3337. Ears Bored to the Door-Post

A Sermon Published On Thursday, January 16, 1913.

And if the servant shall plainly say, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:” then his master shall bring him to the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or to the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever. {Ex 21:5,6}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1174, “Ear Bored with an Awl, The” 1165}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3337, “Ears Bored to the Door-Post” 3339}

   {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Ex 21:6"}

1. The Jewish people had lived in Egypt, and had been themselves slaves. They had, doubtless, learned much of art and science in Egypt, but they also learned there many sinful manners and customs, and among the rest they learned the habit of slavery. When God found them, and led them out into the wilderness to make a nation of them, he did not give them a code of laws such as he would give to us in the light of this age of grace, but he gave them laws, as Jesus Christ himself says, “according to the hardness of their heart.” He gave them a law suitable to the state in which they were. Their ceremonial laws, their political and economic laws, were very far from being perfect, and were never intended to be regarded as perfect. They were not meant for a nation of men so much as for a nation of children. The nation was then in its infancy, and statutes and ordinances were very much in accordance with the infancy of the people. Slavery, for example, was not forbidden. It was not even forbidden for a Hebrew to hold his brother Hebrew in bondage, but, though it was not forbidden, yet it was so hedged about and limited with many regulations and conditions, that it must have become very difficult, if not almost impossible.

2. In the first place, every Hebrew who held his brother in bondage was compelled to treat him as he treated himself. There was a law that his food and his clothing should be precisely similar to that of his master. Then, again, at the end of six full years, the man must go free, whatever might be the price at which he was purchased for six years. And when he went free he was not to go out empty, but his master was required to give him something out of his barn, out of the wine-press, and out of the flock. In fact, it was a kind of apprenticeship of one man to another, with the condition that the servant should be treated as one of the family, and was to be set up in business when he left. So much did the Jews feel that this was not a very profitable kind of thing, that it got to be a proverb that, “A Hebrew who buys a Hebrew servant, does not buy a servant, but he buys a master.” So the thing became very seldom practised at all, and this, perhaps, was the best way of dealing with the evil. They would have kicked against a law which forbade slavery altogether, but they submitted to this one which regulated it, and so the thing was kept in such check that it must by necessity fall. That, however, again, was not at all a rule for you or for me. It was like the putting away of a wife with a writing of divorcement, of which the Saviour said that “Moses allowed it because of the hardness of their hearts.” It was not right in itself, but it was simply endured because of the low moral state of the people when they came as a herd of slaves from Egypt’s brick-kilns, not having been trained and educated to understand the value of liberty as you and I happily have been in these later times for these many years.

3. But observe that sometimes the Hebrew servant, although free to go where he liked at the end of six years, would not go. He had married one of his master’s female servants: he had children, and, besides, was so attached to his master and his family that he preferred to stay with him. Now, since God did not wish the people to love slavery, but would teach them the nobility of liberty, he made this ordinance that a man’s wish to remain in servitude should be attested by a somewhat painful rite, and he made it a law that this rite should be administered to him in public before the judges.

4. Lest a master should say the servant wished to be with him, and then bored his ears by brute force, and so ensured his perpetual service, it was commanded that this boring of the ears should always be done in public before witnesses and the judges. An awl was taken and the man’s ears were fastened to the door-post, and then for ever after he must remain, though he might change his mind, since he had once deliberately chosen it, to serve his master.

5. Leaving, however, this outline of the meaning of this picturesque ceremony, I now want to use the passage in its spiritual meaning.

6. First, I shall have to remind you that in Psalm 40 our Saviour speaks of himself as having had his ears bored. Did you notice the expression in the fortieth Psalm, “You did not desire sacrifice and offering: you have opened my ears.” The Hebrew says, “you have dug my ears;” Christ’s ears, then, were pierced, so that he might from his own voluntary choice be the servant of God for evermore. When I have spoken a little on that I want to speak of some professed servants of God who have never had their ears bored; and then, in the third place, I want to go into this business of boring some of your ears, and I have no doubt there are many here who have had their ears bored in days gone by, and who will be glad to renew the rite afresh tonight by consecrating themselves again to their master.

7. I. First, we have to speak of — THE SAVIOUR HAVING HAD HIS EARS BORED.

8. One would not have dared to apply this to him if he had not instructed his servant David, by the Holy Spirit, to apply it to himself. He says, “You have opened my ears.” Oh, wonder of wonders! that the King of kings should come to be the servant of servants; that he who is “God over all, blessed for ever,” and who thinks it is not robbery to be equal with God, should take upon himself the form of a servant, and be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and, being found in appearance as a man, should become obedient to death, even the death of the cross! Our Saviour’s first appearance here, was in the servant’s place. He was the son of a carpenter, and he was laid in a manger. When he comes forward to begin his active life at thirty-three that life is one continual service. They would have made him a king, but he preferred to remain the servant of all. You see this from the first to the last of his earthly life, for even in view of the cross he took a towel and girded himself, and then a basin, and, showing he was still a servant, he washed his disciples’ feet. He was still a servant when he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as the last act of obedience that was possible he bows his head and says, “Not my will, but yours be done,” and he yielded up the ghost. Our blessed Lord might have broken free from the servitude whenever he pleased. He claims this for himself, that he was voluntarily a servant, and especially that his obedience and sacrifice to death were his absolutely willing offering. He says of his life, “No man takes it from me, but I lay it down by myself: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.” He could have gone out free if he wished. That host that came to seize him in the garden would have been no more able to take him than the Philistines were able to take Samson when he snapped the green withes. He only spoke to them, and they fell backwards, and this proved how powerful he was to have delivered himself. And when he was before Pilate he might even then have escaped. Did he not say, “You could have had no power against me if it had not been given to you from above?” And even on the cross when they said, “If he is the Son of God let him come down from the cross,” he might have leaped in one tremendous stride into the midst of his foes and struck them with lightning flashes from those fearful eyes. He might have shaken the earth and removed heaven rather than have died, if it had been his will. But he had given his ear to be bored, and he remained his Father’s servant even to death. Willingly, without a struggle, this victim was laid on the altar. Like the passive lamb, which does not struggle even when the knife is thrust into it, the Saviour gave himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the people, and was fully a servant of his Father.

9. This is very delightful for us to think about, especially when we remember that our Saviour still wears the print of the opened ear. He is still in heaven, and there —

   Looks like a lamb that has been slain

      And wears his priesthood still.

For your sake he does not hold his peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake he does not rest, but still continues to accomplish his Father’s good pleasure, still interceding for his saints, and waiting until the time shall come when he shall take his great power and reign and the number of his elect shall be accomplished. He is still the servant of God and the friend of man, his opened hands, his side and feet bearing the marks that like the scar in the ear of the Jewish slave, made him to be recognised as a slave for ever.

10. So he is our friend and his Father’s servant, eternally. Brothers and sisters, there is this to be said, which ought to endear the Saviour to you and to me — that his only motive for having his ears bored, or dug, was his love. What does the servant in the text say? “I love my master: I love my wife: I love my children.” This is what our Servant-Saviour said. He loved his God: never a man loved God as Christ did. As God he infinitely loved him who is one with him, even his Father, and as perfect man he loved God with all his heart, and soul, and strength. He had voluntarily become a servant, and he loved his Master. And he also loved his spouse. Oh, there was little in her to love, but he thought much of her, and still thinks much of her now. The Church is his bride, and he sees her —

   Not as she stood in Adam’s fall,

      When sin and ruin covered all;

   But as she’ll stand another day

      Fairer than sun’s meridian ray.

he saw his character reflected in her, he saw her as what she is to be when she is perfect through the Spirit, and he loved her, oh, with such a perfect, all-constraining love, and said —

           For her I’ll go

   Through all the depths of sin and woe;

   And on the cross will even dare,

   The dreadful weight of wrath to bear.

He found his spouse in the mire; he brought her up out of it. He found her in poverty, and he became poor for her sake. He found her in rags, and he stripped himself to clothe her. He found her condemned, and he was condemned for her acquittal. He found her on earth, he came from heaven to bring her up from earth, so that she might be with him where he is in heaven for ever. Then I love the last word, “I love my children.” That may be laid hold of by each one of us, for since he is “the everlasting Father,” every believer may regard himself or herself as his child; and he loves each one. He could die, but he could not deny his people. He could leave heaven, but could never abandon us. He could not be content to be glorified unless, too, his people were. He dared not be satisfied to sit on a throne, while they might be cast into hell, but he could come down and bring them near to himself by stooping as low as they had become. Let us bless him! Let us tonight in our hearts extol this blessed servant of God, who though King of kings had his ears opened because he loved his master, he loved his spouse, and he loved his children, and has therefore become their servant for ever.

11. Now, when I was thinking this over in my mind, I thought that perhaps some troubled conscience here might get comfort out of it, that perhaps someone might say, “Oh, well, if Jesus Christ has given himself up to be the Saviour of sinners so that he will never give up the work, then perhaps he will save me.” You know what is meant by nailing the flag to the mast. It means that the man is determined to fight it out. Jesus Christ has, so to speak, nailed the flag of mercy to the masthead, and he will fight it out with the devil. Yes, he will save the lowliest of his people. He has given himself up heart and soul to be the Saviour of sinners. It is his business, and he will never give it up. As long as there is an unsaved sinner Christ will be seeking him. As long as this world has sinners in it, it will be a hunting-ground for this glorious Nimrod, this “mighty hunter before the Lord,” who has come to seek out poor wandering souls and bring them to himself. “He is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to God by him, since he lives for ever to make intercession for us.” His ears being bored for this work, the work of intercession will be his as long as he lives.

12. II. We will now pass from that to remark, in the second place, — THAT EVERY GENUINE SERVANT OF GOD IS ONE WHO WOULD NOT ACCEPT HIS LIBERTY, OR QUIT BEING THE SERVANT OF GOD, IF HE COULD.

13. He has had his ears bored, and he intends to be, and must be, a servant of God as long as he lives for ever. There are, however, a great many professors, of whom we are going to speak to you, and a great many other men in the world, too, who have never had their ears bored to be God’s servants at all. There are some, in the first place, who hate the very thought of being God’s servant. “Serve God!” one says, “Who is he? Who is Jehovah that I should obey him?” The majority of men are of Pharaoh’s mind: they are not going to obey God: they think they are their own masters. I do not believe there ever was a man who was his own master, but that every man has a master of some kind or other. How many men whose master is money, and if money orders them to do anything, however outrageous, they would at once do it to obtain the money. No matter how dirty the trick might be, there are some men who would do it if it promised profit to them, and they would not be found out. No matter though they were to half starve themselves, and lose comfort in their houses, how many there are who would suffer much, if they might only gain gold? Mammon is their master. Some take pleasure to be their master, and pleasure is a very hard master indeed, for the pleasures of sin, though they seem to be cheap, are always dearly bought. A man never gets his penny’s worth for his penny when he goes into the lusts of the flesh. There whatever he gets he has to pay back again; he shall have to pay back in his own flesh and bones every drachma of joy that he wins by unhallowed lust! But, oh, how men will bend their necks to gods many and lords many rather than serve Jehovah! As for the God who made them, many never think of him, and many never think of him but to mention his name in ribald jest or oath, and to despise his authority. Ah, sinner, God knows how to deal with such as you are, for if you sin with Pharaoh you shall perish with Pharaoh. If you say, “I will not serve God,” God will take care to make you a monument of his justice, if you will not be a trophy of his grace. “For this purpose,” he said to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up, so that I might show my power in you,” and if God does not show his love in you he will show his power by bringing you down one of these days, until you shall loathe the things you once loved, and curse the day in which you dared to think yourselves wiser than God. When a creature is at odds with its creator, depend on it, it is also at odds with itself. Things can never go along well when the wheel of our hearts do not synchronise with the wheel of God’s heart. We must come down to God’s will if we would rise up to happiness and peace.

14. But there are many who profess to be the servants of God but who have not had their ears bored, and this is proved by the fact that some of them go out from us after a time. Oh, it is a thing the most vexatious beneath the skies, it is the plague of the Church, and it is the minister’s nightmare and spectre, that there should be so many hollow professors, who, nevertheless, are able to maintain a whitewashed profession for so many years. Truly, it is only a poor test of Christianity even to walk uprightly in appearance for ten or even twenty years, for there are inventions nowadays by which counterfeits may be brought to such perfection that you can scarcely tell them from the pure gold.

15. Through many a crucible the false thing will go, and not betray its falseness until at last there comes a discovering hour, and then woe to the Church of God, but, most of all, woe to the man who duped that Church, and misled those who trusted him! I am inclined to say to every one of you, “Do not be too sure; search yourself.” I am inclined, most of all, to say it to myself. I do so like to read a sermon sometimes — for I do not often hear one — that seems to give me a ring down on the counter. You know I am often afraid of the jingle, whether it will sound like true gold or not, but it is a good thing to get a ring. A preacher with a soft and mealy mouth is only of little use to a Christian, but the man who proclaims plain and unpalatable truth often comforts him, because he is able to say, “Well, I can stand this searching truth,” and then he goes away satisfied that things are right with God. Test yourselves, dear friends, test yourselves constantly, and ask the Lord to search you, and come afresh to the blood of Jesus lest you should be mistaken. There was a disciple who turned out to be a Judas; many a minister has been a deceiver; many a church member and many a church officer, too, has been nothing but a whitewashed sepulchre full of bones and rottenness. Take care, dear hearer, lest your lot should be the same.

16. Then there are others, who make a very fine profession, who are even worse, if possible, than these, for they are religious and irreligious, too. I know some of you can carry a hymn-book in your pockets, and a songbook too. You can come here, I daresay, on Lord’s Day evenings and drop in on a week-night, but there are some other places of very doubtful reputation which know you, too. Oh, yes! I know some who have said, “Well, I must give up my seat there, because I cannot give up the other, for the preacher gives it to me so severely.”

17. Ah, how the preacher wishes he could give it to you even more severely, for of all classes of men who should arouse our sorrow and our pity, it is the men who are able to stand the gospel and yet go on in their sins. Why, I have known professors in the country who would stand up in the singing pew, or sit near, who did not know what time of night they came home on Saturday from the market. And we know there are not a few people who can drink the cup of the Lord, and deep draughts of the cup of the devil, too; who will sing well when they are here, but will also sing a roaring good song at a public dinner. Jolly fellows! They are not very particular, but they had better be, or else they will find their lot at last particularly severe, for surely no one shall so deserve the wrath of God as those who knew better. As I heard a poor soul say the other day, “Ah, sir, I sinned in the light,” and say it with a broken heart, too, I hope, I thought. What a thing to be forced to say! Some of you, I hope, will be forced to say it. You have sinned knowing that you were sinning, sinned knowing the penalty of sin, sinned knowing something about better things, too; yet you have gone like the dog to his vomit — vomited on the Sabbath, but have gone back to it on the Monday — and like the sow that was washed on the Sabbath have gone back to wallow in the mire for six days! May God have mercy on some of you! I wish that in his mercy he would come and make you keep close to what you profess, and to be no longer halting between two opinions, but have your ears bored to be the servants of God for ever, and not the slaves of sin.

18. I think I might make a pretty long list of people of this kind, but I shall only mention one more class. There is a great number of young men and a greater number of young women who attend this place, and we are delighted to see you, dear friends; may your numbers never grow less, for we love you and we desire to bless God that so many of you have been converted. But I am always fearful about some of you young people lest your religion should in any way depend on any kind of excitement, or your happening to be connected with a really quickened and living church, or happening to be in such an earnest class, as some of our classes are, or because you attend the ministry in this place. I know some, who when they get away into the country, where perhaps the minister is not much more than half alive, they grow cold, and eventually, and especially if they happen to get married, then the zeal which once fired them quite subsides. Now remember, that the religion that depends on any man, whoever he may be, or on any woman, or that rests at all on the company you have to keep, is not genuine religion at all. For our religion ought to maintain, and will maintain, its vitality at least, if not its constant health, no matter what circumstances may happen to you. Some of you young women, perhaps, are going out to work where there are ungodly employers. Now you will know whether your grace is real or not. Some of you young men are apprenticed, or obliged to go into jobs where you are constantly in the midst of those who irritate and jeer you; now we shall know what stuff you are made of; now we shall see whether you are only stony-ground hearers, or whether there is real depth of earth in you, for if there is no depth of earth you will soon wither away; but if your conversion was a genuine one, we defy all the wicked men on earth, and all the demons in hell, to destroy it, for what God has done no one can undo, but whatever comes from man and not from the Spirit of God, depend on it, will be of no use to you in the day of judgment.

19. So there are many servants in God’s house who are only there for a little while, and who go out at the end of their six years.

20. III. But now I am going to talk to — THOSE WHO HAVE HAD THEIR EARS BORED.

21. First, I shall bring out the awls. Genuine Christians have had their ears bored, that is to say, they are such Christians that they could not be anything else, and when they have their choice — and they do have it everyday, for temptation gives them many an opportunity — they will not go out, but are obliged to remain the servants of God. I am now going to tell you some of the awls with which God has bored their ears. Christian, you have had your ear bored. What was one of the things that did it? I think it was past mercies. Forsake the Lord Jesus Christ! How can I? He loved me — bought me.

   He saw me ruined in the fall,

   He loved me, notwithstanding all.

Some of us were in great distress, and Christ gave us peace: we were ready to destroy ourselves and he gave us joy and liberty, and since that day he has led us into green pastures and beside still waters, and we have been a happy people: he has supplied us night and day: we cannot leave him: we cannot leave him!

22. He has bored our ears, his infinite mercy in the past has fastened us to his door-post. We dare not leave him: we would not if we could. Do not many of you feel that the verse of the hymn is just the real truth? —

   A very wretch, Lord, I should prove,

      Had I no love to thee.

We owe our gracious Master so much that our ears are bored, and we cannot leave him. Imagine seeing Ignatius standing up in the amphitheatre when he is told that if he will curse Christ he shall escape, and he says, “How can I curse him? He has never done me a displeasure!” So with us; he has never done us a bad turn; we can only speak well of his name and cling to him.

23. But I think our ears are bored, also, by a sense of our present helplessness. You say, “Go from him! Ah, but where to?” We cannot do without him. You tell us to do without Christ! As well tell the helpless baby who is nursing on his mother’s breast to leave his mother, but we are more helpless than that infant; there is nothing but death lying before us if we leave him. Brothers and sisters, what could you and I do in the next hour if we had no Saviour to depend on, none of his grace to keep us from sin, and none of his love to comfort us in affliction? We would be utterly ruined! Go from him! Ask the young husband to forsake his spouse; ask the man who has hunted after gold and won it to throw away his treasure; but as for us we cannot leave our spouse, nor forsake our divine treasure. Now we have found contentment: now we have all that our souls can wish for: never, Jesus, never can we leave you! What could we do without you?

   To whom or whither could we go

      If we should turn from thee?

That is the second awl with which to bore our ears.

24. Then there is a third awl. Leave him! How can we, when we think about the future? We expect between now and getting to heaven a great many storms, and what could we do without the Captain and Pilot of souls? We know there are many giants to fight and dragons to kill, and what could we do without our soul’s Great-Heart to be our champion and protector? There are many arrows flying, and what could we do without our shield? We could not leave our castle and high tower, or, if we did, what might not happen to us? Every ill, certainly would, if we forsook him. The past, the present, and the future are all like sharp awls to bore right through our ears and fasten us to Christ.

25. Leave him! Why, the joy he gives us, the satisfaction, the delight, make it impossible for us to leave him. Can a bride forget her ornaments? Can it be possible for a nation to put away its gods? Can a mother forget her child? All these things might be, but we cannot forget him who is all in all to us. Once get the flavour of Christ in your mouth, and you will never be satisfied with anything short of him. Drink water from the well of Bethlehem, and you will be like David, you will say of it again and again, “Oh, that one would give me a drink from the water of the well.” “My heart is fixed,” said David, “my heart is fixed.” Some people’s hearts are flying around like feathers in the air; whichever way the wind blows they go, but “my heart is fixed.” Christ has driven four nails right through it, and fastened it to his cross; the spear has gone through my innermost, soul; I have no other love but him, and I must love him as long as I live. So the Christian can speak; the joy which Jesus gives him, is the awl that has pierced his ear.

26. And then, dear friends, is there not another reason, and a very strong one, namely, our hope for ever? Leave Christ! Why, then we should have to leave heaven and its felicity. We are expecting. We sometimes hear of people who have “great expectations.” Yes, believers have great expectations. We are not watching for dead men’s shoes, but we are looking for the golden sandals that they wear in the land of the living. We are not expecting the legacies of earthly relatives, but we are expecting the blessed legacy which Christ has left to all his people — to be with him where he is. Yes, the son of poverty is expecting one of the many mansions. The child of tribulation is expecting to have every tear wiped away from his eye. We are expecting to hear it said, “Well done, good and faithful servant: enter into the joy of your Lord.” Give up Christ? No, the thought of heaven bores our ear yet again. We cannot give him up: we must still cling to him, because “we have respect for the reward.” Now all of these awls are sharp ones, but I do not suppose they have pierced some of you. If, however, any of you have ever felt them piercing your ears, I am sure you felt very happy, while the boring was going on, and may you be pierced by them, yet again and again.

27. So, then, I have shown you the awls, but I cannot pierce your ears: the text forbids me, for it says, “the master was to pierce the servant’s ear.” Yes, there is no man who can bind a soul to Christ, but Christ himself must do it. There is such a struggle in men’s hearts against Christ, that only the High Priest, who knows how to bind the sacrifice, can ever wrap the cords of love around us and bind us firmly to his altar. If, dear friends, you are afraid of backsliding, if you are afraid you should grow cold, and turn aside from the Master, bore your ears again tonight. Ask him to open the scar afresh, and let you feel it until you can have no doubt that it is there. That sweet sermon by Mr. Lewis some of you have never forgotten — on the text — “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” May you feel that you have had the Master boring your ears.

28. Now, just one word on what is to be bored, namely, the ear. The boring of the ear was the symbol of obedience, for it is with the ear that the servant hears. The Christian man, then, will be mainly God’s servant through his ear. We hear God’s will, and therefore do it. Some of you have ears that need a little opening, for you know some things to be your duty, and you profess to be God’s servant, but you do not attend to them. Your ears, I hope, are bored, but you seem to have them plugged, and you cannot hear the Master’s voice. Some of you, for example, know that as believers you ought to be baptized but yet you shrink from it. Others of you know you ought to be united with a Christian church. “They gave themselves first to the Lord, and afterwards to the saints by the word of God.” “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The obedient servant only has to hear his Master’s voice, and he runs at once to do his bidding. “Oh,” you say, “but it is not essential, sir.” No, I know it is not; but still, if you keep a servant you do not expect her to say that what you tell her to do is “not essential.” Test your servant Mary tonight. Tell her to do something: she does not do it. You tell her again: she does not do it, and she says to you, “But, sir, remember it is not essential!” You say to her, “I do not keep servants to argue points with me: if they will not do my bidding they must find another master.”

29. Take care that the Lord does not say this to you: for if a thing is his will, all that you have to do is to do it, asking no questions. I never heard of an angel in heaven asking God why he was ordered to do such and such a thing. They serve him there without questioning, and so may his will be done by us on earth in the same way, “as it is done in heaven.”

30. May you be like the high priests whose thumbs and toes were touched with blood, to show that their active powers were given to the service of God; and may you also be like those whose ears were touched with blood to show that you hear the Master’s will, and that your thoughtful faculties are given to the attentive observation of what his mind is, so that the hands and the feet may be guided concerning what you should do.

31. Lastly, I want you to notice that when the ear was bored it was bored to the door-post in the presence of the judges. It was not done in secret, in some back room. It was done in public, with witnesses present. If this man is going to devote himself to his master he must be brought right out to the door-post. “Now then, your ear, sir; the awl must be driven right through it in the presence of spectators.” And I think consecration to Christ is not a thing to be done in secret. You who love the Lord Jesus Christ — acknowledge it! If you are his servants wear his livery. If you are his servants, come out and profess to be so. Have your ears bored to the very door-post, publicly, and openly affirm yourselves to be on the Lord’s side. He asks it, and it is no more than he deserves. “He who confesses me before men,” he says, “I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.”

32. I think this man might say, “My master’s house is to be my dwelling-place for ever.” I know some of us seem to have had our ears bored even to the posts of this very house of prayer. Some of you are never absent, whatever service there may be. If it were to rain I do not know how much, I do not think it would thin this congregation much, for you love to come up to the house of God. Well, the assembling of yourselves together will always, I hope, be a means of profit to you, and it is always an obvious indication of your retaining your service under the good Master. So may you ever keep close to the posts of his door, and when he comes may he find you like servants waiting at the door for their lord.

33. Now, are there any here tonight who would like to have their ears bored with the awls which I have mentioned? If so, I would say to them, “If your heart is right with God, and you are trusting in Jesus only, instead of making a resolution, offer a prayer, and let this be the prayer — ‘Lord, while I live, and until I die, I desire to be your servant to the utmost of my power: I desire to do your will or to suffer for doing it; I give myself up without reserve or limitation; all that I am, all that I have, I give up to you. Take me from this night on, and let me not offer this prayer as a mere matter of form or hypocrisy, but may I offer it heartily, and from my innermost soul; enable me to say I am your servant. Oh, God! sanctify me, spirit, soul, and body, for your name’s sake. Amen.’”

C. H. Spurgeon’s Useful Books at Reduced Prices.

The Salt-Cellars. Being a Collection of Proverbs, together with Homely Notes on them. By C. H. Spurgeon. “These three things go to the making of a proverb: Shortness, Sense, and Salt.” In 2 vols., cloth gilt, published at each, offered at 2s. 6d. each; Morocco, 7s. 6d. each.

“For many years I have published a Sheet Almanac, intended to be hung up in workshops and kitchens. This has been known as ‘John Ploughman’s Almanac,’ and has had a large sale. It has promoted temperance, thrift, kindness to animals, and a regard for religion, among working people. The placing of a proverb for every day for twenty years has cost me great labour, and I feel that I cannot afford to lose the large collection of sentences which I have brought together; yet lost they would be, if left to die with the ephermeral sheet. Hence these two volumes. They do not profess to be a complete collection of proverbs, but only a few out of many thousands.” — Extract from Preface.