made the parents of spiritual children, and our seed has become very numerous. Here is sovereignty in which I, for one, do greatly rejoice, and there are brothers and sisters here who also rejoice in it. But I, for one, must tremble as well as rejoice. What if the Master should take back the power which he has lent us so far? What if our preaching should become sapless and savourless to God’s people, and lifeless and powerless to sinners? Oh my God, let me die before that should become my unhappy lot! I could never endure to live as some ministers seem content to do. To encumber the ground, to see no sign of God’s hand being made bare, — oh, this would be misery indeed! May the Lord preserve us from ever having that sad experience! I trust, dear brothers and sisters, that you all feel that it would be far better for you to die so far as your bodies are concerned than to die in the sense of being no longer spiritually fruitful. Therefore, while we rejoice over the great blessing with which the Lord has so long enriched us, let us tremble lest we give him a reason to withhold it for the future. Unless we put every wreath of laurel on the King’s own head, he will speedily withdraw any power with which he entrusted us, and we shall be as weak as Samson was when the Spirit of God had departed from him.

17. What a remarkable example of divine sovereignty we have in this church itself as well as in individual members of it! We were among the least in Zion, but the Lord has multiplied us greatly. Why is this? Why has he blessed us so wondrously, and passed others by who scarcely ever hear the cry of a new-born convert? What other reason can we give than this, — because it seemed good in his sight? Therefore let us rejoice, but let us also rejoice with trembling, lest the Lord should take away from us such blessed experiences. Well do I remember the words of that man of God who is now in heaven, dear Mr. Johnathan George, at the opening of this building. Quoting from Jeremiah chapter thirty-three, “They shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure for it,” {Jer 33:9} he said that, the more blessing and prosperity the Lord gave us, the more humble must we be, and the more anxious not to provoke him to jealousy, or else he would take away his presence from us. I trust that many of you, beloved, cherish this holy anxiety lest we should grieve the Spirit, and drive him away from us. In any case, I know one who, without being unbelieving, is always very anxious that “Ichabod” (“the glory is departed,”) should never be written on these walls. What if the Lord should allow your zeal to grow cold, your doctrines to become unsound, and your lives unholy? What if, instead of ardour there should be lethargy, instead of love there should be bickerings, instead of harmony there should be division, and instead of mighty wrestling with the Most High there should be sad contentions with each other? May these eyes be sealed in death before such a wretched state of things as that should come, and I know that many of you are saying “Amen” so far as you also are concerned. Yet all this is possible, for the King who gives can take away, and he who now blesses can withhold the blessing, and he will do it unless we as a church are faithful and true to him. Go now to the cities of Asia Minor where once the seven golden lampstands brought such glory to God, and how much light will you find there? Where is Pergamos? Where is Laodicea? Where are the churches of Philadelphia and the rest? Have not most of them ceased to be because they left their first love, and turned back to the world? If we have any Achans in the camp, we would not stone them, but we would pray for them, and we would plead with them to repent, and turn again to the Lord; lest the whole church should suffer through them as Israel did through the sin of Achan.

18. This solemn truth of the sovereignty of God rests very heavily on my heart, let it rest very heavily on yours also, so that together we may rejoice because of all the goodness that the Lord has bestowed on us, and at the same time let us tremble lest we should in any way provoke him to anger, and cause him to withdraw his presence from us, and say to us, “I will work no more through you, but I will leave you to your own devices so that you may find out what you can do when I have gone away from you.” God forbid that this should ever happen to us!

19. Now as we come to the table of our Lord, let us come with deep solemnity remembering that there is sovereignty here also. The observance of this ordinance may be very dull and dreary for you, or God can make it a time of most blessed fellowship with him and with each other. The means of grace are not always equally profitable to us. The pipes are always golden, but the holy oil does not always flow in our direction. There is blessing to be had at all times, but you cannot always get it. Ask the King to give you grace to recognise his right to give or to withhold the blessing, and then plead with him, for Jesus’ sake, to remember you for good. May God grant that it may be so, for his dear name’s sake! Amen!

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ps 72}

A Psalm for Solomon.

This was David’s dying bequest to his son Solomon, but a greater than Solomon is here, for this Psalm concerns the reign, triumph, and everlasting dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1, 2 Give the king your judgments, oh God, and your righteousness to the king’s son. He shall judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

It is the distinguishing mark of Christ’s kingdom that he cares so much for the poor, whereas in other kingdoms they are generally pushed to the wall, and men of great estate and consequence get all the good positions. In Christ’s kingdom the poor are exalted.

3. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

Those mountains, in whose caves robbers lurked, and from whose heights enemies often came down, and swept away the little estates of the lowlanders, even these shall bring peace and comfort.

   ”No strife shall vex Messiah’s reign.”

When Jesus Christ comes a second time to this earth, we shall see these prophecies literally fulfilled; and until then we delight to know that the reign of Christ is a reign of peace.

4-6. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear you as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain on the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

After being mown the grass is tender; should there be a long period of burning sunshine, the roots left exposed might soon be dried up, and the lower portion of the stem, bereft of moisture, might become hard. Never does rain seem so refreshing to the grass as just after the mowing; so it is in Christ’s kingdom. On you whose broken hearts are like mown grass, on you who have been cut down by the sharp scythe of affliction, and who have seen your hopes withered before your eyes, Jesus shall come down gently like rain on the mown grass; and just as the showers fertilize the barren earth, so the presence of Christ shall make your hearts to be fertile and fruitful. If any of us are like the parched earth or the mown grass, may we have this gracious promise fulfilled for us.

7. In his days the righteous shall flourish; and abundance of peace as long as the moon endures.

Under other kings sinners have flourished, and great oppressors have walked in public, but in Christ’s days the righteous shall flourish; “and abundance of peace as long as the moon endures.” There have been some times of truce, there have been some periods when the temple of Janus {a} has been shut; but when Christ comes, the Lord shall break the bow, and cut the spear asunder; not lay them aside in storage for days of warfare in the future, but break them up since there will be no further use for them.

8, 9. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.

The Arabs, the wandering Bedouin tribes, unconquered and untameable, “shall bow before him”; and his enemies shall not merely be beaten once or twice, but they “shall lick the dust”; they shall be so entirely broken that there shall be no fear of their rebelling in the future.

10. The Kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents:

Britain and some of her sister islands shall do homage to this great Solomon.

10. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God, and men of swarthy skin shall acknowledge the King of the Jews as Lord over all.

11. Yes, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

There is a great future for you, Christians, a glorious future for our holy religion. The handful by the side of the lake shall yet become an all-conquering host. As it was when that cake of barley bread fell into the midst of the camp of Midian, and overthrew the tent, so that it lay along, and as it was when the shout was heard, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon,” so shall it be with us before long. God’s people, having no strength of their own, shall nevertheless break the power of their enemy, when the war-cry shall be heard, “The sword of Christ and of the Lord of hosts!”

12, 13. For he shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also, and him who has no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1037, “The Poor Man’s Friend” 1028}

Now, needy one, here is a promise for you. Is there one here who has no helper? Then let that one know that Christ is the Friend of the friendless, and the Helper of the helpless.

14-16. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight. And he shall live, and to him shall be given the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily he shall be praised. There shall be a handful of grain on the earth —  {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 717, “Pray for Jesus” 708}

Only a handful! Oh you birds of the air, how you long to eat it all up! Oh you thorns, how soon would you choke it to death! It is only a handful of grain.

16. On the top of the mountains;

That is a bad place for grain; surely it will die there; the winter snows will chill it; and, exposed to every stormy blast it will never fill the arm of the reaper. But is it so? Listen: — 

16. Its fruit shall shake like Lebanon:

Just as there are strange sounds heard in a great forest when the wind sweeps through it, — there is an allusion to this in the Hebrew, — there should be such an abundance of fruit from this handful of grain that, just as when the forest bows its head before the whirlwind, so shall there be heard a sound as of God rushing among the multitude of his saints.

16. And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

They shall be so many that one might as well attempt to count the blades of grass as to count the number of God’s saints.

17-20. His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 27, “The External Name” 27} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2187, “Jesus — All Blessing and All Blest” 2188} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2451, “Blessed in him” 2452} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 129, “David’s Dying Prayer” 124}

He had nothing more to pray for. He had his heart’s highest and best wish, and therefore he closes his prayer where God had given him all that he could ask for.

{a} Janus: The name of an ancient Italian deity, regarded as the doorkeeper of heaven, as guardian of doors and gates, and as presiding over the entrance on or beginning of things; represented with a face on the front and another on the back of his head; the doors of his temple in the Roman Forum were always open in time of war, and shut in time of peace. OED.

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Spurgeon’s Illustrated Almanac for 1912

The Texts for the Book Almanac have again been selected by Pastor Thomas Spurgeon, and they have reference, more or less directly, to the series of spiritual graces mentioned in Galatians 5:22,23; he has also again written the introductory letter, and one of the short illustrated articles is from his pen. No less than five of the others are by C. H. Spurgeon; Dr. Churcher has written on Sfax, the “stormless port” to which many refugees from Tripoli have gone; Pastor John Clark, M. A., has contributed a page of poetry, and Mr. Harrald has drawn spiritual lessons from the launch of the Shoreham lifeboat. Since the illustrations are especially good ones, it is hoped that the sale will be even larger than in past years.

John Ploughman’s Almanac for 1912

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. Marshall Brothers, Limited, 47, Paternoster Row, London, E. C.