392. Trust in God—True Wisdom

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, May 12, 1861, By Pastor C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

He who handles a matter wisely shall find good: and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he. (Pr 16:20)

1. Wisdom is man’s true path—that which enables him to accomplish best the end of his being, and which, therefore, gives to him the richest enjoyment, and the greatest scope for all his powers. Wisdom is the compass by which man is to steer across the trackless waste of life. Without wisdom man is as the wild donkey’s colt; he runs here and there, wasting strength which might be profitably employed. Without wisdom, man may be compared to an untilled soil, which may yield some fair flowers, but can never yield a harvest which shall repay the labour of the reaper, or even the toil of the gleaner. Give man wisdom, wisdom in the true sense of the term, and he rises to all the dignity that manhood can possibly know; he becomes a fit companion for the angels, and between him and God there is no creature; he stands next to the Eternal One, because Christ has espoused his nature, and so has linked humanity with divinity. But where shall this wisdom be found? Many have dreamed that they discovered it, but they have not possessed it. Where shall we find it? It would be worth while to pierce the heart of the earth, to scale the heights of heaven, to traverse the deserts, to plough the sea, to fly through the illimitable fields of ether—all would be too little if we might only find this precious thing at last. But, “The depth says, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is not with me.” It cannot be purchased with gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and it cannot be exchanged for jewels or fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. From where then does come wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air. “Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame of it with our ears. God understands its way, and he knows its place.”

2. Let us listen, then, to the voice of the Lord, for he has declared the secret; he has revealed to the sons of men where true wisdom lies, and we have it in the text, “Whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he;” and that sentence is put in conjunction with another which teaches us this truth, that to handle a matter wisely is to find good, and the true way to handle a matter wisely is to trust God. This is the short and brief method of escaping the greatest difficulties: this is the clue to the most intricate labyrinths; this is the lever which shall lift the most tremendous weights. He who trusts in the Lord has found out the way to handle matters wisely, and happy is he.

3. I shall take the text this morning, by God’s assistance, in two ways. First, we shall apply it to the wise handling of matters with regard to time and this present state; and then, secondly, with regard to the handling of the eternal matters relating to our destiny beyond the grave, and endeavour to show how trusting in the Lord is handling this matter wisely.

4. I. First, then, my dear friends, with regard to THE WISE HANDLING OF MATTERS OF TIME WHICH CONCERN OUR BODIES AND OUR SOULS, WHILE WE ARE HERE BELOW.

5. A man must be prudent in such a world as this. He will soon cut his feet if he do not watch his steps. He will soon tear his clothes with thorns and briars if he do not choose his way. This is a land full of enemies; we must be wise, or the arrow will suddenly find a vulnerable place in our armour. We must be cautious, for we are not travelling in noonday on the king’s highway, but rather at nightfall, and we may, therefore, be attacked by robbers, and may lose our precious treasures. He who is in a wilderness, and in a wilderness infested with robber bands, must handle matters wisely if he would escape evil.

6. How shall we handle these matters wisely? Three or four come forward to instruct us, and the first lesson is one which Satan often teaches the young and foolish spirit. He says, “To handle a matter wisely, is to make your own will your law, and to do that which seems to be the best for you, whether it is right or wrong.” This was the lesson which he taught to Eve, when in the serpent’s form he spoke the serpent’s wisdom, “You shall be as gods,” he said. “Mistrust the goodness of your Maker; believe that he is afraid lest you should attain equal power and dignity with himself. Pluck the fruit. It is true he forbids, but who is Jehovah that you should obey his voice? It is true he threatens to punish, but do not believe the threatening, or if you believe it, dare it. He who cannot risk anything will never win. He who will not take risks shall never make great gains. Do and dare, and you will be handling the matter wisely.” She plucked the fruit, and the next instant she must have perceived something of her folly; before many hours had passed, Adam discovered nakedness, pains of body, weariness, toil, expulsion from Paradise, and tilling a thankless, thorny land and taught man that he had not handled the matter wisely, for he had not found good. And you too, you sons and daughters of Eve, when the old serpent whispers in your ear, “Sin, and you shall escape from difficulty; be just when you can afford to be so, but if you cannot live except by dishonesty, be dishonest; if you cannot prosper except by lies, then lie;”—oh! men, do not listen to his voice, I entreat you. Listen to a better wisdom than this. This is a deception which shall destroy you; you shall find no good, but you shall find much evil; you shall sow the wind and you shall reap the whirlwind. You think that you dive into these depths for pearls, but the jagged rocks shall break you, and from the deep waters you shall never rise, except your lifeless corpse floats on the surface of the pestilential waves. Be wise, and learn from God, and close your ears to him who would have you destroy yourself, so that his malicious spirit may gloat over your eternal misery. It is never wise to sin, brethren, never. However it may seem to be the best thing you can do, it must always be the worst. There never was a man in such a position that it would be really profitable for him to sin. “But,” you say, “some men have become rich by it!” Sirs, they have had sorrow with their riches; they have inherited the blasting curse of God, and so they have been really poorer than poverty could have made them. “But,” you say, “men have ascended to the throne by breaking their oaths.” I know they have; but temporary success is no sure sign of constant happiness; the Emperor’s career is not ended yet; wait in patience; but should he escape in this life, the perjurer shall meet his Judge, and then—. He who measures what man gains by what he seems to gain, has taken a wrong standard. There was never yet—I will repeat it—there was never yet any man who broke his word, who forfeited his oath, who turned aside from God’s Word or God’s law, who in the end found it is profitable for him. He heaped up deceptions, he gathered together delusions, and when that man awoke, as a dream when one awakens, so he shall despise the image on which his soul had doted.

7. But now the serpent moderates his hiss. “Do not sin,” he says; “there is no necessity for downright dishonesty or theft; do not absolutely plunge yourself into, vice; but be wise,” he says, by which he means, “Be crafty; trim your sails, when the wind changes, how can you reach your haven unless you learn to tack around? The straight road is thorny; take the bypath; there will be another path which will bring you back after the thorns and flints are passed. Why,” he says, “will you dash your head against a stone? If there is a mountain in your way, why not wind about the base; why climb the summit? Does not wisdom teach you that that which is easiest must be best, and that which is most consistence with the dictates of your own nature must after all be best for you?” Ah! slimy serpent! Ah! base deceiver, how many multitudes have been deceived this way! Why, brethren, the reason why we do not have more men in this age whom one could trust, why we do not have in our high places more men in whom we could place confidence, is because policy has been the law of individuals, and the law of nations too, instead of that course of honesty which is like the flight of the arrow, certain and sure to reach its mark, not by tortuous windings, but by one onward straight line. Why do people so frequently enquire what they ought to do in such a case, not meaning what God’s law would have them do, but what will bring the best result? The rules of modern craft and time serving morality are difficult, because they are inconsistent, but honesty is as simple and clear as the sunlight. It takes years to make a clever lawyer, grace however can make an honest man in an hour. Brethren, believe me, policy is not wisdom, and craft is not understanding. Let me give you the example of another woman—Rebecca. Rebecca heard that God had decreed that her favourite son Jacob should be ruler of the two. “The older shall serve the younger.” She could not wait for God’s providence to fulfil God’s purpose, but must deceive her blind husband. She dresses up her son with skins of goats, and cooks the savoury meat, and sends Jacob, who was, though a good man, the very picture of a political and prudent professor, to meet his father and to deceive him. Ah! if Rebecca had been wise, she would not have done this. Little did she foresee that the effect of this stratagem would be to drive her favourite son away from his affectionate mother, give him years of toil under Laban, cause him to make the great mistake of his life, the commission of the error of polygamy, and make him a far more afflicted man than he might have been if he had been like Abraham or Isaac, who did not lean to their own understandings, but trusted in God with all their hearts. Brethren, you shall never find in any case that any turning aside from a straight forward course, will be for your profit. After all, you may depend on it, that the way to be most renowned among men, is to have the strange singularity of being a downright honest man. Say what you mean; mean what you say. Do what you believe to be right, and always hold it for a maxim, that if the skies fall through your doing right, honest men will survive the ruin. How can the godly sink? If the earth should reel, would he fail? No, blessed be God, he should find himself in the honourable position of David of old, when he said, “The earth is removed; I bear up its pillars.”

8. But now the serpent changes his note, and he says, “Well, if you are not sinful or crafty, at any rate, to succeed in life, you must be very careful. You must fret, and worry, and think much about it; that is the way to handle a matter wisely. Why,” he says, “see how many are ruined from lack of thought and lack of care. Be careful over it. Rise up early, sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness. Stint yourself; deny yourself. Do not give to the poor; be a miser, and you shall succeed. Take care; watch; be thoughtful.” And this is the path of wisdom according to him. My brethren, it is a path which very many have tried, very many have persevered in it all their lives, but I must say to you, this is not handling a matter wisely after all. God forbid we should say a single word against prudence, and care, and necessary forethought, industry and providence. These are virtues; they are not only commendable, but a Christian’s character would he sadly at fault if he did not have them. But when these are looked upon as the foundations, the staple materials of success, men are desperately in error. It is vain for you in that sense to rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, for “so he gives his beloved sleep.” Oh! there are many who have realised that picture of old Care, which old Spenser gives in his Faery Queene.

Rude was his garment, and to rags all rent;
No better had he, nor for better cared;
With blistered hands, among the cinders burnt,
And fingers filthy, with long nails unpared,
Right fit to rend the food before which he fared:
His name was Care: a blacksmith by his trade,
That neither day nor night from working spared,
But to small purpose iron wedges made:
Those be unquiet thoughts that careful minds invade.

9. Who wishes to have that picture come true of himself? I would infinitely rather that we could be photographed as being like Luther’s bird, which sat upon the tree, and sang,

Mortal cease from care and sorrow,
God provides for the morrow.

Care is good, note, if it is good care; but care is bad when it comes to be bad care, and it is bad care if I dare not cast it upon him who cares for me. Cotton has well said of covetous worms of the earth, “After hypocrites, the greatest dupes the devil has are those who exhaust an anxious existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live miserably and meanly, only to die magnificently and rich. For, like the hypocrites, the only disinterested action these men can accuse themselves of is, that of serving the devil without receiving his wages: he who stands every day of his life behind a counter, until he drops from it into the grave, may negotiate many very profitable bargains; but he has made a single bad one, so bad indeed, that it counter balances all the rest; for the empty foolery of dying rich, he has paid down his health, his happiness, and his integrity.”

10. Once again, there is another way of handling a matter wisely, which is often suggested to young men, and suggested too, I am sorry to say, by Christian men, who little know that they are giving Satanic advice. “Well,” they say, “young man, if you will not be exceedingly careful, and watch night and day, at least be self-reliant. Go out and tell the world that you are a match for it, and that you know it; that you mean to carve your way to glory, to build for yourself an edifice at which men shall gaze. Say to the little men all around you, ‘I mean to tower above you all, and bestride this narrow world like a Colossus.’ Be independent young men. Rely on yourselves. There is something wonderful in you; behave like men; be strong.” Well, brethren, there are many who have tried this self-reliance, and their deception in this case has been fearful too, for when the day of fiery trial has come, they have discovered that “Cursed is he who trusts in man,” even though that man is himself; “and makes flesh his arm,” though it is his own flesh. Broken in pieces they have been left as wrecks upon the sand, though they sailed out of harbour gaily with all their sails filled with the wind. They have come back like knights unhorsed and dishonoured, though they went out with their lance in hand, and their proudly flaunting pennon, intending to push like the horns of unicorns, and drive the whole earth before them. No man was ever so much deceived by others, as by himself. Be warned, Christian man, that this is not handling a matter wisely.

11. But what, then, is the way of wisdom? The text answers the question—“He who trusts in the Lord, happy is he.” So, then, if I understand the text correctly, in temporal things, if we learn to trust in God, we shall be happy. We are not to be idle, that would show we did not trust in God but in the devil, who is the father of idleness. We are not to be impudent and rash; that would be to trust chance, but not to trust God, for God is a God of economy and order. We are to trust God; acting in all prudence, and in all uprightness, we are to rely simply and entirely upon him. Now I have no doubt there are many here who say, “Well, that is not the way to get on in the world; that can never be the path of success, simply trusting in God.” Indeed, but it is so, only one must have grace in the heart to do it. One must first be made a child of God, and then he can trust his affairs into his Father’s hands; one must come to depend upon the Eternal One, because the Eternal One has enabled him to use this Christian grace which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I am persuaded that faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life, and that we ought to have faith in God for our shops as well as for our souls. Worldly men may sneer at this, but it is none the less true; at any rate, I pray that it may be my course as long as I live.

12. My dear friends, let me commend to you a life of trust in God in temporal things, by these few advantages among a great many others. First, trusting in God, you will not have to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich. Should you become poor through it, better to be poor with a clear conscience, than to be rich and guilty. You will always have this comfort should you come to the lowest position of human nature, that you have come there through no fault of your own. You have served God with integrity, and what if some should say you have missed your mark, achieved no success, at least, there is no sin upon your conscience.

13. And then, again, trusting God, you will not be guilty of self-contradiction. He who trusts in craft, sails this way today, and that way the next, like a vessel propelled by the fickle wind; but he who trusts in the Lord is like a vessel propelled by steam, she cuts through the waves, defies the wind, and makes one bright silvery track to her destined haven. Be such a man as that; never bow to the varying customs of worldly wisdom. Let men see that the world has changed, not you,—that man’s opinions and man’s maxims have veered around to another quarter, but that you are still invincibly strong in the strength which trusting in God alone can confer. And then, dear brethren, let me say, you will be delivered from carking care, you will not be troubled with bad news, your heart will be fixed, trusting in the Lord. I have read a story of an old Doctor of the Church, who, going out one morning, met a beggar, and said to him, “I wish you a good day.” “Sir,” said he, “I never had a bad day in my life.” “But,” said the Doctor, “your clothed are torn to rags, and your wallet seems to be exceedingly empty.” He said, “My clothes are as good as God wishes them to be, and my wallet is as full as the Lord has been pleased to make it, and what pleases him pleases me.” “But,” said the Doctor, “suppose God should cast you into hell?” “Indeed, sir,” he said, “but that would never be; but if it were, I would be contented, for I have two long and strong arms—faith and love—and I would throw these around the neck of my Saviour, and I would never let him go, so that if I went there, he would be with me, and it would be a heaven to me.” Oh, those two strong arms of faith and love! if you can only hang around the Saviour’s neck, indeed, you may fear no bad weather. No fatal shipwreck shall I fear, for Christ is in my vessel, he holds the helm, and holds the winds too.

Though winds and waves assault my keel,
He does preserve it, he does steer,
Even when the bark seems most to reel.
Storms are the triumphs of his art,
Sure he may close his eyes, but not his heart.

The practical lesson from all this is—“trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean to your own understanding.” Whatever your trouble may be, take it to God this morning; do not bear it until the night. Whatever your difficulty and peculiar exercise of mind are, tell it to the Lord your God. He is as able as he is willing, and as willing as he is able; having sent the trial, he will surely make a way of escape for you.

14. II. But now I turn to the second part of our discourse. IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS, HE WHO HANDLES A MATTER WISELY SHALL FIND GOOD.

15. But what is the right way of handling this dread matter which stands between our soul and God? We have immortal spirits, and spirits that are responsible. The day of judgment draws near, and with it heaven’s happiness, or hell’s torment. What, my brethren, shall we do to handle this matter wisely? And here comes the old serpent again, and he says, “Young man, the easiest way to handle this matter is to let it alone altogether; you are still young, there is plenty of time; why put old heads on young shoulders? You will have need enough to think of religion by and by, but at present, you see, it will be much in your way. Better leave it alone; it is only these ministers who try and make you thoughtful, but they only bother you and trouble you, so drop it. You can think of it, if there is anything in it by and by; but for the present, rejoice in your youth and let your joy be in the morning of your days, for the evil days come, and then let your thoughtfulness come with them.”

16. Well, now, young man, does this strike you, after all, as being the wisest course? I will tell you one thing, whatever you may think of it, such a course as that is the direct road to hell. Do you know the road to heaven? Well, it might take us some little time to tell you about that, but if you want to go to hell, we will tell you that in one moment. You do not need to go and swear, you do not need to be drunk, you do not need to become a monster in iniquity or a fiend in cruelty. No, no, it is easier than that; it is just a little matter of neglect, that is all, and your soul is most certainly lost. Remember how the apostle puts it, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation!” Now, can that which is the surest road to hell be a wise way? I think I may leave it with your reason, certainly I may leave it with your conscience. You know it is not the right way, indeed, and I have noticed this, that men who laugh most at religion when they are well, and are most careless, are the most frightened when they meet with a little accident. If they have a little illness, oh, how bad they feel! It is an awful thing for them to be ill, they know it is, they are dreadfully shaken, and the strangest thing is, that the minister they hated most when they were well, is the very man they have the most faith in, and most long to get when they become sick. I know when the cholera was here last, there was a certain man, for whom no word in the English language could be found that was bad enough to describe me, and in the cholera when he lay sick, who should be sent for? The clergyman of the parish? No, certainly not. Who should be sent for? Some minister of good repute? No; send for the man whom he had cursed before; and until that man should come and speak to him, and offer prayer, he could not even indulge a hope—though, alas! poor soul, I fear he had no hope even then. Yet, so it is, God will honour his ministers; he will prove the utter futility of man’s brag and boast. You may be careless, sir, while you are well, you may neglect this great salvation, but a little sickness shall make you tremble, and your knees shall shake, and you shall be convulsed with agony, and find that this is not handing the matter wisely. You are something like a bankrupt who knows that his accounts are going wrong, and fears that he is insolvent; he does not look at his books, he does not like to look at them, for there is no pleasant reading there; there may be a few assets, but the entries are mostly on the other side, and so at last he does not keep any book, it would be troublesome to him to know where he stood. So it is with you. It is because things are not right, you do not like to sift them and try them, lest you should find out the black reality. Be wise, I entreat you, and look a little beyond you. Why shut your eyes and perish? Man, I charge you by the living God, awake, or hell shall awaken you; look, man, or eternity shall soon amaze you.

17. But Satan comes to some, and he says, “If you will not be careless, the next easiest thing is to be credulous. There,” he says, “is a man over there with a shaven crown, who he says he will manage the thing for you. Now, he ought to know. Does he not belong to a Church that has an infallible head? Give yourself up to him,” he says, “and it will be all right? Or,” he says, “I hate popery; but there is a clergyman, let him give you the sacrament; rely upon him and it will be all safe. Or,” he says, “if you could only join the Church, and be baptized; there, that will do; take it for granted that it is all right. Why should you trouble yourself with theological squabbles? let these things alone; be credulous, do not search into the root of the matter; be content as long as you swim on the surface, and do not care whether there are rocks down deep at the bottom of the sea.” And is this the way—is this the way to handle this matter wisely? Assuredly not, sir. Better trust a lawyer with your property than a priest with your soul. Better hand your purse to a highwayman upon the moors than commit your soul to a Roman Catholic priest. What will he do for you but make his penny off you, and your soul may be penniless for him. So shall it be with the best of men, if you make saviours of them. Go, lean upon a reed; go, build a throne of bubbles; go, sleep in a powder magazine with your candle burning in a bag of gunpowder; but do not trust even a good man with your soul. See to it that you handle this matter wisely, and you cannot do it this way.

18. “Ah, well!” says Satan, “if this will not do, then try the way of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Do good,” he says, “say a great many prayers, perform a great many good works, and this is handling the matter wisely.” Now, I will take you to Switzerland for a minute, to give you an illustration. There was a poor women who lived in one of those sweet villages under the Alps, where the fountains are always pouring out their streams of water into the great stone tanks, and the huge overhanging roofs cover the peasant homes. She had been accustomed to climb the mountain to gather fodder for her cows, and she had driven her goats to the wild crags, and the sheer solitudes, where no sound is heard except the tinkling of the bell. She, good soul, had read nothing but the Bible, and her dreams and thoughts were all of heavenly things; and she dreamed thus, that she was walking along a smooth meadow, where there were many fair flowers, and much soft grass. The pathway was smooth, and there were thousands wending their way along it, but they took no notice of her; she seemed alone. Suddenly the thought crossed her mind that this was the path to destruction; and these were selfish sinners; she looked for another way, for she feared to meet their doom. She saw a path up the mountain side exceedingly steep and rugged, as mountain paths are; but up this path she saw men and women carrying tremendous burdens, as some of us have seen them carry them, until they stoop right down under the tremendous weight, as they climb the stony staircase. Here there was a tree across the road, and there a bramble, and there a brook was gushing down the mountain side, and the path was filled with stones, and she slipped. So she turned aside again, but those who went up the hill looked at her with such sorrow, that she turned back again, and began to climb once more, but only to find the way rough and impossible. She turned aside again into the green meadow, but the climbers seemed to be very sad, yet though they pitied her, she did not pity them, for their toil made them wet with perspiration, and faint with fatigue. She dreamed she went along the green meadow until she came to a fair house, out of which looked a bright spirit. The side of the house where she was, was all windows, without a door, and the spirit said to her, “You have come on the wrong road, you cannot come in this way; there is no entrance here,” and she awoke. She told a Christian woman who visited her about this dream, and she said, “I am severely troubled for I cannot go up that mountain path, I know. I understand that to be the way of holiness, I cannot climb it, and I fear that I shall choose the green meadow, and when I come at last to the gates of heaven, they will tell me that is not the way, and I cannot enter there.” So her kind instructress said to her, “I have not dreamed, but I have read in my Bible this morning, that one day when the grain was ripening, and the sun was shining brightly, there went three men out of a city called Jerusalem, one of them was the Saviour of the world and the other two were thieves. One of them as he hung upon the cross, found his way to the bright city of heaven, and it was said ‘Today you shall be with me in paradise.’ Do you think he went up that hilly path?” “No,” said the poor woman, “he believed and was saved.” “Ah,” said her friend, “and this is your way to heaven. You cannot climb that hilly path; those who were ascending it with so much labour, perished before they reached the summit, tottering from some dizzy height, they were dashed to pieces upon some jagged rock. Believe, and this shall be the path of salvation for you.” And so I come to the poor soul, and I say, if you wish to handle matters correctly, happy is he who trusts in the Lord. You have done the right thing for eternity, with all its solemnities, when you have cast your soul, just as it is, on him who is “able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him.”

19. And let me now tell you what are the benefits of doing this. That man who believes in Christ, and can say, “Salvation is finished; all is of Christ and all is free; my faith is in Jesus Christ, and in him alone,”—that man is freed from fears; he is not afraid to die, Christ has finished the work for him: he is not afraid to live, he shall not perish, for his soul is in Jesus Christ: and he is not afraid of trial, or of trouble, for he who bought him with his blood shall keep him with his arm. He is free from present fears, and he is free from present cares too. He has no need to toil and labour, to fret and strive, to do this or to do that. He feels no more the whip of the slave driver on his back; his life is happy and his service light, the yoke he wears he scarce knows to be a yoke, the road is pleasant, and the path is peace—no climbing upwards except as angel hands assist him to climb the road which no other mortal feet could traverse. He is free, too, from all fatal delusion. He is not a deceived man, he shall never open his eyes to find himself mistaken; he has something which shall last him, as long as life shall last, which shall be with him when he awakens from his bed of clay, to conduct him joyously to realms of light and endless day. This man is such a man that if I compared him with the very angels, I should not do amiss. He is on earth, but his heart is in heaven; he is here below, but yet he sits together with Christ in heavenly places; he has his troubles, but they work his lasting good; he has his trials, but they are only the precursors of victory; he has weakness, but he glories in infirmity, because the power of Christ rests upon him; he is sometimes cast down, but he is not destroyed; he is perplexed, but he is not in despair; he does not grovel, but he walks uprightly; his foot may be in the mire, but his eye is above the stars; his body may be covered with rags, but his soul is robed in light, he may go to a miserable pallet to find an unresting rest, but his soul sleeps in the bosom of his Beloved, and he has a perfect peace, “a peace which passes all understanding, which keeps his heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” Christians, I wish that you and I could believe God better, and get rid of these wicked fears of ours. Gracious Father, I do today cast all I have on you, and all I do not have, too, I would cast on you. My sins, my sorrows, my cares, my labours, my joys, my present, my past, my future—take it and manage it all. I will be nothing, you be all.

Oh God, I cast my care on thee,
  I triumph and adore,
Henceforth my chief concern shall be,
  To love and serve you more.

Brethren, believers in Jesus, do the same, and you shall find that happy is the man who trusts in the Lord. As for you who do not fear the Lord Jesus, may his Holy Spirit visit you this morning, may he quicken you, for you are dead in sin; may he give you power, for you are without strength in yourselves. Remember, the way of salvation is simple and plain before you—“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” Trust my Master’s blood, depend upon his finished righteousness, and you must, you shall be saved; you cannot, you will not be lost.

Oh believe the promise true
God to you his Son has given.

Depend on his Son, and you shall thus escape from hell, and find your path to heaven.

20. The Lord add now his own best blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.